blondexhurricane:

teddyaltmcn:

“What makes you think you didn’t,
honey?”   Teddy  asked,  instantly
concerned.  Dropping  her  charts,
she  made  her way over to where
her daughter  was sat, taking hold
of her hand.

“To be clear, I’m not saying that you can’t
separate your professional life from your
personal one. I just don’t want you having
to worry about what all’s going on with me
when you have a patient who needs you to
get their heart beating back to normal again,”
Delia sighed, feeling like she was too old to
keep running to Teddy with all her problems.
Yet there she was, once again needing some
encouragement but not knowing how to ask
for it.

                “To be honest, I’m not sure if you can help me or not,”
                Delia started, taking a seat on the arm of the couch. “I
                finally managed to get all A’s except for one class this
                time, but who’s to say that’s good enough? Like, isn’t
                college just going to be that much more hard work than
                high school? I don’t know. I guess I’m just worried that
                no college with a good medical program is going to want
                to accept me, and then my dream for the past like decade
                of my life is going to completely crumble into nothing but
                dust around my feet.”

“Oh,  honey,”  Teddy  sighed, chuckling in spite of herself.
“Is that what you’re worried about? Because I can tell you
right  now  that  there’s  no  need.  I’ve seen how hard you
work  — hell, you might even work harder than me, trying
to  ace  all  of your classes. Persistence and patience are
worth  s o  much  more  than  grades, you know. I went to
state school, and look at  me  now  —  my  grades  didn’t
matter, because I  was  so  sure  of  my d r e a m . If your
dream  truly  is  to  save  lives,  you’ll  get  there one day,
I promise.”

                Stroking Delia’s cheek affectionately, Teddy  tilted her  head
                and smiled. “You know that you  a l w a y s come first, right?
                No matter what. Whenever you need me,  I’ll be  there.”  She
                tried hard to mean what she’d said; yet,  there were still days
                where she  had failed  her  daughter.  Those  days  made  up
                most of her regrets, it was true — but didn’t that hold true for
                any mother?