Thanks so much for the reviews, everyone! I'm glad there were a few tears in the last chapter because I was tearing up writing it. I'm happy right now cause I got this chapter up sooner than I'd planned. I'll try and get another out before the weekend, but it depends if I pick up extra work for the week.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
The whole time Darry was gone I kept looking at the clock. What was taking him so long to find Sodapop? I couldn't believe this was happening. This morning we thought he was gettin' over the flu and now the doctors were telling us there was almost no chance he was gonna live. I know Darry said we had to keep up hope, but I didn't see how we could. I decided to at least fake it for Soda's sake, though. I could tell from his face that the reality of everything was hitting him real hard. Soda was always so full of life and his eyes were always dancing. When his face froze up like it had a few minutes ago it meant that reality was finally breaking through to him. Finally, Darry and Soda came back into our "room." Darry had his arm around Soda's shoulders and he gave them a squeeze before letting go and sitting back down. Soda smiled at me briefly; it was a tight smile and it didn't reach his eyes, but at least it was something. He wasn't in shock anymore, and I figured that was probably good. I smiled back at him.
Dr. Sheldon had left when Darry did. He must have seen them come back, though, cause he returned right then, too. "Okay Soda, are you ready to get started?"
Soda's voice was a little shaky. "Yeah, I guess so."
"I'll need you to take your shirt off and lie down on your side." While Soda did this, Dr. Sheldon got his stuff ready and kept talking. "I know you're nervous about these procedures, but there's nothing to worry about. They'll be uncomfortable, but both of them are very safe." I knew that's not what Soda was worried about. He knew Darry would stop anything he didn't think was safe. Soda was worried about being stuck with a bunch of needles. As soon as I'd asked about the lumbar puncture is when he'd bolted from the room. It looked like Darry had calmed him down, though, and I was glad of that.
Soda was lying on the bed now, facing us. His face looked calm, but I could see in his eyes that he was still scared. He didn't look at either of us. Instead he just stared straight ahead. "Alright, Soda. I need you to pull your jeans down—just your jeans, and not all the way. I just need to have access to your hipbone." Soda did this silently. "I'm going to clean the area. It's going to feel a bit cold." While he did this, Darry reached out for Soda's hand. I did the same thing so each of us was holding one of his hands. He squeezed mine and I don't know if he was thanking me or if he wanted comfort. I squeezed back. After the doctor had cleaned everything he draped a sheet over the bottom half of Soda, then got a needle ready. The sheet had part of it cut out where his hip was. "Soda, I'm going to give you an anesthetic now. There's going to be two needles to make sure the anesthetic goes deep enough. I know it's hard, but try to relax." I felt Soda tense up. Dr. Sheldon put a small needle into Soda's hip, then took it out again and put in a bigger one. "I'm going to collect the bone marrow sample now. You're going to find this uncomfortable, but the area should be numbed enough that it isn't painful." Soda squeezed my hand again as the doctor put a large needle that was connected to a syringe into his hip. He pulled back on the syringe and I saw something small get sucked up into it. I felt my stomach lurch. That was a piece of Soda's bone. I glanced over at Darry, who was looking at it too, but I couldn't read his face. Dr. Sheldon put the bone marrow fragment into a container, then took the needle out. "That was good, Soda. You're doing really well. Are you ready for the lumbar puncture?"
"Yeah, let's get it over with."
The doctor took the sheet off of Soda, then brought over a different tray of instruments. "I'm going to clean off part of your back now. I need to you bring your head down and your needs up so that you're lying in the fetal position, okay?"
"Okay," Soda answered, doing as he was told.
Dr. Sheldon got Soda ready, then put another sheet over him. This one had a different part cut out. "I'm going to give you another anesthetic now." He put a needle into Soda's back, wiggled it around a bit, then pulled it out. "Now Soda, that will help, but I'm afraid this will still be a painful procedure. I know it's hard, but I need you to relax as much as you can so we can get the most accurate results." Soda shot a scared look at Darry, then at me, then back to Darry.
"It's okay, little buddy," Darry soothed. It'll be over in a few minutes." I don't think this helped Soda much cause he was holding onto my hand pretty tight.
"I'm going to insert the needle now." As Dr. Sheldon put the needle into Soda's back, Soda clutched my hand even tighter. His eyes clouded over with pain and after a minute he squeezed them shut. "Okay, the needle is in as far as it needs to go. It'll take a few minutes to collect the fluid though. Keep up the good work, Soda. Remember to keep breathing regularly." Soda was breathing really fast and uneven; I could hear him try and regulate it a bit better, but it wasn't much of a change. I couldn't stand seeing Soda like this, so I watched Dr. Sheldon move containers under the needle to catch the fluid. After a few minutes he took the needle out. I instantly felt Soda loosen his grip on my hand. "That was excellent, Soda. We're all done for tonight. You need to stay lying down for another few hours, though, to reduce the chance of getting a headache. Before you leave, I'll come back to discuss Monday." He collected all of his equipment and left us alone.
Soda let go of our hands and pulled his pants back on properly, then rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. I didn't know what to do. Soda wasn't sayin' anything and I didn't know if we should try and get him to talk or leave him be. I didn't even know if I wanted to talk. I was terrified; terrified of losing Soda and of what he was going to go through while he was sick. A kid in my class had gotten cancer a couple years ago. He'd missed a ton of school and when he was there he'd looked awful. He always had bags under his eyes and he lost a lot of weight and all his hair. I didn't want that to happen to Soda. Suddenly, my stomach growled and I realized I hadn't eaten anything since lunch. "You should go get something to eat," Soda said, looking over at me. "Both of you," he added to Darry.
