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“Dr. Mohan, please tell these doctors that I am fine.”
Oh, shit. This was bad. He hadn’t called her Dr. Mohan in like 2 years unless they were in front of a patient. Also, him saying “these doctors” made her realize he did not recognize them even though they were the newest batch of residents and had been rotating at the Pitt for 3 months now. Fuck.
“I can’t do that. You hit your head quite severely so these doctors need to finish checking you up and there probably has to be some imaging done.”
“I need to get back on the floor, Mohan.”
“Not happening.”
A nurse came in at that moment, “Excuse me, Dr. Mohan-Ab..” she stopped short upon seeing Samira frantically shaking her head. “Sorry. Um. His emergency contact is here.”
Samira sighed in relief. Then tensed back up again because this was probably about to get very awkward, very fast.
She turned to face the man in the bed but before she could get a word in, a tiny whirlwind with a mop of brown curls entered the room squealing in delight, “Unca Robby, Unca Robby! I here to make you betta!” before trying to push a chair up to the bed to climb in with him.
“Uncle…? What? Mohan, who is this? Oh, thank god, Jack you’re here.” Robby stuttered as Jack walked into the room.
“Michael, heard you took a tumble today, pal. Good thing you have a lovely fairy god-daughter to come save… you?” It was then that Jack Abbot took in the confused face of the Chief of Emergency Medicine and then the horrified look on Samira’s face and he knew he’d somehow stepped in it.
“Jack. Who’s this?” Robby pointed at the little gremlin with fairy wings now curled up on top of him.
“Uh..” Jack stalled before swivelling to the other doctor in the room, who now had her face in her hands not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.
“Yeah. Um, Dr. Abbot mind stepping out with me for a sec? Dr. Robby, we’ll be right back with you. Please, do keep an eye on the baby.”
“Samira, honey, what the fuck?” Jack whispered at her the moment they were out of the room.
“ME? YOU! Why did you bring Kari with you!?”
“Picked her up earlier from daycare, figured she’d cheer him right up. Didn’t know he hit his head that hard.”
“Yeah, I was about to tell you. He doesn’t recognize any of the new interns and residents. Called me ‘Dr. Mohan’ in private which hasn’t happened since we got married. We just got his scans back and it doesn’t seem like a big deal, no bleeding but just a huge contusion. Hopefully the retrograde amnesia will resolve by morning.”
“Brother? Did you steal a toddler?” Robby’s worried voice came from inside the room, signaling them it was probably time to go back in.
They walked in to a tiny little girl standing on top of Robby’s knees with both her tiny hands grasping at the man’s beard, leaning her tiny head into him and saying. “Head hurts, Unca Robby? I make betta!” And then she smacked a wet kiss on Robby’s forehead.
Samira and Jack couldn’t help but start laughing at the scene. Robby, still very confused, turned to look at them.
Karishma also turned to look at her parents and screamed, “Papa, up. UUUUP. I make Unca Robby betta.”
Jack rushed forward to pick up his daughter, who was now standing up completely on the bed and walking towards the edge.
“Yeah, baby. You did make your Uncle Robby feel better. Right, Rob?”
Before he could respond, the girl in Jack’s arms caught sight of Samira and she squealed again, a string of “mama, mama, mama, mama!” escaping her as she reached for her. Samira stepped right up to her husband and relieved him of their daughter with a smile on her face, and softly whispered “Hi, bug!”
“Uh, yeah. Dr. Mohan, I think perhaps you were correct in keeping me for observation. I think I am hallucinating stuff.”
“Not hallucinating, Robby.” She said to him without taking her eyes off Karishma.
“When did this happen? How much am I missing?”
“At least two years. You haven’t called me Dr. Mohan since Jack and I got married. You really enjoyed the whole Mohan-Abbot name change, said it flows really nice and used it as a vocal stim for two weeks after the wedding. Could have been pretty annoying but I was still at Presby back then for my fellowship.”
"It was very annoying, I can confirm that." Jack chimes in, a wry smile on his lips.
“And this little one? Kari, you said?” Oops. Seems he’d been able to hear some of their conversation outside the door. Oh well.
“Karishma Mohan-Abbot. She’s a little over two. You love hanging out with her. She says you’re her best friend.”
If Samira was not mistaken there were tears in Robby’s eyes. She wanted to say she hadn’t seen Robby cry often but that was not the truth. The man was a cry-baby. Cried at MCIs, cried when his mental health took a turn for the worse, cried when he got better, cried when Kari was born and again when Jack asked him to be godfather. So yeah, Robby was a crier and it was not surprising that learning about his relationship with her daughter was making him tear up.
“Wait a minute. If you say I’m missing two years using the wedding as a memory checkpoint and this kid is two then that means… oooh ho ho ho Brother, you did not keep it in your pants before the wedding, did you?”
Samira rolled her eyes, while Jack stepped forward to Robby.
“Yeah, man. We’ve had this conversation before. You almost choked when I told you.”
“Well, yeah cause you told me when I was taking a sip of coffee after we finished hand-off, you bozo!”
The three doctors just looked at each other in surprise at him remembering something. Kari was just busy playing with her mom’s retractable badge reel.
“Well would you look at that, Kari. You really did make your Uncle Robby better!”