In Which Magenta Tastes Forbidden Fruit. Chapter 9. Might As Well.
A/N, recently, I learned that one of my friends feels that this reads like a hospital drama such as Grey's Anatomy, if y'all know what I mean... Also, in this chapter, I'll be introducing Magenta's aunts, Jayme and Elanna.
The name for Brad's feeling could be mostly described as... elated. The past week, Magenta's condition had slowly begun to improve, Olivia had informed him that this was a sign of remission, she did this with a defeated look on her face, perhaps because diagnosing death was what got her paid at the end of every week.
It was Thursday, everyone had returned from Vermont and with late March came warm spring breezes and soft warm rain. Magenta was sitting on Arlene and Aaron's front porch with a thin black scarf draping over her shoulders when Brad came outside,
"I thought I'd find you out here." he said, sitting down and bringing an arm around her, "Feeling any better?" Magenta looked up,
"Well, knowing I'm not terminal feels pretty damn good."
"Well," Brad began, "Since we know you're not dying," Brad pulled a little box out of his pocket and knelt on the porch, "Magenta, baby, will you-"
"Marry you?" a gentle smile spread across Magenta's face. "How could I say no?" Without warning, Brad felt Magenta's light weight being thrown on him, he hugged her and didn't say anything. It had been so long since he had seen her happy like this, Brad wanted that little moment to last forever.
...
"THAT'S SPLENDID!" was Angie's first reaction, nobody had to even say anything. The little red diamond ring gave it away, "I'LL HAVE TO CALL THE CLUB!" Brad stared at his mother,
"Club?"
"The Blue Pines? The country club? For the wedding."
"Ma, that's tacky as hell."
"I hate to say it, but I agree, Ang." said Daniel, "Brad emailed me some pictures of the church, and, well, it looks like the kids are getting fixed there!"
"It's the church my family used to go to." Magenta added, "I was born there."
"In the church?"
"My mom has a patience defficiency problem that could borderline on creepy. Luckily there was a doctor there, but she kicked him in the face while she was having me. Then-" Magenta's voice trailed off, "never mind."
"No, tell us, what happened?"
"Give us a second." Brad stalled, pulling Magenta into their guest room, thank God Arlene, Aaron and the girls were at Central Park for Janice's birthday party, Kimi was out with Sonny and Columbia and Jonathan were at a baseball game. "Okay, you can't tell them about Transsexual, my mother would have you exorcised!"
"I'm sorry, it slipped out. The air is different on Earth, and since I was concieved... back home... my lungs had to be tested for any kind of problems. My dad had an asthma attack when he first came here, then again he was 7, but that's not the point, the point is, how the hell am I going to cover for that?"
"I don't actually have any idea... Let's just go back out there." Brad opened the bedroom door and whispered in her ear, "It's not my fault I'm engaged to a gorgeous Transylvanian."
The next morning, Brad found her collapsed in a bloody heap on their bedroom floor. She had been in almost-remission. She hadn't been that sick in a while, and the absence of hemoptysis and everything else had lulled everyone into a false sense of security, the sudden regression back into illness would come as a jarring shock. Brad lifted Magenta off the now-stained carpet and lay her down on the bed, her eyes were half open,
"What happened?" Brad questioned as Magenta wiped blood out of her eyes, a sharp inhalation was her reply, Brad began to strip off her bloody clothes, the front of her jeans and top were more drenched than anything, indicating the source of blood,
"Kimi, get in here." Brad snapped, Kimi ran into the room, upon seeing Magenta her breath caught,
"Where's she bleeding from?" Brad handed Kimi the clothes as the nurse sat next to Magenta and dabbed at the dried blood, Kimi stroked Magenta's wet hair and fought tears, finally saying, quietly, "Magenta, you have beautiful eyes."
...
That night, Brad woke to convulsive sobs next to him, Magenta was leaning against the headboard, crying into her hands,
"What is it?" Brad began to sit up and hold her, she lay her head on his shoulder, finally whispering,
"Why is there so much blood this time?" Brad let her cry until she lay back down and began to close her eyes, eventually, they both fell asleep.
When you're in a relationship with somebody who has a debilitating illness, you learn a few things, one, violent sex will make Magenta start to bleed. Two, subways are the worst places to get sick. And three, vomit and blood are two different things. Still Brad always failed to know when anything would happen. If there was any way he could help her. She was asleep when he found her. The tear tracks were still fresh. Lately, crying was the only way of overcoming insomnia. Magenta's tears resulted in rest, and Brad's tears resulted Magenta's and vice versa. But at least she was tired enough to sleep. Fuck, she never stayed awake for more than two hours at a time. If her pills didn't knock her out, it would be something else. While Brad stayed up all night watching her closely. In case she got sick. When caught, Brad would be begged to sleep, and Magenta's pleas would almost always be accompanied by tears, which made her tired, and once she was down, Brad would resume drinking and sitting in bed with Magenta asleep on his chest. She had less to cry about. She wasn't standing by and watching someone she loved slowly deteriorate at the hands of an extremely curable form of cancer. She didn't have to watch someone she loved fall in and out of comas through a haze of drunkenness. She wasn't being forced to keep her composure, she was allowed to break down. It was how she felt, probably, like death warmed up and was slowly cooling back down. Brad wished, with all his heart, that he could, in some way, be able to take her place.
Brad eventually fell asleep. He woke up an hour later. Magenta was still sleeping, her fingers weakly interlaced with his. Brad stood up and pulled the blankets higher up onto her shoulder.
"Sleep well, beautiful." he whispered gently as he kissed her forehead and left the room. Columbia and Arlene were already awake, they were each working on a tall cappuccino.
"She feel better?" Arlene asked through a mouthful of whatever it was she was eating. Brad shook his head and sat down,
"She's just sleeping right now, it might give her enough strength to make it through a day." Columbia frowned, Brad glanced toward the bedroom, Magenta was probably awake, he stood up and went to check on her. She was sleeping lightly, her deep breaths sounded labored, Brad gently caressed her face until her eyes fluttered open, this time, she didn't smile. Not even a little. Brad looked into her glazed eyes,
"Feel any better?" Magenta shook her head, a few tears spilled onto her pillow, Brad sat next to her as she slowly fell asleep.
