Jodee

Chapter 53 - Coding

Caleb looks at me for a second before nodding his head slowly. "You don't have to thank me, brother. You know that."

I grunted in response. "Outta here?" When can I get out of here?

Time to get back to business.

"Not sure. When I talked to the doctors a couple of hours ago they said you can probably leave the day after tomorrow after that. But they want you to stay for 24 to 48 hours to see if your lung collapses due to a delayed reaction from the surgery. Because you didn't have assisted help with a vent."

"Tomorrow." I declared.

I'm not going to rot in this hospital for another day. I'm not going to make my siblings stay here with me when they don't have to — Jodee has school and shouldn't be worrying about me and Caleb's starting to have his first gray hairs.

I'm already a little ticked off Jodee has had to stay in the hospital for this long, worrying about something she shouldn't have to worry about. It's like seeing your parents cry, no child should ever witness their parents break down and just sob — something I've had to face many times and will not allow my little sister to see the same things. 

She needed to know that I would take care of everything and she just needed to worry about being who she wanted to be and having fun while she was still a kid. Wondering if I was going to survive a stay in the hospital does not fall under the category of things she should worry about. 

"They're not going to let you." Caleb's voice trailed off, sending me a warning look.

"We'll see."

"Alright, buddy. You go fight the staff when they just saved your ass." He stood up, patting my shoulder and laughing. 

Caleb and I fell into a short silent and I looked down at the little girl sleeping peacefully on my chest. My baby sister. Whenever I just really look at Jodee and everything she is I always wonder what I did to deserve her. The answer is nothing, I don't deserve her, but she's mine none-the-less and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

"How's she doing?" I questioned softly, leaning down for the umpteenth time today to kiss her head and wipe some of her curls out of her eyes, tucking them behind her ear. 

"She's okay. She just missed you, doesn't like the hospital — naturally. But you know Jodee, she tries to put on a brave face and keep her spirits high." 

"She doesn't have to." I reminded Caleb. "You said that, right?" 

"Yes, yes. Ace don't worry about, I had it handled!" Caleb tried to reassure me and I knew he did, but I also knew that he would need to tell me that a million times before I finally believed him and stopped asking. 

For five years of my sisters life, I was completely alone. I was her sole caretaker — her mother was never around, and our father doesn't count. Caleb only met her when she was five and I really only started trusting him fully around her about a year after that. So it's just hard for me to accept that I have help now, and there is someone who can do things as good as I can. 

I think that if Caleb had siblings he would be a great brother, and I'm happy I gave him the chance to be my sisters brother.  

"Listen, get some rest, I gotta do some of your work since you're being a lazy ass." 

I chuckled at Caleb, rolling my eyes playfully and attempted to retaliate. But at his suggestion a wave of exhaustion ran through me and I knew that I did need to take is easy and rest. So I turned into my sister and closed my eyes, cuddling her small frame to my larger one and allowing sleep to overtake me.