Author: Catgurl83

Title: Shocking News

Disclaimer: Characters that you recognize from the show aren't mine and never will be. And seriously, After Healing Old Wounds, I don't want them!

Rating: G

Feedback: Is appreciated and adored.

Author's notes: I've redone my outline. I'm guessing that there will be about five more chapters after this one but I'm not positive yet.

Thanks to Kimberly for beta reading this chapter for me!

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Simon tossed a small basketball toward the hoop hanging on his door. The ball dropped through the small opening and bounced on the floor once then twice before Simon caught it again.

It had been a week since Ruthie's bone marrow transplant. A very rough week for everyone involved. Cancer and the treatments involved were difficult for the patient, which pretty much everyone realized. What most people didn't realize was how tough it was for the whole family.

Since Ruthie's diagnosis, their parent's had been running ragged, more so than usual. Their mom had been balancing spending as much time at the hospital as possible with running the house. Their dad had been balancing his job with visiting Ruthie. In the last week, it had been even worse.

He threw the ball again.

Thankfully, they had had plenty of help. Chandler had been doing the majority of the sermon at the church all summer as well as most of the counseling sessions.

Mary had actually taken a leave of absence from her job to move home and help with the twins. Sarah and Matt, Lucy, the Colonel and Ruth, and himself had all been helping with the boys too.

Now though, summer was almost over. They had all taken the summer away from their real lives but could they take more time from their lives? Not easily.

The Colonel and Ruth were both retired and George was away at college so they could stay as long as needed and wanted to.

Lucy had already enrolled in school again and her classes would be starting soon. Once that happened she would be engrossed in classes, term papers, and study sessions.

Mary couldn't stay away from her job indefinitely. Eventually she'd have to go back. Simon didn't know for sure how much longer she could stay on leave of absence but probably not much longer.

Matt and Sarah would have to go back to medical school. He had heard them whispering about it a few days before but hadn't been close enough to hear much.

He himself started college in the fall. He had already been accepted and enrolled in the school of his choice. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't put it aside.

Life had to go on.

He glanced at the clock. He put the ball on the ground under the hoop and crossed the room toward the door. Grasping the knob, he pulled the door open and stepped out into the hall.

As he descended the stairs, he could hear voices in the living room. Apparently, the family had already started to gather.

His parents had called a family meeting. Simon was sure that they planned on discussing something having to do with Ruthie and wondered if perhaps they were going to talk about what would happen once school was back in session, once so many of them had to leave.

He sat in an armchair. Lucy and Kevin occupied the sofa along with the Colonel and Ruth. Matt was on the floor with Sarah between his spread legs leaning back against him. Charlie sat next to her parents playing with a stacking clown.

Sam and David were in the center of the room playing with racecars.

Mary occupied the other armchair. She was reading a magazine of some sort.

His parents stepped into the room coming from the kitchen. Everyone looked up at the sound of two sets of footsteps. Mary dropped her magazine to her lap and the twins pushed the cars away.

Eric perused the faces around the room. Most looked concerned but not overly so. Everyone looked curious. Taking a breath, he decided to just get it over with. "We spoke to Ruthie's doctor several days ago." They had actually spoken to him several times since then too.

Lucy's eyes widened at her father's opening statement. They'd spoken to Ruthie's doctor? Was Ruthie having complications? She could have developed an infection or her body could have decided to reject the marrow. But would her parents have told them before now if that were the case?

It wasn't too late for something to have gone wrong, Sarah knew. But it was unlikely at this point. She had been doing so well. There weren't any signs of complications at all. But still, Ruthie's body could have rejected the marrow. She reached out and brushed her hand over her little girl's soft brown curls, praying that nothing had gone wrong, not after everything that they had gone through to get the marrow for Ruthie.

"He said that her blood counts are returning to normal."

"But not fast enough," Annie added. "Her spleen is still much too large."

"They are going to have to do a surgery to remove Ruthie's spleen," Eric told everyone.

Matt winced at the surprised and worried expressions around the room. They had all known that this was a possibility but most of them had discounted it, figured that it wasn't going to have to happen. None of them had been expecting it. But he had been. He had known since before her transplant that if there wasn't a miracle, her spleen would have to be taken. Maybe he should have warned them. He hadn't done so because he had been worried about putting extra stress on all of them with everything that was already going on.

"When is the surgery going to be?" Mary asked quietly.

"On Friday," Annie answered.

"On Friday?" the Colonel repeated. "Friday is three days away."

"Is it an emergency surgery that has to be held so soon?" Kevin asked.

Eric shook his head. "It has been scheduled for several days but there wasn't any point in worrying you guys any sooner than we had to."

Mary nodded reluctantly. She could understand that even though she didn't want to.

Simon turned toward his older brother. "How dangerous is the surgery?"

"It is dangerous every time you have to put someone under but as surgeries go, this one isn't as dangerous as some. I think that she'll be fine."

Simon nodded. His brother's opinion on medical stuff was enough for him.

"Do they have any idea when she'll be released?" Ruth wanted to know.

"They don't have a definite date or even a definite guess but it is possible that she could be out as soon as three weeks from now," Annie answered.

The twins smiled happily. Finally, they'd get to see their sister again.

As everyone started to talk amongst themselves, Lucy glanced at her sister, silently communicating. Both women quietly stood and headed toward the door unnoticed by most in the room.

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