ANL I am sorry this is so late in being posted but here it is at last.
I plan on posting on every day between now and April 25th but if for some reason I miss posting on one day you guys will get a double update the next day.
Twenty-one months later…
Pepper's mouth became a thin line of worried concentration while her fingers continued to probe the second spot just underneath her left arm. She hoped within her that what the tips of her fingertips were feeling was just her imagination, the product of not sleeping particularly well the previous night. But after she moved her hand away from the area and put it back to feel, she knew what she was feeling wasn't the result of her not sleeping.
Then there was the fact she could feel the exact same thing in two different spots, the other one being on her upper chest.
It's probably nothing, she said to herself, trying to reign in the concerned worry that was quickly into fear, Don't make a mountain out of a molehill until you-
There was a knock on the bathroom door.
She jumped, then said, "Yes?"
Her husband's voice replied, "Gin, honey, are you okay? You've been in there a long time this morning, and it's almost time for Morgan to leave for school."
Wrapping her robe tightly around herself, she opened the door a crack and she was immediately greeted with his concerned face. She smiled at him, nodding, "I'm okay."
Rhodey arched a skeptical eyebrow at her reassurances.
Really, James, I'm okay. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night that's all."
Although he continued to look skeptical, but he finally nodded, "Want to come say bye to Morgan before we both head off?"
"We?"
"Yeah, we. You do remember that I have a client first thing this morning, right?"
Suddenly she remembered them talking about their schedules for today last night over dinner. With the refresher she now remembered how they'd talked about how Happy could have the morning off since Rhodey would drop off Morgan at school before he went to the airport for work.
"Honey, are you sure you're alright?"
Although he looked like he still didn't believe her about just needing to wake up, he decided to let it go and asked, "So, are you coming to see us off?"
"Of course! Just let me throw on something really quick… you can wait like three more minutes, right?"
"I think we can spare three more minutes."
"I'll be right out," she replied, shutting the bathroom door.
Once it was closed, she wanted to lean on it for a minute or so but she didn't have the time. Not if she wanted to see her husband and son off for the day. Still as she pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants she said, "FRIDAY, contact Doctor Tyler's office and make an appointment with him."
"How soon would you like it, Mrs. R?"
"Today if possible. Or tomorrow."
"On it."
"Thank you. And if his office makes one for today, send a message to Alana with the appropriate times and tell her I will need to cancel all my appointments during that time."
FRIDAY scheduled an appointment with Doctor Tyler for late morning. She went to see him, and after an examination, he sent her to some test run at the hospital next door, and had asked her to return to his office afterwards. Pepper tried to not let the fact he wanted her to come back after getting the scans done alarm her. But as she sat in his office, waiting for him to come in, she found herself starting to get worried.
Finally the door opened, and Dr. Tyler came into the room, "Sorry for keeping you waiting, Mrs. Rhodes, but I wanted to look over your scans again."
She nodded, "That's okay, Doctor. I understand. So... what's the verdict?"
As she was speaking, he was opening up a folder, her chart she guessed, and looking them over yet again. After a moment he finally looked up at her, "I don't want to scare you, Mrs. Rhodes, but I want to schedule you for a biopsy as soon as possible."
"A biopsy?"
He nodded.
"So you think... you think it might be cancer?"
"Again, I don't want to scare you but yes, there is a chance that you may have cancer. But there's also a chance that the lumps that can be felt and seen on your scans may be nothing more than fatty tissue deposits. I can't tell you which is the case without a biopsy, which is why we need to get you scheduled as soon as possible."
"Alright..."
He went on talking but Pepper could hear what he said for the rushing of blood in her ears.
She might have cancer.
Cancer. Cancer. Cancer.
week later, once again, Pepper found herself sitting in Doctor Tyler's office waiting to hear whatever news he had to tell her. Without every fiber of her being, she prayed he wasn't about to walk in and tell her that she was sick. Oh man, how she prayed that she wouldn't hear the words, I'm sorry, but you have cancer.
In the seat beside hers, she heard her husband of almost two years shifting around. While he certainly had more patience than Tony, all those years of military discipline and training she supposed, didn't mean that he liked being kept waiting forever. They'd been here over an hour, starting from the time they'd been called back from the waiting room after being in there for forty minutes.
