Sorry for the delay! I hope you're still there. Many thanks.
"History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children." Nelson Mandela
Bridget might have saved a life that day by insisting the unwitting intern cease her daily wearing of the Chanel No. 5 perfume that Myka believed belonged only to her wife. She did, however, come very close to losing her own for interrupting a romantic moment between her dear friends.
"Sorry… you know," Bridget apologized and waved her long finger between the couple. "As you were, as they say," she laughed, saluting and slowly backing away in the direction of the kitchen where three little imps were squealing with delight.
"Someday I will find where that sign is," Helena remarked.
"The one that says – 'All Welcomed'?" Myka laughed.
"The one that says they are in no mortal danger upon entering," Helena quipped. The woman detested the constant flow of uninvited guests even though she was often guilty of insisting they be there.
"We're not going to let a little interruption…," Myka said, taming her intolerant wife's heart back to focus on them, "… interrupt us, are we?" The tone and playfulness of her tone was all it took to cause Helena to forget about everything else in the world.
This of course meant, they were totally unaware of the three little people witnessing Myka pulling Helena's leg up to her hip as she leaned in.
"Did you hurt your leg, Mummy?" Cate asked, upon observing her parents. It was a natural conclusion based on seeing one parent holding the other's limb.
Myka quickly dropped Helena's leg and looked down at the small audience. Helena let out a loud gasp as her high heel hit the floor.
"I'll help!" Shannon yelled because the child rarely said anything that wasn't delivered in a commanding voice. It just so happened - the curly blonde force to be reckoned with came equipped with her make- believe doctor kit. "In here somewhere," she yelled as she tossed out the plastic pretend needle. "Got it!" she said and her small hand came up with a large round ball of gauze. "Over there!" Shannon commanded and Pete Junior sprang into action.
"I'm really fine, Darling," Helena assured the child, but as Myka stifled the laugh at how the trio took over, she left room for them to charge. "Myka, tell them…," she tried, but her wife's expression told Helena this should not be deterred. "Oh, bloody …"
"BLOOD?" Pete Junior screamed and backed away in horror.
Shannon was whipping out the stethoscope, obviously prepared for any emergency. "911! 911!" Shannon yelled because from her very short medical career, she knew if there was blood, it was an emergency.
Cate looked up at her mother, who assured her there was no blood. "Tell them, Cate, Darling," Helena implored her daughter as if she didn't speak their language.
"No blood," Cate said, putting her little hand on Shannon's.
"We better check," Shannon shouted, nonetheless.
"Okay," Pete Jr. said after composing himself. "Yean on me, Yady," he said, taking Helena's hand and pulling it down to rest on his shoulder as he pulled her to the bench.
Helena hesitated as she looked around, but Myka's eyes were twinkling as she took in how adorable this situation was. "The things I do…," Helena mumbled, but forced a smile as her emergency medical team pulled her to the seat to sit down.
Shannon fell to her knees as she looked at Helena's ankle.
"Does it have to come off?" Pete Jr. asked because he was going to leave if it did.
"You don't take off ankles," Cate sighed.
"Oh, thank God!" two people said in response and one of them had a British accent.
Shannon's little hands started to squeeze Helena's ankle and continued up to her knee. The Brit's squirming translated into injury and Shannon called for more gauze.
"Dis is gonna hoit," Pete Junior said, patting Helena's other knee.
"No, it's not," Cate said, shaking her curly head ever so slightly.
"I feel no pain...," Helena assured them, "... in spite of my uncomfortable predicament."
"So brave," Pete Junior said as he leaned on Helena for reassurance. The patient put her arm around him to reassure him.
Little hands worked the white gauze around Helena's ankle. Shannon huffed and puffed as she maneuvered the white material in a spiraling motion up the patient's leg to the knee.
Cate decided that, in spite of it being totally unbelievable, she might just enjoy this fantasy play that both her friends seemed to jump right into. "I'll get the lollipop!" she yelled and ran off to tell Irene.
"Now, that shan't be necessary," Helena said, as her hands gripped the bench as she braced herself against the wall. "All of this… so much… appreciated, but … I'm good now, thanks."
Her words fell flat as the young Doctor Cummings-Styles and her assistant tried to figure out how to secure the bandage.
"What a rip off!" Shannon complained of her ill equipped medical kit.
Cate had only seconds to explain to Irene and Bridget what was going on, but came back prepared. "Here's the tape!" she said, because Irene knew they'd need it.
"Is that lollipop for Mummy?" Myka asked, wishing she could video this with her phone. It was a rare occurrence to see her wife so completely out of control of a situation. She slowly put her hand in her back pocket and pulled out her phone and started filming nonchalantly.
"Yes," Cate assured her as she held the red candy behind her back, "… but only when they're done," she explained, her hand cupped to her mouth.
"Oh, I think we're more than…," and Helena was about to say done, but a plastic thermometer was shoved in her mouth.
Irene and Bridget decided they needed to see this and had walked in the hallway to stand by Myka. "She won't actually… hurt…any of them, right?" Bridget asked Irene in a whisper.
"Don't be ridiculous," Irene replied, "… not with Myka right there."
Myka was filming as she took in what was going on. The children never looked more adorable, and quite frankly, Myka thought, neither did her wife who slowly surrendered to her medical team.
"You okay now, Yady?" Pete Junior asked with concern which he inherited from his father. He was patting Helena's lap as he asked.
"She's Grace," Shannon explained for the umpteenth time. "Just one more…," Shannon was saying as she wrapped the tape around one more time to secure the bandage.
"I am indeed, Mister Lattimer," Helena assured the boy. "I have had the very best of care."
Helena's smile and admission that she was in good hands made the trio beam. Pete Junior climbed up on the bench next to Helena and got very close to her mouth, practically peering in. "How do you do that?"
"Pardon?" Helena asked.
"Make the words come out funny," Pete Jr. asked sincerely.
"Mummy's British," Cate said in her own perfected British accent – because Helena had taught her to say it with great pride. "And I'm half, right Mummy?"
"Indeed you are, Cate," Helena said and decided not to add that it was her better half, but everyone knew she was thinking it. Cate handed the lollipop to her mother and affirmed that they were all impressed with how brave she was.
"I think we have a budding doctor in our midst," Irene said of the young Shannon who finished up with her patient.
"I can't wait to see Helena's expression when she gets the bill," Bridget teased.
"Mommy, mommy!" Shannon ran to Bridget, "… is this twenty-four?" she asked, holding up two fingers on one hand, four on the other.
"Yes, Doctor," Bridget confirmed.
"Okay," Shannon said, pushing the mass of blonde curls out of her eyes as she returned to her patient. "You have to leave that on for this many hours," she said, putting up her two hands, with the correct number of fingers.
"She means until tomorrow at this time," Cate said, in case her British mother didn't understand toddler terms.
"I will do my best to comply," Helena assured them.
"You mean you're taking it off?" Cate asked horrified that her mother wouldn't follow doctor's orders.
"From the mouths of babes," Irene smiled.
"Maybe your patient should lie down while we all go to the park?" Bridget asked the medical team.
"YES!" Shannon said and took out the little white pad from her bag and scribbled on it. "Rest," she said and handed the paper to Helena.
"You know, some TLC might do the trick," Bridget said, gathering the children to take them across the way. "Some hands on… TLC," she elaborated to her friend, Myka.
Bridget knew how to make up for the terrible intrusion she had caused earlier that morning.
"Oh! Right!" Myka said and promised to do just that. She looked down at Helena, shrugged her shoulders and added; "Doctor's orders."