Brad didn't sleep at all that night. Magenta woke up every few hours, coughing, Brad would wash the blood off of her and she would fall asleep again. Brad wished he could, too. Finally, the morning came, Brad got out of bed at about 3 am and sat in the kitchen. Magenta didn't wake up until 9. She finally came and joined him in the living room, her oscitant eyes seemed to have lost all emotion, or she was just tired. Words could not begin to describe the agonizing feeling that Brad experienced as those glassy, heartbroken, searching eyes stared deeply into his, as if looking for something. Looking for affection, on realizing this, Brad pulled Magenta into his contact, never to let go.
Kimi said it was just a side-effect and that Magenta was fine to stay at home. Brad eventually found her coughing blood into the sink, Kimi had her arms around Magenta's waist from behind and had her head on her back, tears were streaming down both of their faces. Kimi looked up, saw Brad, and flinched, she fell back from Magenta, who looked up and stood straight, wiping a bit of blood off her face. Brad pushed aside tears as she fell into Kimi's arms, Kimi glanced at Brad, he inched toward them and held Magenta by her shoulders,
"You okay?" Brad slipped an arm around her waist and brought her back to bed, she sat down and dried a few tears on her wrist, her body was almost devoured by her clothes, she had lost so much weight that her t-shirt hung off her body disconcertingly, her skirt slipped down to her hips, her beautiful curves had been stripped away. Brad saw the disapproving glares in public, the hundreds of women who would whisper to their little girls, 'That woman has an eating disorder, you have to eat or you'll end up like her', or, 'Look at the anorexic bitch! She needs to beef up.', or even sometimes, 'Remember when we talked about eating disorders, class? That woman is a perfect example, she's obviously not comfortable with herself!'. Magenta, of course, was becoming less and less comfortable with herself with every comment, she frequently asked Brad, 'Do you think I'm hot?' until it seemed like she was begging for an answer, it killed Brad to listen to her, close to tears, asking these questions, with every saleswoman in every clothing store that said she had a 'tricky figure', another choked-up inquisition was spurred.
Brad turned his attention back to Magenta as she lay down, would it be like this when they were married? Would they have to drag Kimi on their honeymoon? They had planned to go to Tokyo, so Kimi would be right at home, but it wasn't right to have to have a nurse right there at all times. It wasn't normal.
"Brad?" said Kimi, "Are you okay? You're spacing out."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine. I'm going to have a fuckin' long life." Brad aborted the room and found himself on the front lawn, his wrist was pressed to his forehead as the tears came pouring out, he barely noticed Magenta standing in the doorway and Kimi on the front porch steps,
"Brad, are you sure you're okay?" Kimi whispered, Magenta leaned against the doorpost and Kimi supported her into standing, Brad turned to face her, her green eyes pierced through the hair falling into her face, through the tears, through the pain and weakness and debilitation, her chapped red lips mouthed it perfectly,
Bleed.
Magenta's POV. January 2002.
My mom is taking me and Rayne to the book store today. I saved some money because I need a new issue of Seventeen and something to read on the plane to Florida in March, and Rayne wants to hit on passing girls. We pull up in the parking lot of one of the only two malls in Denton, which consists of three buildings, one is a Bath and Body Works slash Buck's Bait Shop, the other is Victoria's Secret slash Dan's House of Sports Equipment (where athletic pedophiles go to have a stare at girls buying frilly panties) and the final store combination is Barnes & Noble and Plus-size Looks For Less, (a clothing store for fat old whores, Rayne threw up in there once. I did too, but I don't usually brag about it...) We make a stop in Bath and Body Works because I'm out of lip gloss, spend a sizable amount of money on pink frilly lacy things at Victoria's Secret and finally get around to the book store. Rayne disappears after a few girls going into the parenting section- oh shit... I go into the magazines and look through the rack for a February Seventeen, finding it, I go back to where Rayne is, staring at the pregnant girl's ass,
"Are you done here?"
"Wait, shut up, she's bending over."
"You're as bad as the guys in Dan's!"
"What are you bugging me for? Need help finding a book to read? Ages 9-12 section."
"That would've sounded good when I was 12."
"You ARE 12!"
"Yeah, but I'm mature 12."
"That's a load of bullshit." Rayne produces a book; A Walk To Remember. I read it last year in 2 hours at the library, liked it, and that was even when I was in relapse.
"Thanks." So, on the plane to Florida, I will have no choice but to dive into the depressingly cloying and endlessly adorable exploits of Jamie and Landon. I sure hope I can find someone like Landon someday. (BRAD! SUBTLE FORESHADOWING!)
Sonny spread himself out on the floor of Arlene and Aaron's living room, surrounded by a host of leukemia-and-cancer-related teen novels, Before I Die by Jenny Downham, My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult, Magenta's copy of A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song by the same author and a few random others.
"Wow, Sonny, you're actually reading!" Brad noticed,
"Ssh-ssh, shut up, Anna's crying! (My Sister's Keeper) Something is very wrong!"
"That's my little bookworm!" Kimi doted, smooching Sonny on the cheek, he folded his page and tackled her on the carpet, Brad stood up to go check on Magenta, she had been up all night with her night sweats and was still tired, Brad sat on the edge of her bed and drew the covers back a little, she looked up, smiled weakly and shifted on the mattress, the straps of her black lace nightgown shot up past her bony, sloping shoulders,
"You can't stay in bed all day." Brad gently started massaging her bare shoulders, "Sonny and Frank are here." Magenta sat up,
"Sonny?" Brad suppressed a smirk, she loved Sonny, thought he was adorable. Brad thought he was annoying as fuck... Magenta started to stand up and Brad took her hands after she put her sweater on, bringing her into the living room, Sonny looked up,
"Magenta!" he squealed,
"Hi, honey, how are you?"
