DISCLAIMER: House is the property of FOX and David Shore. Troy is mine, however.
AN. Apologies for the crap title chapter and any medical info that's wrong. I tried my best.
Chapter Two- End of the fairytale
March 24th, 1997
Troy walked numbly up the stairs to Allison's dorm room, a thousand thoughts, very few of them good running through his mind. As he dragged his feet up the stairs, he could only think of one thing- how was he going to tell her?
He and Allison had been dating for just over a month now, and time had flown by. He was constantly finding another thing they had in common, and he knew his dad would have approved of her, and of her fascination with not just Irish culture, but any culture. She was constantly borrowing travel books and history books from the library, and would read to him all the places she wanted to go, the things she wanted to see and the things she was learning. He'd even started teasing her that she should become a travel agent or a flight attendant, but she'd shuddered and announced that she hated to fly; which had then led to another series of jokes about how she expected to travel to all these places without flying.
For the past three weeks, Troy had been suffering from sore throats, difficulty swallowing and had spent the past four days, being barely able to whisper. Allison and Joe had finally convinced him to see a doctor, who had ordered more tests, and he had just been back to pick up his test results. But he'd never thought he'd be receiving the results he had. When he knocked on the door, the door opened almost immediately, and Troy found him face to face with Allison, who's face instantly brightened as she saw him.
"Hey!" she greeted him. "What did the tests say?"
Troy hesitated, sighing as she beckoned him into the room and sat down on her bed.
"Troy?" she frowned, a spark of worry igniting in her blue-gray eyes. "What's going on?"
"I got my test results," he began. "It's not good."
Allison stared at him, puzzled. "Not good? What is it?"
"Cancer," Troy said bluntly.
Her eyes widened and a stunned silence fell between them as she fought for words. "Cancer?" she repeated finally. "What type of cancer?"
"Thyroid cancer," he answered. Troy then took a deep breath, knowing what he had to do now. He didn't want to, and he was sure it would hurt her, but had decided on the way over that it was the right thing to do.
"Look, Lissy..." he said softly, using his private nickname for her.
"I don't know what the next few months will be like. I'm going to see the oncologist tomorrow, and we'll work out treatment. I haven't researched what the survival stats are like, and I don't know how I'm going to deal with this. But... I have to do this alone."
"Wait...you're... you're breaking up with me?" Allison said faintly.
Troy winced and took her hands. "Believe me, it's not because I want to. But I don't want you to have to watch me go through this. I could die, Al! This solution... it sucks, but it'll be easier for you not to have to watch me like this."
"And you think if I'm not actually there, it'll be easier for me? Just to go through life normally, as if I don't know that you're sick and could possibly be dying?" she demanded, an eyebrow raised.
"Allie," Troy begged, but she interrupted him, surprisingly angry.
"No! Troy... I love you," she told him earnestly. "Being away isn't going to keep me from worrying about you, because I know you're sick. If you really wanted to get rid of me, you should have dumped me first," she said, a faint smile on her face and Troy grimaced.
"Lissy, I just... I want you to have the best life possible. Watching me deal with cancer, isn't exactly what I pictured."
Allison shrugged. "Probably not. But I'm going to do it."
Troy opened his mouth to argue, but she stopped him. "Troy, do you love me?"
A large portion of his brain was screaming for him to respond, 'No, tell her no, make her leave, you know you don't want her dealing with this.' But he found himself opening his mouth, smiling softly as he entwined her fingers in his.
"Yes, I love you. More than anything in this world."
Allison beamed as he kissed her sweetly. "Then I'm not going anywhere," she told him firmly and he grinned, not arguing anymore.
That night, the couple met up with Joe and Jenna for dinner and told them the news. Joe took it badly, but promised to help his best friend with whatever he needed over the course of his treatment. And the next day, Allison went with Troy to meet the oncologist, who gently explained to them the process for the next few months.
Troy had been diagnosed with medullary cancer of the thyroid, a form of thyroid cancer that tended to spread to lymph nodes quickly. The plan was to completely remove his thyroid and the lymph nodes at the side and front of his neck; and then four weeks after the surgery, he would begin radioactive iodine treatment, which consisted of a single pill. This treatment meant he could not be in contact with people for a few days after taking the pill, as to not bring them into contact with the radiation. A few days after the pill, he would then be started on a thyroid hormone pill, which he would have to do for the rest of his life.
