She leaned over me and kissed my forehead, smel ing like her heady tuberose perfume. Didn’t the hospital have rules about no smel s?
I was going to stay strong and stubborn but the moment her eyes searched mine and I could see how upset she actual y was, I weakened. “I’m so sorry, mom.”
“It’s fine. We’l talk about it later,” she said, burying that last hint of annoyance somewhere. “The important thing is you’re going to be OK. It’s al going to stop now.”
“She may have more cramps and bleeding over the next few weeks,” a man’s voice cut into our conversation.
I raised my head to see who our new visitor was and my body froze in a mix of panic and shock.
It was the same doctor from my dream and from waking up during surgery.
He paused at the foot of my bed, looking nonplussed at my reaction, at my face scrunched up in horror. He even smiled.
“Glad I could meet you under more appropriate circumstances,” he said. “I’m Dr. Cain.”
Of course you are, I thought wildly. I looked at my mom and Ada to see if they found anything amiss about the situation. I couldn’t tel . They certainly weren’t terrified.
“What’s wrong?” my mom asked me.
I could only shake my head and looked back to Dr. Cain with fear.
“She’s al right,” he told her. “I’m probably quite the sight to her. You remember me, don’t you Perry?”
I couldn’t find the words so I just nodded. I noticed I was gripping Ada’s hand real y hard. She said “ow” under her breath.
He looked back at my mom with the same kind eyes that had accompanied me down that hal way with the demon girl. “It can be traumatic for patients when they wake up during surgery.”
“I would assume so,” my mom replied haughtily. “Poor girl; you should have known how much anaesthesia to give her.”
“It was a difficult cal . We thought we made the right one.
But Perry would have stil been in a painless, dream-like state. It was shocking to her, but she was in no pain.”
I calmed down enough to narrow my eyes at the doctor.
How did he know? I remembered some of that pain very wel . His eyes may have been kind, but they weren’t fooling me.
“We’l be keeping her here overnight for observation,” he continued. “The circumstances that brought her here weren’t the usual. But, aside from the breakthrough bleeding and cramps that may fol ow, she should be fine.
We’l give her some medication to keep her afloat and it’s best if she stays at home, in bed over the next few days.”
The doctor rattled on with some more instructions to us but the wooziness and shear overwhelming nature of the situation had my thoughts bogged down to a minimum and my eyes were slowly drooping shut.