When the Ladies are in the Hospital

There was an awkward silence between Xander and Mandy. The last sentence was a bit surprising for Mandy. Xander seemed to be waiting for her response. His face was so close to Mandy's.

Just then, a doctor and a nurse came in. Xander stepped back and Mandy let out her breath. She didn't even realize that she was holding her breath.

"How are we feeling?" The doctor asked while looking at Mandy's record. He looked up when Mandy didn't answer.

"Are you feeling better?" The doctor rephrased. Mandy felt a bit annoyed that the doctor had to rephrase his question as if she didn't understand what he meant the first time he asked.

"I'm feeling better, Doctor, thank you."

"That's good. About your headaches, do you frequently get these intense headaches?"

"Not really."

"Do you usually lose consciousness whenever you do get headaches or migraines?"

Mandy thought for a moment. The doctor looked at Mandy through the top of his eyeglasses, his head still bowed.

"Maybe it happened 2 or 3 times but it's not usual."

"How often do you get migraines?"

"Hmmnn… I'm not sure." Mandy looked up the ceiling as she tried to recall.

The doctor was getting impatient.

"It's okay," the doctor said, "anyway, I will hold you here for a couple of hours more just to be sure. You get some rest." He then turned to Xander and said, "You, on the other hand, should leave her for now, so that she can rest." The doctor handed Mandy's record to the nurse beside him and then went out of the room.

Mandy and Xander looked at each other as the doctor was going out of the room. When the doctor was out of sight, they both let out a muffled laugh.

"He's not a very patient doctor, is he?" Xander remarked. He sat beside Mandy on the bed.

"He did say you need to go," Mandy said.

"Yeah," Xander rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you think he'll notice if I just stay and watch you sleep?"

"Yes, I think he will. Plus, I don't want you to watch me sleep," said Mandy, giving Xander a little nudge.

"Okay, I'll go now. I'll come back later to take you home?"

"No, it's okay. Andrew will pick me up."

"Andrew?"

"My chauffeur."

"Ahh yes, the ways of the rich," teased Xander.

Mandy giggled. "You should go."

"Okay. Promise you'll send me a message when you get home?"

"Okay," said Mandy and then she smiled her sweetest smile.

Xander walked backwards towards the door, keeping his eyes fixed on Mandy. And because he wasn't looking at where he was going, he bumped on the nurse that was coming in to check on Mandy. He apologized and then quickly went out of the room.

. . .

"Uncle Josh, will Mommy come home with us?" Stella asked Josh while they were riding the bus to the hospital.

"I hope so. No, wait. I KNOW so," replied Josh, giving Stella a wink.

Stella smiled. She missed her mom last night. They usually sleep together on the bed because the bed, according to Alynna was too big for one person to sleep on. Besides that, Alynna would tell Stella that she doesn't want to sleep alone because she doesn't want to be lonely every night. Stella would laugh at her mom's silliness for thinking she's lonely at night but she would always hug her mom and tell her she is never alone. Nevertheless, she would agree to sleep beside her mom even though she has her own room.

Stella's bedroom has not been used for sleeping for a long time. Sure, all her stuff are there — clothes, toys, shoes — but she seldom slept there. She would always sleep with her mom at night, except for the times that Alynna caught a bug — colds, cough, fever and all that. During times like that, she would sleep in her own room so that she wouldn't catch the bug from her mom.

Stella watched the streets their bus was passing. There were kids outside. Many, she guessed, were going to school. She had asked her mom why she hasn't gone to school yet and Alynna would always tell her that she would miss her when she goes to school, and that no one would take her to school and that she is too little to take the school bus. Alynna, with all her efforts, was trying to homeschool Stella so that she wouldn't have to go outside.

Josh tapped on Stella's knees, interrupting her thoughts.

"This is our stop, Sweetie," said Josh.

Stella stood up from her seat and followed Josh. Josh carried her as she was getting off the bus.