"You don't suppose they've forgotten we're in here, do you?" he said, breaking the silence.
She shook her head, "No, I don't think they've-"
They both jumped a little as the office door opened, admitting Doctor Tyler and another man that neither of them recognized into the room. The other man definitely had the look of a doctor as he was dressed in business attire and was wearing the white lab coat doctors wear, along with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. Neither of the men spoke while the unidentified man pulled up a chair beside Doctor Tyler's desk.
Doctor Tyler only turned to them when the other man had nodded, signaling he was ready.
"I am so sorry to keep you waiting so long but I wanted to bring Doctor York in your case."
The second doctor cleared his throat, and pushed his glasses up on his nose before he extended his hand towards them, "Hello, I'm Doctor Nicholas York..."
Pepper shook the man's hand briefly, as did her husband, wishing he'd just tell them whatever it is he needed to tell them. She gripped Rhodey's hand again, tightly as he resumed speaking.
"... I'm the Head of the Oncology Department in Greater Mercy and Hope Hospital."
The sun was starting to go down by the time Pepper and Rhodey walked in the front door of their home. Despite the day they'd had spent discussing with the doctors what would be happening in the very near future with Pepper, Rhodey could help but smile when he looked into the living room.
Peter was laying on the left chaise portion of the sofa which pillow in his lap on which Morgan's head was resting. Both of them had their eyes glued towards the TV wall at the other end of the room, and he didn't even have to look towards it to know they were watching one of the Star Wars movies for what had to be the billionth time.
When Pepper joined him in the door, and saw what the boys were doing, she put a finger to her lips. Rhodey nodded, and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer. After all, what came next could wait for a little while longer, and they could let the boys enjoy themselves for a little while longer. Things stayed this way for about five minutes until Peter stretched and turned his head in their direction.
He smiled, put his hand down on Morgan's shoulder, and said, "Hey, buddy, look who's home."
Morgan turned his head in their direction, and the instant he saw them, the little boy was up off the sofa, "Mommy! Daddy!" He rushed into the waiting arms of his parents.
Peter watched them for a second, looked back over at the TV to see that FRIDAY had paused the movie, and then he got up. He stretched again, and picked up the empty popcorn bowl from the floor to take it to the kitchen to give them a little time with Morgan before they talked to him. When he came back, Rhodey had pulled away a little while Pepper was still talking with Morgan.
He'd been waiting for Peter to come back, and when he saw him, he went over to him, "So how did this afternoon go?"
"Oh, great. It went great. Morgan's a great kid but…"
Although Peter's voice had gone soft on the word but, Rhodey still heard it, and he asked, "But what?"
The younger man shrugged, "But I… don't know. Something seemed a little… off with him today. I couldn't put my finger on it."
"Did you ask him if something happened at school today?"
"Yeah, I did and he said he had a really good day in school. It wasn't something at school."
At his pensive look, Rhodey sighed and said quietly, "There is something going on."
"Can I ask what it is, Mr. Rhodes?"
Rhodey looked towards his wife and son, "Later, Peter." He saw the disappointment in Peter's eyes, ""We'll tell you soon, Peter. But this it's just something that we need to tell Morgan first before anyone else. He should know first."
"Okay."
He touched the younger man's shoulder, "I promise you that we will tell you too." After all they considered Peter as much a part of the family as they did Happy, or Bruce, "We just think it's important that Morgan hears about it first."
Peter nodded but didn't get to say anything in response because they heard Pepper ask Morgan, "Did you get all your homework finished, sweetheart?"
"Uh huh, Mommy. Did it first thing after we got home… well after we had a snack. Right, Peter?"
"Right, kiddo."
"Did you guys already have dinner?" Rhodey asked.
"Uh huh. Peter made pasta!"
"Pumpkin pasta," Peter supplied.
"Ah, sounds delicious!"
"It was! It was soooooooo yummy! Peter's the bestest cook!"
"Well, I don't know about that," Peter said with a blush, "But thank you for saying something so nice, Morgan." He looked over at them, "There's leftovers... if either of you are hungry?"
"No, thank you."
"No, Peter, but thank you."