"Good, you're good too, right?" a sad look passed over Sonny's face,
"I'm fine, I'm okay."
"Promise?"
"I promise!"
"Yay!" Sonny took Magenta's hand and brought her into the living room, she sat on the couch, picking up one of his books,
"Is this my copy of A Walk To Remember?"
"Yes, it has your name in it. You got it when you were 12?"
"Yes I did." Sonny re-opened his copy of My Sister's Keeper, smiling a little as he traced his finger along the page, he was the only one who could enjoy leukemia because he didn't get it. Both Magenta and Brad wished they could feel that way at that time.
Magenta was still in bed the next morning when Columbia came into the room, crying,
"Gehnta, Gehnta, wake uhp."
"What?"
"Johnathahn, he-" Columbia took off her jacket and showed a series of bruises on her chest, back and arms,
"Did Jonathan do this?" Columbia nodded, "Well, then I have to tell Brad, he can make him stop."
"I dohn't wahnt to."
"Why?"
"I juhst dohn't wahnt to tell him."
"I don't care, I'm telling him, you can't let him do that!" Columbia stared as Magenta got out of Brad and went into the kitchen where Brad was, she heard a loud shout of 'HE DID WHAT?' and Brad flung open the bedroom door,
"Let me see." Columbia shook her head, "Let me see your bruises." Brad sat next to her and gingerly touched a particularly dark bruise that looked like it had been hit several times, she flinched, "When did this happen?"
"A whihle ago."
"Was he sober?"
"Uh-uh, he nehver ihs."
"Okay. I'll talk to him. Treat that cut on your face before it gets infected."
"Oh. Okahy. Thahnks Brahd."
"No problem." Brad stood up, "Magenta, can you-" Magenta nodded and got some antiseptic from the washroom, Brad proceeded back into the kitchen. Magenta started dabbing at the cut in Columbia's forehead,
"Why did he do this?"
"I dohn't know. I thihnk it wahs 'cause he dihdn't wahnt me talkin' t'Brad an' Frank no more. He thought I wahs two-tihmin' him, buht I wasn't. But he stihll hiht me..."
"What did you hit you with?" Columbia could hear that Magenta was on the verge of tears,
"Juhst his hahnds." Magenta stood up to wash her hands,
"You should'nt see him again this week."
"I gotta, we're goihn' out tonihght."
"Just- If he's drinking, don't go."
"'Kay. Thahnks, hon." Columbia smiled, causing the cut to pulse blood harder, "Oh, shiht."
"Put a bandage on it."
"On ma fahce?"
"Exactly."
"Aw, thaht'll look dumb."
"Not as dumb as a huge cut in your face, cover it with your hair."
"Foine." Columbia started to rearrange her hair accordingly, Sonny walked in,
"Magenta?" he asked, rubbing his left foot on the back of his right ankle. "I have a... question."
"What's that?"
"D'you know where Kimi is?"
"She had to go get ketchup."
"'Cause... we were gonna... ummm..." Sonny tried to think of a lie before he left the room.
"Thaht wahs weird."
"Don't say anything, you're making the cut bleed harder."
"Iht's okahy. You bleehd ahll the tihme."
"I know."
"So?"
"So I have an excuse. Just, don't touch that for a while."
"Okay..."
"Don't pick at it."
"Thaht's gohnna be hahrd..." Columbia stood up and went into the living room. Magenta stayed on the bed, trying to think about how she could help.
That night, Magenta had to go back to the hospital. She had had a seizure. Brad was outside the room when Nation tripped over,
"Great." she whined, licking lipliner off her teeth, "I'm sober for the first time in a month and I have to come to this god-forsaken shit shack."
"You didn't really have to."
"Oh yeah? That bitch Columbia made me. She came into my tent and wouldn't move. I kicked her out and came up here. What's she doing now?"
Brad stifled tears, "Dying, probably."
"Shit." Nation lit a cigarette, "You put up with toooo much from her." Brad whipped around,
"SHUT UP BITCH! WHY AM I EVEN TALKING TO YOU? YOU'RE INSANE, BITCHY, RUDE, YOU REEK OF METH, AND YOU LOOK LIKE AN ORANGE WITH TITS, SO WHY AM I EVEN BOTHERING?"
"Was that s'posed to be offensive? 'Cause, if it was, screw you. If it wasn't, aw, fuck, I'm still a little high anyway." Nation ground out her cigarette on the back of her bare hand,
"Doesn't that hurt?"
"What d'you think I am? Some kind of delicate princess like your precious little girlfriend? If so, kiss my ass. If not, I stand by what I said before about being a little high from yesterday." Brad stared hard at Nation as she looked around and discretely took a few pills out of her bag. "Delicious."
"You shouldn't do that."
"Whatever. It's not gonna kill me, not any sooner than Magenta's gonna die anyway." Brad felt an urge to punch Nation in the lip but resisted as Kimi opened the door,
"Hi, Brad, oh... hi, um, N-Nation..."
"Hey, Lil' Kim." Nation shoved past Kimi and into Magenta's room,
"Sorry about her, it's her first time being sober this month."
"Oh my God. Really?" Kimi looked at Nation, she was helping herself to mouthwash straight out of her bag, "Should I call security?"
"Let's give her some time." Brad went inside and sat on the bed next to Magenta, she was quiet as Nation started to swirl around the room giggling, Kimi touched the IV lightly,
"She should be awake in a few minutes. She's going to need a spinal tap to see what's wrong, and that is usually painful, not the procedure, she'll be asleep, but the side effects."
"Will we have access to any kind of anesthetic?"
"I will. You won't, but I'll be waiting if you need me. We'll be using lidocaine for the procedure, probably enough to sufficiently numb that area, but after the procedure, don't be worried if Magenta complains of headaches and things like that, here," said Kimi, she shoved a stack of papers at Brad, "I wrote a paper on lumbar punctures last year. I skipped 5th grade. This student-nurse thing is kind of like a college prep. But, we'll be doing to spinal tap tomorrow, so if you could tell Magenta when she wakes up, that'd be great." Kimi looked at the floor and left without another word.
