Just a short chapter this time. Enjoy!
I wake up at 4am to the sound of the TV in the living room. I climb out of bed and close the door to our bedroom so that the TV doesn't wake Arizona. Sofia is sitting on the couch watching a TV show I don't recognise. I walk around the living room to check she is awake and she smiles at me, pausing the TV.
"You okay kiddo? It's super early."
"I fell asleep before seven so I'm awake now. Did I wake you up?"
"Nope it's fine, I fell asleep early too." I tell her despite knowing it was probably the noise of the TV that woke me. I don't want her to feel guilty.
"Have you had anything to eat? We didn't really have dinner last night, we were all just tired."
"I was going to make some cereal but I wasn't sure if I was allowed. Mom said I had to have help before I do anything."
"Come on, let's go get something to eat. Which cereal did you want?"
"Coco puffs." She requests and I reach up to the cupboard to get them down before getting the milk out of the fridge. I also get the apple juice out and pour her a glass as well as one for myself. "Are you not hungry, Amy?" She asks, seeing I only planned to have a drink.
"Not at the moment. I'll have something to eat in a bit before I go to work."
"You're removing Luca's tumour today, right?"
"I am."
"He's going to be okay though? He told me yesterday he was scared he would die like his dad."
"He did? Was your Mom there?"
"No, she was outside talking to Alex."
"What did you say to Luca?"
"I told him that my Papa had died, and that I had just had surgery and I was okay, so he will be okay too. Then I told him that you were the best brain surgeon so you would look after him."
"I am going to do everything I can to help him, Sof. His tumour looks like it should be fairly easy to remove so hopefully he will be okay."
"When he gets better, I think you should invite him and his Mom round. He said his Mom doesn't have many friends."
"I think that's a good idea."
"I have a doctor question." Sofia states as she is putting her bowl in the sink.
"Hm, and what's that?"
"Dr Alex said you or Mom could take my stitches out."
"Yeah, your Mom mentioned last night. What about it?"
"How do you remove them? I was asleep when they did them, so it didn't hurt, but will it hurt to take them out?"
"No, it shouldn't. It will just feel like a bit of a pinch and a bit weird because you can feel the stitch slide out."
"How do you take it out though? What happens?"
"You want me to show you?"
"How?"
"Let me go get my suture kit and I'll show you using a piece of fruit."
I sneak into mine and Arizona's bedroom, being quiet so as to not wake the sleeping blonde. I retrieve the case from my bedside table and take it back to the kitchen where Sofia is sitting with a banana on the table. "Will this work?" She asks, referring to the piece of fruit and I nod my head.
"It'll work great." I tell her. I take a knife from the drawer to make a small slice in the banana to replicate Sofia's wound before I open the kit and select a needle and the correct suture. I thread the needle and make several stitches to close the wound. Sofia watches with great attention as I make each stitch. "Okay, so when we take them out, we have to use these, which I like small tweezers." I say, lifting the item to show her. "And this tiny knife." I state, showing her the tool.
"Show me." Sofia instructs with a grin, a clear interest in the fruit surgery procedure.
"So we take the knot between the tweezers and lift it so that it's away from the skin, then we use the tiny knife to slice the thread. Once it's been cut, you can use the tweezers to pull the stitch out." I explain, showing her the procedure as I speak.
"Can I have a go?" She asks, and I debate whether I should allow it. "I'll be careful, I promise." She says, staring at me with a hopeful glint in her eye.
"When was the last time you had painkillers?"
"When I was leaving the hospital yesterday." She answers honestly and I do the math in my head. They should be out of her system by now.
"Okay, but slowly, okay? And I'll walk you through it." I instruct and she nods in agreement.
Surprisingly, Sofia is a natural. She removes each suture precisely and with care.
"Are you sure you've never done that before?" I ask, shaking my head at her intrinsic ability.
"Nope. Never. Can you teach me how to do the stitches too?"
"I feel like your mom wouldn't appreciate me teaching you to use sharp objects."
"I'm allowed to use sharp knives in the kitchen, and I use textile needles at school in art."
"These are sharper than those needles. These ones are designed to puncture skin."
"I'll be careful and go really slowly, and if I do anything wrong I'll stop." She begs with a big grin.
