It was a week and a half before Hiro was finally well enough to be let out of the hospital. It took a lot of arguing on Cass's side to convince the doctors to let Hiro do the online schooling idea. But she was not going to take no for an answer. She was sick and tired of these doctors constantly doubting her son – er, nephew…no, screw it. Hiro and Tadashi were her boys and that was that. No one was going to tell him what he could and couldn't do and certainly not the doctor that had said on one hand that he'd be dead by now, and the other hand that they'd have a cure for him. So she was done letting them rule Hiro's life. He would dictate his own life depending on how he felt and all she wanted those brown-nosed doctors to do was figure out a way to get the damn tumor out of her baby's lungs. And that was that.
Tadashi was a bit surprised as Cass told off the doctors - something he had wanted to do for a long time.
They got on his nerves! Putting fear into people, piling up debt on those with either none or poor healthcare. He swore, sometimes they kept people in here on purpose instead of thinking up a solution! Hell, Baymax was now able to tell when Hiro was about to have an attack and took care of him before anything happened! On two occasions, when they forgot to deactivate him, Baymax helped seven different people by the time one doctor was available. Which the hospital didn't like and requested the robot to remain in Hiro's room 'if he must stay'.
Needless to say, Hiro squeezed his Aunt as tightly as he could manage, tears running down his face and as proud and happy as could be with her.
"I love you so much. Thank you for not giving up on me," Hiro murmured.
"Never, babydoll, never." Cass kissed his head, "Tadashi and I will always have your back, we'll always be your support. You can do anything you set that big brain of yours to do. You've proved that and more."
Tadashi smiled and nodded at Cass' words, rubbing Hiro's back.
During the last of the semester and through summer break, Hiro worked with Tadashi to do some upgrades with Baymax. He made it so that if anything happened and he had to go to the hospital or anything along those lines, Baymax would be wired to immediately alert Tadashi and Aunt Cass. Also, Hiro would willing subject himself to a daily examination to check on the tumor and have Baymax a second opinion if he could go out or not. Hiro didn't want to let Tadashi or Cass know but….after that last scare of his lungs filling while he was asleep, it terrified him. It was finally starting to hit the teen about how really serious this was and he was petrified.
He tried not to let it show, though, since he knew that Tadashi loved summers, he always had. That's why the elder teen had scheduled his classes at SFIT to match those of a normal school attendee. Well, if that attendee only had three classes a day - perks to getting core classes out of the way.
Despite that, summer was the only time he felt he had enough time to balance spending time with Hiro, spending time with their friends, helping in the café, and properly managing his side projects. In fact, this summer Hiro and he worked on Baymax quite a bit, adding things Hiro thought up. Tadashi didn't mind and Baymax didn't either. The Healthcare Robot was happy both brothers were now mentally healthy and he wanted to continue to assist them.
"We should go to the park," Hiro decided one day. "Invite the others and go have a picnic. It's so nice out."
Tadashi looked up to Hiro and smiled. "Sure!" He said in excitement. "We haven't been to the park in a while!"
Hiro grinned, "And we haven't seen the others in a while, so it'll be the perfect match."
"Right." Tadashi agreed, moving on the couch slightly so he could get his phone out of his pants, pulling up their contacts and texting them. He knew he could just have Baymax do it, but he also knew the robot had been doing quite a bit for the brothers already.
"Baymax, go ahead and go recharge really quick so you won't get a low battery." He advised as he stood after the messages were sent. The robot did as he was told and Tadashi smiled to Hiro. "Let's pack some food."
"Alright!" Hiro cheered, excited to be getting out of the house. He stood up and followed Tadashi to the kitchen for them to start packing away a lunch for all of them. When Cass found out about their little adventure, she came and brought them some cookies from the cafe to bring along with them.
Tadashi thanked Cass and assured her they didn't need any more food before he gave her a hug and picked up the bag. Once Hiro and Baymax were also ready to go they left and jumped onto a trolley to ride to the park.
Hiro had to relent his strict secret keeping a little, using his crutch to walk as they headed to the park. He needed some sort of support regardless of what he wanted. Tadashi was proud of Hiro's development, and he showed it as the three of them walked together.
When they got to the park, the gang was already waiting for them, smiling at the brothers. They all greeted each other happily.
What shocked Hiro was the fact that no one questioned the crutch. Fred had made one comment, he froze, but then it was brushed off and no explanation needed. They all just accepted it without pushing the younger to say a word.
Honey spread out a big blanket under the shade of the tree for them all to sit on and the friends began talking about school and asking Hiro if he was excited to be going. The teen told him what his plan for the first semester was and they all agreed it would probably be best, especially with no deadlines, so Hiro could adjust to college life. They were talking about ideas and experiments and inventions and their families and just life in general.
Hiro grinned and laughed with them. It was amazing. He felt normal, with friends and emotional support and plans for his life. He felt as if nothing was wrong with him, that he could do anything anyone else could. He felt like his life finally had some meaning to it.
