Not my body Chapter 1: New

Prologue

"Emergency services? Yes I'm calling for my son, he's coughing up blood and it doesn't seem to be getting better. He's – oh my gosh – he's just fainted and I just…I don't know what to do." Carole Hummel spoke, a sense of panic in her tone as her body shook anxiously.

Finn Hummel was lying on his side in his bed, a pool of blood soaked into the sheets like water to a sponge. As she spoke, more blood splattered out of her little boy's mouth and over the little teddy bear that was to the side of Finn; the soft bear now looking as if it had been in some mass murder. Finn's pink lips had fresh blood staining them and his cries were interrupted by the upbringings of the liquid and the coughs. Carole put the phone on her shoulder and rested her ear on it as she quickly got her son to sit up and patted Finn's back a little, hoping that the new position wouldn't cause him to choke on his own blood, and then grabbed the phone again to hold it to her ear.

"Okay Ma'am," The caller spoke calmly as if they had done this many times before, "just keep calm while we sort out your whereabouts and the patient's information. Could you tell us his name and where you are right now please?"

Carole mumbled her address and her son's name, speaking cautiously as if her emotional state could worsen Finn's condition. Right now, Carole was scared, worried and upset as any mother would be if their child suddenly began coughing up blood and slipping in and out of consciousness. Everything was out of her control and she didn't like it. She felt so helpless for her son and wished she could do something to help. Carole was on the verge of having a minor panic attack; her husband, Burt, was at the car workshop and she was left with her baby boy Finn who, for all she knew, could die. He was only 2 years old.

"Ok ma'am, we're sending over an ambulance as we speak, they should be here in a matter of minutes. To help a little, try and keep him awake some how to stop him going into a coma. Keep him sat up as well so no blood can get caught in his throat and cause him to cough more or choke." Carole thanked the man on the phone and hung up. She scooped up her baby in her arms swung him gently as his cries began to weaken. She looked down at her innocent son, so small and weak. It was unfair that someone so new to the world could experience something so dreadful. The tears fell down Carole's face and onto Finn's baby soft cheeks as she wondered why Finn had to endure some terror of the world he was introduced to so early in his life.

As she let her thoughts linger in her confused mind, her ears caught up with the world around her, only to notice that Finn wasn't crying anymore. She looked down at her son. His eyes were closed and his breathing became shallower. Finn wasn't moving at all apart from the faint movement of his small, fragile chest. Carole's eyes went wide and she sunk to her knees while simultaneously cradling Finn to her chest. He felt so cold to her and Carole's breathing became more rapid.

The sirens snapped her out of this state and she raced down stairs with Finn as the paramedics knocked on the door. She opened the door and quickly but surely gave Finn over to them to see what they could do to help. They hurried over to the back of the ambulance and placed the innocent child on a Gurnee. An oxygen mask was placed over Finn's small bloody mouth as they hurriedly prepared to leave for the hospital. The mask supposedly keeping Finn alive covered a majority of his face making him seem more helpless than he already was. The paramedics alerted Carole that they needed to leave so she got into the ambulance as they waited, what seemed decades, to get to the hospital.

Their journey to the hospital began to shorten slowly as they made their way up the many roads in pursuit of reaching the destination. Finn wasn't waking up from his coma so the paramedics continued to make sure his pulse was stabilising enough to give Carole some reassurance that Finn would be somewhat okay. They weren't sure what was wrong with Finn just yet, which just increased the urgencies of getting to the hospital. The ambulance turned again to go down yet another road and everything in the back of the vehicle shook. Finn's pulse was not stabilizing so one of the paramedics put one hand on top of the other and pushed down gently but surely on Finn's little chest, while the other paramedic wrote down everything that was happening to Finn to report to the doctors once they got to the hospital.

Finn had lost a lot of blood and water from the coughing and vomiting so his body was dehydrated and lacked blood. The paramedic continued to push of the boy's chest which resulted in an upchuck of blood to cover the inside of the mask on his face. His eyes were now open but didn't have that sparkle that Carole would usually see. Instead, his eyes reflected Carole's feelings right now; scared.

