Brennan and her daughter Christine were on their way to a doctor's appointment, just a routine checkup with the pediatrician. Christine had just turned eight and it is recommended for a child of her age to see a doctor for a checkup at every birthday. Brennan pulls her car into the parking lot at the pediatrician's office.
Christine and her mother walk up to the door and entered the practice. While her mother checks her in she walks over and sits in her favorite chair. She always sits in the chair in the back corner of the room left of the table, which is separating the chairs from the sofa. When she takes a seat she has to push herself onto her toes and pushes herself to the back of the chair.
Most of her friend don't like the doctor but she actually enjoys attending her yearly checkup. Brennan finishes up and heads over to the spot where Christine is seated. No one ever thought brennan would become a mother but she did and she loves every second of it. After several minutes of Christine kicking her legs back and forth and her Mom reading Anthropology journals on her phone, the nurse comes out and calls Christine's name.
Christine and Brennan get up and follow the nurse through the door. The nurse does the usual height and weight. Christine finally broke four feet but she only weighed 50 pound which was 8 pounds to low for someone her age. The nurse brings them to the exam room where she leaves Christine to wait for the doctor to examine her. After sitting on the table for some time Christine notices she feels tired, she slept well last night so she can't attribute it to lack of sleep.
The doctor knocks and lets herself in, "Hi Christine! Good to see you again, although lack of seeing you in the last year is a good thing, right?"
"Yup!" Christine replies cheerfully. Brennan doesn't look up from her phone because she knows that nothing exciting with happen today.
"So your weight is a little low. Have we been eating three good meals a day?" she directs this question at Christine and her mom.
"Yes." Christine replies without hesitation
"I feed her every single one." Brennan adds reassuring the doctor. Although she is not reassured, she just becomes a little more uneasy.
"Mom, has she been bruising too easily?" Brenna didn't think so, so she shakes her head. "Okay Christine we are going to check your belly now. Christine lies down on the exam table and lifts her shirt. Much to everyone's surprise her abdomen was bruised.
"Do you remember ever getting hit with anything that could cause these bruises?" Christine just shook her head and the doctor proceeded to ask Brennan, "do you remember anything that could cause these bruises.
"All I can think of," she replies, "is this morning when my husband put her over his shoulder." Brennan has turned off her phone and now had her full attention focused on this appointment.
"Can I feel your neck and chin Christine?"
"Sure." the doctor places her hand up and down the side of her chin and rests her hand right below Christine's Jaw.
"I do feel a swollen lymph node, so Mom I am going to need your permission to perform a blood count on Christine just to make sure nothing's going on."
"That's fine with me." The doctor leads Christine out of the room and into another one.
"Can you hop up in the big blue chair. Christine new the drill every once in awhile when she would get sick they would do a blood count on her. She placed her arm on the rest and waiting for the doctor to finish setting up. She tied the band tightly around Christine's arm and drew the blood. She took four vials of blood and then removed the needle and put a bandaid on top of the gauze. The doctor walks her back to her room where her mom is still sitting.
As Christine hops back up on the table The doctor tells brennan,"It will be about 15 minutes before we get anything conclusive."
"Okay thank you." Brennan gives Christine her phone while she herself stares of into space. The time passes quickly for Christine but not for brennan. A blood count wasn't usual and when doctors say they just want to make sure nothing's wrong it means they suspect something is up.
Eventually the doctor returns with a sick look on her face. Brennan asks, "It's bad isn't it?"
"We suspect Acute lymphoblastic leukemia." Christine doesn't know what that means but just that it's bad because it looks like her mom is about to burst into tears, and her mom never cries. The doctor pulls Brennan out into the hall where she begins to explain what they need to do. Meanwhile Christine is left alone in the room, confused and scared.
When Brennan comes back into the room she picks Christine up which she hasn't done in ages and takes her out into the waiting room. "We need to go sweetie and I'll explain everything on the way to get Daddy. " Christine just nods. She has become scared, she has never seen her Mom act like this before, she seems frantic and sad. Christine and Brennan rush to the car and Christine is hopeful her Mom can explain this to her.
The get in the car and Brennan stops and decides now is the time to try and explain. "Christine do you know what cancer is?"
"Yah it's when you're very sick and bald" Christine becomes suspicious that this is what she has, but she decides not to jump to conclusions.
