"Yes! We win again!" Carlos cheers as he gives James a much-deserved high-five. The Big Time Rush boys were playing field hockey in the park on their day off, and James had just scored the winning goal against Kendall and Logan.
"You guys wanna rematch?" James asks with a little smirk on his face. They had won four times in a row now and Kendall was getting into one of his angry-competitive moods.
"YOU'RE ON!" Kendall screams much louder than he should, causing several people in the park to glare at him awkwardly. They begin playing another game, and the score ends up tied 9 to 9. They are only playing to ten, so whoever scores next wins.
Logan locks eyes with Carlos. "You're going down Garcia." He says, and then chuckles a little. He's not very good at being menacing, and they both end up laughing. But, the death match continues.
Kendall passes the puck to Logan, and Logan sends it flying toward the goal. Neither James nor Carlos is guarding the goal, but Carlos is the closest to it. He dives into the air and tries his best to block the puck, but he just misses it and lands hard on the ground.
Kendall and Logan start cheering and jumping in the air, but then they notice that Carlos is still lying on the ground. James has already started running over towards him, and Kendall and Logan aren't far behind. "You okay, buddy?" James asks, even though he knows that Carlos will say that he's fine even though he's probably not. Carlos has always hated getting sympathy from others when he is hurt. No one knows why, but it has always just really bothered him.
"What hurts?" Logan questions his friend, going into full-blown doctor mode.
"Nothing, I'm fine! Now help me up!" Carlos lifts up his left hand for someone to grab to help hoist him onto his feet. But Carlos is right-handed.
Logan notices this and he immediately looks to Carlos' right arm. His wrist looks bruised and swollen. He must have landed on it when he fell. "C'mon, we're going to the doctor." Logan says in his no nonsense voice.
"But it doesn't even hurt that bad! And-"
"No arguing! Now let's go." Logan says as he helps Carlos to his feet.
Carlos' head hangs low as they all walk back to the apartment. He hates going to the doctor more than almost anything in the world.
They walk through the door and Kendall calls out, "Mom! Carlos hurt himself, we need you to drive us to the doctor!"
Mrs. Knight pops up out of nowhere. "What happened? Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he just fell on his wrist when we were playing field hockey." Kendall responds.
"Katie! We've got to take Carlos to the doctor, come on!" Mrs. Knight calls out to her daughter. Katie comes out of her room while Logan is getting Carlos a bag of ice.
"Here, put this on your wrist." He says as he hands Carlos the bag.
Carlos hesitantly does as he's told, and the six of them head downstairs and pile into the minivan. They guys have to practically drag Carlos through the door when they arrive at the doctor's office, but they eventually get him inside and force him into a chair in the waiting room.
Mrs. Knight goes up to the front desk and starts filling out Carlos' information while the rest of them just sit there and wait. Carlos' name is eventually called, and he follows the nurse into the back. She directs him into the first room on the left and tells him to sit down on the table and wait for the doctor to come in.
Carlos waits patiently, swinging his feet back and forth and looking at all of the weird medical posters on the walls. Then, the doctor walks in. "Hey there, Carlos! I'm Dr. Miller, and I'll be taking care of you today. So, what seems to be the problem?"
"I fell on my wrist playing hockey. It really doesn't hurt that bad though, my friends made me come here." Carlos responds, hoping that this guy will understand and just let him leave. He knows that it's unlikely, but he's got to try.
"Hey, don't play mister tough guy. It looks like it could be broken. Do you mind if I take a look?" Carlos lets him, and he starts gently poking and prodding and asking Carlos to wiggle his fingers.
But then the guy seems like he notices something and he starts touching Carlos' upper arm, around his bicep. Carlos is really confused, and he's about to ask this guy what he is doing. But then Dr. Miller asks him a question, "How long has this lump been here?"
Carlos' heart stops. What lump? "Uh, I don't know. I hadn't really noticed it I guess."
The doctor writes something down on his clipboard, and then looks up at Carlos. "I'm sure that it's nothing to worry about, but I'm going to have the nurse do some blood work in addition to the x-rays for your wrist, just to make sure that everything is okay." He pats Carlos on the knee, and then walks out of the room.
The nurse comes in almost immediately after Dr. Miller leaves, and she takes him in to do the x-rays first. She starts off taking x-rays of his wrist, but she also takes a few of his upper arm. Carlos is really freaking out now. When the x-rays are done, the nurse leads him into a room where she draws some of his blood.
She then tells Carlos to go back into the waiting room, and says that they'll call him back in a little bit.
He does as he's told, and his friends look up at him expectantly as he reenters the room. "How'd it go?" Mrs. Knight asks.
Carlos doesn't really know what to say. His thoughts are all over the place and he doesn't know what is going on. "It went fine."
Logan notices the Band-Aid in the crook of Carlos' elbow. "Whoa, why did they draw blood? You just hurt your wrist, that seems weird."
This is one of those times when Carlos wishes Logan didn't know so much about all of this medical stuff. "I dunno, I guess it was just a precaution or something."
Carlos is lying through his teeth, but he can't help it. He can't tell them the truth; he doesn't want them to worry. Logan seems to accept this answer, and Carlos takes the nearest seat.
They sit there waiting for an unusually long amount of time until Dr. Miller personally calls him back. The guys, Mrs. Knight, and Katie all get up with him, and the doctor doesn't protest as they follow him into the back.
He leads them all the way to the very back until they are standing in Dr. Miller's personal office. He asks for them to take a seat.
Carlos gulps. He is incredibly nervous and his palms are sweating like crazy. Why are they in here? He's never been called back into an actual office before, and he is fearing the worst.
"Mrs. Knight, are you currently Carlos' legal guardian?" Dr. Miller asks her.
"Yes, is everything okay?" Carlos now notices that she looks extremely confused as well.
The doctor can't look her in the eye as he speaks, "I'm afraid not. As I was examining Carlos, I noticed a lump on his upper arm. I've run some tests, and I'm afraid that Carlos has what is called Ewing's sarcoma. This is a rare form of cancer that-"
As soon as he says cancer, Carlos completely zones out. He is staring at Dr. Miller, watching his lips move. But he hears nothing. And he has a feeling that he doesn't want to.
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