I'll Be Seeing You (21 page)

Once I get the collection needle inserted and the vacutainer holder in place, Jessie hands me the vacutainer tubes. As they fill, I pass them over to him, where he writes the data on the information strip. After we have what we need, I remove the holder from her arm and slip a cotton ball over the insertion point. Jessie places a Band-Aid over the cotton ball, and I tuck her arm back under the comforter.

"You doing okay, baby?" I ask while I take her temperature again. It reads ninety-nine. I take a deep, grateful sigh and smile when she nods her response.

"It's down, Joy. You rest now." I say, kissing her soft lips.

"I'll run these to the lab for you," Jessie volunteers. Grateful, I nod my thanks.

"Do you want me to stay here?" Laura asks, standing in the doorway with a tray of tea for Joy and me.

"Why don't you come with me? We'll drop these off at the lab since they’re expecting them. You and I can go grab something to eat, and by the time we’re done, the results will be ready," Jessie suggests.

"All right," she says, placing the tray on the nightstand. "Will you be okay, Matthew? Do you need anything else?"

"No, but thanks … both of you … for being here. We'll be okay. I'll call if I need anything," I say. Lowering myself onto my knees beside the bed, I feel her forehead again and am pleased that its sweaty and clammy.

"It's what friends do, Matthew," he replies. Looking up at him, I nod, grateful that he’s here. "We'll be back as soon as we can with the results."

Once they leave, I pour Joy a cup of cooled tea and sit her up so she can drink it.

"That was pretty impressive watching you in action, Dr. Davis," she says quietly.

"Well, you bring out the best in me, Ms. Johnson. How are you feeling? Your temperature is down to ninety-nine now. It was up to one hundred and four. I was getting worried I'd have to take you to the emergency room."

"You're a pretty nifty guy to have around," she says, flirting through a strained smile.

"I just want to make sure you stick around." Taking her cup from her, I lie down next to her, wrapping my body around hers. Trying to soothe her and ease her into sleep, I stroke her forehead. Seeing her like this breaks my heart in two.

"I love you so much, baby."

"Me too," she replies sleepily.

Once she falls asleep, I climb out of bed to clean up the mess and return to my office to review her health files again. The more I read, the more I’m convinced it's a dormant infection related to her retina. I’ll know more once I get the test results back. I’m also disappointed in Dr. Jenkins. He clearly performed only cursory and surface testing on her and wrote it down as "bacterial," and left it at that. He never performed any clear, in-depth tests to get to the bottom of her ongoing flare-ups.

"What are you up to?" Joy asks from behind me, scaring the daylights out of me.

"Shit, Joy, you nearly made me jump out of my skin. Come here." I reach for her to sit next to me. "I'm just reviewing your medical records to see what’s in here to answer some questions concerning your infection."

"Did you find anything?"

"Enough to tell me that Dr. Jenkins failed to perform the necessary tests." This is my do or die time. "I want to run these tests, Joy." She purses her lips and then jumps to her feet, turning away from me.

"No, Matthew. I'm fucking done with tests; don't you understand?" she yells, her hands balled into fists.

"Yes, I understand that," I say in a calm voice. "I understand that you are tired of being stuck with needles and put under anesthesia. There are risks involved anytime you do that. You are tired of doing all the hard work only to be told 'there's nothing we can do.’”

"Joy, those five words have been ingrained into your head, and I plan on changing that because I think there is something we can do. First, though, we need to get rid of the infection that lies in your body. It's dangerous, baby. It could ultimately affect your organs. It could attack your kidneys, your liver and God forbid … your heart. Your heart belongs to me, and I want to keep it."

"See, you have to go and say sweet things like that, Matthew. You don't play fair." I watch her as her tears fall silently over her cheeks.

"I need you to let me take a look at you, but I'm telling you right now, my suspicions are that you have a dormant bacterial infection in your retina. Were you aware that you developed an infection when you were younger that wasn't treated properly?"

"I think Dr. Jenkins did what he could," she says, defending him.

"No, Joy, he didn't. Any physician that sits down to read your file will make the same determination I have but I’m not going to sit here and point fingers. What’s done is done, and there's nothing we can do about that now. All we can do now is get rid of that infection so that you don't have these complications. What would you have done if you were home alone?" I ask.

"I would've called Laura."

"And if she were on vacation somewhere, or on a date, or her cell phone battery died?"

"I would call Dr. Jenkins."

"And he would have what? Given you an aspirin and told you to call him in the morning?" I argue. "You would have ended up in the hospital … again."

"But …"

"There are no more buts, Joy. You are getting this out of your body once and for all. Once the infection is controlled, and you have taken your full prescription of antibiotics, we get that diseased retina out of your body."

The look on her face was killing me. It was full of fear and the unknown.

"Do you trust me?" I ask sincerely, pulling her onto my lap. "I mean really trust me? My education and what I stand for? That I would do anything I possibly could to help you and keep you alive?"

"Yes, I trust you.”

"Then you must get that fear out of your head. I won't let anything harm you. If, after the necessary testing is done and I find that there is any remote chance you could be harmed, I won't do it."

Once I get that diseased retina out of her body, and she is clean from the bad bacteria, I will approach her about my procedure, but not now. I need to gain her trust and put her fears to rest first. I'm just happy she has agreed to this at all, but no is not an option.

"Okay, Matthew. Just this once, all right? You can get rid of that, but that's it. I'm done after that," she reiterates. "I'm not feeling good again," she says, falling back against me.

I move to get my thermometer to take her temperature; it's back up to one hundred and one.

Dammit. I can't wait for those antibiotics to kick in. "Let's get another aspirin in you."

