Ariel arrives at work in her uniform. She finds Jesse in the breakroom before her shift.
"Have you seen my mom?"
"No," he answers offering her a surprised look.
"That's odd. I had hoped to talk to her before my shift."
"Ariel your mom called in sick."
"Oh. She didn't mention that to me."
"How are you getting home?"
"I drove. She let me drive today because I had a dentist appointment after school."
"I keep forgetting that she let you have a car."
"Jesse?"
"Yes?"
"Can I go home? I'm worried about her. You know that she acts stoic, but I'm not sure she's doing well. I dropped my textbook on the kitchen floor yesterday, and I thought she was going to jump out of her skin. I'm not sure she's been sleeping. I don't think her hand is healing as fast as she wants, and she seems endlessly frustrated about that. She ices it after physical therapy, but she refuses to take anything for it."
"Yeah. Let me know that you get home safely."
"Of course." She turns to go.
He looks up, and she's hesitating in the doorway.
"What's wrong?"
She turns back around, "I know how to treat a lot of things. What do I do for her when it's her soul that is so heavy?"
"Just be you. Also a candy bar always at least temporarily alters her mood."
Thirty minutes later Ariel pushes through the front door with a paper bag in the crook of her arm. Her mother has yet to respond to her text messages. She secures the lock, and places the bag on the table in the entry way.
"Mom? Are you here?"
She elicits no response.
"Mom? Your car is here. Where are you?"
Still crickets. She wanders through the house flipping on the lights as she goes. She wanders into Leanne's bedroom, and finds the bathroom door cracked. The lights is on inside. She pushes the door open, and finds Leanne. She's lying on the floor in front of the sink. There is a gash on her forehead. Ariel immediately reacts. She grabs a couple of rolled towels off the rack, and gauze out of the cabinet. With one hand she applies pressure to Leanne's head wound. With her free hand she presses her fingers to Leanne's neck, feeling for a pulse. After taking a breath herself she is confident that Leanne not only has a pulse, but is also breathing.
"Mom! Mom! Wake up! Don't make me do a sternal rub."
Leanne doesn't respond. Ariel grabs the tape out of the drawer, and secures the pair of towels on either side of Leanne's neck. She takes her knuckles, and rakes them against Leanne's sternum. Leanne's eyes fly open. She blinks trying to take in the scene.
"Don't move," Ariel warns.
"What are you doing home? What time is it? Why are you looking at me like that? Am I on the floor?"
"Take a breath. I came home because Jesse told me that you weren't at work. It's evening, I don't have an exact moment. My hands are a little tied up at the moment. You have a huge gash on your head. I think you must have hit it on the counter. You are laying on the bathroom floor, and I don't really want you to move."
"Are you triaging me right now?"
"I'm not a doctor," Ariel deflects.
"Did you immobilize my neck?"
"I came in, and found you lying on the floor in a puddle of your own blood with a gaping head wound. I most certainly did immobilize your head as soon as I was content that you had a pulse, and were breathing. Do you know how you ended up on the floor?"
"Um… I came over to the sink to wash my hands. I felt light headed, and that is the last thing I remember."
"Why does it smell like disinfectant in here? Why did you call off work?"
"I was sick."
"You don't get sick."
"I think I'm okay to sit up," Leanne insists.
"Do so at your own peril."
She slowly shifts into a sitting position, and removes her makeshift neck brace. Ariel removes more supplies from the cabinet. She hands Leanne the mirror as she begins to clean the laceration on her head.
"Approximately four inch laceration. Bleeding has stopped with pressure. I am going to clean it with normal saline. Do you think it needs sutures?"
"I think that neither one of us is capable of giving me sutures," Leanne insists.
"I'll just use steri-strips."
Leanne watches in disbelief as Ariel expertly applies steri-strips across her forehead.
"Thank you."
"If you've been vomiting you're probably dehydrated. You probably…"
Leanne cuts her off, "Ariel you can turn off ER mode. It's just the two of us here."
"Being in ER mode is the only thing that keeps me from panicking when I come home, and find you bleeding on the floor."
"Fair enough."
"I stopped and got some stuff at the drug store. I'll be right back."
Ariel returns with the paper bag. She pulls out a bottle of Gatorade.
"I realized that I have never actually seen you drink Gatorade. I got red, blue, and purple just to be on the safe side."
"You know, I'm not picky."
Ariel pulls out the cool blue, "Here." She cracks it open for her.
"I'm sorry that I scared you."
"What is really going on?"
"I just got sick. I'm sure that my fluid, and electrolytes are off. It happens. People pass out."
"You don't."
"Ariel I might be tough, but I'm not invincible. Even I can get the occasional bug."
"Sure."
Leanne touches Ariel's forearm as she sits on the floor with her. "Listen I am really sorry for scaring you. No one should have to come home to this."
"Sometimes I wish you wouldn't treat me with kid gloves."
Leanne furrows her brow. She pushes Ariel's hair off her shoulder, "Is that what you think I'm doing?"
"A broken piece of glass doesn't do that much damage to a hand, and it certainly does not warrant a police report, or a what appeared to be a summons to appear in court."
"That is true."
Ariel exhales, and peers into the bag. "I haven't pushed you into sharing details that you didn't want to. Now we're sitting on the bathroom floor, and I'm worried that you didn't say enough."
"It's not for you to worry about," Leanne insists as she touches her cheek.
She reaches into the bag, and pulls out something else. She hands it to Leanne, "But maybe you should."