"Oh Jaime, I'm so sorry." Rudy said, looking at her so sweetly she felt tears rising to her eyes.
"Don't be too kind to me Rudy. I'll cry."
"That's okay. You're safe with me."
"I know. Believe me". She shook her head. "I'm just a little sick of crying right now."
"Don't want to talk about it?"
"Not really. I'm feeling like a real skunk."
"Okay." he said kindly, turning his attention to her thumb.
He played with the range of motion and massaged the joints, and checked the movement of the thumb again.
"You did the right thing." he said, looking at her over his glasses.
"You think?" she asked, miserably.
"I do. I know it's a mess right now, but it would be a bigger mess five years from now."
"I suppose. It's just awful to feel like you're stomping on someone's heart. I seem to do a lot of that."
Rudy manipulated the ligament and frowned. He looked at the monitor in front of him.
"No you don't. You've never stomped on my heart." he smiled. "Chris will be okay - eventually."
"He'll hate my guts though."
"Probably." Rudy acknowledged. "For a while. So," he added, his tone changing, "what we seem to have here is a deterioration of the synthetic ulnar collateral ligament. I shouldn't be surprised, as the right hand gets a lot of use. I must say, I'm a little disappointed in the lifespan of this compound. You may be looking at more of this kind of problem in the future."
"I hope I'm still under warranty."
"Lifetime!" he said, as he began examining the other joints of her right hand. "So many moving parts in the hands. But I don't want you to worry. It's nothing that will affect your health. It's just an annoyance. And an excuse for me to see you. I can deal with this tomorrow. It should take just a couple of hours. Is that okay?"
"Sure. I've got nothing but time. Well!" she added brightly, "tell me all about this new woman in your life."
"Who told you - Oscar?" Rudy asked, already knowing the answer. He shook his head. "He has a big mouth."
"So?" pressed Jaime.
"Ah," Rudy said, a smile lighting his face, "she's wonderful." He stopped tinkering with Jaime's hand and looked at her. "It's just so nice to share things with someone. Just little things. The other night we saw a movie we both hated, and we even had fun hating it together. I'd forgotten how much I was missing."Jaime nodded and smiled. Rudy suddenly frowned. "I'm sorry, " he said, squeezing her arm, "I shouldn't be gloating away after what you've been through." He shook his head at himself.
"No, no, Rudy. I love it. I love seeing you so happy. It gives me hope." she admitted.
He smiled. "You're sweet. You'll meet her. I've told her all about you." Rudy switched off the computer monitor. By the way, have you been up to see Oscar yet?"
"No. I was going to see him this morning but he was busy, so I'm going to his office right after this."
"Well, you tell him from me that I'll be at his door at 6:30am sharp tomorrow."
"How come?" Jaime asked.
"We're on a new exercise program. We're running together."
"You're kidding!" Jaime exclaimed, her eyes wide with disbelief. "I'd love to see that!"
"It's not a spectator sport. Believe me." Rudy replied.
"What brought this on?"
"It was Callahan. He's been a real bear for the last six months or so, and making her life hellish. So she asked me if I could do something with him."
"Has he been under a lot of stress?" Jaime asked.
Rudy looked away. "Oh, just the usual - and you know what that's like. Anyway I laid down the law with him about drinking less and getting more exercise - and decided I should heed my own advice. Try to work off that middle aged paunch." he said, patting his stomach.
'It's working for you." Jaime said admiringly. "You look great."
"Well, thank you. It's working for him too. Callahan and I are trying to keep an eye on him. It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it."
"Yeah." Jaime agreed.