The ambulance finally pulled up to the emergency entrance of the hospital and the little baby boy was rushed into the child unit to be examined and treated by the nurses. They pushed the Gurnee through the busy corridors and down into a private room where Doctor Kinsmen waited. Carole was rushing behind, constantly trying to look over the nurses shoulders at Finn to see if he was any worse or better. Her heart felt heavy as she saw Finn lying there looking around at everything that rushed past him, struggling to keep still as he looked for anyone that he could recognise even at his young age. The tears made his eyes shimmer as they went wide and Carole was on the verge of crying even more but she knew that her state could affect Finn's already panicked feelings.

The Gurnee was rushed into the room with the Doctor and Carole cautiously waited behind the glass outside the room so she could see any progress on her son but stay away from the mad amount of people trying to diagnose Finn's health issues. She turned away as she heard the beeping sounds pick up pace and sunk into a plastic white chair to calm down a little. The worried mother tried to block out the sounds in the room behind her; the doctors discussions, the constant beeping and her baby's cries for help and security.

The phone in her pocket vibrated and a built in tune played. She pulled it out of her jeans pocket and answered the call from her husband.

"Carole? Where are you and Finn? I went upstairs and found the bloodstained sheets in Finn's bed. Are you okay? Is Finn okay? That's a lot of blood Carole." His deep tone filled Carole's ears and gave her a sense of security. More tears fell down Carole's face as she spoke key parts of what had happened. "Finn…was coughing b-blood….coma….hospital." She said shakily, trying to speak without breaking into more tears.

"Honey" Burt spoke surprisingly calm, "I'm on my way now, just hang on and I'll be there soon to hear what they have to say. I can't promise that everything is going to be okay but I can promise that we'll get through it together. Love you." Carole mumbled a quite reply and hung up, shaking her head before placing it in the palms of her hands to cry.

Because the car shop was nearer to the hospital it didn't take too long to get there as Burt drove quickly to where his son and wife were. Mr. Hummel was getting stressed out because he wanted to know why his son was in this unfair predicament but he didn't want to get too angry or stressed in case he had a heart attack. He hastily pulled up to the hospital and practically ran in there demanding to know where his son was being held. The nurse at the reception calmly got a fellow nurse to escort him to the room seeing as he was family. They rounded a corner and Burt rushed over to his wife who was scarily quite as she sat motionless in the plastic chair. The nurse then left as he took hold of her hands and knelt down on the floor in front of her. She lifted her head up and looked sorrowfully at him before being pulled into a hug.

At that moment, Mr. Kinsmen walked out of the room and asked if he could talk to the Hummel's about Finn's health. Burt stood up with Carole and they motioned for the Doctor to begin speaking the diagnostics. Dr. Kinsmen looked slightly uncomfortable; he was fiddling with his hands and his expression wasn't plain, it had a sadder tone to it.

"Well we found the reason that Finn was disposing the blood," he sighed sadly "There was no eternal bleeding which is a positive but we discovered some purple marks upon his skin; stomach and legs mainly. It seems that Finn has developed Leukaemia." He paused a moment to let the devastating news take effect. Carole buried her head into Burt's chest as he wrapped his arm around her. Burt's expression didn't change but it was obvious that some tears were beginning to form. He kissed his wife's head to give her some reassurance. The Doctor continued, "But it's good that we found this out earlier because the treatment will have more effect. We can't predict what will happen later in your son's life but we can offer support and options to help however we can." Burt nodded in understanding.

"What options do we have?" Burt asked, wondering what his son would have to go through in his life.

Dr. Kinsmen lead the parents to his office and sat them down as he got out some paperwork and leaflets that had information on Leukaemia treatment.

