A/N: Alright lovies! Here's my fifth (I think) story! I know I know im horrible at updating but my dance companies show is this week so I should be better by then! O and I sense a Christmas special in our midst!! But of course, someone will die. Someone ALWAYS dies ;)
OH AND LISTEN/READ RIGHT HERE!::: I demand that you listen to "Beside You" by Marianas Trench on repeat while reading my story. If you're deaf, I'll understand, but otherwise you have no excuse! *Grrr*
Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, you know the drill. I don't own shit. Happy now? Lol I'm not!
Beside You
By: SuperxXxGirl79
"So, George I've told you about my daughters. How about your kids?" Nora inquired, gently poking at her half eaten pasta.
George set down his fork and sighed. Most of it was good, but some... not so much. "Well," he said, clearing his throat. "I have three children; that alone turns off most women." Nora chuckled, and he smiled. "My youngest is 5 years old. Her name is Marti, and words cannot describe how unique and creative she is. Edwin comes next. He is, or at least tries to be, a comedian. Always lightening the mood, that one. He's 11 right now. Derek, my oldest is usually the reason our household needs some cheering up." He smiled with tears in his eyes. Sighing, he continued. "Derek has cancer. It's not leukemia, so it's a bit easier to deal with, but he has several large tumours. He's always in and out of the hospital. Right now he is 15 years old. He first had cancer when he was 11. When he was 12, they pronounced him cancer free, but last year...it came back." He was getting choked up at the memories of his son lying in a hospital bed. Nora, tears in her eyes, enveloped him in her arms.
"I can't even imagine how horrible that must be," she choked out. They sat like that for quite a while.
"Hey, Derek!" George said cheerfully, as he stepped in the door of his son's hospital room. The one he always occupied during his stays.
Derek was lying in his bed. There was an IV attached to his hand, and another one attached to his arm. He had a small set of tubes inserted through his nostrils, helping give him the oxygen he needed that his body couldn't supply.
"Hi Dad," he croaked out, smiling.
"How's the chemo going?" George asked.
"Pretty good. You know, same old same old."
"That's good...Hey, listen. I've got a surprise for you when you come out of surgery tomorrow." George said after a moment.
"Cool, what is it?" Derek said, his eyes lighting up. Man, that kid loved surprises!
"Well, if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise!" George laughed. Derek pouted, sinking back into his bed.
At that moment a doctor came in, asking to inspect Derek and take his blood pressure, heart rate and make sure all notes were accurate for the lengthy surgery tomorrow.
"What exactly are they doing during Derek's surgery today?" Nora asked. Her and George were sitting at his kitchen table, discussing things and having coffee.
"Basically, they are checking out the tumours and attempting to remove one, the one in his head. It's not touching his brain, but it's growing on the inside of his skull. Similar to the growth of mold, really. It's hard for the doctors to get at it, because it's so close to his brain." These kind of conversations wore him out. It hurt to talk about his oldest son. He had just started his second year in high school. All through his first year, he had become popular because he was the first tenth grader to get on the school's hockey team. He had a lot of doctor's appointments, as they checked every month to make sure the cancer wasn't returning, and many of his teammates asked about it. He just told them that he had the potential to get a disease that runs in the family. They gave him sad looks, but didn't question it further.
As soon as the cancer had come back, and he started to miss school for surgery and chemotherapy, he had to tell everyone. They would have found out anyway. Why he was so weak, why he was bald, and always wore a bandana or a hat... It would have become obvious to some people.
George checked his watch. "We should be going soon. Derek will get out in about an hour and a half. I'll go collect the children, Madame." He mock bowed and headed upstairs. Nora's daughters Casey and Lizzie had come up for the weekend. They had arrived earlier that day from Toronto. Derek would be getting home on Saturday, which was in two days.
They all hopped in the car and sped off towards the hospital.
They walked down the hallway to Derek's room. A nurse came out of his room and gave them a sad smile, knowing they must be family.
"That's him right there," George said, pointing at Derek's sleeping figure through the large window. He took in his son's form.
Derek was looking pale and weak. He had a bandage wrapped around his head. The bandage has small dots of crimson on it. He was sleeping on his back, with his IV hand lying on top of his stomach. The heart monitor beeped rhythmically, and the breathing tubes were in his nose as well.
George glanced over at Nora and her daughters. Nora looked slightly sad, but was smiling nonetheless.
"He's such a beautiful boy," she said, in a motherly fashion. George had every intention of marrying this woman, and he could tell she would be a great motherly figure towards his children, Derek especially. Abby, his ex-wife, had died when Derek was ten. He was really the only one of the kids who remembered Abby by memories, and not pictures and stories.
Looking at the Macdonald's again, he took in Casey's reaction. He couldn't quite read her expression. It was almost as if she was trying to convince herself she was angry, but her face betrayed none of her feelings. Lizzie was standing next to Edwin. He had a brotherly arm around her shoulders and she reciprocated it, leaning her head on her shoulder. They looked as if they had been best friends forever.
There was a hitch in the heart monitor's beeping, and everyone snapped their heads to attention, eyes wide. Derek shifted in his sleep, and the beeping resumed to normal.
George and Nora both let out the breaths they had been holding.
Derek was dreaming.
He was in a room. The room had olive green walls and a window seat. The window was open and the white curtains swayed in the breeze. He sat down on the window seat and put his feet up. On the wall opposite from him sat a mirror. He looked into it and saw that he had hair. And he wasn't pale. And he was as strong as he had been at the height of hockey season last year. He put a hand to his face to make sure it was real.
He heard an amused chuckle from behind him and turned around, astonished by what he saw.
"Mom?" he asked, noticing his voice was echoing slightly.
"Oh, my little boy, look at how much you've grown!" she exclaimed and ran over to hug him. It was then that he noticed her apparel.
She was wearing a long white dress. It had an empire waist and cap sleeves with a modest neckline. Her red-brown hair, the same color as Derek's, flowed over her shoulders, down to her shoulder blades. She somehow looked younger than Derek had remembered her. This must be her without the extra age that cancer adds, he thought.
He smiled and hugged her back fiercely. It was good to have his mom back. As she pulled back, he read her eyes and sighed.
"I'm not going to be here for long, am i?" He said.
"No, you're not."
There was silence and Derek looked down.
"Hey," Abby said, lifting her son's chin with her finger. "I'll always be right beside you. If your heart wears thin, I'll hold you up. Trust me. I'll hide you when it gets too much. I'll stay. Nobody will break you."
They just looked at each other, the perfect image of a mother and her son.
Suddenly, the sky was open. Black clouds swirled around the sky. Derek looked up towards the oncoming storm.
When he looked back again, his mom was gone.
Panicked he yelled, "MOM?! Where'd you go?! Come on, Mom, I need you where did you go!?" He started crying and sank to his knees on the floor.
What had started as a breeze quickly picked up into a torrent of objects flying, whipping Derek's hair around his face. He searched frantically for a way out, but there was none. He ducked and covered his head.
But he only woke up after hearing his mother scream, and a haunting voice laugh mercilessly.
A/N: Yeah, I know its a cliff hanger, boo hoo! If you don't review (btw) I won't update as fast so tsk tsk! Hop to it!
Lolza (I was getting bored of just "LOL" all the time. So now it's Lolza)
~ Alanna (who loves all her loyal reviewers like pet fishes. You will always get [virtual] fish treats from me :D)
