Authors note: hey guys here is the next chapter for this story now with my other book I have decided to delete that story and actually write a different story but I won't be writing that till I have finished this one as I am going back to uni everything will be crazy and I'll have less time to update. Now I would like to thank everyone of my reviewer's you guys are the real MVP's of this story and you guys keep me going, quick disclaimer I don't own any of these characters apart from the ones I make up now I hope you guys enjoy this one.

It was around 8:30 when Valentina woke up to the sound of kids and adults talking down stairs she got up from bed and looked around she noticed Sam wasn't in the room and Val assumed she was downstairs with that in mind. Val grab her favourite Levi jeans and put them on she then grabbed her Burberry sweater and threw that on but as she was about to do her makeup she felt the urge to throw up for the past few weeks she had been vomiting throughout the day. She first thought that she was responding to stress but when she saw the glands on her neck sticking out as well as the ones under her arms she knew that this wasn't stress but with everything going on she never bothered getting checked out she was glad that Sam was making her go get checked out, because Valentina wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to deal with feeling sick, she walked into the bathroom and quickly threw up in the toilet but as she felt herself she realised she was getting a fever, she quickly took some medications to stop and then went about brushing her teeth and doing her makeup after that she headed downstairs to join the rest of her family.

"Morning Val did you sleep well?"

"Morning Aunt Mere and yes I did what's for breakfast?"

"your mum's famous waffles there is plate of them over there for you."

"Great mum's waffles are the best."

Valentina took a couple of waffles and then grabbed some juice she then sat next to Sam who looked at Val strangely and Val figured Sam knew that she wasn't feeling the greatest this morning.

"Val are you feeling ok I mean no offense but you look like crap?" Sam whispered.

"No, I don't feel like shit what time does everyone leave so we can go to the hospital and get it over with?"

"They leave at 9:00 after that we can get out hopefully Ryan won't notice us leaving but we'll just make up an excuse and convince him of that."

"Alright sounds good now let's just drop it and hope no one will catch on to the way I look."

At that moment, her mum and Ryan walked into the room and took notice of her immediately Val knew she was going to have to convince her mum that she was fine and Val prayed that the tablets did their job and reduced the fever because she knew if her mum felt her body temp and it wasn't normal she would not let it go and the last thing Val wanted was her mum getting worried about what might be wrong with her.

"Morning princess did you sleep well?"

"Morning mum and yes I slept well you?"

"Yes, I did but are you feeling ok Val you don't look well?"

"I'm feeling fine mum honestly don't worry."

"Ok well if you don't feel well at any point today let me know ok."

Val nodded her head but Amelia knew her daughter well enough to know that something was wrong but she also knew not to press Valentina and figured she would tell her later on if something was wrong, but Amelia couldn't help but feel like something was seriously wrong with her daughter and for some unknown reason she couldn't shake that feeling but she continued on with her morning silently hoping that she was just overacting.

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully and soon most of the adults left the house leaving only Ryan, Sam and Val the two girls looked at each other and figured they should get going seeing as how Seattle Presbyterian was an hour and half from Grey Sloan memorial and the girls didn't want to be there to long so they finished getting ready and were about to head out when they remembered they needed to come up with some excuse for where they were headed, so that Ryan didn't become suspicious and tell Amelia anything.

"Hey Ryan Val and I are heading to a friend of mines house we'll be home later on you'll be right here?"

"Yeah sure but don't be too late your Aunt Amelia has to tell you all something."

"yeah sure we'll be home in the afternoon well before everyone else gets home."

Ryan was a bit suspicious of the girl's story but figured it wasn't his place to question it even though he had a good feeling they weren't heading to a friend's house.