"Watch first, okay? Because I cheated on the first ones, and if you're going to learn, you're going to do it properly." I instruct, getting the equipment that we will need and bringing it to the centre of the table and moving what we don't need away.
"Cut the banana first, right?" Sofia asks, taking the kitchen knife and carefully making an incision down the other side of the banana.
"Okay, so we have the needle, the needle holder, and the forceps." I explain, showing each of the pieces of equipment. "First, we thread the needle like this, and then we hold the back end of the needle with the needle holder. We use the forceps to hold the skin that we are going to stitch, and we go through the skin one side at a time." I explain, looking up to make sure she is listening. When she nods, I make the first movement, piercing the first side of the skin. "When you get here, you use the needle holder to pull the front part of the needle through until there is only about three centimetres, like this."
"Just over an inch, right?" She asks, converting the units in her head.
"Yeah, a bit longer than an inch. Then once you've done that, you can do the skin on the other side."
"Then what?"
"Then you tie it. So you can move the needle out of the way, and the forceps and you can use your hand and the needle holder. If you loop the suture around the holder twice, and then grip the 3cm piece from over here, you can pull it tight. If you do that twice, then you get a knot." I explain, showing her the procedure.
We go through each step slowly, I explain again what we are doing and watch as Sofia follows each instruction with care. It takes a few attempts, but eventually she is able to perform the simple procedure. I continue supervising, watching her stitches get neater until they're at a similar standard that we would see in interns at the hospital. Approximately one hour later, Arizona wakes up and walks into the kitchen to see several interestingly stitched bananas.
"Do I even want to know what is going on? It's 5:30am."
"I was awake early because I went to bed so early, and then Amy was awake and I learned how to do stitches." Sofia summarises the morning's events to her mother. Arizona looks at her, and I cannot tell whether she is concerned, annoyed, still half asleep or a combination of the above.
"We were careful, I promise." I assure Arizona who still doesn't say anything. Sofia and I remain quiet, unsure what her Mother is thinking.
"Mom, are you mad?" Sofia asks softly. "I asked Amelia, she said you might not like it but I convinced her." She explains and Arizona turns to face me.
"Did you at least teach her proper technique?"
"I did. She is actually pretty good at it, take a look." I tell my girlfriend and Sofia passes her the most recent piece of fruit.
"I want to be a bit mad, but this is actually really impressive." Arizona explains through a yawn.
"Amelia gave me rules though. She said that I'm not allowed to touch any of this equipment without one of you supervising and I have to do everything slowly." The girl adds which I can see makes Arizona relax a little.
"How did you even end up doing this?"
"I wanted to know how you were going to take my stitches out, so Amy showed me using a banana, and I learned how to take them out but then I wanted to learn how to do them too."
"Show me what you've learned." Arizona tells her daughter and Sof looks at her mother with a perplexed facial expression. "Show me how to do a stitch and then remove it." She challenges her daughter, this time Sofia smiles understanding that she is not in trouble. Arizona takes several videos of Sofia performing the procedure to send to Callie who Sofia insists will be thrilled after seeing her newly learned technique before telling Sofia that it is time to put the equipment away. "You're supposed to be relaxing and Amelia has surgery in a few hours. Let's go back to bed, even if we are just laying down to relax." Arizona suggests and I nod in agreement. Sofia decides she would like to come lay in our bed so she joins us rather than going back to her own room.
Sofia curls up into her Mom's side. Arizona's arms wrap around her and hold her close with one hand on the girl's side and the other stroking gently through her hair. It doesn't take long for Sofia to fall asleep at which point Arizona holds her hand out for me to hold, letting me know that she is still awake.
"I'm sorry if I overstepped teaching her that." I whisper quietly, not wanting to wake the sleeping child.
"I'm not angry. I mean, I probably wouldn't have let her, but you made sure she was safe and that's the most I've seen her smile since her surgery. Why were you up anyway?"
"I heard the TV on and I had woken up so went to check she was okay. I'm sorry if we woke you."
"Mhm, it's fine. I'm just glad you were both okay."
"We were fine. She was hungry so I got her some cereal and then we talked."
"And you taught her a medical procedure we weren't allowed to do until med school."
"To be fair, we didn't have access to the equipment. I'm sure 10 year old you would have loved it. And also, it's not like we used a living creature, the banana couldn't have sued if it went wrong."
"You're lucky I love you."
"I know. I appreciate it every day.