...
Brad sat for three hours until Magenta finally woke up. Her eyes opened and she looked at him,
"What happened? Brad, what happened?"
"You had a seizure."
"Absence, right?"
"Far from that, so you're having a spinal tap tomorrow to see why." Magenta's eyes started to fall shut, "Oh, God, are you okay?"
"I just want to sleep." Brad covered her with the sheets and lay down next to her,
"Are you sure you're okay? You're shaking." Magenta turned around in the bed, "It's okay, Kimi said it's fine to be nervous."
"I'm dying."
"No, you're not. If you were, they wouldn't bother with a spinal tap." Brad pulled her closer,
"It's probably a brain tumor or something."
"You haven't shown symptoms of a brain tumor, you're okay." Magenta shuddered and leaned forward, blood was streaming out of her mouth, she coughed and allowed more blood to surface, Brad held an emesis basin under her mouth and paged Kimi, who came running into the room, Magenta collapsed against her pillows,
"BRAD, GET OUT OF THERE!" Kimi shrieked, Brad got out of the bed and Kimi sat where he had been and stared into the basin, finally leaning over and looking at the blood transfusion on the IV pole. "Oh my God..." she moaned, exasperated, "She coughed up her entire blood transfusion."
Kimi brought Magenta into the OR for the spinal tap. Brad followed. Frank and Columbia were waiting there, Olivia pulled Brad aside,
"What is it now?"
"Well, I just thought you'd like to know what we're going to be using on Magenta, so, we'll be using lidocaine, through an IV, and the lidocaine that we're using is actually combined with epinephrine to stop bleeding in case it occurs on contact with the needle, we were going to have to do one of these for the leukemia anyway to see if the cancer had spread anyplace, but after the seizures it's become apparent that a procedure like this is necessary."
"Will she feel it?"
"No, we're going to put her to sleep before we start. After the procedure I'll explain what you should do for the side effects." Kimi lay Magenta down on the operating table and exposed a section of her lower back, it was astounding how pale she was, Brad stood next to her and held her hand,
"I want you to know, baby," Brad whispered as she was falling asleep, "How much I love you, I don't care what happens, I really don't give a fuck, I'll be right here."
"She's not going to respond."
"Shut up, Kimi."
"Majors," said Olivia, "You have to leave now, we're about to start." Brad slowly walked away to where Frank and Columbia were standing as Kimi inserted an obscenely long needle into Magenta's back.
...
About an hour later, Olivia let Brad and Frank and Columbia back in, Magenta was lying on her back with tears in her eyes, Brad sat down with her,
"You okay? What's wrong?"
"My head really hurts."
"Here, " Kimi said, placing a paper cup of lukewarm coffee on the table beside Magenta's bed, "Drink this, it helps."
Brad brushed Magenta's hair out of her face, "Can I do anything to help?"
"Leave that to me." replied Kimi. "Scale of one to ten, where's your pain level?"
Magenta inhaled sharply, "Nine. And three quarters."
"The sedatives should kick in soon, and you'll go to sleep, if it hurts when you wake up, I'll get you something. Don't hesitate to ask." Magenta took a sip of the lukewarm coffee and set it back down on the table, promptly digging her nails into the padded rails on the side of the bed,
"TEN!" Brad gave Magenta his hand and she almost broke it,
"Three." said Brad, Magenta let go, Kimi handed her a Tylenol. Suddenly Sonja burst into the room,
"OH, MY BABY GIRL! What the hell did these crazy pill-poppers do to you?"
"Mom, I'm fine, please just go away." Sonja glanced at Brad and then at Kimi,
"Fine. Get better, okay, Princess?" Sonja bent over and kissed Magenta's forehead and walked away. Kimi inserted a needle into Magenta's wrist that was attached to a sedative drip,
"Lean over for a second," said Kimi, Magenta held onto one of the rails and Kimi gingerly touched the pinprick on Magenta's lower back from the needle, the area around it was red and hot, Kimi held some ice against the pinprick and finally covered it with a few bandages. Magenta lay back down, Brad saw Nation come into the room and lean against the wall, she took a joint out of her bra and lit up,
"Just a second, baby." Brad said, bending over and kissing Magenta softly, he stood up and ran over to where Nation was,
"Hey Brad."
"Will you get out of here? She just had a spinal tap and I seriously doubt she wants you in here!"
"Bitch doesn't give a damn. She idolizes me!"
"Don't flatter yourself. She can't idolize you when she's drugged and in a lot of pain, in fact, she thinks you're insane on a good day! She doesn't idolize you!"
"Wanna bet?"
"GET. OUT. of the room."
"I'd like to see you make me."
"I will rip your tits off."
"Gross."
"I'll get Olivia. You see that blonde chick over there? The tall one? With the really big ring that hurts when she punches you with it? I'll get her over here so she can annihilate you."
"I took karate from the time I was six 'till I was ten."
"Wow. Intimidating." Brad left Nation with the joint in her mouth and went back to where Magenta was. She was almost asleep. Her eyes looked glassy and her mouth was hanging open,
"The sedatives are starting to kick in. Once she's fully asleep we'll take her back up to her room." said Kimi, stroking Magenta's hair, "Hey, Brad?"
"What is it?"
"I'm glad she was my first patient." Brad could see Kimi smiling, her head was tilted so her black-and-blue-and-pink bangs covered her eyes and only her hot-pink smile was showing.
"Do you think she'll make it? I mean, do you think she's still terminal?" Kimi shook her head,
"We're pretty sure she isn't. She's been doing so much better, I think she wants to get better for you." Kimi was silent for a second, "She's asleep, let's go, OLIVIA?" Olivia came over and she and Kimi took Magenta back up to her room. Brad followed.
She wasn't terminal.
