Houses

"Well, what was I supposed to say?" She rolled her eyes. "The poor girl's going to still be eating that lot next Christmas!"

Izzy smiled. "Thank you, both of you. I'm sure she'll love it."

"Oh! That'll be Will and June then," Izzy said, moving to open the door. "Er, feel free to grab something to eat. There's salad and biscuits and other stuff in the kitchen."

Will grinned from the doorway, raising his hand in silent greetings.

"Oh my..." Izzy didn't know what to say. "Uhm, come in, all of you." She dusted down her skirt self-consciously and moved aside so they could enter.

"What's that smell?"

"What smell?"

"I dunno, like chocolate or summat," Tessa laughed, looking up at the surgeon through glazed eyes. "Funny."

"Okay, possible complex partial seizure," the neurosurgeon muttered to the anaesthetist. "Can happen in the mapping procedure. Let's get her back under, quickly please."

--

"Unfortunately now that we're in, it looks like we won't be able to remove as much as we'd hoped," the surgeon glanced over the monitor, brow furrowed as she returned to the pipette of water.

"Just remove as much as possible." Came another reply. "We want to ensure the best outcome possible."

The machine bleeped.
"Okay, she's tachycardic. We've got a small bleed here."

"Bleed?"

"Let's lower her bp." The theatre fell into silence as the bleeps stopped for a minute. Then another set followed, higher and at more frequent intervals. "Bleed not stopping," came the urgent whisper. "Not good. The brain is swelling. Sort the blood pressure; I need to remove more."

For another minute, the bleeps continued. The surgeon paused, hand trembling ever so slightly. "Check her pupils."

"What?"

"Check her pupils. Please."

One of the nurses moved around the bed to gently lift up one of the girl's eyelids. "Pupils fixed and dilated," he reported solemnly. "She's gone."

--

Tessa sat up in bed with a cry, chest heaving as she sucked in breath after shaky breath. The book on her bedside table went crashing to the floor at the sudden movement.

From downstairs, Will looked up with a frown. "What was that?"

There were no doubts in his mind as Will nodded to his wife and made to follow Alfred up the stairs, closely followed by Izzy.

Tessa groaned, holding her fingers to her temple as a wave of dizziness blurred her vision. She vaguely registered the fact that the book was lying on the floor, and leant from the bed to pick it up.

"'m fine," she mumbled, realising that someone was coming up the stairs and lowering her voice to a whisper. "Just a bad dream."

Tessa nodded blearily, fumbling with the covers to lift them and slide the book out of sight as her bedroom door opened.

"'m okay, dad," she said, blushing a little as she realised that half of the family had accompanied him into her room and she was dressed in her pyjamas. "Just a nightmare."

She looked slightly alarmed for a second. "No, I- uh, I've slept enough. 's there any food?"