Ambivalence

Baptism By Fire

Lauren

"Look to your right," I told the little girl with a bright pink bow tied in her hair as she sat in front of me. She wasn't sure which way I meant, so I nodded my head to her right.

Grinning, she nodded, her brown eyes shifting.

"Now look to your left. Okay, thank you, Molly. You have pretty eyes."

"I get them from my mommy," she replied happily.

I would have called her father a lucky man, but he only seemed more depressed at her words. "My interns here will draw some blood from you while I talk to your dad, okay? If it hurts, tell me, and I'll make sure they go back to school."

"Wait, what?" one of the interns whispered behind me.

I nodded to her father to follow me outside.

"Is she all right?" he asked as soon as I closed the door.

"Mr. Wesley, how long has Molly's eye been twitching like that?"

"I'm not sure. I might have noticed it a week or two ago. It was only after she rubbed it, and not often, so I just thought it was an infection or something."

"Has she been sick? Vomiting at all, or complaining about headaches?"

He nodded. "She just got over the flu last week. Dr. Jauregui, what is it? We only came in for her shots."

I'm not sure, and I don't want to make you panic before I know anything concrete. We will do a full workup, and the second I know for sure what's going on with her, I will let you know. And I'll make sure to rush it—no kid should spend their birthday surrounded by doctors." I tried to smile for his sake.

"Dr. Jauregui, we're done," said one of my interns.

Dr...oh whatever, like I was going to remember who the intern was. I just knew him as Four Eyes; the glasses he wore made his eyes look almost cartoonish. "They're done, all right?" I said, walking to where the child waited. "Molly, did it hurt? Point at which one has to go back to school."

She shook her head so hard her bow almost fell off. "Nope, it didn't hurt. They gave me candy."

I glanced up at the three doctors who had to bribe a child while taking blood.

They all turned away from me.

"Well, make sure to get more from them; they are going to take you to get your pictures taken," I said, more to them than to her.

"Pictures, then we leave, Daddy? You promised we could go to the aquarium. I wanna see where Ariel lives!" She pointed to her shirt.

"Pictures, then we leave." He laughed, kneeling in front of her.

"Get a full scan for me. If there is a line, tell them Dr. Jauregui sent you," I whispered to my interns at the door.

"What if that doesn't do anything?" the intern with a bun on the top of her head said, which got her an elbow from both the tall and skinny Dr. Stretch, as I liked to call him, and Dr. Four Eyes.

"If it doesn't do anything, then you're off my service and in the pit for not thinking of another option," I replied, stepping out toward the nurses' station in the middle of the pale blue and beige hall. Sighing, I dropped my tablet on the counter.

"Was I right?" Dr. Handler, Molly's pediatrician, asked as she came to stand beside me. Her eyes focused on Molly through the panels of the window.

When I didn't respond, I saw her turn to face me, swinging her dark brown curls, cropped right under her chin. Dr. Handler had been at the hospital for more than twenty years. She was one of the best pediatricians, if not the best, we had. She had known the answer before paging me down there.