The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]com

Prompt: Hospital
Pen Name: Kimmydonn
Pairing/Main Character(s): Berty/Goff
Rating: 18A

This is a multi-chapter story

Photo prompts can be viewed here:
thetwilight25[dot]com/round-six/prompts

Tony barely entered the room. The whole place made him feel wrong. He shouldn't be here anyway, he should be studying for his final exam. Literally, the last one. He'd done his practitioning, he'd finished all his classes, with one last oral exam he would be a teacher.

There was one thing more important than that, though. His mother, lying on the bed. Her normally shining blonde hair was limp and dark. She'd lost great patches with the radiation treatments, leaving white scalp exposed. Her eyes were the same, and although Tony could see a trace of pain pinching them, they were happy and bright. Welcoming.

Her gown lay flatter on one side than the other, her breast gone. The one remaining seemed small, as though she'd lost weight, which she probably had. She looked weak, frail, old. Tony could hardly stand to see it.

Melissa sat on the edge of the bed, holding Mum's hand and laughing at something one or the other had said. Dad was at the stall but would be here before long. Tony wanted his time with Mum before he came.

"Tony! Come in. I know I look a fright, but it's not that bad."

"You look fine, Mum. Maybe a little less on top," he joked, using the same phrase they all used to describe Dad's balding.

"You tease, but it'll be your turn before you know it." She and Melissa were both giggling at him.

Tony looked at the flowers ringing the bed. There were no less than two dozen vases holding daisies, carnations, roses, chrysanthemums, lilies...every flower Dad had ever carried at the stall. "Dad's gone a little over the deep, hasn't he?"

Melissa smiled and looked around. "Nah, he's just bringing two handfuls at the end of each day. Could be worse."

"Good Lord, I hope not. I wouldn't be able to smell my own crap!" Mum said crassly, making Tony laugh out loud. It startled him. He'd been so frightened coming here, so worried, but it was like Mum was at home in her own bed, cracking wise before rising to make breakfast.

"You could lie in bed a week and no nurse would think to change a thing!" Melissa added with more laughter.

The three laughed together, adding one joke after another, spinning the mirth around, growing it. Tony thought his sides would ache if he laughed any more and Mum did wince once or twice after a good guffaw.

There was a beep from the only machine hooked up to Mum, an IV drip line. Tony's laughter died first, but Melissa's faded soon after. Mum continued to chuckle until it became obvious she was alone.

"Stop it! Both of you!" she snapped angrily. "I'm not dying. I refuse. So lighten up!"

Melissa faked a laugh. Tony didn't even manage that. "What do they say, Mum?"

"Oh, I don't listen to them," she said blithely. "They don't know up from down, I swear."

Tony looked at Melissa with pleading eyes. Did she have any hope for him? She shook her head and smiled at Mum. "They can't make your head from tail in all of this," she suggested, waving at the flowers again.

Mum laughed raucously. "That's it!"

Tony kissed his mother's cheek, unable to laugh, but not wanting any of his dour mood to dampenMelissa's attempts at keeping her brave face. "I love you, Mum."

"I know you do, Tony. How was class?"

With a small sigh of relief, he told her about his day, about how he was so very near the end of the road. He thought he might be able to land a job in Shearness, not far from their shire.

"That's great, Tony. It'll be good to have you nearby."

His dad arrived after that, and he and Melissa retreated to a waiting room to give them a minute alone.

"What do they say?" he asked, sinking into one of the uncomfortable chairs.

Melissa immediately teared up. Her voice squeaked. "They think she only has a few days, Tony. They did their best to remove it, but it's still spreading. It's gone from her breast into her lung and liver. They wanted to try more treatment, but she's so frail. They don't know how much more her body will take."

Tony stood back up and wrapped his arms around his sister. "Shh, 'lissa. Mum's tough. If anyone can take it, she can."

"She's so weak, Tony. You didn't touch her, her hand. It's only bones, there's nothing left. Can't you see it in her face?"

He could see it. He didn't want to admit to seeing it. "I love you, Melissa. You're so good, being here for her all the time. It must be terrible." He looked around the waiting room. Even this corner of the hospital screamed at him of disinfectant, sickness and death.

"It's not all bad. We laugh." She giggled hysterically. "We remember the dumber things you or I did as a kid, and we laugh." Melissa found a tissue and blew her nose. "Sometimes we talk seriously. She tells me things about Dad, about when he was dating her. She tells me everything she hopes I'll find. I think I have, Tony. I mean, Terry's been a real gem through all of this, holding down the flat, picking me up and taking me out when I need it. I don't know what I'd do without him."

Tony felt even less comfortable than he had in Mum's room. "That's great, 'lissa. You deserve it."

"Tony. Where are you going?" she asked when he pulled away from her.

"Um, just, got my exam, right?"

"Okay. Aren't you going to say goodbye to Mum?"

"Yeah, I'll pop in on the way."

He didn't. He couldn't face her again, not yet. He didn't want to think about home without her. Dad would be twice as insistent that Tony take over the stall. He had to get out, get away.

That night he started digging up the paperwork to apply for a Visa to the US. Without Mum, he didn't want to stay. A week later, she was gone.