Living with my greatest fear.

~ Chapter 47 ~

Ellie's POV:

I've signed in 2 out of the 3 people to come for an appointment in the next 10 minutes and just waiting for the last one. The last person is a patient for James and I haven't seen James for the whole day, so I just assume he doesn't have many patients and is just in for paperwork mainly today.

He comes through to reception just as his patient walks through the doors. I guess it's because it's his first appointment so he wanted to get away from the paperwork for a little while. We decided Emily should do this one as it is a little more complex than the others. On their notes, Emily told me it was similar to mine in the sense that they were a nervous patient and things take a little longer than usual and that they hadn't been for a while so there was a bit of paperwork to complete from both the patient and James before the appointment could start.

Emily gave the form for James' patient to fill in and then they passed it back and James led them through to his exam room. I'm not allowed to see all of the form, but Emily shows me what she has to do with it - she has to type the appropriate things into their notes in case any other dentist or healthcare provider needs to see it and then she scans the form in so they can see the full form too.

A little while after that, Grant comes back through with his patient and Emily sorts out another appointment for them in 2 months, because Grant wants to check something out. Once that has all finished, and his patient has left, Grant asks me if I wanted to have a change of scenery and go into the store cupboard to sort a few things out before lunch, as Grant is finished until lunch.

Grant's POV:

It's been nice having Ellie in reception today; it's the happiest she's ever looked whilst in my clinic, so I'm happy.

As we get to the store cupboard and as I put the pin in for the door, I ask, "How's your day been, E?"

"It's been pretty good since I've been in reception. I like that bit."

"That's good, baby. I know this morning was quite tough for you, but you did such a good job you know. I know it's easy for me to ask you to do stuff when you're down here, but I do understand that it takes a lot for you, I just want you to promise me that you'll tell any one of us, even Emily, if something's up, yeah?" I say, as I walk into the store cupboard.

"Yeah, I will, Grant. I have a question though.."

"What's up?" I reply, expecting the question to be about the store cupboard or reception.

"Why are my teeth hurting and how long are they going to hurt for?" The question surprised me to be honest, but I understand why she wants to know.

"I can show you why they're hurting later, once we're done here, because of your x-rays. They may stop hurting later today, but will probably hurt when you're eating, and they may start hurting at random points, but it'll just be because they aren't growing how they should, basically."

"Okay, can I take something for it, or can you do something for it?" Ellie practically whispers because it still makes her nervous to talk about.

"I'll have a proper look later, maybe, and I'll have a good look at your x-rays from this morning and see how much pain you're in after lunch, okay?"

She nods.

"Right, so in here there is basically everything we need for anything. We need to make sure the stuff that has an expiry date and is out-of-date is obviously in the bin and that anything that needs sterilising, is sterilised. We might need to put together some trays as well, but I'll have a look at that after we've done everything else."

"Okay, what can I do?"

"We'll start with these cupboards up here," I point to the side of Ellie, "Just look in one cupboard at a time and you'll see some drawers, take the drawers out and just look through each thing and make sure it's in date - most of it will be as it was only checked a little while ago."

*20 MINUTES PASS*

"There's about 5 minutes until my lunch, do you want to go and see your x-rays and I can explain it all a bit more to you?"

"Yeah, okay.."

I carefully put my hand on the back over Ellie's back as I guide her to my office.

"You can stand by me, or sit on the chair and I can put the TV above it on, up to you, princess," I say, sitting on my stool. Not to my surprise, Ellie just stands by me.

"Alright, E, so let me just get your file up and I'll show you some stuff, yeah?"

"Mhm.."

"Don't worry, E. Anything I do now is only because you want to see it, okay? I'm not going to ask for you to sit on the chair at the minute. If we want/need to later, then maybe we can, yeah?"

"Okay.."

I sort out my open tabs on my computer and then search for Ellie's files and then start opening certain bits, so I can explain to her what's happening. First, I decided to show her the x-rays from before - when her wisdom teeth were looking like they might come in normally.

"Right, so you see here," I pointed to the back of her mouth on the x-rays, "your wisdom teeth looked like they would just break through fine, and wouldn't cause any hassle, see?"

I give Ellie a minute or so to see how her teeth were so she can understand why it went from me saying they were fine to now saying that they will probably need to come out.

"Okay, but they're not like this now?"

"No, they've sort of gone at an angle and they're pushing more into your 2nd molars at the back of your mouth, which is why they are hurting you, I'll show you on the x-rays we took this morning," I say, finding the new x-rays.

"Oh, are they going to go back to how they were before?"

"I'm afraid not, E...if you're up for it later, I'd like to take a quick look as I didn't earlier? There's staff check-ups later, so we can do yours just before everyone else's so it's just me and you or we can do it at the end so it's just us once everyone else has gone, but I don't know how long it's all going to take.."

"Oh..okay. I guess you can see..but can you be quick with it though..?

"Okay, baby. I'll try to be as quick as I can, but if I have a good look now, then I'm less likely going to need to have more looks later, as I'll have seen most of it. I'm not saying I won't look at other times, but maybe not so many. Do you want me to show you anything else on here now or tonight?"

"Tonight, please. I'm kinda hungry now," She says, laughing.

"Okay, princess, we can go get some food."