Rapunzel briefly looked up from the file she was sorting through as Jack whizzed by, steering a wheelchair with Annie at break neck speeds.
"Be careful, Jack!" She called after him. He flashed a smile and slowed down, carefully turning the wheel chair to push Annie back to her room.
"What are you talking about? I'm always careful," Jack says confidently. "Aren't I, Annie?"
The little girl looks back at him and giggles before eagerly nodding in agreement.
Rapunzel could still remember the feeling of the wind on her face as Jack would steer her through crowded halls, nurses yelling at them as they cut corners and swerved around IV poles and crash carts. The way she laughed at the adrenaline, the way his eyes widened and crinkled whenever he elicited a giggle from her.
Rapunzel's forehead creased before giving a reluctant smile and returning to the file before her. She punched a few codes into the computer and filtered through mumbling under her breath.
"Where is it…I know you graduated…but where…AH!" Rapunzel lifted a photocopy of a diploma with relish. She turned back to the computer and looks down to find that the page disappeared. She looked up bleary eyed to see Jack holding the paper from across the desk.
"What are you doing?" Jack asks raising an eyebrow at her over the paper.
"I'm auditing files."
"And that is-"
"I go through and look for verifications, certifications, credentials…"
"Wow" Jack interposes. "That sounds awful."
"It's not so bad," she mumbles, lightly taking the page back from him. His eye brows shot up as he stared down at her. He leaned across the desk to get a glimpse of the computer screen.
"I do not envy your job."
"Well," she says, returning to the screen, "Not everyone can recreate Daytona 500 for volunteer hours. Some of us actually have to work." She looks up at Jack to give him a brief smirk.
"Annie's fine! She's bored, like me. And you."
His tone made her pause, eyes scrutinizing the mischievous look that's twisted his features.
-2 minutes later-
Her hands cover her eyes, only daring to peak through her fingers as she hurtles down the hall. Jack laughs and whoops as they turn a corner, just missing the edge, as the wheelchair balances on the outside wheel.
"Sl-slow down, Jack!" Rapunzel begs, only egging him on to go faster. She stifles a scream as they nearly scrape the side of a dining cart, the nurse looking on with disapproval. This was nothing like what she remembered.
"Sorry!" Rapunzel calls, wondering how on earth she'll ever explain this to her supervisor. Jack continued to laugh as he steered her clear of a few kids in wheel chairs who laugh and point as they near a closing elevator. Realizing that he is not going to slow down, Rapunzel squeezed herself into a ball, bracing her body for impact. A second later, she's brought to a screeching halt, and the friendly ding of the elevator signals her safety. She takes her arms away from her face to see the inside of the elevator and a sweaty Jack smiling down at her.
"Better than paperwork, huh?" He asks in between pants. She looks up at him and gives a faint nod, still caught in the moment before a nonexistent impact. His eyes are lit by the rush of endorphins and his cheeks are flushed as he smiles down at her and surveys the buttons lining the right side of the elevator. He punched a floor at random and the elevator shoots upward as Rapunzel gives him a quizzical look.
The roof?
As she contemplates all the ways he can get her killed from that height, he leaned against the wall of the elevator and looked at her worried expression.
She's changed so much since the first time I saw her. He thinks fondly, remembering that spunky little girl who was constantly jumping off of the furniture in the kids play room in the hospital. Her hair was long, even then, but from the several rounds of chemo, it started falling out in patches. She would run to him, tears streaming from her cheeks, clutching a wad of the golden locks in her tiny fist.
"Look!" She'd said around the hiccups. "It's- it's falling out!" She ran her arm under her nose, and looked to him. He knelt down to where she was gripping the hair and looked her in the eyes.
"That's a good thing, Punz. It means that the medicine is working."
"But-but- what if it never grows back?"
He smiled at her and drew out a purple bandana with a golden sun in the center.
"Then you'll wear this. And you'll always be the prettiest girl, because you've got the sun on your side."
She took the bandana thoughtfully before giving him a wobbly smile and wiping a stray tear from her face. He took the bandana from her hands and wrapped it around her head, covering the spots that were rapidly thinning out.
"There. Now you can't even tell."
Rapunzel put a small pink hand to her head, her mouth a perfect O as she felt the smooth material rub against her palm. She gave him a dazzling smile before wiping the last tear from her face. He held out his hand to take the wad of hair she willingly offered.
"Alright, now let's play a game."
Jack rubbed the back of his head as he looked at Rapunzel's full head of hair, golden and longer than ever. Looking at her now, you'd never know that she'd fought against a rare childhood cancer. The tell-tale bruising pattern was gone from her arms and legs, her face had lost its pale complexion with dark circles under her eyes. He didn't think that he would ever forget the sight of her walking to see him late at night in the play room. She was gripping an IV pole, wheeling it around expertly while a bag filled with fluids pumped into her constantly. She knocked on the door and he stopped putting away toys to open it to the pitiful sight. She looked so lost and helpless, but she gave him a brilliant smile, like he was the sun that shone on her bandana.
Rapunzel looked up to see him staring at her.
"What is it?" She asked.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Nothing, just thinking."
"Of?" she prodded. It was that look. That look that showed how completely lost he was in his own mind. How absorbed he would become in his thoughts and memories. Sometimes she would catch him staring at her like that, a squirm inducing stare that pierced through her.
"How it's a crime that you've been stuck behind a desk all day."
Rapunzel rolled her eyes and sighed.
"How are you feeling?" He wondered, the ghost of the patient she once was, flashing momentarily before his eyes.
