Chloe smoothed down Celeste's messy hair, singing softly to the girl in an attempt to soothe her – though, it remained to be seen whether she was more concerned with soothing Celeste or herself... Afterall, Celeste wasn't quite old enough to understand what was happening.
Chloe, on the other hand, had been working herself into a nervous wreck for a solid week.
Matthew was doing his best to remain strong, even if anxiety was churning in his gut like a blender.
True, it was only a minor surgery. But it was still surgery. A tonsillectomy, to be specific.
Derek arrived at the hospital in an uncharacteristic state of frazzled nervousness, not that he would ever have admitted to being anything other than calm, cool, and collected. He was on his way to Celeste's room when he bumped, quite literally, into Emily, seeing as he'd been too busy scrolling on his phone as he walked to watch where he was going.
As she bent down to collect the files that had spilled from her arms in the collision, he stammered, "Oh, hey, Em. What are you doing here?"
Straightening up, she raised a brow. "For one thing, I work here," she pointed out. "For another, our granddaughter is about to go in for surgery. You remember her, right? Our son's child?" When he failed to reply with some sarcastic remark, she frowned. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," he insisted immediately. Then, quickly changed his answer, "No. Maybe. I don't know."
She sighed. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked with a gentle hand on his arm. Loathe as she was to show him anything that might be interpreted as affection, especially after Clyde's departure, she couldn't just not... "Are you worried about Celeste? Because..." she started.
He interrupted, demanding, "What are the symptoms of tonsillitis?"
She huffed, exasperated. "Why don't you ask Savannah?" she asked pointedly. "She has a medical degree too..."
"Yeah, well, she's not really in the mood to talk to me right now," he confessed. "She's kind of pissed, actually." He shrugged as if he had no control over the matter. "So, the symptoms?"
"Okay, for one thing," she started, "Google is free. But to answer your question: the first symptom is usually a sore throat, accompanied by painful swallowing and a fever." When that didn't seem to soothe him, she said gently, "I know it seems scary, but it's a very routine surgery and there's no cause for concern. Celeste is going to be just fine – I'll make sure she's treated like royalty."
He seemed momentarily confused before he corrected, "No, I was thinking about me!"
The gentle smile on Emily's face morphed into irritation at that.
"No, no, wait!" he sputtered. "Don't get me wrong, I am concerned for Celeste, but like you said, it's a simple surgery. And Matthew told me Celeste doesn't even understand what's happening. I'm afraid I might need a tonsillectomy too and, well, you know...hospital gown isn't really my best look."
Still seeming stuck between annoyance and compassion, Emily assured him, "Derek, even if you do have tonsillitis, it doesn't necessarily require surgery." Shaking her head, she asked, "Do you want me to ask a colleague to examine you?"
"Can... Can you do it?" he asked in a mumble, looking down the floor in embarrassment.
"Oh, so now you trust me as a doctor?" she inquired with a pointed expression, remembering how he used to mock her when they were going out.
The last few straggling customers had just wandered out after last call as Derek started the process of shutting down the bar, followed shortly by other other employees until only he remained to finish cleaning up.
"Do you want one last drink?" he asked, approaching the little corner booth where Emily liked to hole up to study while he worked, surrounded by her textbook and her assortment of notes.
"Hmm?" She grabbed the pen from behind her ear and scrawled something down on the notebook in front of her before looking up. "Oh, no thanks. I think one more drink would diminish my brain function and I really want to finish up this last chapter before lecture tomorrow."
Derek pouted. "I was kind of hoping to pull a different kind of all-nighter...if you know what I mean," he said, brows waggling.
She groaned. "Derek, I'm still three chapters behind, I really can't afford any further distractions this week..." But she softened the blow with a little apologetic pout.
"Nerd," he teased. "How you manage to study in here with all the chaos around you, I'll never know..."
She shrugged. "I'm just really focused on getting that MD behind my name, you know?"
"Still... I don't know if I would be able to trust a doctor who drinks quite as much as you do..." he joked.
"Hey!" she whined. "Take it back or you won't be pulling any kind of all-nighter for at least a month," she threatened.
He held up his hands in surrender. "I take it back!" he insisted.
"In all seriousness, I'm really proud of you," Derek insisted. "You accomplished your goal and raised a child all on your own." He met her gaze so that she could see that he was entirely serious, in spite of his usual habit of kidding around.
"You're just saying that because you need me, aren't you?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Both can be true."
"We're done," Emily informed him, pulling off her exam gloves and tossing them in the trash. "Your throat is just a little red, you big baby."
"I got scared," he said, defensive. "You can't be too careful, you know?"
"Scared of a sore throat?" she teased.
He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. "Don't I deserve a treat for good behaviour?" he asked.
"You're such a child," Emily said, but she pulled a lollipop from the jar anyway. She extended her arm to give it to him, but snatched it away at the last minute. "You can have it...if you tell me why Savannah is upset with you."
He gasped as if affronted. "Blackmail!" he exclaimed.
She smirked. "So, spill..." she prompted.
With an exasperated sigh, he confessed, "Savannah doesn't exactly like it when we spend time together."
"She's jealous?" Emily asked skeptically.
"Sort of. I guess she thinks that you're in love with me still..." he said.
She made a sound that was half laughter, half scoff. "Me? In love with you?"
"I think I should be offended right now..." he said, frowning.
She sighed. "Look, I like you and everything, but the days of me having romantic feelings for you are long gone."
He gave a little laugh, though it sounded a lot more hollow than he'd hoped. He tried not to let Emily see that he felt like something inside him had shattered...