Lindsey's doctor walked in with his clipboard in hand. "Well give it to me straight doc, how is it?" Lindsey asked nervously yet confidently.
"Miss Jones, the cancer in your heart has come back. The tumor seems to be bigger this time, and I'm expecting you to only have a three week survival time at the rate the tumor's growing," the doctor informed.
"Can you not just take the tumor off?" Lindsey asked.
"Well there's a possibility that it could damage your heart permanently and the surgery to perform this procedure not only is expensive, but it's also experimental. There haven't been many patients with your cancer so the surgery is still in the embryonic stage," the doctor explained.
Lindsey sighed and looked down. "So that's it for me isn't it?" she asked.
"Miss Jones, if there was anything we could do for you we would. The only thing I can give you is an antibiotic, but even with that there's still a very slim chance the tumor will go away," he said.
"I'm not as much worried for myself as I am for my boyfriend," Lindsey stated.
"Why do you say that?" he questioned.
"I'm his world, and if I leave him, it'll devastate him to no end," Lindsey informed.
Dark Leonardo was very protective of Lindsey. She'd gotten hurt in the past and it sent him into a depression because he couldn't have prevented her getting injured. When her heart cancer had come the first time, he cried every night for hours. When her cancer had left after about a year, he was so happy and cried joyful tears. The news of her cancer returning would just send him over the edge.
After thanking the doctor, Lindsey climbed back into her limousine and was silent the whole ride back home to her and Dark Leonardo's apartment. Lindsey braced herself for Dark Leonardo's reaction as she walked in. "Hi honey, how'd the doctor's appointment go?" Dark Leonardo asked.
"Okay," Lindsey muttered under her breath.
"Huh?" the Dark Turtle asked.
"Dark Leo, we have to talk," Lindsey said seriously as she slowly sat down on the couch.
Dark Leonardo sat down beside her and started to grow a worried look on his face. "What'd he say?" The Dark Turtle took her hands in his.
"He told me that the cancer on my heart has come back, and this time the tumor is larger and he's expecting it to rapidly grow," Lindsey explained.
His face grew a sad face as he dropped his eyes down. "Baby look at me," Lindsey requested gently as she put her hand on his face.
Dark Leonardo looked at Lindsey with tears in his eyes. "It's not your fault," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around him. She felt the Dark Turtle bury his face into her neck and cry out loudly. Lindsey shushed him quietly as she stroked his head. "There's nothing you could've done to prevent or predict this."
He looked up at her and said "I don't want you to die."
"I know, I know, but there's nothing I can do, or you can do, or even the doctors can do," Lindsey informed as tears silently rolled down her face. "Hey, it'll be okay."
"No it won't be. I can't live without you, I can't progress if I don't have the one good thing in my life with me every day," Dark Leonardo said as he looked at her and touched her face. "I am nothing without you."
"Yes you are, you have so much potential to be amazing at anything. You've been the most incredible boyfriend and I'm sure any girl would –"
"No there will be no other girls if you leave. You are who I committed and gave myself too, and you're the only one who truly loves me like I love you." Dark Leonardo kissed her mouth gently and they both tasted the saltiness of each other's tears. Pulling away slowly, Dark Leonardo whispered "If it hadn't been for you, I would have never known love."
He pulled Lindsey into his arms and held her on his lap. She could feel the Dark Turtle shaking. "Everything will be okay, I promise. When I'm gone, I want you to be the same as you are now okay?" Lindsey requested quietly as she stroked his face.
Dark Leonardo laid his head at the meeting place of her neck and chest and questioned "If you die, who will love me?"
Lindsey pulled his face to hers and kissed him for several minutes. She then whispered "I will love you even when I'm gone. I'll be your guardian angel and never let anyone hurt you. You'll never be alone and you'll always be loved by me." She kissed him once more before standing up. Dark Leonardo felt the warmth of her leave him quickly as she walked over to the phone. "I'm gonna go call Starlee and tell her."
Dark Leonardo sat on the couch and closed his eyes. Why was this happening to them again? Why were they plagued with bad luck all the time? Was this Lindsey's punishment for loving a criminal mutant like Dark Leonardo?
That night the two lie in bed next to each other and were silent of a while. Finally, Dark Leonardo wrapped his arms around Lindsey and kissed her. "You will always be my one and only love," he whispered as he pressed his head against hers.
