Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or anything...so, you know the drill. I just liked this movie, and thought I'd play with it a little bit.
~~*~~
"I'm sick, Sara." Roy reached over to turn down the stereo that was blaring a steady stream of hip-hop music.
"What?" Sara took off her reading glasses and eyed her father carefully. "What? Like flu sick? Or what?"
Roy let out a deep breath as he sat on the edge of her bed, peering around her room almost whimsically. "No, not flu sick. I don't know if you remember...a couple years back, I had to have an operation. Remember? For my leg?"
Sara nodded a bit unsurely. "Mom had mentioned it, but I never gave it much thought."
"Well, it was a tumor they operated on." Roy wandered over to the ballet poster he had hung on Sara's wall. He stared at it, as if concentrating on the image would make it easier for the news to come out.
"A tumor?" Sara questioned, her voice becoming quieter. She tapped her pencil nervously on her trigonometry homework.
"Cancer, Sara. It was cancer." The sentence was finished with a note of defeat. "I don't know how much your mother told you, but it was cancer...and, it's back, and it's spread."
"Why? How?" Sara's voice now rose with hysteria. "Why wasn't I told that you had caner?"
"Please calm down," Roy said. "I don't know, honey. Maybe your mom just didn't want to worry you...I wasn't around much, so, maybe she thought it didn't matter. I don't know. But the fact is, we have to face it now."
"No." Sara's chin jutted out defiantly. "Why is this happening? Why now? I'm supposed to be going to...to Julliard, and now you're telling me you have cancer...I don't understand! What am I supposed to do? I can't lose you, too. I already lost Mom...I can't lose you..." Tears started falling down Sara's cheeks as she sat, dumbfounded, shaking her head.
Roy sat down again on the edge of Sara's bed, placing his arms around Sara's shoulders in a foreign fatherly touch. "No matter what happens, Sara...just remember that I love you. These past couple months have meant so much to me, to have you here. And I know I'm not the best father, but I try, honey, I do try...And I can't imagine what my life would have been like without you."
~~*~~
"Come on, Sara, get with the beat," Derek commanded. "Remember? Hop, hop, step...slide and--"
"I can't," Sara interrupted. She brushed a flyaway strand of hair out of her eyes as she say wearily on the edge of Derek's bed. "I'm not in the mood to dance."
"Not in the mood to dance?" Derek switched off his music and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her response. "What's on your mind?"
Sara's chin trembled. "Everything is falling apart again," she stated. "Derek, my dad had cancer. What am I supposed to do?"
"Cancer? Since when?"
"I don't know." Sara jumped up and paced around Derek uneasily. "I guess he had it a couple years ago, and my mom never told me. And now, here I am, trying to get ready to go away in a few months, and he tells me he has cancer. What do I do? I can't just leave him here...but Julliard..."
Derek pulled Sara to his chest as she burst out in a fresh torrent of tears.
"I just feel like I can't take anymore of life," she sobbed. "Every time I feel like I get on top of something, I get crushed by something totally different..."
"Sara, you have to be strong," Derek advised her. "Sara, look at me." Sara wiped her eyes and looked at Derek expectantly. "You are one of the strongest people I know," Derek said quietly. "Stronger than people here in the hood. You have conquered so much. Losing your mom, coming here and fitting in where you know you didn't belong. Taking crap from people because of me...And you made it. You made the dance auditions, and you made it through people laughing in your face because we had the nerve to have a relationship. Are you telling me you can't make it through this? After all that, you can't be strong for you and your dad?"
"I just want everything to be okay," Sara sobbed. "I don't want to be left alone, Derek. You're going to Georgetown...what am I going to do if I lose my dad?"
Derek stroked Sara's cheek. "Sara, I love you. You will always have me. No matter what. If I have to transfer to be near you, I will do it. You can't give up now. You've come so far..."
Sara closed her eyes for a moment. "Thank you," she whispered.
Derek kissed her lightly. "It will be okay, Sara. Just wait and see. No matter what, we'll be okay."