Indiscretion

Monday afternoon, Naomi took a late lunch to go with her sister to her doctor’s appointment. She came back to the office looking a little frazzled.

“Everything go okay?”

“Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “The process is just a bit overwhelming.”

“How so?”

“Well, Frannie needs to be admitted to the hospital for a week before the transplant. Her body has to undergo what they call a conditioning regimen. Basically, they load her up with high levels of chemo and radiation to destroy the diseased cells floating around in her bloodstream and stop the blood-forming cells in her bone marrow from producing to make room for the new blood cells she’ll receive. That part alone has a full-page list of potential dangers, because you’re essentially pumped full of toxins that can inadvertently attack organs.”

“Jesus.”

“Two days after the conditioning phase is complete, she’ll receive the marrow transplant from the donor.”

That timeline made sense since they’d scheduled the harvest of my cells for a week from today. I’d asked if the recipient received them the same day, and the doctor had said it was usually one to two days later.

“How long does she stay in the hospital after that?”

“Four weeks, if she doesn’t get an infection or anything that extends things.”

“Holy crap.”

She nodded. “You basically have no immune system while you wait for the donated stem cells to take root and begin producing new blood cells. There’s another full page of side effects for that part of the process. Not only that, but you have to live in very strict isolation for the first hundred days—no public spaces or crowds, and they stressed that she should have very few or preferably no visitors at all. The doctor even suggested the kids go on homeschooling or live somewhere else during that period because they bring so many germs home from the classroom every day.”

“Wow.” I hated that Naomi looked like a ball of stress. “What can I do to help?”

Of course, she had no idea what I was already doing.

Naomi smiled halfheartedly. “Nothing. Just listening to me babble is enough. I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m complaining. I don’t know, maybe I am complaining. I don’t mean to. My sister’s been given a gift by a stranger, and it’s amazing, but I’m just…” She shook her head.

I reached for her cheek and cupped it. “Scared. I know.”

She nuzzled into my palm. “This can be a cure for her, but getting there comes with a lot of risks. What would happen to Ryder and Molly if…” Her eyes filled with tears. “What would we all do without her?”

“You can’t think like that, Naomi. You have to think positive. Not just for your own mental health, but for Frannie and the kids. If the kids see you scared, they’ll be even more worried. Same with Frannie.”

She sighed. “I know. I know. You’re right. I’ll have to keep my meltdowns to myself and learn to put on a brave face.”

“You don’t need to have meltdowns alone. I’m here.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” She smiled. “Aside from being the lucky recipient of my freakouts, I also need to ask you a professional favor.”

“Whatever you need. What’s up?”

“Do you think you can notarize some papers for Frannie? I lost my notary license along with my law license. She’s updating her will and medical directive and stuff. Her lawyer mailed her the papers to sign, but his office is all the way uptown. This is much closer.”

“No problem. I can also drop by the apartment, if that’s easier for her. I’m sure she has a bunch of stuff to do to get ready before such a long hospital stay.”

“That’s sweet of you to offer, but she’s going to the lab a few blocks away this afternoon. I have to run out later to pick up the files you managed to get back from the feds on the Langone case, but I’ll tell the receptionist my sister might stop by in case she comes while I’m gone.”

“I’ll be around all afternoon.”

Naomi smiled. “I know. I checked your schedule online.”

I chuckled. “I have a conference call in a few minutes. After that, I have to prep for the Wren hearing tomorrow.”

“I thought I saw that on the calendar for Monday?”

Shit. This was the difficulty of working with your girlfriend while trying to keep a secret. Your life was pretty much an open book. But I couldn’t tell her I’d rescheduled a hearing because I was going to be in the hospital all day on Monday, so I had no choice but to tell a white lie.

“I’m, uh, I’m meeting with the ADA to talk about a potential plea deal for the kid who was here last week, Jared.”

“Oh, that was quick. He was only charged a few weeks ago, wasn’t he?”

