(i hate this chapter. not proofread)
After Luke had gotten the all-clear from Gabi's parents to go ahead with the surgery, the surgeon then headed back to Gabi to take care of some of her pre-op stuff.
"Hello?" He knocked on the outside wall next to the curtain to give Gabi a bit more privacy and alert, instead of just barging in. "Knock knock." He smiled.
Gabi looked up and smiled when she saw Luke enter. "Hi, Luke. Oh... um sorry, Dr. Hemmings. Your friend told me that was your name and I saw it on your badge thing."
Luke looked down to his badge where sure enough, his name and picture were on there. "Oh, yes, that is my name. You can call me Luke, Gabi. I don't mind it makes me feel younger," he laughed.
Gabi smiled once more and shifted her focus to the doctor entirely. From the bright light of the hospital, Luke could spot a faint yellowing bruise just under her eye.
"Sorry to bother you again so soon before surgery, but I just have a few things that I need to discuss with you before surgery. They're kind of important."
"Oh, that's okay. I oddly enough like answering questions."
"I just have to ask you some basic things before surgery since your medical history was pretty bare." He put down his ever-growing pile of paperwork and sat on the edge of the bed.
Gabi looked at him confused. "My medical history?"
"Yeah, any illnesses or sickness you may have had, allergies, allergies to medication, problems with anesthesia. Just general stuff like that."
"I don't know if I do, I don't remember anything like that. It's been a while since I've last been to a doctor."
Yeah, five years, Luke thought to himself. But he couldn't blame Gabi for all of this, after all, she was still just a child and it was her parent's responsibility to bring her to doctor appointments.
Luke took a minute to observe her vitals before answering next. "So you're not sure if you're allergic to anesthesia or anything at all?"
"Nope," she smiled, blissfully unaware of all the scenarios still running through Luke's head. He doubted that talking to Gabi's parents would help.
"Okay. Well, I'm going to talk to the anesthesiologist who will be in your surgery today just to make sure he's aware of everything going on. His name is Michael, he's very good and knows exactly what to look out for in case a reaction to anesthesia does happen."
Gabi stayed silent that time and opted to just take everything in, nodding along to Luke's words.
"Is there anything else I can't get you? I can't get you any food or beverage because of the anesthesia, but I can get you some more blankets if you'd like."
"No, I'm okay. Thank you, Luke."
"Of course. Um, we're going to be taking you to the OR soon, I'm just going to meet with the surgical team and someone will bring you up."
With that Luke exited the room, closing the curtain behind him. He then paged for a couple of his interns to take her up to the OR.
Out of all the patients that Ashton claimed he had a habit of getting 'attached to,' there was just something different with Gabi.
Maybe it was her parent's different explanations as to how Gabi was shot in her abdomen, or the dozens of old bruises still lingering on Gabi's body.
He didn't know what it was, but he knew that he was going to get to the bottom of what is going on with Gabi Baker.
