Chapter 15
"So, what now?" Madison asked still coming over the shock.
Spike was speechless; he hadn't said anything after the doc told them the bad news. It was bad news, really bad. Spike was scared, he couldn't let this happen. The love of this life, cancer?
"Well, we would suggest treatment, but I'm afraid it's too late for that. The cancer has spread, it's too late to do anything about it now." Madison put on a brave face and held back the tears. It didn't work. Tears flooded form her. "Okay." She sobbed.
"We can give you drugs to ease the pain." The doctor added.
"How long?" Spike finally said.
"It's hard to say. But, I would guess at around three months."
The doctor stood there, he hated giving this bad news but it had to be done.
"You guess?!" spike screamed at the doctor. "You can't just guess. We need to know." Madison put a hand on Spike's arm. "We need to know." He sobbed quietly.
Spike fell silently in his office chair. He looked at the picture he had on his desk. It was one of Madison; she was wearing a blue tank top and jeans. She wore a big smile on her face, she looked happy.
Tears fell onto the picture in Spike's hands, tears from him.
"Hey." Dawn said walking in and closing the door behind her.
He didn't say anything, just wiped the tears from his face and forced himself to look up.
"How's Madi?" she asked, Spike was fearing she would ask him that.
"She's fine." He nodded trying to convince himself.
"You sure? You don't look too…."
"I said she's fine." Spike raised his voice a little.
"Okay." Dawn said and headed for the door. She looked back hearing Spike crying.
"Spike, Are you okay?" she walked up to the vampire and held him, he let the tears fall.
"It's all my fault." He said.
"What is? What's wrong sweetie?"
"She's dying. It's cancer." Dawn let go of Spike and fell back into a chair. She sat for a long moment letting what Spike had just said register in her brain.
"Cancer?" she finally said. Spike nodded.
"But… how?" dawn asked confused.
"I don't know."
"They can do something right?" she demanded.
Spike shook his head.
Spike entered Madison's hospital room to see she wasn't there.
I'm too late he thought.
"Hey baby." A voice said from behind him. It was Madison. He squeezed her tightly.
"Thank god your still here." He said.
"Yeah. The doctor said I could go back to my usual things."
"You think that's wise?" spike asked with a lot of concern in his tone.
"Why not? I don't wana waste the last few months stuck in here."
"Only if that's what you want." He stroked the side of her face and pressed his lips with hers.
"Yeah, it is."
Dawn went back to her apartment. She was in a lot of shock over Madison. She couldn't lose her best friend. Too much loss in one year was just too much.
Andrew was already there waiting for her, he had cooked some food for the two of them. Dawn just wasn't hungry.
"You ready for spaghetti?" Andrew asked in his usual geeky tone.
"I'm sorry. I'm not hungry." Dawn said and walked straight to her bedroom. In there she cried until she fell asleep.