Barry turned his attention to him. “So this must be the man who stole your heart.” He extended a hand to Nick, then reeled him in for his own bear hug. “You, sir, are a god in the College of Communication.”
“I’m what?” He pulled out of Barry’s grip.
“That last minute press conference you held at St. Theresa’s is legendary. It usually takes time to put on something like that, but you made it look natural. You have a few fans here, Mr. Harris.”
Shelly seldom saw Nick blush, but it seemed as if Barry had struck a chord. She was the reason they were here, the famed graduate, the miracle child. But she loved the fact Barry was doting on him.
“Please, call me Nick,” he said to Barry. “And I’m just tagging
along for the ride.”
“Okay, Nick.” Barry nodded.
Shelly pointed to an empty chair in the first row and Nick made use of it.
“Dr. White, are you ready to talk to tomorrow’s young medical
minds?”
She smiled, nodded, and stood with hands clasped behind her back.
“Okay, class, take your seats,” he said to the contingent of one hundred twenty-five students in the theater-style lecture hall. “I have the pleasure of introducing to you a dear friend, a fellow Gator, and a walking medical miracle, Dr. Shelly White.”
She grabbed the microphone and easily filled the hour talking about her life at UF, beating cancer, and what it was like on the front lines as a physician. She spent the last fifteen minutes talking about the Kristen Foundation Project.
“As I close, I would like to introduce this man on my left, Nick Harris. He and his father are the reason the challenge exists. At first I thought they were dreamers.” She looked at Nick and, giving him a playful smile, said, “And then I found out they were just passionate. Nuts about finding the cure for cancer, like all of you here in this room. Like all of you, my passion is to heal. But what Nick did was send us in a different direction. The cure for cancer will be more than just a vaccine. It will be many minds working together with one goal. It will be one group having one answer and another having a similar, yet different, approach. It will be