Pepper ran a hand over her son's head, "Well, it's starting to get late, sweetie. I think you need to start getting ready for bed."
"Aww, Mommy! We haven't finished watchin' Empire Strikes Back yet!," Morgan said with a long face.
"Hey, that's okay, buddy," Peter interjected before Pepper could respond, "FRIDAY's got our place bookmarked… don't you, FRI?"
"Of course, Mr. Peter."
"See? We can finish Empire later next time I'm come over. Okay?"
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Okay!"
"Okay, sweetie, why don't you say bye to Peter and go start getting ready to bed? I'll come say goodnight after you brush your teeth."
The little boy nodded, and went over to Peter, throwing his arms around his waist, "Bye bye, Peter! Love you!"
As he hugged the little boy back, Peter's shiny eyes met with Pepper and Rhodey's, "Bye bye, Morgan. I... I love you too." As suddenly as he hugged Peter, the boy was disappearing down the hallway, headed towards his bedroom.
Peter clearing his throat broke the up the silence, "Well, I think I should get going." He picked up his messenger bag as his spoke, and started towards the door.
Pepper and Rhodey followed him, she spoke first, "Thank you so much again, Peter."
"Yes, thank you, Peter," Rhodey echoed, holding his hand out towards the younger man.
Peter took it, and shook his hand, "Oh, you're welcome but it was my pleasure, really. I love spending time with Morgan, and like I said, he's a great kid, but more to the point he's the best little brother I never had. You can call me anytime."
"And you're the best big brother he has," Pepper said back him as he let go of her husband's hand, and went out of the front door.
They watched him walk to his car, where he waved before getting in. What he said tonight wasn't anything new to them. He had always told them he wanted to be able to spend as much time with Morgan as other people and things in his life allowed him to. Here lately they'd rarely took him up on the offer because they knew among other things Peter was busy building up a career for himself, and even being Spider-man had fallen to the back burner for him. He hadn't stopped being Spider-man altogether, but he just had far less time for it now than he did when he was still in high school.
Sadly, with the way things were changing, and as much as they didn't want to, they might have to start taking Peter up on his offer.
Before they told Morgan what was going on, Pepper and Rhodey made arrangements for her to take an extended leave of absence from the company. They didn't give the board explicit details about why she needed the leave, but they did make it clear that time away was needed. In the end, the board members made it clear that they didn't like it but agreed to allow the COO fill to in temporarily as the CEO.
The next issues once Stark Industries was taken care of for now, the next difficult thing they had to do was figure out how and what they were going to tell Morgan about what was going on with his mother. They decided putting off telling him until the weekend since he wouldn't be in school for half of the day. They wanted all the time they could get to prepare him for what was about to start happening because the diagnosis Pepper had received was very serious, grave even the doctor had informed then, but not completely hopeless. But her treatment plan would be a rigorous one, and they wanted Morgan to be somewhat prepared for what laid ahead for their family.
They had just finished eating breakfast when Pepper glanced at Rhodey then looked at her son finishing up the last of blueberry waffles. She waited until he was chewing on the last bite before she began, "Sweetheart, when you're done please put your dishes in the sink and go sit down in the living room. Daddy and I need to talk to you about something, okay?"
The boy nodded, and started to reply verbally but halted when his mother asked him to please not talk with his mouth full. So Morgan did as he was asked instead, putting his dishes in the sink before going to the living room. Since he was first he had to wait for them to follow suit but they soon came to join him.
Pepper seated herself on the couch, as did Rhodey, leaving enough room between them for Morgan to sit. She patted the cushion, and waited for her son to sit down before she took a breath to began saying what needed to be said,
"Are we still going to the park?" the boy blurted out suddenly.
Morgan was definitely Tony's son because he loved all things electronic and was at the top of his class in school. But the little boy also loved spending time outside whenever the weather permitted and it just so happened that today was going to be a perfect day for spending the day at the park.
Rhodey nodded, "Yes, we're still going, champ. I promise. But there's something important that's coming up involving your Mommy that we need to talk to you about."
"What? What is it?" the little boy asked, his tone betraying his anxiousness to hear what they had to say so they could go on to the park.
