beautiful

chapter 14: tell them

Wednesday was here, and we were all awake and ready to go by eight o'clock that morning. I sat with Nina in the backseat, and she leaned against me, still exhausted.

"This is so strange," Amber said from the passenger's seat, "I feel like I'm supposed to be driving over here, but…I'm not."

"A lot of things may seem backwards here," Nina's Gran explained, "I guess we Americans just like to do things differently."

"That's alright," Amber replied dreamily, looking out the window, "I like the food!"

We all laughed, and for the first time in a while, Nina was genuinely smiling. I looked at her in wonder, knowing that it was her smile I first fell in love with. She noticed I was staring, and met my gaze, furrowing her eyebrows.

"What?" she asked skeptically. I leaned down and kissed her quickly before replying, "You're very beautiful."

She wrapped her arms around my waist, hugging me close.

"Fabian?" Nina whispered.

"Yes?" I answered softly.

"I love you," she rested her cheek against my arm, and I pulled her a little closer.

"The feeling's mutual," I kissed her forehead, and she sighed. But it wasn't a sigh of contentment.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, and she took a shaky breath.

"I'm just really nervous," she said, gazing blankly out the window. I kissed the top of her head, and caught the familiar scent of her shampoo. I stroked her arm, silently comforting her, although (like most days lately) I wasn't sure exactly how much good I was doing.

I've never liked hospitals; now I have one more reason to dislike them. Nina was in a hospital gown, lying on a sterile, cold hospital bed, and hooked up to what seemed like a million different machines. The doctor was explaining how Nina's treatment would work.

"The results of the spinal tap showed that there were no leukemia cells in your cerebrospinal fluid," he began, and I shuddered internally. I was glad I didn't have to see the spinal tap; I didn't even want to imagine my poor Nina being stuck in the back with a huge needle for half an hour.

"That's good, right?" Nina asked, and the doctor nodded.

"It's very good," he replied with a slight smile, "It means we caught it early. Now, your first chemotherapy treatment, which starts today, is going to be very intense. You may feel fatigued, nauseous, or have some pain. These are just side effects. The goal of treatment is to quickly destroy the leukemia cells. You'll have to stay here in the hospital for the duration of the treatment, which is about a week. You are then allowed around three weeks to recover from the treatment."

"Do I have to stay here for the recovery period?" Nina inquired.

"It depends on your state," the doctor said, "But if your side effects are mild, you can return home under the monitoring of a nurse."

I could understand why Nina was so nervous. This treatment might double what she's already been feeling. But if it meant her being cured, well…nothing was more important than that.

"We're going to inject two drugs intravenously," the doctor explained as a nurse wheeled in a cart with bags and needles, "They are called 'Cytarabine' and 'Daunorubicin'. The Cytarabine is necessary to the treatment, but if your side effects are too severe, we can try replacing the Daunorubicin with another drug called 'Idarubicin'. We're using the chemo port we put in your chest at the last appointment."

Nina shuddered slightly while the nurse began attaching new tubes to Nina and hanging up the corresponding bags next to the machines. The chemo port is a wire that feeds into the artery under the collar bone, the doctor had clarified; a wrist IV couldn't be used because the chemotherapy drugs would destroy Nina's veins in a matter of minutes.

"Is that it?" Nina asked a few moments later. The doctor nodded. He explained that Nina would be monitored over the next week to see how she was responding to treatment, and left. I sat beside Nina and cradled her hand in mine.

"It's not so bad," she said, squeezing my hand, "I was afraid they'd give me like a ton of shots or put me in a huge machine or something." Nina's Gran took Nina's other hand gently, and Amber came to stand beside me. We were all chatting for a few minutes, but then, my cell phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi, Fabian!" I heard Joy's voice on the other end.

"Hey," I replied, and Nina looked at me, silently asking who it was. I mouthed Joy's name, and I think I heard Nina groan quietly.

"I was wondering if you wanted to catch a movie in an hour?" Joy asked, "I figured a six o'clock showing would be best, since it's already five and most people would have gone during the day."

"Uh," I hesitated, "I…I can't."

"Oh," she sounded disappointed.

"Normally, I would," I replied quickly, "It's just—I'm not really around."

"Well, where are you?"

"I'm in Baltimore, with Nina."

"When did you go there?" she asked, shocked, "I didn't think you were going anywhere this summer!"

"I wasn't, originally," I explained, "But something…came up."

"Is everything okay?" Joy asked, concerned, "Mick told me that he thought something happened, but he never told me you went to America!"

"Well—" I started to say something, but Amber took my phone.

"Hi, Joy, it's Amber," Amber began.

"You're there, too?" I heard Joy scream from the other end, "What's going on? Something can't be right."

"If you can get everyone on a multi-way call, we'll put you on speaker and explain," Amber said shortly. We waited roughly twenty minutes before Patricia, Mara, Mick, Alfie, and Jerome's voices echoed greetings from the receiver.

"Hi, everyone," Amber said, "It's me, Amber, here with Fabian and Nina. You're all on speakerphone."

"Amber, what's going on?" Joy demanded, "Why are you and Fabian suddenly in America?"

"What?" someone shouted, and I didn't have time to tell who it was before everyone started reacting in their own way.

"Hey! Everyone! CALM DOWN!" I practically shouted into the receiver; it was a good thing the door to the hospital room was closed.

"Fabian, what's going on?" Mick asked, "I know something isn't right, mate."

Everyone waited for someone to speak, and Nina decided to say something. She took the phone from Amber.

"Hi," she said timidly into the receiver, "It's Nina."

Everyone muttered 'hello' from the phone, and Mara piped up.

"Nina, are you alright?" she asked, "You don't sound like yourself."

"I'm, uh," I heard Nina's voice break, and I saw tears begin to well in her eyes. I held her hand again, and kissed her forehead. She took a deep breath before continuing.

"No, I'm not okay," Nina continued, "I'm in the hospital."

Again, everyone's voice echoed at once, asking what happened and if Nina was okay and why she was there. Once they all quieted down, Nina spoke once more.

"I…I have leukemia." A silent tear trailed slowly down Nina's cheek as a hushed 'oh my God' rang from the receiver, followed by a barrage of apologies and concerns.

"Fabian," Mick's voice rang clear over the others, "Why didn't you tell me the other day when I called?"

"Why didn't someone say something in the first place?" Patricia also demanded, and I spoke before everyone was in an uproar again.

"Look," I began firmly, "I pretty much got on a plane right after I found out. It's been a rough week and my main concern wasn't exactly broadcasting it to the world."

"We're just concerned," Mara replied gently, "We all care about Nina, too, and we've just been worried."

Amber softly took the phone from Nina and turned off speaker, speaking softly into the receiver. I sighed heavily, and Nina squeezed my hand.

"It's good that they know," she whispered, "It will save us from a lot of explanation in the future."

"I suppose you're right," I looked into her eyes, which were still wet. I wiped away the tear that had fallen a moment ago, and kissed her cheek.

"I'm glad you're here, with me," she whispered, never breaking our eye contact. I answered her with a soft kiss. I was glad to be with her, but I'd rather it was any other situation that had brought us back together.

A/N: One of the longer chapters...this one's pretty intense. I've done extensive research to the best of my ability, so hopefully everything is as accurate as possible. Anyway, there's not much else for me to say here...enjoy your Monday and the rest of your week! im on vacation and updating from my phone, otherwise i wouldnt have been able to put this up on time. thank the Lord for smartphones. Keep those reviews coming ;) I don't own House of Anubis. kaybye.