Disclaimer: Not mine. At all.
Story Summary: The Scavo kids find out Lynette has cancer. A missing moment from season four.
A/n: I've been working on this one for a long time now. I hope you enjoy it!
The Children's War
A story by Ryeloza
Part One
Kayla Scavo was wrestling with her locker for the last time. The war had been ongoing for the entire school year; the lock was particularly finicky and the catch on the lever stuck, and though Kayla had gotten much faster at opening it over the months, it still took several tries each time. All the while, Libby Schweimer stood next to her, cleaning out her perfectly cooperative locker, and prattling on and on. "Are you doing any of the summer activities here? My mom's making me join the swim team because she swam in high school and she wants me to practice so I can too even though I totally pointed out that I'm only going to be in eighth grade next year which is so not high school and I don't even want to be on the stupid swim team anyway!"
In the pause that Libby used to take a breath, Kayla said, "My parents said we should all sign up for one activity. I was going to do drama club, but that's what my stupid brother is doing, so I decided to culture club instead."
"Oh, that's what I wanted to do! You know that's one of the ones Matt Neimerberger signed up for."
Kayla stopped fiddling with her locker and turned to look at Libby. "Seriously?"
"Oh! Do you like him?" Libby practically squealed this and, completely horrified, Kayla turned back to her locker. With one final yank it opened and two books fell out; Kayla caught them just in time. "I mean, who doesn't right? He is like the cutest boy in the whole class! And now you're going to get to spend all this time with him this summer! You're so lucky!"
"I don't like Matt," muttered Kayla. It was a lie. She'd had a crush on Matt since the beginning of the year; one that had only gotten more intense with every passing day of the math and history classes they had together. One day she'd dropped her pencil on the floor and Matt had actually picked it up and stuck it behind his ear. She'd spent the whole rest of the day staring at that pencil and thinking about how it was practically the same as her hand touching him. But none of that was public knowledge.
"Well that's good," said Libby, suddenly reaching out and grasping Kayla's arm. She jumped up and down a little too, looking like a cheerleader on a sugar high. "'Cause he's coming over right now."
"What?"
Kayla turned around and saw that Libby was right—Matt was walking right toward her…them, and not just in a passing by kind of way. Unconsciously, Kayla smoothed back her hair with one hand, nervously gripping her books to her chest with the other. The butterflies in her stomach were doing acrobatics by the time Matt stopped and casually leaned against the locker next to hers.
"Hey Matt," said Libby, suddenly coy and not hyper at all. She nudged Kayla with her elbow.
"Hey," she mumbled.
"Hey," said Matt. He brushed his hair from his eyes and smiled and Kayla's heart beat faster. "Kayla, you ran out of math class before Mr. Wyer had a chance to give you this." Matt held out piece of paper and Kayla slowly reached out and took it from him; it was some cheesy certificate with her name printed on it—an award for being a "math wiz." Embarrassed beyond belief, Kayla muttered a thank you before stuffing the paper into her yearbook.
"I didn't know you were so good at math," said Matt. "You could've helped me out. I barely passed this year. Geometry, you know."
"Oh yeah. It's hard," Kayla agreed, even though she'd breezed through their geometry unit with no problems.
"Well hopefully we'll be in the same class again next year."
"Yeah."
Matt smiled at her again and then walked away. Even as Libby went into a tizzy of excitement over what had happened, Kayla just tracked his movement down the hall, and by the time she focused back in on the other girl, she'd moved on to a rant about how she sucked at math. Kayla, on the other hand, had never been more grateful that it was her best subject.
Even though it was officially summer vacation, Lynette still made them go to bed at what Kayla considered to be an unjustly early time for a thirteen-year-old. The worst part was that she couldn't even turn the light back on once Lynette had left her room because she and Penny were forced to share now that Stella had moved in, and her sister was already sound asleep. Stubbornly, Kayla kicked off her sheets and lay in bed with her arms crossed, waiting patiently for her father to come home.
