"When's daddy supposed to be home?" Jessie asked Trish as they were making sandwiches for lunch. He had went out at 8 that morning telling Trish and Jessie, who were the only ones up at that point, that he had a doctor's appointment. Trish had asked him what for but he just kissed her forehead and went out the door.
"I dunno sweetie" Trish said, trying to keep the worried look off of her face "I didn't even know he had one".
"Its not serious do you think?" Jessie asked, horrible thoughts filling her head. "I mean he'd tell us right".
"Honey" Trish said hugging Jessie to her "try not to worry I mean I'm sure John would have told us if something was wrong, he wouldn't just keep it from us". About that time the phone rang. Trish picked it up in lightning speed.
"Hello" she blurted out hurriedly. "Baby where are you?...Are you ok?...Ok we'll be there" she hung up the phone and Jessie noticed the worry etched on her face.
"What?" Jessie asked her, panicked. Trish didn't answer her, just motioned Jessie to follow her to the living room. Sylvain and Kevin were sitting on the floor coloring in coloring books and watching Rugrats on tv. She went over to them, to get their attention.
"Uh, Sylvain do you mind watching Kevin for a little while" Trish asked, trying not to seem upset around Kevin "Jessie and I are going...shopping, yeah we're going shopping".
"No problem" Sylvain said catching on to Trish's unease, also seeing worry cleverly masked in Jessie's eyes. He wanted so bad to go over to her and take her in his arms but he knew that Trish was trying not to scare Kevin so he didn't "we'll be ok, right Lil Man".
"Yeah mama" Kevin said, looking at Trish with wide innocent eyes "we be ok".
"Good" Trish leaned down and kissed Kevin's forehead "be good ok? Oh and Sylvain there are sandwiches in the kitchen when you get hungry, pop in the fridge" with that Trish practically ran out to the car, Jessie on her heels.
"Trish" Jessie said once they'd been driving for a while "what's going on?"
"We're meeting your dad" Trish told her, keeping her eyes on the road so she wouldn't start crying "he's at a park, told me to bring you but not Kevin or Sylvain". Jessie knew it wasn't good if John wanted to see them alone. They pulled up to the park and both saw John sitting at a picnic table under a big oak tree, he had his back to them and was looking out at the lake with a serene look on his face. They got out of the car and practically rushed over to him "John" Trish called out once they were only a few feet away. He turned around and once he saw them he stood up. He grabbed Trish up in a hug and hugged her long and hard, almost as if he was savoring her body and presence. Once he let go he did the same thing with Jessie.
"Daddy" Jessie said once they had been sitting in silence for a bit "what are we doing here?"
John sighed deeply and Jessie thought she saw his eyes tear up before he answered "well you know that doctor's appointment" Jessie and Trish nodded "well the doctor told me something. See the reason I went to it at all in the first place was because I was at the medic backstage getting stitched up and he said something about symptoms and told me to see my doctor. That's what I did today. I went and he ran a few tests, did some blood work, basically I waited around alot though. Well after a few hours the doctor finally sat down with me" John got choked up then and had to get himself under control before he could continue. "Well I have something called Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. My doctor said that if there's a cancer to have that this is the one, it has the highest survivability rate".
"Oh baby" Trish said throwing herself into his arms. Jessie came around from the other side and did the same. The three sat there crying for a while. Finally when they got their composure Trish asked "is there anything they can do?"
"Well" John said, wiping his tears "he said they want to start me on chemo and radiation therapy. Then they're gonna try and find me a bone marrow donor, that's the best way to go".
"When are you starting that?" Jessie asked him.
"Probably won't" John said, shocking Trish and Jessie.
"John" Trish exclaimed "what do you mean you probably won't?"
"Trish" John said looking into her eyes "if I do the radiation and chemo and all then I won't be able to wrestle, who knows when or if I'll ever be able to get back into the ring. If I don't do it then I can live out most of the rest of my life doing what I love to do".
"Daddy" Jessie said, wrapping her arms around him and crying again, pleading with him "but if you do the chemo and radiation then you can LIVE the rest of your life, I don't want you to leave me...please" she started sobbing in John's arms then. John sighed and kissed the top of her head.
"Ok babygirl" John said "I'll do the chemo and radiation and let 'em look for a donor. But you gotta realize there's a chance that this won't even work".
"At least its a chance" Trish said, kissing him softly.