Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Lizzie McGuire characters.

Chapter 3-Alarming News

Miranda: "Your dress is awesome Lizzie, and it looks really great on you."

Miranda was stretched across Lizzie's bed while Lizzie modeled for her. She was standing in front of the full length mirror mounted on the back of her bedroom door, she was admiring the way it looked.

Lizzie: "You don't think it's too plain?"

Miranda: "No way. It's way elegant. And I love the way it falls off your shoulders. Pretty sexy." she said causing Lizzie to laugh.

Lizzie: "Well it cost me every penny of my Christmas gift money. I fell in love with it so I had to have it."

Miranda: "Wait till Gordo sees it. He'll positively drool."

Lizzie smiled, imagining the look in his eyes when he saw her in the dress.

Lizzie: "Well I like your dress too. The color's perfect with your dark hair."

They had come from Miranda's house, where Miranda showed off her new dress.

Miranda: "Thanks! Hey lets go to the mall and buy some new perfume." she said excitedly.

Lizzie: "I'd love to but I can't. Gordo's mom invited me for dinner tonight."

Miranda: "But it's only one o'clock. Dinners hours from now."

Lizzie didn't want to tell Miranda the whole truth, but this was the afternoon Gordo was supposed to go to his doctor for another checkup. School had been out for a few days, but it had taken until today to get an appointment with the doctor.

Lizzie: "I promised him I'd come early."

Miranda: "Well this qualifies as early." she grumbled.

Lizzie: "We'll go tomorrow, I still have Christmas shopping to do."

Miranda: "Ok pick me up early, I wan to be there when they first open the doors."

Lizzie: "Ok, I'll pick you up."

Once Miranda was gone, Lizzie changed and left. She got to the Gordon resident, she parked in the driveway and Gordo met her on the porch. He gave her a quick kiss.

Gordo: "Mom took the afternoon off from work and she's cooking up a feast."

Once inside, she followed Gordo into the kitchen where his mom was stirring a pot on the stove.

Lizzie: "It smells wonderful." she exclaimed.

Roberta Gordon put her wooden spoon down, wiped her hands on a dish towel, and hugged Lizzie warmly.

Roberta: "I'm glad you could come for dinner. Although it won't be ready for another three hours."

She shot Gordon a glance.

Roberta: "He insisted that you had to come this afternoon so that you could drive him somewhere. Why isn't Gordo driving? What's going on with you two?"

Lizzie: "He's keeping a promise to me."

Roberta: "What promise?"

Gordo: "We'll tell you at dinner."

Gordo interjected, getting Lizzie off the hook.

Gordo: "Let me get some things out of my room and we'll go." he said to Lizzie.

Lizzie sat on one of the kitchen chairs to wait. The kitchen table looked scarred, battle-weary form years of service.

Roberta: "Gordo says you two are planning to stop by tomorrow night before the dance so I can see your dress."

Lizzie: "Yeah, on our way to pick up Larry and Miranda."

Roberta: "It's nice of your father to lend Gordo his car for the evening."

Lizzie's dad had made the offer weeks before and Gordo had been thrilled over the prospect of driving the sporty car. Lizzie would have been just as happy in Gordo's car, but no one had asked her opinion.

Lizzie: "Well you know how my dad feels about Gordo."

Roberta: "He's been very good to my boy, and I'll always be grateful for the way he's taken him under his wing, It's not easy raising a boy without a father."

Gordo had always been protective of his mother, careful not to cause her worry or problems. Which was part of his refusal to keep returning to the doctor for his unremitting flu bug.

Lizzie: "He loves him like a son."

Roberta: "I know, I could tell. We're putting up the Christmas tree next week. You will come and help decorate it won't you?" (A/N: The Gordon's aren't Jewish in my story, sorry!)

Lizzie: "Of course. How else can we keep Gordo from slinging the tinsel on it?"

The two of them were laughing when Gordo came back to the kitchen, ready to leave.

Gordo: "Why do I get the feeling you're laughing at me?"

After Roberta and Lizzie had poked some more good-natured fun at him, Gordo had promised his mom to return by five and he and Lizzie left the warm kitchen.

Lizzie drove to the doctors office while Gordo stared out the window pensively. As they got there the doctor's waiting room was crowded with sniffling kids and crying babies. A few adults sat with their heads buried in their hands, looking feverish. Over thirty minutes passed before he was finally called into one of the waiting rooms. Another forty five minutes passed and Lizzie grew restless. She imagined Gordo forgotten in some cubicle, getting angry while he waited. Forty minutes later, the outer door opened and Gordo's mother hurried inside.

Lizzie: "Roberta! Why are you here?"

Roberta: "The doctor called and told me to come. I didn't know you were taking gordo to the doctor, Lizzie. Why didn't either of you tell me?"

Lizzie: "Gordo didn't want you to worry."

Roberta: "What's wrong with Gordo? He wasn't sick when he left home."

Lizzie was at a loss for words, embarrassed, she shrugged. An inner door opened and a nurse call then in. Quickly, they followed the woman downa narrow hall and into an office where a doctor sat behind his desk, writing in a file folder. Gordo sat stiffly in a side chair.

Roberta: "Gordo, are you alright?" she said as she rushed to him, Lizzie followed but hanging back slightly.

Gordo: "I don't know. Ask him." he said sullen.

The doctor stood and nodded.

Dr. Portage: "I'm Dr. Portage." he said introducing himself.

Lizzie: "I'm Lizzie McGuire, his, uh…..friend."

Roberta: "I'm his mother. Where's Dr. Simms?"

