8// Lean On Me

"Hales, check out this page of a unicorn," I said as I flipped through some coloring book pages while she was on her hospital bed.

"I wanna color it....pink!" Haley told me.

"Yo, pink her up," I told Jamila. She got up from the chair and handed her the pink crayon.

"I'm really gonna miss getting to miss work to help take care of you, Hales. Telling people what to do wasn't as fun as I had hoped," Jamila sighed.

"I'll try and get hurt more often," Haley told her.

"Don't even think about it," I told her sternly.

Haley went back to her coloring book, right when Derick and Kristen walked in with two people wearing bright blue scrubs.

"Are you Miss Haley?" One of them asked her.

"Yes..." she answered cautiously.

"Hales, these are two of our friends we just made," Kristen told her, “and they wanna do something really fun with you!”

One of the guys came over to me and leaned in close, “Dr. Ramirez and the anesthesiologist are waiting in the OR, we’ll start surgery right away.”

Haley can’t deal with doctors, she just can’t. She absolutely lost it when I told her that we had to do surgery, and there’s nothing harder for a parent to see their child in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it. I ended up devising a plan with the staff so that we could have the littlest meltdown possible: we’ll take her around the hospital for a tour that will end in the operating room, where she’ll get knocked out by the anesthesia and they’ll start fixing her arm.

"So, we're gonna take you on a fun little tour of the hospital, how does that sound?" one of them asked her.

"I don't want to..." she told them.

"Hales, you can bring Ollie with you," I told her as I handed her Ollie, her pink stuffed owl.

She thought quietly for a moment before she spoke again, "well...Ollie thinks it would be cool to get a tour of the place...so why not."

"All right! It'll be tons of fun!" The guy told her enthusiastically.

Both of them moved up the armrests of the bed so that way they could use that to wheel her around in her bed...and so she couldn't escape.

"I'll see you after your tour ends, sweetie!" I told her before kissing her forehead.

"Bye mommy," she told me as she was wheeled away.

The four of us all waved at her as she was wheeled away. After a moment when we were sure she was gone, Jammy spoke up.

"So...this isn't just a tour...right?"

"Right..."



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"Want more custard?"

"Yes!!!!"

Haley's surgery took about an hour, but afterwards she barely knew what happened because of the anesthesia. Derick went out and got her homemade custard from a local ice cream shop to celebrate.

"Anything for this brave kid," Derick said as he scooped her another bowl.

"All right, I gotta head out and prepare for work tomorrow," Jamila said as she stood up. She went to Haley to hug her, but tricked her and leaned in only to take some of her custard.

"Meanie," Haley told her.

Jamila made her way out the door, as someone was making their way in: Patrick Kane. Jamila smirked at me once she saw him, then left.

"Am I too late?" he asked with a big balloon in one hand and a teddy bear in the other.

"Man, whatsup?" Derick asked him.

"The team heard about what was going on, so we chipped in to get you some fun stuff," he said as he tied the balloon to her bed.

"What do you say?" I reminded Haley.

"Thank you," Haley said as he handed her the teddy bear.

"No problem," Patrick smiled at her, "us blonde hair and blue eye kids have to stick together."

"Thanks, Patrick," I told him.

"No problem, you have a good kid, why wouldn't I do something nice for her?" Patrick said to me.

"Ill show you out, buddy," Derick told him, then leading him out of the room.

It was just us girls and Haley, but she was busy with her custard, so Kristen decided to say something to me.

"He's totally daddy material...both kinds."


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"Thanks for coming out here, it really means a lot," Derick told Patrick.

"It's no problem, man," Patrick said. "I mean, I obviously know you and Kristen good, and I've met Kat and Haley and they're nice, too."

"Yeah...I did a good job of picking a wife," Derick smirked to himself.

"Yeah, and It's helping me out, too."

"Oh really? How?"

"I'm engaged," Patrick started explaining, "and my fiance' really likes kids. And I don't know...I'm not used to being around little kids, and Haley's cool, so if she helps make a good man out of me, that's cool...you know?"

Derick laughed as they got to the entrance of the hospital. "Don't worry, you'll be daddy material in no time, bro."