Living with my greatest fear.

~Chapter 3~

Grant's POV:

I've been looking around E's mouth for a few minutes now, and everything seems to be okay until I notice something...

I look closer at the tooth and I think Ellie has a cavity. How am I going to tell her this? She's going to get so upset. She never wanted any dental treatment before and luckily enough for her she has never had to have any treatment but now she has to. I take my tools out of her mouth, push the light up, move the tray away from her chest and put the chair up to the original position.

"E, have some news," I say sadly.

"No, no, no, what is it? Please don't say I need to be here any longer. Please, I really can't!"

I can hear Ellie getting really worked up and I really need to tell her that she has a cavity but I need her to calm down before I do.

"Ellie, princess, calm down for me, love. You're okay, it's all going to be okay. Don't worry," I say, trying to reassure her.

"What do you need to tell me?" She said, gasping for breath.

"I need you to calm down before I tell you, baby," I say, whilst holding her hand towards my chest "Breath to my heart rate, Ellie"

Soon after, she was starting to calm down.

"I'm really sorry to say this to you, E, but you have a cavity...I need to take an x-ray so I can see how big it is. I don't think it's very big but we'll have to have a look."

I go to the cupboard to get a lead jacket. Ellie immediately looks up at me, looking scared to death, "Grant, what are you doing?" She says, shakily. 

"I need to put this on you, princess, for when we take your x-ray, it'll protect you from the radiation."

"I don't need that, Grant. I'll be okay without it. I don't want it."

"Baby, you need this on. You have to have it, you have no choice."

Ellie's POV:

I don't want that jacket on me. It looks so heavy and I don't want to feel forced against the chair. I really don't want it but Grant is forcing me to have it. I guess I'm just going to have to let him put it on me because he's not going to give up any time soon. 

"Fine. I'll have it"

"Thank you, E, I promise this won't take long." "Can you open up for me please? I need to put this bitewing in your mouth so I can take your x-ray"

"O-okay," I say, nervously.

"And bite down for me...thank you baby"

Grant left the room and I didn't know where he was going. He just left me in this room on my own! How could he leave me in this hellhole by myself?! I take the bitewing out of my mouth and get up out of the chair.

"Grant! Where are you? Why did you just leave me there by myself?!"

"Ellie! You need to sit in the chair and stay still! You can't just get out of the chair when I'm taking an x-ray!"

"You didn't tell me where you were going! What did you think I was going to do?!"

"Ellie. Enough with that attitude now. I'm here helping you and you're not making this easy. I understand that you are scared but you need to cooperate and do what I say. I'm not saying all of this just to be awkward, I'm doing it for your benefit and your safety. Now, please, go and sit down on the chair again."

Grant is getting annoyed with me now and I feel really bad, but I can't help being scared. I go back and sit down on the chair. Grant puts a new bitewing in my mouth, I bite down, and he puts a camera by my cheek and tells me he is going to step out to take the x-ray. This time I didn't move and Grant thanked me for it. We do the same for the other side of my mouth and then Grant loads them up on his computer.

Grant's POV:

I load the x-ray onto my computer to see how big the cavity is. I get Ellie to come and stand by me to show her the x-ray. She gets up nervously and slowly walks over to me.

"Ellie, your cavity isn't very deep at all, so it won't take long to fill but as it's got quite late now and I don't want you to stay here any longer. We can do it tomorrow, I'll have to book you according to my schedule because I'm working tomorrow. I'll look to see what times I can do."

"I don't want it filled - having it filled means using the drill and I don't want that. I'm not having that. No, Grant, no!!"

I can see Ellie getting worked up again, I know she's scared but she has to have this filled and I have to tell her what will happen if she doesn't get it filled tomorrow.

"Ellie, listen to me, you need this cavity filled. If you don't have it filled tomorrow, then it can turn into something much worse and will start to cause you pain and discomfort and neither of us want that, do we?"

"No, I guess not...what times can you do tomorrow?"

I quickly look at my schedule for tomorrow and it's pretty packed with different cases. It's going to be difficult to get Ellie in. The longest time I have is throughout my lunch break and 40 mins after. 40 mins would be long enough for a filling but I want Ellie to have as much time as I can give her to have her filling done.

"I have a pretty packed day tomorrow, but if I use my lunch break, we will have 1hr and 40 mins to do your filling, which will be more than enough time for you to have the time you need."

"Okay, I guess tomorrow lunch then?"

"Sounds good to me!" "Will you walk down for your appointment or do you want me to come and get you at the start of my lunch?"

"Can you get me at the start of your lunch? I can forget about it until you come to get me."

"Okay, princess. There's nothing to worry about though, okay? You'll be absolutely fine."

I give Ellie a hug to try to reassure her that it will be okay, but I don't think anything is going to change the way that she views the dentist. I'm going to try to get her to understand that this isn't a scary place. She doesn't need to be scared of it, especially because I'm her brother and her dentist.