Dr. Portage: "He's taken me on as his assistant."

Roberta: "Tell us what's wrong."

Dr. Portage sat and steepled his fingers together.

Dr. Portage: "I've checked David over, listened to his symptoms, and done some preliminary blood work. As I told you on the phone, I'm concerned about his elevated white blood count."

Lizzie felt her heart pounding and reached for Gordo's hand.

Lizzie: "Gordo, he's scaring me."

Gordo looked away. His hand felt cold as ice.

Dr. Portage: "I don't mean to alarm any of you. But I don't like what I'm seeing. I suspect Gordo has some kind of infection. According to his records, he's been treated with antibiotics, but he hasn't responded as he should have."

Roberta: "Are you saying you'll have to run more tests?"

Dr. Portage: "Yes. And he needs to be in a hospital in order to run them. I've got a call in St. Paul's Hospital."

Lizzie and Gordo exchanged glances. His dark eyes bored into her, making her even more afraid.

Lizzie: "What do you mean?" she asked as her voice quivered.

Dr. Portage: "I want you to go home, pack a bag, and check in" he said looking directly at Gordo.

Gordo jumped to his feet.

Gordo: "Right now?" You want me to go check in right now? No way!"

Dr. Portage: "The sooner the better."

Roberta: "Now, Gordo, we should do what the doctor says." she added.

Gordo: "But the dance is tomorrow night."

Lizzie: "but I don't care about the dance." she interjected.

Gordo: "Well I do."

The doctors phone rang. He spoke quietly into the receiver, then hung up.

Dr. Portage: "That was St. Paul's. It's all arranged. You're to check in this afternoon, as soon as possible."

The remainder of the afternoon passed in a surrealistic blur for Lizzie. And while she would not recall later the exact sequence of events, she'd never forget the cold, snakelike fear that clutched at her insides and numbed her soul. She cried when she called her father on the phone from Gordo's house. She found comfort in his absolute refusal to believe that the doctor was anything but right.

Lizzie: "I'm going with them to St. Paul's, Dad."

Sam: "Maybe I should drive over too."

Lizzie: "Why don't I call you form the hospital once I find out what's going on."

Sam: "All right. You stay with Gordo's mom. She'll need someone."

Afterward all three drove to the hospital. Gordo checked in and they told him he had to stay for at least a week to run tests. Days passed, friends visited him while Lizzie and his mother were right by his side. They did a CT scan the second day. His mother had gone out of his room to talk to his doctor. He and Lizzie were alone. He opened his arms and Lizzie leaned over the bed to receive his hug.

Gordo: "I've missed you." he whispered against her ear.

Lizzie: "Oh, Gordo, I've missed you too. I wish I could take you home with me right now."

Gordo: "Why don't we make a dash for it? They won't notice until dinner time."

She laughed. At least he was in better spirits.

Gordo: "Any feedback about the dance form Miranda?"

Lizzie: "She and Larry missed us going with them."

Gordo: "You didn't get to wear your new dress."

Lizzie: "I'll wear it to the next dance for you."

Gordo: "Maybe we can go somewhere special for New Year's Eve. Would you like that?"

Lizzie: "Sure but before we make any plans maybe we'd better see how all these test come out."

He looked downcast.

Gordo: "I just want my life back." he said sadly.

She was about to cheer him up but Gordo's mother walked in. Her face looked calm, yet Lizzie suspect she was upset.

Mom: "I talked to Dr. Sanchez. And he said they're going to take you into surgery tomorrow morning and do a biopsy on the gland in your neck."

Lizzie: "Surgery? They're going to operate on Gordo?" she said as she felt her knees go weak.

Roberta: "It's just a biopsy. They'll take out some of the cells and send them to the lab for analysis. And they'll do a bone marrow biopsy at the same time."

Gordo: "What are they looking for?" he asked without emotion.

Roberta: "I'm not certain."

The next morning they took Gordo into surgery. Lizzie's parents, Lizzie, and Roberta were there. The results would be ready in a couple of days.

The afternoon Dr. Sanchez came to discuss Gordo's diagnosis with Gordo, his mother, and Lizzie, the nurses were decorating the floor for the holidays. The doctor, his hands full of charts and papers, pulled a chair to the side of the bed. Roberta sat near the doctor and Lizzie remained in her perch on the bed, her fingers laced through Gordo's.

Gordo: "Your not smiling Doc. Did the nurses forget to invite you to their Christmas party?"

Dr. Sanchez: "No way. Who do you think plays Santa Claus for the pediatric ward?"

His banter was easy, but Lizzie saw his eyes were not smiling.

Roberta: "So what do you have to tell us? What's wrong with my son?" she asked getting to the point.

The doctor flipped open the manila folder on his lap.

Dr. Sanchez: "I'm going to give this to you straight, David, because you asked me to."

Gordo: "Yes, I did."

Dr. Sanchez: "And because it's the only way I deal with my patients. I talk straight."

Lizzie's heart began to hammer and her fingers tightened around Gordo's.

Dr. Sanchez: "The official name for what you have is Hodgkin's Lymphoma."

Lizzie heard Gordo's mom gasp and saw her shake her head.

Lizzie: "What's that?" she asked, not one bit embarrassed by her ignorance.

Dr. Sanchez: "It's a form of cancer that develops in the lymph system, which is part of the body's circulatory system. Right now, you're in an early stage and your prognosis is good."

Cancer! Lizzie felt as if someone had hit her hard in the stomach and knocked the wind out of her. The worst had happened.

A/N: Review please!!! Thanks for all your reviews!!!!