Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
When he reached her office, the sun was almost setting. He ran up the stairs and into the third floor. When he reached her suite, the receptionist was about to leave for the day. “Is Dr. Chan still here?” he asked.
The girl nodded “I think so, I never saw her leave.”
“Thanks.” He said hastily as he pushed through her door. She was typing on her computer. “Ginny!”
It took her so long to push her worries aside and continued working. She was deep in thought and his voice startled her as she jumped in her seat “God! What are you trying to do give me a heart attack?” she sounded irritated.
“What the hell are you still doing here? Didn’t you get my messages?” his voice rising.
“Yes.” She said shortly and began typing “I’m very busy. I’ll be there soon.” She lied.
“Don’t give me that! If you knew about Freddie being in the hospital and in the operating room as we speak, then why are you still here?” he was getting impatient and didn’t understand why she was being so stubborn.
“What difference does it make? I won’t get to see him for the last time.” She sounded completely calm.
“You’ve given up already? Without a fight?” he asked, despite that he had thought of the same thing earlier “Out of all people, I thought you would be the first to say that he’ll live through this.”
“Well, I guess you’re wrong!” she snapped at him.
“I just don’t want you to regret anything.” He said more reasonably. “Come on, come with me.” He coaxed as he walked around her desk and placed his hands over her hands on the keyboard.
“No, I don’t want to.” She replied.
“I won’t take no for an answer.” He said a little more harshly as he wrapped his fingers around her wrist and yanked her upwards “Come on!” he pulled her towards the door violently.
“NO!!” she tried to fight off his grasp but it seemed useless. They were getting near the door when she reached over and bit the wrist that was holding onto her own. “Let go!!”
“Ow!!” he pulled back his injured arm and saw deep teeth marks on it. “What’s the matter with you? What’s this talk about having faith in God and that he’ll take care of the good? I can’t believe you would be a hypocrite with your words. You tell you patients one thing and you do the complete opposite!” he cried angrily.
She shook her head as tears streaked her once smiling face. “Shut up!! I don’t want to hear it!!” she cried through sobs.
“I have never been so disappointed in a person before…your friend needs you more than anyone out there…even his mom or sister won’t help as much as you would.” Jeff said sadly as he looked at her.
“Stop…” she fell to her knees as she sobbed openly. “I don’t want to see him…like that…he’s not going …live…no..” she shook her head vehemently as her body trembled from the sobs.
He was about to go on to snap her out of it when he felt a hand placed on top of his shoulder “Let me handle it…” it was Marc.
“Who are you?” Jeff asked.
“I’m a doctor here too. Just go, she won’t talk to you.” He coaxed.
Jeff nodded “I hope you can bring her to her senses.” He gave Virginia one last glance before leaving them behind.
“Ginny?” Marc got down on his knees as he reached out to touch her shoulders. “Ginny?” he asked more softly this time.
She was still sobbing but she looked up at him. Her eyes were red and her face was stained with tears “I don’t want to go…” she muttered.
He nodded slowly “I know…I know. You don’t have to.” He smiled at her. “Do you want to talk to me?”
She nodded her head “I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
“A person is most beautiful when they are honest. Do you know how beautiful you are right now?” her eyes looked up at him while she smiled warmly “Aww…that’s what I was waiting for. You know, we haven’t had the chance to talk much but from what I’ve gathered from your patients, you seemed to have a big influence on them. I remember one day, I was talking to this person that was coming to see you. No matter how long I tried to persuade him to talk to me because you were busy with another patient, he sat there and waited. It was about a three hours wait, if I didn’t mistaken. From that moment on, I understood what a great doctor you must be. You always appeared so strong, so open to new ideas. And I’m positive you have a way with words if ALL of your patients come out of the your office smiling.”
She looked away “I do well at my job…because it is my job to. If I ever panicked, people would lose trust in me.” She snickered “I guess you just witnessed it.”
“No, of course not. I don’t think anyone would lose faith or trust in you. We as doctors tend to forget that we are humans too. Just because we were blessed with a talent of helping others doesn’t mean that we are invincible to our own problems.”
“That’s true….” She admitted.
“I know you want to see your friend. So why don’t you?” he asked casually.
She shook her head “Jeff was right. I am a hypocrite. Here I am preaching to everyone that God is great and that he will take care of you if you would just have faith. And then he takes away one of the best people in the world. What am I suppose to believe now? I know he does good but I see this as bad.”
He sat back and leaned on the leg of one of the chairs in her office. “You know, a very intelligent doctor once told me that ‘You believe what you want to believe, but in the end love will conquer stubbornness.’ He was my mentor.” He looked into her eyes “Decisions we make in our lives could be bad and good, but regrets are forever. Don’t regret anything that you ever do. You can’t live in denial forever, Ginny. Suppose your friend does pass away, will you forgive yourself for not seizing this last moment to see him? Think about it.”
Her eyes wandered back and forth as she listened to Marc. His words made too much sense and she knew it. She couldn’t admit the fact that she was just making up excuses to not see him. “You’re right.” She finally said after an endless moment of silence. “My conscience will never let me hear the end of it. I will regret it for the rest of my life.” She pushed herself to stand up while Marc stood up too. “Thank you, Marc. We’ve got to do this again.” She joked.
“I’m afraid we won’t have the chance.” He said grimly.
“Why not?” her eyes wide open.
“I’m being transferred to California, USA. They are in search of a psychiatrist that can speak two languages. I already agreed to go.” He smiled slowly “If you didn’t notice, I have been trying to fit in for the past few months. It’s useless because you already made a great name for yourself here. Everyone will come just to see you, not me. I need a new place to gain more confidence from people. No competition.”
“That’s a shame. I think if you weren’t so eager to fit in, patients would realize what a great person you really are.” She was sad to see such a great doctor go.