It wasn't until nearly ten forty-five that Kayla heard a car pull into the driveway and the front door open downstairs. Eagerly, she bounded out of bed, went to her desk to grab the math certificate from her yearbook, and then crept down the hall to the staircase. From the living room she could hear her dad's and Lynette's voices, but she had no qualms about interrupting them and she quietly descended the stairs. It was only when she caught wind of what they were actually saying that she stopped and crouched down on the stairs out of sight.
"—you're sick. I think the kids can live without doing all this stuff this summer."
"I'm not going to tell them no now," said Lynette. "They're already excited about it. We've already paid for it. We'll just work it out. I think my mother still has a driver's license."
"That's reassuring."
"She can pick them up on the days I have chemo."
"Lynette, you have cancer. Don't you think we have enough going on without adding all this on top of it?"
Kayla's eyes widened and she bit her lip, practically bursting with this bit of information. She wasn't as stupid as all the grown-ups thought she was. She knew something was going on; everyone had been acting weird for weeks now and then Stella had moved in with them. And now she knew why. Lynette had cancer—something Kayla knew all about. Her mother used to incessantly talk about her aunt Jane and how she had died from breast cancer years before Kayla was even born. Kayla knew exactly what that kind of illness meant.
She wondered how long they planned to keep it a secret. Dying wasn't exactly the kind of thing Kayla figured a person could keep to herself for long. Dying; Lynette was dying. The words sounded strange in her mind. Her fantasies consisted of long, drawn-out reasons that Lynette and her dad got divorced, saddling her with the boys and Penny while Kayla got to go off and live happily alone with her father. And though occasionally she'd dreamt of what her life would have been like if Lynette had died in the grocery store instead of her mother, that was nothing but an impossibility. If Lynette really was dying now, things would only go from bad to worse.
Suddenly Kayla was no longer in the mood to burst into the middle of the conversation. She felt tired and lonely and she missed her mother and there was nothing she could do about any of that but go back to bed.
Summer activities started the following week and thanks to careful planning and an excruciatingly long talk with the twins about how much fun the kickball team would be, Lynette and Tom had managed to get the kids on the same basic schedule. Monday and Wednesday afternoons they rode the bus to school in the morning and stayed until lunch time when they got picked up by one of the adults. They quickly became Kayla's two favorite days of the week. Matt sat two chairs over and one row down from her during culture club, and if she leaned at exactly the right angle she could look at him without being obvious. Of course, the downside was that her brothers were always around and as obnoxious as usual.
The last Wednesday in June, Kayla slowly meandered out of the building to the front steps of the school just like she always did. She'd learned long ago that her brothers were always in a rush, so the slower she went the more likely they were to beat her to their destination, guaranteeing that people wouldn't see her with them. But on this day, as Kayla squinted in the bright sunshine, she was horrified to see that all three of her brothers were jumping up and down the stairs, their backpacks abandoned on the grass nearby. Desperately she looked around for the car, but it was nowhere in sight.
"Who's picking us up today?" she asked as she walked over to the boys and crossed her arms.
"Grandma," answered Porter. He did a twirl in the air as he jumped that time and immediately Preston had to try it too. "Mom said if she was late to just wait here."
Kayla glanced around, relieved by the fact that they were just about the only kids left. Only a few littler kids remained and they were running around in the grassy area not paying attention to anything. Sulkily, Kayla walked over to the low wall nearby, took off her backpack and sat down, blandly watching the street for some sign of Stella.
Five long minutes later, sweat was trickling down Kayla's back just from sitting and her brothers' yelps of delight were growing more annoying. Then, to add insult to injury, Kayla felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Matt standing next to her. Her eyes widened and she glanced helplessly at her brothers, praying that the idiocy of jumping would keep them occupied for however much longer this took.
"Hey," said Matt, sitting down next to her. "Your mom late too?"
"My…grandma." Kayla shrugged off the familiarity; it was easier than trying to explain her actual relationship to Stella.