"Yes, sort of but with cancer some people don't get better, some people….some people die." Brennan has a hard time getting these words out. Christines face darkens as she realizes the gravity of the situation. Her mom has told her about cancer before and so have people at school but never did she think it could kill you or that she would ever have it.
"Christine you-"
Christine cuts her off, "Yeah I know I have cancer, that's what acute lymphoblastic leukemia is, a kind of cancer." Brennan is sad but a small part of her lights up at the fact that her daughter is so brilliant. She calls Booth and fills him in on the situation, but Christine isn't paying attention. She is really worried about what will happen to her, does this mean she is going to die, is she going to start throwing up, and will she be bald. She continues to wonder what could possibly happen.
"Okay so we're going home, packing bags, getting Daddy and Hank and going to the hospital. " before they pull out of the parking spot to go get Booth Brennan shots Angela a text telling her to meet her at the children's hospital in one hour. They drive home get booth who is so distraught over the situation that he hugs Christine so tight she has to tell him to let go. They get all the way to the the children's hospital parking lot and wait outside for Angela to come. Brennan sends Angela a text saying to meet them out front right as they see Angela pull in. She gets out of the car along with michael and they all walk into the hospital together.
"What's going on?" Angela asks Brennan trying to figure out why they are at the children's hospital.
"Christine has cancer." Brennan replies very blankly, not really sure how else to put it.
"Really?" Angela asks shocked. Angela doesn't quite understand how Brennan could be so casual when her child is in danger. After knowing angela for so long she realized it's her way of coping.
Booth on the other hand is a total mess. The tears have silently been running down his face the whole time, he tries to wipe them away and hold them back but the tears just keep coming. The reach the hospital's reception desk and Brennan works on getting the information out of the desk on where they need to take Christine. Christine just stands beside her mother and grips her hand with all the strength she has.
Angela asks Brennan, "Do you want me to take hank I can keep him as long as you need?
"Yeah Ange that would be great." Brennan passes Hank off to Angela and they walk back out into the parking lot. Booth, Brennan and Christine make their way to the oncology wing. They walk in silence no one wishing to say anything. Christine is really scared she doesn't understand why this couldn't wait until tomorrow.
They approach the reception desk this time in the oncology wing. After waiting in the waiting room for several minutes in silence a nurse guides them to a room.
"You should get settled in, the doctor will come in to see you then he will want to order some tests. You will probably be recommended to start Chemotherapy right away."
"Thanks," Brennan adds, always being polite, and the nurse walks out.
Everyone sits in silence for a while longer until Christine asks her parents, "what is Chemotherapy?" her mom finally breaks down and sheds a tear for the situation. She holds back the water in her eyes because she feels like she needs to be strong for her daughter before replying to her question.
" Chemotherapy is a medication used to treat your cancer. It should help you survive the cancer." Brennan explain the good part of Chemotherapy, not the fact that she will lose her hair, start throwing up and hurting all over.
"Oh okay that sounds good." Christine responds and Brennan decides she is going to let the doctor explain the side effects. They all sit in silence a while longer. Christine notices that her dad who has been sitting in the corner has been silently crying. She always thought of her dad as being invincible, she is just now starting to realize that her dad might not be as strong as she thought. This must be worse than she originally thought. She knows that people with cancer are usually bald, does that mean I will become bald? The doctor comes in saving Christine from her own thoughts.
"Hello I am ," he makes his way around the room shaking every one's hand. "Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan, I will be taking on your daughter case, while the diagnosis is pretty much confirmed I would like to do a bone marrow biopsy, in order to confirm diagnosis." Brennan looks over at Booth who is still avoiding speech at the moment and nods to Brennan, telling her that she is okay with it. Christine just sits and soaks up the situation.
Brennan finally respond to the doctor waiting patiently, "Yes, go ahead."
"Depending on the results we will pick a chemo to begin with. We are going to give her the first treatment today. We will go over the side effects before administering the first treatment." He adds, "A nurse will be in to take her up."
Brennan nods and says, "thank you doctor." the doctor walks out of the room leaving the family to figure themselves out. In just over two minutes nurses come in with a gurney. Christine gets up onto the gurney and waves goodbye to her parents, everyone still avoiding speaking.