Jon walked into the hospitals Oncology dept. He saw Cassie laying in the recliner sleeping, he also noticed they had put the IV in her hand instead of her arm, which meant they had trouble finding a vein. It was a constant struggle getting Cassie to drink enough liquids the day before her Chemo treatment. Let's be honest Jon shook his head internally, it was difficult to get Cassie to eat or drink anything.
He crouched down next to her and swiped the bangs away from her eyes. She looked up and smiled "You're off work."
"Yup and I'm ready to take you home."
The nurse was walking past and looked at Cassie's IV bag "Another 5 minutes."
Jon grabbed a chair and sat next to his wife stroking her hand.
Cassie was counting her blessings as she looked at her husband with love and adoration. He leaned forward and whispered into her ear "You're giving me that look again." Then kissed her on the lips
She giggled "You mean the look that makes you kiss me?"
"Exactly!" He grinned at her.
10 minutes later Jon was pushing the wheelchair down the hallway towards his truck. He lifted Cassie from the chair into the truck, the chemo sessions made her very weak. She slept in the truck on the way home and Jon helped her again into the wheelchair he had waiting in his truck (they had rented one for the duration of her treatments).
Back in their apartment as Jon was helping her into bed, he was watching the clock, he knew they had about 6 hours before the side effects would begin. The nausea was getting worse with every session and Jon's heart ached watching her suffer. Cassie rolled onto her side already falling into a deep sleep, she was conserving every bit of energy she had to fight this thing.
Jon woke with a start in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of retching coming from the bathroom. He quickly rushed over to Cassie's side and held her hair back from the sides of her face, they had recently cut it shorter for convenience sake but it was still shoulder length and the ends fell close to her mouth. There were times when Cassie could hardly take a full breath before she was vomiting again. This went on for a good half hour before Jon started pushing for her to take her anti nauseant. She didn't like to take it because it made her so incredibly hot but it was the only thing that worked to get her past this stage. Cassie was kneeling on the floor hugging the porcelain bowl and Jon was kneeling behind her. She started to cry and lean her back into her husband's chest "Please, make it stop." He could feel her shaking.
He wrapped his arms around her loosely knowing she may need to pull out at any moment to vomit again. "Please honey, let me get a dose ready for you."
She suddenly hurled forward heaving into the bowl which only made her stomach muscles hurt more as there was nothing in her stomach to purge. When she had a moment to breathe she nodded her head and said "Ok."
Jon of course had already started to fill the syringe with the recommended dose, he was having thoughts of giving her the shot whether she approved or not. Jabbing her in the backside she let out a curse with an Ow and Jon always apologized after. He immediately reached in front of her above her head and turned on the fan they had there, just as Cassie started to moan and sweat. All she could do was look into the fan blowing air into her face and try to stabilize her breathing. Jon grabbed the hand fan waiting on the bathroom counter and began to fan her from behind. Cassie moaned her appreciation.
It didn't take long before Cassie was exhausted and sleepy. Jon helped her back into bed (while discretely pushing aside the hairs that had fallen off and were in small bundles on her pillow) again taking note of the time knowing they would be going through this every few hours for the next 24 hours.
In the morning at the station the gang at Central were gathering getting ready for the morning meeting. Others had been asking Ponch how his partner was doing. The topic of sick days came up and Bear mentioned that Jon must be almost out of sick days based on how long Cassie had been sick and in treatment. Ponch didn't think it was his place to say but did admit that Jon had run out of sick days awhile ago and was using his vacation days at the moment. In reality Jon had run out of vacation days and was currently using some of the vacation days Ponch had donated to him. He appreciated the HR staff to allow this.
Bonnie had been sitting quietly thinking and suddenly piped up "What if he runs out of vacation days? He can't leave her and just come back to work, she needs him." Bonnie thought for a moment "I wonder if I can donate some vacation days." Some of the other guys nodded and voiced their approval and started talking about doing the same.
At this time the Sarge walked in and put his book on the podium, "Ok quiet down people, let's get to work."
Bear brought it up first, "Sarge, how can we donate our vacation days to Jon?"
Sarge looked at Ponch, he was the only one who was aware of what Ponch had done, "Did you put them up to this?"
Ponch raised both hands in innocence, "I swear boss, I never said a word."
Bonnie chimed in, "You mean you've already done that?" she looked back at the Sarge "So it is possible, please tell us how we can help."
The Sarge knew this was for a good cause so he didn't fight it, "Ok ok, let me talk to HR and see what I can do. Now can we get some work done?"