"Miss Furillo?" A nurse murmurs softly.
"Yeah?" Kris replies as she looks up.
"You're a match."
"I am?"
"Yeah."
"Now what?"
"Now we need you to give bone marrow."
"Uh ok." Kris agrees, then the nurse leaves the room. "I'll be back in a while will you be ok?"
"Can I watch cartoons?"
"Yeah sure." Kris smiles as she uses the remote to turn on cartoons.
Kris finds the nurse waiting for her in the hall.
"She's a trooper."
"Yeah."
Kris had the bone marrow taken. It was painful, but she didn't care she refused to leave her kid anymore. She went back to Daisy's room. Adam was sitting next to her watching cartoons with her.
"Hey Adam can I talk to you for a second?" Kris asks just barely through the doorway.
"Yeah." Adam comes out into the hall with her.
"When she's feeling better I want you to go back with me."
"Kris do you want to be in her life?"
"Yes I do. I know I can't make up for lost time, but I want to be there for the rest."
"Why don't you take her. You don't need me."
"But she does."
"She can always come see me."
"I can't take her away from you. You need to come too."
"Kris I have a life, and a job here."
"I'll find you a job there."
"Kris I have to be honest with you I can't handle this. I can't handle being her father anymore. I want to have a normal life. I want to be like other people my age. I don't want to do this full time. I can't do it anymore. I love her, but I have some growing up of my own to do. I'll come see her every weekend, but it's your turn to be there for her all the time."
"What if she gets sick again?"
"I'll be there."
"I don't want you to be there for her when it's convenient for you."
"Why does it matter."
"I don't want you to hurt her."
"Kris you missed out on the first three and a half years of her life."
"Please just promise me whenever she calls you or needs you you'll be there for her."
"Fine, but I don't want to come with you."
"Ok. So how long is she going to be in the hospital?"
"The doctors caught the Leukemia really early so she should only be in the hospital for a week. Then she can go home."
"Don't they have to do chemotherapy or radiation."
"No, last week they found the cancer, and stopped it from spreading."
"So then why did she need bone marrow?"
"Because to make her healthy again they had to give her healthy bone marrow."
"Oh."
"We're going to take Daisy to do the bone marrow transplant right now." The doctor informs the two of them.
"Ok." Kris agrees.
"One of you can go with her if you want." The doctor adds as he wheels her out the door.
"Mommy will you go with me?" Daisy asks innocently.
"Yeah baby girl."
The following day:
"Mommy!" Daisy whispers weakly, but impatiently.
"Huh?" Kris asks as she opens her eyes.
"Mommy."
"What Daisy?"
"I'm thirsty."
Kris gets up and pours Daisy a glass of water. She helps Daisy drink it.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"Yeah."
"Where's your daddy?"
"He had to go to work. But he said that you had something you wanted to tell me."
"Did he?"
"Yup."
"Well I do."
"What?" Daisy smiles as she sits up.
"Careful."
"It doesn't hurt."
"Yes it does."
"What did you want to tell me?"
"Well when you get out of the hospital I'm going to go home."
"I don't want you to."
"Listen I'm not done. Your daddy and I think that it would be a good idea if you came home with me."
"What about daddy?"
"He's going to stay here. But he said he'll try to come and see you on the weekends."
"Oh ok. Where do you live?"
"I live on a horse farm."
"I love horses."
The end of the week:
Adam's apartment: Adam, Kris, and Daisy are standing in Daisy's room. Her room is dark blue with horses all over it.
There were 4 or five boxes of stuff.
"So is this everything?" Kris directs at Daisy.
"Uh huh." She cheers as she brushes a tiny ringlet out of her face.
Kris and Daisy wait in the apartment while Adam loads up the car.
"Are you sure that you want to give me your car?"
"Yeah. You'll need it now."
"Hopefully we'll get back before sunrise."
"Yeah. Daisy Mae give daddy hugs and kisses before you go."
"Ok."