Heartaches
Chapter 44
By Kellyq
Crow paced back and forth, waiting for a nurse to come in. Kiryu watched him with curiosity. He wondered why Crow looked so anxious. After a moment of watching him, Kiryu couldn't help but chuckle.
When Crow got the text message from Yusei that Martha came to the hospital to see Doctor Smith, his heart almost stopped out of fear. Martha wouldn't see him, unless she was having some real health problems. Kiryu continued to chuckle as Crow's expression turned funny.
Just at that moment, the nurse walked in. "Is everything all right?"
"Could you look after Kiryu for me for a moment? Martha needs to see me right away."
Kiryu tilted his head. "Ma...?" He was now curious as to why Crow said Martha's name. The nurse nodded her head, and within seconds the red-haired teen ran out of the room. Kiryu blinked, looking a little confused and hurt. "Crow ...?"
Crow bolted down the hallway to Dr. Smith's office and burst through the door, startling the doctor, Jack, Yusei, Martha, the twins and Rally. Crow went straight to her.
"What's going on? You're not sick are you? Martha, are you okay?"
He glanced around the room to see grim faces. After a moment, he got the sense from everyone that he needed to sit, and so he did.
"What's going on?" Yusei asked. He, like Crow, was worried and was to this point uninformed about Martha's condition.
As much as he hated bad news, he got a little taste of that before he took her the hospital.
Yusei and Martha sat down on her bed. She reached to her night stand and pulled out a key from her pocket, and unlocked the drawer with her other hand.
"I was going to wait a little while longer to show this," Martha said, pulling out a dairy that looked red, "but perhaps the time has come."
Yusei glanced down to see that the book cover had a picture of a red dragon hovering over what looked like five other creatures. The first one looked like a monkey and the second, a hummingbird. The third looked like giant, the forth a spider, and finally the filth creature looked like a dangerous sort of lizard. Despite these hideous creatures adorning it, the book itself looked beautiful.
"Isn't that a diary?" Yusei asked, glancing back at Martha.
The old woman nodded her head. "It's your father's. He wanted me to give it to you when I felt it was time for you to know the truth."
Yusei reached out and gently took it. He opened the book to the first page, onto which there was taped a key. The larger end of the key was shaped like a heart. Yusei turned the page over to see one picture of Rudger standing behind his dad and his arms around him. At this, Yusei paused, confused. He glanced at the other picture and it was Hakase again, this time with a woman, a beautiful woman, that Yusei assumed was his mother.
"Yusei … there are a few things you should know..." Martha started to explain. She pulled a newspaper clipping out of the same drawer.
"Why won't anyone answer us?" Yusei said. "What's wrong with Martha?" By this time, he had stood up and was visibly frustrated with the silence in the room.
"Yusei, if you would kindly have a seat," Dr. Smith said in a confident, professional tone. "We should all be calm and careful as we discuss the prognosis."
"Prognosis!" Yusei shouted a little louder than he had intended. "There's already a prognosis? What's the problem in the first place? Martha, what's wrong?"
"Yusei, please," Martha said weakly. "Please just listen to the doctor. Would you do that for me? Can you? Please?"
Yusei closed his eyes and sat down. Dr. Smith glanced around the room.
"This is not going to be easy to understand or accept," Dr. Smith said clearly and slowly, "but over the last several years, your mother Martha has had a severe case of cancer growing within her body without anyone knowing it."
The room was as quiet as the darkest cave. No one even seemed to breathe. Not the tiniest sound came from anyone.
"What this means," Dr. Smith went on, "is that Martha has a battle coming up with this sickness, a very difficult battle that she will need your help to win."
"Wait! What?" Crow blurted out finally, after Dr. Smith had finished his last phrase. "What's going to happen to the kids? Who is going to take care of them!"
"Crow, please," Martha said. "We will figure this out. I promise. We always do. We are a family."
Dr. Smith cut back in. "Right now," he said, "the most important thing is for Martha to rest."
