Chapter 2: We'll make it through
Prue rode with her baby sister in the ambulance to the hospital while Piper and Phoebe followed in Piper's jeep.
'What is happening?' Prue kept thought as her sister was wheeled into the emergency room, doctors and nurses rushing alongside Paige.
Prue was told to wait in the family room until they were done examining Paige. Prue walked into the deserted family room and broke down in one of the soft chairs crying her eyes out. Two minutes later a frantic looking Piper and a very distressed looking Phoebe entered the room and immediately enveloped Prue in a large and well needed hug.
The three sisters remained like this for ten minutes, eagerly awaiting news of their baby sister's condition.
Hours passed before a middle-aged doctor entered the room. The three girls jumped to their feet when they heard someone entering the room. The doctor looked to the three girls with caring eyes.
"Which one of you is Prue Halliwell?" he asked looking between Prue and Piper. Prue answered him immediately,
"That's me" she said anxiously. The doctor looked at Prue and began to tell her of Paige's condition.
"Well, we're running a number of tests to tell us what the cause of yours sisters seizure. We should have the results possibly by tonight, if not, then tomorrow morning. Right now she's awake but a little frightened" The doctor explained.
"Can we see her?" came the small voice of Phoebe. The doctor looked down at the tearstained face of the young girl and smiled sympathetically.
"Of course you can, I'll take you to her." The doctor motioned for the three girls to follow him down the long corridor. Phoebe rushed ahead, eager to see her little sister.
The doctor stopped at a room and opened the door, signaling for the sisters to go on in.
Prue took a large breath before entering the room, remembering the scene when she had entered her baby sister's room earlier.
Paige was awake and sitting up in bed waiting for her sisters to come and get her.
"Paige!" cried Phoebe running over and jumping on the bed giving her sister a huge hug soon joined by Piper and Prue.
"You had us so worried." Said Piper, wiping away a stray tear.
"Yeah, don't scare us like that again okay." Said Prue who was also wiping away a few fallen tears, she had to stay strong in front of her sisters.
"I'm sorry" said Paige who seemed to have calmed down when she seen her sisters.
Piper ruffled her little sister's hair in a comforting way,
"So how are you felling?" she asked soothingly.
"I'm okay. Just a little sleepy." She replied yawning.
The rest of the night was spent in the hospital, none of the sisters wanting to leave Paige alone, the doctor allowed them to stay with Paige so that she settled down. Phoebe sat beside Paige on the bed with a protective arm wrapped around her little sister. Prue and Piper pulled a chair up beside Paige while they watched their sisters' fall asleep on the bed.
"How did this happen?" Prue said as she stared out into space. "I mean everything was fine this morning. I should have done something earlier. I noticed her temperature and I didn't do anything." Prue's eyes started to fill with tears as she started to ramble.
"Shh honey it wasn't your fault. You handled the situation better than anyone could. It wasn't your fault." Piper said trying to calm her older sister down.
"I'm the oldest Pipe, I'm supposed to look after you all" Prue said letting the tears fall down her cheeks.
"Prue, you have done an amazing job taking care of us, and we are so grateful for that. So don't you dare say that your not looking after us properly." Said Piper, succeeding in calming her older sister down.
"Thanks Pipe, I love you." Said Prue wiping away her tears.
"I love you too Prue." Said Piper enveloping her big sister in a loving hug.
Prue opened her eyes to find Phoebe and Paige awake sitting up in the bed laughing at Piper leaning onto her shoulder snoring a little too loud. Prue couldn't help but laugh at her sister but decided to wake her up to save her further embarrassment.
"Huh? What happened to my sandwich?" Piper asked obviously still not fully awake.
This comment caused mass hysteria between the three fully awake sisters, but soon stopped when Paige went into a painful fit of coughs. Prue rushed to her baby sister's side closely followed by the now fully awake Piper.
"Its okay sweetie, your okay. Calm down. Shhh, that's a good girl. You okay?" Prue asked her little sister when the coughing had passed.
Paige looked at Prue and nodded slowly. "What's wrong with me Prue?" asked Paige as Prue pulled her into a tight embrace, Phoebe lightly rubbing Paige's back. She had seen Prue do this whenever someone started to cough.
Prue continued to hold her baby sister while she answered so that she couldn't see the worry on her big sisters face. Unfortunately Phoebe had seen it, and it scared her.
"I don't know sweetie but everything's going to be okay I promise." Prue answered her little sister's question after a moment of hesitation.
Just as Prue let go of Paige, the doctor from the night before entered the room.
"Hello there Paige, how are you feeling today?" asked the dark haired doctor.
"I'm okay, just a little sleepy." Answered the small girl.
