Chapter 6

Monday morning marked Daniel's first entire week in the hospital. It had been exactly 7 days since he had been admitted.

First his cough only seemed to get worse but after two days of antibiotics, Daniel started showing improvement, which made Dr. Daniel very happy too. He checked on the baby every day.

"Good morning." Dr. Daniel knocked on the door and walked into the room.

In just one week Daniel's room has changed entirely. His colorful hospital bed now had the Winnie The Pooh bear he had gotten from his Uncle David and his stuffed sheep had made it to the hospital to join him. Besides that, there were lots of balloons that had been sent that decorated the room.

Dr. Daniel noticed immediately. "Looks very nice in here. Must get Daniel's attention a lot."
"Not really." Richie answered, looking down at Daniel in his arms.

At first they were unsure of holding Daniel because of his catheter on his small hand but after trying carefully each time, they figured out how to do it.

"He doesn't look at the colors?" The doctor asked.
"No, he doesn't. He loves music though and he really recognizes it. Whenever I play, he really relaxed, always gets him to sleep." Richie answered as he gently rocked his son in his arms.
Dr. Daniel frowned at him. "He reacts to music but not when you call him?"
Richie shrugged. "Maybe he just doesn't know his name well enough yet."
"Maybe." Dr. Daniel agreed but didn't sound convinced. "Is Sarah here?"
"No. She had an exam, she wanted to skip it but I couldn't let her do that." Richie explained.

The course Sarah was taking was very important to her and he didn't want her to miss the exam. She had been studying hard and even though it was only mid-course exam.

"Alright." Dr. Daniel nodded. "Well, Daniel's doing great. The antibiotics seem to do their job. We'll be doing another test at the end of the week to check his progress."
"That's great." Richie smiled down at his little boy.
"If you have any questions, you can always call me." Dr. Daniel said.
"Will do."

A second later, Richie was alone with his son again.

He held Daniel until he was sleeping, then carefully stood up with him and gently laid him down in his crib again.

From his jeans' pocket, he retrieved his phone and fast dialed Sarah's number. He hoped her exam was over by now and that he wasn't phoning her during it.

Just as he wanted to end the call, Sarah answered it.

"Ah there you are." He said relieved. "How'd it go?"
"Great! Well, I don't get the results til next week but it went really well I think."
"Yeah?" Richie asked.
Unknowing to him, Sarah smiled brightly on the other end of the line. "I could answer every question, I knew all the answers right away."
"That's really good."
"So next week I get my results, along with the next course book and I can do the final in July or August." She said excited.
"You'll do great." He knew she would, without a doubt.
"How's Daniel?"
Richie walked back to the crib to watch him sleep. "Sleeping. He was up for a while so we cuddled and the doctor just came by but then he fell asleep so he's back in his crib."
"That's good. I'll be there soon."
"We'll wait for you." Richie said before saying goodbye and ending their call.