Free Subject to Change by Alessandra Thomas Page B

myself, I broke into a grin and said, “Hi!”
    She smiled back wearily at the exact same instant that Doctor O’Donnell shot me a look and the three med students stared at me with wide eyes.
    “I…uh… I met Ms.…”
    “Theresa. You all can call me Theresa.”
    “…at Rowland House. After you asked me to drop off those files a couple days ago.”
    Doctor O’Donnell’s eyebrows raised, and her chin shifted down the slightest bit. “I see. Well. Let’s hear about the patient.”
    “Rachel,” I murmured, a little breathless with awe at how strong this little girl was already proving herself to be.
    “Um,” the other guy said. “The patient is seven years old and presented with acute pain in her arm and a recurring fever. A lumbar puncture revealed the presence of leukemia. She’s had her first three days of chemo — ”
    “And getting more energy, I see?” I asked Theresa. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. Rachel and her furious gaming were a picture of hope, at least in this little moment.
    Theresa smiled again. “A little. Enough to make me stop worrying so much. At least she wants to play video games and — ”
    Doctor O’Donnell cut us off. “Treatment plan?” ’
    “She’ll have one round of chemo, wait till her ANC comes back up, and then do it again. If her marrow looks clean, they’ll send her home and do a yearly exam. After five years, she’ll be considered in remission.” The guy gave his own small smile to Theresa.
    At that moment, a nurse came in with a rolling table. “Time to clean up your port, cutie.”
    Rachel paused the game, sighed, and dropped back on her bed while the nurse came over and lifted up her shirt. I winced, and my stomach turned when I saw the still-raw skin and darkened blood surrounding the circular port. It had been so painful for Dad to have it put in, and I remembered how long it had taken for the skin to look somewhat normal around the site.
    Rachel grimaced, and from the look on her face when she turned her head sideways into the pillow, the pain was immense. What a little trooper. Unfortunately, I was not such a trooper. The room spun around me.
    Clearly, there was more than one aspect of this doctor thing I wasn’t handling so well.
    I breathed in through my nose, chanting silent apologies at Dad, staring down at my Doctor Daly shoes and focusing on my promise to him.
    After a few seconds, the nurse pulled Rachel’s shirt down and peered out the door. “I think Andi was just about to come in here to help you with your hair.”
    Thank God the nurse was there to talk to Theresa because, while she was, Doctor O’Donnell had started to discuss prognoses with her students. It had been bad enough for me to hear speculation on exactly how long my dad had to live, and that had been in a nice office with a focused doctor more than three days into his treatment.
    “Oh, yep,” the nurse smiled. “Here she is!”
    The same girl I’d seen on the elevator with the messenger bag stuffed full of kids’ stuff walked into the room with a gentle smile on her face. “Hey, Rachel.”
    Rachel practically sprang up back into a sitting position. “Hey! You came back!”
    “Yeah, I wanted to check up on you! Plus, you owe me a Ramona read.”
    Rachel half-rolled her eyes, but it was clear she was mostly pretending and totally delighted to see Andi.
    “Hey now, I had to read to you for half an hour yesterday. You’re not gonna let a silly thing like chemo kick you down, are you? I think you’re definitely strong enough for a few pages today.”
    “Especially when she was playing her racing game so furiously a few minutes ago,” Theresa said, her eyes smiling. “Don’t let her fool you. I never do.”
    Doctor O’Donnell was still talking about something. I wasn’t picking up half the words she said or understanding half of those I did.
    Andi said, “Theresa, right?”
    Theresa nodded.
    “Do you want to step out and grab a cup of coffee?”
    “Actually,