Another stab to her chest caught her by surprise. Jealousy? She couldn’t be jealous of the attention Sophia was paying to Dr. Gregory. The idea of Dr. Gregory and Sophia together ought to make her happy.
“The ankle will heal, as long as you don’t push it too soon. That’s the good news.”
“There’s bad news?” Sophia asked, half playful, half fearful. Clearly, she’d decided to try being charming and pleasant. She was succeeding.
Dr. Gregory opened his laptop. “Let’s look at that chest X-ray.”
Grace’s heart squeezed again at the sight of their two heads leaning over the computer screen together. The good news? He’d make a wonderful brother-in-law. The bad news? Her sister was too shallow to look past the surface to see what a quality guy the doctor was.
I can see it.
Yes, but you aren’t the one who needs to see it.
Grace snapped out of her conversation with herself. Chest X-ray? Sophia hadn’t mentioned that she’d gotten her chest X-rayed along with her ankle.
“I have pneumonia?” Sophia sounded very skeptical, but she was looking at Dr. Gregory in a whole new way, like maybe he did know something she didn’t know, after all.
Dr. Gregory smiled kindly at her, an appealing little crinkle of the corners of his eyes behind unattractive brown frames. “Walking pneumonia is the common term, because younger adults tend to get this particular kind, and they keep gutting it out and going to work despite feeling sick.”
Oh, Sophia liked that implication that she was a trooper, Grace could tell. The show must go on, and all that jazz. Sophia relaxed back on her pillows a little bit.
“See this cloudy part of your lung? That’s fluid accumulating in a place air should be. I could’ve diagnosed pneumonia on your lung sounds alone, to be honest, but since you were going into X-ray anyway, it was best to have your lungs checked out.”
For weeks, Grace hadn’t been able to persuade Sophia to take care of that cough, but Dr. Gregory had been able to do something about it. Still, Grace was astounded at the pneumonia diagnosis. She’d thought the cough was bad, but she hadn’t expected it to be that bad.
“How long have you been coughing?” Dr. Gregory asked.
Sophia looked to Grace, the keeper of all mundane information. “How long? A couple weeks?”
Dr. Gregory looked at Grace, as well, waiting for her answer.
Grace felt that little flutter again that came with having his attention on her. “At least a month. It started shortly after...after we got back from Vegas.” She’d been about to say shortly after you and Deezee were caught in the police raid on that club, but she didn’t want to remind Sophia of something that would make her feel bad. Sophia had apologized for that already. Besides, she was finally showing her good side to Dr. Gregory, and Grace wanted him to see that her sister was a good person.
“I had pneumonia for a month and didn’t know it?”
“I imagine you’ve felt worn-out every day,” Dr. Gregory said, his attention back on Sophia.
Sophia nodded, managing to look like a martyr without looking overly dramatic at all. She was a great actress.
“But you’ve kept working anyway?” he asked.
Another nod.
Grace should have felt her usual amusement at how Sophia could have anyone eating out of her hand. Instead, she felt a little irritated. Sophia had been working only if one counted clubbing as work. The pile of scripts that represented future work kept stacking up, because Sophia had been too tired to evaluate new projects after running around with her boyfriend. Today’s clinic opening had been the first actual work Sophia had done in weeks, and she’d tried to cut that short.
She had a good reason for that. She must have felt awful. She’s really sick. What kind of sister am I to hold it against her?
Dr. Gregory nodded at Sophia in what surely looked like approval. “You need to take a break, starting today. Pneumonia won’t go away by itself. I’m going to discharge you with some antibiotics. You’ll want to see your own physician once you finish the medicine to be certain your lungs are clear, but in the meantime, you need to rest. Drink more fluids than you want to, and don’t skip any pills, even once you start feeling better.”
Discharge her? He was sending them away with some pills and a plastic boot? Grace felt a little panic. She didn’t want to start negotiating an airport with a sick sister in a wheelchair. Her sister had laughed with her a few minutes ago. She was being positively pleasant to Dr. Gregory now. Texas was good for her. They needed to stay right here.
“You shouldn’t fly again until we’ve had a chance to clear up some of this fluid in your lungs,” Dr. Gregory said.
Yes! The man was a miracle. Forget clinging to his hand. Grace wanted to throw her arms around him.
Sophia’s radiance dimmed. “I have to get back to LA right away.”
“Even in a pressurized cabin on a commercial airliner, the demand on the lungs increases. This fluid is making things difficult enough for you here on the ground. How did you feel on the flight here?”
“Ohmigod, I felt terrible, actually. I was so tired and I had such a headache. I thought it was just a crappy flight.”
You thought it was all my fault, like I’d booked a flight just to torture you.
“You probably weren’t getting enough oxygen.” Dr. Gregory closed the laptop. “Low oxygen saturation can cause those symptoms and more. Irritability, confusion and eventually loss of consciousness.”
“Irritability?” Grace repeated without thinking.
To Grace’s surprise, Sophia held her hand out to her. “Oh, Grace, I really took it out on you during the flight, didn’t I? I said some mean things. I’m sorry.”
Grace took her hand. Squeezed. This was the second time she’d gotten to see the nice side of her sister again—and Dr. Gregory was here to see it, too. Maybe now he wouldn’t give her that puzzled look. This was proof that she didn’t work for an uncontrollable diva. The longer they stayed in Texas, the more like her old self her sister became.
“We didn’t know I had pneumonia, though, did we? I’ll make it up to you. I promise to be extra nice to you on the plane tonight. It won’t happen again.”
“No, it won’t,” Dr. Gregory said firmly. “You can’t fly tonight. Your ankle injury is taxing your body more than you might think. Between that stress and the pneumonia, you’d almost certainly be oxygen deprived again.”
Sophia blinked at him. “But you can give me something for that, can’t you?”
“For oxygen deprivation?” One corner of Dr. Gregory’s mouth quirked upward. “Sure. It’s called oxygen. You carry a tank of it with you and stick tubes up your nostrils so you don’t pass out at thirty thousand feet and force an emergency landing.”
Sophia’s hand slid out of Grace’s to land on the blankets with a little plop. Grace looked closely at Dr. Gregory. His poker face was good, but Grace could have sworn he was getting some satisfaction out of setting Sophia straight.
He stood and tucked the laptop under his arm. “Carrying an oxygen tank aboard would require some planning with the airline in advance. It’s only allowed when the patient absolutely must travel. I’m not going to authorize it. Your ankle needs to stay immobilized and elevated, as well. I’ll write