The two girls were glad they got out of there without managing to arouse anyone's suspicions the two girls were just hoping whatever was wrong could be treated with some medications and that nothing was seriously wrong because neither girl wanted anyone getting worried or anything like that even though Sam knew something was seriously wrong with her cousin but she didn't want to worry Val but deep inside whatever was wrong with Valentina was more than a simple infection. The two girls spent the next two hours driving they soon pulled up at Seattle Pres Sam parked the car and the two of them entered the E.R which was unusually quiet but both girls were grateful for that it meant they would be seen quickly and hopefully in and out within the hour. Val walked up to reception and filled out all of the paperwork and the two of them sat in the waiting room for around ten minutes before being called in by the E.R doctor.

"You must be Valentina Shepherd I'm DR Eric Boyd what seems to be the issue with you today?"

"Well I had sex a few weeks ago however it was a random one night stand and I need to get tested for STD's but I also started vomiting recently and the glands in my arms and next have started sticking out, I've also had fatigue but I thought that may have been related to stress and this morning I started having a fever but I took some medications to stop it."

"Ok and when you say you started having these symptoms how long are we talking about?"

"I would say about a month or so but like I said I never thought anything of it because I had been under a lot of stress because of some personal issues going on at home."

"Ok well Miss Shepherd I'd like to run a blood test and we'll see what that say's in the meantime I'd also like to look at the glands and feel those for you."

Dr Boyd began running his fingers over the glands and Val could see from the expression on his face that he knew something was seriously wrong but was obviously trying to hide it and not scare her. However, growing up with a surgeon Valentina could recognise when a doctor was worried or not it was the same expression her mum made whenever she knew something was seriously wrong but didn't want to alarm the patients. Val looked over at Sam and the two of the looked at each other with that knowing look both girls knew that something was seriously but neither girl wanted to admit it.

"Alright the nurse is going to draw some blood and setup an IV in the meantime would like me to call your parents?"

"No, I don't want to call my mum yet and get her worried she's a surgeon and I don't want to pull her out of surgery to worry her if it's nothing."

"Alright well I guess we can wait and see what the blood test says we should have the results within the hour ok."

Dr Boyd left the room leaving only the girls and the nurse who quickly drew blood from Valentina and setup the IV after that the nurse left and Sam quickly closed the curtains so that they wouldn't be disturbed.

"Val are you ok?"

"Not really I'm scared Sam I mean did you seen his face you could tell that he knew something was seriously wrong I mean what if something is seriously wrong what the hell am I going to do."

"Val, you can't be thinking like that let's just hope it's some kind of nasty infection that will be treated with some antibiotics or some other kind of medications you know as well as I do that it could be a million one different things let's just watch some videos on our phones and pass the time and hopefully we'll have the results soon."

Val pulled out her phone and the two girls began watching videos on YouTube to pass the time and while Sam wasn't going to admit it to Val she knew that there was something seriously wrong with her cousin she just hoped it wasn't the one thing she was thinking of she quickly drew those thoughts out of her mind and continued watching the videos.

Meanwhile outside at the desk

"Dr Boyd the results of Valentina's blood work are back and they want you to look at them immediately apparently it's urgent."

"Thank you nurse I'll take a look right now."

As grabbed the tablet and looked at everything all of her results seemed in order except when he looked at her white blood cell count he saw why it was urgent she came back infection free but her WBC's. Came back as being double what they should normally be and coupled with her other symptoms he knew that it was likely she was suffering from Lymphoma and he didn't want to go in there and say that but he knew had to get the glands tested and see if the results did confirm that it was Lymphoma, he hoped that it wouldn't be the case she seemed like a sweet girl who definitely didn't deserve a diagnosis like this but nevertheless he had to do his job and talk to the girls.

"Hello girls, so Miss Shepherd I have the results of your latest blood test now everything seems to be in order except for your WBC's now it double what it normally should be so I need further tests to rule out a few things and so I'll have a nurse take a sample of those raised lymph nodes after that we should have a clear idea of what we are dealing with does that sound good."

"DR Boyd my mum is a surgeon I have grown up my whole life with surgeons I know that when you say that WBC's are elevated that would mean either infection and cancer but since you ruled out infection is what you are testing for cancer?"

