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Susan entered the pre-op room and saw Greg lying on the gurney in a hospital gown.
“Hey there. Don’t you look handsome in that gown and cap.”
“Not funny at all. Glad you made it. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be rolled away before you got here.”
Susan smiled and squeezed Greg’s hand. “Nope. Got here just in time.”
“Thanks for being here.”
“No problem. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be all right.”
“You don’t know that.”
“True, but I feel like it will. From what the nurse told me, you have an excellent surgeon.”
“That’s comforting to know.” Greg noticed a young, dark-skinned woman enter the room. “Looks like my ticket’s been called.”
“Hello, I’m Reba and I’ll be taking you back now.”
Greg looked at Susan, squeezed her hand before letting go and said, “Okay. I guess I’m ready.”
The nurse unlocked the gurney and rolled him out of pre-op, down the hall, through the surgery doors, and into the cold, surgical ward
“Hi, Greg, I’m Dr. Steven, your surgeon.”
“Hi.”
“Before you’re sedated, do you have any questions?”
Greg thought for a moment, sweat beading on his brow, and said, “Yeah, could you remind me what you’ll be doing. I wasn’t paying much attention when the nurse told me.”
“Sure. I’ll be making some small incisions so I can insert a few instruments into your abdomen. One of those is the laser I’ll be using to carefully cut each tumor off your pancreas, then cauterize the small incisions.”
“Wow. How long will it take to complete?” Greg’s eyelids started fluttering. He was having difficulty staying awake.
“It should take about three hours to complete the surgery, and I’m confident I’ll get all the benign tumors. Once I’m done, you will wake up in the recovery room.”
“Greg slowly nodded his head, then was out.”
When Greg finally opened his eyes and looked around the room, he saw Susan sitting nearby. “Why are you still here? You could have gone back to work after they rolled me into surgery,” he slurred, still groggy from the anesthesia.”
“I know, but I wanted to make sure you came through the surgery okay. Besides, I’ve got an ulterior motive — making sure you can fix the problem you created.”
“Great, thanks for that little reminder. You didn’t stay ‘cause you care about me?”
“Oh, I care, but not how you might think.”
“Ah, I got it. I think.”
“The doctor says you should be able to go home tomorrow; however, you’re not supposed to strain or lift anything heavy. And you’re to rest. That won’t be easy with all those flights of stairs you’ll have to walk up.”
“You mean they haven’t fixed the elevator yet?”
“Nope, they said it could be sometime next week.”
“Great, so I’ll have to stay here till then?”
“No, I took the liberty of setting you up with a nice hotel room near the company, and I brought the things I thought you would want and need to the room. If you need anything else, just let me know and I can get it for you.”
“You went into my apartment?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Fine, I guess. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Also, I want you to take a few days to recover before coming into the office at all. We can work on the problem you created then. I’m still looking for someone to hack into the USB drive, anyway. Maybe I’ll have that done by the time you get back.”
“Okay. Again, thanks. Maybe I’ll remember what it was I changed, and we’ll be able to change it back.”
“To say that would be nice is an understatement.”
“I’ve been thinking, though. If Paulette tried to come back so quickly and it didn’t work, then maybe she isn’t even at the site where the time pod landed anymore. What happens if we fix it and she isn’t there?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. She developed a device she wears on her wrist that lets her know if the time pod is being tampered with and whether it’s functioning.”
“Doesn’t that require satellite communications? What if there aren’t any in the future? What then?”
“Let’s hope that there are still satellites up there; otherwise, she is stuck for sure.”
“All right, I’ll try to be more upbeat.”
A nurse came in and told Greg his room was ready and that she’d be taking him to it. “Talk to you later, Susan,” he said as the nurse pushed his bed out the door.
After he got settled into his new room, he lay there drifting in and out of sleep. During one of his naps, he had a nightmare about Paulette. He saw her trapped in a horrible future where she couldn’t get back, and she was screaming at him for causing it to happen. He tried to explain that he wanted her to love him, but she didn’t want to hear it. She continued to yell at him about her situation and how she could die there, and it would be all his fault. He jolted awake drenched in a pool of sweat and wondered to himself how true the dream was. Was she blaming him for the failure, and was she really stuck in some horrible future? Taking some deep breaths, he tried to calm down. It was just a dream. It’s probably just my guilty conscious causing me to have a nightmare. He fell asleep again and slept peacefully till the morning.
Greg awoke to the sun streaming in through the blinds. He ordered scrambled eggs and pancakes for breakfast and tried to eat while it was still hot. Once he finished eating, he lay there thinking about how he could undo what he had done. Shortly after breakfast, the doctor came.
"How are you feeling this morning,” Dr. Steven asked.
“A little sore, but otherwise okay.”
“That’s good to hear.” Dr. Steven looked at his notes, then back at Greg. “I want you to take it easy for the next few weeks. That means no heavy lifting. Do you understand?”
“Yes, doc.”
“As far as your diet goes, there are no restrictions. Do you have any questions before I turn in the paperwork for your discharge?”
“No, I think I’m good. Thanks, doc.”
“You’re welcome. I’m just glad we caught it in time.”
The doctor extended his hand to Greg. Greg shook it and then the doctor was gone.
An hour later, Susan came by to pick him up and take him to his hotel room. She helped him pack his things and then walked alongside the nurse, who was wheeling him down to her car. The nurse helped him get into the car, and then Susan closed the door and went to her side and got in. She drove to the hotel in silence. When they got there, she helped Greg into the lobby and to the elevator. Greg began to sweat profusely. Genuinely concerned and a little frightened, Susan asked him what was wrong.
“Just having flashbacks of being stuck in one of these things all day ... just a few days ago.”
“Ah, yes, some residual PTSD. Don’t blame you, but this one should be fine.”
“Thanks for the encouragement.”
When the elevator doors opened, they stepped in and she pushed the button for the third floor. A few moments later, the elevator stopped, the doors slid open, and they stepped out and headed down the hallway to Room 310.
Susan helped Greg in the door and then helped him get settled in. “I’ll see you in a few days at work. Like I said, if you need anything just call me.”
“Okay, I’ll do that. Thanks again for your help.”
“No problem.”
Greg sat in the chair next to the windows and grabbed the remote. He wanted to watch some TV to help him forget about everything that had happened the last couple of days.