"Oh. That's nice. My grandma lives in Florida and we only see her at Christmas. But she always sends me a check on my birthday for like fifty bucks."
"Cool."
"Yeah."
Silence descended and Kayla, unable to think of anything else to say just stared at the ground. Matt hadn't talked to her all year and now he had twice in the past three weeks. She was hopefully, terrifyingly praying that was a good sign. Determined to say something, Kayla lifted her head again, but at the same moment, Matt laughed and said, "Those are your brothers, right?"
Kayla followed Matt's gaze over to Porter, Preston and Parker, who had abandoned jumping in favor of trying to build a human pyramid. With a wince, she said, "My half-brothers."
"Half-brothers…Is that like what they are when you're adopted?"
Without meaning to, Kayla pulled a face, and as she went to correct Matt there was a sudden, incessant honking of a car horn. Kayla heard her brothers whoop and they ran toward the car; she sighed and stood up. "My ride's here," she said.
"Okay."
Kayla picked up her backpack, started toward the car, and then turned around. "They're my half-brothers because we have the same dad but not the same mom," she explained. "Their mom is my stepmom."
"Ooh," said Matt. "Well that makes more sense then. My cousins' parents are divorced and my aunt got remarried and she's pregnant again so—"
"Kayla!" Porter yelled. She turned around and glared at him from where he and Preston leaned out of the car window. "Come on! Grandma said she'd take us to McDonald's for lunch!"
"I guess you better go," said Matt.
"They can wait a minute."
"For McDonald's?"
"Kayla!"
Kayla suppressed a groan, her hands clenching into fists. Moments like this were exactly why she'd never wanted siblings, least of all brothers. "Little kids get excited about the stupidest stuff."
"Yeah. My sister's like that about ponies."
From the car, Kayla heard the twins' voices in sync this time, but it wasn't to call for her. She froze, completely mortified as they started to chant, "Kayla and Matt sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."
"I have to go," she whispered. She could feel a blush rising hot in her neck and cheeks and she turned away from Matt and ran toward the car, even as the twins kept up with their singing. She jumped into the front seat without looking back at Matt, angry tears in her eyes, and Stella calmly put up the window, effectively confining the twins' voices to the car.
"Nice of you to join us," she said before turning around. "You two, knock it off!"
Giggling, the twins finally stopped, but it was minutes too late and there was nothing Kayla could do change what had happened. But she'd get them back; there was no doubt in her mind about that.
Part Two
"Parker, come on! You can't play monkey in the middle with two people!"
From where he sat reading comic books, Parker shrugged. "Then go get Penny. I don't feel like it."
"You suck!" said Preston. He threw the ball he was holding to Porter, who bounced it off his head a couple of times, but Parker didn't even look up at them. Of course they could play with Penny, but they'd have to be nice and let her win sometimes or else she'd start crying, and that wasn't any fun. As a last resort, Preston glanced over at Kayla. "You wanna play?"
"No," said Kayla loftily. She was sitting on the porch steps just watching them. "I have more important things to think about. Things you little kids couldn't even understand."
"Like what?" asked Porter as Preston rolled his eyes.
"Big, grown-up secrets."
Porter looked intrigued, but Preston just groaned. Kayla was always acting like she knew everything just because she was a couple years older than them, but usually her big secrets were stupid. That was why they'd gone snooping in her diary the last time she'd bragged like this and the only thing they'd found out was how she had a crush on that Matt kid. And that wasn't interesting at all.
"Aw, you don't know anything," said Preston. He looked at Porter pointedly and Porter finally stopped acting like Kayla was fascinating. He tossed the ball back.
Kayla got a nasty grin on her face. "I know your mom's dying."
"What?" Parker finally looked up from his comic books, glancing at Kayla, but then fixing his stare on Preston. He tucked the ball under his arm, no longer in the mood to play.
"You're a liar," he said. Then, despite the unspoken code they had not to tattle on one another most of the time, he added, "And I'm telling Mom you said that!"
