The Shocking Truth (Chapter Seven)
FRIDAY (2 days before the wedding)
Nathan walked into Haley's hospital room and smiled when he saw her already dressed in her pyjamas that they had brought with them. Nathan was going to stay with her in the hospital. He promised that he would not leave her side unless the doctors or she told him to. And he meant it. He wouldn't let her go through this alone again. Nathan had called Taylor and the rest of Haley's family and had told them that Haley was out of remission again and was back in the hospital for a few days. They had all questioned him as to what they were going to do about the wedding. He told them that Brooke would call them and tell them the plans. He had to get back to Haley. "Hi," she said cheerfully. He smiled and came closer to her. He pulled a chair right up to the bed and sat in it. He rested his arms on her bed beside her.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. Haley smiled.
"Nathan, we just got here. I haven't had any of the treatments yet," she said. Nathan looked at her. "I'm fine," she said. He nodded.
"Good. So, exactly, what are you going to have?" he asked.
"Chemotherapy, obviously. They're going to have to take some of my blood a couple of times a day to see if the treatment is doing anything," she started. Then she groaned as she said, "Then they're probably going to take some marrow." He looked at her in confusion.
"That doesn't seem so bad," Nathan said.
"It doesn't, does it?" Haley asked laughing. Haley grabbed his face and brought it over to her. He stood up a little and leaned over to reach her. They kissed for a minute. When the kiss ended, she smirked and said, "That's because you don't know what they do." He kissed her again quickly and then sat down.
"What do they do?" Nathan asked.
"You sure you want to know?" she asked, sitting up straight and moving a little closer to him. He nodded. "Well, they take a huge needle. I swear it's like the Titanic of needles. They take that and stick it deep into a bone in my leg and then draw the marrow out," she explained. Nathan cringed. Haley nodded. "Does it still not sound so bad to you?" she asked, laughing. He shook his head.
"When the doctor said that your platelet was low, how did you know that you were out of remission?" he asked. Haley sighed.
"Do you remember all those bruises I have?" she asked. He nodded. He assumed that it was because she was just a klutz. "Well, the doctor told me that my platelet is around 98, 000. It should be somewhere in between 150, 000 to about, uh, 450, 000. When the platelet is low, there's bleeding under the skin, hence the bruises," she explained. He nodded.
"And when you have radiation…" he started. Haley shook her head. "Radiation is used for tumours, Nathan, not leukemia patients," she said.
"So, what's involved in your chemotherapy?" he asked.
"Mostly, talking a lot of pills," she said.
"So, why do you have to be in the hospital?" he asked.
"Well, for the beginning, they want to monitor what the pills do to the white count. They might need to adjust the dosage of certain pills in case they're not doing enough. I go back every month to see if the pills have done anything," she said. He nodded.
"What pills?" he asked.
"Nathan, are you sure you want to know all this?" she asked. He nodded.
"Haley, I told you: You're not going through this alone. And I want to understand things. In order to understand, I need to know," he said. Haley nodded.
"Every morning I have to take something called 6-MP and every night, I have to take a prednisone tablet. Every morning and night on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I have to take Septra," she started.
"What is that?" he asked.
"It's a huge, pink antibiotic. Every Thursday, I have to take six, very small and extremely powerful methotrexate pills. They'll give me a stash of thorazine tablets which help if I get nauseous from the methotrexate. They might add or take other drugs away after four weeks," she explained.
"Are there any other side effects to any of them?" he asked.
"Well, yeah, actually. My mouth could break out in cankers. My joints could ache and there could be days when I won't be able to keep food down," she said. He nodded, absorbing it all.
"Have you taken any of them yet?" he asked. Haley nodded.
"Of course. I've taken 6-MP and Septra. They'll give me my prednisone pill at about eight at night," she replied. He was obviously overwhelmed but he nodded.
"Ok, all right," he said. Haley smiled. She took both his hands and entwined them with hers.
"Thank you for being so supportive, Nathan. I really appreciate it," she said. He nodded and smiled. "But…" she started. Nathan looked at her in surprise. "It's ok if you're a little freaked out right now. It's a lot to process," she said. Then, the door swung open and Taylor walked in. She smiled at Nathan and looked at Haley.
"It's that time," Taylor said, smirking. Haley looked at the clock.
"I hate this," she said, laughing.
"What?" Nathan asked.
"It's time for a bone marrow test and a few blood tests. I figure I might as well kill two birds with one stone," Taylor said, shrugging. Haley glared at her. "Look, Nate, you can hang out here or go to the waiting room. Your parents and Lucas are there," Taylor said.
