IS SYLVIA OKAY? Read the chapter to find out, I'm not gonna tell ya XD

…

Perry had never felt more sick in his life. He kept thinking he was about to throw up but then the feeling would dissipate and the pain would move to his chest. Then back to feeling sick. It was a cycle.

He was sitting on a chair in the waiting room, as he had been for the last hour. Nicky was lying asleep in his lap. Perry felt envious of his son; he wished he could just sleep through his troubles.

"Perry?"

Perry looked blearily up and noticed that Apollo had entered the room. He stood up too quickly, nearly dropping Nicky. "Is she okay?" he asked worriedly.

Apollo had two X-Rays with him. Looking rather grim, he held up the first one to show Perry. "This is a picture of a pair of healthy lungs."

He held up the other one. "This is a picture of Sylvia's lungs."

Perry was no doctor but even he could tell the difference between the two pictures. "What's that lump on the second one?"

"It seems that a few years ago, Sylvia had a lung condition."

"I know. She told me."

"Well, unfortunately, a lump has been growing in her right lung ever since the day she recovered. Now that it's big enough, it's preventing her from breathing very well."

"Will you need to operate to remove it?" Perry asked fearfully.

Apollo nodded solemnly. "Unfortunately, if we operate, there will be a 60% chance of death. But if we don't, there'll be a 95% chance of death."

"Then you have to operate on her!" Perry felt very scared of losing another mate. "I can't lose my mate and Nicky can't lose his father."

Apollo nodded again. "I thought you might say that." He paused, allowing everything to sink into Perry's brain. "You can see her now."

Clutching Nicky, Perry followed Apollo into the ward, where he found his mate lying still in a hospital bed, wearing an oxygen mask like the ones on planes. Her eyes were closed, but both the steady rise and fall of her chest and the beeping of the heart monitor reassured Perry that she was still alive.

He sat down in a chair next to the bed. She was always so full of life…seeing her like this was horrible.

Perry placed Nicky on the bed next to Sylvia. The baby platypus crawled onto his mother's stomach and looked at her face. "Mummy?"

There was no reply.

"Why Mummy not wake up?" Nicky asked Perry.

"She…Mummy's ill," Perry croaked.

"Mummy be okay?"

Perry wished Nicky was old enough to hear the truth but he knew he couldn't do that to the poor boy. "Hopefully, Nick."

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into the face of OWCA's doctor. "It's now or never," he said. "After the operation, there needs to be a period of about four hours for her lungs to recover."

Perry had tears in his eyes as he choked, "Can I stay with her?"

"I'm sorry, but you can't."

"Not even in the four hours?"

Apollo shook his head.

Perry gently tried to pick up Nicky but the baby platypus wrapped both his arms and legs around Sylvia's arm and yelled, "No! Wanta stay with Mummy!"

Perry felt his heart break for his son but he said, "No, Nicky. We need to go."

"MUMMY!" bellowed Nicky. "WANTA STAY WITH MUMMY!"

"He can stay with Sylvia when she's in surgery if he promises to stay out of the way," Apollo said.

Perry stared at him. "Really?"

"He's small. If he stays where he is now, he'll be out of the way and…well, who knows. Maybe his presence will subconsciously reassure Sylvia."

Perry addressed the nearly-crying Nicky. "Nick, you can stay with Mummy but you have to promise to stay exactly where you are. Okay?"

Nicky nodded. "I stay here with Mummy," he said.

Perry stroked his head. "Good boy."

…

Apollo prepared the place for surgery. He wheeled the gurney into the centre of the room and applied the brakes. The baby platypus was still clinging onto his mother's arm as if it was his lifeline.

His nurses, Rendi Meyer and Marika Gorski, were preparing the instruments. It was to be a fairly simple procedure so he didn't need his full body of nurses.

Halfway through the surgery, Apollo realised something was off.

Rendi saw it at the same time. "Sir, her lungs aren't responding the way they should be," he said worriedly.

"I know…" muttered Apollo. He always felt calm in surgery unless something was going wrong and he didn't know what it was. "Why aren't they…?"

Something suddenly began beeping frantically. Marika examined the piece of machinery and reported to Apollo: "Her lungs are deflating rapidly!"

Apollo cursed under his breath and said, "Is there any way to stop it?"

Marika had no answer. She bit her lip anxiously and looked towards Rendi, who answered for her: "There is one way…"

…

*le cliffhanger time* WILL SYLVIA BE OKAY?