Hello. I wanted to write something for GG but published another story first. Anyway, this one was the first one I started. I have a thing for sickfics. And this is set during when April was going to a party but had appendicitis.

Here we go, I hope you like it.

"I called Lorelai." I said once I hung up on the phone and went back to my daughter, she still hadn't moved from hugging her stomach and lying with her back against me. "She suspected you might have something called appendicitis." April didn't answer and didn't turn her head to look at me. "April, sweetie. I'm going to take you to the hospital now."

"I don't have to go to the hospital. I'm going to that party. I never get sick."

Talk about timing!

April still hadn't turned towards me or made any intention to move or show me things had changed.

"I'll get your coat." I mumbled, actually talking more to myself than to April while I got both of our coats. "Here." She didn't move from the bed and was still clutching her stomach and moaning. "Look. Sweetie… You have no idea how much I wish I didn't have to do this. But if you have appendicitis then we need to go to the hospital now. I know this came at the least suiting time ever but there will be more parties." April still didn't move. "Only one isn't worth your health."

Something changed in April's expression, maybe she held her breath but I couldn't quite tell what. Even though I felt a relief in me when she turned and then sat up.

"OW."

Barely did I have the time to feel any kind of relief when April suddenly screamed shortly, crouched and clutched her stomach tighter.

So much for feeling fine.

"Hey…" I carefully laid a hand on April's back and lead her to sit up. "Let's go."

April didn't protest again, either she'd given up or she just couldn't take it. I could see that she was trying to move as little as possible while she pulled on her coat and got up.

"Ow…" She whimpered as she got up and tried to fall back on the bed. I laid my arm around her shoulders and as she leaned against me she stayed standing at least. "…I just wanted to go to my first boy-girlparty."

"Timing sucks… I know."

It was done slowly, still April whimpered slightly with every step we took.

Whether this would turn out to be appendicitis or something else this had ended up getting a whole lot worse in a very short time.

Or maybe, when she had just accepted the fact that she was ill once and for all and stopped fighting it…

I just hated the fact that she had felt like she had to hide from me that she was sick.

"Here we go." We finally made it to the car. "You just try and relax and I will get us to the hospital." That last I said quietly only to myself when I walked around the car and into the driver's seat where I noticed something. "Car keys… I forgot the keys. I'll be right back. You just…" April was hunched over, clutching her stomach and leaning her fever-warm forehead against the car window. She didn't answer, which made the knot in my stomach just a little bit tighter.

"Here." I threw myself into the car seat so quickly I could just as well have flown right over to the shotgun seat. "Let's go…"

I had been through quite so much since I got my driver's license. But never had I ever hit the gas pedal as hard as I did that night.

Just a few hundred meter away from the hospital suddenly I saw blue lights of a police car coming up right behind me.

And while I couldn't be surprised, I just hit the breaks hard.

I blinked, hopefully they would get I wasn't speeding for nothing.

Then, just as I turned towards the parking lot to the hospital they seemed to get what I was doing and kept driving in the same direction.

And then, just as I found a parking space April suddenly coughed and threw up.

"Oh…" I tried to reach as far back as I could back and as good as I could patted her shoulder. "Oh sweetie. It's okay. We're almost there now."

Despite the seatbelt she was wearing April was half lying down and if I hadn't caught her she might just as well have collapsed at the ground.

If April was feeling so bad by this now… How bad had it gotten before I as much as knew she was ill and in pain?

"Come here." I led her to stand up and then let her lean against me on the short walk from the car and up to the ER's reception.

"H-help us." I tried stuttering to the receptionist who didn't even look up from her computer and on me. "Pl-please. I think she h-has appendicitis." As on a given signal April whimpered and the receptionist finally looked away from her computer and on me.

"Symptoms?"

"Ehrm…" April whimpered again. "Stomachache, nausea…"

"You do realize this sounds exactly like a stomach flu. And that is so contagious you might already have spread it all over the hospital."