It goes this way all evening. When Jessie and Laura finally show up with her blood test results, my diagnosis is confirmed.

"Okay, Ms. Joy. You definitely have a lot of infection in your body. Let's get that under control, and then we’ll schedule surgery to clear all that up, all right?" I say, putting my cheek to hers.

"What all is involved?" she asks, clearly tired.

"Well, are you really interested to hear about that right now? Especially with you not feeling very well? We can discuss it more after the first of the year when you feel better, and when we get closer to the date. Does that sound okay with you?" I reply, not wanting to get into that with her right now.

"Okay," she whispers. I can tell she is fading fast, and when I glance over at Jessie, Laura is leaning against his side with his arm around her. I look at the both of them and raise an eyebrow, questioning what I see. Jessie just shrugs his shoulders.

~.~

After spending the first part of the week watching over Joy, making sure she takes all her antibiotics, I can tell she feels much better. It makes it easier to pack up the car on Wednesday and head over to the Island for Thanksgiving weekend.

Turning onto my street, I press the button to open the garage and see Maddie's car already sitting in the driveway. She must have heard the garage door open from inside the house, because she comes barreling out the front door toward the car.

"Look out," I whisper to Joy. "Maddie’s on the move and running directly at you; brace yourself."

I jump out of the car to tell Maddie to slow down, that Joy has been sick, and to be nice to her.

"I'm always nice to her, Matthew," Maddie admonishes and then reaches out to hug Joy. "You’re feeling better, I hope."

"I'm much better, thanks. Where's Brian? Is he here?"

"Yes, he's inside, putting away the food we brought," she answers. "I think we have more than enough to get us through the entire weekend."

"Matthew," Brian shouts from the front door, "I'm going to hug my friend, so get over it."

I laugh at the memory of the drama I caused when I saw him hug her the first time we met and roll my eyes.

"Come here, you," Brian says to Joy. "God, I missed you. How've you been? Laura said you've been sick? Did you have another bout of infection?"

"Yes, but my new personal physician was there when it flared up and jumped right on it and figured out what the problem is to boot," Joy answers.

"What is it?"

"Just something wrong with one of my eyes, is all; he's going to take care of it," she says again. "So, what's on the agenda for the weekend? Do you have any of your stupid games planned?"

"Do you think Matthew would let you play strip poker?"

"Not in a million years, baby."

"Good answer, Joy," I growl. "No strip poker in this house. I cringe at the thought of seeing my sister naked … or Jessie … or you, Brian," I say with a shudder. "Okay, let's change this subject right now before I need to bleach my brain."

At hearing a car honking its horn as it pulls into the drive, I turn around to glare at its driver. With my hands full, I nod my head in a hello at Jessie and Laura as they pull in the driveway.

"Come on, ladies," Maddie shouts, "let's start baking the desserts for the weekend, shall we?"

I smile when Joy screams, because Brian throws her over his shoulder, carrying her into the house.

"Don't forget my cherry pie. Would you teach Maddie how to make your flakey crust? Her filling is perfection, but her crust needs a little help," he yells loud enough for Maddie to hear.

"Hey," Maddie pouts. "I try, but I just can't make a good crust to save my life. Joy, will you teach me? Brian says yours is the best he's ever had."

"Of course, Maddie. We'll get it figured out."

After everyone settles in their rooms, including Jessie and Laura sleeping in separate rooms, the girls get busy making desserts. Joy suggests hamburgers for lunch, so the guys set out to clean up the grill.

When I walk into the kitchen to get a beer, I observe Joy at the island, rolling out pie crust, Laura making cookies, and Maddie making the filling for the pies.

"It smells good in here," I say, grabbing a beer from the refrigerator.

"Thanks," Laura says. "What else would you guys like for dessert this weekend?"

I immediately grin and look at Joy, who is concentrating on making her crust the perfect thickness.

"Joy, don't look now, but your man is eyeballing you for dessert."

"Oh, I know," Joy replies. "And he knows that dessert comes after dinner."

"Good to know, baby," I chuckle, taking her face in the palm of my hands and lowering my lips to hers. "And you are by far the sweetest dessert known to man."

Brian and Jessie chose that moment to survey the goods the girls have made so far. All three of us steal a cookie.

"How about some of your homemade ice cream, Joy? I have an ice cream maker in the cupboard. Maybe you can make a couple different kinds. I'll run to the store to get the cream, if you like," I suggest. My taste buds were watering, recalling the ice cream she made me for dinner on our first date.

"That's a good idea. Why don't you pick up several quarts of cream? I'll make that rich French vanilla you like," she says, continuing to roll out pie crust.

"Okay, I'll be right back." Looking down, I see Conrad standing next to me, his tail wagging. "Looks like your son wants to go, too."

"You're spoiling him, Matthew, but he does like to ride in the car. Take him with you, if it's not too much trouble," Joy says, bending down to hug him goodbye.

"If you don't need him, I'd be happy to take him," I say, reaching down to pet his chest. "This is a boy's trip to the store, and only boys, isn't that right, Conrad? No Sophie for you today."

"Okay, we'll be back in a while." I bend down and kiss her before heading toward the garage, noticing that Brian and Jessie do the same.

Once we get Conrad loaded in his travel crate, and we are away from the house, I take this opportunity to talk to Brian to feel him out about Joy.

"Brian, how long have you known Joy?" I ask, looking over my shoulder at him in the back seat.

"Um, let's see,” he ponders. “She was almost thirteen when she moved in with her grandmother, so around eleven years or so," he explains. "It was after her parents died. Our mom explained the accident to Laura and I and about how she lost her sight. Mom said that we should be nice to her, so we went over to meet her, and we've been friends ever since."