"Here are the results of the analyses. You also know how to read them, so go on."
Liz nods with a smile, and lowers her head to the documents she has taken from Dr Martin's hand. I crane my neck to follow her through the reading. Unfortunately, unlike her, I can only be a semiliterate person who can recognize words strung together with letters, and sometimes numbers, but not their meanings as terms.
She glances at me, and smiles in amusement, but I don't pay attention to that. I keep moving my eyes over the pages with her, even if only to pressure her. There is no other way. I seem more worried than her about her own health. I don't get how a doctor herself can be such a disobedient and uncaring patient.
So, as I breathe on her neck, Liz finishes going through the results, and looks back up at Dr Martin with a smile:
"Everything is going well. Without any complications, I should recover soon."
"Yes, but that will take some time, so we can't be in a hurry."
Liz nods, while I feel relieved at the side. No complications, so she is healing well from the wounds and the operation.
Dr Martin looks at me, and asks Liz with a smile:
"Can I take it that we have little Miss Lockdream here to thank you for not being a wayward patient and healing well?"
Liz glances at me:
"Is that so obvious?"
"We both know how patient relatives look when they don't have much trust in their sick relatives, and our little miss Lockdream is looking exactly the same."
"Right?"
Dr Martin's nod makes Liz explode with laughter, and if not for her wounded abdomen, I bet she would have been laughing without restraints.
I roll my eyes at her and mutter:
"Aren't you ashamed?"
She pauses, and replies after a moment of thought by showing me a little gap between her index and her thumb.
"Well, a little bit. But being sick and weak is really not fun."
I raise my eyebrows, then point at my thigh where I have a wound of my own, unimpressed. She looks down, then turns away with a smooth smile.
"So, Dr Martin, I will bother you for a new prescription so that I can get going."
Dr Martin restrains his amused smile at the funny display of us sisters, and nods:
"Certainly."
We take the new prescription, which is only different from the old one in some points, and go to the nurse station for the injection after a trip to the pharmacy.
I wait outside for a while, before Liz comes out of the room with a slight limp in her steps. I suppress a smile, but do nothing to hide the schadenfreude in my eyes.
She waves at me and smiles helplessly when I approach to support her.
"See, you are not cute anymore."
"You don't have any right to judge."
My soft laugh makes her turn to me:
"And why is that?"
"Need I remind you how difficult you have been in this week since we left the hospital?"
"What? I just ate a little better than usual."
"A high grade meal at the restaurant everyday?"
Liz smiles but averts her gaze.
"It was to deal with the pain."
"Long hours of shopping for a few days straight?"
"That was to distract myself. And you too."
I let out a breath.
"Alright, you have a justification for everything. I won't talk about the rest anymore."
I turn away, a little tired, and look at the lobby below while the escalator is bringing us down. A cool touch comes to rest on the space between my brows, and Liz's smiling voice comes from the side.
"Alright, don't frown too much. You risk getting old too soon. If people didn't know, they would think you are the elder one between the two of us. And don't tell me you didn't enjoy the meals, the shopping trips, the night watching movies or reading."
"Oh, I enjoyed them, but only because I can. I'm not the one who has wounds going through her stomach. I didn't almost lose my spleen, nor did I–"
"Alright, enough. I will listen to you from now on, okay. For now, let's go see our house and decide if nothing else needs to be done. Then we can go home."
Liz looks me deep in the eyes with gentle violet orbs, and only takes back the hand clamping on my mouth when she sees that I am convinced.
She nods in satisfaction, and finally turns to look at the crowd coming and going. Today, she is a patient like most of them, or of those they have come to visit… or see off.
The silence makes me remember the time I cried in Liz's arms before going to see our parents off.
I exhale. When the sun shines on us through the veil of cold haze, the silence turns lighter, and Liz smiles at me.
"Let's go."
She widens her strides, her gait somewhat recovered, and hurries to call a taxi. I smile at her impatience, and sit beside her.
"You know, Max, you should learn to drive and get your license. If you had, we could have taken my car and it would have been more comfortable. It's decided. I will teach later when I am feeling better, before I return to the hospital."
The words make me pause, then push me to consider something that has not been in my mind at all the last week or two. I'm pushed to consider the future again, somewhat like half a year ago, but also different. I turn quiet in that moment of thought, and Liz seems to have misunderstood something.
She places a hand on my arm, looks at me with some worry behind the gentleness, and speaks softly, her tone downcast:
"I'm , Max. I forgot to consider what happened before. I didn't consider that you might not be ready to sit behind the wheel of a car. I apologize for bringing that up."