Denni watched as her mother walked back through the hallway of the hospital, being lead back to the waiting room by a nurse. Denni tried to read her face, but was unable to make out what was happening. As she neared, Denni saw it. Something broken behind the stoic mask.
"No…" Denni said softly "No…no, we were supposed to have more time! We were supposed to have another month!".
Cynthia could only shake her head slightly "They said we can say our goodbyes in about an hour, they said it could happen anytime now. That he could have as little as a few hours, or as much as a week".
Denni felt hot tears streak down her cheeks, rolling down her chin and falling on her shirt. Her mother reached over to touch her, seemingly about to speak some words of comfort.
"Don't" Denni said "I just…can I just have a moment alone?".
After a moment Cynthia nodded, clearly slightly hurt that her daughter was pushing her away. Denni got up, stepping past the sliding doors and into the dark and desolate parking lot. She pulled out two objects as she reached a patch of shadows, one large item, a book, out of her back pocket. The other, a phone, she pulled out of her jacket pocket. Guessing the speed dial for one would be voice mail, she hesitantly pressed two. It only rang a few times before a voice, one of a woman's, answered.
"Natara Williams speaking".
That voice practically rang in her ears. "Nat?" she said without thinking, remembering what was written in the book.
Natara, after just exiting into the dark parking lot to go home, felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She didn't even look at the caller ID as she picked it up, answering it.
"Natara Williams speaking".
There was a brief pauses, then a voice said "Nat?".
It shocked her for a moment, hearing Mal's nickname for her. But it wasn't Mal's voice, it was one of a girls.
"Who is this?" she demanded in shock.
"My name's Denni, I'm Mal's niece. I don't really have time to explain, but Mal's going to die if we can't find him a tissue match. I just can't-" the girl began.
Natara knew what she needed to do at that point. Herself, Amy, Ken, Kai, one of them had to be close.
"I'll be right there" she said quickly, hanging up without giving Denni any further notice. The next thing she knew she was running through the station, calling the names of anyone who could save Mal Fallon.
Bright light attacked Mal's eyelids as soon as he opened them, a sharp hissing noise filling the room. The world was fuzzy, colors fading into each other. But it was bright, the walls made from blues and whites, the ceiling made of light. The hissing stopped, and a figure seemed to appear out of the walls. They blended in, as they were clothed in blue with some sort of white mask covering their mouth and nose.
"You're a pain in the ass, you know that right?" they said. Mal could help but feel the slight tug of a smile at the corners of his mouth as he heard the familiar voice. At first he didn't realize what Natara meant by that, but got it as soon as she winced slightly as she sat down on the foot of his bed.
"How long did it take you to think of that?" he asked, watching as she tugged at the fabric at her upper leg.
"A few hours after they stuck a needle in my thigh" she said. Her voice sounded annoyed, but as the world came into focus he saw she had pulled down her mask and was smiling. "By the way, you're lucky"
"Yeah, yeah, I could have never found a tissue match and could have died. Like I'm not gonna hear that from everyone else" Mal said sarcastically.
She shook her head "Actually, that was your nieces doing, finding me. What I'm saying is, I was a five point match, but they said the last point was so close to yours you'd just have to take a little medication so your body didn't reject it. But, who do you think was a second closest?". Mal shrugged, and Natara answered "Kai".
Mal groaned "Thanks, I wouldn't hear the end of that until…actually, I'd never hear the end of that".
Natara smiled again "He was going off this whole weekend about how if he was a tissue match, since your marrow makes blood cells, it'd be like it was liquid him inside you".
"Weekend?" Mal asked, pushing away the weirdness of what Kai apparently said "What do you mean 'weekend'?".
"Mal, you've been asleep for four days" she said "You had a serious lung infection, even with the marrow donation, they still said you only had a 50/50 chance. Even now, they said your chances have greatly improved, I practically have to go through bio-security just to talk to you". She took a deep breath, clearly deciding weather to say something or not. "Four days is a lot of time" she said, pulling something out from behind her "Enough time to read an interesting book". Then Mal saw what was in her hand, it was his little black book. He knew his face must have shown utter shock, but when he looked at Natara she was beaming. "I especially love how the last chapter ends in a cliffhanger".
Seeing her face, Mal couldn't help but mimic her smile. Because of her, they had years, decades even, to decide where the next chapter would take them.
Sorry if the end seemed REALLY cheesy.