Love Hate Relationship

Chapter 27

When Clarke made it to the hospital for her shift, she was met by an emergency appendectomy. She grabbed her chart to check on her surgery patient. It was a twelve-year-old boy who was admitted an hour ago with abdominal pains. Sue, her prep nurse, came up to her, "You reading your next chart?"

"Yeah, appendectomy? Anything I need to know?"

"Yup, the boy's deaf. His family is in there. He signs and reads lips really well, so it's pretty easy communicating with him. And they all seem real sweet and fun."

"Fun? Good, I like when they're fun. Okay, thanks Sue." Clarke walked into the hospital room. The mother was on one side, sitting down, and had her hand resting on the boy's arm. The father was standing on the other side. They were talking and signing, and Clarke could tell they were keeping the mood light, the boy laughing and smiling with his baseball glove still on his hand. "Hi everyone, I'm Dr. Clarke Griffin, and I'll be doing," she took a quick look down at the chart, "Aden's surgery today."

The father came over to Clarke and put his hand out, "I'm Jasper Jordan, and this is my wife Maya."

Maya got up to shake Clarke's hand, "Nice to meet you doctor."

"Please, call me Clarke." Clarke was never one for formalities. She turned her attention back to the boy in the bed, "You must be Aden, wow, your chart didn't say how handsome you were," she said with wink and a smile. Clarke was one of those rare surgeons with a wonderful bedside manner.

He signed and spoke, "Hi doc, are you single?"

Clarke laughed, "Do you ask all your doctors that?" He was obviously quite taken with her, by the way his eyes lit up when he looked at her, well, stared at her really.

"Only the pretty ones," he said.

"Well, aren't you the little charmer," Clarke said, looking over at Maya.

"Sorry, he's entered that girl-crazy phase," she said back to Clarke.

"Oh, okay, gotcha." She gave a little squeeze to Aden's hand, "Liking the ladies are we? Well, thank you for the compliment, young sir," she said with a little bow to her head. "So, let's see, what are we doing today? Brain surgery?" Clarke gave Aden a wide-eyed look, "Are we removing your brain today, Aden?"

Aden quickly shook his head back and forth, "No, no, not my brain."

"No?" Clarke made a play of looking at her chart. "I could have sworn this thing said we were taking that out. Hmm." She scratched at her head. "I could take it out if you wanted me to."

Aden shook his head again, "No, I like my brain."

"Okay, we'll leave it in there then." Clarke got her pen out and made a note in the chart, "Patient likes his brain, DO NOT TOUCH! I wrote that last part in caps, so I remember." She showed it to him.

Aden was giggling now.

"Are we removing your heart? Maybe that was it. Is this a heart transplant?"

Aden started laughing harder now, enjoying Clarke and her silliness. "No, you're taking out my appendix," he said.

Clarke smacked her forehead, "Ooohh. Well, why didn't you say so. I betcha I can do that right here, don't you think? Who needs sterile operating rooms? You got that plastic knife from lunch around here, I can just use that, cut it right out, you won't feel a thing."

"It's not sharp enough," he said.

"Darn it. I think you may be right. Okay, buddy, let me take a quick feel here, see what Mr. Appendix is doing." Clarke palpated Aden's side, and watched him wince sharply. "Yep, he wants out. So, you got your glove on I see, were you playing baseball?"