Page 9 of Wesley

Chapter Four

Wesley

With Marisol having a seizure and being unable to wake up, I was pretty sure that she might have a brain bleed. I just hoped that we caught it before any major damage was done to her brain. The medication was given to control the seizure, and we were preparing her to be taken up for a CatScan.

I’d also spoken with our leading neurologist, and he was going to have an operating room prepped and would meet me in CT to go over the scans. It was just after I had put the order into the computer for the test that Marisol’s mother arrived.

Before she even got to the room, I knew she was here. I’d heard the commotion out in the general area and wondered briefly who she had tackled now when things began to crash, and voices were raised.

When she entered the room, I saw her reflection off the computer monitor as she stepped slowly toward her child. I knew how scary it was for a parent to see their child like this. I turned to the bedside, listening to her speak softly to her daughter. Her long dark brown hair pulled back into a braid at the back of her head. When she didn’t look up at me, I finally spoke, “Ma’am.”

Her gaze slipped from her daughter to my chest and then slowly up to my face. Her pupils dilated as she stared up at me, instantly recognizing me. Her blue eyes slipped over my features, pausing on my right cheek before she muttered an explicit under breath.

“Please tell me you’re not Doctor Young?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, ma’am, but I am indeed Doctor Young, and I believe you are Charlotte, Marisol’s mother. Is that correct?”

She pursed her lips, and she winced, her gaze hovered over my right cheekbone, and the butterfly enclosures again.

Her eyes closed briefly before she gathered herself and then stood straight, “Yes, I am Charlotte. Charlotte Bennett.”

I nodded at her, and for a long moment, the two of us stared at one another. Despite the stress on her face, I found her quite beautiful.

“Doctor Young,” one of the orderlies captured my attention, “Can we take her up now?”

“Up where?” Charlotte asked immediately.

“Yeah, thanks, Mike.” I stepped away from the side of the bed and went to Charlotte. “We are taking her upstairs to get a CatScan. You can walk up with us, although you can’t be in the room during the test. You will have to wait outside the room.”

“What’s wrong with her?” She asked as her worried eyes slipped over her daughter, and then to me for a moment before we began to follow the orderly and her daughter out.

“I have a feeling that she might have a brain bleed, it would explain why she won’t wake up and the seizures.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, “Seizures?”

“Yes, Charlotte, she had one as soon as she arrived at the hospital. We medicated her to try and control them, but she might have another one, and they can be rather scary to a parent.”

We reached the elevator, and she kept her attention on her daughter. “Is she going to be alright, Doctor Young?”

“We’re going to do our best, Charlotte.”

She turned to me, her eyes landing on my cheek again, “If I had gotten her attention earlier, would this have happened?”

“Maybe, or maybe they would have caught it. The fact that she was allowed to sleep after the injury wasn’t a very good idea, but the lady that was watching her didn’t seem to know that.”

“Mrs. Becker,” She closed her eyes, “She’s like a grandmother to Marisol. She even calls her Nana. This is all my fault.” She put her hands over her face and rubbed it as if to wake herself up from the nightmare.

The elevator opened, and the orderly pulled the child’s bed inside. We followed behind him. “Don’t blame yourself. A lot of people don’t realize how serious a head injury can be.”

“I freaked when I saw you touching her. If only I had listened to you.” She put her hands over her face again, and for a moment, I wondered if she was about to break down. But she inhaled sharply and then faced me as her hands dropped to her sides. “You were trying to help my daughter, and I assaulted you, Doctor Young.”

I peered back at the orderly whose eyes grew saucer-sized as he tried to pretend that he wasn’t listening to the conversation. Oh, boy, so much for keeping this quiet.

“You reacted like any scared mother would have. I understand.”

“What happens now if she does have something bleeding?” she asked as the elevator came to a stop and we stepped out.

As Mike pushed the bed out and toward the scan room, I pulled Charlotte to a stop by taking her elbow. “Charlotte, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you everything is going to be alright. If she has a bleed, then they have to take her into surgery immediately.”

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