Disclaimer: I don't own anything regarding "The O.C." nor am I affiliated with any of the cast and characters used in the story. Anyone or anything that you don't recognize is mine, and anyone and anything else that you do recognize is not mine.

Note: Here's the weekend update as scheduled! Thank you so much for the reviews. Some of them really touched me from the last update, and I really appreciate it. Of course, thanks for still reading -)

Against All Odds
Chapter 17 – Thinking For Two

After a few hours of sleep, Seth hurried back home to take a quick shower, get dressed, and drive back to the hospital. It wouldn't have been a stretch to say that he looked like a dead man walking. The events that had taken place only hours ago had definitely drained the energy out of him. He didn't grab anything to eat on his way back to the hospital. In fact, he wasn't really hungry at all. All he really cared about was seeing Summer again.

Once he arrived at the hospital and finished the necessary security procedures of signing-in and everything else, he headed towards Summer's room. He saw Marissa already waiting in the lobby outside her door. She was staring into space, which was something that all of them did quite often after the recent turn of events. He approached her tentatively as she appeared to become startled by his presence. Marissa looked up and gave him a weak smile before both friends enveloped each other in a hug.

"How are you doing?" Marissa asked.

"Could be better, but this isn't about me…"

"Nor any of us."

"So we're meeting this Abney guy today?"

"Yes," Marissa said. "From what I heard, he's obviously going to discuss Summer's condition, and most likely our options on what to do next."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Seth…"

"No, Marissa, I just want to know from someone who had been through this process with her," Seth explained. "I wish I was there, but clearly that's not what happened, but you were there. I just want to know how she dealt with everything. With the chemo and the medication and that bastard who broke her heart… I wish I knew more, but I don't, and I don't want her to see me as someone who couldn't be there for her and understand what she is going through."

"Seth, it's going to be okay," Marissa said as she tried to calm him down. "We will all get through this together, and as for the past, well, you know how well Summer managed after all of that, and she will make it through this."

Their conversation was interrupted when Summer's door popped open. She emerged into their view in a wheelchair as a nurse was pushing her. Despite a long rest, it was undeniable that Summer was sick. She seemed lost and distracted until she spotted the two of them. She pointed towards their direction as the nurse smiled and pushed her towards the two.

"Dr. Abney is waiting in room 121," the nurse informed them. "Take the elevator at the end of the hallway all the way to the first floor, and turn right."

"Thanks." Marissa said as the nurse left Summer in their care. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Summer said, although her looks begged to differ. "Where's Chino?"

"He's still sleeping," Marissa told her. "He's coming over in a short while."

Summer nodded as she turned her attention to Seth. She could practically read his mind by just looking into his eyes. He was worried, there was no denying that. Summer knew that she was sick and soon she would go through a series of horrendous chemotherapy sessions again. The next few months are going to be a challenge, and clearly, it wasn't the way she wanted to kick of the new year.

"Did you get some sleep?"

"Yeah," Seth said before kneeling down to match her eye level. "How about you? Did you sleep okay?"

"I slept well," Summer managed to smile. "Thanks for staying last night, or morning… I don't really know anymore."

"It's the least I can do."

He gave her a kiss on the forehead before getting up. He looked over to Marissa, who gave him the nod as he positioned himself behind Summer.

"Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

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"Summer, I'm not going to lie to you," Dr. Abney informed her. "You had a relapse, and unfortunately, I need to put you back into chemotherapy immediately."

"I understand."

"I don't," Seth spoke up. "Summer was supposedly in remission for three to four years now, and then all of a sudden her leukemia came back. What good is this chemotherapy thing if that damn disease keeps coming back? Isn't there some way to guarantee that she'll be cured a hundred percent?"

Seth knew that he was babbling, and for the most part, he knew that the answer was no to his last question. He sat back deep into his chair as the doctor looked at him. Seth felt uncomfortable under his gaze as he wished he never interrupted him.

"There are many answers to your question, but the reason that we almost never get a hundred percent cure rate is that in cases such as leukemia, some cancerous cells still manage to survive no matter what kind of chemo we attack the malignancy with."

"So where does that leave us?" Seth asked.

"The cancer could stay dormant for years, but there is still a chance that it will come back. We may be able to obtain a second or even a third remission, but the amount of time during remission shortens."

"That doesn't sound hopeful," Marissa voiced. "Is there any other way?"

"I'm not trying to alarm all of you," Dr. Abney informed them. "Summer will get another remission, but looking into the test results, I think that the best way to fight Summer's specific kind of leukemia is through a bone marrow transplant."

"Isn't that risky?" Summer spoke up amidst the confused looks of Marissa and Seth.

