Mary arrived to her 2:45 appointment scare to death. She didn't know exactly how the radiation was going to be administered, but she guessed however it was done it would be pretty embarrassing. Her appointment wasn't in Dr. George's office; it was in the radiology/oncology part. The other people in the waiting room looked at her sympathetically, like they could tell that it was her first visit there. After about seven minutes, George appeared and she instantaneously felt better. She really wasn't too fond of being alone, especially in places she was unfamiliar with.

George whisked her away into a big white room with a machine it in. He explained to her how the procedure would work. The big machine, which kind of looked like a giant microscope with a table going through the middle, was used to give the radiation by shooting into the exact spot that she needed it. The procedure was done in shielded rooms, so she would have to by herself while this was going on, but luckily it would only be for a little while- no longer than 10 minutes at a time. The type of procedure that would be done was called Cobalt-60 telepathy- whatever that meant.

Next, he told her to undress and lie down on the table. She could leave her top on, but everything from the belly button down needed to come off. He gave her a sheet to cover her pelvic area with, and said that he would be back in three minutes to set it all up. He stepped out, Mary got undressed and ready, and he walked back in. Mary's feet were shaking she was so nervous. George noticed this and tried to comfort her as best he could, but it was to no avail. She was petrified.

Then George explained the code to her. He would walk out of the room and knock on the door. When Mary heard that, she was supposed to pull the sheet away- there was to be nothing separating the radiation and her bare skin. Then when it was over, he would knock again before he came back in, and Mary was to cover herself back up. She said that she understood and he went to walk out.

Before he was able to leave the room, though, Mary stopped him. "Are you going to do this for me every time?"

"Probably not," he answered. "I'll do it as often as I can, but there are other people trained to do this who only do this sort of thing- they don't have any other patients to see except those getting radiation. But everyone here is nice, and I'll make sure they take good care of you. You don't have to worry about anything Mary."

She smiled at him and he left. He walked out of the room, knocked on the door, and Mary removed her sheet. About thirty seconds later, she could hear the slight whirring of the machine above her. The treatment had started. Mary had never been so scared in her entire life.

***

After Mary's first three appointments for radiation, she was only starting to begin to feel the effects from the treatment. Just like Dr. George had cautioned her, she was beginning to feel uncharacteristically tired and nowhere near as hungry as she usually would have been. Luckily for her, though, no one in the Camden family noticed. It was only a subtly change, but Mary still felt that they should have noticed something. On some level, she wanted to be caught; she wanted them to ask her about why she was acting so different.

After she got home from work one early night, she was bored. It was a little early for dinner, but that didn't mater because she had no appetite. Mary rummaged through papers on the desk of the attic bedroom until she found what she was little for: Wilson's telephone number. She hadn't spoken to him in a while, and it might be nice just to get out for a few hours and talk. She needed to talk to someone. As she dialed Wilson's number, she was anxious. She didn't know if she should be calling upon him, but she figured it couldn't hurt anymore than internalizing everything did.

The phone rang six times before a disheveled Wilson answered the phone. "Hi Wilson, I'm glad I caught you," Mary said.

"Mary, hi. How are you doing?"

"I could be better, I guess, but I'm not horrible," she explained. "Would you want to meet me somewhere? I…I think I'd like to talk."

"Oh, Mary, I'm not in GlenOak." Mary was perplexed. "I'm in Pennsylvania. I'm moving out to GlenOak this weekend. I'm so sorry."

Mary hopes of any sort of healing conversation with Wilson were dashed as quickly as she had mustered them up. Her face went into a pout that she could not wipe off no matter how hard she tried; she was depressed. "Oh, it's all right. I just thought…but that's OK."

Wilson sighed. She had actually reached out to him, something that he never thought Mary would have the guts to do, and he had to brush her off. His promise he had made before, something he intended on taking to his grave if she needed, was empty. "I feel bad. If you want to talk, I think I could spare a few minutes. I'm only putting my clothes into boxes anyway."

Mary smiled at his attempt to help her. It was sweet and she knew that he genuinely wanted to help her. "That's nice of you, but that's OK. It would be kind of weird to have a phone conversation. You know, not face to face?"

Wilson furrowed his brow. "Why is that? Shouldn't it be the same?" Mary didn't say anything. "Why? What did you want to tell me?"

"Nothing important. I…" Mary stammered, "I don't want to say anything here. That's why I wanted to go out."

Wilson sighed. "Are you sure? I feel bad." That was indeed the truth. Wilson felt awful that Mary was actually opening up to him, something he never would have imagined her doing in a hundred years, and he couldn't be there for her right now when she obviously wanted to talk. He very well knew that she was keeping a lot of things inside and that she still hadn't told her family, and he wanted to be her savior- or at the very least her guiding light toward coming clean or feeling emotionally better.

"It's fine," she said as tears welled up in her eyes. It wasn't fine, but she couldn't tell him that. The last thing she needed was Wilson to feel that she was "needy" or "clingy." That just wasn't Mary Camden's style. "We can just meet up when you get back."

"Wednesday night for desert?" he offered to her.

"Sounds fine as long as I'm OK."

"Why wouldn't you be OK?"

"I have an appointment Wednesday afternoon. So as long as I'm not tired or anything I can go."

Wilson smiled. "OK, great."

Mary smiled slightly and hung up the phone. She wiped her eyes and sat down on her bed. Mary was amazed at how much better just hearing Wilson's voice made her feel. The phone call was the instant pick-me-up that she needed, even through she got nothing accomplished. However, that depends upon how you look at it. She did get something out of this; she had something to make it through Wednesday for.

A/N: Again, I have never gone through any of this and I am basing all of my knowledge off of what I have found on the Internet. I am not claiming any of this to be at all accurate, but I think it's safe to say that it's somewhere in the ballpark I guess. About the radiation therapy, I based my whole thing kind of off a picture. If you want to see, go to www.***nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1350/v15/fig34.html. (Take out the stars in the address.) That's the picture I used. Other than that, I hope this is OK. The length is kind of not great, but this is what I churned out. I started writing ahead for this, like 7 or 8 chapters ahead, so I can guarantee you some sort of continuation of this story well past what I have on here now. So for those of you who like to plan ahead, plan on reading this thing FOREVER.

Really? You're so sweet. Reviews are like sugar.