Page 57 of Time for You
“You didn’t get in trouble, did you?” Ellie asked.
“I’d find that hard to believe would happen with Dr. Perfect here. But what did she want? Looked serious,” Vibol said.
“She wanted to know why I was distracted lately.”
“Did you tell her it’s because you’re finally getting laid?” Ellie asked.
Daphne elbowed her. “No, of course not.”
But rather than join in the ribbing, Vibol looked at her thoughtfully. “She’s right, though.”
“That Daphne needed to get laid more often before this? Or that we can tell she’s finally getting laid?”
“No, that she’s distracted. Something’s changed, hasn’t it? And not just Henry. Something here, at the hospital.”
“No, it’s not that,” Daphne said.
“But it’s something, isn’t it?” Vibol pushed.
“It’s nothing,” Daphne insisted. “Besides, we need to get back to work,” she added, hoping neither would notice the distraction. “Hannah’s giving us a dirty look.”
Hannah was doing nothing of the sort, but Daphne slandered her anyway, just to get out of the conversation. If Vibol knew something was wrong, he’d start pushing her on it. Ellie didn’t seem to have caught on, which wasn’t like her, but maybe she really was attributing it to a new-relationship glow with Henry.
Daphne might be able to tell them it was the bittersweetness of knowing Henry had stayed for her with the knowledge that he was leaving in just a few short months, but that would only work short-term. Because Daphne was rapidly realizing that staying in emergency medicine long-term might not be possible, not if she was already losing interest.
But that meant opening a whole separate can of worms, and she wasn’t quite ready to do that.
“Are you ready?” Vibol asked.
“Ready,” Henry confirmed.
“Do you need Daphne to hold your hand?” Ellie asked.
“When I was thirteen, I broke my wrist, and I survived just fine.”
Daphne laughed. “Yeah, but didn’t you get opium for that?”
“Medicinally.”
“Exactly. That is a lot stronger than what we usually give now, so not the best comparison.”
“Just how painful are these vaccines going to be?”
Vibol pulled the stash out of the cart. He’d managed to wheedle a series of vaccines that were about to expire from the hospital pharmacist, and now Henry was sequestered in a room in the ER on a slow Monday afternoon. “I’m just messing with you—they don’t hurt at all,” he said.
Daphne motioned for Henry to roll up his shirtsleeve and bare his biceps. “What’s in that one?” Henry asked.
“Measles, mumps, and rubella. I know you said you already had measles, but they don’t really sell theMandRparts of the MMR vaccine separately,” Daphne explained.
Ellie finished cleaning the skin and stepped back, nodding to Vibol like they were surgeons in an operating room. “Patient is prepped and ready, Dr. Law.”
“Thank you, Dr. Levine,” he replied, and jabbed Henry in the arm.
Henry winced. “You said that wouldn’t hurt at all,” he accused Vibol.
“I lied.” He shrugged. “Next up: polio.”
Henry glared at him and then turned back to Daphne. “You said most of these are diseases that children catch, correct? Then why give them to me?”
