The Little Warrior
Chapter 4: Homecoming
-April 16-
Risa sat in her bed, watching 'The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror' episodes on her mother's laptop, giggling at Homer's antics. Today was a good day for her. She had a rough morning, as the day before, she had undergone another round of testing, including a spinal tap and bone marrow aspiration and biopsy to determine whether or not her leukemia was continuing to respond to the chemo and still had a sore hip bone from having a huge needle poked through it.
The procedures were traumatic for the little girl. She screamed bloody murder and Rei had to convince the Oncologist to do them under general anesthesia next time. Afterward, Risa was taken back to her room where she remained grumpy and refused to talk to anyone for the rest of the day and into that night. She even shot dirty looks at Dr. Yoshida and every nurse who came to check on her and wouldn't co-operate with them.
By this afternoon, though, she was back to her usual cheerful self, aside from being stir-crazy and wanting to break out of the hospital and go home. She still didn't want to eat much of anything because the chemo altered her sense of taste and she continued to have occasional bouts of nausea and vomiting throughout the day.
Now half-way through induction therapy, her hair was almost completely gone, and initially, she cried that she wanted her parents to make it grow back, but she was much more accepting of it than when it first started falling out. Upon hearing that she had cancer, her friends from school eagerly donated a box filled with various crochet caps, cowgirl hats, sun hats, bucket hats, and do-rags. Her favorite was a pink crochet cap with a strawberry design on it.
Rei and Yūichirou were happy to see that their daughter's health seemed to be on the mend. They waited anxiously for the results of the tests to come back, and it was not long before the results were in. Dr. Yoshida entered the room and gave the worried parents a reassuring smile.
"The preliminary results are good. There is no evidence of leukemia." He informed them.
"Really? Is it true?" Rei wondered, a shocked look on her face. He nodded and her expression turned to one of happiness as she exclaimed, "Kami-sama, arigatou gozaimasu!" The fire senshi breathed a huge sigh of relief as she threw her arms around her husband, who picked her up and gently spun her around. Then they shared their joy with a very excited Risa.
"Is it okay to go home for Mama's birthday tomorrow?"
Dr. Yoshida's smile grew wider. "Well, you are recovering nicely, so I don't see why not."
"So, what now? Do we do the rest of her treatments as an outpatient?" Yūichirou asked.
"Many of them can be done as an outpatient, though there will be times which will require her to be admitted. As a precaution, if she gets a fever above 38.5°C (100.4°F), you must bring her in. That's a sign that there may be an infection, and if her counts are at or below the neutropenic range, make sure she either wears a mask when she's in public or keep her inside, and don't allow anyone who's sick to visit. With her having a compromised immune system, the slightest illness could be life threatening."
"I understand. Thank you, Dr. Yoshida."
"You're welcome. I will send Nurse Kyoko over with the discharge papers shortly." He left the room and Risa stood up and jumped up and down on the bed and did a victory dance.
"Yay! Yay! Bye bye, stinky hospital!"
Risa was released at around three o'clock that afternoon, and as she and her parents pulled up outside Hikawa Shrine, they saw what looked like fifteen or twenty of their friends' and relatives' cars parked nearby. Yūichirou helped his wife and daughter out of their car and let Risa lead the way up the stairs.
"Welcome home, Risa-chan!" The three of them heard as they stepped inside the house and Rei and Yūichirou were met with bone crushing hugs. The guests finally let go and gave the couple a chance to settle in.
"I missed you guys." Risa replied and gave them one of her own hugs. Then she ran over to Setsuna, who was watching the scene calmly from her spot against a wall, and tugged on her dark purple business skirt to be picked up. The time guardian obliged and lifted her up.
"We missed you too, little one." She replied. Turning to Rei, she added, "Oh, happy early birthday, Rei-chan."
"Thanks, Setsuna-san."
"My pleasure."
"Okay, who wants some of Mako-chan's delicious cake?" Usagi called out, not being able to contain herself. Everyone laughed their heads off, save for Mamoru and Setsuna, who simply chuckled.
"Me!" They shouted in unison, and Makoto cut the strawberry shortcake into slices and passed them out.
The gathering lasted until well past midnight. Risa and Chibi-Usa had fallen asleep in sleeping bags on Risa's bedroom floor a little after ten, and most of the guests left shortly after. Only Usagi, Mamoru, Ami, Makoto, and Minako remained and they were in the kitchen, helping to clean up the mess. Rei and Yūichirou stepped in to help, but were ushered out of the room and told to relax and spend some one on one time with each other as a couple.
The raven haired young woman was completely exhausted, but it was fun to come home and party with everyone. It was a welcome distraction from everything else that's been going on since Risa's illness began. She changed into a short red satin nightgown and straddled her husband in bed, kissing him lovingly on the lips as he put his hands on her waist.
"Make love to me." She whispered seductively in his ear.
"Your wish is my command, my dear." He said, earning a playful punch in the shoulder.
"Shut up." She kissed him again and they made love for hours, then their sweat covered bodies collapsed, still holding on to each other as they fell asleep.
It was nearly nine AM by the time they woke up and they found Risa already awake and playing a Hello Kitty video game on PlayStation 2. Usagi and the other senshi had gone home around two o'clock. Chibi-Usa had wanted to sleep over, but Mamoru calmly explained to her that Risa just came home from the hospital and she, Rei, and Yūichirou needed some time to adjust and recover.
"Morning Mama, morning Papa."
"Good morning." Yūichirou greeted.
"Morning, Risa." Rei responded back with a yawn. "Did you have anything to eat yet?"
"Yes, Mama. Candy!" Deep inside, Rei wasn't too thrilled about the food choice, but she said nothing. She was just thankful that Risa ate anything at all.
"Are you still hungry?" Yūichirou inquired.
"Yeah. Can I have pancakes?"
"You sure can." With that, Yūichirou went into the kitchen and began to make breakfast.
Mealtime was a great success. Risa devoured three softball sized pancakes and a link of sausage, along with a small cup of milk and she felt fine. She was proud of herself that she was able to eat a whole meal without getting sick, as were her mother and father.
"Great job, Risa."
"Thanks Mama. Happy birthday!" She said and skipped out of the room, returning a minute later with a sheet of paper. "Here! I drew this for you. I hope you like it." Rei beamed and accepted the drawing.
"Thank you. I love it!" Risa had been awake since six AM and decided she wanted to make her mom a quick birthday gift, so she got out her drawing paper and crayons and drew a very creative picture. She depicted Rei in a black dress, singing karaoke with her. Next to them, she drew her dad watching them and clapping his hands as he cheered them on, and a panda with stars in its eyes, wearing a multi-colored birthday hat and happily eating a piece of cake.
Rei stood up, patting her little girl on the head and giving her a kiss before she put her dirty dishes in the sink, hanged the picture on the fridge, and went to do her daily chores.
Risa turned to Yūichirou, speaking softly so Rei couldn't hear her. "I wanna do something else for Mama's birthday, too. Can we take her out somewhere?" Yūichirou brought a hand up to his chin and thought for a moment.
"I think we can work something out." They grinned and spent the rest of the morning devising their plan.
Finally an update after almost a year, even if it isn't as long as I wanted it to be. I started this a while back, but I got stuck, so I put it on the back burner for a while to work on other fics. I don't know what to write in the next chapter though, so some ideas would be much appreciated, especially what to do for Rei's birthday, since Risa has to be careful when out in public or around people.