Here's the surprise plot I've been mentioning. This idea came to me one day, and I decided that I had to write it. So, after a month or two of research and then getting the time to actually write it, I finally got Part One of this Three Part story done. So, this is un-beta'ed, sorry for the mistakes. Enjoy :D
-Part One-
Chris yawned as he trudged through the door, his older brother already in the kitchen attacking their mother's fresh baked chocolate chips cookies. Faintly, he could hear Wyatt recant tales of what happened today in school. Chris couldn't help but roll his eyes, sometimes his brother acted more like a seven-year-old than the seventeen-year-old that he was.
With a sigh and another yawn, Chris began his journey up the stairs; his heart set on his bed.
"Hi Peanut,"
Chris turned halfway up the stairs and sent a wary smile at his mother, "Hey mom."
Piper frowned at her son's tired expression. It seemed lately that no matter how much her son slept, he could never get enough. "You want some cookies? I made you some peanut butter ones."
Chris grimaced. Cookies sounded delicious but his bed sounded so much better, "I think I'm just gonna take a nap,"
Piper's frown deepened, "Are you feeling alright Peanut?"
Chris shrugged. Honestly, he hasn't felt this rundown ever in his life. He as sick and tired of take a nap as soon as he got home from school only to be right back where he was energy wise by time dinner was done and then he woke up in the morning feeling as if he hasn't slept. "Probably just a bug or something," he answered with a small shrug.
Piper looked at her son, unsure if she should believe him or not. "Maybe I should make an appointment."
Chris shook his head, "Nah, I'm fine Mom. Just a bit tired."
Piper sighed, "Alright, I'll save a few cookies for you before your brother eats them all. I'll wake you up for dinner."
"Thanks," Chris mumbled as he started back up the stairs and headed straight to his bed.
Chris pushed his roast beef around his plate, a frown on his lips as he looked at the food in front of him in slight disgust. It was that it didn't taste good, anything prepared by his mother was just short of decadence, but his appetite barely let him eat three bites, let alone the one-fourth he forced himself to eat.
He sighed softly as he continued to play with his food in a weak attempt to look like he was eating. However, the mere scent of dinner was making his stomach churn. "May I be excused?" he asked.
Piper glanced over at her youngest, her eldest falling silent halfway through a sentence, "You've hardly eaten," she pointed out with a small frown. Another thing that was becoming a ritual, her son's lack of an appetite. She thought that a fifteen-year-old boy would be eating food faster than she could prepare it; Wyatt was like that when he hit that age, but Chris grimaced at the aspect of food nowadays.
"Not hungry," came the mumbled response.
Piper sent a worried glance at her husband, the blond man looking at Chris with worry in his eyes. "Are you sure buddy? You haven't been eating much lately." Leo gently said.
Chris shrugged. "Can I just go upstairs?"
Leo frowned but nodded. He watched as his youngest son trudged up the stairs, the young teenager yawning halfway up.
"He just took a nap," Wyatt muttered.
Piper sighed, "Something is wrong with him,"
"He might not be sleeping well," Leo reassured, "Or he might have that bug that Payton had a few days ago."
"This has been going on for nearly a week and half Leo," Piper hissed.
Leo exhaled and ran a hand through his graying hair, "If it doesn't get better in a week, we'll take him to the doctors, alright?"
Piper nodded sadly as she poked at her food, "I just want to know what's wrong with him."
"Do you think it could be something serious Dad?" Wyatt asked, his eyes on the once-upon doctor.
Leo shrugged, "It could be something like insomnia, or something a bit worse like anemia but those things are easily treatable."
Wyatt nodded but looked back at his food with a heavy frown, "Hopefully it's just a bug,"
"Hopefully," Piper whispered, her gaze looking at the stairs with longing, wishing that her son would bounce down them with a smile on his face and with energy, like he used to do.
He opened the front door with a small smile. He was finally home and he could finally go take his daily nap. Yawning, Chris dropped his backpack on the ground beside the door, leaving it open for Wyatt who was getting his books from the car.
"You better save some cookies for me!" he heard his older brother yell from outside.
