Please Remember Me

“There’s my favorite girl!” Jon said letting himself into the Sharp house. He walked into the large living room and took Madelyn off of Abby’s lap. He held her and the little girl giggled and squirmed in his arms. She reached up towards his face and he playfully bit on her little fingers.

“Jonathan.” Abby said as if he were in trouble.

“What?” he replied looking up from Madelyn.

“Patrick says you need a girlfriend.”

“I have one.” He said giving Madelyn a kiss on the cheek. “Right here.”

“Ha!” Sharpie said walking into the room. “You will never date my daughter.” Sharpie took his little girl from Jon and spun her around. “I’ll go change her real quick and then we can get going okay, Abs?”

Abby nodded her head yes with a smile for her husband. “Jonathan.” she said again. “I can tell just by looking at you that you need a female influence in your life again.”

Jon cringed at the word ‘again’.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that Patrick told me last night that you were kind of down and out. You looked tired. You look stressed. You just showed up here wearing sweatpants. Since when do you leave the house or the rink dressed like that? Get it together, Jonathan.”

“Yeah. I know, I know.” Jon sighed. He took a seat on the couch across from Abby.

“So what’s wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Well. I look tired because I am tired. I’ve been up since 4 this morning. I woke up from a dream I was having.”

“About?” Abby asked.

“Cameron.”

Abby was taken back. She wasn’t expecting that. She gave Jon a confused look. “Really? What about her? Have you talked to her? Is she still around the city?

Jon sat back on the couch and put an arm behind his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since she left me. I don’t really want to talk about it, but it’s not something I wanted to be reminded of.”

Patrick came back into the room and handed Madelyn back to Jon. He happily took her back and started to make silly faces at her.

“Abby, you ready to go?” Patrick asked.

“Yeah.” She said getting up from the couch. “Her bottles are in the fridge so is her food. She should be going down for a nap shortly too. You know the drill.”

Jon followed the Sharps to the door with Madelyn. “Yup.” He said.

“If you need anything, just call or text us.” Abby said. “Bye sweetheart.” She said, giving Madelyn a kiss.

“Have fun you guys. Relax a little.” He grabbed Madelyn’s hand and waved for her.

“You too, Tazer.”

Patrick shut the door and Jonathan walked with Madelyn back into the living room. “We’re going to have some fun, aren’t we?” he said to her. He bounced her up and down and made her laugh again. For the bad mood that he was in, Madelyn sure knew how to make him feel better.
___________

“Okay, little Miss Madelyn, what’s the matter?” Cameron asked as she walked into the room. Her face was buried in the paperwork. She looked up slightly to see the little girl being held in her dad’s arms. “Hi sweetie.” She said rubbing her hand. She looked up at the gentleman holding the child and stared in shock.

“I put her down for her nap and when I went to go wake her up, she was burning up. I didn’t know what else to do, so I brought her here.” He said in a bit of a panic. “Cammie, can you help her?”

“Jon.” She barely managed to get out. Cameron took a step back and could feel her jaw drop. “You? Kid?” she could barely get her words out.

“Madelyn! What happened?” Patrick said storming into the room with Abby right behind him. They were both out of breath and both concerned for their daughter.

“I um. Um. I’ll be right back.” Cameron said before turning around and running out of the room. She went down the hall and turned the corner. She leaned up against the wall and covered her face with her hands. Her heart was beating fast and her whole body was shaking. She took in a few deep breaths. What is going on? Was that Jon’s kid? There was no way he had a kid. He didn’t want kids. He didn’t even want her kid. Seeing him standing there with a child in his hands was like one hard blow to the stomach. Cameron felt as if the wind was knocked out of her. She couldn’t handle what she had just seen. She tried to shake it off and get herself back into the doctor mindset. She couldn’t just leave a patient behind.

She swallowed hard and walked back towards the room.

“Hi. I’m Dr. Lewis.” Cameron said nervously.

“Cameron, we know who you are.” Patrick said. He now had Madelyn in his arms.

“Madelyn is 9 months old correct?” Cameron said going on with business as usual.

“Yes.” Abby said.

“And does she have any past medical history?”

“No. She’s a perfectly healthy baby.” Abby replied.

“So what’s going on? What happened?” Cameron asked.

“I went to – “ Jon started.

“And are you the father of the baby?” Cameron asked, cutting him off.

“Well, no but-“

“Okay, I’m sorry we have a limit in the ER, if it’s a minor, we can only have 2 other people in the room max.”

“Cammie.” Jon pleaded. He looked at her, searching for any sort of acknowledgement from her.