"P-please…" I begged. "It's not a stomach flu. She has appendicitis I just know it…" The receptionist looked at me for a second and glared at me. She looked as if she wanted to say something but whatever it was I never found out. She was interrupted half by April, while throwing a hand over her mouth, making an obviously failed attempt to stop it. Threw up right on the floor this time and right on the shoes of a doctor who had come to us.

"It's okay." I almost whispered to her when she threw up. "You can't help it."

"I'm sorry."

"Sir." The receptionist continued. "If this is a stomach flu it is highly contagious and…"

She was interrupted by April once again, as she gave something in between a whimper and a scream before she threw up again just as one doctor came over to us.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry kiddo." The doctor said, but his voice still sounded dry and tired. "It happens all the time. Come here…."

The doctor lifted April up, April gave a small yell in pain in the unexpected movement but didn't protest. I could only follow them and with how fast the doctor moved and crossed in between patients and staff there really wasn't time to thinking about something else then worrying about April or running into someone.

"Here." The doctor laid April down on a bunk. "Can you pull up your shirt and coat so I can feel your stomach?" April obeyed but I could see the way she desperately tried not to move her stomach, maybe if she didn't move the exact right point… "Thank you," the doctor lied his hands on April's stomach. "Does this hurt?" He pressed only slightly.

"OOOOOOOWWWWWWW OW OW OW STOP IT."

"Sch, sch, sch." I tried and stroke her hair. I felt so helpless watching April now. "It's okay. It's okay."

"Appendicitis you say?" The doctor took a step back. "I think you might be right about that. But I have to draw some blood tests to know if you need surgery or it will be enough with some antibiotics. Because we don't want you to have a scar and everything…" He disappeared, April clutched her stomach again and rolled over on her side while pulling up her knees.

"I hate needles." She whimpered. "Hate them, hate them, hate them."

"Really?... if I knew you right you might think those are kind of exciting. "

"They are as long as I don't have to have them."

I tried to smile just a little, but it ended up no more than a half-hearted grimace.

Maybe I would be able to laugh at it some day. Or at least if April herself did. That she didn't like needles just seemed so out of character of my daughter.

Although maybe it wasn't. Anyone who was a part of me should hate needles more than I did. Which said a lot.

"Ow!"

April whimpered again. And I couldn't help but be reminded of how long it had went before I even noticed something was wrong. And now she was in all of this pain. Wasn't there just some way to give her my appendix and then I could take this surgery instead?

April shut her eyes hard when the nurse came back with the equipment of drawing blood from her arm. And when he started describing it April threw her hands over her ears as if she thought that if she neither heard nor saw it would make everything go away.

"April…" I gently pulled her hand away from her ear, trying to tell myself that the quicker this was made the sooner she'd be feeling better. "Here, concentrate on me. Okay?"

Somewhere that sounded like far away we heard the nurse talking and it didn't exactly help when he grabbed April's arm rudely.

"Excuse me." I huffed, "can you at least take it carefully?" The nurse only glared at me while April only whimpered once again.

Every whimper, and as it turned louder into yelling sent a punch right into my heart.

If I could just have any way of taking this myself…

Why couldn't the diagnose of appendicitis be quick and easy. As quick and easy as I would have thought something like this might be. But there was one test after the other and for each and every nurse or doctor came here I hoped this would be for taking her away for surgery at last.

Then at last, there came two nurses and a doctor…

"Well then.." The doctor started talking. "…All of the tests we took tonight are pointing towards this being what you thought at first. Am I right?"

I stroke April's hair while she, delirious by all the medicines she had gotten to make sure she wasn't in pain and ready for the possible surgery.

"…Now we just have to know if you've eaten anything at six hours back? Or been drinking any water or so two hours?"

Why couldn't it just go on. I was about to say something but April interrupted, her voice almost quiet and squeaky.

"I haven't eaten all day."