Darry took out his wallet and handed me a few bills. "Pony, go hunt down some food for all of us. I'm gonna stay here." I didn't want to leave Soda, but I was starving. I got up and left, taking one last look at Soda on my way out.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
When Pony came back with a few sandwiches from the cafeteria, Soda was asleep. He hadn't said anything and I hadn't forced him to talk. His face had been so full of pain and fear when I'd found him in the bathroom. I didn't know what to say to him to make him feel better. I didn't think there was anything I could say, so I just let him lie quietly. I wanted to wake him up so he could eat something, but I knew he needed to sleep. Monday was going to be hard on him and he'd need all the rest he could get. It was midnight by the time Dr. Sheldon came back. I woke Soda up so he could hear what the doctor had to say. It was obvious he was still half asleep, though, so Dr. Sheldon talked mostly to me.
"As I said, I'd like Soda to stay in the hospital during his first round of chemotherapy, just to be safe. Darrel, you and Ponyboy won't have to be here all the time, but I'd like you make sure you both learn what you'll need to do to treat Soda at home. I can tell from tonight that you're both going to want to be here as much as you can anyway." He was sure right about that one. I wasn't gonna leave Soda alone here any longer than I had to, and I knew Pony wasn't either. "Make sure anyone else who will be helping out comes in, too." That would be Steve and Two-Bit. Man, I wasn't looking forward to telling them about this. "Soda, the treatment is going to make you very sick. I won't know for sure how strong I'll need to make your meds until I get the tests results from tonight back, but it will be intense either way. You need to make sure that you rest up this weekend so that your body is as strong as possible."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he takes it easy." No matter how much Soda argued, I wanted him to be as ready as he could for this. Not that any of us would really be ready.
"Alright, then I'll see you Monday morning. If you could be here at 8:00 then we'll start right away."
"Doctor, there's one more thing. How much is this gonna cost?" I was gonna do whatever it took to get the money, but I needed to know what I was facing.
"The medication is expensive. We have a program set up to finance the cost of treatments if money is an issue." I frowned. I didn't want to take any handouts. He must have noticed my change in expression cause he added, "It's not charity. The hospital gets publicity and our cancer program gets government funding for more research."
I knew I didn't have much choice. We didn't have much money as it was and Soda wasn't gonna be able to help with the bills anymore. I guess since the hospital benefited, too, it wasn't so bad. "Alright, we'll go into that program." Dr. Sheldon nodded and left. I turned to my brothers. "Let's get home. It's been a long night."
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
I groaned as the sound of a car door slamming woke me up. I'd been having a great dream about Evie; we were in the back of my car and she looked amazing…I shook myself outta the dream. This was not the place to start thinking about shit like that. I was spendin' the night on the Curtis' couch cause the old man had kicked me out again. I don't even know why he did it this time. Doesn't matter anyway. I realized the guys were home and looked at the clock. Geez. Where the hell had they been till 12:30 at night? Soda and Pony might stay out that late, but Darry didn't. I looked up when they came through the door. All three of them looked beat. Soda and Pony went right to their room; I don't think they even noticed I was there. Darry saw me, though, and came over to join me on the couch. "Hey, Steve." He sounded exhausted, too.
"What happened to you guys tonight? All three of you look awful." I thought maybe Pony'd gotten himself into trouble again. Darry sighed and rubbed his eyes. He looked more serious than I'd ever seen him. "Darry, what is?"
"Soda had a seizure this afternoon." Huh? That didn't make sense. I wanted to say somethin' but I could see Darry was having trouble gettin' this out, so I shut up and let him talk. "We took him to the hospital and they did some tests on him. There's no easy way to say this…" He looked me in the eyes and right then I knew it was gonna be bad. "Steve, Soda has leukemia." His words hit me like a ton of bricks. Bad was an understatement.
"What…how…" I couldn't even put together a whole thought much less a sentence. I fumbled in my jacket for my pack of cigarettes and lit up. After a couple puffs my head started to clear but I still couldn't wrap my mind around what Darry had told me. "How's Soda doin'?"
"He's a bit better than when he first heard about it. He's not in shock anymore, but he's pretty shaken up still." I'll bet he is. "He was real tired when we left the hospital, though, so he's probably asleep already. Pony, too." Crap—I hadn't even thought about Pony. The kid might annoy me sometimes, but he loved Soda more than anything in the world. Losing him would kill Pony, especially after everything else that's happened.
"Now what? What're they gonna to do to fix him?"
Darry sighed again. "Soda's going into the hospital on Monday for two weeks to start chemo. They said we can do it at home after that. But Steve, you've gotta know they might not be able to 'fix him.' The doctor said only five percent of people survive."
I didn't care about the odds. I wasn't gonna lose my best friend. "He's gonna live Darry. I'm not gonna let him die."
Darry smiled at me. "Good. Keep that attitude. It's exactly what Soda needs right now." He stood up and yawned. "I've gotta work in the morning. Night, Steve."
"Night, Darry." It took me a long time to get back to sleep that night.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
Hopefully you're all happy to see Steve back. :) Two-Bit will be showing up in the next chapter. Reviews are always appreciated!