Journey (3)

Chapter 20

right person right time- rachel grae

I leave the treatment room as casually as I can, walking straight past Connor without making eye contact with him. It's almost ten times worse now that I know he heard everything that I said about him. 

I wait awkwardly outside the treatment room, trying to peer around the curtain to see if the family are agreeing to the surgery or not. I tell myself that's the only reason that I'm looking around the curtain, and definitely not anything else.

Natalie comes to stand beside me. "Are they going for the surgery?" she asks me. "What did you say to them?" 

"Not much, really," I tell her, shrugging. I don't really want to repeat all of the things that I said about Connor, especially now that I know he heard everything. "I just told them the usual stuff, about how it's the best option, all of that. That's it."

"Well, we'll have to see if they listened to you," Natalie says. "Here comes Connor. Hopefully he was able to convince them, otherwise I'm not sure what we're going to do about this." She sighs, the dilemma seeming to weigh heavily on her. 

Connor walks over to us. "I talked to the family," he tells both Natalie and I. "They definitely still had their doubts,  but I managed to convince them. They're doing the surgery." He looks over at me. "I think it was something to do with what Tessa said that helped to convince them," he says. 

I don't respond to that. Instead, I skirt around it. "So, you're getting the OR ready for the surgery?" I ask him. "I think we have to do this quickly."

"We will," Connor assures me. He then turns his attention to Natalie. "Can I see those scans?" he asks her. Saying nothing, she hands them over to him. "Great. Thanks," he says, studying them intently. 

"No problem," Natalie says, as he passes the scans back to her. "I'm just relieved that you were able to talk to the family and convince them." She smiles. "It's the right thing for that boy, to get the surgery."

"I agree with you," I say quickly, jumping in to the conversation. "So, you should probably go and make sure the OR is ready." I turn to Connor, a subtle hint that I want him to leave. 

"Okay," he says, nodding. "I'll go up there myself and make sure everything is ready." Connor doesn't seem fazed by my attempts to ice him out. "I'll let you know when we're ready."

As he is about to leave, the mother of the patient sticks her head around the curtain. She looks at Natalie with wide, scared eyes. "Dr Manning?" she asks, quietly. "We have a few questions if that's okay?"

"Of course," Natalie says, nodding. "Don't worry about it, you can ask me anything." She starts to move towards the treatment room, pulling back the curtain and entering, drawing it protectively behind her. 

"Tessa." I should have known that he wouldn't have completely walked away. "Wait, I just wanted to say-"

"How much of that did you hear?" I ask him, interrupting whatever he was just about to say. 

"All of it," Connor says, sighing. It's almost the worst case scenario. He heard everything I said. Everything that I really, really didn't want him to hear. 

"I didn't mean for you to hear all of that," I tell him, feeling embarrassed by it. "You should probably go and make sure that they're all ready up in the OR." It's another one of my feeble attempts to try and get him to leave. Just like the last time, it doesn't work. 

"I think they'll be capable of getting it ready up there without my assistance," Connor says. "Anyway, Tessa, I think we need to talk." He seems serious about this.