“Thank you for the kind words. I will always remember them from the beautiful doctor with a wonderful heart. Now go see your friend.” He teased as he pushed her towards the door.
She was about to walk out when she spun around and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly “You have no idea how much you’ve helped me.”
He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist “I don’t think you have any idea what a difference your presence has been in my life.”
“Good luck to you.” She whispered as she pulled herself away and walked out the door without looking back.
***********
Virginia arrived at the hospital grounds and before she walked into the building, she saw Jeff sitting on a bench by himself. The dim street lamps couldn’t hide his face from her. She knew she had to face him soon anyhow. “Jeff?”
He seemed to be in a daze as he looked up. When he recognized the face, he quickly stood up “Ginny? You came?” the relieved smile could not be hidden from his sad face.
She nodded slowly “I’m sorry. I was being selfish and I had a few issues that I should have left aside. Thank you for caring to come get me.” The apology was short but it had so much meaning behind it.
“Don’t apologize, I shouldn’t have been so harsh. If I realized that this bothered you that much I would have never pushed you. I’m sorry.”
She smiled “It’s not your fault.” She initiated the hug as she reached for him and he responded to her hug warmly.
“I’m just glad you came.” He whispered.
When they broke apart after a long moment, he nodded to the building hinting for them to go inside. She let out a long sigh “I have to face it some day.” She said quietly. He put an arm around her shoulder as they walked in together.
Joanne was constantly staring at the entrance to see when Jeff or Ginny was coming. When she finally spotted them after the 100th glance, she stood up “Ginny! You finally came.”
Virginia nodded “Yeah, I had some… things to take care of.” She didn’t want them to know and be worried over her little problem.
“She didn’t get our messages until I got there and told her.” Jeff lied for her. She glanced at him and thanked her with her eyes. He nodded understandingly.
“How is he?” she asked with genuine concern.
“Still in surgery, its only been an hour and a half. Michael is performing the operation.” Linda informed her.
Virginia nodded “That’s a lot of pressure on him, but I’m sure he’ll do his best.” She added quickly. “Why don’t you guys get something to eat? I’m sure you haven’t eaten since this morning.”
The group nodded in unison as they began to scatter off “I don’t want hospital food…” Deana said “Let’s go out.” She was talking mostly to Remy “Anyone else want to come?” they shook their heads.
Remy got up as he took a hold of Deana’s hands “We’ll be back a little later.” Everyone watch them leave together.
“Come on Mom, lets get something to eat.” Linda said as she too stood up and walked off with the elder lady.
“Joanne, do you want any food?” Jeff asked. He knew she hasn’t eaten yet.
“I don’t want to leave. Can you just get me a sandwich?”
He nodded “Sure. How about you, Ginny?”
Virginia shook her head “No, I already ate.”
He walked off after Linda and Mrs. Lam leaving the girls on their own. “You know when I heard the message through my brother, I didn’t think it was serious. But when I saw Linda I knew it wasn’t a good sign. Then hearing Michael explain Freddie’s situation, it scared me.” Jo began talking.
“I know, this all seem very surreal. He was just fine the other days. Although he did have a bad headache Monday.” She recalled the migraine that left him in pain.
“He did?” it was the first time Jo heard about it.
“Yeah, we thought it was a migraine, but I guess not.” Virginia leaned back on the chair as she let out a sigh “Just let him get through the operation.” She pleaded.
“I know what you mean. That’s the best we could wish for.” Her voice cracked as she went on “I will never argue with him ever again….” Soon she was crying.
Virginia reached over and hugged her friend as she rocked her back and forth “Shh…he’ll be fine. I know Freddie, he’s very strong. He won’t leave us without a good fight. Have a little faith.”
Joanne nodded as she whispered “I’m glad you’re here. I know Freddie will need another strong heart by his side. I’ll probably just cry if I see him.”
“Don’t be silly.” She scolded lightly “There’s no reason to cry. He’s going to be as good as new.” Virginia smiled. Even though Joanne was a tomboy, she was even more emotional than Virginia imagined. “He’s lucky to have a friend like you.”
She felt Joanne nod her head “Yeah, he is…” the girls giggled together for the first time that day.
After everyone had dinner, they were gathered up once again in the waiting room. It was close to 2.5 hours when Michael finally walked out of the operation room to meet up with them. “Michael’s here.” Deana pointed out. As if on cue, everyone stood up at the same time.
“How is he?” questions were thrown at him left and right.
He put up his hand “The operation went very well. They took the mass to the research center to determine if it was a tumor or not.”
“What if it is a tumor?” Virginia dared to ask.
“Then we’ll have to test to see if its benevolent or malignant. Worse case scenario is cancer.”
“Oh my God…” the elder lady covered her mouth at the thought of it being a terminal disease. “When will we know?”
“Hopefully in a week. I don’t want to make any guesses until the study is in my hands. In the mean time, we should continue to pray for Freddie.”
“Can we see him yet?” Joanne asked.
Michael smiled “Yeah, as soon as he wakes up. He did very good in the operating room. He only went into shock once but it was because he realized that he was still awake.” He heard his mother gasp “No, don’t worry. That’s normal, we have to keep the patient awake to do the surgery. They are shot with anesthetic to not feel pain. He’s deep in sleep right now. You guys might as well go home. I’ll be here.” He assured them.
“I’m staying.” Linda announced and Mrs. Lam nodded in agreement. “You go home and rest, I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Okay…” she said slowly.
“We’ll take Mrs. Lam home.” Remy and Deana said.
“I’m not leaving either.” Virginia said.
Joanne smiled “I’ve got to keep my friend company.”
“I’ll stand watch.” Jeff offered.
“Okay, so it’s settled. I’ll have the nurses bring you guys some pillows.” Michael said as he left them alone.