Chapter 9

"I have to go now," Andrew told Monica and Adam after a few seconds of silence. Monica released his hand and saw him walking towards the corridor soon taking his angelic form.

Andrew looked at the doctors working frantically, ordering an immediate transfusion of blood and fluids. The cheeks that hours before were rosy now looked drained of all color, and among the voices, the angel could easily identify Richard's strong one. He took a deep breath and go closer to the girl, leaning down to talk into her ear. "Natalia, I need you to pay attention to me, please."

A second later, Natalia was standing besides Andrew. The angel smiled at her, a trace of sadness evident in his eyes. "But what?" the ballerina asked confused. Andrew indicated her to turn around and then she saw the doctors working on what she could recognize as her own body.

"This is what's happening right now, Natalia. This is the consequence of your actions."

"And what do you care about it?! I'm worthy for nobody! Nobody cares about me!" she shouted angrily.

"I do care, Natalia, and so do many people around you, but especially God cares. He doesn't want you to die," the angel said trying to show her the truth.

"But I do want to die!" she cried. "I do, I don't want to live anymore! Please, Andrew, I want to die!"

"Not today," he said as he disappeared.

The next thing Natalia knew was that she was regaining consciousness, trying to focus her blurry vision on the faces of the nurses that were around her.

Two hours later Monica saw Andrew walking back to the waiting room and she immediately stood up from the couch where she was seated besides her supervisor and her temporary chief.

"What happened?" she asked to the angel of death. "Did she...?"

"No," he answered. "Not this time."

Monica sighed in relief and then they heard Mary Ann's voice addressing to her husband. "Richard, what happened?"

"She'll live..." he said holding his wife and looking at the three angels that were there too. "She lost a lot of blood but I think we find her just in time. Some minutes more and she wouldn't have made it."

"Thanks God!" Tess replied.

"Yeah... Still she's not out of danger. Because of the lost of blood she's extremely weak and she won't be able to continue with her treatment for the leukemia."

"But if she doesn't, she won't have the chance to recover!" Monica reasoned.

"That's right," the doctor said. "We're running out of options here, there's just one left but it's the most risky one."

"What is it?" Andrew asked.

"She needs to get a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible. With the kind of leukemia she has, the lymphoblasts number will increase as her body tries to produce the blood she lost. The transfusions will help her and stop this for a few days, but if she doesn't get the transplant, her condition will be worse in a matter of days, nothing more..."

"She has to be on the list," Mary Ann said referring to the list of transplants.

"She's already," Richard explained. "But we have to get the closest match we can find so the chances of a reject will be smaller. Otherwise she's too weak to fight a reaction..."

"We have to be tested, Richard. Maybe one of us would be the best match."

"We'll be of course, but we have to find more options if possible. her friends, her classmates, whoever it is."

"I'll talk to Jonathan Michels," Andrew offered. "We can ask all the people at the ABC to come and get tested."

"Thanks, Andrew," the doctor said. "And can I ask the two of you another favor?"

"Sure."

"Could you be tested now?"

Andrew turned to look at Monica knowing she was afraid of needles. He took her hand and squeezed it tightly. "Of course," he answered for the two.

"Thank you! Please, come with me, you too, Mary Ann, we don't have much time."

Andrew wrapped his arm protectively around Monica's shoulder as soon as they left the little room where the samples were taken. "You've earned a big moka latte, angel girl," he said and smiled when he listened the giggle he was looking for. "You were brave there."

She bent her left arm to hold the piece of cotton she had and circled his waist with the other. "I was because you were there with me." She looked at him with such bright eyes that the blond angel couldn't help but bend down and give her a sweet kiss.

"Hmm... That was a good prize but I still want the moka," the little angel teased him.

Andrew rolled his eyes and held her closer. "Ok, ok, let's go for it."

They walked down the corridor and arrived to the oncology front desk just in time to see William getting into Natalia's room. "What is he doing here?" Andrew said and he was ready to go after him but Monica stopped him.