When Magenta woke up, Kimi told them. The seizure had been a side-effect of the chemotherapy. Brad thought she was on radiation. Apparently Olivia had been giving her chemo pills behind Brad's back.
...
"I can't believe you! I think I have a right to know what treatment-"
"Shut up, Majors."
"Shut up, Anderson." Olivia frowned. "You've been giving her medication that caused a seizure, you realize that she had to have an unnecessary spinal tap? She was drugged, her pain level went up to a ten, I don't know what that means but I'm guessing it's a bad thing, and she's on a whole different treatment! Are you listening?"
"Yes, I am most definitely-"
"No, you know what, I'm not even gonna bother talking to you."
Columbia's POV. June 2008.
I need somebody to fuck. I really do. Eddie is becoming a prude, and I'm not about to have another one-night stand with Rayne, or get it on with Magenta, which is impossible because we're both straight, and I'm don't even feel like getting some Frank action. I feel like a nun.
Magenta comes into my room with a bottle of lemon juice and a whole shitload of candy.
"What's your problem?"
"It's this wonderful thing called PMS."
"But... lemon juice? That's kinky."
"Shut up, it doesn't turn me on or anything, I'm PMS-ing."
"You're always PMS-ing." Magenta starts to drink the lemon juice straight out of the bottle, "Ew! You're so weird!"
"Want some?"
"NO. Now if you don't mind, I'm sexually deprived here, so...yeah, go away and deal with your PMS someplace else."
"Eat some gummy worms."
"What?"
"I bought them today, I also have chocolate rocks, jelly beans, Swedish Berries, the fish that taste like different fruits, umm... the fruit slices that don't taste like fruit... the little metallic-y silver things, and these other weird thingies, I'm really not sure what these things are... And some chocolate!"
"No thank you." Magenta throws the bag of candy at my head and goes into the washroom, I hear her scream a second later, "Gen? You okay?" I open the door and find Magenta throwing up. But it's blood. Real blood. I suddenly feel like I have to throw up myself,
"Columbia, go away."
"NO!"
"I'm fine, just-" she throws up again,
"I'm getting Rayne."
"Please don't..."
"RAYNE, FRANK, EDDIE, SOMEONE GET UP HERE!" I guess they heard because they all come upstairs.
"I was climaxing down there!"
"You obviously need pitch correction."
"I vomited in my sax..."
"It's Magenta. There's a lot of blood, it's, like, coming out of her mouth..." Rayne shoves past me and opens the bathroom door, Frank goes in and so does Eddie, I kind of just stand there and listen to Rayne and Frank arguing, finally I go in and find Frank standing in the shower and Rayne sitting on the floor with Magenta bleeding on him.
Eddie ends up driving us to the hospital. He doesn't even have a license. But all I'm thinking about on the way there is whether or not this happened because she was drinking lemon juice...
...
Brad found Nation waiting outside Magenta's room. This time, she looked perfectly sober. And... not high. It was disturbing how much she looked like Magenta. Disturbing how eerily beautiful she was.
"You know, you can just go in, she's awake and there's really nothing going on."
"I can stand and be depressed wherever I damn please, Brad."
"Excuse me?" Nation's focus snapped in Brad's direction,
"You heard me."
"No, I mean, you're depressed? How can you be depressed when you have more drugs in your tent than at a divey high school in Jamaica. You can just take a few and be the happiest nut on Earth."
"Did Magenta tell you why I'm here?"
"She said Frank talked you into coming."
"She lied."
"What?"
"Remember, when Magenta had that seizure and you said I looked like an orange with tits?"
"How could I forget..."
"Well, Columbia didn't make me come to the oncology department."
"What're you-"
"Brad, I have ovarian cancer. Advanced and possibly terminal. Cosmo set up the tent downstairs so I could get help fast if anything happened. I started doing drugs because it hurt so much." Nation was beginning to tear up, Brad didn't even know she had feelings, he knew she wasn't Magenta and he didn't want to engage in any public displays of sympathy, but she reminded him of Magenta and he hated to see her like this,
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I've had it for four years and I'm an outpatient, it's something you get used to. I don't want what happened to me to happen to Magenta. I'm 26, she's 22, she's had leukemia for most of her life, but she's one metastasis away from being in my position. I won't ever get pregnant, and I don't want that for Magenta."
"I thought you couldn't stand her."
"That's completely untrue. She pisses me off, but she used to be my friend, up until she left to work for Frank. When I was first diagnosed." Without warning, Magenta came out of her room, leaning on her IV pole,
"Nation? Hi, I didn't know you were here."
"Magenta, it's okay, I told him." Magenta looked at Brad for a few seconds,
"Okay." she smiled and went back into her room. Brad noticed how pale Nation was, then noticed the blood on the front of her jeans.
"MOVE MOVE MOVE!" shouted Olivia, Nation was barely conscious on the gurney she was pushing, Brad followed behind with Magenta in a wheelchair,
"What is it?"
"26 year old female, ovarian cancer, she's bleeding out from her- well..."
"What treatment is she on?"
"Chemotherapy, we don't think bleeding this heavy is usually caused by the treatment, though." The ER nurse turned to Magenta,
"Miss, aren't you in for leukemia?"
"Yes, but she's a good friend, if I could stay with her-"
"Fine. We have to take her in now, are you the husband?"
"Not Nation's." said Brad, "I'm Magenta's fiancee."
"Lovely," the triage nurse took the gurney and took it away, Brad and Magenta trailed behind.
...
"Which room is she in? Do you know?" Cosmo demanded on the other end of Magenta's phone, he was sober and furious,
"She's in the room across the hall from mine, I'm with her now, so is Brad. She keeps asking about you."
"What happened?"
"She just started bleeding. It was the cancer, she's probably going to need an operation. Where are you?"
"Where the crap do you think? I'm in my tent!"
"Oh. Right. The polyester meth lab... Well, can you hurry up?"
"Fine. I just have to find one of those things with wheels... and a long stick... I'm planning on canoeing up there."
"Good luck with that. Just, don't take the stairs." Magenta hung up and turned back to Nation. "He'll be here soon, okay?"
