DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS OR GLEE. JUST THE PLOT.
Thanks for continuing with the reviews and thanks for continuing to read.
This chapter was a little difficult for me to type. The little girl you will read about, Darleene, is based on a real person. She wasn't a little girl though, she was my mother. My mother was a strong women. She had had cancer six times before the final time, Leukemia that time (a blood cancer), killed her. I was 8 (which is about the age of the Darleene in my story).
Also, I realized that chemo takes more than "a few months" as previously written in my last chapter, so I changed that part slightly to read "six or more months".
Enjoy. I'm keeping the chapters short so hopefully I can wrote more of them quicker. Enjoy. Please review.
Kurt sat alone in a small room with five nice armchairs. Words could not express how much he didn't want to be there. Once they called him from the small room he was in, he would be prepped for his first round of chemotherapy. A fear was eating at him inside.
Blaine and Burt sat in the larger waiting room, but only the patients were allowed in this one to await their treatment.
His eyes snapped up as someone else entered the room. It was a young girl. She wore a ball cap that read "Disney World: Where Dreams Come True." When he eyes found Kurt, a huge smile appeared on her face and her blue eyes seemed to light up. She ran over to him, "Hello!" she said in an excited voice.
Kurt could tell that she was sick. Like him. He frowned at that thought. The Disney cap was hiding an obviously baldhead. She was skinny and her cheekbones were very prominent, but she looked happy. How what that? "You must be new," she said, holding out her small hand. "My name is Darleene Critchfield."
Kurt stared at her for a moment in confusion. It wasn't hard to tell that he was new, since he still had his hair and all. He wasn't looking forward to losing it. Not at all. He took her hand, "Kurt Hummel," he said simply in a soft voice that still reflected his soprano tone. "How can you tell, my hair?" he asked with a small smile, trying to appear less frightened than he actually was. But what Darleene said next let him know that he wasn't doing a very good job.
"No. Well, yes. But, mainly because you look scared to death," she said, pulling her hand away and resting it at her side. Scared to death. What a wonderful choice of wording. "And, I've never seen you in here before. This hospital likes to have all of their chemo treatments on the same day. So, for now, it's just you and me. There was another boy… he was really nice but…" she then trailed off, her bright face becoming sad for a moment. "But, you're here now. And we can get better together."
Kurt was envious of the young girl's attitude and strength. He smiled at her, "Yeah."
"Don't be so scared," she then told him, "I've been doing this for five months so far. The treatment itself doesn't hurt." She then thought for a moment. "I saw you come in earlier, who was the boy with you? Was that your brother?"
Kurt shook his head, "No. That's my boyfriend," he said, awaiting her shock. Or surprise. Or disgust. Or anything that usually followed that.
But the young child simply smiled once more, "That's really sweet of him to come with you." Her simple acceptance gave Kurt some hope as he smiled at her. Such a beautiful and innocent young girl didn't deserve what was happening to her- especially with her immense hope and strength.
At that moment, a nurse stepped into the room. She smiled, "I see you've gotten acquainted with Darleene. She's such a sweet child." She looked at Darleene for a moment, and then back to Kurt, "Come on, Kurt."
Kurt's heart dropped and the nausea and fear returned. As he stood, he felt a small hand take his for a moment and he felt a squeeze, "Good luck."
Darleene is very sick, the nurse had told him. She's been battling this disease for quite a while. She's got a type of brain cancer. But, what's unfortunate is; before getting sick she already had a horrible immune system and the chemo just makes it so much worse. One flu, or cold, and we could easily lose her. But she's strong. So very strong. We're all proud of her.
Darleene had been right. The treatment itself wasn't painful. But it was scary as hell. He just wanted to go home and curl up forever.
Which is what he was doing now. Blaine had tried to comfort him on the ride home, but Kurt had been distant. His mind was on the little girl… and his own future. He was frightened. So very frightened.
Blaine eventually had to leave; he had to go home. So, this left Kurt all alone in his bed, alone to his thoughts.
About three mornings later, he woke feeling sick to his stomach. He stood quickly, rushing to his bathroom, collapsing to the floor in time.
The past three days hadn't been too bad- except for the anticipation of when everything was going to hit him. And now he had his answer.
His past three days had been spent on the couch. Mostly watching TV, chatting with Blaine when he came home from school. (Burt didn't want him going back quite yet. Not until they were fully aware of how the chemo was affecting him.) Occasionally Finn would even come and keep him company.
After about twenty minutes, his throat now feeling raw and him feeling disgusting, he then stood, walking to his sink to wash his mouth out. He looked up to the mirror, then stumbled backwards, falling right back to the floor, knocking things off his counter in the process.
Finn looked up suddenly when he heard a loud thud and several other softer thuds. It was coming from Kurt's room.
It was Saturday morning; Burt and Carole were both at work. Blaine was due to come over a little later. My son's sick, I'm not worried about what the two are going to do behind closed doors, Burt had said.
Finn laid down his bowl of cereal and rushed upstairs. He saw that Kurt was not in his room, so that meant he was in his bathroom. He began to walk towards his bathroom, but paused, looking to Kurt's bed. His pillow held something laying on it. He took a few steps closer to the bed, and then stopped with a small gasp. "Oh no. Kurt."
He continued into the bathroom, seeing Kurt on the floor sobbing. His knees were pulled up to his chest, head buried in his arms and knees. Finn's heart broke at this image of his brother. He could see spots on his head where hair was now missing. He didn't have a shirt on and he was sweating. Kurt then looked up, his cheeks flushed and pink, tears still rolling down his cheeks.
"Finn…" he choked out past the sobs. Finn then knelt beside his brother, pulling him closer.
"It's okay, Kurt," he whispered, even though he knew Kurt was far from okay. "It's okay. You're going to be okay." Kurt then sobbed into his brother's chest as Finn rubbed his back, concern in his eyes. Finn noted he should probably call Blaine and see if he wouldn't mind coming sooner.
Kurt seemed so torn apart. It was here, holding his brother and comforting him that he noticed how skinny he was becoming, and it tore him apart to know that it was only going to get worse.