What was I thinking? Of course a former ADA would know it was too early for plea discussions. “Yeah, I thought the same thing. Maybe Will Archer used his pull from working there.”

I was definitely going to have to put something else on the calendar for Monday so Naomi wouldn’t wonder why I was out the entire day. Luckily, the procedure required very little downtime for a donor, and the tiny scars would be on my back and easy enough to hide.

I escaped to my desk so I didn’t have to tell any more lies about next week and dove back into my work. Around four thirty, the receptionist buzzed to let me know Frannie had arrived. Naomi was still downtown at Federal Plaza, so I went out to greet her sister and brought her back to my office.

I motioned to the visitor’s chair and opened my drawer to take out my notary stamp.

“How you feeling?”

“Overwhelmed.” She forced a smile.

“I can imagine. Naomi was telling me about the process earlier.”

“I have so many errands to get done, yet I keep thinking I should be home with my kids. What happens if things don’t go well and this is the last time I’ll spend with them outside of the hospital? And here I am running around to make sure they’re registered for camp because the deadline is in three weeks and getting Ryder batteries for a game he hasn’t played in almost a year.”

I shut my drawer, walked around to the other side of my desk, and sat next to her. “You’re in the cootie phase.”

“The what?”

“It’s the time before you go into the hospital for anything serious. I had a friend who was in and out of the hospital when we were teenagers. Whenever she was nervous about an admission, she would avoid her mom and me by loading up on schoolwork or cleaning out her closet. Once she even spent the entire day before a procedure going door to door to get signatures for a petition to change the color of the town’s recycling bins to green.”

Frannie’s nose wrinkled. “Who makes recycling bins any other color but green?”

I laughed. “That’s what she said. But whatever she threw herself into was never about it needing to be done. It was about not wanting the people she loved to see how upset and nervous she was. She was trying to protect us by treating us like we had the cooties.”

Frannie’s shoulders slumped. “The kids are worried enough.”

“Of course they are. You’re their mom, and they were dealt a shit hand losing their dad. But the last thing you need is to get run down dragging yourself around town and stressing. Maybe you can find a way to keep your mind occupied while you’re with the kids. I bet Ryder would keep you on your toes playing a few rounds of cards with him.”

“That he would. Especially if there was ten bucks at stake.”

I shrugged. “I don’t have any kids, but doesn’t all your money wind up spent on them anyway?”

She smiled. “Good point.”

I gestured to the thick envelope in her hand. “Let’s get your papers notarized so we can get you home.”

It took less than five minutes for me to stamp and sign a half-dozen documents. When I was done, I tucked them all back into the envelope and held them out to Frannie. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” She took the papers, lifted her pocketbook strap to her shoulder, and started to get up, but then lowered herself back down to the chair. “I know I don’t know you very well, but can I ask you a favor?”

“What do you need?”

“Will you remind my sister to take care of herself, too, while I’m in the hospital? She’s going to have the kids. Plus, she’ll be worried about me and running back and forth to the hospital, even though I’ll tell her she shouldn’t visit every day. And I’m sure she wants to work sixty hours here because she’s new and cares about you—but also, she loves her work.”

I nodded. “I’ll do better than that. I’ll make sure she takes care of herself by helping her out with stuff at home and making sure she doesn’t put extra time in here at the office. I’ll kick her ass out if I have to.”

Frannie smiled. “Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

She walked to the door of my office, then stopped and turned back. “Is your friend’s health better now? The one who treated you like you had the cooties before going into the hospital?”

My face fell before I could stop it.

Frannie’s fell, too. “Oh,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have…”

She forced a smile and waved me off. “It’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong. Take care, Dawson.”

“You, too, Frannie.”

I sat at my desk, kicking myself in the ass for a long time after she left. I never talked about Bailey. And the one time I did, I told a cancer patient about another cancer patient who died. What the hell was I thinking?