"We have to walk for a couple of minutes to the hospital, okay? Sorry you'll have to walk a little far."

Stella nodded. On the contrary, she was excited to walk. She doesn't go out of the house that much.

It was a good thing the weather was cool and cloudy. The weather made it enjoyable to walk. Josh kept checking on Stella to see if she's getting tired from walking. It wasn't a far distance from the bus stop but for a little kid, it's quite a walk. But Josh observed that Stella seemed to be enjoying herself. She's taking time to look at flowers, she walked while looking up at the sky, trying to imagine what shapes the clouds made, she also chased a yellow butterfly when it flew above her after she had accidentally disturbed it while it was resting on a flower. She was having so much fun that she did not notice they were already in front of the hospital.

Josh took her hand and smiled at her. Together, they entered the hospital and went to Alynna.

"Mommy!" Stella said excitedly, Her voice raised a bit.

"Shh… Not so loud, honey," said Alynna as she hugged Stella who had climbed onto the bed.

"I missed you last night, Mommy! I didn't sleep well."

"Oh, me, too. I missed hugging you while I sleep."

"How are you feeling?" Josh asked. He sat on the edge of the bed while Stella sat beside her mom.

"I feel good, actually. It seems they will let me go home today. The doctor already checked in on me and he didn't say anything about staying longer." Alynna stroked Stella's hair while she spoke.

"That's good," said Josh.

"Did you call work? Did they let you take leave today?"

"Yeah, I called Maia. She said it's okay for me not to report today. By the way, she hopes you'll feel better," replied Josh.

"And Mandy?"

Josh dodged the question. "Did you have breakfast already? Because we brought breakfast for you. We ate at a burger joint this morning. And speaking of which, why didn't you tell me there was almost no food left in the house?"

Alynna hung her head, but did not answer.

"Next time you tell me we need food - BEFORE our supplies run out."

"I didn't want to bother you with it. I know how busy you are at work."

"Alynna, I'm a messenger at work. The only time I'm busy working is when I'm actually at work. I need to know these things because this is not only about you but about Stella as well. We ate dry cereal for breakfast this morning that's why we had to go to a burger joint before we came here. Stella didn't even have milk this morning."

"Okay, I know, I'm sorry," Alynna said, a little irritated. The reason why she didn't tell Josh was because she didn't want to add more worry on him. Josh has been looking stressed and irritable the past few days and she didn't want to bother him with doing groceries for them. She had planned on going out herself to buy some food when Josh went to work, but because of the incident last night, it was obviously impossible.

Josh sensed he had offended her. He reached out for her hand and held it.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I just don't want you or Stella going hungry while I'm at work. I hope you understand where I am coming from."

Alynna nodded. She was also about to apologize when a nurse came in.

"Good news," said the nurse cheerfully, "the doctor has cleared you. You may go home."

Stella clapped.

The nurse smiled and the said to Stella, "Well, aren't we happy Mommy is going home! Well, we will let Mommy go home as soon as Daddy here takes care of some papers for me, okay?"

Stella giggled. "He's not my Daddy! He's my Uncle Josh."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sir," said the nurse to Josh, embarrassed. "I just assumed you were the husband…"

"No worries. It happens all the time," said Josh. He stood up and followed the nurse.

After about half an hour, Josh came back with Alynna's discharge papers.

"Are you about ready to go?" Josh asked Alynna.

"Yeah, just give me a couple of minutes to eat my breakfast and then we can go."

So Alynna slowly ate the breakfast Josh and Stella bought for her.

After Alynna had eaten, Josh called for the nurse to inform her they were ready to go. The nurse came in no time, pushing a wheelchair. Alynna said she could walk but the nurse said it was protocol. So Alynna obliged.

As they were going out the hospital, Josh saw Xander, walking at the hospital lobby.

"What's he doing here?" He muttered to himself.

"Did you say something, Josh?" Asked Alynna.

"Nothing," Josh said, debating in his mind whether to find out why Xander was there or to go home.