"Fine," she replied with a shrug. She wrapped her hands around her arms, biting the inside of her cheek. She carefully adjusted the sleeves of her shirt and heard the soft ping of the elevator as the doors opened to reveal the top floor of the hospital. The ceiling was glass, allowing sunlight to stream in through, clean and bright. A small door at the far side led to an outside garden that the employees were allowed to use. It was virtually the only 'kid-free' zone in the expansive children's hospital. Jack took the handles and pushed the chair to the door, paused to enter the code, and opened the door. Rapunzel wheeled herself over the bump in the door frame and breathed in the cool air. She stood up and walked over to where the bench was, surrounded by copious amounts of dog roses. She ran her hand over the back of the wrought iron bench and then followed the stone path through the thicker part of the garden. The shrubs and trees were more overgrown in this part, but their complex mix only improved the sight. Jack hesitantly followed her to the edge of the roof, leaning against the wall and looking at the city below. Far off he could see a small chapel and cemetery, a chilling reminder that not everyone gets out alive. Rapunzel leaned against the rail and sighs before turning to face Jack.
"Listen, Jack, I-"
"Do you remember the bandana I gave you?" He interjects. She looks at him startled and nods. "Really? I mean you were so young that I assumed…" Jack lets his speech trail off into the wind as Rapunzel fixes him with a serious expression.
"I've always kept it. It meant so much to me then, and now…Well." Rapunzel fishes into her pocket and brings her hand out, clutching the bandana, a corner peeking out from her fist. Jack's eyebrows raise and he gives her a warm smile, but she looks down avoiding his gaze. She fingers the smooth material before looking back up at him, her face grim.
"I always kept it because it was special. And now it looks like I'll need it again."
Jack stared at her, not daring to understand her implications.
"What are you talking about? You're fine, I mean look at you-"
"No, Jack, I," Rapunzel takes a deep breath and looks out to the city before returning to his horrified gaze. "The doctors always said that it could come back. They said that remission would hold for a while, but that it could relapse later on, more forcefully."
Jack tried to find words to calm her down. It's been years, she can't possibly be…she seems so healthy. So right.
"You don't know that it will happen. I mean, you've made it this far…" he trails off as she bites her bottom lip nervously. She looks down and brings up her sleeve. Jack stares at her arm, taking in the all too familiar bruise pattern.
"How long have you known?" He asks quietly, afraid that speaking too loud would break her.
"A few weeks. My doctor did some blood tests to confirm, and I got the results back yesterday." Rapunzel moves to cover up her forearm when Jack gently grips her wrist. He stares at the black and blue splotches before gently kissing the inside of her wrist and staring into her eyes. Rapunzel feels the tears start to gently overflow as Jack wraps her into a warm embrace. His arms are gentle against her, afraid to cause more bruising to her delicate body. He feels her body move as she quietly sobs, her tears making a wet spot in his scrubs. Jack removes her from his chest to look into her eyes.
"Punz, we've done this once, ok? We can do it again."
She nods weakly before he leans in to kiss her forehead and wrap her in another hug.
"Let's get you back inside," he murmurs into her hair. He feels her nod against his chest and he guides her to the wheel chair.
"I promise to go slower this time," he jokes as he wheels her back to the elevators. She leans her head against his hand and looks up at him with a watery smile. Jack stopped the wheelchair and walked around to face her. He kneeled down and took the bandana from her hand. He wrapped it around her head, her golden hair full for now.
"You'll always be the prettiest girl because you've got the sun on your side," he quotes, a sad smile lifting the edge of his mouth.
Rapunzel smiles and asks, "Do you want to play a game?"
He breaks into a full grin before returning to the back of the chair and pushing it towards the elevator.
A soft ding is heard as the doors slide open. Jack steers her in and pushes the button before Rapunzel grabs his hand.
"This doesn't change anything, you know," he says, looking intently at her eyes. She nods mutely but doesn't seem convinced.
"I just don't want to hold you back," she admits. "This isn't going to be easy for us. If you want to leave, I completely understand."
Jack shakes his head before cupping his hand around her cheek. She smiles sadly, knowing that he could still change his mind.
"I just want to be where you are," he whispers as the elevator slows. The doors opened and he slowly wheeled her back down the familiar hall back to her desk. The nurse pursed her lips at them as they pass by a slower pace than before. She registers the serious expressions on their faces and writes it off to a couple's quarrel. Back at her desk, Rapunzel lifts herself from the chair and walks over to brush her fingers over the open files. She gives them a somber look and shakes her head.
"I'm just so tired," she mumbles to herself. Jack hears and walks away briskly to return the wheelchair to the supply closet. Rapunzel looks up at his rapid departure and sighs into her chair.
And so it begins. She thinks sadly to herself. She had to tell him. After all that they've been through, she owed him the truth. She rubbed her eye before returning to the computer screen to continue working. Rapunzel shifted through the open file, trying to focus on the jumble of documents before her. Her head snapped up as she hears Jack roll a desk chair over to where she's sitting.
"Okay," he says determined, "how do you do this?"
"You don't have to," she begins but Jack silences her with a raised hand.
"I insist," he says with a smile. She gratefully returns to it before guiding him through the process. They work in companionable silence as he sifts through the papers while she enters the information into the computer. Hours later, Jack rubs his shoulder ruefully.
No one said that working at a desk would hurt physically. How does anyone do this five days a week? It's maddening! His thoughts, always churning, quieted as he looked at Rapunzel working peacefully, a thoughtful diligence about her. She felt his gaze and looked up.
"Bored?" she asks with a smile. He rolled his eyes and smirked.
"It's no game of freeze tag," he says teasingly, handing her a paper. She smiles at him before accepting the page. As she took it, her sleeve shifted and the bruises became visible again. He noticed but failed to comment. She followed his gaze down and tugged at her sleeve, hiding the truth.