DESTINED AFFECTION

FOUR

Camila pulled a small penlight from her chest pocket and checked Kyle's pupils, both of which were equal and briskly reactive to the light stimulus. Then she held her index ringer up about twelve inches from Kyle's face. "I'm going to move my finger around, and I want you to watch it. Okay?"

"Why?"

"So I can be sure that your bump on the head isn't going to make it hard for you to see the ball during the next game."

Intently, Kyle nodded and followed Camila's moving hand.

"Does your neck hurt anywhere at all?"

"No."

"I'm going to poke around a bit, and you tell me if it's sore." As she spoke, Camila slipped her fingers behind Kyle's head and palpated each of her cervical vertebrae, one after the other. She elicited no tenderness. Then she felt the bones around her eyes, cheeks!, nose, and jaws. All fine. Looking in Lauren's direction, she murmured, "I don't see any need for x-rays."

"All right." Lauren's throat was dry, and her voice came out husky. With each passing moment, she felt better and, unexpectedly, found herself soothed by Camila's calm voice and gentle compassion.

"Okay, Kyle, here's the deal." Camila leaned over so that the child could see her face. "You've got a cut on your forehead, and it's going to need some stitches. Do you know what stitches are?"

"They're little tiny threads to help the cut get better faster." Kyle looked in her mother's direction uncertainly. "Do I have to?" For the first time since she had arrived, the child looked as if she might cry.

"That's what we use when Band-Aids aren't strong enough, honey." Lauren smiled reassuringly.

"Yeah, but they don't work on magical cuts, so maybe they won't work on me either." The child's tone was dubious.

Camila raised an eyebrow. "Magical?"

"Mr. Weasley," Honor stated, as if that would explain things.

"Huh?"

"In Harry Potter!" Kyle clarified. "Ron's father is a wizard and he needed stitches, but Muggle medicine doesn't work on wizards."

"Ah. I see." Camila nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense. I'm sure they'll work on you though—unless you're a wizard too?"

"I don't think so." Camila shook her head seriously. "Are you going to put them in?"

"Yep. But first, I'm going to make it so you don't feel it when I do." As she spoke, Camila pulled on gloves and Ally opened an instrument tray. Turning her back slightly so that the child would not see her draw up the lidocaine into the syringe from the bottle that Ally held out to her, she said, "Soccer, huh? So what position do you play?"

"Wing."

"Midfielder? You must be a really good passer."

"Most of the time." Stitches forgotten, Kyle asked excitedly, "Do you play soccer?"

"I used to, when I was in college." Camila gently wiped Betadine around the edges of the laceration,

"What position did you play?"

"Offense."

"Were you good?"

Camila laughed and glanced at Lauren, who merely shook her head and grinned.

"Uh—well, not bad."

Camila stepped slightly out of Kyle's line of vision and leaned down with the syringe. "I'm going to put in some medicine now that will feel a little bit like a big mosquito bite. You ready?"