"Daddy! Daddy, come out!"
So much for being discreet. Several passing nurses and doctors stopped to see where the noise was coming from and I closed my eyes and cursed under my breath. There is a very good chance I would have just turned tail and ran at that point, but then David was opening his door and it was too late to go anywhere.
"Sophie? Kayla? What is it? What's wrong?"
"Can we come in?"
"Of course! Sorry, that was rude of me. Here, let me take her. I know she can get kind of heavy."
"I'm not heavy!"
"No, forgive me," David smiled at her indignant correction, "it's just that some of us aren't as strong as we should be."
I smiled uncertainly and followed them into the office. There was really nothing else I could do, nothing that would make sense anyway. David sat Sophie right on the edge of his massive desk and crouched down in front of her, a look of concern on his face.
"So, ladies, what seems to be the trouble?"
"My leg got broke," Sophie said insistently, her face starting to crumple up into tears again. I had managed to get her mostly calmed down on the ride to the hospital but seeing her dad and receiving new attention for her injury was getting her all worked up again. Great. David was going to think that I was completely negligent. What if he just fired me? Weeks ago that would have been frustrating, but now it would be heartbreaking. Now when I was just beginning to realize how important he was to me.
"It's broke, huh? Well then it's a good thing Kayla brought you into see me."
He ran his hand lovingly over her slightly sweaty head and then turned to look at me. Swallowing felt impossible, like I was swallowing a stone that was nothing but sharp edges.
"What happened?"
"We were at the park and she fell. I honestly don't think anything is broken but I was worried about the gash on her leg. It's not even that it's bleeding, I'm just worried about the dirt. It seems like it's kind of ground into her leg."
"You did the right thing. It's not that bad but I should clean it up and she's going to need a tetanus shot for sure."
"No! No, no, no. No shot."
Clearly Sophie was aware of what a shot was and she had no interest in getting one at the moment. The moment David said the word she started to wail loudly and squirmed so violently that I was afraid she was going to fall off of the desk. I didn't know if it was out of line or not but I moved further into the room and sat on the desk beside Sophie. This was something I knew how to do. I could comfort this girl, even if I wasn't sure about much of anything else.
"Hey, Sophie."
"No!"
"I know it's not your idea of the most fun, right?"
"Nope."
Her lip poked out in a comical little pout and I glanced at David as he took a swab and began to wipe the dirt away from her wound. I could see that she was thinking of moving into the territory of all out screaming and I really wanted to keep that from happening.
"Well, then what is?"
"Huh?"
"What is the most fun? If you could do anything at all right this minute what would it be?"
"Castle."
"Castle?"
"Have a fair in a castle."
"What kind of stuff would you have at the fair?"
Now she was starting to look kind of excited. Her injured leg and the impending shot were forgotten. She was so engrossed in her fantasy that she didn't even notice when David left and returned with a needle. To her, nothing but that castle existed anymore.
"Pizza would be everywhere. And rides and dinosaurs! All of the kinds I want. And I could be all of the jobs I like."
"That sounds like an amazing castle!"
"I know!"
"You know what else is amazing?"
Sophie looked at David in surprise, finally remembering where she was and why. She looked slightly skeptical and more than a little bit annoyed at David's intrusion in her fantasy description, but she cocked her head to the side and waited.
"What, Daddy?"
"We're all done. The cut is clean and the shot has been given. Didn't feel a thing, did you?"
"Nope!"
"Because you're such a big, brave girl. Now, tell me one more thing."
"What?"
"Would you like a lollipop?"
"Yup!"
David picked Sophie up and held her close, kissing her on the forehead with eyes closed. I could feel the love between them and it made me long to be a part of it, to stay a part of it for as long as I could manage. Just the idea of it made my body tingle all over, and when David glanced over at me I cleared my throat quickly, feeling the kind of guilt one might feel when they were caught doing something they knew they shouldn't be.
"I'm going to take her out to one of the nurses, alright? I'll be right back."
"Okay, sounds good."
The door shut softly and I fought to keep my breathing steady. For all I knew he was going to walk back through that door and tell me that my services were no longer needed. Then I would have to go back to the way things were before, and I wasn't sure that I could do it. My imagination was running away from me and the scenarios it was conjuring up were not good. Not good at all.
Thankfully I didn't have long to indulge in the steadily worsening scenarios moving through my head. Before I knew it David was walking, alone, back into his office. He shut the door and turned to me, a faint smile on his face. I wasn't sure whether or not to smile back. I couldn't tell if the smile was really meant for me.
"Kayla."
"I'm so sorry," I said quickly as I rushed forward, "I didn't mean for it to happen. I should have been paying more attention. One minute she was fine and then she was on the ground. If you want me to leave I'll understand."
Crap. I just couldn't stop talking. This whole time I had been worrying that David was going to fire me and the first chance I got I went and suggested it to him. I had to be the stupidest girl in the world. I had no doubt that he was about to let me go and then walk out of my life forever. Him and Sophie both.
He smiled and took the few steps that separated us. Raising one hand he placed one calloused finger over my babbling lips. He didn't look like a man that was about to fire someone, but who could tell? People were strange sometimes.
"Kayla. Stop, okay? Do I look mad?"
"No. At least I don't think so."
"No, and that's because I'm not. Why would I be? Children fall. It's going to happen no matter how vigilant the adults around them are. What I'm interested in is what you did afterwards."
"What did I do?"
"You were amazing, Kayla. You brought her here to get looked at, which was good, but more importantly you interacted with her in exactly the way she needed you to. Not everyone can do that. You even distracted her from her shot, and I think she made it pretty clear how she feels about those. So that's what you did, Kayla. You were amazing."
I didn't know what to say. It wasn't at all what I expected to hear from him, and the relief that hit me made me feel a little bit like I was going to pass out. Combined with the stress of the last hour or so it was a little much to take. David must have seen it on my face, too, because he put his hand gently on my arm and led me to his desk chair. I was almost afraid to look up at him standing before me, but I had to. I couldn't help it.
"Kayla, can I ask you something?"
"Anything. Anything you want."
"How do you do it? You have the best bedside manner I've ever seen. I'm not going to lie, I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it before."
"I think it goes back to my sister," I said quietly. He didn't speak, just looked at me with wide, unreadable eyes. There was nothing to do but keep talking.
"Nikki, she was sick. I know I told you that. She was sick all of the time, from the time she was very small. She was always small, even when she died. Her being so sick kept her from growing the way she should have. She hated shots, too, just like Sophie, but she had to get so many of them. I learned how to talk to her so that they weren't so bad. In the end it was like she didn't even know they were happening anymore. I always liked that, knowing I could take that kind of pain away from someone. Especially when they had so much else to face."