Free What She Left Us by Stephanie Elliot

sister. God, she wished her sister would shut up already.
She turned and smiled apologetically to Dee, like she knew Dee didn’t need to
hear all of this shit when all she was trying to do was draw some blood, do her
job. Dee concentrated on cleaning the site where she would stick Courtney’s
vein, but she did say, “Oh honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that’s why you girls
are here. I didn’t get through all of your paperwork. But I’m sure Dr. Rhetler
will talk to you about everything, about the risks and the preventatives you
can take if the tests come out positive. Sometimes they don’t though, come out
positive, you know.”
    “Well,
what’s the likelihood of that?” Jenna asked.
    “Jenna!
Can’t you see that Dee is trying to stick a needle in me? Let her concentrate
please!” Courtney said through clenched teeth. How could she love her sister so
much yet be so annoyed with her at the same time.
    “And
here, let me just… stay still Courtney, I’ve almost got it in… and here we are.
Don’t move, and there!” Dee announced with flourish and the needle was in and
she was filling tubes with bright red blood for the first draw.
    Jenna
sat quietly through Courtney’s second blood draw on the other arm, as Dee explained
why it was necessary to do two separate draws for the hemochromatosis blood
test. Something about how one was for the protein and one was for the liver,
but at this point, Courtney wasn’t really paying attention; she just wanted to
get out of there. She was hungry, felt clammy and flushed, and was completely
annoyed.
    She
was annoyed with her sister, tired of being home when it wasn’t even home any
longer, and really ready to get back to school and see what was going on with
Mitch and where the rest of the semester might lead.
    “Okay
Courtney, you’re all done. Let’s switch spots and get Jenna up here now,” Dee
said as she slid the needle from her arm, and carefully placed a bandage on the
site.
    Jenna
stood up, looking pale, but made the seat change with Courtney, who tried to
give a sympathetic smile to her sister. “You’ll be fine,” Courtney said.
    Jenna
couldn’t let her blood draw go by without an “ouch!” and a “that stings” and
when she was done, she made a big show of asking if the areas would bruise and
if she should ice them when she got home. Courtney couldn’t help but roll her
eyes at her sister, and Dee smiled a sympathetic smile at her when Jenna was
looking down at her arms.
    “Hang
tight girls. Dr. Rhetler will be in shortly.”
    “Thanks,
Dee,” Courtney said.
    “Yeah,
thanks,” Jenna added.
    When
Dee walked out, Courtney glared at Jenna. “Could you have been any ruder? She
was just doing her job and you were being such a bitch.”
    “What?
She hurt me,” Jenna whined.
    “You’re
acting like the biggest baby I’ve ever met in my entire life. I can’t even
believe this is you. I hate to say this, but Mom would be so disappointed in
you.” Courtney said.
    Before
Jenna could answer, the door opened and Dr. Rhetler walked in, smiled warmly, and
said hello. Jenna and Courtney introduced themselves and the three sat in the
regular chairs.
    “So,
first of all, I’m so very sorry to hear that your mother passed away from hemochromatosis,”
Dr. Rhetler said.
    “Thank
you,” Jenna said.
    “Thanks,”
Courtney said.
    “It’s
a terrible disease, especially if gone undetected, as it did with your mother,
from what I understand. You girls are lucky though. If you both carry the gene for
genetic iron poisoning, and if one of you has it, so will the other, then there
are available treatments depending on how far the iron overload has gone
throughout the years. So that is good news.
    “The
two tests you’ve just had were a serum transferring saturation, where we
measured the amount of iron bound to a protein that carries iron in your blood.
And the other blood test was to check the amount of iron stored in your liver.
Both of these tests