It’s something I’ve become used to in the past two weeks, working with the Scott-Perez family every few days. One of the first steps in a medical liability case is to investigate what happened and find as much information as one can from the people involved and from experts, so I’ve had to conduct a lot of interviews to get my facts straight.

“It’s okay, Dennis,” I tell him as I finish writing down what daily living tasks he can’t do anymore, mostly provided by Martina. “I think I got all that I need for the moment.”

Still, he opens his mouth and produces a few sounds followed by a couple of unrelated words. With the frustration in his face, they’re clearly not the ones he’s trying to express.

“I think he’s trying to add something I missed,” Martina says, eyes narrowed as she rubs Dennis’s arm. “It’s okay, mi amor.”

His left hand balled into a fist on the table, he purses his lips, then tries again, to no avail. It breaks my heart through and through.

“If it’s okay with you, I could go over today’s questions with your son too. Maybe he’ll find that missing detail, Dennis.”

I don’t know where Aaron is today. In fact, I haven’t seen him much in the times I’ve been here, and I’ve worked from the office in the past two days.

It was good to go back to my usual schedule, like sliding into an old pair of slippers. I could rely on muscle memory to go through the motions. However, I have to admit that it hasn’t been too bad to come here from time to time. On the first days, it was destabilizing, to say the least, but I got used to it quickly enough, and I haven’t seen any change in my functioning as of yet, so I’d say it’s been overall better than expected.

“That’s a good idea,” Martina says, her face brightening for the first time since Dennis started to show disagreement with what she was saying. “He went to pick Callie up after his work, but he should be back soon, I think.”

Callie. Is that Aaron’s girlfriend? I’ve heard that name here before, but I don’t remember in what context. For all I know, it could be the girl he proposed to this summer. He’d told me he wouldn’t stay with her, but he could’ve changed his mind. I haven’t asked him about what happened after that night. To be honest, neither one of us has brought up the day we met since I agreed to take the job. Not like we’ve talked all that much anyway.