Chapter 9 #2
They pulled in front of the hospital, and Lisa parked.
“Hey, Sassy P,” Sledge called. “How did it go?”
She turned her head toward his voice. “Did you know? I met Ice. He’s beautiful,” she gushed. “We walked around the track, and he’s such an intelligent dog. I didn’t land on my face once. He’s a better guide dog than you.”
Sledge slapped a hand to his chest. “Awww, that one hurt. Glad you’re getting some spunk back. I’ll take you to Doc and then meet you for lunch.”
“Thanks,” she said, letting Sledge lead her up the stairs. She thought about how Ice stopped and put his paw on the step.
Sledge led her down a long hallway and knocked.
“Hi, Sledge, Scarlett. You’re right on time. Come on in and have a seat,” Doc greeted them.
She sat and braced herself for the lecture on how her life wasn’t over due to her disability. They must teach it to doctors in med school. Goodness knows, she heard it a million times by now.
The door closed and Doc spoke, “Scarlett, I asked an associate of mine to sit in on this meeting. He specializes in severe head traumas, and with your permission, I want him to examine your latest scans. We’ll need to do a more recent set.” A few minutes later, a woman entered the room.
“Dr. Winters. You’re needed in the cafeteria. It’s urgent. Your wife asked me to find you. She insisted I tell you she and the kids are fine.”
Doc groaned. “When she says she’s fine, it usually means the opposite. Sorry, Scarlett. Dr. Warren will arrive any minute. I already told him to come in when he arrives. Can you please tell him I’ll return shortly?”
“Sure,” she agreed, hearing Doc rush from the room.
Five minutes later, Dr. Warren entered. “I’m sorry. I thought Dr. Winters said he’d be in here.”
“He’ll return in a few minutes. There’s a crisis in the cafeteria,” she explained.
“You must be Scarlett Peterson. I’m Dr. Warren,” he said, approaching her.
He took her hand and gently shook it. “It seems he left your scans. Do you mind if I take a peek while we wait?”
“Go ahead. I can save you some time. I’m blind,” she stated bluntly.
The doctor chuckled. “Thank you for the update.” He flipped a switch, and she heard a quiet hum fill the room and the sound of slides getting put up on those white plastic boards.
“You took a hard hit. I’m surprised it didn’t do more damage,” he said under his breath. “Did they discuss an eye transplant with you?”
“Uh, no. Honestly, I stopped seeing the specialists a while ago,” she confessed.
“Time allows the swelling from the trauma to go down. From your first scans to the last, your measurements decreased significantly. Before you get your hopes up, there’s a lot of testing.”
“No worries there. They’ve already broken the news to me. I’ve accepted it and there’s no need to repeat everything,” she said, already bored by this discussion.
“I work with a team of highly specialized surgeons. Dr. Winters calls upon us when he has a special case.”
She scoffed. “I assure you there’s nothing special about this. The explosion hit us out of nowhere, and then something fell on my head. I opened my eyes and I saw the smoke. It’s the last thing I saw.”
The door opened, and Doc Winters entered. “Hello, Issac. Sorry, I’ve kept you waiting.”
“Scarlett informed me you left to deal with a crisis. I hope everything’s all right. Leo didn’t set fire to anything again, did he?”
Doc laughed. “No. It seems we have a prankster in town. This time, he snuck onto the bread truck and poured a substance all over everything. The delivery man arrived with our order and opened his vehicle to find everything soaked.”
Dr. Warren sighed. “They seem to have it out for you. How many times have they ruined the hospital’s supplies?”
“This makes the fourth time this month. They hit the community center. We have cameras installed around the bakery and staff houses to identify the person responsible. It seems he knows how to evade them. Kassie called the police. With only two men on the force, it seems unlikely they’ll catch them.
I called Leo and the team. They’ll arrive soon. ”
“If anyone can get to the bottom of it, they will,” Dr. Warren assured him. “I spoke with Scarlett. We need new scans made to make an informed decision. She already has formed one of her own, I’m afraid. She’ll fit right in here with the Serenity ladies.”
“He’s referring to my wife and her friends. They tend to have an opinion on everything,” Doc said to Scarlett.
“Let’s not forget Kassie, Catherine, Melody, Emma, all have red hair. They’re very opinionated. Oh, and we can’t dismiss the bossy one…”
“Victoria,” Doc finished.
“Exactly. She’s a force to be reckoned with,” Dr. Warren exclaimed.
“It’s one way to describe her. I’m sure you’ll meet the crew over the next few days. They tend to stop by,” Doc explained.
“With all of us redheads in the same room, it sounds like it may be dangerous,” she quipped.