"Miss Shepherd look normally I do not like to be this upfront with patients but since you seem aware of everything yes I am testing for lymphoma as I believe that would be the likely diagnosis but I cannot say with certainty until the results from your lymph nodes come back. However, I must advise that if the results come back positive for lymphoma I will have no choice but to contact your mother as we require her consent for all the potential treatments."

"Yeah I understand thanks Dr Boyd"

The nurse comes back in and takes a sample of the lymph nodes but this test hurts Valentina quite a bit and once she took the sample Valentina was relieved that it was over but now it was a waiting game of finding out if that she did have cancer and Val knew that if she did have it she was in for a lot more pain discomfort a lot more than the amount of pain she felt from the last sample. She couldn't help but think of her mum and she knew that if this was what she had her mum was going to be devastated and Val was worried that was going to cause her to spiral again she prayed her mum would be strong enough to help her through this and seeing as how she had a lot of support Val hoped that this would help her mum out even more. Then Val remembered that her mum was pregnant and Val hoped this child would be the reminder to her mum not to spiral, Val turned her attention to her cousin who just looked at her sympathetically.

"Val it'll be ok and there is a chance that it may not be lymphoma."

"Sam let's be real here you know as well as I do that the only reason WBC's are elevated is because of infection and cancer also my other symptoms are a clear indicator of it more than likely being cancer I just hope it isn't too severe."

"Val even if it is cancer you'll kick its ass ok we'll all be here to help you fight it alright you are going to be ok trust me we will do everything to help you beat it and then you can put it behind you ok you aren't going down that easy you got that Valentina Addison Shepherd."

The two girls soon embraced each other tightly and while Sam was trying to be brave on the outside she knew that on the inside she was just as scared for her cousin she also knew how much pain she would be in within the next few months, Sam knew that whole family was going to have to rally around Val and help her out with everything she knew that they were going to have to possess the same strength that Val had in order to help, Sam let Val go and the two girls continued watching videos for a few hours while they awaited for the results of the sample.

Around three hours later the doctor came back into the room only this time he wasn't alone the two girls knew that their worst fears had been realised when they saw the two other doctors come into the room both girls just hoped it wasn't too advanced and that they got it early.

"Miss Shepherd these are my colleague's Dr Whiteman and Dr Moss, Dr Whiteman is the oncologist and Dr Moss is our Paediatric attending at the hospital."

"Miss Shepherd I'm Dr Whiteman now we want to discuss the results of your samples from the lymph nodes now they do indicate the presence of a cancer known as Hodgkin's lymphoma a cancer of the WBC's in the lymph nodes it's a rare cancer it accounts for only 0.1% of the cancers we see and this cancer is common amongst kids of your age."

The other doctor then stood forward towards the girls Valentina had an idea of what he was about to say next and while she didn't want tell her mum she knew that she now had no option but to tell her and right Val really did want her mum she was her rock and all she wanted was to hug her mum because Valentina was so scared and she knew her mum would be the only one to ease her.

"Miss Shepherd doctor Boyd explained before that in order for us to proceed with treatment we have to contact your mum but if you want to be transferred to another hospital we can do that if you'd like but it's protocol to contact her."

"Yes, I understand I'll give you her number and as for being transferred I want to be treated at Grey Sloan my whole family works there and we know people over there so yeah I'd like to be transferred over there."

"Alright I'll arrange for transfer in the meantime Dr Whitman will contact your mum now in case we are unable to contact your mum who else is your legal guardian that would answer?"

"I guess my mum's fiancé Ryan or my uncle Derek but Ryan would be more likely to answer since he isn't working at the moment."

Valentina gave the numbers out and soon all three doctors left the room at this point Valentina and Sam were trying to digest the bit of info they had gotten and Valentina knew that at this point she was going to have an uphill battle to beat the cancer and move forward.

Authors note: Ok guys so now we are really getting into the story because now it's time to see how she will handle this but it's also time for her to tackle a few issues throughout her journey anyways let me know what you think and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as always let me know what you think xxx.