88. My responsibility

"I’m gonna do my best to make sure that nothing bad happens to you again." She said with confidence. In honesty, she was terrified that another complication would strike and he would wind up dead in his next surgery. But she had to keep all that in check. She’d had a couple of cases where she got too attached and that ended up happening, and somehow she had to pick herself back up and pull herself back together. She felt the sting in her eyes and while she'd normally fight it, she wasn't sure she could this time.

She rarely dismantled her brave face in front of patients. Not like this. The more he talked the more her eyes started to discolour, falling into light shades of red with the threat of tears. He told her how difficult things in his very young life had been. He told her not to cry. Not to worry. Not to stress over him. That he would be fine.

How did it happen that it became his job to comfort her? What was she doing? She looked at him when he nudged her, feeling a little uncomfortably exposed but pretending it wasn’t happening. But she was on the verge of crying.

And he asked her to stay with him. He didn't want to be alone.

She smiled and exhaled on a laugh, causing a tear to fall from either eye. “Move over." She said, tilting her head and indicating that he shift to one side. She climbed into the other side above the blanket, looping an arm around him and closing her eyes.

"You’re my responsibility." She said quietly. “I don’t want anything to happen to you."
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