Five Months Later
The move into Cartman's apartment wasn't too bad; I didn't bring much with me from South Park just my clothes, collectables and some other things I can't part with. I bought all the new furniture before I moved in at the Pottery Barn in the Eaton Centre. I am now pretty settled in the apartment and I am starting to learn to memorize all of Cartman's crazy rules. And hard enough as it is, live with them. Even though it's kind of strange living with everything labeled on them and not sitting on one of those lawn chairs. I really should talk to Eric about getting a couch or something like that; I want to try and make some friends here or maybe just maybe get a girl. And I don't think lawn chairs are much of a welcome to our home.
I have worked at the hospital now for a few months but I haven't been very social with the other doctors and nurses around here I mostly just keep on the Cancer Patient's floor of the hospital where my office is and bring a Tim Horton's bagel for a snack if I get hungry. I've mostly been learning about where everything is around here and helping out with certain procedures with other patients but today I am getting my first patient and I have mixed feeling about this. I am excited because my career has fully started but I am sad too because I am working with a child who may have one of the most deadly diseases of all time.
I've read the girl's file that I will be working with and I have to admit I am pretty nervous. I have gone through years of schooling for this and I know I am ready. The girl's name is Miranda Love and she has just turned thirteen this month. That's it, thirteen years old and she might have cancer. It is just horrible how this world works.
I open the door into my office where I see a young girl sitting down on one of the black leather seats that are meant for discussing things with my patients next to her Mother who has moved her chair closer with her arm around her daughter. They both must be so nervous.
Miranda looks like any other girl at the age of thirteen with long chestnut-brown hair, large brown eyes, pale skin that she has no doubt spent hours in the sun trying to tan, and I notice around her eyes is a small amount of make-up. She is wearing a dark blue Hollister sweater and gray Roots sweatpants. Even through the baggy clothes I notice that she is rather skinny but in the healthy way she looks pretty athletic.
Her Mother looks a lot different from her with dark red hair that is close to brown and hazel eyes and her skin isn't as pale as her daughter's. Around her eyes are a pair of thin golden glasses.
"Hi there, you must be Miranda. I'm Dr. Marsh but you can call me Stan." I say kindly sitting down at my desk in front of them. I take out two sheets of paper, one to take notes on Miranda's medical behaviour and another to take notes on Miranda. I want to try to connect with the kid's a bit for conversation starters and to make them feel like I am their friend. It's strange, I can connect well with the kid's yet in the real world I have a really hard time making friend's which sucks because I really want to be social.
"Hi," she mutters quietly looking down shyly. Or maybe she already knows what's going on and doesn't want to face it.
"She has been to her family doctor already which sent us here. I don't understand why we're on the cancer floor though. She is probably just going through a large growth spurt." Mrs. Love stutters nervously her eyes growing large her voice shaking.
"Tell me some of her symptoms, and who knows? It might just be that." I say friendly and trying to be a slight bit positive for them. Who knows? It might now be cancer after all, it might just be another infection imitating cancer symptoms.
"Well I really like to play soccer but whenever I do my leg starts hurting like Hell. It also happens whenever I go for runs with my best friend Hilary or after gym in school. It hurts a lot, and it usually doesn't go away after five minutes." Miranda explains to me.
I write down the name of her best friend and soccer on one of the sheets of paper and the other of what she is feeling. It still could have something to do with her growth but it doesn't sound good.
"And where are you mostly feeling these pains in your legs?" I ask her getting suspicious. I look up at her as she points to her knee. "Around here," she says.
"There is also a lump on it show him that." Mrs. Love orders her daughter looking over at her. A lump? That does not sound good.
"Okay." She whispers and hesitantly shows me the lump on her knee. I write all of that down quickly because that is very important. I am beginning to get an idea of what she has.
"Has she started going through a growth-spurt lately?" I ask her sounding pretty important at the moment and it gives me a sudden rush of motivation I am important now, I am actually helping someone. These people trust me with their lives at the moment.
"Yes she has, she is a lot taller than most of her friends now." Mrs. Love answers and I look at Miranda up and down she does look a lot taller than a normal thirteen year old should be.
"It would be good if I ever want to be an athlete." Miranda says contently. "Or maybe a dancer, I may want to try out So You Think You Can Dance one day once I'm old enough. "she tells me getting off topic a little bit but it's okay as long as she's happy.