Then, out of nowhere, Rally spoke up. "We can't live without you, Martha! Please don't die."
"I'm not going to die," Martha assured him. At least I hope not soon, she thought to herself.
"How long has this been going on, exactly?" Jacked piped up and asked. "When did you know about all this?"
"We just found out this morning, when Martha came in," Dr. Smith answered for his patient. "But it's impossible to tell how long it has been going on inside of her. There aren't answers to some of these difficult questions right now. You have to understand that."
Yusei lowered his gaze. "Is there any treatment for her?" he asked quietly. "Anything at all that can be done to help her?"
Dr. Smith sighed. "The tests show that it's too late to begin significant or successful treatment. The cancer is too developed and pronounced for a treatment plan to be effective from here on out."
At this realization, silence once more descended upon the room, hanging heavy off everyone. Almost as if on cue, Leo and Luna started to cry simultaneously. In tiny, shortened breaths, they each sniffled many uncontrollable tears in and out, unable to stop themselves from showing such emotion.
Yusei, without thinking, went over to them and pulled them into his arms. He hugged them both, without a word.
"So, we're just supposed to stand idly by and watch Martha die, then?" Jack muttered under his breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear. The twins' crying didn't help matters much in his opinion.
"Yeah," Crow added, "there's got to be something we can do, right?"
"I'm sorry, gentlemen," Dr. Smith said. "I will be in touch as soon as we prepare to settle Martha into some long-term care here at the hospital." With that, the doctor walked slowly toward the door and left the group alone, his white lab coat trailing behind him as he went.
"Martha," Jack said, "we're going to help get you out of here and get over this."
"No, Jack, that's not what I need right now," Martha explained. "Just let me rest, will you? I'm just so tired and weak."
Yusei pulled back after the twins calmed down. They watched Yusei start to head for the door. He carried with him a small duffle bag of things that Martha had given him back at the house, before they had left for the hospital.
"Are you okay?" Rally asked him. "Where are you going?"
Yusei stopped and lowered his gaze once more. "I just need time to think, that's all."
Without further explanation, he opened the door and walked out, making his way to the cafeteria.
Once he got there, the first person Yusei saw was Jeager. The clownish young man was so deep in thought that he had no idea Yusei had spotted him until he slammed his palm down, making Jeager jump, spilling coffee all over the table.
"Whoa!" Jeager yelled, glancing to the side to see that it was Yusei.
"Where's Godwin?" Yusei asked bluntly. He was in no mood now for niceties.
"No, 'Hello, how are you, Jeager'? Just demanding answers like always, huh, Yusei?"
"I need to know where Godwin is. He has promised help, and I need to see if he's good for his word."
"What's in it for me, if I tell you?" Jeager asked slyly.
"Well, the way I figure, if you tell me where Godwin is, I won't have to leave that little clown face of yours all bloody right here in the cafeteria. How's that for what's in it for you?"
Jeager laughed nervously. "You wouldn't hit a clown, would you?" He yelped when Yusei grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward. "Okay, okay! He's on the third floor in room 319!"
Yusei dropped the little man without a word, then turned and walked out, making his way to the elevator. As he walked down the sterile hallways of the hospital, he couldn't help but think of Martha, and especially everything she had told him about his past this morning, before all this with the cancer came to light. Did that happen today? Yusei wondered. It seems like forever ago already.
Yusei stared at the newspaper clipping and almost choked back a gasp of shock and disgust and disbelief. The headline on the crumpled, yellowing paper read in big, bold font: "MAN RAPED AND KILLED AT HOME. POLICE SAY THEY HAVE NO SUSPECT YET." Below the heading was a picture of a white sheet, under which was clearly a human body. There were stains on the covering, conceivably from blood. The caption went unread by Yusei, though... It was all too much to take. The man beneath the sheet was obviously his dad...
Yusei, who had been in a daze en route to the third floor, looked up, just before he ran into a man walking straight toward him.
"Well, hello, Yusei," Godwin said casually. "What are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same thing," Yusei replied.
To be continued...