Nolan punched his pillow as he woke up in a cold sweat in shock from his nightmare. Again, he thought to himself, he had hoped for some calming sleep for once. He threw off his shirt and threw it against the wall. The shirt was soon followed by his pillow as he could see by the time, he wouldn"t get any more sleep. He removed the rest of his clothes and decided the best relief would be a cold shower.The foaming in his hands did little to quench his irritation at the cold businessmen who had swept his sister away from him. Henry didn"t know anything about them, why would he think he could sweep in and solve their problems. In the lab with his students, he couldn"t take his mind off of his dilemnia.
"TA Nolan, are you sure that is the right setting?"
Nolan shook himself back into the present and realized the gla.s.s would have shattered if he had continued to ignore the problem at hand. He readjusted the heat plate and nodded at his student. "You"re right that was the right call. Good job."
The chubby eighth grader trotted off and began to brag to her friends that she was smarter than the teaching a.s.sistant. Nolan bit his lip to bite back a retort. They were kids. They didn"t know any better or about his daily visits to the hospital.
As he left for this task, he realized this was the first time he had really felt this protective of Ellie in a long time. For months, he had always accepted the various treatments and pills that Ellie had been subject to. He didn"t really even fully understand what was wrong with her to be honest, after the accident he had been so scared of her fragile state. He had always just accepted that she had delicate health and that she would eventually succ.u.mb to her injuries. Now his fury at his sister"s acceptance of her situation made him take a stand. Ellie should not have to make decisions to take care of him. He should be taking care of her as him being man of the house. He needed to find a way . . . any little crack or crevice where he could feel that she had a chance of getting better. For his own sanity, he would make sure he had exhausted every option before her funeral.
Instead of going straight to his sister"s bedside, Nolan asked the receptionist where the office of his sister"s primary care physician was. The receptionist looked at him with disdain, "He"s in a meeting Mr.Chen. Is there something urgent that you need me to page him out of the meeting for?"
Nolan paused as he considered this, "I need to see him. It needs to be today."
Her eyes grew bigger as did her annoyance, "Aren"t you just the twentieth person who has asked me that today? Did you want him to explain the red blinking lights on the monitor? I can answer those questions for you as I know the machinery well."