"It can be, but please let me explain," the doctor said. "Once the new, transplanted marrow takes a hold of the patient, it has a good chance of eliminating leukemia cells and curing the disease. It's definitely a much better chance than chemotherapy or radiation alone."

"So what exactly are the risks?" Seth asked in hopes of understanding what exactly the procedure will do.

"We obtain noncancerous marrow from donors. The risk is very little to them. I'm not going to go into detail as to how we obtain the bone marrow, but I will say that this is generally taken from the pelvic bone. Aside for some aching in the hips, the donor should be up and running in to time."

"What about Summer?" Marissa inquired. "What happens then?"

"The bone marrow will be emitted into Summer's veins much like chemo. It will soon travel to her bone cavities and begin producing healthy blood cells. This is the best-case scenario. The bad news is that before any new marrow can be introduced to Summer's body, all her marrow have to be destroyed."

"Which means more chemo and radiation," Summer finished for them.

"I know I don't know much, but wouldn't that be dangerous?" Seth asked. "What about infections?"

"I'm not going to sugar coat this process or you. The threat of infection is very much real and it's very much life-threatening. However, we take every precaution necessary. The patient will be in isolation in a germ-free environment both before and after the process until the new marrow starts growing. The patient will be taking some drugs until the new healthy marrow takes hold. As for rejection, well, this is one of the biggest problem in transplantation…"

As the doctor continued to ramble on about graft versus host disease, HLA compatibility, optimum six-antigen match, chromosomes and higher probability, and any other words that remained foreign to him until now, Seth zoned out. He wondered how the doctor could promise something so wonderful as a cure, and then in a series of words, snatch it away with a string of what he could only describe as medical mysteries.

Seth was startled when the doctor got up and started talking on the phone about medical procedures. He looked towards Summer who looked more fatigued than earlier.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We're going to begin chemo," Dr. Abney said.

"And the bone marrow transplant?"

"We haven't discussed that yet," the doctor replied. "Why don't you two bring Summer up to her room, and in a short while, the nurses will be there to get her ready."

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"Are you okay?"

Seth looked up from the seat when Summer asked him a question. Marissa had already left, leaving the two of them alone in her room.

"It doesn't matter if I'm okay or not," Seth said. "I don't care."

"But I do," Summer said. "You totally zoned out over there."

"I'm sorry…"

"It's okay," Summer said. "I understand, and I know that you have something to say."

"Summer…"

"Are you going to tell me?"

"I don't know," Seth stood up and started to pace the room. "Are you going to go through with it?"

"Go through with what?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"No."

"You're not even going to think about it?"

"I know the risks, and I'd rather live a few couple of years, then have all the odds against me and risk even that short amount of time."

"Don't say that," Seth cried as he started to get frustrated. "A couple of… No… You can't just… I won't…"

"It's not about you."

Before he could protest, a couple of nurses came and ordered him to leave the room. He looked at Summer one more time, but she avoided his gaze. Defeated, he left the room and continued to look inside for a brief moment until the door was closed. Her last words struck him more than anything. He knew that it wasn't about him, but it still hurt. He retreated back to the lobby and buried his head in his hands. If he were rattled earlier, the next few months would be a hundred times that emotion.

"Seth Cohen."

He looked up to see Dr. Abney standing in front of him.

"Dr…"

"Call me David."

"Did you want something?"

"I want to talk to you."

"Me?"

"I heard a lot about you during Summer's last visit," he said. "I think it's great."

"What's great?"

"You and Summer," he smiled if only for a second. "She really loves you, and it shows. I've never seen her so happy."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"The bone marrow transplant."

"Summer said that…"

"You don't have to tell me," he said. "I know how stubborn she can be."

"She can be," Seth gave out a small laugh. "She really can."

"You heard everything that I talked about back there?"

"I kind of jumped into my own world near the end," Seth explained. "I know about the whole chemo thing. My grandmother had cancer, but it was a different kind. I get the rejection issue. As for the bone marrow thing, all that is new to me."

"The chances are slim considering that Summer has no identical twin or siblings. Her parents are pretty much out of the question."

"How little of a chance are we talking about exactly?"

"The likelihood of finding a matched unrelated donor among the general population depends on a number of factors," he tried to explain. "The first is the patient's haplotypes, which are the two sets of HLA antigens inherited from her parents. If the haplotypes are fairly common, the chance of finding a matched donor in the current NMDP registry…"

"What is that?"

"The National Marrow Donor Program," he explained. "As I was saying, the chance of finding a matched donor in the current NMDP registry of 600,000 donors is pretty good."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"Yes, but Summer is a rare gem, and unfortunately, patients with very rare haplotypes may have less than a ten percent chance of finding a matched donor."

"Are you saying that…"

"I'm not saying anything, but ten percent is better than none."

"How come it's that low?"

