4. Reaction.
"What do you mean I have to stay like this?" Cameron yelled, her mouth sore from trying to open. It hurt so much to talk but she had to get the words out, she had to be heard. "I can't stay like this, look at me!" She demanded. "LOOK AT ME!" Scarlett and Evan didn't want to look at her and they felt horrible. They looked at their daughters deformed face and tried to hold back tears as the doctor continued to talk. Telling them of the unlikeliness of Cammie ever returning to an atypical look anytime soon, Cammie wanted to scream at them, but she couldn't open her mouth wide enough to emphasize her pain.
"Cameron, I am not giving up. You have a lot of work ahead of you, but I believe that we can get you back to some normality again." Dr. Cade said placing a hand on Cameron's shoulder.
"LOOK. AT. ME!" She annunciated glaring at Dr. Cade.
"I am looking." She replied.
"I don't think you are." Cammie argued. "I don't think you are doing anything!"
"Cameron." Evan said in a no nonsense tone.
"What it's not your face!" She bit back.
"Cameron!" Scarlett said appalled. "Could you give us a moment please?" Scarlett asked the doctor as Cameron sat arms crossed over her chest. Her fists tightly balled into her arm pits. "Thank you," Scarlett put a smile on for the doctor as she left. "Cameron Rose Brooks." Scarlett began and Cammie's shoulders sagged and she looked away from her parents and out the window. "I know this is hard, I know you are miserable and they are trying." Scarlett told her. "Those doctors are trying to be nice, but they haven't dealt with this before." Scarlett sat down at the end of Cameron's bed. She was acting out in rage, it was a normal response considering what she was told, but still Scarlett didn't like her daughter being rude, disrespectful to the only people that might be able to fix her. "I know this is hard." Scarlett said again, in a more loving tone. "I'm sorry baby, I love you, we," she gestured to her and Evan. "Love you so much and we are going to get you well again. It's just going to take time. I'm so sorry." Cameron nodded and hugged her mom tightly.
"I don't want to be this way." Cammie cried out. "I don't want to look this way mommy."
"I know Cammie, I know." Scarlett ran a hand down her back. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..." Evan sat opposite of them and joined in the hug.
Three days of consults and appointments, scans and grafts, Cammie looked the same, still felt miserable and wanted to die. Cammie had been texting Fiona constantly, obviously not telling her what happened to her face, but told her not to worry and definitely not to come and visit her even though she would be in the hospital for a while longer.
"Oh my God!" Cammie said slowly looking up from her phone.
"What's wrong sweetie?" Evan asked as he handed her a venti, grande, mocha something or other that Cameron requested from the Starbucks in the lobby of the hospital.
"I totally forgot about Jackson, I can't believe I could be so clueless!" Cammie said slapping a hand to her face and instantly regretting it. "I should have called him. Now he's going to hate me!" She moaned.
"I think," Evan's face pinched at the name. "Jackson will understand. You have been through a lot, if he's a good guy he won't be mad, he will still like you."
"God, dad you are so clueless!" Cammie said as Scarlett walked into the room. She had been home with her mom and dad and Eliot. Keeping them updated and getting a horrible nights sleep in her own bed while her and Evan alternated sleeping in the hospital room on the couch. "Fiona said that he already was talking with Melissa, and she's a total bitch!" Cammie informed him.