“Don’t call me that. You know I don’t like it. I’m Dr. Lewis.” Cameron said avoiding his gaze. “Okay. It looks like here that her temperature is about 102 degrees. I don’t suspect anything peculiar, but I would like to do a quick exam just to make sure.”

“Sure, do whatever you have to.” Abby said, concerned.

Cameron moved around the room to get closer to her newest patient and took her otoscope out of her coat pocket. Her hands were still shaking due to the situation she currently found herself in.

“Excuse me, Mr. Toews, can I please ask that you leave the room.” She said politely.

“But.” He said raising his hand.

“Tazer. Leave.” Sharpie said.

Jon shook his head and left the room.

Cameron let out a heavy sigh and carried on with her examination. “I apologize for that, Mr. and Mrs. Sharp.”

Cameron took a look at Madelyn’s ear. It was visible just how badly she was shaking.

“Cameron, really, you know us. You don’t have to be formal with us.” Patrick said.

“I’m umm, I’m just doing my job.” She replied.

Madelyn started to squirm and cry.

“Aww, sweetie, it’s okay.” Cameron said gently rubbing her small hand again. “I’m just going to take a look okay? I won’t hurt you.”

“Cameron.” Sharpie said.

This time Cameron looked up at him.

“If you’re not comfortable with helping us, we won’t be offended. I’m sure there’s another doctor here.”

She hated that. She knew Patrick wasn’t doubting her, he knew why she was acting this way. “No, it’s fine.” She replied. She took another deep breath and finished her examination. She wrote down a few notes on Madelyn’s file. It was very apparent that she was frazzled. Once she was done, she looked over at Madelyn and gave her a smile.

“It looks like it’s just a fever. I’ll prescribe some medication for her. If she doesn’t break the fever in by morning, I’d recommend visiting her pediatrician or bringing her back here so we can get her back to 100%.” Cameron explained. She gently stroked the blonde hair on top of Madelyn’s head. “She’s beautiful, you guys.”

Then it struck her. Just how much she had missed out on during the past few years. These two people standing in the emergency room. These were her people. These were two of her closest friends who had become strangers. She shut them out of her life. She knew it, they knew it. She suddenly felt so small.

“Thanks, Cameron.” Abby said. “How have you been?”

Cameron sat her binder back down on the counter and leaned up against it. “I’ve been well, thanks. Been working a lot, but I love it.”

“Good. Glad to hear.” Abby smiled.

“Yeah, we miss seeing you around.” Patrick added.

“I’ve missed you guys too.” Cameron replied. She picked up the binder and hugged it to her chest. “Okay, we’ll I’ll write up the prescription and we’ll give her some medicine here too. After that, you guys are good to go.”

“Thank you, Cameron.” Patrick said.

“Anytime.” Cameron smiled. She walked out of the room and over to the nurses desk.

Jon wasn’t sure what had just happened. The past hour was a complete whirlwind. He freaked out when he got Madelyn up from her nap and she was burning up. He didn’t know what else to do except to take her to see a doctor. Thankfully Abby was always prepared and had all of the proper documentation in the diaper bag to allow Jon to take her into a hospital to get treated.

And just as lost as he was with a child in a hospital, he was at a loss about what just happened. He knew Cameron was a doctor now, but he definitely wasn’t expecting to run into her like this. He didn’t imagine it would go down this way.

He was worried about her. She looked tired, worn out even.

Jon found it a bit strange that he had seen her though. Especially after the dream he had the night before. It was almost as if the dream was a sign. Either that or it was just a really strange coincidence. It didn’t matter though, he could tell right away that she had absolutely no interest in seeing him or speaking to him. He couldn’t let her get off that easy though. He waited patiently for her to come out of the room so that he may get the chance to speak to her. When she finally did come out, he watched her walk right by. She walked up to the nurses station and started to write down some things. He watched her for a moment before making his move.

“Cameron Mae.” He said walking up behind her. He could see her whole body tense up.

“Uhhh. Cameron, there’s a hockey – I mean, there’s a gentleman trying to speak with you.” Theresa the nurse said from behind the desk.

“I know.” Cameron replied.

“Cameron, you can’t ignore me like this.” Jon said.

“I can do just about whatever I’d like around here, Mr. Toews. And I believe I told you that you couldn’t be around here.” She said writing out the prescription.

Hearing her call him Mr. Toews in that voice stung a little bit.

“No, you just told me I couldn’t be in the room. You didn’t say anything about standing in the hallway.”

She stopped writing and sat the pen down on the desk. She let out a sigh and turned to face him. “What do you want, Jonathan?” she asked.

“A chance to say hello. To talk to you. I’ve been thinking about you lately.” He said nervously.

“Oh.” She whispered gazing up into his stare.