Chapter 6 - Sick Puppies

It had been about 10 weeks since Dina had heard from Jared and she noticed her brother had been missing a lot in her life. She'd been feeling sick for the last 3 weeks, basically Fevers, Headaches, nose bleeds, bone and joint pain, she was tired and just didn't feel like getting out of bed most mornings...She just figure she was feeling depressed from missing Jared...She'd even started losing weight, but she just wasn't feeling hungry...When she couldn't stop the nose bleeds she finally went to the doctor. She'd been poked and prodded, had so many blood samples taken she didn't think she had anymore blood to give.

Dina was sitting in the room on the exam table and her mom and dad were in the chairs next to her...The doctor had called to tell her, that her test results were back in and he wanted to speak with her parents and her together. When the doctor walked into the room, Dina sighed heavy...she knew this wasn't going to be good. She turned her MP3 player off and pulled the ear buds from her ears. After what the doctor said she wished she'd a left the ear buds in and had some kind of heavy metal pounding in her ears.

Leukemia...It sounded like a foreign language to Dina. It was basically a cancer of the blood cells inside her bone marrow. The way the doctor explained it was her bone marrow where most blood cells are made. Apparently Dina's bone marrow started producing a lot of abnormal white blood cells, called leukemia cells. They don't do the work of normal white blood cells, they grow faster than normal cells, and they don't stop growing when they should. Over time, leukemia cells can crowd out the normal blood cells. This can lead to serious problems such as bleeding and cause spread to other areas of the body. the doctor wanted to start her on a chemotherapy treatment immediately...

The doctor sent her to have a port put in. A chemotherapy port was a 3/4 inch thick disk about the size of a quarter with a wire coming off of it. It was placed under the skin and the wire was guided into a strong vein so the chemo went directly into the blood stream. Dina's was above her right breast closer to the shoulder. It was an in and out procedure she was awake for it the whole time. Dina wasn't sure what to feel...She wasn't scared at least she didn't think so. She didn't know what to feel... Of course her mom started crying and dad held her trying to calm her. She knew she had to find Embry and tell him what was going on, plus Anysa. On the way home she kept absentmindedly touching the port through her t-shirt.

A couple of days later, she had her first chemo treatment on Friday. It wasn't too bad...Though a lot of puking was involved. Afterwards, she took a small nap at home and decided she wanted to go for a walk. She had her jeans and a red form fitted t-shirt on, then pulled on a black and red stripped cotton jacket, the hood was black and she zipped it up with her MP3 player in the pocket and was listening to heavy metal. She took off walking through the woods and didn't notice brown eyes keeping watch on her. She walked all the way to the cliffs that were above the ocean. It was a little clearing...She kicked her sneakers off and pulled her socks off and stuffed them in her shoes as she got as close to the edge of the 50 foot cliff just taking in the smell of the ocean water.

Listening to the Sick Puppies - You're Going Down...

Sam, Paul, Jared and Embry stood off behind Dina. They watched as she stood at the edge of the cliff...her arms were wrapped around herself and the music volume was up so loud the guys could practically hear it. They noticed her right knee was bouncing with the beats being pumped into her ears. Embry hadn't been home in a couple of days so he didn't know what had been going on with Dina.

Dina looked down...she wanted to jump so bad...to just feel the freedom of the free fall and feel the coolness of the ocean water as it enveloped her body. she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket as she paused the music and answered the phone call putting her on speaker phone. Dina said, "Hi Nysa." While she continued to talk with Anysa she tossed her MP3 player on the ground. Dina said, "Yea...My first treatment was today...It wasn't too bad...A lot of puking...but I'll have to get used to it..." Anysa started sniffling on the other end and Dina said, "Nysa don't start crying again...I don't feel like crying right now."

The guys could hear their entire conversation as the guys all looked at Embry and Sam said, "What treatment?" Embry shrugged his shoulders and said, "I haven't been home for a few days...I been with you guys patrolling." Dina's giggle brought their attention back to her. Dina said, "I'm at the cliffs...Of course I'm contemplating jumping...It would be nice right about now don't you think? I don't give a shit if I'm sick...This maybe the last time I can feel freedom for a while." Anysa said, "Hell I wanna say go for it, but then again I wanna say don't because I don't want you to get hurt." Dina said, "We dive off these cliffs all the time...nothing is different right now." Anysa said, "Well you know what I always say right?"

The girls both laughed and at the same time said, "Fuck it." Anysa said, "Call me back when you get back to the cliff." Dina smirked and said, "No worries." Dina ended the phone call and dropped it next to her shoes.

The guys watched in astonishment as Dina ran to the edge and jumped like it was nothing.