"Now with most people diagnosed with Leukaemia we recommend the usual treatment which explains itself in the leaflets I'll give you at the end. But I understand if you don't want your young son to go through the needles and spend a significant amount of his life in hospital. Along with this treatment, if you wish to choose it, it may require occasional surgery as parts of his system could fail." Carole let out a gasp in between quiet sobs. "I presume you know that we have many organ and blood donors available?" Burt nodded "Good. I'd like you to know that we can't always offer donors as they can be scarce sometimes but I'd like to give you the option of genetic donors. You may also know them as saviour siblings?" Burt raised his eyebrows in confusion. The Doctor picked up on this and continued. "A saviour sibling is when someone is born with a genetic match to the person diagnosed with something like Leukaemia. If the person with the illness has, lets say, a kidney failure, the sibling could then go to surgery to donate the needed kidney for their sibling and this would apply to any other organs also. As the parents, you can't donate because your organs would be too large for your son to handle but saviour siblings are an option."

Burt looked at his wife and she nodded. "Are you sure we can handle this honey? Do you want two kids?" She nodded again and Burt told Dr. Kinsmen that this is what they wanted.

"We can offer your wife IVF treatment that can be sorted out today to make sure we don't leave the age gap too wide and with in two to three days you could be pregnant"

They nodded and were handed the information leaflets. They said goodbye and The Hummel's headed to the area for IVF consultation.

Once Burt had done his bit and left Carole to have the IVF treatment he went back to the room that Finn had been moved to. It was a small room but at least it was a private one. There were a few drips held up and a respiratory machine at the side that beeped slowly but steadily. Finn was lying on the bed dressed in the tacky hospital gown that was a bit too big for him. There was a needle in his left arm and a purple mark was just above the needle. A tube was connected to the needle to let the blood transfer into his body. The little boy was sleeping soundly so Burt sat down in a cushioned green chair away from all the machines surrounding Finn and fell asleep.

~oOo~

Nine months later Carole was the one being admitted into the hospital. Her water had broken during a visit to see Finn and Burt was already there as well. A nurse helped her into wheelchair and pushed her to the maternity unit. After 9 hours of agonising pain, Carole had given birth to a beautiful little boy.

Burt was able to get Finn wheeled into the room to see his new little brother. Finn had gotten more purple and blue marks over the months but he still seemed like the happy little boy he usually was. He was in another hospital gown like Carole's and he had tube going through his nose but his smile drew all that away.

Burt smiled at the scene in front of him; he had a loving wife and two amazing sons. Today was a good day; in fact, it was one of the best moments of Burt Hummel's life.

About an hour later a social worker arrived to talk to Burt about an issue that had arisen about two weeks ago. The social worker began to talk "Mr. Hummel, I have recent information that you know a Miss Sophia Ricardo and that you were appointed God father of her daughter that was born about two weeks ago?" Burt nodded but wondered where this was going. Sophia was a college friend that he stayed in touch with and helped Sophia when she needed him. "Unfortunately she died during child birth and her boyfriend left when he found out she was pregnant so now her daughter has been passed down to you. If you are willing to take her, I have adoption papers here; if not then we will admit her to a orphanage." Burt held his finger up as if to say to give him a moment and he made his way back into the room where his wife and sons were.

The worried look on Burt's face made Carole concerned. "Honey who was that? What's wrong? Is it Finn?" He shook his head vigorously.

"It was a social worker" He began "Sophia died during childbirth and….and her daughter has been passed down to…us." Burt was still coming to realisation of all this but Carole had a big smile on her face. Her husband raised an eyebrow and let Carole speak.

"I've always wanted a little girl." She said happily. Burt went to sit down next to Carole and took her hand.

"Carole We just got a little boy, are you sure you want another child?" Burt asked carefully, not wanting to upset her.

"Definitely! Think about it, the little girl is basically the same age as this little one here" She gestured to the bundle in her arm "It would give our boys someone to talk to because they'll be out of school a bit. We're quite wealthy and I don't think we should give her to an orphanage where she doesn't have anyone mildly related to her."

"Okay" Was all Burt said. He smiled and kissed her before going back to the social worker and officially making this little girl a Hummel.

Today was a good day; in fact, it was one of the best moments of Burt Hummel's life.