Taking a glance in her husband's direction, Pepper took a deep breath, and brushed away a stray bit of hair back, "Honey, there is something going on with me that you need to know about. It's something that is big, and it will probably sound very scary to you but sweetheart I want you to know I am going to be okay. Okay?"
"Okay…"
This was the part Pepper dreaded amd hated to tell her precious little boy but this had to be said. She reached out to grasp his small hand in hers, "Sweetheart, Mommy is sick-"
"You gotta a cold? Coz I hate colds! They're-"
Rhodey wished it was only a cold his wife had but it wasn't. He knew telling their son was hard enough for Pepper at it was, so he silence the boy's rambling before it could even get started by touching Morgan's shoulder. When the little boy looked at him, Rhodey put a finger to his lips, signaling the need for him to be quiet, and was gentle when he said. "You need to listen to what your Mommy's saying now. You'll get to ask questions and talk, okay?"
Morgan nodded, "Okay."
Grateful for the help, Pepper went on, "No, honey, I don't have a cold…"
I wish I did have a cold. I wouldn't be so scared to have to say this out loud to my little boy!
Swallowing down the lump of fear in her throat, she started again, "Morgan, I have cancer."
As they watched, his eyes got so wide, filled up with tears then spilled over as the boy started crying in fear. Yes, their son knew something about cancer. He knew because three times a year Pepper visited the children's cancer hospital with gifts for the kids. Morgan had started accompanying her when he was four years old.
Of course, all they told him at first about the kids in the hospital were that they were sick, some of them were very sick in fact. But he had wanted to play with them and the doctors told them it would be okay if he were very careful with them and as long the playing didn't tire them out too much.
Alarmed, she pulled her son into her arms, and started to rub the boy's back.
"Are… are you gonna go away like Joseph and Daddy Tony did, Mommy?" Morgan asked, his voice muffled from his head being against her shoulder.
Joseph had been one of the kids at the children's cancer hospital Morgan had met when he first started going with her mother. The two little boys had hit it off almost instantly and had spent hours playing with the remote toy cars he and his mother had brought for the kids that day. When they left, Morgan promised he'd come back to play with Joseph, and Pepper had made the arrangements for them to come back soon.
Over the next two months, Morgan would come to play Joseph with while his mother or sometimes Rhodey would talk with the other boy's parents. They found details about how Joseph or Joey as they called him, was their only child, and how worried they were the treatments weren't working despite the doctors reassuring them he was getting better.
Watching the vibrant little fighter of a boy, it had seemed like he was getting better but then one day, when they arrived at the hospital and were intercepted by Joseph's doctor. Joseph had developed a high fever during the night, and had been put into isolation while being treated for it because they were afraid his immune system was now compromised. They'd told Pepper that until further notice, Morgan couldn't see Joseph, not even if they could get the little boy to observe strict isolation protocols. She had taken a very disappointed little boy home and returned the next day to ask if she could see Joseph or his parents. She was told no, that the only people they were allowing into the isolation ward were his parents or close relatives of the boy.
Next week, she had gotten an authorized called from one of the nurses who had helped to care for Joseph to tell her that the little boy had passed away the previous night. It seemed the infection he had contracted was just too much for his little body to fight off, and he had died in his sleep with his parents by his side. She had hung the phone and cried a little time for the sweet boy who had been her son's friend and for what his parents had lost.
Of course at first, Morgan hadn't quite understood what she meant when she told him about Joseph but then she explained to him that like his Daddy who had loved him so much but had been made to go away before he was born, that was basically like what happened to Joseph.
His parents exchanged a look with each other, and then Rhodey said, "Hey, buddy, can you hear me? I need to to listen, okay? Can you do that for me, champ?"
His head bobbed up and down.
"Good. I want you to know your Mom's going to be very sick for awhile but buddy, the doctors are going to do their best to get her better and you know what?"
The boy raised his head, "W-w-what?"
"We're... you and I are going to do everything we can to help the doctors help Mommy too because we are a team. Right?"
Morgan sniffled, nodding, "Uh huh."
"So you don't have to cry anymore, sweetie. Everything is going to be okay," Pepper added, pressing a kiss on the top of his head, "Mommy is going to fight this and she's going to win!"