Chris rolled his eyes as he padded his way deeper into the house. He was going straight to his room, he would have the cookies another time. Suddenly, a sense of vertigo hit him making him grab onto the railing of the stairs. He thankfully hasn't set foot on them. Chris squeezed his eyes shut and willed the dizziness to go away.
Then, the light-headedness hit which made his legs shake. "Chris?" he faintly heard his brother say, "Chris!" this time it was slightly louder but muffled as if he was submerged in water. Then, nothing.
Groaning, Chris turned his head from the cold, wet sensation on his forehead. He forced his eyes opened, his vision blurry. "Wha?"
"He's awake," he heard his mother announce, "God, Peanut, you scared the hell out of us."
"What happened?" Chris murmured, his vision sharpening to see that he was on the couch in the living room. His mother was beside him, a soaked washcloth in her hand. Behind her were his father and brother, two pairs of bluish-green eyes looking at him in worry.
"You passed out," Piper explained, "I heard Wyatt scream and then found you on the floor." She smoothed back his bangs, "You're running a bit of a temperature, why didn't you tell us that you felt sick."
Chris looked at her, "Mom, I've been sick for the past two weeks,"
Piper softly growled under her breath, "That's it, I'm calling the doctor,"
"Mom,"
"No Christopher, I'm calling him. You just passed out in the foyer! You are going to a doctor mister, and that's final."
Chris opened his mouth to protest, but when he saw his mother's pointed glare, he decided to take the better route and shut his mouth. Settling back into the couch, Chris listened as his mother made an immediate appointment for tomorrow morning and frowned. He hated doctors.
Seated on the cold table, Chris gently swung his legs back and forth as he waited for his doctor to come in. His mother sat in the chair beside the door, an outdated magazine in her hands, the sound of the flipping pages the only thing that broke the sterile air.
The door eased open and a salt-and-pepper haired man walked in, a soft, comforting smile on his face. "Hello Chris, Piper, how are you today?"
"We're fine Doctor McConnal," Piper replied as she put the magazine back, "Chris has just been feeling under the weather lately, and yesterday he passed out."
The doctor hummed as his hazel eyes scanned over Chris, "Hmm, and how long have you been feeling like this?" he inquired as he took the blood pressure cuff of the rack.
"I've been tired for the past two weeks," answered Chris with a small shrug as the doctor pulled up his sleeve.
The doctor nodded and strapped the cuff tightly around Chris's arm, "And have you been feeling light-headed at all during this time, before passing out?"
"Sometimes, usually right after gym or something."
McConnal frowned as he took Chris's blood pressure, "A little on the low side," he murmured as he marked it down on Chris's chart.
Unwrapping his stethoscope from his neck, the doctor slid it under Chris's t-shirt and listened to the young man's breathing and heart rate. "Normal." He muttered.
Putting the chart down, the doctor began rubbing his fingers into Chris's neck, feeling the glands in his throat. "They're slightly enlarged."
The doctor frowned, "Let's take a blood sample to send off to the lab and then check your joints."
Chris sighed. If there was anything he hated more than doctors it would be needles. Frowning, he extended the arm and looked away as it pierced his skin. It wasn't the pain that drove Chris away from needles; it was just that it was slightly disgusting to know that someone was going to look at his blood under a microscope. Plus, no one really jumps for joy when they're getting their blood drawn for a test.
After setting the vile aside, the Doctor gently bent Chris's knees and elbows. "Do they hurt?"
"Not really," Chris replied, "They just feel stiff."
"And how is your appetite?" asked McConnal, his eyes shifting over to Piper.
"Hardly there," Piper said, "I mean, when Wyatt was his age, I could barely keep enough food in the house."
"Alright, I'm going to send the blood out for a test, it should be back soon." The Doctor stated, "I don't think it's anything serious, perhaps a case of anemia, but that can be quickly fixed with a change of diet and some iron vitamins." He said reassuringly, "I'll call when the results are in."
By time the second week was up, Piper was a nervous wreck. Blood tests in the back usually haven't taken this long. Then, finally one afternoon the call came.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Halliwell?"
"Yes, this is her."
"Hi, this Doctor McConnal, Chris's blood results came in,"
"…And?" Piper reluctantly asked, a heavy sense of dread filling her stomach.
