A/N: This isn't the story I'd intended to post next, but this was seems to have grabbed me even more than the other I was working on. This story begins a few months after the end of the last online OLTL episode - except it ignores all the parts with Allison Perkins, because I really don't know what to make of them. So for the sake of this story, the whole Allison-drugging-Clint storyline is gone; he's just a messy drunk. That will probably be the case in all my stories that include the online canon, unless I can magically figure out just what I think the writers were doing with that whole storyline.
I am still working on Missing Pieces and will be wrapping that story up in a few weeks, so don't think I'm abandoning that one for this one! In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this new story!
Bo Buchanan tossed another case file into his 'pending' stack and leaned back in his chair. These days, it seemed there was very little of substance for the 'closed' stack, and try as he might to not let it get to him, it was. He supposed it didn't help that he had the mayor breathing down his neck about the series of still-unsolved drug murders that had started a few months back with Brianna Marland. Three overdoses and counting, and the department had almost nothing to show for it. Cases like those were the ones that bothered him the most.
Looking up at the sound of a knock on the door, he smiled and waved his niece into the office. "Natalie, this is a pleasant surprise," he said. "What can I do for you?"
"Just wanted to drop off the preliminary forensics report on last night's robbery," Natalie said, stepping up to the front of the desk and handing him a thin folder. "There's not a lot to go on in there, but we're still waiting on a full analysis of the fingerprints and DNA. I should have that for you sometime tomorrow."
"I wasn't even expecting a preliminary until tomorrow," Bo commented, flipping open the folder and scanning the first page. "That's a pretty impressive turnaround rate, Natalie."
Natalie smiled at the compliment. "What can I say? I'm that good," she said. "I'm headed out now, but I'll have my cell if you have any questions about the report."
"Out?" Bo frowned as he glanced up at the clock on the wall. "It's barely 2:30, Natalie."
"I have a doctor's appointment," Natalie said. "I'm pretty sure I told you this morning."
"Didn't you have a doctor's appointment last week?"
Natalie hesitated, having hoped he wouldn't remember that. "So?"
"So you had a doctor's appointment last week, and I'm pretty sure you had one the week before that too," Bo said. "Are you sure that's where you're headed?"
Natalie rolled her eyes. "Fine, you got me," she said. "I'm sneaking off to see my lover. I've been having an absolutely torrid affair with this Brazilian male model and using doctor's appointments to cover it up. I'm sorry, Uncle Bo, I just can't keep my hands off of him."
Bo laughed and shook his head. "If you don't want to tell me where you're going, just tell me you need a few hours of personal time," he said. "There's no need to make up steamy love affairs…or doctor's appointments, for that matter."
"I'll keep that in mind," Natalie said, looking down at her watch. "In the meantime, I actually do have a doctor's appointment in half an hour, so I really need to get going."
"Natalie!" Bo called out, causing her to pause and turn as she was halfway out the door. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Natalie said quickly, in a tone that wasn't quite convincing. "Everything's fine. It's just some test results from last week, it's no big deal. I'm fine."
Natalie glanced anxiously at her watch and sighed as she leaned back in the chair tucked in the corner of the waiting room at her doctor's office. It seemed to be just her luck that the doctor would be running late when there was so much riding on her appointment. She supposed the wait wasn't the worst thing in the world. After all, she already knew this wasn't going to be the the all-clear that she'd been expecting over and over again the past few weeks. Somehow, she knew her life was about to change, and not for the better.
It had started innocently enough. A moment in the shower that had given her pause, followed a few days later by a quick visit to the doctor for reassurance…a quick visit that had turned into a flurry of tests and waiting and inconclusive results, then biopsies and blood work and even more waiting. The waiting was the worst part. Not knowing was slowly killing her, but as she thought about the sympathetic look she could have sworn she'd seen on the face of the nurse who'd checked her in, she was pretty sure she didn't want the waiting to end.
"Ms. Banks?"
Natalie nodded slowly and stood up as the nurse approached her.
"You can follow me, Dr. Callahan will see you now," the young woman said.
"Thank you," Natalie said, following her down a short hallway and into the doctor's small, classically decorated office.
"Natalie, I'm so sorry for the wait," Dr. Callahan said, standing up behind her desk and motioning for Natalie to enter the room. "Please, won't you have a seat?"
Natalie smiled politely at the nurse and stepped into the room, taking a seat in a chair near the desk. Looking around the office, she felt more and more uneasy about the conversation that was coming. She'd only ever seen the man behind the desk in an exam room. In her mind, the doctor's actual office was reserved for bad news meetings.
"Natalie, I have the results of your biopsy," Dr. Callahan said. "I'm sorry they took so long, but I had the lab double check them, just to be sure."
"It's not good news, is it?" Natalie asked.
Dr. Callahan sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Natalie," he said. "I really wish it were."
"Is it…I mean, do the tests show…" Natalie took a shaky breath as she tried to bring herself to say the word that had been running nonstop through her mind the last three weeks. "Is it…what I thought it might be?"
"I'm afraid so," Dr. Callahan said, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the desk. "Natalie, you have breast cancer."