AN: Sorry this one is so short, I'm feeling a little under the weather. Hope you still enjoy... let me know!
Sam raced to the base hospital on his bike barely slowing down to check for traffic at intersections; his only concern was Jenna. When Celia told him that Jenna had been admitted his heart had stopped for a moment before everything rushed back into living color, pushing him to get to her as soon as possible. He had seen her earlier, right after track practice and he couldn't help but wonder how she had gotten so bad so fast; she had been feeling better, and had even laughed at his stupid jokes, a huge improvement over what had been occurring the previous couple of days.
Celia had warned him about visiting Jenna while she had the flu, apparently the family doctor and friend didn't think that he was back to his normal self just yet and wanted him to take extra precautions to make sure he didn't contract the virus as well. Although he had listened patiently, he disregarded her concerns knowing that there was no way he wasn't going to be there for Jenna when she needed him.
Stepping into the hospital corridor, Sam tried not to spiral into a panic attack. He hated hospitals, always had but especially so after being committed by a greedy doctor and his insane father. Pushing those memories behind him, he rushed forward and quickly found the Colonel and Celia talking in the hallway. When they saw him, they both looked worried, which scared him more.
"Oh God, please tell me she's alright. Please!" he practically begged. Jenna was more than his girlfriend, she was his best friend outside of his brothers and the thought of something seriously happening to her was crushing to him.
Celia saw the raw panic on Sam's face and knew that she needed to step in soon otherwise she'd have another patient on her hands. "Sam, she's stable, and yes she'll be fine. She was complaining of stomach pain and the lab tests came back inconclusive so we admitted her to try and find out why she's having such a hard time fighting this, ok?"
"So she's ok?" he asked, not fully understanding what the problem was then, and why Celia would have put Jenna in the hospital if everything was fine.
Terrence looked at Celia sternly before he faced the young man before him. "Sam, sit down, you look like you ran the whole way here." Seeing that he wasn't going to get the boy to do something that he didn't want to do, he nodded before he continued. "Sam, the test results haven't come back conclusive enough for an accurate diagnosis, but from what the radiologist saw and her symptoms, they're pretty certain son that Jenna has stage 2 ovarian cancer."
Sam stood there in the hallway in shock. He'd heard what the Colonel said, knew what it meant, but he felt almost detached from it; as if it was really happening to someone else and not to his sweet Jenna, it couldn't be happening to her – it just couldn't.
"Sam, why don't you sit down for a minute while I call the Musketeers for you." Celia said quietly as she guided him to a row of cushioned chairs in the hallway. She hadn't wanted to tell him until they were absolutely certain, but obviously the Colonel thought Sam could handle it; it looked like he was wrong.
"No… that's ok, you don't have to do that. Is she awake, can I see her?" he asked, trying to pull his thoughts together before they went spiraling out of control again.
Terrence pointed towards the door across the hall and nodded for Sam to go in, and then watched as the boy paused at the doorway, take a deep breathe then walk inside out of sight.
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Dean hated not knowing what was going on. Sure he was a Marine and mostly used to following orders when need be, but he was also smart enough to know what was going on so he could make the right judgment calls when warranted. Watching his little brother tear out of the apartment building after practically crawling into it barely an hour before made him replay their whole conversation, and the feeling he had was more than a little unsettling.
When Stephen, Joseph and Tyler raced back out of the apartment, Dean knew that they were just as determined as he was to find out exactly what was going on. At least this time they knew where he was going, this time they knew why he was rushing away from them. This they could handle, they just had to get there to make sure nothing happened to their little brother to make him crash and burn.
Screeching to a stop in front of the hospital entrance, it didn't take the four men long to get inside and follow the hallway in time to see a very dejected Sammy walk into a room with the Colonel looking on as if his world was falling apart. Quickly looking at each other, the guys knew that whatever it was, was big and bad and no amount of bullets was going to be able to keep the ones they loved from being hurt.
"Colonel, what's going on? How's Jenna?" Joseph asked, carefully watching the older man.
Shaking his head Terrence knew that these men would have been here even if Sam wasn't back with them. They had grown into a family of their own and although many didn't understand it, these young men were like sons to him; when one hurt, so did he. Now he knew they felt the same way, and they didn't even know yet why their heart was aching.
"Jenna's sick. We thought it was just the flu, but when she started complaining about stomach pain I brought her in. They did an ultrasound, which led to other tests, which led to another more in depth ultrasound and…" he tried to compose himself, but was quickly failing. "They're not sure, the results aren't in yet and they still have other tests to run but…"
"Colonel?" Dean asked, fearing that the young lady had somehow, someway fallen victim to the disease that claimed her mother and was waging a war with his brother. "Colonel, what's wrong with Jenna?"
The sound of someone yelling and something hitting a wall inside the room across from them brought them all out of their conversation with a stunned silence. It wasn't until they heard Jenna screaming for Sam to get out that they knew something was terribly wrong. It was Sam's answering yell that he wasn't going to let her go through it alone that brought everything to a head with her answering;
"I don't want you here, do you understand me Sam? Don't look at me like that, I refuse to feel sorry for you anymore – now get out!"
There was a moment that it seemed all movement and even time itself stopped, then the door opened and Sam rushed out not even taking a moment to look at his brothers or the Colonel; instead passing Celia without even acknowledging her presence, disappearing around the corner and back into the night.
Terrence didn't even hesitate. "Go, I've got Jenna, just make sure he doesn't take what she said to heart."
The Musketeers nodded as they rushed off expecting to have to chase after their Sammy, but was surprised to see him sitting on the bumper of the Suburban with his head in his hands.
"Sammy…" Dean began, but when he saw his little brother raise his head he knew that it was going to take more than just a little pep talk; Jenna had taken Sammy's heart and crushed it. "Ah Sammy, you know she didn't mean it, she loves you."
Sam looked at his brother as if he'd never seen him before, and then scoffed. "Yeah, she loves me so much she wanted to make sure I knew how much of a loser I am."
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Terrence walked into his little girl's hospital room and knew that his suspicions were correct; she did what she did to protect Sam. Sitting on Jenna's bed he coaxed the crying figure into his arms and let her cry until she started telling him all the awful things that he had told the young man that she loves with everything that she has.
"But I didn't mean it Daddy… I swear I didn't, but he can't be around me while I'm on chemo, it could kill him, right? I can't be the reason he dies Daddy, I can't!" she cried, hanging on to the last person she had to hang on to, the first one being the very one she sent broken out of her room.
"Jenna, listen to me. Sam is a lot tougher than you think, and there is nothing he wouldn't do for you." Terrence told his daughter and then shushed her before she interrupted. "You think that you are protecting him from your illness, but you wouldn't accept that from him would you? Of course not, you'd fight him tooth and nail to get back into his life. The difference is, you knew all of his weak spots and used them knowing what it would do to him. He still loves you sweetheart, and I know that he would take your place if he could, do you really want to take his choice to see you through this away just because of your fears?"
Jenna thought about what her father said and understood what he meant. Sam had wanted to just remain friends out of respect and love for her because of his HIV status and it actually hurt her severely, then after finding out the truth she knew that she still wouldn't leave him; no matter what. Now she had done the same thing, only where he had used avoidance, she had gone on the attack and ripped his heart out. "Oh Daddy, what have I done?" she asked, as she started crying again, not out of fear for herself, but from the pain that she had caused her Sam.