Chapter Thirteen: Back Again

"Ta-da!" A.J. cheered, sliding sock-footed into Darry and Lucky's dorm.

"A.J.!" Darry exclaimed. "Ouch!" he roared as Lucky barreled into him. He had been leaning back in a chair, his back to the door, but upon hearing A.J.'s voice had fallen completely backwards, landing with a hard thud on the floor, somersaulted backwards and hoisted himself up in one smooth move before slipping on his own sweater and stumbling forward, crashing into Darry and managing to trip a few more feet forward into a laughing A.J.'s arms.

Darry grinned as Lucky swung A.J. around in circles. "Careful!" he warned as Lucky edged dangerously near the sweater again.

"So what happened?" Skate demanded, who, having heard the commotion, had come to investigate.

"I recovered," A.J. giggled. "They couldn't find anything wrong."

"What?" Lucky demanded, setting A.J. down and glaring at her. "They just let you go?"

"Yeah, I know," A.J. said. "But I couldn't stand to spend another minute in there! They took two more tests and they'll have the results in a couple of weeks. For now," she moonwalked across the floor, "I am FREE!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Darry demanded, staring at her.

"Dancing!"

"That's not dancing," Skate sniggered. "That's—"

"Listen, it's gonna be famous someday!" A.J. snapped.

"Sure," Darry said, grinning. "Just like cherry Pepsi."

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Lucky drove A.J. to the hospital two weeks later. A.J. was laughing and chattering away, but Lucky was a bundle of nerves. Who knew what this diagnosis could be?

When A.J. got her results from Dr. Saunders and stepped out of hi office, Lucky stared at her. "Well?" he demanded. "What is it?"

A.J. took a deep breath and told him: "Lam's disease."

Lucky blurted out, "What?"

"It's a lung disease," A.J. told him, and then Lucky exploded.

"They couldn't have found this earlier?" he roared, but A.J. restrained him.

"Lucky, it'll all be all right. I'm going to be fine," she soothed him. She swallowed hard. "It's…they found cysts on my lungs. They come and go, which is why they didn't find them earlier."

"Cysts," Darry repeated. "They can remove those, right?"

"Right," A.J. affirmed hollowly. Dr. Saunders emerged from his office and placed a hand on A.J.'s shoulder. "Um," A.J. continued. "They can remove them. But they'll keep coming back. And, um…" she gave the doctor an imploring look.

Dr. Saunders finished for her. "The cysts will keep taking over more and more of her lung tissue, until there isn't enough left for her to breathe. We will put her on a respirator, but beyond that, there isn't much we can do."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lucky demanded, his hands bunching into fists.

A.J. bit her lip. "It means…I have about ten years."

Ten years, Lucky thought. In ten years, A.J.'ll be dead.

And with that, all hell broke loose.

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"I can't believe it!" Lucky groaned. "I'm in jail again!"

"It's only two more days before your sentence is up," A.J. reminded him. "And believe it or not, it's a felony to assault a doctor and send him to the third floor."

"The third floor?" Lucky said.

"Normally sustained injuries, like broken arms and gashes…and getting beat up severely," she added, glaring at Lucky.

"Lost my temper," Lucky mumbled. "A.J.," he said, voice beginning to crack, "I don't want you to die."

"I don't want me to die, either, Lucky," A.J. said. "And I'm not going to."

Lucky nodded, even though they both knew she was lying.

There was no separating wall between them, but a guard was watching them. As he turned to check up on another one of the visitor booths, Lucky leaned forward and kissed A.J.

"I love you," he whispered as the guard barked that visiting hours were up.

"I love you, too," A.J. whispered back.

Lucky didn't think he had ever been so sorry to see her go, even when he had been in jail last year. Because then at least he had known she would come back. Now he didn't.

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