"I bet you would win." I reply and she smiles widely and I wonder if she's thinking about the host of the show calling out her name when she wins.
"But sweetie, you've never taken any dance lessons." Her Mom replies playfully, and Miranda rolls her eyes I can tell she has heard this a dozen times.
"Yes but I have raw talent, which is way better then stupid ass lessons." She says with excitement. "I can dance right now if you want." She says looking over at me.
"Not today, but uh I have some books about ballet on my book shelf over there if you want to read them." I say pointing over to my large kid's corner which has toys, books and even a Nintendo Ds to entertain my patients. The whole point of this hospital is to make kid's forget that they are in one with happy bright colours, pretty pictures and stuff like that. A lot of the women employees around here I notice have scrubs with Disney characters on them. Sometimes I like to wear pins on mine depending on the age group. For older kid's I try and buy and make by printing pictures out of them of different things such as Jersey Shore and other things that kid's that age love. For younger ones I have animals, cartoon characters and smiley faces stuff like that. Today I am wearing one with a pretty orange kitten on it because I don't know why but Miranda just seems like the type that likes cats. I want to actually get a cat for our apartment I miss having a pet and I love animals, I will talk to Cartman later. He must miss Mr. Kitty.
"Okay, I like ballet. I love the costumes they get to wear." She says getting up and walking over to the book shelf so I can have a serious talk with her Mother.
"I don't want to frighten you but I want to run some tests on your daughter." I whisper in a low tone, trying not to scare Miranda even though she's thirteen. Cancer at any age is probably one of the scariest things ever.
Mrs. Love nods. "I knew it; I went to medical school before I got pregnant with her older brother. And I guess being a house mother suited me more. I just didn't want it to happen you know? I thought if I kept on denying it, it wouldn't be true." She whispers back a single tear rolling down her cheek.
"I know it's hard but on the good news that what I think she may have and if she does most of the patients that do, recover from it. And I may still be wrong. Your daughter will be all right though no matter what happens. And I am here to make sure that she makes it to So You Think You Can Dance."
….
Lunch time, and once again I feel like a kid in the cafeteria in the middle of high school. Clutching their tray nervously in front of what seems like the entire student body.
That is what exactly what I feel like right now. I am in the Employee's Cafeteria holding my lunch of a burger and fries with water on the side. My stomach is twisting; this is my moment to make new friends. Not much people are on break at the moment we all have different lunches. I look over in the corner where I see two guys sitting together eating their lunch in silence even though they look kind of lame there is something about them that draws me over to them.
"Hi, I'm Stan. Can I sit here?" I ask awkwardly pausing at each word; I think I might have an asthma attack right now. I really hope not that is not what I want to introduce myself with.
"Yeah sure," the red head answers taking a big bite out of the pork hot dogs that were being served even though hot dogs are one of the worst things for you. But whatever, I won't make a comment about that.
I sit down next to the red head and I notice that he looks really familiar. He has longish curly red hair that frames his face, emerald green eyes, he is pretty slim and he has the same nose as-Kyle. Could it be?
I look over at the other guy across the table who looks a bit like that actor Alex Pettyfer. The one that is in all of those teen movies lately even though I think he sucks at acting, Cartman agrees with me for some reason we watched Beastly one day and we thought he ruined the movie but Neil Patrick Harris was really good in it.
He has long dirty blonde hair, tanned skin, and blue eyes, just like Kenny. Okay seeing Cartman again must have made me insane I'm seeing my old childhood friends everywhere!
"So what are your guy's names?" I ask trying to start conversation and also intrigued to know if they are my friends even though I know that they can't be!
"My name is Kenny McCormick." The blonde says with pride introducing himself with a lot of self-esteem.
"I'm Kyle Broflovski." The red haired one says nicely.
"Wait a minute from South Park?" I say dumb-founded, no way there must be a Canadian version of them.
"Yeah?" Kenny answers with hesitation I guess I would too if a random guy just went up to me randomly and asked where I came from.
"Wait…Stan?" Kyle whispers looking over at me trying to see his old best friend. I guess it has been over ten years a lot has changed since then.
