'Jackson Ito, sixteen-' the same skittish intern began to recite, but was silenced once again- poor girl- by Hope and a few relatives, who burst through the door.
'Is everything okay?' A buxom, middle-aged lady I recognised as Hope's Aunt Margaret raced over, seeing the small swarm of doctors.
'Everything's just fine, ma'am,' Arizona smiled her sweet but you're-interrupting-me smile, 'We're just checking on Jackson.' She nodded to the interns and they raced to take his pulse and draw some blood.
'And you!' Aunt Margaret waved a chunky finger at me, 'Are you this girl Hope keeps talking about? The one who never leaves his side?'
I went scarlet, and Hope mouthed a guilty but amused 'sorry' as I searched for an answer. 'I don't... I just like to know he's alright.'
'You don't go breaking my little boys heart, girly!' Aunt Margaret raised her eyebrows, and Jackson spoke up. 'Aunt Maggie, she's not my girlfriend! Hope was good friends with Lola here when she was staying, and she asked her to keep an eye on me, that's all.'
I smiled gratefully, even though I was still cherry red and distinctly uncomfortable surrounded by all these fidgety, doting relations.
'So, we think we're going to able to schedule Jackson's eye surgery tomorrow,' Dr Robbins smiled, and there was a small round of applause from Jackson's adoring family.
'We're going to go in from the back of his head and fix the nerves which were damaged. I'll get Dr. Shepherd, our neurosurgeon, to give you the details as soon as he's out of his current surgery, but I'll be scrubbing in so I'll be watching his every move.' She tapped Jackson's shoulder comfortingly. 'Alright for you?'
He nodded, and his fan club applauded again.
Arizona kept a very normal face, but the intern who had taken my blood was on the verge of giggling and the skittish presenter, Gomez, was staring at the group as if they had walked onto the ward naked holding sacrificial offerings. I smiled and squeezed Jackson's hand before Gomez pushed me back to my bed and Arizona and the other interns moved on.
A few hours later, I climbed into my chair and wheeled myself across to Jackson's bed. He had headphones on, and I could faintly hear some terrible rock band playing in his ears.
I tapped on them and he removed them instantly.
'Lola?'
'How did you know it was me?'
'I can tell.'
'How?'
'I think when you lose a sense, your other senses get stronger. I can hear the way you breathe, and I recognise your body spray.'
I blushed. It was $3 rose-scented stuff from the hospital necessities shop, but who cared. Actually, apparently Jackson did.
'So you could see again tomorrow!' I smiled, and he nodded. 'That's amazing. I'm so excited, and it's not even me getting the surgery.'
His face broke into a wide grin. I'd never seen him so happy.'
'Whoa, cheerful!' I laughed, 'You look a lot happier than usual.'
'I'm going to get to see you.' He smiled, and I squeezed his hand as usual.
My heart warmed, but we turned as Dr Shepherd, accompanied by Robbins, Bailey, skittish Dr Gomez and another terrified intern who I seemed to remember was called Dr Ryan, although I could've sworn he wasn't blond last time I saw him.
'Jackson!' Dr Shepherd smiled, in a more business-like manner than Arizona, 'Let's get started.'