I had just finished up my lunch and I had about two minutes before I had to go back to work. I was excited for my date with Gabriel tonight. I had planned some things in my head last night while we were on our first date.

"Ava... there's a patient they sent up from the emergency room. Can you handle that?" Rico asked me.

"Oh, yeah. Sure thing." I smiled, downing the rest of my water and grabbing my clipboard.

I went to the room where the patient was and I looked down at their file, frowning at the information on the clipboard.

I brushed off the concern and I plastered a smile on my face. I opened the door to the room and smiled at my patient. A woman with her daughter.

"Hello. I'm Dr. Dara." I smiled at the woman.

"Hi." She smiled at me, looking severely exhausted.

"So, I've read over your file very briefly." I said to her, looking over at the daughter who was looking very concerned.

"It says here you've had a bad cough, some bad chest pain, and lots of headaches... is there anything else?" I asked the woman.

"Well, they told her she had pneumonia, she was given antibiotics but it didn't make the cough go away." Her daughter sighed.

"Alright. Don't worry too much. We'll get to the bottom of this. You won't leave today without a proper diagnosis. I'll make sure of that." I told them.

The woman's daughter nodded with a smile.

"Alright. I want to know what else has gone on. You've had a cough, headaches, and chest pain... is there anything else that's out of the ordinary?" I asked.

"Her neck is swelling up a little and she's short of breath." The daughter said, and I noticed how the woman was just barely breathing properly. She seemed to be wheezing and her body was slumped on the chair as if she couldn't hold herself up anymore.

"Alright. I'll just have you get on the bed for a while, Ma'am, I think it'll be a little more comfortable. Just lay on your side to see if it helps." I said to her, helping her up.

She laid down on her side and coughed as she did it. I started filling out a paper for a CT scan I wanted to see if there was something deeper going on. The woman looked very unwell and this cough had been with her for about two months now.

"Have you lost weight recently?" I asked her.

"Yeah. A lot." She coughed.

"Alright.... we're going to get a CT scan done so I can see if there's anything I can see from that." I told her.

She nodded her head and I handed her daughter the forms, instructing her on where to go and telling her to come right back after it and just come right into this same room.

They left their bags there and went off to get the scans done. One of the nurses helped them since the woman was so exhausted.

I went to see another patient while the woman went to get her CT scan done.

I walked into the little room with a smile only to see a little girl who seemed to have been crying.

"Oh, no. What happened here?" I asked, looking at the little angel. "Hello, I'm Dr. Dara."

"Hi." The girl's father said, looking very concerned.

"What seems to be the problem here? Her arm?" I asked.

"Yeah. She was hanging onto the counter in the kitchen, trying to climb onto it, and her little brother ran past and hither side... then she just started screaming and she won't move her right arm from this position now." Her father explained.

"I see... this will hopefully be an easy fix." I said softly. I knelt down beside her father's chair. "Can I see that arm, Sweetie?"

The girl went to move away and her arm shifted, making her start crying again.

"It looks like a dislocated elbow. I just need like two seconds with that arm." I said softly so her father knew what was going on.

"What if we got a little shiny wand?" I asked, opening the little drawer in the desk and pulling out a little wand for the girl. I also grabbed a lollipop.

"Here you go." I smiled and the little one took the wand with her left hand, the uninjured one.

"What about this lollipop?" I asked her. She went to take it with her left hand, but I pulled it away.

"No, take it with that hand, this one is full." I said to her.

She refused to do that, so I put the lollipop down.

"Hm... does this arm hurt?" I asked her, making her nod her head.

"Alright, let me see, maybe I can make it stop hurting with my doctor magic." I said to her.

She nodded her head and this time she didn't pull away when I tried to examine her arm. I pressed down on her arm around her elbow, but she didn't have any sort of reaction, which assured me it was only a dislocated elbow, nothing was broken or anything. I could just pop it back into place and it would be all better.

"Alright, it's just a dislocation. It's really no big deal. I can fix it now, I just have to extend her hand out and then bend it." I explained to her father, and he nodded.

I held out my hand close to her belly.

"Handshake?" I asked her, making her accept my hand when I put it in hers. Then I took her elbow with my other hand and I smiled at her.

"Ready for the doctor magic, sweetheart?" I asked her.

She seemed apprehensive.

"It'll make your arm all better so you can take the lollipop. It'll only feel like a little pop." I told her.

She processed for a moment and then nodded her head. With her elbow sitting in one of my hands and her hand holding my other, I turned her hand and then extended her arm, feeling her elbow pop into place once it was fully rotated. She flinched at the feeling and made a confused sound and then I bent her arm back all the way up to her shoulder.

"There we go." I smiled at her.

"That's it?" Her father asked.

"Yup. Let's see. Can you take the lollipop?" I asked her.

She reached out with her right arm and took the lollipop without a problem.

"Wow. Thank you." Her father said in shock.

"I have good doctor magic, don't I?" I asked the little cutie.

She nodded her head with a cute smile.

"You can have some magic too." I said, pointing to the wand in her hand.

