He drank from his beer and watched the TV. There was a long pause as he waited for the play to finish. Then he turned back to me. “I’m working on a new energy system that allows solar absorption into a microplate. It provides high energy absorption over just a few inches, and it can be implemented in cities and rural areas, so we don’t need to have solar plates on roofs, et cetera. The rocket program is still running and we’re always making improvements, but we’re also working on new prototypes for hospital equipment.”
“That’s cool.”
“With the internship program, we can do more things than we used to. They’re excited to work on these projects and get their names on the products, so they work day and night, and I basically test everything out. It allows me to do many things at once.”
“You do that with the rockets too?”
“No,” he said quickly. “If there’s a chance of mortality, I only let myself and my team work on it. Interns can participate passively, but that’s it.”
“And how are things with you and Emerson?”
“Good. I want another baby. She said no.”
“Why’d she say no?”
“Because she doesn’t get enough sleep as it is,” he said with a chuckle. “Between taking care of the little ones and me, she doesn’t have a lot of time. But when Lizzie is gone, I’m going to miss having three kids.”
“Yeah.”
“I’d like a girl too. I like having boys, but I’m going to miss having a daughter around.”
“Well, maybe you can just hide her pills and knock her up.”
Derek chuckled. “Not a bad idea.”
Lizzie came down the hallway with her notebook in hand. She sat on the cushion between us. “Dad, I don’t get this.” Her paper showed calculus equations, college-level because she was in an AP course.
Derek looked down at her paper then helped her out, taking her pencil and making some notes.
I watched the game.
When they were done, Lizzie turned to me. “Uncle Dex, I heard you’re going to do heart surgery again.”
I nodded. “The rumors are true.”
“That’s so cool. If I weren’t going to be an engineer like Dad, I would be a heart surgeon like you.” She got off the couch and walked back to her room, looking at the work on her notebook.
I watched her go before I turned back to Derek.
He was smiling. “In case you needed another reason…”
I sat in my office at the hospital, the same office that had belonged to me a year ago. Heart surgeons weren’t as common as they should be, even in Manhattan, so the vacancy had never been filled. The office collected dust and cobwebs because I hadn’t been there to continue the work I’d pledged my life to.
It left a pain in my chest that had nothing to do with heart disease.
The door was open, so a light knock sounded.
I turned in my chair to look at Sicily.
She gave me a slight smile before she came inside and sat in one of the armchairs against the wall.
“What are you doing here?”
She opened her bag and set a container on the table along with a bottle of Gatorade. “Just in case you wanted to eat something and get some electrolytes before you stand on your feet for twelve hours.”
“I already ate.”
“I thought that might be the case, but I wanted to make sure.”
I continued to sit and stare, waiting for her to leave.
“I also thought…you could use some company.” She glanced at my computer, which was off, and saw that I didn’t have any paperwork out either. I was literally just sitting there doing nothing, staring off into space. Marc had already been checked in, and once he was sedated in the OR, it would be time for me to scrub in. I chose to sit as long as I could before I had to stand over him for a long period of time.
“Well…thanks.” My parents had come by before I went into my office to give me some words of comfort and a couple hugs, and they would return later to be there when it was over—for better or worse.
She gave me another gentle smile, her green eyes lighting up as she looked at me, like she felt my dread in her own veins. “Of course. I could have stayed at the office or did other things, but I would just be thinking about you the entire time, so…”
With my cheek propped against my closed knuckles, I stared at her, seeing the way she stared back while hardly blinking. I knew this woman cared about me for me, had cared since the day we met, and now it was even more obvious as we worked together. She believed in me, respected me, had become a friend. I’d wanted to be alone, but now that she was there, it was nice to have her company. “I spoke to Marc and Angelica before the procedure. He seemed in good spirits about it.”