“Yeah, buddy, she is,” Denise says. “Someone very special gave a lot of money for her to get them,” she says, smiling and then leaning down to kiss his cheek.
“Here it goes,” Mallory says, smiling while she hooks up the little white bag and the IV starts.
When lunchtime comes around, Jack is tired and restless. His lunch of Jell-O and broth are nothing for him. I pick him up and make sure that the IV tube doesn’t stick on the chair when I turn him around and rock him in my arms.
“Can we go to Disney?” he asks me, looking up at me.
“As soon as we can,” I tell him, knowing I’m going to give him everything he wants.
“I want Grandma and Grandpa to come to,” he says. “And Dr. Denise.”
I nod my head at him. “You can just call her Denise now.”
“Okay,” he says, closing his eyes and falling asleep while I lay my head back and close my eyes, and I pray. I pray to every single god that there is out there.
When his bag is empty, Steve comes back into the room. “Can I see you in the hall?” he asks me, and I nod, putting Jack down to sit in the chair and watch his show on his iPad.
I stand with him out in the hall. “There are a couple of things you need to look out for,” he says. “The next three days are the most crucial.”
“Okay,” I say to him, my heart beating. “Wouldn’t it be better if he stayed here?”
“Yes,” he tells me, “but he will be more comfortable at home.”
“Okay,” I tell him.
“You have to just watch him like a hawk. Monitor his temperature and make sure it doesn’t go up. If at any time he’s dizzy, you need to bring him back ASAP.”
“Okay,” I tell him and then look down. “When do we know if this worked?”
“Three months,” he tells me. “Ninety days.”
I nod my head at him. “Okay. We’ve come this far.”
He puts his hand on my shoulder. “You’ve come this far,” he says and walks away, and I rub my face with my hands and look up to see Janet walking toward me.
“You did this, didn’t you?” she says when she gets close enough to talk to me.
“I don’t—” I start, but she just raises her hand, and she is soon joined by her husband and son. Her husband puts a hand around her and then looks at me.
“This is the man who donated the money for Evie,” she says, her face with tears.
“I don’t know how we can ever repay you,” Darryl says, “but we will.”
“That isn’t necessary,” I tell him.
“You’re Zack Morrow,” the son tells me, and I just nod at him. “I play defense like you,” he says. “You were always my idol growing up, and now you just crossed over to superhero.” He smirks.
“I didn’t do anything that someone else wouldn’t have done,” I tell them.
“You gave our daughter a chance to live,” Janet says, and she can’t speak anymore. She just turns into her husband’s arms as he holds her.
“If you ever need anything,” he says, “anything. My family is in your debt.” He turns and walks away to the room.
I go back in, and we dress Jack again; this time, he’s too tired to walk, so I carry him.
“Are we waiting for Denise?” my mother asks, and I just nod my head when she comes running out.
“Are you sure you’re okay with me coming over?” she asks me, and I just nod. I don’t say anything to her as we walk to the car. I’m holding Jack in my arms while I hold her hand.
When we get home, Denise tries to get Jack to perk up a bit by asking him to build a fort with her, but he just wants to lie down. So she gets his favorite blankets and tucks him in on the couch. She also goes into doctor mode and takes his temperature every thirty minutes and makes a chart for herself.
“She really is something else,” my father says to me while the two of us sit on the couch with Jack lying between us.
“She is everything,” I tell him, looking back at her as she writes in her latest numbers.
She comes into the room and sits next to me. “Tomorrow when I go into work, I need you to take his temperature hourly,” she says, and I just put my arm around her and bring her close. We don’t say anything else. We don’t even watch television; the television watches us as the three of us just sit in our own thoughts.
We go to bed that night, but Denise is up every hour on the dot to check on him. “Wouldn’t it be better if I brought him to bed with us?” I ask her after the fourth hour.