"It's me dude!" I say with excitement, I can't believe it, it's Kyle and Kenny right here working in the same hospital as me, in Canada sitting right here in the same cafeteria after not seeing each other for years.
"Oh my God, Stan I can't believe it's you!" Kenny exclaims in surprise. I guess we're all so excited, shocked and surprised to see each other again.
"Yeah, I share an apartment with Cartman a few streets away." I tell them knowing that they will be even more surprised that Eric is here too.
"Oh my God, I actually do miss him." Kenny announces thinking back at all of his memories of the fat-ass.
"He works here now too. He has two PhD's." I also say getting kind of excited to tell them so much news about their old dumb-ass friend.
"Holy shit." Kenny mutters in disbelief looking down at his lunch for a moment then back at me. "You have to be kidding."
"I'm not, you can come over tonight at 5:00 if you want to see him." I say knowing that they will take this opportunity in a second. I would too if I could, I mean this is insane this is Eric Cartman we're talking about after all.
"I'll be there." Kyle says almost right away. He and Cartman were rivals back in the day and I bet Kyle is really excited to see what has become of the guy that hated Jews and was a complete asshole to him. I bet him out of all of us want to see him.
"I'll have to ask Mother but I'm sure it'll be okay." Kenny says kind of embarrassed.
"Wait, dude, you live with your Mom?" I ask him knowing I probably sound really rude. I can't believe Kenny out of all people still live with his Mother. Especially since he came from the most dysfunctional family I've ever seen.
"Yeah, she divorced Dad when she found out that I was working at a kid's hospital and bought us a house not too far away for us to share. She left both of my other siblings back in South Park. I wonder what happened to Kevin and Karen. " Kenny replies not happily.
"That's okay, I hardly ever see my parents anymore I miss Dad a lot." I say trying to make him feel a bit better.
"I don't miss my family at all. I'm glad to be away from my Mother. But I still have to do video chat with them once in a while." Kyle adds angrily. "At least I am away from having to eat kosher." He shrugs with a smile and takes a huge bite of the pork hotdog with complete happiness and rebellion against his Mother.
I look over at the black and white clock on the wall of the cafeteria and I notice that I have to be back in the office in five I'm meeting up with my second patient today in half an hour and I want to make sure I have everything ready for them. "I have to go now; I will see you guys at 5." I say giving them my address on the back of a napkin along with my cell number just in case.
Before I leave the cafeteria I look back at them one more time in disbelief, Holy shit! I seriously can't believe it's them and to tell you the truth besides their looks maturing they don't seem much different than before. I bet Kenny is still perverted as always and Kyle still probably smart. He seems a little bit rebellious of his parent's back home now though. I guess to make up for years of over protective parenting.
I head towards the elevator in the large cheerful main hallway that is a wide open space with a fountain, many restaurants, a hallway that leads too many gift shops and some different labs, many happy decorations and distractions for the kids, and many places for visitors to sit down and eat their lunch
I think one day if I don't want to go to the employee's cafeteria I may have lunch at the Subway there, I sometimes like to look down from the hallways of the Cancer Floor which has a view of the lobby downstairs and watch people walk by and wonder what their stories are.
As I press the button on one of the two elevators to go upstairs I think about the two lawn chairs in our living room, I can't let Kyle and Kenny see that! They would never let me live it down, and Cartman wouldn't pick up on it.
A few hours later
I did it; I can't believe I actually did it. I am standing in our living room that looks so much nicer with the new couch I just bought at Ikea. Right after work I drove right over there (I bought a used car when I moved to Toronto) and bought a couch and luckily for me they offered to take it over right away! So now there is just 15 minutes left until Kenny and Kyle are supposed to come over and I am standing right here starring at it.
It's a fairly simple couch and it didn't really cost much, I bought one of the cheapest ones available knowing that Cartman is not going to like this sudden change and probably won't help pay even though we split the cost on pretty much everything else we have.
The door knocks and I run over to see Kyle and Kenny standing there contently.
"Hey, come on in." I welcome them politely and I allow them into my new home hoping that they approve.
"Wow, nice place!" Kenny replies flinging himself on the couch, it is right in the spot where Cartman's sitting place was. He puts his feet up on the table where Eric and I usually put our dinner because there is no kitchen table here, just an island to make things on in the kitchen.