"No, Andrew, wait. Let's find Richard or Mary Ann instead."

William didn't even care of knocking at the door of the ballerina's room. She was sleeping and the only sound was the constant beep of her heart monitor. The choreographer walked to the bed, took a seat on it and put a strand of her hair behind her ear. Feeling him doing this, the girl woke up.

"What are you doing here?" she said with a harsh voice.

"Shh... I wanted to see you," William said in a tender tone. "You scared me, baby."

"Don't call me like that, please." Natalia felt too weak to try to argue about something she had wanted to be over.

"Why, sweetheart? Why did you do this? Didn't you think I'd die too if you died?"

"William, please, leave me alone," she said trying to get rid of the hand that was stroking her face.

"I love you, Natalia. You've hurt me so much but I forgive you. All I want is things just as they were before."

"N-no..."

"I'm gonna show you how much I love you, baby," he said and taking advantage of her weakness, he held her hand tightly and leaned down to kiss her.

But at that exact moment Mary Ann opened the door and saw them. "Natalia!" she shouted making William jump and stand up quickly. "But how do you dare...?" she asked the choreographer. "And you?" she turned to her daughter. "Get out of here!" she ordered to the dancer with a clear note of fury in her voice. She waited until the door was closed. "I'm so disappointed on you, Natalia!" she started to say. "All this because you saw Andrew with another woman and the first thing you do is kiss another guy. And he's your teacher for God's sake! How could you do that?"

"Don't you dare to judge me, mother!" the girl shouted through her tears, her previous weakness now forgotten. "You have no right! This is my life and I'm the one who decides what to do with it! You've made decisions for me long enough now, like study ballet and go to the ABC, but no more!"

"And what you've decided is to finish it over?"

"Yes!" her answer let her mother frozen. "And if you don't like it, then start asking yourself what you saved me for!"

Mary Ann found herself out of words and left the room in silence, not wanting to believe what her daughter had said. She walked to the waiting room where Andrew, Monica and Tess were expecting her. "I can't believe it!" she said as soon as she joined them. "They were kissing when I arrived there!"

"Who?" Richard asked arriving at that moment.

"Natalia and William White!" his wife explained.

"No way!"

"The mysterious boyfriend was not a fellow classmate as you thought, Mary Ann," Monica remarked. "That's why she didn't tell you about him."

"You mean that they had been together for a long time?" the man asked.

"Yes," Andrew explained. "In fact, it was him who I fought with the other day. He... hum... he hit her before I got into his office."

Mary Ann brought her hand to her mouth and Richard ran an exasperated hand over his hair. "Oh God! How could we be so blind?"

"They hide it very well," the angel of death said in an effort to make them felt less guilty. "I found out accidentally and to be honest, I pushed Natalia until she told me the truth."

"And why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you tell Monica or Tess?"

"She made me promise I wouldn't. I wanted her to trust me first, so..." he shook his head before he continued. "She had broken him up the day we fought. I saw him pushing her into his office so I followed them and that's why I was so close when he hit her."

"I'm gonna suit this big idiot!" Richard shouted.

"You don't have a way to prove it," Mary Ann replied.

"Natalia can testify!"

"She won't. She's just shouted at me and asked me not to take any more decisions for her. She insists she wants to die."

"God, help us find a way!" the doctor exclaimed.

"You know? That's a good start," Monica said squeezing his forearm encouragingly. "Ask God to help you, to help all of us." The doctor looked directly at her eyes and felt the peace his wife had felt days before. He nodded in silence and all of them remained in silence for some minutes before Mary Ann remembered something.

"By the way, Richard, were you coming to tell us something special?"

"Oh, yes... I guess all this surprised me so much I forgot... And I don't know how I could!"

"What is it?"

"We found a perfect match for the transplant."

"Really?" Mary Ann exclaimed.

"Who?" Andrew asked simultaneously.

"You won't believe this," the doctor said. "But it's you, Monica."