"How long will you be?" Nathan asked. Haley looked up to Taylor.
"How long will I be, Tay?" Haley asked.
"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes," Taylor said. Nathan got up and walked over to Haley. He kissed her.
"I've got to go face the vulture," he said.
"You are talking about your dad, right?" she asked, looking up at him. He smiled.
"Of course," he replied.
"Tell the others I said hello," Haley said as Taylor wheeled her out. Out in the hall, Taylor stopped for a second.
"How's he handling everything?" Taylor asked. Haley nodded slowly.
"He's doing ok," she said cryptically.
"I'm glad he's here for you, Hay. Nathan loves you more than anything, so I know he won't be like some other jackasses that I've seen here and leave you while you're going through this," Taylor said.
Nathan took a deep breath as he approached the waiting room. He could see a weird look on his father's face. He was surprised to see that his grandparents were there as well. He knew they were in Tree Hill because they were staying for the wedding. "What are all of you doing here?" Nathan asked.
"We all rented hotel rooms for the next few days so we can be here for the big day," Mae, his grandmother, replied. Nathan smiled.
"Thanks. I'm sure Haley will appreciate it," he said.
"She doesn't know, does she?" Royal asked. Nathan smiled and shook his head.
"Her, uh, treatment is kind of her main concentration right now. She's not really worrying about it. I told her that I was working things out and I'd let her know," he said.
"And she just accepted that?" Dan asked. Nathan nodded.
"She trusts me," he said.
"I don't know why," Dan said. Nathan stiffened.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lucas asked.
"Well, Haley wanted to have her wedding in Tree Hill in that church for some reason. Now, you've gone and changed all of her plans on her. And you relocated the wedding to a hospital chapel, no less," Dan said. Deb shook her head in annoyance.
"Dan, I told you. The hospital means something to Haley and Nathan," she said.
"What, her impending death?" he asked.
"Danny!" Mae exclaimed.
"Well, we all know what leukemia does to people. It's not like Haley's never considered the possibility that she'll die from it. Three years ago, she was ready close up shop," he said.
"Dad, stop it," Nathan said.
"Honestly, Nathan, I don't know why you're bothering with a wedding. Haley's days are numbered now. Why do you want to marry someone who will most likely be a corpse in a few months?" Dan asked.
"Look, this is the last thing I need to deal with right now, Dad. Please, just, give it a rest," he said.
"Nathan, what's wrong?" Brooke asked.
"You look a little overwhelmed," Lucas added.
"Well, I guess that's because I am," he said. He started to explain how Haley had told him all of the things that she had to go through.
"I saw what the treatments did to her last time. I'm not naïve about this like I was when I first found out that she had leukemia back then, but I had no idea that that was just one part of it," he said.
"Are you saying that you can't deal with it?" Lucas asked. His eyes were narrowed in slits and his voice was oozing with contempt.
"Of course not! I would never turn my back on Haley. I'm just saying that I don't know how she could've gone through it all alone last time. And be strong enough to go through it again," he said.
"Well, I do," Brooke said. He looked at her. "Hales is a strong person, Nate, and she's stubborn as hell. She doesn't give up easily, if she gives up at all. Which, most of the time, she doesn't. And this time around, she has a pretty amazing support system," Brooke said. Nathan looked at her in confusion.
"She has you, Dumb Ass," Lucas explained. Nathan laughed.
"Thanks," he said, smiling. Brooke and Lucas both nodded. Nathan looked at his watch. "Um, I have to get back. Taylor will be bringing her back anytime," he said. They all nodded as Nathan turned to leave. He met Taylor while she was pushing Haley's bed down the hall. Taylor smiled.
"You've got good timing. You can push this damn thing into the room," she said. He looked at her in confusion. He looked at Haley, who was lying in the bed and then back up at Taylor in shock. She was calling her sister a "damn thing". "The bed, Nathan. Not Haley," she said, laughing. He laughed once he got it and moved over to where Taylor was. He hugged her and thanked her. "No problem, Nate. She's my sister," Taylor said and turned and left. He looked down before he started to push the bed. Haley was fast asleep. They must have given her something to let her sleep. He leaned down and brushed a soft kiss on her forehead.
"Welcome back, Hales," he said as he pushed the bed into the room and managed to put it back in place without crashing into anything or waking her up. He then sat down and grabbed her hand and stayed there.