Chapter 33

Making It Through The Night

Jackson and Cooper walked to the locker room at the end of the day to get ready for another two hours of practice. They were playing so well against the four-man team that the coach decided to move to endurance training for the rest of the week. That meant more weights, swimming, and stairs.

"You know what I hate about endurance training?" Jackson asked.

"Would it be the weights, swimming and stairs?"

"Exactly."

"Well, look at the bright side."

"There's a bright side?"

"Yeah, we don't have to do anything on Friday."

"Oh yeah. The pep rally."

"I can't wait!! And to think that we'll get to meet Hannah Montana! That's the icing on the cake"

"Okay. Just don't mix baking and a crush, man."

"I don't have a crush on her. She is a little bit young for us, you know."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. Just that I have met her once or twice whenever dad gets invited to music functions."

"So that is how you score all those concert tickets! You use your dad!"

Jackson let out his breath in a small sigh.

"You caught me. I use my dad." Which was true to a point.

"Don't worry J-man, I won't spill your secret. Now let's get done so we can find out how Maggie's doing."

"Amen to that."

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Maddie and the twins spent a boring day at the house slash beach. Robbie and Carey had gone to the hospital to give Jim and Sara the support they needed as Maggie fought for her life. This left the three of them on their own until the others got home from school. But until then it was boring. At least that is what Zack was thinking. Who said this is the life?

"Tell me again why we are sitting here on the beach being bored."

"We're waiting for the others to get home from school." Cody told Zack.

"But I thought being on vacation meant having fun."

"We're not on vacation Zack, mom is."

"How can you call sitting in a hospital being on vacation or having fun?"

"Because your mom is doing what she wants to do, Zack. Have you not listened to anything that Miley said about helping others?"

"Yes. But I didn't know she meant it."

"Are you sure were related?"

"It explains the fact we look alike."

Maddie listen to Zack and Cody and smiled to herself. She was always amused when they fought about there differences. To Maddie, it was easy to tell the twins apart. They were as different as night and day, but to hear Zack and Cody talk, there was no difference in the two of them basically speaking. But it was always the same when they got into this argument. Cody would go off on how Zack wouldn't study and got into trouble and Zack would go off on how he was the good looking, good around girls and fun to be around twin. Maddie always found that mantra to be very funny because Cody was too. Maddie looked at her watch and decided it was time to break things up.

"Okay, you two. We need to get going if we're going to be ready to go to the hospital when the others get home from school."

"If this is our vacation, then why didn't you go to school with Miley, Cody? I would have thought going to school would be a vacation for you."

"At least I don't consider not being in trouble a vacation."

"Cody. That hurts. I only get in trouble if I'm caught."

"Okay guys, I think this round is a draw." Maddie told them as they went into the Stewarts' house.

Maddie went up to Miley's room to change. As she was changing, she noticed the back wall of the closet seemed to be broken. Curious, Maddie walked over to check it out and got a very big surprise. For when she moved Miley's clothes aside, she found two doors with Hannah Montana's trademark on them. After a bit of thought, curiosity got the best of her and she pushed the door the rest of the way open. The lights came on automatically.

"WOW! This is way better than London's whole floor of the hotel closet."

Maddie walked in and started to look around. One of the first things she saw were the gold and platinum records on the wall. Just below them were the Grammies that she had won. Elsewhere on the walls were articles about Hannah Montana. Over there were autographed pictures to Hannah from other celebrities. As Maddie turn to face another direction, she stopped and stared. There sitting on a shelf were four sets of blonde wigs, each with its own hairstyle. Maddie walked over and picked up the dummy head that had the wig with the straight hairstyle that Hannah is seen with the most.

"This is so cool. And it feels so real."

"That's because it's real hair," Miley said smiling at how Maddie jumped.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. I just thought the back wall in your closet was broken and I was just checking it out and……"

"It's okay, Maddie. It's kind of like finding the Batcave."

"You can say that again. Are those real?" Maddie asked pointing at the gold and platinum records on the wall after putting the wig back.

"Yep. So are the Grammies."

"Can I pick one up?"

"Sure."

Maddie walked over to the to the trophy case and picked up a Grammy. 'For Best New Artist 2004 – Hannah Montana'. She looked at another for song of the year, I Miss You.

"I Miss You is my most favorite songs of yours, I think. I always cry when I hear it. Was it hard for you to record?"

"Yeah, it was. I had to turn all the lights off in the studio and I sat on a table with my knees pulled up to my chest just to be able to sing it. I only recorded it once." A tear rolled down Miley's check.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry."

"That's okay. I cried through the whole song when I recorded it."

"Is that why to never sing the song in concert?"

"Yeah"

"MILEY, MADDIE! THE LIMO IS HERE" Lilly called up from downstairs.

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The three units for the transfusion were ready to go at one in the afternoon. Dr Ryan set the transfusion up herself. She also took some blood to test. She wanted to see if the transplant had taken yet. Dr. Ryan knew it was too soon, but she was going to run the test anyways.

"How are Jim and Sara holding up?" Dr Ryan asked Carey.

"The tension is starting to show on Sara, but she is doing better now that Jim is here. We're going to try to get her home for one night. Jim is going to bring it up to her later."

"Well, if you think she needs a tranquilizer, let me know."

"Thanks, Dr. Ryan."

Dr. Ryan made a note in Maggie's chart about the sleeping pill for Sara.

After that, she went down to the lab herself to run the test. During the test, she had to stifle several yawns. Okay. After this test, she was going home. I won't be able to help Maggie or any other patients if I don't get my rest too. After looking at several slides, there was still a majority of marrow in the blood stream and no increase of red blood cells. Well, she knew that the results were going to be negative before she even started. She was just hoping.

"Sharon, I'm going home. Run another test in two hours" Dr. Ryan told the lab tech as she made the note on the test order chart.

"Glad to see your going home for some rest, doctor."

"Me too."

Dr. Ryan drove home. She was really looking forward to her bed right now.

But the back of her mind was still chewing on things she had no control over. But when she walked into her bedroom and hit the pillow, all the long years of experience took over and turned that part of her brain off as her eyes closed.

The smell of fine food filtered its way into her mind as Dr. Ryan started to wake up. She rolled over to find that she had a blanket on her, curtains closed and the house quiet. Stretching, Cathy pushed herself up and out of bed. Next, she let her nose lead the way to the kitchen. There in the dining room just off the kitchen sat her family.

"MOMMY" her ten-year-old daughter Jill shouted on seeing her. Jill got out of her chair and went to hug her mom.

"I missed you, Mommy."

"I missed you too, sweetie"

"Is it true she knows Hannah Montana, Mommy?"

"What are you talking about, dear?"

"The word around school is that Hannah's Maggie is at the hospital."

"Where did you hear that from?"

"From kids at school that watched the Hannah concert on Saturday."

"Yes, Hannah's friend Maggie is at the hospital, and yes, she has been there to see her. But you know I can't tell you if she is one of my patients."

"I know. I just thought it would be neat if you had met her, is all."

Jill sat back down as Cathy sat down to eat with her family.

"So tell me, what have you been up to, Brian?"

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The limo dropped the kids off at the hospital and they went up to Maggie's room. Not all of them could go in at once so some waited outside for their turn. There wasn't much visiting to do with Maggie. She was asleep the whole time they were there. The most that could be done was to visit with Jim and Sara. But when it was time to go, Jim had convinced Sara to go home with the kids and get some much needed rest. Sara would be back early in the morning.

Once everyone was back home at the Stewart's house, Frank showed up with the little bottle of medicine that Miley would use tomorrow to make it look like she had the flu. She was not looking forward to that.