Emergency Medical Dad

LVI: winter, past

edit: ch title
JESSIE

The doctor was the same one I had the week before. I knew her from the second she stuck her head into the waiting room and looked between my mom and I.    

    "Just Jessie for a moment here, then I promise you can come in, Mrs Kingston," she gave my mom a half smile.

    I stood up, shaking, walking over the mushy carpet toward the door to the back hallway, each room getting slightly worse as I passed.

    She sat me down in a smaller one, gesturing up at the table before sitting on her own stool, clipboard on her lap, computer on the countertop next to her.

    I swallowed, hoping she'd break the silence.

    "So," she started. "Our test results came back like I guessed when you were in here last week. You're pregnant."

    The world went hazy black and I felt the table cover crinkle under my arm, definitely not somewhere my arm should be.

    It was dark for a few seconds, something I don't remember, something I don't wish to remember.

    I came back blinking into someone's shirt sleeve, an arm under my head, the other on my wrist.

    "I'm sorry," she started. "I shouldn't have jumped that on you. I'll get you some water and let you breathe for a moment or two."

    I blinked a couple more times, pushing up off her arm, shying away from her, "sorry." I croaked.

    "No problem, I see it a lot," she gave me a reassuring smile. "Do you think you can handle more information in a minute or so?"

    I nodded.

    "Okay," she was handing me water but I wasn't really paying attention, just thinking about what I was going to do, how I was going to explain it to my mom.

    I sipped on it slowly, letting her type something out on her computer, writing things down about what had happened, no doubt.

    "Tell me when you're ready."

    I looked over and let out a tiny nod.

    "Okay," she looked up, setting down the board. "I had a pretty good hunch the last time you were in here, everything seemed to line up where I thought it did, drug use, sexual intercourse, it fit, and it turns out I'd made the right assumption. So, this is going to be a very preliminary evaluation, mostly psychological."

    I nodded.

    "Firstly, you need to decide very soon if you want your Mom to know or not, other decisions can come after that but I need to know soon wether or not she should be involved in this. You are over 18 so you're legally allowed to keep all of this from her and that requires some work for some of us here but it's entirely your decision."

    I swallowed, "should I?"

    "It's up to you. She can offer insight on it, help you with the decisions, but if you think that it's safer to keep it from her, safer, smarter, any of that, you should. My top priority today is you. Not your mom, not your situation, you. Because you are the most important facet in the new situation."

    "What... what do you think?"

    She sighed, "like I said. If it's dangerous, don't tell her and I can direct you on what to do. If it's safe, tell her because she'll be much better than I am with helping you because she knows you better than I do. If you think she's going to make you make decisions that you don't want to make, don't tell her. If you think she's going to be nothing but supportive, then do tell her."