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
"Magenta, I'm sorry for how I've been."
Sonja's POV. 1993.
The family is going to have dinner with another family from our planet. The McKinley's. Juana and Truman are divorced but they're putting up with each other for tonight. The twins, Cosmo and Nation are probably going to play with my kids, and the oldest daughter, Dionne, is going to a sleepover. We get to the house and Cosmo answers the door,
"HI! My mommy made this... thing... that we're gonna eat later, hey Rayne, I got a new sleeping bag!"
"NO WAY!"
"Yeah way, I'll show ya!" The boys run inside and Nation comes over,
"Hi Nation!"
"Oh, hi, Magenta."
"Wanna go play?"
"'Fine..." Juana comes up behind her,
"Oh, Sonja and Jerome, you're here! I'm sorry about my CHILDREN! They have absolutely no idea how to behave, TRUMAN, GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE, WE HAVE COMPANY!"
"I'M COMIN', WOMAN!"
...
The adults are all having drinks when we hear the kids yelling at each other upstairs,
"THAT'S YUCKY, NAT!"
"YEAH, REAL YUCKY!"
"Are they okay up there?" says Juana,
"I think Nation did something... yucky. She gets that from you, Juana."
"Aw, stuff it, Truman, that's why we divorced!"
Third Person; Upstairs with Magenta and Nation.
"Hey, Magenta, guess what."
"What?"
"You know me and Cosmo?"
"Yeah?"
"We're a... couple."
"A couple of what?"
"You know, a couple. I love Cosmo."
"Yeah, my mommy says that I love Rayne even though we fight sometimes."
"No, like, I love Cosmo!"
"...EW!...EW EW EW EW EW!"
Cosmo opened the door to Nation's room,
"How is she?" Magenta looked up from where she was sitting, with Nation's head in her lap, Brad was in the cafeteria, looking for something that was remotely edible,
"She's sleeping now. She has to so the bleeding will maybe slow down."
"Where'd Brad go?"
"He went to get some food." Nation stirred and started to wake up, Cosmo sat next to her,
"How's my beautiful baby sister?"
"I'm only your 'baby sister' by about 30 seconds." Brad entered the room carrying a takeout box in a plastic bag,
"Oh, she woke up."
"Brad, sweetie, those boxes aren't from the cafeteria, where'd you go?"
"The restaurant down the street." Brad passed Magenta a box,
"Nice, a whole shitload of California rolls! Here, have some, Nat."
"I'm okay." Nation shuddered and exuded a strangled cry as more blood began to stain her sheets, "How heavy is it, Cosmo? I don't want to look..." Cosmo lifted the sheets,
"It's not so bad."
"Really?"
"No."
"I'll get Olivia." Magenta pressed the call button on the wall and Olivia arrived quickly,
"What's wrong?"
"She's bleeding again."
"I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
"No." said Cosmo, "She needs me to stay with her."
"Is that okay, Nation?" Nation nodded as Brad and Magenta left,
"Wait," she said quietly, "I need Magenta to stay, too." Brad shut the door as he was leaving.
Kimi brought Magenta back to the room with tears in her eyes.
"How is she?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Magenta said quietly as Kimi left to go get some more blankets, the heat in the oncology department had gone out.
"No, come here, tell me what happened?" Brad stood up and folded his arms around her waist,
"Brad, please, I just want to go to sleep. I'm tired and it's late." Magenta lay down and covered herself,
"Kimi's coming with more blankets."
"I know."
"Please tell me what happened to Nation."
"She said she didn't want what happened to her to happen to me. It's reversed now."
"What's that mean?"
"Nation has leukemia now, she'll be sharing my room, but she'll need radiation, chemotherapy and targeted therapy, which is a treatment solely for her variation, chronic mylogenous, but she's going to need it more frequently."
"Well, she'll be getting better faster."
"But you saw how chemotherapy affected me, you knew I got burns from radiation, and I'm used to it, Nation had a healthy childhood, she doesn't know what's going to happen." Magenta started tearing up, "I don't want what happened to me to happen to her."
Brad didn't know what to think. Nation was usually either in treatment or too tired to say anything and Columbia liked to monopolize whatever energy Magenta had and use it as either a meal ticket or a free manicure, and Kimi was too wound up with her own pathetic life to give a damn about much. Brad sat in the same position for hours at a time, staring between Nation and Magenta. They were almost identical when they were both asleep, Nation's hair was a little lighter and shorter and Magenta was smaller physically but with wider eyes, Nation wore less makeup and Magenta was a lot paler, but slight differences aside they could pass for sisters. Especially the way they acted around each other. They had two different personalities; Nation was more outgoing, Magenta was shy and introverted. But they were easy to mix up.
Nation shifted and opened her eyes. Her orange curls were matted and dangling in her eyes as she sat up, she glanced at Magenta, who was still in a light slumber,
"Is she okay?" Nation asked quietly,
"She's okay. She's been waking up and falling asleep on and off, it's the treatment. It affects some people that way." As if on cue, Magenta began to stir and sit up weakly, she rubbed her eyes and pushed her hair back, she pulled her sweater tighter around her shoulders. Nation smirked and leaned back against her pillows.
"Finally awake, huh?"
"Shut up, Nation." Nation smirked again, Kimi opened the door,
"Good, you're both awake, I need a witness."
"Witness for what?" Kimi was dragging Sonny behind her, he was examining his bright yellow nails.
"Sonny, tell me exactly what you told Olivia."
"I bought the perfume, is that such a problem?"
"What kind?"
"Purr. By Katy Perry. It was 57 dollars, plus tax, and I got it at Sephora. I was wearing a black skirt, a white shirt and pink heels."
"Did the three of you all hear that?"
"Loud and clear, Lil' Kim."
"I didn't really care, but I heard it."
"Is it really that big a problem?"
"Yes! In case someone steals it."
"Sonny, don't you have a receipt?"
"I gave it to Frank. He pretty much, like, begged for some paper."