Tadashi also loved days like this - granted it happened a lot when he'd meet up with his friends and talk. However, now they were Hiro's friends as well, and everything seemed brighter now that the most important people in his life (with the exception of Cass) were here and talking together. As they talked and snacked on the food the brothers brought Tadashi noticed the light in Hiro's eyes.
He wished Hiro could have that light every day.
It was now about a month into the new semester and Tadashi was working on Baymax again. Throughout the summer the friends had met up countless times and each time they did more and more, having so much fun that it was saddening when it ended. Hiro's stuff was moved into Tadashi's lab and the brothers worked together a lot of the time. Cass would drop Hiro off at the labs when time came for free lab so he could go meet up with Tadashi. They'd gotten on a pretty good schedule, Hiro would do his work on the computer from home and then come meet his brother. He was just opening the door when he heard Baymax's voice.
"Update is complete." Baymax's voice sounded and Tadashi breathed a sigh. He hoped this worked. He wanted Hiro's life to be secure…
Hiro grinned, "What new upgrade did you give him this time? Did you finally take my advice on giving him karate moves?"
Tadashi jumped slightly before turning to Hiro with a smile. "Hey Hiro, I didn't hear you open the door - and no, I didn't. I just updated his chip again and worked on a few of his tools and functions. I made him new tech." He had been for a few weeks now. "I also made his database and memory bigger." He then turned to Baymax with a smile. "Wouldn't want him to forget how to fist bump."
"Hiro, want to help me test him?"
"Definitely!" he chuckled, limping over to his brother and setting his backpack down and placing his crutch against the side of the table. "What do you need me to do?"
Tadashi waved Baymax to continue, the robot understood Tadashi's plan and scanned Hiro.
"I will scan and access your personal health file." Baymax's stomach lit up and information flashed over his screen. "I will proceed with an X-ray of your lungs… Diagnosing your organ tissue." Baymax droned on before astonishing news came up that shocked even Tadashi to silence. "I believe that you do not have cancer." He said, flashing the results on his screen.
"I believe that there was an honest mistake in naming your benign tumor as cancer. This often happens in the medical field seeing as it shows the same symptoms and pattern, it usually takes years to notice as Benign doesn't eat away tissue like cancer and is often thought to only be a 'rare case', or the x-ray will be taken at a time of flexasion, making it look like the tumor grew." The screen flashed again to show all of Hiro's x-rays, a red circle showing where the tumor never grew and the rare ones where it looked like it did. "I would recommend that this be brought up immediately to your doctors."
Hiro's eyes widened in shock and suddenly he couldn't breathe. He looked up to Tadashi in shock, not knowing what to do."
Tadashi was shaken up as well before going to stand next to Hiro, putting a hand on the younger's shoulder.
"Elaborate on Benign, Baymax." He requested, wanting to know more.
Baymax nodded before speaking. "Benign tumors aren't cancerous or deadly - nor will they spread like cancer tumors. The growth is slow, if it grows at all, and is known to stop growing and even shrink. Benign tumors rarely even need to be removed if they show the signs of shrinking. Benign can be caused by many different things, but I suspect it was from inhaling smoke.
"Symptoms of benign include: persistent coughing or wheezing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, coughing up blood, rattling sounds in the lungs, and the threat of lung tissue collapse.
"Luckily the tumor can be removed and Hiro can be given proper treatment - which may help with his breathing and eliminate the need of crutch and shortness of breath."
"But what doesn't make sense to me, is my lungs occasionally fill up with fluid," Hiro looked between Baymax and Tadashi, furrowing his brows, "That is a symptom of lung cancer…"
"Yes." Baymax agreed. "However, I believe that it happens when your lungs collapse from exhaustion and your emotional state. It has been known that mental health can often influence physical health. It could also be caused by the wrong medication."
"I-I don't know…" Hiro didn't know how to wrap his head around this. He wanted to believe Baymax, he really did, but he didn't know what was true, or right, or what. He swallowed thickly, looking up at Tadashi again, "I-I think we should call Aunt Cass and go to the hospital and get this figured out…"
Tadashi looked from Baymax to Hiro and nodded. "Y-yeah…" He looked at Baymax again. "Can you...check again? Just to be positive." He requested.
Baymax agreed and scanned the younger again, the same results popping up on his screen before Tadashi quickly took out his phone and called Cass, quickly explaining everything.
If Baymax was right… Then Hiro didn't have cancer! And the tumor could be removed or shrink down in time!
Cass came as quickly as she could to pick the boys up and take them to the hospital. Needless to say, the doctors were surprised. They did several tests on Hiro to confirm what the bot had figured out and it turned out he was right.
However, what they also found, was because had been taking the wrong medications for all this time, there were complications in his immune system and…there were cancer cells growing in his throat.