“It usually is,” Doc laughed. “I’ll ask Claire, our psychiatrist, to take her to X-ray after they meet, and we’ll have the scans to you later today.”
Shocked at how fast this place worked, she sat up. “Why do we need any more? Several specialists already insisted I’m a lost cause.”
“No one’s a lost cause here,” Doc said firmly. “We only want to cover all our bases. Sometimes we find things others miss. Regardless, when you leave here, you’ll have all the skills you need to succeed.”
“I’ll pop in tomorrow on my way to Seattle. It’s nice to meet you, young lady,” Dr. Warren said as he left the room.
Doc sat on a stool and wheeled it toward her.
“Sorry for the interruption. Kassie worried about the substance in the truck. One of the teens and the delivery driver touched it before she got there. Saint obtained a sample and will take it to Seattle to ascertain exactly what we’re dealing with.
Don’t let it worry you. Usually, we’re a sleepy small town, except when Victoria and Ivan return. ”
“The force to be reckoned with?” she asked.
“Exactly. You’ll know her right away. I reviewed your records and see you suffer from migraines frequently. Does anything help them?” he asked.
“Not really. I’ve tried all the normal routes and the usual medications. They started me on monthly injections, and it didn’t seem to help at all,” she informed him dismally.
“On a scale from one to ten, how bad do they get?” he asked.
“Ten, definitely.”
“How many times do you get them during a week, and how long do they last?” he said. “I’m shining a light into your eye.” Doc tilted her head and examined each one.
“They last for hours and I tend to get them about three to four days a week,” she sighed, tired of repeating the same thing over and over.
“I know it seems redundant. Things can change and you admitted you stopped attending appointments,” he reminded her.
“You’re right. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.
Geez, it’s my first day here, and I’m giving you a bad impression.
My friend, Rayne, talked me into coming.
It’s hard to get excited about anything when they tell you the same thing,” she confessed.
“I appreciate you making room for me at Sledge’s request.”
“He didn’t request your hospital stay. He actually wanted you to get a job interview. He’s under the impression you’d make a great addition to Leo’s team.”
“The crazy guy?”
Doc shook his head. “He only gets nuts when Catherine’s pregnant.
In all fairness, he reads bomb making skills and fallout shelter books to his daughter, Grace.
She’s almost a year old. Derrick Jr. arrived a couple of months ago, and Leo hasn’t corrupted him yet.
He stays in the nursery with my twins and daughter, Tori. ”
“Really? Bomb making?” she asked, stunned.
“He’s an equal opportunity guy. You’ll discover Grace enjoys it when her daddy reads to her. We’ve tried to explain it’s how he does it, but he insists she’s interested. We’ll see how he feels about it when she goes to preschool and he gets his first call from the principal,” Doc joked.
“What a guy,” she said sarcastically.
“He saved me and my wife, runs two teams here and one in Texas. Leo’s one of my best friends. You’ll like him,” he insisted.
“Why did Sledge ask for an interview? He knows I can’t do my old job,” she asked curiously. “He never mentioned anything about it.”
“Leo hires former patients from the hospital, giving former military people another opportunity. Especially when they discover they can no longer continue in their position. It doesn’t mean you can’t do something else.”
“I’m beginning to see that,” she said. “What do you think, Doc?”
“I want to run some tests this afternoon. Then we’ll meet around 1600 in the conference room to discuss your plan of care.
You have a say in how you want to proceed.
It’s our job to ensure you succeed. We have groups for veterans to support one another, and we have jobs in town for those who want one. ”
“Doing what?”
“My wife and her friends help run the local community center. The town gathers there for meals, holidays, and the older townsfolk like the company. The teens provide a ton of entertainment for them,” Doc said, putting his equipment away.
“Can I answer any questions for you? I know Sledge gave you a tour.”
“Why do I need to see a shrink?”
“Dr. Meyers and Dr. Hill, another psychiatrist on staff, evaluate everyone. They let us know if someone has any underlying issues we need to address.”
She sighed. “All right. Can I ask questions at this meeting?”
“Absolutely. We want you to have input,” he assured her. “Enjoy your lunch with Sledge and report to Dr. Meyers afterward.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, standing.
Doc opened the door, and Sledge stood on the other side, waiting.
He escorted her to the cafeteria while her mind raced with questions.
The other doctors announced she was blind and gave their sympathies.
The people here treated her with respect.
Her blindness didn’t hinder their ideas.
In fact, they found ways for her to cope.
Maybe she didn’t give the others a chance.
Tired of feeling sorry for herself, she decided to make the best of it and see what life had to offer her.