AN: Thanks for the reviews...you guys make my day, jm I just love your reviews, they make me laugh. You also make a good point with happiness being rushed if I do it now.
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Tears rolled down Naomi's cheeks. Things had been so perfect, for the first time in weeks Naomi actually felt like her life was okay. Looking back at her few short hours with Emily, she regretted not telling her the truth. She hadn't planned to tell her, but she knew that had they had a little longer together, she would have felt ready to share. She knew Emily didn't want her to go, she was about to talk to her, share something too. They'd spent too many days not talking and for once they were both ready. Until Rob and Jenna ruined it. She couldn't tell her now. She couldn't ask her for a bed for the night, she couldn't beg for her forgiveness. It was all ruined.
The air was cold, the frosty afternoon taking her body into an instant chill. She realised she'd left her jacket at Emily's, a mistake that she knew could cost her health. She snaked through the streets, searching for the best place to spend the night. She stopped by the shopping centre and silently thanked the person who invented late night shopping. She looked at the clothes, imagining what she could buy when she finally had some money. Then she hung around a cafe, waiting patiently for someone to grow distracted and leave a coffee half empty. She felt ashamed to be watching strangers, hoping to share their drinks. But she was cold and feared a second night in the outdoors. The staff were too watchful and quickly cleared tables. Noticing several people get their drinks to take away, Naomi followed a woman, wondering the chances of her dropping a half drunk cup in the bin. The woman stopped beside a wall, fixing up her tights. Naomi saw her chance and lifted the cup from the wall, sliding behind it before the woman had even looked up. She felt the need to run, to escape from her crime before stopping to sip the drink. It felt good, warming her body from the inside out. She found herself watching people more closely as they continued to shop into the early evening. But to no avail.
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For once the hospital felt like a comfortable place to be. Emily had spent so many hours visiting Katie that it was beginning to feel like a second home. She sat by her bed, watching Katie look through her bag.
"What are you looking for?" Emily asked.
"My toothbrush, mum said she packed it earlier, but I want to brush my teeth before I go,"
"Let me," Emily smiled, taking the bag from her sister and searching the pockets, "How long til you can go?"
"The doctor is just checking my test results, then she can discharge me."
It was a long wait, Katie was obviously tired and needed some rest, but the doctor was taking her time.
"Finally!" Emily announced, standing up as the specialist entered the room.
"I'm sorry I'm late, we've had a busy evening."
"Can I go?" Katie asked, sliding out of the bed.
"Hold up there a moment Katie," Doctor Colan smiled.
There was a look in her eye that worried Emily. Doctor Colan had been fantastic, she didn't hold a sympathetic look like many doctors did and she always had a smile on her face.
"What is it?" Emily asked, prompting a glance from Katie.
"Are your parents here?" Doctor Colan asked.
The twins shared a look and Katie finally picked up on the doctors response, "No, they'll be here in fifteen minutes, what's wrong?"
"I'd rather wait for your parents to arrive," the doctor muttered.
Katie had been strong, she'd managed to maintain a level of calm that shocked Emily every time she saw her. But for the first time, Emily could see the worry in her sisters eyes. She had a front that was very successful, but as much as she hid behind a mask, she was struggling with the cancer as much as everyone else.
"I'm eighteen in less than a three month," Katie informed the doctor, "I have a right to know what is going on, I'm not a child."
Doctor Colan nodded, her eyes saddened somewhat. There was a silence that made Emily wonder if she had just gone deaf. The woman didnt speak at first, then she cleared her throat and took a deep breath.
"Katie, I've been having a look at your test results and it appears that the treatment you're under isn't quite as effective as we would like,"
"What does that mean?" Katie asked, her eyes filling with tears.
Emily didn't understand. She didn't know what the doctor was talking about and she had no idea why Katie was crying. She turned to the doctor, waiting for her to answer her sister's question.
"You've had a relapse, we will need to rethink your treatment plan and look into alternatives,"
"Alternatives?" Katie asked, a slight frustration in her voice, "Like what?"
"There are some alternative drugs that we can use, that should have a better success rate," the doctor informed them.
"Will I still have the chemo?"
"That's neither here nor there until we establish your new treatment program, you can go home as planned but we need you to come back in tomorrow morning, with your parents, to discuss the plan."
Emily didn't understand what was going on, she was slowly processing everything the doctor was saying and everything Katie was reacting to. She wanted to understand the conversation better, but she realised how much she didn't know about her sisters disease.
"So I might have lost all my hair, for nothing?" Katie asked, a frightened look in her eyes, "Will this make me more sick?"
Doctor Colan took a deep breath, a battle obviously going on inside her mind, "We need to discuss this properly Katie, it's not a conversation we can have in five minutes. Your treatment so far has been ineffective, which has not helped your recovery, but we are working on finding the best treatment possible."
"You didn't answer her question," Emily muttered, her voice feeling weak as she spoke, "Has the cancer got worse because the treatment was wrong?"
Doctor Colan shook her head, "It doesn't quite work like that, we have been doing everything we can to fight the disease, the treatment hasn't been as effective as it sometimes is,"
"Which means she's worse?!" Emily gasped, not listening to the doctor as she continued to explain the situation.
"Emily, it's going to be okay," Katie assured her.
There was an irony that Emily found anything but humorous; she wasn't even the one who was ill, but she was reacting worse than Katie. She stared at her sister unable to understand how she was so calm when they'd just found out that weeks of treatment hadn't done very much. She felt sick, she felt like everything was going wrong. She knew she was being selfish, that Katie needed her to be strong and be there for her, not the other way around. But her mind was fuzzy, her thoughts weren't processing effectively. She took a deep breath, hoping to calm herself down. But it didn't work.
"Emily?" Katie muttered, trying to get her attention, but Emily just turned around and walked out of the room. She could hear Katie talking to the doctor, something to do with being worried. Emily just carried on walking, gasping for breath as she reached the fresh air.
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AN: Thanks for reading...please review! This was going to be a massive chapter, but I cut it in half, enjoy this half!