Kayla stood up and walked toward them. "Go ahead," she taunted. "I'm telling the truth, so I can't get in trouble. I heard the grown-ups talking and they said that your mom has cancer. It's this horrible disease that makes you lose all your hair and throw up all the time so you can't eat anything. And then you die." Kayla gave them her smug look, the one she always got when she said something she knew was right. Preston balled his hands into his fists, frustrated, but Porter was the first to take action. Angrily, he shoved Kayla and she toppled backwards over Penny's wagon.
Kayla stood up and brushed at the back of her jeans, and then she tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. "You can be mad. It's okay. I was when my mommy died." She smiled at them briefly before she turned and flounced into the house.
For the longest time in their lives, the boys were quiet. Preston shifted nervously, biting his lip for a moment before he said, "Do you think she's telling the truth?"
Porter shook his head vehemently. "No. She lies all the time. She's just mad because we sang that stupid song about her and Matt yesterday." He crossed his arms and cocked his head, thinking. "Besides, Mom has all her hair."
"But she's been throwing up a lot," said Parker.
"So? She did that before Penny was born too, remember? Maybe we're just gonna have another sister or something."
Preston nodded, temporarily satisfied by this logic, though he couldn't imagine what they would do with another baby. He guessed that it would have to share Grandma's room. "Should we tell Mom what Kayla said?"
"They'll just get in a fight," said Parker. "And then Mom and Dad'll get in a fight about it."
Preston kicked at the grass. "I hate her," he said. "I know we're not s'pposed to say that, but I do." Neither Porter nor Parker said anything, but Preston was pretty sure they felt the same way. Annoyed, he threw the ball across the yard and scowled. "We should get her back."
"Why? You started it," muttered Parker sulkily, as though he hadn't been laughing right along with them in the car yesterday. He petulantly started to pull at the grass near his knees. "This is stupid."
One glance at Porter told Preston that he didn't exactly agree their little brother and in an instant they made a silent agreement to discuss it later.
Dinner was terrible that night. Parker hadn't been able to snap out of his mood all afternoon, so he kept moping around and making sad faces that only made it impossible for Preston to forget what Kayla had said. Then when they'd gone in the house to play, Grandma shooed them out because Mom was "resting," a phrase that made Preston nervous. The feeling only intensified when Dad brought home pizza from the restaurant because "Mom didn't feel like cooking" and by bedtime, he was too worried to even protest.
"Maybe we should ask Grandma about what Kayla said," Parker said once the lights were out and their parents safely downstairs. "She let us eat candy for dinner last week so I don't think she'd tattle."
Preston watched as a pillow flew across the room, hitting Parker square in the head. "Stop it!" Porter growled. "Mom is fine! Kayla's just being mean."
"But—"
"I'm serious, Parker!"
Parker rolled over so his back was to them; he was obviously ticked off, but Preston actually felt better. The fact that Porter was so convinced that Kayla was lying made everything else seem insignificant; like it didn't even matter that Mom hadn't finished one slice of pizza. Maybe she was just tired of it since they ate it all the time now. Maybe she was downstairs right now eating a hamburger instead.
"We should tell Matt that Kayla has a crush on him. She'd be so mad," said Porter, actually prompting a smile from Preston. This was finally something fun; something that would take his mind off of things.
"We should break something and blame it on her so she gets grounded."
"We should lock her in Mrs. McCluskey's closet."
"We should throw away her diary."
Porter's head suddenly appeared over the side of the bed, looking down at Preston with an upside-down grin. "That's a good idea!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, let's do it!"
"Okay," agreed Preston, feeling only the tiniest smidgen of guilt. It wasn't like Kayla didn't deserve it.
"It's not here!" snapped Preston as Porter shoved him out of the way so he could root under Kayla's mattress himself. Ignoring the fact that Porter never just believed him when he said something, Preston walked over to her desk and started to open the drawers. "We've gotta look someplace else."
