A/N: Just wanted to say that Rosa is mine, but again, no one else but Dr. George is.

A few days had passed, and like so often occurred in Wilson's life, he could not get Mary off his mind. There was something about the way she was acting, Wilson thought, that screamed out for his help. Over and over he ran through the conversation, looking for some indication of what he needed to do for her. The crying, the leaving, the Dr. George. Wilson was a bright man, but not much of a detective. Hours were spent going over those three clues in his head, until he finally reached his conclusion. It all made sense now; he should have noticed it before.

***

That Friday, five days after he had seen Mary the first time, Wilson acted upon his newfound knowledge. After making a very careful phone call, he had all of the information necessary to work up, what seemed to be, a foolproof plan. This would not only allow him to see Mary again, but would also confirm what he concluded from their mysterious conversation.

Wilson's theory was that Mary knew his brother, Dr. George West, because she was one of his patients. It actually wasn't that hard to figure out. The real question was why she wouldn't just come right out and tell him that in the first place. As soon as Wilson knew all of this, he called his brother's office. Although George worked in a hospital, he had his own pseudo office within it. He had a receptionist, nurses, and everything. The receptionist, Rosa, had taking a liking to Wilson when Dr. George introduced them. He called and conned her into telling him if there were any appointments for a Mary Camden there. She must have really liked him, because she told him about Mary's Friday morning appointment.

Everything was moving along smoothly. Wilson entered the office, asked to use the bathroom, and waited outside one of the doors inside the office hallway. There were only three doors closed, one of them was the bathroom, another a nurse was getting things ready for something, and the last one held Mary. He knew that she had to be in there.

Just to make sure, he listened outside of the door for a while. He couldn't hear much, and certainly could not make out what they were saying, but it was definitely Mary in there with his brother. He could recognize her voice anywhere. Her melodic sound was burned in his brain. He waited for a lull in the conversation, and then pounced on the unsuspecting Camden.

Wilson, in a very ungentlemanly fashion, barged into the office and startled Mary and George, whom were both seated on either sides of a desk looking over papers. Mary took one look at him and hid her head in her hands. George, however, did not display as much cowardice toward his baby brother.

"What are you doing in here? Is everything all right?" George asked coming toward him. Upon seeing Wilson, his mind had jumped to the worst-case scenario. Something awful had to have happened. Wilson was certainly no fool.

"No, no. Everything is fine…" his eyes fell on Mary, "at least I hope they are." He continued to stare at Mary until his brother pulled him out of his stupor.

"Then what are you doing here? You know you're not allowed to just barge on in my appointments." George was talking very fast and very loud. "This young lady-"

"Mary," Wilson told him.

"What, are you stalking her or something? What is wrong with you?"

"Stop. Please don't yell at him," Mary spoke up with a twinge of compassion in her voice. "I'd much rather it be Wilson who barged in here than someone else."

The doctor's eyebrows rose in confusion. "OK, I'm lost here," he admitted. "Please, someone, fill me in." He glared at Wilson. "I'm dying to know," he said sarcastically.

"We know each other," Wilson said triumphantly.

"Wow! What a small world!" Dr. George was unenthused. "That still doesn't give you the right to come in here like you did. Now, if you would like to talk to this young woman, you'll have to wait your turn like everyone else. Now go. I don't want to see you back in here; I mean it." His tone was stern yet lighthearted. His intention was not one of malice, but he needed to prove his point to Wilson. A doctor's office was a sacred place. Dr. George ushered Wilson out of the "discussion" room, as he had called it, and closed the door quickly behind him. He was a new Doctor, and he couldn't have people questioning his professionalism based upon Wilson's peculiar act.

Wilson decided he would take his advice and wait for Mary to finish with her appointment. He looked around the waiting room area and assessed his surroundings. There were two women seated- one about fifty years Wilson's senior and the other somewhere in her twenties. The walls were decorated with three posters. One had a beach scene, the other a slightly disturbing one of two women holding hands, and the legendary picture of a cat with the caption "hang in there" at the bottom. Wilson wondered what that was all about. He took the seat closest to Rosa and, as he sat, noticed the pamphlets that cluttered the top of her desk. They all had titles like "So you've been diagnosed with cancer…" and "Cancer and You." Wilson looked at them quizzically before turning to Rosa. "What kind of doctor is my brother, exactly?"

Rosa looked at him sympathetically. "Oh honey," she muttered. Rosa was a middle-aged Italian woman. She had thick, black hair and almost always spoke with extreme enthusiasm. She had taken a liking to Wilson in a mature woman kind of way. "You know what a gynecologist does, right?" He nodded. "Well, he does that, but only the cancer part of it. That's what an oncologist is- a cancer doctor."

Wilson's face went white as a ghost and he slumped back down against the back of the chair. Cancer- he ever would have guessed it. Poor, sick Mary; no wonder she was crying the other day. Wilson felt the utmost sympathy for Mary as well as for his brother, who had to deal with this kind of thing day in and day out.

"You OK?" Rosa asked. He nodded sullenly. "This has to do with that girl…" she looked at the computer monitor, "Mary Camden, doesn't it?" Again, he nodded. He didn't know what else to do. Rosa put her hand on his shoulder, signaling that she understood. "It will be OK, really."

"Yeah," he mumbled. Although Mary had not yet confirmed it, everything made too much sense for him to be wrong. He felt as if he was in a parallel universe- one in which Mary was dying at an ever-increasing rate. Wilson, like most other people, believed in a theory that was mostly true: cancer was a death sentence. The treatment itself was usually a slow and painful death. He knew that Mary was strong, but no one was stronger than this dreaded illness. In the back of his mind, he knew that you could beat it, but that was an unconceivable feat at the moment. The only concept relatively within his grasp was that Mary has some form of cancer. Wilson wanted to cry.

Twenty minutes passed before Mary and George came out of the same room that Wilson had before. He heard them enter the hallway, Mary crying and George trying his best to console her. Wilson belted toward her. His heart broke when he saw George trying but failing miserably at making her feel better. It was no use, he figured. It wouldn't fix Mary's health. He told George that he could take it from here and walked with Mary to the door.

"Wait," she said accompanied by a snivel. "I have to make another appointment." Mary did so, speaking in a very diminutive and somber voice, and then they left. She walked down the hallways with her arms crossed over her chest as a defense mechanism. She felt as if he could see right through her. When they finally got outside, Mary turned and looked at him. "Well, thanks for walking me out."

"Mary, I-I…" Wilson stammered. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to her. Already things had become so complicated. Why couldn't' anything in life ever be easy?

Mary looked up at him. He could see the fear in her eyes. He never knew that she could be so scared. In all the years he knew her, she was pretty fearless. "Look, you have to promise me you won't run around telling anyone," she offered and he agreed. She sighed heavily before speaking again. "I have cervical cancer." He went to hug her, but she moved away from him. "I don't want to go there- especially not now. I'm going to go, but you can call me. I gave you the number."

Wilson nodded. "I'll be in touch."

"I know you will." Mary ran her fingers through her hair, unsure of what to do next. "Good bye," she finally said, and walked to her car.

Wilson sighed. He was not a fan of the "mysterious exit."

A/N: Again, let me say that I am no medical expert. I did some research, a lot of research, but there probably still is a lot of errors in my details or depiction of cervical cancer. And also, I know this is my second story I wrote with Mary having cancer, but the other one (Less Than Blessed) was about Mary hiding it, and things in general, from her family. This is about…oh darn. Slight snafu. Oh well.

I would appreciate any reviews you would like to throw my way.