Living with my greatest fear.

~ Chapter 45 ~

Grant's POV:

As Ellie and I have been talking, Tobey has sorted all of the bitewings, lead jacket and x-ray camera for me. I get up from the dental chair and quickly put in a pair of gloves, so I can start Ellie's x-rays.

Whilst I was putting on my gloves, Tobey had got Ellie all sorted with the lead jacket.

"Alright, E, can you open really big for me? I'm just putting the first bitewing in, okay?" I say as I pick up the one for her right hand side. "And bite down for me...good girl. Tobey and I are just going to pop out just long enough to take the photo and then we'll come right back in ready for your next one, okay?" She just nods.

Tobey and I quickly leave so I can take the x-ray and once its beeped, we re-enter the room and I sort out another bite-wing for Ellie. I take the first one out and put it on the tray to be thrown away and then pick up the next one Tobey sorted.

"I think this will do for x-rays, E, I was going to do 3 to get a full picture, but I will be able to get a pretty good idea with these two and it'll make things quicker, okay?" I say, smiling at her even though she hasn't looked up for her lap since we came back in the room.

"Alright, E, can you just lie back on the chair for me and tilt your chin back, just so I can get a good x-ray of the back of your mouth, yeah?" She does but she's still not looking at me. I think this is just her way of coping though, as I know if I were to ask if she was okay then she would start to cry, so I decide to carry on and I can comfort her afterwards.

"You're doing such a good job, baby, not long left and then we can see how to get you out of pain!"

Once again, Tobey and I leave the room just long enough for the x-ray to be taken and then I sort Ellie out by taking everything off her.

"You're all done, princess," I say, holding my arms out for a hug. She accepts it and tightly holds onto me. "Are you okay, E?" I say, trying to loosen her grip a little so I could crouch down and be eye level with her. At first she doesn't allow me to, as she starts crying but I manage to crouch down in front of her, "Baby, what's up? You don't have to worry about doing anything else today, Tobey's had a quick look at the x-rays and there isn't anything major for now, just a little bit of discomfort, okay? I'm not going to do anything today or tomorrow or the next day, got it?"

She just nods as she continues to sob.

After a while of comforting her, she seems to calm down and says, "Thank you, Grant. I get scared to say anything because I always feel like it's going to be something really bad and I sometimes just think that maybe I'm being paranoid and it's going to go bad..."

It somewhat shocked me as to how much she said and how she voiced it, she didn't sound scared, it was just like she wanted me to know what goes through her head, it's not that she's scared of me, she's worried that it's going to be something so major it's going to require lots of work.

"Baby, don't thank me, I'm just doing my job and looking out for my sister, yeah? I care so much about you. And, please always tell me anything that hurts or feels weird, it doesn't matter whether it's your teeth or something in your mouth or something else like your arm or even that you're having a bad day mentally. Sometimes all you need is reassurance and that's okay, I would do anything for you to know that you're okay," I reassure her and turn to sit on the edge of the dental chair and spin her around so she's facing me.

"Okay, I just get in my head too much and it stresses me out too much and I sometimes just think about the worst possible scenarios," I nod in response.

"I know, sweetheart, but please tell me anything, I'm here to listen to you, to distract you if you need it and to always be there for you and on your side, you know that."

"Yeah, I know," She says, looking up at me and smiling.

"Hey, there's my beautiful sister! I think you need to have a moment to rest and get yourself sorted and then, if you feel like it, you can carry on with a bit of work experience, yeah? I can sort some other things out for you if you want, that might be a bit better for the rest of the day," I get up and give her a hug.

Whilst Ellie and I had been talking, Tobey had sorted everything out and thrown certain things away and he was just typing some stuff up on Ellie's file.

"You might want to add to this later, I've just added the basic bits for you, mate," He says, finishing what he was typing.

"Thanks, man. I'll have a look later, I'll just sort this one out," I say, ruffling Ellie's hair a little bit, "and I'll be back."

Ellie and I leave Tobey's room and walk into my office, so I can log into my computer and see what she could do for the rest of the day seeing as it isn't lunch yet.

"I think what you said earlier was very mature, you know, I'm proud of you, baby," I say, smiling at her as she stands to the side of me.

"Thanks, I was thinking about it earlier and I was like I'll tell you and maybe it'll make more sense for all of us." She shrugs.

"Yeah, I'm glad you said it. Anyways, we can talk about it more at home, but what things do you think you fancy doing for the rest of the day? I doubt you want to get patients and you probably don't want to be in an exam room for the rest of the day, so there's stuff you could help Emily with? Or there's some stuff you can do in the store cupboard, but you would have to have someone in there with you, either me, James or Tobey, so you can't do that all the time because we're not all free for very long. You can do a mix of both, or something else you can come up with?"

"Ummm, I'll help Emily in reception and if you want me to help do stuff in the cupboard I will if you guys are free for long enough."

"Okay, cool, someone might be coming to inspect round here throughout the week, so the store cupboard does need sorting, it's not awful but needs a bit of TLC," I say, laughing, whilst standing up and walking to reception with Ellie.