The doctor checked the chart at the bottom of Paige's bed before asking.
"If I could have a word please, outside?" he asked Prue and Piper gently.
Prue and Piper both nodded and went to follow the doctor. Phoebe also went to follow the doctor.
"Sweetie, maybe it's best you stay with Paige and kept her company?" Piper asked Phoebe, not wanting her to hear what the doctor had to say. By the look on his face, it wasn't good.
Phoebe nodded slowly before turning back and jumping up beside Paige once again.
Once Piper had shut the door behind her, the doctor looked to the two sisters sympathetically.
"We got the results back for Paige's blood tests. I'm afraid the results show that her red blood cells aren't fully developed. This shows clear signs of AML. So..."
"Wait, what's AML?" interrupted Prue, not really understanding what the doctor was saying.
The doctor looked between the two sisters before replying,
"It stands for acute myelogenous leukemia."
Prue stared at the doctor and Piper let out a small gasp.
"Leukemia?" Prue asked in disbelief. Her baby sister had cancer. She felt Piper grip onto her hand. She looked at Piper who was looking at the floor with tears running down her cheeks. Prue was still waiting for the news to sink in.
She looked through the window and into the room where Paige and Phoebe sat giggling. Phoebe looked up and saw the pain in Prue's eyes. An overwhelming feeling of fear swept over her as she looked deep into her older sisters eyes. She looked back down at Paige who was attempting to read the chart the doctor was looking at earlier, clearly not understanding one word of it as she could barely even read.
"Phoebe? What's wrong?" Paige asked noticing the sadness in her sister's eyes.
Phoebe never got a chance to answer as Piper and Prue walked into the room still holding hands. Paige looked from Phoebe to her two sisters who had entered the room. Both looking like they'd seen a ghost. Piper still had tears running down her cheek and was trying not to make eye contact with her. They walked over and sat beside Paige's bed.
"What did the doctor say?" Phoebe was first to speak, she wanted to know what had made her two strong sisters become almost ghost-like.
Prue didn't know how she was going to tell them. She looked into her baby sisters bright sparkling eyes and allowed a small tear to escape behind the barricade she knew would eventually collapse.
"Sweetie, do you remember that movie we watched a couple of weeks ago, about the girl who got sick?" Prue asked trying to make Paige understand.
"Yes." Paige answered, vaguely remembering the movie.
"Do you remember what was wrong with her?" Prue asked.
Paige struggled to remember what was wrong with the girl in the movie. She was about to give in when Phoebe answered from beside her,
"Leukemia." Phoebe said staring off into space before getting off the bed and running out the door.
"Phoebe!" Piper yelled chasing after her distraught little sister. Piper reached Phoebe and pulled her into a hug kneeling down to Phoebe's height. Phoebe sobbed uncontrollably into her sister's shoulder.
"I…Is…Pa…Paige gonna… d…die?" she sobbed harder.
Piper pulled back and looked at her sister in the eyes.
"No sweetie, I promise nothing is going to happen to her." Piper said trying to soothe her little sister.
"But the girl in… in the movie…" Phoebe sobbed.
"Look at me Phoebe; we have to be strong for Paige. You're her big sister. She needs you right now. We need to stick together. I promise we'll make it through this. Together. Okay?" Piper said trying to calm down Phoebe and make her understand.
Paige looked at her sister run out the room closely followed by Piper. She looked at Prue who was letting tears run freely down her cheeks. She was trying to remember the end of the movie Prue was talking about.
Suddenly she remembered, the girl went away, just like mommy.
"Prue, am I gonna leave like mommy did?" Paige asked Prue, scared of what the answer might be.
Prue let out a small sob "Of course not sweetie, I'm gonna look after you so you wont have to leave okay?" Prue said in between sobs.
She got up and gave Paige a warm hug, not wanting to let go of her baby sister ever again.
Paige looked over to the door and noticed Phoebe clutching onto Piper's hand with tears running down her face.
Phoebe slowly made her way over to her little sister, stopping at the side of her bed before she pulled Paige into one of their special hugs where none of them would let go for almost ten minutes. Before letting go she gave her baby sister a kiss on the cheek before getting onto the bed beside her wrapping a protective arm around her little sister again.
It wasn't long before the two worn out young girls drifted off to sleep. Holding onto one another, none wanting to let go.
Piper looked at Prue with hope in her eyes,
"We'll make it through" she said giving her sister's shoulder a comforting squeeze.
Prue rested her hand on top of Piper's.
"I know Pipe.I know" Prue said in a whisper like reply.
Silently they watched their two baby sisters sleep peacefully. Wondering what would be in store for them in the coming weeks.