"Why?" Nation was cut off when the lights in the room flickered out. "What the hell was that?"
"Power's out." said Kimi, glancing at her phone, "Of course so is the Wi-Fi- OH NO!" Kimi collapsed onto Sonny,
"She likes having Internet access."
"Being without Internet freaks me out!"
"It's true." said Magenta, "She set up a router at Brad's cottage."
"My mother tried to exorcise it."
"HOW WILL I WATCH MY CAT VIDEOS?"
Nation smirked, "Let Magenta act it out!"
"Meow."
"THAT'S SO HOT..."
...
The power came back on a few hours later. Sonny had managed to sedate Kimi with some canned pineapples and a bottle of chocolate sauce and taken her out for dinner. Brad was picking up Nation's bloody clothes fmor the dry cleaner's and Nation and Magenta were alone.
Magenta was almost asleep when Nation stood up and went into the washroom, she glanced into the mirror,
"Ew. Screw my fucking lips. They're huge. I think I need some kind of plastic surgery or something... I swear, these bitches look like the balloons that they make into balloon animals. But red... Why the hell am I talking to myself?" Nation started to poke at her lips, "MAYBE I COULD DEFLATE THEM!" Nation left the bathroom and was unprepared for what she saw.
Magenta wasn't breathing.
Her mouth was full of blood and she wasn't breathing.
Nation slammed the call button a couple times, and peeked into the hallway to see Olivia running down the hall,
"MCKINLEY, ARE YOU OKAY?"
"No, I'm not, I'm not okay, because I have no idea what to do."
"What's happening?"
"I was gone for a second- I was pissed off about my lips-"
"Let me see her." Olivia shoved into the room, "Oh my God, Nation, 911, call button-" Nation slammed the call button and a few people rushed into the room, Magenta was taken away.
"My God." Nation half-sobbed, "I hate my mother-fucking lips."
Nation called Brad and he showed up at the hospital within 10 minutes.
"Where is she?"
"The ER."
"What exactly happened?"
"I was gone for a second, I swear, I just went to look at my ginormous lips, and I went back over, and she was lying there, and there was blood everywhere, and she wasn't breathing. Olivia said she's going to take her and see what's wrong."
...
Magenta was unconscious in her bed. A few oncologists were examining her while Brad and Nation sat a few meters away. The oncologists left eventually and cast the room into silence.
"She's so cute." said Nation after a little while, "I mean, look at her. She's 5'2 and she's got such a sweet little figure." Nation tittered nervously, sounding like she was near tears, "Brad, isn't she adorable?"
Brad was silent.
"She's tired." he finally said, "She's tired of this bullshit. She's giving up, I'd be exhausted too."
"Don't say that-"
"Look, Nation, Magenta doesn't remember a time when she wasn't sick. It's been like this since she was two. That's twenty years. Twenty years of blood, and needles and multiple hospital rooms and near-death experiences. She's tired of that." Brad stood up and sat on the end of Magenta's bed, Nation stood over him, stroking her hair.
"I'm tired of it."
"What, ovarian cancer or leukemia, you've had ovarian cancer for longer. You've had leukemia for, a month of two."
"Oh, yeah, they caught it late. No, not that. I've been friends with Magenta for two years longer than she's had leukemia. I was her first friend, I was there when she was born, I was in the church, the doctor that Sonja kicked was my dad, I remember when she was first diagnosed. I was six. My mother came into my room, and she said, 'Nat, that was Sonja on the phone, Magenta has cancer'. I didn't know what cancer was, I just knew it was what almost killed my great-aunt LeAnna, she's still alive, but since then I've been tired of having to watch this happen."
Brad squeezed Magenta's hand tighter, Nation started choking up a little more,
"Brad, that isn't going to help."
"I know. She's okay. She's going to make it. See, she's breathing perfectly fine."
"Brad, that's the respirator. It's breathing for her." Nation stared down at the clear cup over Magenta's nose and mouth, blood was gathering at the edges of the cup and a small pool was forming at the low point. Olivia came into the room.
"This is what I thought would happen."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Magenta's leukemia has spiralled out of control. Her body has been rejecting treatment and it's become clear that despite her recoveries before, she's not going to make it."
"But, she has a little while left right? So we can get married, maybe start a family?"
"No. Brad, no, she doesn't. She's going to die. The only reason she's alive right now is because she's on Live Support."
"Does that mean-"
"MAJORS!" Olivia sobbed, "Brad, I think we should be on a first-name basis, it's time to say goodbye."
"So, when I unplug this machine-"
Olivia nodded, "She'll pass."
Brad fell silent, fruitlessly massaging Magenta's pale hand with his thumb.
Then he felt it.
The slight twitch.
The tiniest grasp of Magenta's fingers as she clawed her way back to the world.
.!.!.!.!
"CLEAR!" Olivia shouted, Magenta's body jerked as Kimi shoved the defibrillator pads against her chest,
"Nothing."
"Charging again, CLEAR!"
"Once more, if we don't get anything, let her go down."
"Once more, CLEAR!"
"DNR, do not resuscitate."
"Just try again!"
"Keep your shirt on, Majors, once more."
"Charging- CLEAR!" Magenta jolted.
Something was happening. Her heart monitor began to trill a little bit, Kimi looked up and brushed her bangs out of her eyes, Olivia dabbed sweat off her forehead,
"It- it worked...?" Brad pressed his ear to her chest.
thp thp thp thp thp thp
Her pulse was there. It was irregular and weak, but it was there. Pumping cancerous blood cells throughout her body.
"We did it." Olivia breathed, "My God, she's alive." Olivia's face broke into a relieved smile, Nation fell back against a wall, Olivia exhaled again, "Brad-"
"No, it was all you." Brad replied through the tears of joy that were clouding his vision, "You saved her. God, you can have my car." Magenta took a few fast, rough breaths,
"Get her on oxygen." Olivia ordered, Kimi shoved tubes into Magenta's nose, Nation looked like she was about to throw up. Brad practiced breathing normally. "When she wakes up, she'll be confused, maybe experiencing short-term amnesia, but that's because of the coma and the feeling will pass, you can expect her to wake up either tonight or tomorrow morning." Magenta stirred a little, Olivia, Kimi and the other people left the room, leaving Brad, Nation and Magenta alone together.
