“Who knows man? Emma’s just a whinny, stuck up bitch if you ask me.” Contemplated Mark, dragging his enervated body to the kitchen.
“Well no one was asking you.”
“Hey, I was just saying”
“Yeah, well don’t just say anything, okay!”
“Gees man. Okay, I didn’t know that this was such a touchy subject. I’m just gonna go get some sleep. Maybe you should too.” Mark muttered as he put the empty milk carton back in the fridge and walked off to his bedroom, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine tomorrow. She probably needed to blow off some steam that’s all.” Nick reassured himself aloud.
“Nick, who are you talking to?” Mark paused and waited for an answer. “Man, just forget about her. She’s just making you miserable.” Yawned Mark from his bedroom down the hall. He never did care much to hear about Nick’s supposed ‘love life‘.
“Go to bed!” Mark demanded as he slowly walked over to where Nick lay on the couch and smacked him upside the head with his pillow.
“Mark, you are so asking for it!” Nick snickered as he reached for the closest pillow and swung it at Mark. The two men quickly turned into boys as they exchanged blows upon each other with pillows, forgetting their concerns.
“I’m signing out for the day.” Danielle said with a grin on her face, happy at the thought of home and sleep. Her eyes ventured to the near by clock, slowly ticking the time away, only to realize that it was already 10 o'clock the next morning.
“Had enough of us already?” Doug smirked.
“No not you, but Whitten is another story. Well, I’ll see you guys at...” She glanced at her watch, than at her time chart. “8 o'clock tonight.” She bellyached. Danielle loved her job, but she was never sad to leave after a long and grueling shift.
As she stepped outside, the cold January wind converged with Danielle’s face, making her eyes water. She soon approached her car and a smile formed across her face as Danielle looked upon the beautiful 66 Mustang, her ride home. Danielle loved her car and the drive back home, back to her personal life. Yet the drive home was always the hardest part of her long day because all she wanted to do was sleep. Danielle wanted to rest her jaded eyes and finally get some quiet but she knew that that would have to wait until she arrived at her dwelling. Adjusting the rear view mirror she studied herself.
God I look awful. Thought Danielle. She had bags under her eyes that made her look like a drug addict, and she was so pale that to another doctor she would have looked like someone that had been given Chemotherapy for a year. Just concentrate on the road Danielle. The last thing that you want is to wreck your car. She told herself as she put the car into drive and headed to her almost forgotten home.
Emma used her remaining strength to pick herself up off of the slick floor and drag herself to the counter for a cup of coffee. After falling asleep on the floor, she had no recollection of what time it was.
Damn, it’s almost 10 o'clock. That means Danielle just left! Emma grumbled to herself as she slammed the coffeepot back down onto the counter. She plopped onto the suture room couch and was about to close her eyes when she remembered,
“I never checked Janie in for her Chemo appointment today!”
Emma jumped up and ran straight down to Pediatrics knowing all to well that Janie had already rescheduled her Chemotherapy many times and was in desperate need of it if she wanted any chance of curing the cancer. Emma picked up a chart to schedule a Chemo session for Janie the second that she woke up when Dr. Whitten ripped the chart right out of Emma’s hands.
“And what exactly do you think that you are doing with this patient Ms. Riley?” Whitten hissed.
“Well Janie missed her Chemo session today and I was just scheduling her a new appointment A.S.A.P.”
“I don’t think that that will be happening. You see, if you had spent even a few minutes with Janie’s parents you would have known that they have stopped any further Chemotherapy sessions for Janie.”
“What? Since when?” Emma was in a state of shock.
“Since this morning. They seem to think that the therapy is doing nothing but hurting Janie and in this stage of cancer that she is in, I would have to agree with them.”
“But... they... they don’t know all of their... all of the...” Emma stuttered, unable to find the words that she wanted to say, to scream, to let everyone in the hospital know that the wrong choice was being made.
“Emma, just go home. There’s nothing more that you can do. They’ve made their choice.” Dr. Whitten spoke slowly and very audibly to get it through to Emma that it was over and now out of the hospitals hands.
“Mr. and Mrs. Jude just don’t know all of their options. They can save Janie they just don’t know how. Maybe if we held like a meeting or something...” Emma rushed out as she pleaded with Dr. Whitten and God to save Janie’s life.
“No Emma!” Whitten stated firmly. “It is out of our hands now. I’m sorry” Whitten turned to walk away only to hear Emma break down and cry.
“It’s about the money, isn’t it?” Emma said calmly to Dr. Whitten’s back. “It’s getting too expensive for them, isn’t it?”
Dr. Whitten turned to face Emma and said, “No Emma, it’s not the money. The Jude’s are making the best choice that they could for their family and for Janie.” Although Dr. Whitten knew all to well that it was about the money. They wanted Janie to have a nice funeral and a beautiful casket, and that cost money, money that they needed to save. She turned to walk away leaving Emma to grieve.