Running on Insulin

Chapter 6

We brought Samantha home a day later. Our background and credit checks were clean and the social worker came by to check that our house was appropriate for a 13-year-old girl. We showed the social worker one of the spare bedrooms we had that we'd be giving to Samantha. It was one of the bigger ones, and she'd have her own bathroom.

We had a queen size bed in that room and figured we'd take Samantha to get bedding that was more her style instead of the bedding we had on the bed for guests.

Samantha had nothing with her when we picked her up from the hospital. Jenna brought Samantha her cleaned clothes and one of her fall jackets. We waited while she changed out of her hospital gown. I waited in the hallway for the two of them.

Samantha had her discharge papers, orders and prescriptions for insulin, a glucose monitor and some other medications. We went to the pharmacy first and got all that set up and filled and took her for lunch.

"You've got to want something better than hospital food," I smiled as we pulled up to the mall. There were a couple of restaurants and I figured we could get her some clothes, too.

"That's okay. I'm alright," she said.

"Well, I'm hungry," Jenna said, putting her arm around Samantha's shoulders. "I'm in the mood for a burger. How about you?"

She shrugged.

"I could probably find something somewhere," she said.

We went into the T.G.I.Friday's and got seated immediately. Jenna looked at the menu and made her choice. I decided on a burger, too. Samantha stared at the menu and I could see her fingers working.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Just calculating carbs," she sighed.

Finally it seemed she'd decided on something and I watched as she pulled out her kit.

"Um, I'll go to the bathroom to do this," she said, starting to get up.

"You don't have to," I said. "I find it interesting. Needles don't scare me and I suppose we should learn some of what you need to do in case we need to help you."

She looked at me incredulously. I watched as she checked her blood sugar, did another calculation in her head, then pulled the hem of her shirt up and injected insulin into the skin of her abdomen.

She was nervous around us, which I suppose shouldn't be surprising. Her hands were shaking.

Once she was done, she packed away everything and we waited for the server to come take our order. 

"So," Jenna started.  "I thought after lunch we could go get you some clothes. I'm not sure if we're allowed to bring you back to your house to get anything, but we can get you some clothes here. How does that sound?"

"Okay, I guess," Samantha said. "You don't have to. I'll make do."

"With one t-shirt, one sweatshirt, a pair of jeans and one set of undergarments?  I don't think so," Jenna said.

Samantha shrugged.

The server came, brought us waters, and took our orders and left.

Samantha picked up her water. Her hands was shaking so badly.  She knocked the water over and it spilled on my lap. I jumped up.

"I'm sorry!" She cried. I started mopping up the water with our napkins and looking for a server to get us some more napkins, maybe a cloth, and some more water.

We got everything cleaned up and I sat down.

"Where's Samantha?" I asked Jenna. She looked around and shrugged.

I stood up and looked around. I didn't see Samantha. I caught a server and asked if they'd seen the girl what was with us.

"I think I saw her run into the bathroom." They said.

"I'll go," Jenna said. "Since you can't."

———————-
Jenna POV

"Samantha? Honey? You in here?" I asked as I pushed open the washroom door. No answer. But I listened. I could hear sniffling. I went into the washroom and saw Samantha sitting on the floor, as far away from the door as possible, curled up into a ball.

"Samantha, honey?" I asked, bending down in front of her and touching her knee.

She recoiled from my touch.

"Samantha? What's the matter?" I asked.

"I-I'm sorry," was all she could say.

"It's okay sweetheart," I said in as calm a tone as I could. "It's alright."

I watched her for a minute. She was protecting herself.

"Samantha, you're alright. You're okay. If you need a minute, that's okay. I'm going to wait right here with you until you're ready. Okay?"

"Is he mad?" She asked her knees.

"Who?"

"Tyler. Is he mad? Is he mad I spilled the water?"

"Mad? Of course not. It's just water. He does look like he peed his pants, but I'm sure it'll dry before we finish lunch. Why would he be mad?"

"Will he hit me?" She asked. Her voice small.

"Hit you? Over some spilled water? Samantha, honey, no. It's okay. You're safe with us. Tyler isn't going to get mad over spilled water. And he certainly will never hit you. Me either for the record. I promise you. You are safe with us."

I let her let my words sink in, give her time to process. I could see we were going to have to take things very carefully and slowly.

Samantha stopped crying, and started to relax a bit. I touched her shoulder and she melted towards me. We were getting somewhere.

"Are you ready to come out and have some lunch?" I asked. She nodded.

I helped her up and suggested she splash some water in her face. She did and dried off with some paper towels, wiping her eyes.

"Better?" I asked. She nodded. I put my arm around her shoulders and we went back to the table. Tyler was texting on his phone.

"Hey. There you are. Are you okay?"

"She's fine," I said. "She'll be okay."

I sent Tyler a look to indicate to drop it for now.

"Hungry?" He asked Samantha. She nodded.

"Awesome. The server said the food will be right out."

I watched Samantha as our food came. She picked at it, but ate almost all of the chicken fingers she'd ordered. She didn't use the plum sauce but did use a bit of ketchup.

We tried to get her to talk about what she liked, but she seemed more skittish than before. What had her father done to her that she was having trouble handling a meal in a restaurant?