They sat in a circle for a few hours, Brad held Magenta's left hand, Nation held onto her right, and Brad and Nation tentatively touched fingers. Every now and then, Magenta's pulse would speed up or slow down, Nation's gaze would shoot up and Brad would tighten his grip on both of their hands.
"She's dying." Nation's voice cracked.
"No, Nation. She's not."
"Brad, please, don't deny it anymore. She's going to die, either today or tomorrow or a year from now if we're very lucky, Brad, you need to grow up and come to terms with this, or I swear to God, you won't be able to handle the end."
As if on cue, Magenta woke up.
She smiled when she saw Brad and Nation,
"What happened? Why am I here? Why am I on oxygen?"
Nation shuddered, "Something happened. I don't know what, but something happened. You were in a coma, that's why you can't remember anything."
Brad kept quiet, suddenly laying across her body and starting to sob violently,
"Please, baby, when we get married, you have to promise never to do that again."
Magenta shut her eyes tightly and stroked Brad's hair.
"I'll try, okay? I'll try hard."
Olivia's POV
I have no idea if Magenta Alvarado is terminal or not. If she is, she'll probably die within a few months, a year, maybe. If she isn't, she will either slowly recover or have a horribly painful life, a long one, but it's going to be painful, essentially a slow death.
Brad Majors is the biggest hypocrite I've ever met in my life. He loves Magenta. Loves her a lot. He wants her to live. But he also wants her to get better. If she's terminal, she gets better by dying.
Magenta Alvarado is 22 years old. She's still a little girl. She didn't go to college, but she's smart, I can feel it. She's possibly one of the nicest-and-bitchiest people I've ever seen, she's so beautiful, even when she's sick like this. After 20 years of leukemia, this lovely woman deserves better. I wish I could give her that.
Sonja's POV. March 2002.
Death is inevitable. We all die sooner or later, my daughter has cancer, my mother only has one kidney, other than that, my son is a perfectly healthy boy and my husband isn't going anywhere anytime soon, that's for sure.
Before Magenta was diagnosed, the kids used to batter each other with boxing gloves. I used to say, 'Go easy on each other, I'm not spending the night in the emergency room'. Three years passed, I spent multiple nights in the ER. One night, Magenta was vomiting blood. She was three, she didn't know what was going on, I left Rayne with Jerome and I took her to the hospital.
We're in Florida now. Magenta is 12, she's growing up too fast for me, Rayne is 15, probably destined to become a juvenile delinquent. Jerome is still in Denton because he has to work and my sister Jayme is here.
Rayne comes into our TimeShare flat in a cloud of smoke, Magenta turns the TV down and looks up from her magazine.
"Ew." she scolds, waving her hand in front of her nose, "You reek."
"Not all of us can get our drugs through a portacath, sis."
"Alright, kids, settle down. Magenta, you need to get dressed, we're going out for dinner tonight and I hardly think my niece needs to be seen in public in that T-shirt." Jayme waves her hand at my daughter, "You look like some kind of... HIPPIE HO!" Magenta sticks her chest out, she's wearing a psychedelic tie-dye t-shirt with a crab on the front with 'Cancer' written right beneath the colorful crustacean.
"Yeah, it doesn't make sense."
"In what way?"
"Well..." I try to think of something, "You're a Taurus!" Magenta groans and tramps into my bedroom to change. I'm an evil mother, I make my daughter sleep on the couch.
"And you-" Jayme turns to point her finger at Rayne, "Take a shower. You smell like a crackhouse."
"Dumbass." says Rayne, going into the washroom, "It was pot."
Brad, Nation and Kimi sat in silence. Magenta was sleeping off her last radiotherapy session,
"This is so weird." said Kimi. "She's like a tuberculosis patient. She's coughing up quarts of blood at a time. We have to do something."
"You're right." Nation whispered, "She's circling the drain." Brad allowed a few tears to fall from his eyes,
"Do you really think she's going to die?"
"We don't know." Kimi whispered, "There's the possibility of recovery, but at the same time, there isn't. She's still very young, so she has a high chance of recovery, but not as high as it should be." Magenta shivered a little and opened her eyes, Brad sat next to her and she smiled, without warning, Olivia tripped boisterously into the room,
"Hey, lil' hoes...Nation, yo, I gotted t'eat up all th' snacks up in ya teeennnntttt... C'mon, I di'nt wannit t'get SUCKED UP BY THE MOUSES!"
Nation's mouth fell open, "She's higher than me. And I swear to God, that's saying something."
...
Elanna's POV.
My niece is a ghost waiting to happen. I haven't seen her in 8 years and I feel awful about it. She's so pale her body almost bleeds into the bedsheets and her hair looks like her blood transfusion exploded across the pillows. I can see her from the window in the door, there's a man there, and Nation McKinley, one of her childhood friends, and a nurse who looks suspiciously like Hatsune Miku in scrubs... Magenta is such a beautiful little girl. I've missed her so much.
I push the door open, I didn't bother calling up if she isn't even awake, the nurse glances at me for two seconds and looks back down at a tube coming out of Magenta's chest, Nation looks pretty sick but seems awake enough to play Pocket Frogs on her iPhone and the man is petting Magenta's hair like it's a cat.
"Elanna Kane?" The nurse looks at me harder,
"Oh, right. You had me paged."
"Sonja called me and told me she was going to be asleep and I didn't want to wake her."
"Well, she'll be awake soon, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you." I sit down next to her bed and the man glances at me,
"Are you her Aunt Elanna?"
"What's it look like?"
...
Magenta wakes up three minutes later when the nurse is done with her. She's drugged so she isn't lucid but it's fine.
I can finally see my favourite niece again.