"Why would she move it?" grumbled Porter, giving up on the mattress. He lay flat on the floor and scuttled under the bed, his voice coming out muffled. "She didn't know we read it."
"Maybe she did."
"She didn't!"
"But maybe she did!"
Porter came out the other side of the bed and glared at Preston. "Check in her pillowcase."
With a shrug, Preston crossed the room and dug into Kayla's pillowcase, feeling around for the square little diary and coming up empty. "It's not here," he started to say, but he barely had the first word out when Kayla appeared in the doorway. "What are you two doing in here?" she barked. "Get out!"
"We're allowed to be in here. Penny said so and it's her room too."
"Fine," said Kayla through clenched teeth. She walked into the room and pushed Preston out of her way before she sat down on her bed. "Then touch Penny's stupid baby stuff, not mine!"
Porter rolled his eyes. "Come on," he sighed. "Let's go outside and play."
"I…" said Preston. He shifted his weight anxiously and stared at Kayla. "I'll be out in a minute, okay?"
"Whatever." Porter stalked out of the room, leaving Preston alone with his sister. For a second, Kayla just glared at him, but then she picked up a book on her nightstand, opening it and blatantly ignoring him. It was a clear sign that she wasn't going to put up with him, but Preston didn't care. He wanted her to admit that she was lying. He wanted her to take back what she'd said so he could go outside and tell Parker and Porter and not have to think about this ever again.
"You shouldn't have said that about Mom yesterday," he said defiantly. "It was really mean. And you scared Parker."
"I was only telling the truth. You have a right to know that your mother's dying." Kayla turned a page in her book, a smirk playing on the corners of her lips. "Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe Dad'll get remarried and then you'll have a new mom."
"I don't want a new mom."
"Neither did I."
Preston reached out to grab her book and he threw it across the room; unfortunately Kayla didn't bat an eye and just sat there shaking her head at him. "You just don't like my mom. That's why you're saying all this stuff."
"If you're so sure about that then why don't you ask her?"
"Because…I don't need to," said Preston. "I know you're lying."
Kayla just shrugged and laid her head on her pillow, shutting her eyes. For a minute, Preston fought the urge to hit her and shake her until she admitted that she was wrong, but he had the uneasy feeling that it wouldn't do any good. And suddenly, all he could think was what would they do if their mother actually died.
Part Three
Parker Scavo wanted an explanation.
In class, his teachers usually got annoyed because he asked so many questions. Sometimes his parents did too and his brothers always just told him to shut up. The only person in his life who never seemed to mind answering him was Kayla, but as usual, Parker wasn't sure that was such a good thing. Mostly because Kayla lied. A lot. But also because she wasn't very nice. The way she told him things always made him feel really stupid and sometimes it just wasn't worth it.
This was what Parker was considering as he paced outside of Kayla's room. He had questions—many, many questions that any number of adults could answer, but ones that he couldn't ask them—and he knew that Kayla had answers. He just wasn't sure of the cost.
Porter and Preston were on opposite sides. Parker wasn't exactly sure how it had happened. Three nights ago they'd been laughing and calling Kayla a liar and plotting to steal her diary; and by the following day they were arguing about whether or not Kayla was telling the truth. Inexplicably, Preston suddenly seemed convinced that she might be while Porter remained adamant that she wasn't. Their fighting made Parker dizzy, not least of all because they tended to just shout over each other until they were unintelligible. Personally Parker wasn't sure what to believe, but he was clinging to his own personal belief that their mother wouldn't keep such a big secret from them.
But that didn't answer his questions.
With a sigh, Parker knocked on Kayla's door and slowly entered upon her request.
"Oh, it's you," she said as she glanced up from painting her toenails. "What do you want?"
Parker shut the door. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"What did it feel like when your mom died?"
For the first time ever, Kayla actually looked surprised. The reaction was momentary; seconds later her lips setted into a thinly drawn line and her brow furrowed in anger. "You can't ask me that."
