Sincerely, Dr. Cruz

Eighteen: Healing Wounds

Chapter Eighteen: Healing Wounds  
August 11, 2014
Neal’s House: East Providence, Rhode Island

(Neal's POV)

Yesterday was scary.

I mean, I had seen the insides of people, but yesterday was just scary. I mean, I had never seen anyone like that. Yes, I had seen tons of people sick with a stomach bug, but I had never seen someone so—conflicted… with themselves over it.

It all started with the phone call she made that morning.

“I’m really sorry but I’ll be a little late.” She said, taking a deep breath after she had finished talking.

“Is everything alright?” I asked, obviously worried.

“Yeah, smooth as ever. Thank again.”

“No problem.”

And she hung up, oblivious to the fact that things surely didn’t sound smooth.

Then, it was the way she continually took deep breaths every time she spoke in the morning, followed by refusing to eat lunch. She seemed to handle whatever was wrong pretty well because if I wasn’t extremely analytical, I wouldn’t have realized that something was wrong. When I came back from lunch she seemed fine, drinking water continually. But then I noticed a little ways past lunch that her hands were trembling tremendously.

“Reina.” I said, not caring about professionalism at the moment. “Are you seriously okay?”

“I am.” She said after a hesitation.

Then her stomach growled and I knew that that was because of the fact that she hadn’t eaten lunch.

“I’m going to go get you food.”

She seemed like she wanted to protest, but I was out of the room before she could argue.

I came back and she seemed a little out of breath, but her face wasn’t as pale as before.

“Just eat it.” I said, noticing how she eyed the salad.

So she took a bite before running out of the room clutching her stomach. And that my friends, was when I knew something was wrong. I stood outside the staff restroom for half an hour and she talked to herself in the restroom in between sessions of throwing up. She came out with her eyes red from all the presumable crying that took place in the restroom.

“Let’s go to the office.” I said, turning on my heel. The thing is, I didn’t exactly know what to say when we got to the office. I asked her why she hid the fact that she was sick despite the things I heard in the restroom, and when she finally broke down crying, I did the only thing I could think of doing.

I hugged her.

She cried for a good ten minutes before she allowed me to take her home. It was a silent ride the entire time over, but if I had to notice anything, it was the fact that she was blushing a faint pink despite the red flushing her nose. I ignored it and told her that I would take her to work the next day and that she could drive home tomorrow. She simply nodded before thanking me for the millionth time that night and closing the door.

She was fine the next day, so here I am, in my office with her again.

“Hey Dr. Cruz?” I said, arching an eyebrow at her confused expression while looking at an MRI report.

“Yeah?” She said faintly. She had been talking like this all day.

“Ben misses you.” I said, smiling despite myself.