"Can you come down to the office with your husband and Chris, we have some things to discuss."
Piper gulped as she looked at her baby sleeping on the couch, "Can Wyatt come as well?"
"Yes,"
"Alright, we're on our way."
Fifteen minutes later, Piper and Leo were in the cramped office of the family doctor, his hazel eyes grave and sympatric as he gestured to the two seats in front of his desk. Slowly, he sat down and looked at the file in his hand. "Now, when we sent Chris's blood test in, we were expecting to get back an anemia diagnosis, and we did."
"Then, what's the problem then?" Leo asked, "Is the anemia severe?"
The doctor shook his head, "No, its what was causing the anemia that caused me to ask to speak with you separately before we break the news to Chris." The doctor warily sighed, "When the hematologist looked at the sample of blood over, he found an unusual amount of white blood cells clustered within. He decided to do a smear and consulted with a pathologist and they've came down to an diagnosis that I sadly have to agree with."
"What is it?" Piper whispered.
"Chris has what is known as ALL, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia."
Piper shook her head, "No, no. My son can't have cancer," she turned to look at Leo, "He can't."
Leo looked at the doctor, his eyes wide and his heart shattered, "No, doc."
The doctor nodded sadly, "We've done the smear three times, and the symptoms match ALL as well. Fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, the anemia, and the loss of appetite. However, what worried me was him saying that his joints felt stiff. It means that the leukemia has invaded his joints," McConnal ran a hand through his short hair, "We're not sure what stage Chris is at yet, but we think its ALL-L2, the middle stage. We'll know for sure when he has a bone marrow biopsy in a few days to see how far this disease as progressed, and if its needed, a lumbar puncture might be needed to see if it has gone as far to the brain and spinal cord."
Piper sucked in a shuttering breath, tears spilling over the rim of her eyes, "My son as cancer."
McConnal frowned, "Yes, he does, but that doesn't mean he's dead Piper. We're going to fight this. I have the name of the best oncologist and hematologist and with their help we can beat it. It's gotten this far, we can't let it go any farther."
"What are his chances?" Leo asked.
"With someone of Chris's age and stature, forty-five to sixty-five percent."
"Oh God," Piper gasped.
The doctor sighed, "I believe it's time to tell Chris and Wyatt what is going on,"
Piper nodded and the doctor and Leo got up to usher the two teenagers into the room as Piper tried to compose herself. Sniffling, she weakly smiled at her two sons as they took the vacated seats in front of the desk.
"What's going on?" Wyatt asked, heavily worried.
"Now, Chris, we took a blood sample from you two weeks ago," Chris nodded, "Well, it did come back with anemia like we thought," the doctor said.
Chris looked at his parents, "I thought anemia wasn't serious."
"It's not," McConnal said, "But, it what's causing the anemia that is. Chris, you have what we all ALL, or Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia."
"No," Wyatt gasped, his eyes looking at his brother, "No."
Chris looked at his doctor with wide eyes, "I have..cancer?"
The doctor nodded sadly, "Yes."
Chris closed his eyes as tear built up in his eyes, "How…why?"
"No one knows why. It could be a chromosome, it could be a number of things, and sometimes things just like this happen."
Chris gulped, "Am I going to die?"
"No," Piper exclaimed as she knelt in front of her son. She cupped his cheek, a tear sliding down it, "No Peanut, God no," she breathed as she brought him into a tight embrace, "We're going to fight this."
Chris wrapped his shaking arms around his mother, "What's going to happen now?"
"We're going to take you to the best doctors and get you treated, and before you know it, you'll be back to your sarcastic self." Piper said.
Chris nodded into his mother's shoulder. He felt his father's hands on his shoulders, his hands gently massaging the tense muscles and he felt Wyatt's hand in his. The doctor smiled sadly and handed Leo two business cards, "That is the oncologist and the hematologist that I was talking about earlier, call them tonight and set up an appointment so you can figure out what drugs to use to fight this,"
Leo looked at the cards and frowned. His son's life was going to be in these two people's hands. He tightened the grasp on Chris's shoulder, he couldn't lose Chris a second time, he couldn't.