She giggled and swished her wand around.

"Woah... I feel the magic." I smiled, making her laugh.

"Alright. You guys are good to go." I told her father.

"Really, that's it?" He asked me.

"Yes. Just be careful not to have any tugging or pulling on her arm. Her elbow will get stronger with time, but avoid pulling her up from her hands. If she's being picked up or swung around it's best to pick her up from her underarms." I explained.

"Alright. Sounds good." He smiled as I let them out of the office and let the nurse get another patient. I went over to the desk and inputted the information for that little girl.

I was able to see one more patient before the scans for that woman were sent to my tablet. I walked over to a large screen to look over the scans and luckily Dr. Ferrari was passing.

As soon as I opened up the images, I gasped. There were two large masses in her right lung, one in her left lung and one in her windpipe.

"Oh, dear... what's going on?" Fr. Ferrari asked me.

"The woman from the emergency room... oh, my God... how do I tell them this?" I asked.

"I... let me go in there and get some blood for testing and request more scans." He said to me.

"Go see another patient, Ava. I'll handle this." He said to me.

"No. I have to be able to do this hard stuff." I sighed.

"Alright. Let's go. I'll draw blood and check if she has enlarged lymph nodes. Or you could do that." He said to me.

"Yeah. I'll do that. You ask about trouble swallowing." I said, knowing we needed to see if there was any chance of this woman only having lung cancer and not any other type. I didn't want to give this diagnosis. This was the bad part of being a doctor.

I took the vials I needed for her blood and I walked into the room with Dr. Ferrari behind me. I smiled at the woman, feeling my stomach flip in sorrow.

"Hi. I'm going to take some blood and test it as well and I'm going to check your lymph nodes for swelling." I said to her.

The woman smiled back at me and nodded.

"Hello. I'm Dr. Ferrari." Rico said.

"Hi." The woman smiled, coughing after she spoke.

I was able to locate her vein pretty quickly and I got the blood in just one minute, sending it off with a nurse to get it tested and have the results back as soon as possible. I felt like crying when I felt her for her lymph nodes in her swollen neck and found them very enlarged.

"Alright, Dr. Dara. Would you like to discuss the results of the scan with them?" Rico asked me.

No.

"Alright." I nodded.

"What's going on, Doctor? Did you find anything?" The woman's daughter asked.

"Yes. The scans show two large masses in her right lung and one in her left. Her windpipe seems to have a mass in it as well... the presence of a tumour in her windpipe gives reason to believe that the tumours in her lungs are malignant, which means they can spread." I explained.

"And the cancer has already spread?" The girl asked.

"To her windpipe, yes. But we're not sure if it's spread elsewhere as well. That's why I was checking the lymph nodes for swelling and they are quite enlarged. But that could just be because of another infection. We're testing the blood so we can do a count and that'll indicate if she is suffering from lymphoma as well." I said.

"Is it treatable?" The girl asked me.

"Well. We can provide treatment. But it's important for us to continue to do scans and see what else we find. If the blood count shows low platelet levels or low white blood cell levels, then it could be an indication of cancer in the blood or bone marrow, in which case we might issue more scans to investigate further." I said.

"Is there a possibility it's not possible to cure her?" The girl asked.

"Unfortunately, that is a possibility. However, I will do everything in my hands to investigate every possible scenario and see if we can find a solution." I promised.

"Thank you, Doctor. When do you think the blood results will come in?" The girl asked, looking about ready to cry but keeping it in for her mother's sake.

"Within the next hour, I hope. I'll notify you immediately." I told her.

"Alright. Thank you." The girl said and I smiled at her, trying to be encouraging in the face of this horrible situation.

Rico put a hand on my shoulder and told me he'd take it from there, allowing me to leave him to handle everything else.

My happy mood was gone. I wished Gabriel was there so I could talk to him about everything. I'd talked to him about bad situations like this before and he made me feel better most of the time. But I knew he was in his meeting about Lily. I wondered how that was going. I hoped that girl would be ok. No kid deserves to go through any sort of neglect or stress.

It wasn't long before the results of the bloodworm came in. The blood counts were encouraging, it didn't seem like there was cancer in the woman's blood. We did a full body MRI after that to check for anything else. But we found that it hadn't spread past her lungs and windpipe, her lymph nodes were swollen because they were trying to fight off a bacterial infection in her lungs, which is what worsened her condition so much and sent her into the hospital in her state.

My hope was restored and I told her that, speaking with her oncologist and making sure she got well integrated with him. I was so happy that she was going to get treatment and the hope wasn't all lost for her. Unfortunately the chances of getting rid of the cancer completely was low. But there was still hope.

After handling that woman's case and sending her to the oncology wing, I was basically done for the day. I saw one more patient who was coming in because of some nausea and dizziness. It turned out she was pregnant and didn't know about it. I set her up with an obstetric nurse and then Gabriel finally came to pick me up. I was so happy that my day had ended on a happy note. But I was still pretty emotionally exhausted. Hopefully the date would cheer me up.