Fᴇʙʀᴜᴀʀʏ 8, 2024
"How is she?" Petro asks the shaken doctor who finds herself standing outside the room where Alexa is still unconscious and...stable?
"Sh-she's okay..." The young lady stutters. "She's supposed to wake up soon."
On cue, Alexa shifts, groaning in a drug induced state. The anesthesia has worn off a bit, allowing her to wake up, but she isn't herself, or is she? Looking around with half open eyes, she feels out of control and...sad. There's a numbness in her abdomen and lightly, she brushes a hand over it where she feel two gauzes.
Petro enters the smelly room of bleach, cleaners and air conditioner, stopping by the bed of his drugged student. "Alexa, how are you feeling?" He asks.
Guard down again, her eyes begin to water as she tilts her head up to look at him. "My eggs are dead." She whimpers.
The old man nods slowly, "Yes...you're now infertile. Do you feel any pain?"
"Pain in my heart..." She whispers sniffling dramatically before gazing up at the old, stubby man. "You look like Santa Clause..."
"It's February."
Her glistening eyes slide over to the Indian doctor by the door and she asks in the most innocent way possible, gasping softly, "Is she an elf?"
"Alexa," Petro frowns in all seriousness when she looks back at him depressingly, "Where have your senses gone?"
A tear escapes her left eye when she sniffles again, choking on a sob, "To school...without me..."
Silence settles in the small space for a while. Only her sniffles are heard and Petro's frustration is building up. The doctor doesn't know whether she should be cooing or nervous.
Sniffing hard to stop mucus from running down her face, she suddenly breathes out to Petro, still in tears, "Wanna hear a joke?"
He rolls his eyes, not surprised by her sudden change in demeanor. "What is it?"
"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
"To get to the other side." He sighs.
Alexa shuts him down, making a quick 'X' with her index fingers, pulling on the IV. "It's to get to the idiot's house." Both Petro and Jane glance at each other, before turning back to the girl when she begins again, "Knock, knock!"
"Who's there?" He asks, curious as to where her joke is going.
She giggles, "The chicken—"
As Petro bursts into a fit, scolding her for calling him an idiot, the nurse laughs silently at their interaction and Phillipeño, now by the door, gets a full hearing of Alexa's childish yet beautiful laugh. Cute. He smiles and leaves before his presence is noticed, since he's just passing by and Petro rambles on.
"No...NO! Don't shout at me! I hate it..." She announces. She has a way of making her surroundings go quiet and this is one of those moments again. When her elder opens his mouth to rebut, she screams on the top of her lungs and the heart monitor starts to hip wildly. "I HATE IIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
"Okay, okay, calm down..." Doctor Jane rushes in to soothe her, blocking her view of Petro.
With the attention span of a five year old, she stares into the chocolate brown eyes of the woman, then observes her sideburns fading out at the side of her face. "Pretty." She mumbles airily.
The young doctor, caught off guard, pushes away from the girl and Alexa analyzes the room within seconds, then speaks up again after spotting Petro's retreating figure. She's always had an unspoken wish for a father figure, but that wish was never thought of and was stored away for good, until now...
"PAPA!"
He freezes, doing a double take on what she just called him.
"I want ice-cream!" She adds a little quieter, innocent eyes wide and waiting for his response.
The man huffs, raking a hand through his silver hair and he walks out of the room, disappearing in a few quick steps.
His heart.