"I already did," Parker pointed out. "You don't have to answer, but I already asked. I've been thinking about it because of what you said the other day and it's scary. Were you scared?"
Kayla shook her head and dipped the brush into the nail polish again. "I was mad. And sad. It's not fair, you know. There was no reason that my mom had to die. She wasn't even sick like your mom is."
"You cried," said Parker quietly. "When Daddy told you. We heard you."
"I told you that I was sad."
"But not scared?"
Kayla groaned. "What are you so scared of? Dad'll still be here. So will the twins and Penny. Your mom'll just be gone. That's not scary."
Parker frowned. The thought was the single most terrifying one he'd ever had. He didn't understand what they'd do if his mother wasn't around. The whole world revolved around his parents and if one of them was gone then he wasn't sure how anything could ever go back to normal. "Did you have to go to the funeral?"
"Yeah."
"What was that like?"
"I don't remember."
"Oh." Parker bit his lip. "Can you remember your mom?"
Kayla was quiet for a long time—so long that Parker thought maybe she wasn't going to answer—but then she gave a small shrug and said, "Yeah. Kind of. The big things. But…Well, like, I can't remember all the words to the lullaby she sang when I was little. Or what her favorite color was. Or the name of this goofy old television show we used to watch when I was sick. Stuff like that."
"I'm sorry she died," said Parker.
Kayla looked up at him and for once there wasn't one bit of maliciousness in her eyes. "I'm sorry your mom's dying."
Not meeting his sister's eyes, Parker sat down on the end of her bed and traced the tip of his finger over the pattern on the cover. "You're not lying, are you?"
"No."
Parker sighed, fighting the lump that rose in his throat. That was the one answer he'd never wanted.
Part Four
It was Kayla that started the game of tag.
Nine days had passed since she'd made her little announcement and they'd been the worst nine days of Porter's life. He knew she was lying. He knew all the way down to his bones, but Preston and Parker didn't believe him and the whole week Kayla kept giving him annoying, sympathetic looks. At one point her compassion actually seemed genuine, giving Porter all the more reason to want to kick her in the shins. He might have given his brothers the same treatment too, simply for their willingness to believe such an obvious lie.
Mothers didn't just get sick and die; least of all their mother. No one else seemed to understand this.
The game began after dinner and despite his tendency toward disliking all of his siblings at that point, Porter had joined in without protest. Somehow it actually ended up being fun.
"Preston's It!" screamed Kayla, giggling and then dashing away from her brother. Preston ignored her and turned toward Porter and Parker, who stood together but took off in opposite directions as Preston came at them. They were stuck playing in their own yard since the neighborhood picnic was still going on in the street, and it made it a lot easier to get tagged in the confined area. Porter had already been It three times, so he didn't think it was exactly fair when Preston took off after him again instead of Parker. He dashed to the edge of the yard, turned abruptly and flew across the driveway and then back around toward the treehouse and it was then that he caught sight of his mother. Porter stopped so suddenly the Preston ran right into his back and they both fell down. Almost instinctually, Preston began to wrestle his brother as retaliation, but Porter merely shoved him away, scrambling to his feet to get another look at their mother. "What are you doing?" Preston asked, annoyed, but Porter couldn't find the words he needed and simply pointed out into the street. Beside him, Preston froze.
"Is that Mom?"
"Yeah."
"What's going on?" called Parker as he and Kayla walked over to them. "Why aren't we playing?"
"It's Mom," said Porter unsurely, pointing again. He felt like the world had dropped out from beneath his feet and he wasn't quite sure how he was still standing. "And she doesn't have any hair."
The four of them stared out onto the street where their mother was arguing with another woman while holding a wig in her hand. "See, I told you," said Kayla, but she didn't sound nearly as confident and proud as she usually did when she was right. "She has cancer."
Porter barely heard her. "Mom can't die," he said stubbornly. He glanced at Parker and Preston, looking for some sort of affirmation. "So maybe she has cancer like Kayla said. That just means she's sick, right?"
