Read Online Ask Adam by Jess Dee - Free Book Online Page B

haven’t?”
     
    “We intend to identify siblings from the first hospital admission. When a new patient is admitted, notes will be made about siblings, and the information sent through to us. When the time is right, a staff member will approach the parents to discuss the possibility of the siblings joining the program.”
     
    “When the time is right?”
     
    “The family’s in crisis. They’d need time to adjust to both the illness and the treatment before we introduced the concept of sibling intervention. We can’t let too much time pass, though. The siblings are in crisis too, and the sooner we get to them, the better.”
     
    “So what will your program offer?”
     
    “It’s a threefold service with a primary focus on counseling and support. We’d also offer education about the disease, maybe even a chance for the kids to meet with the doctors and ask questions that their parents can’t or won’t answer. Finally, the program would give the children a place to go when they don’t know where else to turn.”
     
    “Where would your offices be?”
     
    “Next to the pediatric oncology ward. I have approval from the hospital board to utilize a few empty rooms. We’d convert them into a lounge, a toy room, a counseling room and an office for the staff members.”
     
    “Who is the ‘we’ you keep referring to?”
     
    “Hospital social workers and nurses who have volunteered to help. I still need a full-time person to coordinate and manage the whole project. Someone new. The volunteers can’t give more than a few hours a week of their time. They already have full-time jobs.”
     
    “What about you? This is your baby, why not see it through?” She’d be good for the job. She knew her stuff and she obviously had an invested interest in the program. Most of all, she cared.
     
    Lexi laughed. “I’m already employed full time by the hospital. I’d be able to set a few hours aside each week to help out, but it’s not enough to ensure the program runs smoothly.”
     
    “Why the interest in this specific program?” He knew the answer. He knew almost everything about her.
     
    Lexi hesitated. She gave him a wary look, then shrugged. “I was once one of those kids. When I was ten, my sister was diagnosed with leukemia.”
     
    “Is she…did she survive?”
     
    “Yeah. She’s one of the lucky ones.”
     
    “What was it like for you, when she was sick?” He shouldn’t ask, shouldn’t find out any more about her. He couldn’t help himself.
     
    “A year straight from hell,” Lexi said. “I was too young to grasp the severity of the situation. Sarah was sick, my parents were devastated and the family almost fell apart.” She played with her coffee cup. “I was an emotional wreck, swinging from sad to happy, to angry to jealous. I had trouble concentrating at school, and apart from my brother, I didn’t have any real support.” She looked him dead in the eye. “I could really have used a little professional help then.”
     
    “What about now?” Was she over the trauma or did it still haunt her?
     
    “I’ve worked through it. Took a while, though. I would have coped better if I’d received intervention when Sarah was first diagnosed.”
     
    “And thus the sibling program?”
     
    “And thus the sibling program,” she agreed. “Far as I’m concerned, POWS can provide a way more comprehensive and holistic service if we treat the whole family and not just the patient.”
     
    Lexi cared, Adam realized. She gave a damn about what happened to people, even if she didn’t know them ¾ and she had no trouble showing it.
     
    A sudden sense of claustrophobia overpowered him. He had to get away from her. Once before, he’d seen this side of her. At her brother’s exhibition. He’d liked that she gave a damn. He’d liked it too much. Now it scared him shitless. What if she began to care about him? What if she began to show it? Worse, what if he began to care about her?
     
    He