"Well, as good as the program is, there is just not enough people out there who know about it. If more people are aware, we would have more donors and a greater possibility of finding a match."

"Did you tell Summer about this? The rare case and everything?"

"She knows all about it."

"It's her decision, and she told me that she wants nothing to do with it."

"Is that what you want?"

"It's not about me."

"But you care about her."

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

"Well, that's all you need."

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Hours had passed and before he knew it, it was nighttime once again. He didn't really pay attention to time. For the most part, it was almost as if he was just floating around. He couldn't quite recall if he ate something either. He wouldn't have even noticed that it was already evening until he heard a nurse say so. Ryan had called him twice, but he didn't really feel like talking to anyone.

Aside from wandering around the hospital, he spent most of his time thinking about Summer and what she told him. Things just didn't make sense at all. After hours of pondering, he was somewhat confident that he knew what was bothering her. Summer loved life, and he knew that she was not a quitter.

He walked back up to her floor and waited in the lobby until he was given permission to see her. The chemo room was located on a different floor, and Summer was brought back up to her room a couple of hours ago.

"Is she okay?" he asked when the nurse emerged from her room.

"You can ask her yourself," the nurse gave him a smile. "She's a fighter."

Seth returned her smile and proceeded towards the door. He really didn't know what to expect when he sees her. He heard so many awful stories about chemo, and now that he had a chance to think about it, he wondered if Summer even wanted to see him. He hesitated for a few seconds, until the nurse told him to go ahead. Seth nodded and turned the knob ever so slightly for fear of disturbing Summer, even if she was awake.

If he was shocked to see her, he didn't let it show. He was human after all, and he couldn't help but notice how much paler and tired she looked. Her eyes were closed as he approached her, but as if noticing his presence, she opened her eyes and managed a smile.

"Hey you."

"Hey yourself," Seth smiled.

"You can still run away if you want."

"What are you talking about?"

"I look terrible."

"It's not one of your best days, but you still look pretty to me."

"At least your honest," she laughed a little. "Wait until the next few days or so, and let's see how you'll react."

"Well, you have more than looks going for you," Seth told her. "You're smart, and funny, and creative, and you managed to forgive me and love me despite my faults."

"You have no idea how much I threw up today."

"I don't really want to know about that," Seth joked, causing Summer to laugh. "I do want to know about something."

"Ask away."

"Why don't you want to go through the bone marrow process?"

"Cohen, I already told you."

"But it doesn't make sense though," Seth said. "I don't mean to upset you or anything, but it's not like they're going to do it tomorrow. You still have to be put into the computer registry to find a match, and that would take some time."

"A long time," Summer sighed. "I know how it works. I've looked into it. The odds are clearly against me."

"But there's still a chance," Seth told her.

"But the longer I wait, the more hopeful I get for something that probably won't happen…"

"And you don't want to go through all that."

"Exactly."

"Summer, I know that the chances are slim, but keep in mind that you're thinking for two people now. I don't know what your plans are, but I'm in this for the long haul. I know that hoping for the impossible sucks, but we managed to find each other again despite everything. Bad things happen in this world left and right, but when something good comes, especially something that you've managed to lose and find again, you have to hope and pray and do everything you can to hold on to it."

"I don't want to lose you, too, but…"

"Then don't think about anything else," he exclaimed. "There's no point dwelling on what could happen. Think about what you want to happen. A life free of cancer. A life with me and your friends. You know, one of these days, there's going to be a little Summer running around the house, and…"

"A little Summer?" she eyed him curiously.

"Well, you know, hypothetically speaking," he stammered. "I'm not saying that I think about it a lot, but I do sometimes, maybe, a little."

"You're adorable, you know that?"

"I'm not adorable," Seth protested, but smiled despite himself. "I don't know. It's just that I see myself having a future with you, and you are going to be a great mother…"

"And you assume that we'll have a little Summer around?"

"Well, I just want you to realize what a handful you are."

"Thanks a lot," Summer laughed. "It would be nice. I think about it sometimes I suppose. It's funny, but I actually pictured you with a daughter as well."

"It doesn't matter," Seth said, not taking his gaze of her face. "As long as you're the mother."

"Do you think we're getting ahead of ourselves here?"

"I know it's crazy, but if you have something good to look forward to… something that you really want, I know that you would do everything in your power to get it, because you Summer Roberts, are, by nature, a fighter. And besides, you don't want to crush my hopes and dreams now, would you?"

"Now you're definitely putting me in a tough spot," she smiled. "It won't be easy."

"In all fairness, things were never really easy for both of us."

"You have a point there."

They talked for a few more minutes before Summer drifted into sleep. Seth knew that it was going to be tough road, but he'll be sticking around through it all. As for Summer, it was a second bout, but at least this time, she didn't feel so alone anymore.