"As you will be mine," Lindsey responded as she stroked his face. She felt his face become wet from the tears he was crying, so she wiped them away. "There's no need for those."
Keeping his arms wrapped tightly around her, Dark Leonardo cried silently as Lindsey slept. A few times that night she woke up because she became short of breath. Dark Leonardo could tell that the tumor was moving fast.
The next day, Lindsey met with Cody and told him about her cancer. "It's back?" Cody asked surprised.
"Yeah, and the doctor said I only have a few weeks to go," Lindsey informed.
"Is there no surgery or medication we could get?" Cody questioned.
"No, everything is experimental since it's rare," Lindsey said. Cody then broke down and sobbed. Lindsey stayed with him for several hours until his tears ceased.
It was Lindsey's last day finally. Dark Leonardo had been dreading this day for weeks. He tried to be in the best mood he could be in for Lindsey that day, but she could tell that he was shaking all day. That night, after Lindsey showered, she dressed herself in a purple silk nightgown; the same one that she'd worn on the first night she and Dark Leonardo slept together.
As she lay in bed that night, Dark Leonardo lay his head on her chest and felt her heartbeat. He kissed her face, her neck and her lips, and Lindsey could feel his tears drip onto her neck. The Dark Turtle could feel her breathing slow as every minute passed. Holding her face in his hands and stroking her cheeks with his thumbs, Dark Leonardo cried "I will always love you, no matter what."
Reaching up, Lindsey touched him with her fingertips and whispered "I'll be there for you, whenever you need me, just think of me."
Dark Leonardo kissed her passionately before hearing Lindsey whisper her final words as they parted their lips from each other's, "I love you, I always have."
Lindsey closed her eyes and went to sleep as Dark Leonardo lay with his arms wrapped around Lindsey's waist, and his head on her chest, listening to the faint remaining few heartbeats Lindsey had left.
The next morning, Dark Leonardo awoke to find the sun shining and New York City as normal. But when he looked at his beloved, her eyes were still closed. The Dark Turtle couldn't hear her heartbeat anymore, and knew that Lindsey Jones was gone. The silence of the room filled up to the brim as he stroked her face gracefully for several minutes. "It's okay Lindsey, I know you're tired, you don't have to get up," he said quietly as he kissed her forehead and got up out of bed.
Going downstairs into the living room, Dark Leonardo sat on the couch and felt himself come to terms with the realization that his girlfriend, his one true love, the only person in the whole world who ever loved him, was gone from his life forever now. After eating breakfast alone, Dark Leonardo went back upstairs and sat down next to Lindsey. Taking her hairbrush, the Dark Turtle ran the utensil slowly through Lindsey's hair.
He must've brushed her hair for close to half an hour, but it seemed to calm him down. "There, I don't want the morgue owner to touch you and make you look repulsive." But as he said it, Dark Leonardo couldn't stop the tear flow that fell continuously.
Cody came over that day and found the Dark Turtle still sitting on their bed, holding Lindsey in his arms. "Dark Leo, it's time to give her to the undertaker," Cody informed.
Now reality was hitting him again for the second time today. Lindsey wasn't there anymore, and so that meant that her body had to be taken away. But why? She was his girlfriend, shouldn't he get a say in who got to take her body? He wasn't gonna give his girlfriend's lifeless body to a stranger. But Cody looked at him with an emotion that would be a first time look for the Dark Turtle from his girlfriend's brother; understanding.
"You're right," Dark Leonardo finally said as he kissed Lindsey one last time before lying her back down on the bed. The Dark Turtle watched as the morgue helpers came in and took Lindsey's body away.
Hours passed and Dark Leonardo sat alone in the empty apartment room. There was a sense of sunlight gone from the room. Lindsey had been the sun, and without her, there was now nothing but darkness surrounding Dark Leonardo.
The first few days were the worst ever. Every morning, Dark Leonardo would awaken alone in bed, and wished that Lindsey could be there with him. The apartment was silent except for the softness of the TV volume. If he thought about it, Dark Leonardo would catch himself talking to Lindsey out loud or in his head.
At night he would lay in bed and snuggle with Lindsey's pillow, breathing in the scent of his love and crying. "Lindsey," he whispered as tears ran down his face. "I need you, I really miss you, and I'll always love you." With Lindsey's smiling face on his mind, Dark Leonardo closed his eyes and drifted to sleep, hoping tomorrow he'd be stronger.