A/N: First of all, thanks for the reviews.

Just to make some things clear. The team does know that Amanda is very ill, but they don't know that she is Kate's three year old daughter. But in later chapters they will find out. Now on with the story.


Part 4

Kate arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes later. Amanda was still asleep and Beth was sitting next to her bed.

"Kate, you are already back? I assumed you would be away much longer.", Beth said, when Kate entered the room.

"There wasn't much I could do. I only spoke to the little girl. She looked a lot like Mandy. She wanted to see her. I told her, that she is at the hospital but that she can visit her sometime later. I think Mandy would like her. How is she?", Kate asked, sitting down on her bed.

"She's still out. The doctor said it would be better that way. They don't know, how she would react on the IV. Everything else seems just fine. A nurse took some of her blood for some tests."

"Thanks Mom. Why don't you go home now? There is no need for both of us to stay. I will stay a bit longer and you can come back in the morning, okay?", Kate said.

"Okay, but don't stay too long. You are exhausted and you need some sleep yourself. When was the last time you had something to eat?"

"I'm not that hungry, mother."

"But you won't do Mandy any good if you starve yourself. Amanda needs you now and you need to eat from time to time. Just a little bit for your daughter."

"Okay, I will get something to eat later. I promise you mother."

Beth knew, that Kate wouldn't get anything to eat so she went down to the cafeteria herself. There she got her a sandwich and an apple which she took upstairs to her daughter.

Kate spent most of the afternoon and the early evening at Amanda's hospital room. The little girl was still sleeping and the IV was still running. Kate just sat there and watched her little angel. She looked so peaceful and not a bit ill. Sure she was a bit pale but otherwise you couldn't tell that she had cancer. Kate still couldn't believe it. It seemed so unreal. After Matt's death Amanda was everything left from her married life. Nobody at work knew that she was widowed. Nobody had asked and it was still to early to talk about the death of her husband. Sitting there, Kate thought about her life with Matt.

They had been so happy. Kate had her job with the Secret Service, where she was more than happy. One couldn't have more responsibility as watching the PotUS. And Matt was happy with his job, too. He loved being with the Navy; his father and grandfather had been with Navy, too.

Matt and Kate had met during one of her jobs for the President. Kate was making sure that the President was save on some charity party for the Navy. Matt was one of the guests. Since both of them were nearly the only ones without company, they soon started to talk. And as the night moved on, the both of them were dancing and finally Matt walked Kate home. On the next night they went out on a date. They really liked each other from the start. A year later, Matt proposed to Kate and she accepted the offer. Short time later they married. Since then Kate wished for a child. Having four older brothers, she always wanted a big family of her own. After three years without getting pregnant, both Kate and Matt took some tests. Matt's tests showed that he was infertile. Matt was kind of disappointed, just like Kate. Another year later, Kate longed for a baby. So she just got an appointment with a fertile clinic to get pregnant.

When she found out, that she was indeed pregnant, she was put on desk work. Kate was okay with that, as long as her baby was save. She was really happy about being pregnant and soon was Matt, too. They did everything together, from decorating the room, going baby-shopping, doctor visits and looking for a name.

After Amanda was born and finally released from the hospital, Kate stayed at home the first year. She wanted to spend as much time with her daughter as she could. But after one year at home, she had to return to work. At her first big case there was an assault on the Presidents life. Gibbs and Tony were investigating this one.

Kate wasn't happy at her current job, so she just handed in her resignation. Somehow Gibbs had know about this fact and offered her a job. Kate took this opportunity. For this she had had different reasons. First of all, she knew what Gibbs and Tony were usually working on; solving deaths of Navy members. Since she knew only to well how you were feeling when the NCIS agents shows up at your doorsteps to tell you someone you loved was death, she knew that it was very important for the family to know the real reason for the death. Kate would do everything to help solving those puzzles.

Another reason was Tony. Since the first time she had met him, she liked him. Of course, she didn't show it. But there was something between the two of them, something she couldn't put a finger on. But she couldn't imagine being without him. She really liked being near him. He was a good friend, even he was always annoying her. But he was fun to be around. He made her laugh, something she hardly did since Matt's death.

It was getting dark outside, when Amanda was slowly waking up. Kate was still next to her.

"Hi sleepyhead.", Kate said, kissing her on the forehead.

"Mommy, you are here.", Amanda smiled.

"Of course, I'm here. I promised you. How are you feeling, darling?"

"Still tired."

"You slept about 14 hours and you are still tired? I think that's the medicaments the doctor had given you. I will get a nurse for you.", Kate said and left the room. Some minutes later she came back with a nurse and Dr. Andrews.

"Hi Amanda, how are you feeling?", Dr. Andrews asked.

"Tired and a bit nauseous. I want to sleep.", Amanda said.

"That's normal, sweety. And you can go back to sleep. I need to talk to your mom for a few minutes. We will be just outside the door. Will you be okay?"

Amanda nodded and snuggled back in her bed. Kate followed Dr. Andrews out of the room.

"So, what's the matter, Doc?", Kate asked.

"Before we started the IV, we run some tests, which are back now. It doesn't look good for her. Her white blood cells are very low. I can't promise that the Chemo will do much good for her. I think we need to think about something else."

"What else is there to think off? Isn't Chemo the only way to destroy the cancer?", Kate asked.

"We need to continue the Chemo, but I think we need to take stronger doses. Then the chance to get her into remission will be better. But it will also affect her immune defense system. The risk for her do get ill will be greater that for everybody else."

"Okay, this means you can destroy the cancer by higher doses, but then she could die on a cold?", Kate said.

"Technically yes, but there are way to stronger her immune defense system. We would need to do a bone marrow transfusion."

"Bone marrow transfusion?", Kate asked.

"Yes, that would help Amanda to restore her immune system. We would take some bone marrow from a donor. Most times it's a near family member, like father, mother of any siblings. But sometimes the family doesn't fit and we need to find a donor from an international database. We would need to test you and your husband. Does Amanda have any siblings? Then we would need to test them, too."

"No, Amanda doesn't have any siblings. And there is a problem with my husband. He died the day, Amanda was born. And actually he wasn't her father."

"Oh, I'm sorry. But I suppose that you know her father, not that this is one of my business. But it could help her."

"Okay, I will see, what I can do. I don't have any contact to her father anymore."; Kate said, not wanting to reveille her secret about Amanda. "When would you need to test me?"

"As soon as possible I think. I need to continue the first treatment and after that, we will see what good it did to Amanda. There is still the possibility that the Chemo is efficient. I just wanted to make sure you are prepared for everything."

"Okay, how is this going to happen?", Kate asked.

"Well, you would need to stay at the hospital for a few days. You will get local anesthesia in your upper back. Then we would take some bone marrow with a syringe. You will be sore for a few days, that's the reason you are staying at the hospital for at least one night. The sample will be tested and we will have the results within a week. It's nothing life threatening, but it could save the life of your daughter.", Dr. Andrews explained.

"Okay, I stay at the hospital most of the time anyway. Just come to me, when your schedule is free. You know, where you can find me."

"I will come to you in the next few days. Now I need to check on Amanda. I think the first dose is finished and I need to hook up another one.", he said and reentered Amanda's room.


A/N: Did you like that part? Please review. More to come soon.