Chapter 44
Jenna rose to her feet as the doctor walked out of the operating room.
They hadn't called her name, and the position of her mother's number on the patient board hadn't changed.
The other numbers had moved up and down around her, as patients headed into recovery.
New patients had checked in in the time that Jenna had been sitting here waiting. But this was for her, and she knew it.
“Jenna Brooks?” the doctor asked as she reached up and pulled the protective cap from her head, dark hair tumbling down. She looked exhausted, and Jenna could only begin to wonder what had happened. It had been hours and hours, far more than the predicted two.
Jenna was walking forward and nodding in response almost before the doctor even finished saying her name.
Once more, she reached into her pocket, fingers wrapping around the green crystal and the loose chain that Delanie tucked into her palm before she left town.
She wasn't able to put it on her mother for the surgery, so she kept it to herself for now.
“It's good,” the doctor breathed the words out like a prayer.
Jenna almost collapsed with relief. Somehow, she held it together as the doctor explained.
“We planned this, in case we saw something that appeared malignant, so we would immediately take it out. We didn't want to have to wait. We didn't want to have to put your mother under general anesthetic again. Unfortunately, the tumor did appear malignant. And we found more than just the one.”
Her relief vanished, and Jenna pulled the crystal out, suddenly holding it between her two hands as if it could shield her from the news.
“We did everything we could, and I know it was much longer than expected. We believe we got all of it, but the lab results will tell us if the margins are clear.” The doctor paused as Jenna nodded that she already understood about slides and margins.
“Your mother will still need chemotherapy, and maybe radiation depending on what future scans show, but I'm hopeful that this is the first step in her path to recovery.”
Jenna nodded, thinking of Annelise’s words—that she didn't know how or how much it would take for her mother to be okay, but that in the end she would be.
Jenna asked the doctor for more details about what they had found, and so on, until the doctor said, “Your mother is already in the recovery room.
If you'd like to take a few minutes and then head back, she should be able to speak to you.”
With tears in her eyes and fighting the urge to throw her arms around the woman, Jenna thanked her and practically ran for the restroom.
Hands braced on either side of the sink, the crystal clicked against the porcelain as she let her head hang down and the tears fall freely for a long moment.
Then she tried to get herself together for a stoic walk past the waiting room, through the doors to recovery.
Minutes later she was beside her mother who was pale in the hospital gown. She had an IV in her arm and her hair stuffed up under a puffy paper cap. She had never looked worse, and she had never looked better.
As Jenna hugged her, she pushed the green crystal necklace into her mother’s palm. “This is for you, Mom. My friend gave it to you.”
Her mother frowned at her, but she took it and whispered a guttural, “Thank you, baby.”
The discharge nurse grabbed their attention to explain what had happened then answered her mother's questions, now that she was awake.
Holding her mother's hand, Jenna stayed quiet.
They explained her mother would need to stay in the hospital at least overnight and that Jenna should soon go home and let her mother rest. She could come back and visit tomorrow and hopefully take her home then if her pain and her bloodwork were good.
As she headed out of the hospital almost an hour later, Jenna looked up at the dark sky, stars twinkling down at her, and as she sighed out her relief, something hit her—something from Belle Hollow.