Treatment started almost immediately for Gabby's leukemia. When Dr. Maloy returned at five that evening, he wrote the orders for her treatment and sent for it to be filled. While waiting, he explained everything to Gabby and her father. Her father listened intently, but Gabby felt detached, as if she were watching a movie about a character with cancer instead of actually living it, herself.

Dr. Maloy presented her and her father with a list of all of her medicines, and their side effects. She'd lose her appetite, her hair, her body weight, and her development would be delayed because of the combinations of all the drugs. She shook her head, not fully grasping the situation in its entirety.

When ready, Gabby was sent down to the chemo room in a wheelchair, with a nameless orderly pushing her. Her dad wasn't allowed to come with her, so he went for coffee. She thought it barbaric that she had to go through this alone, and wondered if they treated three-year-old's with cancer in exactly the same way.

When they arrived at the chemo room, Gabby's eyes were wide in awe. The chemo room looked different than what she expected. She thought she'd be in a torture room, painted black or something where they had to strap you down to even give you the medicine. Instead, she saw contour chairs, almost like the one's at her dentist, with IV stands beside each. The room was painted a soft yellow. A desk sat in one corner of the room where a nurse sat, busily working. The other side had a toy box. More bookshelves were in here than in the activity room. Gabby smiled, asking the orderly to stop for a moment. She found a couple of science books...one a text book and the other a guide to different insects and bugs...and sat them in her lap. She was wheeled to one of the free chairs, where she stood up and merely changed places. The orderly promised to be back in two hours, and that part was mind boggling to Gabby. Two hours! She hadn't planned on being here two minutes, much less two hours. But she sighed and nodded. Then the nurse came over, animatedly chatting as she read Gabby's chart. She flipped the plastic bag that contained Gabby's prescribed dosage of chemo medication, and inserted the IV into the one that was already taped down on her hand. "Are you comfy?" the nurse, Lydia, finally asked.

Gabby meekly nodded her head, watching as the medicine seeped slowly into her veins. Two hours...she still couldn't believe it. And it seemed simple enough. Just sit there and receive the medicine. But she did wonder why they were giving her the IV first instead of the chemo capsules. She read enough books about cancer over the years to know that usually they gave pills first, then IVs. Then she got worried. In extreme cases, they would give the patient the IV drugs at first to get the medicine into their system, and she wondered how extreme and bad off her case actually was. She tried to shake off the feeling, knowing it would do her no good to worry, and instead took out a small notebook and wrote down her thoughts, that way she could remember to ask her doctor about it, later.

By the time the two hours were up, Gabby couldn't even sit up straight. They had to bring in a gurney to wheel her up to her room. By the time she arrived, she was vomiting into a basin so hard that she thought her stomach would explode. As soon as she was in her bed, her dad rushed to her aide, taking a damp cloth to her forehead and whispering soothing words. He sat down on the gurney with her, and was telling her silly bug jokes that took her mind right off her problems. In no time, she was asleep.

Gabby awoke with a start a few hours later. Outside, it was dark, but she had no concept of time. All she knew was that something had awaken her. She struggled to a sitting position, looking around. Her father was in a recliner chair beside her bed, curled in an unnatural position. She smiled to herself, and wondered with his insomnia what the nurses had given him so that he could sleep.

Another glance around the room, and she found what she was looking for. It wasn't a "what" that had awaken her, but a "who." A curtain partition was in her room, she knew, but no other gurney had been there when she arrived earlier. Now, there was and in it was a young girl. As quietly as she could, she crawled out of bed and rolled her IV stand over to the curtain, pulling it back a peak. A girl, not much older than Gabby, was curled in a fetal position on the bed. She had white-blond hair, as far as Gabby could tell, and was crying as hard as she could. Gabby softly cleared her throat, and the girl jumped up.

"Who are you?" the girl snapped.

Gabby was slightly taken aback. So far that day, that was the second person who'd been rude to her. But she pushed her annoyance aside. Gabby knew she would've been rude, too, if she wasn't still in denial.

"I'm Gabby Grissom," she whispered, walking ever-so softly towards the bed. "Who're you?"

The girl was slightly taken aback herself, and in turn, smiled as a gesture of apology towards Gabby. "I'm Piper Lampkin. I-I'm sorry for being rude, it's just...you startled me."

"No problem," Gabby said. "Forget about it."

The two girls smiled at one another, and Piper beckoned for Gabby to come closer. Gabby obliged, and soon found herself sitting on Piper's bed, trying her best, again, not to get tangled amongst all the IV tubing and wires and such.

"Do you have leukemia, too?" Piper finally asked in a soft voice that almost held a hint of an accent. She wasn't from around Vegas, but where if she was at that particular hospital?

"Yes," Gabby whispered with a sad nod of her head. She looked to the floor. "Not to pry, but where are your parents?"

Now it was Piper's turn to look sad. Tears brimmed in her eyes, yet none fell. "We just moved to Vegas from Kentucky. My father got a promotion," she said proudly. "Well, we were just visiting Clark County...we live two hours away...and then I got sick." She seemed sad, almost ashamed over the information. "Anyways, after my doctor found out what was wrong and admitted me, my parents had to leave. They promised to be back here this weekend, but..." her voice trailed off and she sniffled. Gabby reached over and patted her hand, not understanding how parents could leave a sick child in the hospital, all alone, without either one of them.