The best part about this, was that thyroid cancer, the doctor had assured them, had about a 97% survival rate, unless the cancer metastases. In addition to that, the iodine treatment meant no sickness, hair loss, and no pain. He would do this once a month, and would simply have to have regular scans and tests to ensure the tumour was not regrowing, or had spread. The doctor was optimistic that they had caught the cancer in time to keep it from spreading, and Troy and Allison basked in his confidence.
When they got back from the oncologist's, Troy found himself mulling over one of the doctors suggestions.
"I was thinking about what Dr. Miller suggested," he said to Allison as they were in his dorm room watching TV.
"Which one?" she looked up at him inquisitively.
Troy felt slightly awkward about bringing the subject up, but took a deep breath and dove straight in. "The one about freezing sperm."
Allison continued to look at him, as though he had said nothing more serious than what he was going to have for dinner.
"Ok. When?"
Troy was stunned and his mouth gaped slightly. "Well, the next couple of days, obviously."
Allison nodded, and returned her attention to the television, but soon turned to Troy, her eyes serious.
"Do you want kids?"
"Yeah," he replied honestly. "I always have. Probably not a lot, even though I'd be rejecting the Irish stereotype, but two or three. You?"
Allison smiled faintly and nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of three. Of course, I want to finish college first, but if I also want to be a doctor... I'd be in my late twenties by the time I get out of school, and then I'd want work for a couple of years, so it wouldn't be before I was thirty, probably."
Troy laughed. "Gee, you haven't put much thought into this, have you?" he teased her, and she smiled sheepishly.
"Shut up."
"I love you," he said softly, pulling her closer and she grasped his hand tightly.
"I love you too."
Troy went into the operating room three days later, and Allison, Joe, Jenna and his closest friends anxiously awaited news that the surgery had gone well. Finally, the doctor emerged and announced that Troy was in recovering and stable, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Four weeks later, Troy had his first iodine treatment and was isolated for three days, as to not expose anyone to radiation. That was the hardest part for Troy and Allison, but they spent the first night apart on the phone long into the night.
Two months later, neither Troy nor Allison thought anything of Dr. Miller asking them to come see him. They did so regularly, and Troy had just had another series of scans before beginning his third course of the iodine pills, plus they had requested a short meeting with the oncologist. Troy had of late, been having headaches, fatigue, muscle weakness in his arms and some vomiting, which they assumed were side effects of the iodine and wanted to know if there was anything that would relieve the symptoms.
The couple had been discussing the big holiday they were planning once Troy was finished treatment, he wanted to take her to Ireland, and she was dying to see the rest of Europe whilst they were over there.
However, when Dr. Miller entered the office, his face grim, fear clutched at Allison's stomach in an iron grasp. She could almost tell what he was going to say before he said it, and even before Troy did.
"It's bad, isn't it?" she whispered, clutching Troy's hand.
Dr. Miller sighed heavily and nodded, meeting Troy's gaze with sincere sympathy and sorrow. "I'm sorry, Troy. Your latest scans show that the cancer has metastasized to your brain. And its inoperable."
Troy swallowed hard and glanced sideways at Allison, who was white and breathing shallowly.
"So... what do we do?"
Dr. Miller clasped his hands on his desk, and looked at the couple over his glasses. "Well, we can't remove it, but we can stop it from growing for as long as possible. We'll start you on a course of radiation, and do whole brain radiation. It's non-evasive, and can be an outpatient treatment. We want to start as soon as possible, metastatic brain tumours tend to grow quickly, and we'll start you on steroids to keep the brain from swelling."
"How much time will I have?" Troy asked him, oddly calm.
The elder man's face was kind as he looked at Troy for a long moment. His son was the same age, and he couldn't imagine having to hear the same news from him.
"At best, a year."
"And at the worst?" Allison asked, speaking for the first time.
"If we don't treat it, a few weeks. With treatment, a few months."
Troy gripped Allison's hand even tighter as it sunk in that at most, he would be dead in three months.
"This is in my brain, right? How long before it affects me? Physically, I mean?" Troy was struggling not to break down, but he knew he had to ask these questions now before he did. He had to have all the information before he reacted, that was how he worked, how he had always dealt with things.
"The average seems to be about 44 weeks," the doctor answered. "It differs with each individual. We'll also start you on a series of medication to prevent seizures, swelling and pain, and see how we go."
They only made it to the parking lot before Allison broke down, sinking to the concrete floor, sobbing desperately and clinging to Troy, and he made no attempt to console her, just held her tightly as their hopes shattered into pieces around them.
