3:45
"Matthew Williams?" A nurse came into the waiting room to get him, he retraced the same footsteps he took as the last time he was there to the same room where he found out that his life is being be cut short, "Dr. Smith will be with you shortly," she said as she closed the door behind her.
True to her word, he came in after only a few short minutes, "Matt, so how are you?" He sat down.
'Translation: how are you coping with the fact that you're dying?'
"I guess I'm fine."
"Well, that's good right?" he smiled, "Well, from what I recall, you said that you weren't going to tell anyone of, well, you know, your illness. How's that plan going?"
'Translation: get your shit together and man up, people will want to know that you might not last too long.'
"Perfectly fine, thank you very much, I still don't want anyone to know, I don't want to be treated special just because I'm going to die."
Dr. Smith looked disappointed, "You shouldn't say that, there is hope."
Matthew's eyes widened, "But you said that it was terminal, that there wasn't anything you could do."
"Well, there isn't anything that we know for sure will make everything go away, but that's the case for all cases like yours, but we can try. I don't want to get your hopes up, because your situation, well, it's very severe, it must have been there for at least a year or so before it was noticed."
'Translation: you're basically screwed, but I'm trying to make you look on the bright side.'
"Oh, okay."
They spent the better part of an hour going through all of the different processes, and their side effects, until it was finally time to let him leave.
'You'd think that they could take less time out of a dying person's day,' Matthew thought to himself.
He accidentally bumped into a tall figure, "Sorry," Matthew squeaked.
"Sorry, wait a second, Matthew?"
'Shit,' he turned around to face the person, it was Ludwig.
"Um, hi."?
"What are you doing here? This is generally a severe case ward," He looked skeptical.
"Uh," Matthew froze, "Well-"
"Matthew, who exactly are you seeing or just saw?" He sounded exasperated.
Matthew sighed in defeat, "Dr. Smith," he replied in a small voice. Ludwig looked surprised, "Please, can you not tell Gil, I need to do this myself, I know I'm being selfish just by being around him, but I can't cut him out, I want to but, I just can't, please Ludwig," Matthew pleaded.
Ludwig cleared his throat, "Is it really bad?"
Matthew looked down, "I guess so, they say it has to have been there at least a year, there's really no hope to be honest."
"How long have you known?"
"Three months."
"Have you even told anyone?"
"No, I guess you'd be the first."
"Matthew, the sooner you tell them, the easier it'll be, trust me, I've seen this happen to dozens of patients."
"Thanks for your input, but I really think that I can handle this," He said as he turned to leave, only to be stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder.
"At least think about telling someone, no one can go through what you are alone, I've seen it wreck the best in people, and I don't want that to happen to you," He let go of Matthew's shoulder.
Matthew turned to face him, but he had already left with a swish of his white doctor's coat.