"My aunt had cancer and she died."
Parker shifted nervously. "Maybe Kayla's right."
"Should we ask?"
"They don't want us to know!" snapped Kayla even though she'd been antagonizing them to ask one of the adults all week. It wasn't surprising; she constantly backtracked over what she said.
"We should talk to Dad," said Preston.
"No."
"Yeah."
Porter shrugged. He didn't know what to do or say or think. All he knew was that he suddenly very afraid that Kayla was telling the truth.
They voted that night and came up two versus two about asking their parents, but the next morning as the four of them and Penny were all huddled around the television watching cartoons, not knowing began to weigh more and more heavily on their minds. For Porter, last night it had seemed too scary an idea to even say out loud to their parents; that morning it seemed too scary not to. So it was quietly and nervously that they trooped to their parents' bedroom, knocked and waited to be beckoned inside.
"All of you, huh?" said Mom as they came in and stood in a line by the bed. Porter held Penny's hand tightly—it had felt wrong to leave her out of it, even if she didn't understand what was really going on—but she pulled away from him to toddle over to the bed. Their mother lifted her up into her lap as she asked, "What did you break?'
Porter took a deep breath, glancing over at Preston for reassurance before he asked, "Mom, are you dying?"
Their parents exchanged a brief look that made Porter's heart pound in certainty that they were going to say yes. He couldn't believe it. He'd been so certain that Kayla was lying. So certain that it was impossible. So certain that nothing could ever happen to their mother. But then, just as he was about to explode from anticipation, Mom patted the bed and said, "Okay, family meeting. Everyone up here, right now."
Parker flew at the bed, crawling up and nuzzling into their mother's side before the rest of them could make a move. They followed suit more cautiously, and settled in a semi-circle across from their parents, Parker and Penny. Once they were seated, their mom gave them a sad smile and said, "I'm not dying. But I am sick."
"Are you sure?" asked Porter anxiously. "Kay—We heard that you have cancer and that it kills you."
"It's true," Kayla put in somewhat defensively. "My mom said my aunt had it and died, so I know."
"Sometimes cancer can kill you," Mom said calmly. "There are different kinds. But there are certain types that you can get medicine for and then you get better. And that's the kind I have."
"Why does it make all of your hair fall out?"
She looked down at Parker, surprised, while Dad answered, "It's not cancer that makes your hair fall out. It's a side effect of the medicine." He reached over and took Mom's hand and squeezed it. "Parker, remember that time you had to take that medicine and it made you really sleepy? That was a side effect. Sometimes the medicine that makes you better does other things too, and the one Mom's taking makes her hair fall out."
"Is it going to come back?" asked Porter.
"Yes. As soon as I stop getting treatment my hair will start to come back."
Preston, obviously less worried now that their parents had clarified some things, asked, "Can we see?"
Their mom shook her head and laughed and the sound finally made Porter relax. It was so normal and friendly and comforting that he couldn't imagine anything being able stop their mother from laughing like that. Slowly she reached up and pulled off the wig, but unlike yesterday it wasn't nearly so terrifying this time. "Cool!" said Preston, crawling across the bed and leaning up to run his hand over his mother's head. Porter followed suit while Kayla just sat back and rolled her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Their mother smiled at Parker and touched the tip of his nose with her finger. "I'm sorry," she said. "I thought that it was better if you didn't know because I didn't want to worry you. I love you too much. But you guys need to know that you can ask me or your dad anything. We'll tell you the truth."
"You promise you're going to get better?" asked Preston.
"I'm going to do everything I can. I promise."
Porter grinned and flopped back so he was lying between his parents, Preston wedging himself in next to him. After a moment, Kayla sighed and then scooted to the other end of the bed so she lay next to their father. Mom kissed the top of Penny's head and then glanced over at Dad with teary eyes, but Porter knew that look well enough to realize that it wasn't sad. It was one that said that everything was going to be okay.