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Chapter 5: Losing battle

Cruz woke up with a weight on her chest. When she tried to breathe it hurt, a lot. She took a deep breath and broke out coughing. Her body wracked with shuddering coughs and she fell limp against the pillow.

Bosco woke suddenly, hearing her sharp, painful coughs. He rolled over in their bed and saw her on her side, her back flinching with every breath. She broke into another coughing fit and he st up next to her, rubbing her back, trying to loosen her cough.

"You ok?" he asked gently.

She shook her head briefly, covering her mouth with her hand as she coughed. When she pulled her hand away from her mouth she froze.

"Bosco" she croaked "Blood, I'm coughing up blood!"

Her hand was covered in thick, sticky blood. She wiped her mouth with her hand and pulled it away, gleaming red. Bosco stared in shock as she attempted to wipe the blood away.

"Ritza, I'm calling your doctor"

She nodded, her tears now mingling with the red stains. The doctor answered on the first ring.

"Hello, Dr. Wills"

Bosco's voice shook as he answered "It's Maritza, she's coughing up blood" The doctor tried to remain calm, but Bosco could hear a hard edge in his voice

"Bring her in now"

Bosco nodded before realizing the doctor couldn't see him "Ok I will, bye"

He hung up quickly and went back to see Cruz. She was in the bathroom, trying to stop the bleeding, but coughing uncontrollably. He held back the tears that threatened to brim over, this wasn't a good sign.

He gently held her around her stomach "Ritza, honey, Dr. Wills wants me to bring you to the hospital"

She nodded and grabbed a towel, wiping her mouth off then following him out the door. She obviously didn't care she was still in a t shirt and pajama pants.

When they got to the hospital the towel was deep crimson, stained with Cruz's blood and Bosco's stomach lurched.

"Ritza?" he said gently.

She had her eyes closed with the towel clutched to her chin. "Yeah?" she said in a whisper, her throat ached, it felt raw.

"Are you ok to walk in?" She nodded and he helped her slowly into the hospital.

The doctor grimaced when he saw the blood stained towel "That bad?"

Cruz nodded "I can't stop coughing and when I do, more blood comes up"

He ushered her and Bosco up into a hospital room.

"The first thing we need to do is stop the bleeding, there really isn't much we can do, it should stop within the next half hour, if not we may have to do surgery. You could have torn something but I doubt it, it's more likely because of the cancer something infected your lungs causing the blood. I want to take a throat swab though, if this is an infection, we need to do something fast, you simply aren't strong enough to handle and infection now."

Cruz nodded and changed into a hospital gown. When she had settled into the bed the doctor came back and did a throat swab

"I'll go run this and see what we have here."

After the doctor left, a sob cut through Cruz's throat and she leaned back on the pillow "Bosco, why is this happening?"

Bosco couldn't answer that "I don't know Ritza, I don't know."

The doctor came back 10 minutes later, a grim look on his face "It's worse than we expected. Somehow you've contracted pneumonia. Your lungs are failing, the blood should stop soon, but your lungs are filling up with fluid. We need to start you on antibiotics now; this is possibly the worst case scenario."

Cruz couldn't hold the tears back this time, she let them go, pouring over her face, gasping for air as she sobbed and Bosco sat helplessly in the chair beside her, he was losing her.