Against the odds

Chapter 7

"Well as I mentioned, the fatigue is still getting to me. I tried some of the techniques that you gave me, but they were to no avail." He explained. I had no idea he still experienced it, but once again it was due to a lack of his complaints, not that it was a legitimate excuse. We lived under the same roof, I should have noticed.

"I'm not trying to scam you into prescribing me pills, doctor, but with my workload, it's quite difficult to focus." He admitted with a smile.

Dr. Collins looked at Cody. With pursed lips he smiled, and nodded his head in understanding. "I guess I can look into. But on your part, you need to understand that you may not be able to take on as much work as before, my advice would be to ease up. Perhaps take on fewer cases for a while, I'm sure your colleagues will understand." Cody just smiled politely, and nodded in agreement, but I could tell he was just gonna skate past the doctor's advice.

"I really appreciate it." Cody thanked.

"Any more concerns?" He posed.

"Nope, I think we are good." Cody answered, looking over at me incase I had any questions, but I didn't, so I nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, let us proceed to dosimetry." He stood up, and smoothed the crinkles off his white lab coat, then gestured us to follow him.

It didn't take very long to conduct the tests, and having prepared ourselves for radiotherapy earlier, it meant that we would be able to get back home earlier than anticipated. Since Cody was not weighed down by fatigue today, he took the wheel, while I relaxed myself into the passenger seat.

"Nice day, huh?" Cody awed.

"Are you really talking about the weather?" I asked, trying to suppress a giggle. It was so unlike Cody to fill in silence with uncomfortable small talk, especially when the silence that would often ensue between us, was rarely awkward, but rather a precious break from our endless conversations. "Who are you?" I jokingly interrogated.

"I'm trying to divert your attention." He confessed, leading me to confusion. Divert my attention from what?

Unsurprisingly reading my mind, he answered, "If the silence lingered any longer, you would be the first to break it...and we both know what the topic would be based on." He briefly faced me, arching one of his eyebrows impressively above the other, but soon turned his focus back to the road ahead of him. "We don't want to spoil such a lovely day, do we now? He briefly took his eyes off the road and glared at me, in a vaguely threatening manner.

"Okay fine lets just lets just keep quiet and talk about how marvelous this weather is. What a beautiful day to cruise back home from the hospital." I marveled, in an intentionally dull tone.

"Fineee" he sighed, "I know you won't give it a rest until we actually talk about. I'm going to give you a sixty second window to get out all your questions and concerns." He stated, sounding like a boss with a packed schedule.

"Never mind I'm good." I replied keeping a straight face. The pressures of the limited time window have erased the contents of my brain.

"Okay then, suit yourself." He relaxed, quickly closing the case without so much as a double check. I looked over at him, and indulged myself in watching him drive. Even though I have watched him perform this monotonous task countless times, I was smitten by his subtle actions on every occasion. The way he maneuvered the vehicle with just one hand stretched out in front of him, lightly gripping the wheel at the twelve o clock position, while the other hand lay casually atop the gear stick. At times when the traffic in Los Angeles could not be tamed, it was fascinating to watch his face tense up, more importantly the twitching of his jaw muscles. I could describe all his slightest movements with explicit detail all day, but my attention was immediately pulled towards Cody who let out an involuntary cry.