"Why couldn't they stay with you?" Gabby asked, bewildered.

"Because they had to take care of my brothers and sisters," Piper said, confused, almost as if being an only child was abnormal.

"Oh," Gabby simply stated, embarrassed that she was an only child. She didn't divulge that information to Piper. "How many siblings do you have?"

Piper smiled. "I have an older brother, Michael, but he's only fourteen, so he can't stay there alone to watch all the others. Then there's Kathy...she's twelve going on forty. I'm nine. Brett's seven. And Lucy's five."

Gabby's eyes were wide, but she quickly hid her surprise by a small smile. She always wondered about big families, and now she knew someone in one. Not to say that she'd never wanted a sibling. She had. But only one, and not a whole slew of them. But Gabby still didn't feel that she could divulge that she was an only child, so she changed the subject instead. She saw that Piper, too, had an IV, and asked, "are you through with testing?"

"Yea," Piper said with a disgusted look on her face. "Thank heavens."

Gabby giggled. "I had IV chemo today. When do you start?"

"I actually took some pills earlier." Piper's face had an even worse expression on it. "It tasted horrible. This," she gestured to her IV, "is saline, pain medicine, and some kind of slow dripping sleep medicine. They should've just given me a pill for that, too."

Gabby nodded knowingly, pointing to her IV apparatus. "I've got all the same, only I have blood, as well. And no chemo pills, though I wish I had."

"Why?" Piper asked in bewilderment.

"Because IV chemo takes too long and then you get twice as sick afterward," Gabby replied, then quickly added, "or so I'm told."

Piper giggled, and their friendship began as the two girls stayed up half into the night, telling jokes and swapping stories, bonding over their now-shared experience with having cancer.

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The next morning, Gabby felt none too better than she had last night. In fact, she actually felt worse. She quickly sat up and began heaving into her now-clean basin, trying to get up as much as she could before breakfast trays were to arrive. In her state, she didn't think she could keep anything down, but she knew she had to try.

She heard the toilet flush, thinking for a moment that it was Piper until she saw the small form on the bed, tossing and turning. When the restroom door opened, her mother emerged, a small and encouraging smile on her face. "Hi my ladybug."

"Hi mommy," Gabby said brightly, throwing her arms around her mother. After a couple of moments, her mother washed out her basin and brought it back, sitting with her daughter on the edge of her hospital bed.

"So, you're father tells me you were up half the night," her mother said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"How'd he know?" Gabby asked, taken aback in surprise.

Sara laughed. "You didn't really think he'd sleep too long, now did you?"

Gabby smiled sheepishly. "No, I...I guess not."

Sara grinned at her daughter, smoothing her hair off her now damp and papery thin forehead. "You feeling okay?"

Gabby shrugged. "About as good as this poison will let me feel, I guess. I can still talk, at least."

"That's true, Miss Gabby, you can," her mother said, and after a thoughtful moment, replied, "you're being so brave, you know that?"

Gabby shrugged, being modest at her mother's show of affection. "I'm no braver than I was before this, and I'll be no braver after it's over."

Sara thought, then shook her head. "Nope, I don't believe that. You are more brave than yesterday, and you'll be braver than this tomorrow. Just you wait and see."

Gabby couldn't dispute her mother's wisdom and logic, so she merely nodded her head.

After she took a shower, Gabby sat on her bed and received a breakfast tray and morning medications, to which she scrunched her nose at both.

"Yuck," she exclaimed.

"But think of all the good they'll do for you," Jill said sweetly, being as encouraging as she could. Gabby could think of nothing she'd rather do less, but in the end she took her medicine and at the disgusting hospital food...which didn't stay down for long.

Later, Gabby, Sara and Piper played a couple of rounds of rummy, then both girls laid down to rest for a little bit. In the afternoon brought friends, Gabby's aunt and uncles, from the crime lab, who all worked the same shift as her mother, who'd be going to work soon, and her father would be coming back. She sighed, wishing they could both be here at the same time, but that wouldn't happen unless they actually quit their jobs and they wouldn't...couldn't do that. Gabby knew that much for sure.

"Hi squirt," Nick said, ruffling her hair. With him, he had a teddy bear dressed in an outfit that had bugs all over it.

Gabby smiled, taking the offered bear. "Thanks uncle Nicky."

Catherine gave her a more girly teddy bear, that she didn't really like but said she did. Greg gave her a game that dealt with bugs and a college science textbook.

"At least someone's finally read my mind," Gabby said with a grin as she thumbed through the text.

Gabby introduced Piper to all of her uncles and aunt, and Piper was acting shy. Then she got up the nerve to ask them all what their jobs were.

Sara's eyes went wide as she looked to the others, but it was Gabby who spoke up. "They investigate crime scenes and dead bodies." Sara clamped her hand over Gabby's mouth, but Piper was grinning. "Cool," Piper replied.

Everyone soon left for work, and Piper and Gabby lay down in their respective beds to rest. Gabby wasn't feeling too well at all, and hadn't even had her chemo yet. She was freezing and couldn't get herself to stay warm. The last thing she remembered was the sound of the trays rattling down the hall, and then she was asleep.