I could have punched myself in the face- why hadn't I noticed something sooner. Why hadn't I made her stop and felt her forehead already when she refused eating? Why hadn't I realized the reason she was so on about this boy-girl-party.

"There'll be other parties."

"Yes." I mumbled to myself more than to April. "But you might not be invited to them."

I really felt bad for her- how was it that appendicitis hit seven percent of the population, and April could have had it only a few hours later than she had and she'd have the time of her life right now?

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

April didn't have to move due to the bed she laid on being on wheels, the two nurses there grabbed each side of it and then finally we were on our way. The doctor went away and mumbled something.

"Now." The two nurses started pushing April's bed through the Emergency room and I could do nothing else then hurry after. "We're going to take you into the OR as soon as we can. When we're there you might get something through the needle…" April winced. "…that's already in your hand. And then you'll get a mask over your nose and mouth and you just breathe. And then everything's going to be alright. You don't have to be worried about anything."

On drugs or not, she didn't say anything but I could see in April's eyes worried was exactly what she was.

I kept a hand on the metal banister of the bed as I half ran. What was it with nurses when they always went so fast and obviously knew exactly where they were going.

Elevator down one floor, concrete hallways of the hospital basement and back one floor up.

Was there any way to make this hospital more complicated?

Before I knew it, but still a bit too soon we were in an OR room where April was moved onto a bunk and a doctor and a nurse was sorting out hoses and chords that were meant to put her to sleep.

"It's okay…" I stroke April's hair and shut out everything except for me and her as I noticed the look in her eyes. "…It'll be okay. You'll be asleep now and then when you wake up I'll be there, right next to you and…." I stroke her hair one more time and with my other hand I gripped onto her hand that didn't have a needle in it. "I know there's no way of you to get appendicitis again. But if you're not feeling well, again then you can just tell me. I know you really wanted to go to that party, but you must have been in so much pain trying to cover up the fact that you were sick? You must have been in pain all day." April nodded and suddenly tears were rising in her eyes. "Hey. There's no need for you to cry. Everything will be fine…" In the corner of my eye I could see everything had been set ready for the surgery but April must either not have seen or wanted to just make more time.

"I'm scared. I've never been put down like this before."

"I promise you…" I heard next to me as the narcosis nurse with mask in hand stepped closer to April. "…This is all safe. And it will feel like only a second to you. You'll fall asleep and then when you wake up it's over." April nodded. "Are you ready?"

"No."

"Hey. You know," I tried to find something. "Since you have to be home during a few days and need something to do. Before we'll go home we can go to…. Well, I'll buy you a book. Any you want. Or something else that you can sit still doing… Okay?" April nodded. "well…" I looked up on the narcosis nurse. "Here comes the mask, so when she puts the mask on you just breathe and count down from ten. Okay?"

"Okay…" April sighed and seemed to concentrate on not hyperventilating when the mask was put over her face, meanwhile her grip around my hand tightened. "…Ten. Nine. Eight. Sev…"

With that she was asleep overtaken by medicines I didn't even know the names of…

"Worst timing ever…" I said, mostly to myself. "…she should be at her first boy-girl-party and having the time of her life right now."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The surgeon interrupted me. "Boo-hoo. You need to leave now."

"I have to go call her mum."

"Leave!"

With that, as I left the room I turned my head one last time before I was out. And seeing April's pale, brown- haired figure she just looked so tiny.

"Yeah" I mumbled to myself. "Anything you want…"

Random fact (I always leave these at the end of a chapter)

I've written about someone having appendicitis before. But this was the first time I actually bothered to make some research about the tests that are made to diagnose it and see that it's not just a bad case of stomach flu.

One more- I know some about how the parents are forced out of the room like that because once my mum came with me to remove the polyps behind my nose. (Having them there becomes like having a stuffed nose all the time. They're quite common amongst children) I'd also done it when I was little and before I was put to sleep she described how the staff forced her out of the room once they started.