"Yeah, is Cartman here?" Kyle says looking down the hallway expecting his fat childhood enemy to come out his bedroom any minute now.
"No not yet he's not out of work yet." I reply sitting down next to Kenny on the other chair I managed to buy (Ikea had this sale on it was free) it's a lighter brown colour.
"What does he do anyway?" Kyle asks sitting at the other end of the couch to join in the conversation.
"Yeah, is he a janitor?" Kenny jokes and Kyle cracks up and I can't help but smirk because you would think he'd be stuck with some job like that.
"No, he's a surgical technologist." I answer trying not to laugh from Kenny's remark because to them he is still the dumb-ass.
"Say what?" Kyle yells his eyes wide in disbelief while Kenny's mouth drops open in shock. My thoughts exactly were that when I found that out.
"I'm surprised that you guys are so shocked. I told you he has two PhD's remember?" I test them remembering the conversation we had earlier, and wondering if they were even listening to me after all. I'm sure they were their jobs must have made them forget.
"Yeah dude, but I thought you were kidding!" Kyle tells me in seriousness and I know that he is not lying to me. And once again I do not blame them what-so-ever for not believing me.
"So um, what do you guys do?" I ask trying not to spoil everything from them, let them be a little bit surprised when they see him. Anyways I have been wondering this for a little while now they work at the hospital I know that but there is so many options for them to do.
"Well I am an X-Ray Technician, "Kenny says proudly putting his hand on his chest making himself look even more full of it.
"Who doesn't have his PhD!" Kyle adds in laughing at him amused so I guess Kyle has one too. Kenny flashes him a dirty look not happy at him whatsoever for bringing it up.
"Shut up, I have a master's degree!" Kenny argues but he knows now by the way we're laughing that he is the only one out of the four of us that never got his doctorate. That sucks; I guess a bit he is the stupidest one out of all of us when Cartman he thought always was. Ouch, that's all I have to say to that.
"What do you do Kyle?" I ask before some sort of argument breaks out.
"I'm a Physiatrist for the suicidal." He says not quite as proudly as Kenny and I can't help but smile at that. That is just beautiful for Kyle to do that, he's viewed so much suicides growing up in South Park after all, we've viewed so much throughout the crazy shit that happened. I guess he grew as sick of it as I am and wants to save lives too.
"That's great dude!" I compliment him and he smiles at me knowing what I mean.
"So what do you do Stan?" Kenny say impatiently.
"I am an Oncologist." I tell them and they both nod their heads in unison. They know of the fate of Butters they were both at his funeral after all. They both used to be close with him when we were younger but during Butters' final years I was his best friend.
"Look Stan- I know that Butters death was really hard on you, and if you ever want to talk about it we're here for you dude." Kyle replies being the super best friend he used to be. I smile because that remark is the thing I've been waiting to hear for so long.
"Thanks, but I'll be fine." I say bravely.
Just then the door opens and Cartman walks in the door casually, I gulp knowing that he hates having visitors for one and another thing I changed his apartment without him asking. Oh Shit I am doomed.
"Hello Stan how was your day at-" he stops short and stares at what is going on in front of him with shock and twitches his eyebrows almost like Tweek used too.
"What the fuck is this?" he asks darkly glaring at me.
"It's a couch." I tell him stating the obvious.
Kenny and Kyle glance at each other in shock unsure if this is really their childhood friend. "Hi Cartman." Kyle replies in shock of his worst enemy and what he has become. This world really is a twisted place.
"I can see that." He says and points toward Kenny and Kyle accusingly. "And why are there two strangers in my apartment?"
"Cartman, its Kyle and Kenny. Don't you remember them?"
So yeah you guys finally got to meet Howard and Raj, to make things clear Kyle is supposed to be Raj and Kenny is Howard. I was originally going to make Kyle in Howard but then I thought about it. Even though being Jewish and still living with his Mom would be perfect for him everything else just wasn't Kyle. Think about it can you imagine Kyle as the high-ego, womanizer that Howard is with no PhD? I thought the shy can't talk to woman Raj fit Kyle a lot more.
Penny comes really soon, and I am sure that you will all be satisfied with who she is.
Thanks again for reading this guys the support means the world to me.
Love you all, Bramblestar