Joy and Sorrow
Chapter Two
Disclaimer: I don't own them
Pairing: N/S, with very, very slight G/S. The G/S is for conflict purposes only
Please read authors notes in chapter one
A thanks goes out to everyone else who reads this and reviews. I appreciate it.
Thank you to Missy for rereading these new chapters.
December 7th, 2009 10:35am
Maggie was exhausted. After working a twelve hour shift at the hospital she had to do some grocery shopping. She was in the process of putting the groceries away when her cell phone rang; she looked at the caller id and saw that it was Doctor Mitchum.
"Hello"
"Maggie, its Robert"
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
"I was hoping you might be able to come back to the hospital, I'll give you this evening off"
"Why? What's going on?"
Robert sighed "I know how close you are to Ms. Sidle and her daughter Hannah"
"Yes"
"Well, I just got Hannah Stokes blood work back and I'm quite concerned. Ms. Sidle has mentioned that she doesn't have any family here so..."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes" Maggie instantaneously replied
"Thanks Maggie"
They ended the call and Maggie quickly wrote a note to her husband and children, grabbed her keys and headed out the door.
December 7th, 2009 11:00am
Maggie, Natalie and Doctor Mitchum slowly walked into Hannah's room. Maggie could tell by the doctor's face that the results weren't good but she didn't push him for the results. She would wait until Sara found out, they would find out together. Natalie had agreed to stay with Hannah while they were talking.
"Maggie" Hannah yelled as soon as she walked into the room "What are you doing here? I thought you went home?"
"I did sweetie but I wanted to stop by and see you again, plus I needed to speak to your mommy for a bit, is that okay?"
"Yeah"
"Hey Sara"
"Maggie" Sara replied, her eyes now moving to Doctor Mitchum and Natalie who were still standing by the door. Sara instantly knew that the results of Hannah's blood work were back and that it wasn't good. She took a deep breath.
"Mommy are you okay?" Hannah asked, worried
"Yeah baby" Sara said turning to her daughter "I need to talk to Maggie and your doctor for a bit"
"I'll stay here with you Hannah, if that's okay?" Natalie immediately supplied
"Okay, but can we watch cartoons"
Natalie smiled, "Yeah sure"
Natalie sat down in the chair next to Hannah while Sara, Maggie and Doctor Mitchum left the room.
"Why don't we go to my office?" Doctor Mitchum stated
Sara's reply was a short nod and she followed them to his office. Once inside Sara and Maggie took the seats in front of the desk and Doctor Mitchum went behind.
"Sara, I got the blood work back on Hannah" Doctor Mitchum stated, getting right to the point.
"And" Sara whispered
"I'm sorry Sara, but we've discovered that Hannah has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, otherwise known as A L L"
Sara's chin began to quiver and her eyes began to fill with tears, "What?" she asked softly
"Sara, she has cancer"
The damn that was holding Sara's tears back broke and they fell in earnest. Maggie moved from her chair and hugged Sara; she too was fighting to hold back the tears. After a couple of minutes, Sara pulled away, tears still streaming down her face.
"Is my baby going to die?"
"Sara, I know how shocking this is to you. I've been looking through all of Hannah's results and unfortunately her real only option is a Blood Stem Cell Transplant"
"Blood Stem Cell Transplant, what....what....what is that?"
"It's just a fancy name for a Bone Marrow Transplant" Maggie replied
"Now Sara, we'll run some tests on you, but chances are you won't be a match."
"What about her father?"
"Chances are he won't be a match either, in fact even if Hannah had other siblings that were biologically related to her, meaning from you and her father, they would only have a 25 percent chance of matching, which is far better than a stranger donor. But I'll put Hannah's name on the registry. I don't know the relationship you have with Hannah's father, but I suggest calling him and having his family tested. Okay?"
"Okay"
Doctor Mitchum rummaged through his desk and grabbed a handful of pamphlets for Sara, "here is some information on A L L, support groups, frequently asked questions and whatnot, although you can always come to me, these might give you some answers. Also, the internet is a wonderful array of information"
"Thank you"
"Why don't you go see your daughter?"
Sara nodded, "I think I need to call her father first"
"Why don't you use my office, I need to do rounds" Doctor Mitchum offered
"Thank you"
Maggie and Doctor Mitchum got up and quickly left the office to give Sara some privacy.
Sara stood, walked around the desk and sat back down. She honestly didn't know what to do. She hadn't spoken to Nick in five years.
She knew that he had moved back home to Texas shortly after she had left Las Vegas, she had found out from Greg. Greg had also given her his phone number. Although she had his number memorized she had never had the guts to pick up the phone in the last five years to call Nick. She was terrified of calling him now, but she needed to do it. She needed to do it not only for herself but for Hannah.
Dallas, Texas
Nick Stokes was exhausted. He had just gotten home from work. He worked graveyard at the Dallas CSI crime lab. He had had to stay longer to finish up some work but was relieved that he didn't have to pull a double.
He walked into his apartment and threw his keys down on the kitchen counter and grabbed the milk jug from the fridge. Not even bothering to grab a cup, he took a long swig of milk. He was interrupted by his home phone ringing.
He wiped his mouth and put the milk back into the fridge and managed to grab the phone before the machine picked up.
"Hello"
"Nick"
"Yeah"
"Nick, its Sara"
Nick took a deep breath and walked over to his couch and sunk into it.
"Nick are you still there"
"Yeah"
Suddenly all the feelings that Nick had tried to repress came roaring back. His love for her, his hate for her.
"Look, I know that we haven't spoken since that day and I know you are probably still pissed at me, but that is the least of my concerns right now"
"What do you want Sara?" Nick sternly stated
Sara took a deep breath before continuing, here was the tough part of the conversation.
"Nick, I have a daughter. You have a daughter. Her name is Hannah and well she's sick, really sick. I...."
The tears that had stopped had now started up again. She hated crying, least of all "in front" of Nick.
Nick sat in silence, listening to Sara cry on the other end of the phone. His brain was reeling. He had a daughter, a daughter that he had no idea of her existence and she was sick to boot.
"Sara, please stop crying." Nick said soothingly "You need to stop crying so you can talk to me."
Sara took another deep breath before talking, "Hannah has been sick for a while and she wasn't getting any better. The doctors just kept telling me that it was a bacterial infection and kept giving her drugs. Well a few days ago she passed out at the house. I freaked. I immediately called nine one one and got her to the hospital. They had to draw a bunch of blood and I found out today...." She died off
"Sara what did you find out?"
"Nicky, she has cancer." Sara said "She has what they call Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Her doctor said that she has to have a bone marrow transplant to survive." Sara paused before she continued, "I'm so sorry Nick. I'm so sorry for everything. Everything I have done. I wish I could take it all back, but I can't. I've done so much in my life that I'm ashamed of. I know that you are mad at me. I understand that. For what I did to you five years ago, for what I'm doing to you now. For not telling you about Hannah sooner. I am so sorry. But please don't punish Hannah for my mistakes. Please. She needs you."
Nick sat in silence for a moment, processing what Sara had just told him.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Please ask your family to get tested. I'm sure Hannah's doctor, Doctor Mitchum might know of some good doctors in Texas that your family can go to. He said that chances are they won't match but we can hope."
"What about you or me matching?" Nick asked
"He didn't think we would. He said that even if Hannah had a biological sibling that that child would only have a 25 chance of matching."
"I'll talk to my family. I'll get them to get tested and have my nieces and nephews tested, you may never know."
"Thank you Nick"
"I'm not doing this for you Sara; I'm doing this for Hannah."
"I know. By the way, I'm living in Chicago now."
"Huh."
"We may not have seen each other in awhile, but I know you Nick. I know that you will be calling your family and then be booking yourself on the next flight. Just thought I would help you out a bit." She paused "Listen, I wanna get back to Hannah. I'll see you soon."
"Bye Sara"
"Bye Nick"
Sara hung up the phone. The conversation with Nick had actually gone better than she thought it would be. She really expected a yelling match, but she also knew that Nick was now heading to Chicago and that that yelling match would inevitably come true. She got up from the desk and headed out of the office, stopping in the bathroom to wash her face. She didn't want Hannah to see that she had been crying.
As she walked back to Hannah's room, Sara's mind began to wonder on how to tell her daughter that she was sick, so sick that she had to have a transplant. She also had no idea how to tell Hannah about Nick. Sara hadn't kept Nick much of a secret to Hannah. She knew that she had a father, but that he lived far away and she never got to see him.
She got back to Hannah's room and saw that Maggie had replaced Natalie on keeping her company.
"Hey munchkin" Sara called out
"Mommy, where have you been?"
"Well, mommy had to make some phone calls, I'm sorry"
"Its okay, Maggie and I were just coloring"
"I see that, what have you got here?" Sara said admiring her daughter's picture of a house, sun and rainbow. "This is very pretty honey, we'll have to put it on the fridge when we get home"
"Okay"
"Well I better be going" Maggie stated. Maggie leaned over and gave Hannah a tiny hug. Sara walked her out of the room, silently speaking to her.
"I don't know how to tell Hannah that she is sick"
"I wish I could tell you how to do that Sara, but I can't" Maggie paused "were you able to get a hold of her father"
"Yeah, he's on his way here now, which just makes this even more complicated"
"Why"
"Because Nick, her father, he didn't know about her until fifteen minutes ago when I told him she has cancer" Sara paused "Thanks for everything Maggie"
"Your welcome"
Sara turned and walked back over to her daughter, determined to enjoy the precious time they had together until Nick showed up, anger and all.