Hey all! Sorry this took a few days but I've been busy being a social butterfly slash I found it really hard to get this chapter out – it just didn't want to be written! Hence, the first part is semi-meaningful but the rest is just a fill in slash plot device leading up to the last bit really. Sorry if it's kinda boring!
On another note, last night I plotted out the next bunch of chapters, right up to the end of the story and the epilogue! Exciting stuff! The story has – give or take – ten chapters left after this one, and then the epilogue. Don't hold me to that, though, that number might chance, depending on how word-vomity my fingers get on the keys whilst actually writing the next few chapters!
So anyway, thanks for all the reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter even though most of it is kinda pointless! Welcome to all the readers who reviewed the last chapter telling me they had just read the story in one hit – that deserves chocolate and a medal! An especially warm welcome to dancerlittle
Charli xox
Chapter 30
"Troy?"
"Mmm?"
"Have you ever wondered what dying is like?"
"Where'd that come from?" Troy let his head roll to the side to look at Gabriella. The pair were lying side by side on a blanket in Gabriella's backyard, watching the stars twinkling in the clear winter's night sky. Gabriella continued to gaze towards the heavens as Troy watched her, their fingers looped together between them.
"Nowhere," she replied eventually. "Just thinking," she rolled her head to the side, coming face to face with Troy.
"About Mackenzie?" Troy asked softly, reaching his free hand over to touch her face lightly.
"Mmm," Gabriella replied vaguely, looking back up to the sky. "Seriously, though...what do you think happens after you die?"
Troy wriggled closer to her if that was at all possible, wrapping one arm around her waist, the other hand still interlinked with hers. Gabriella shifted so her head was resting in the crook of his next, her eyes skyward.
"I think that you are finally free of any pain and suffering...you feel as light as a feather and you're free from the worries of the world. I reckon that you are able to watch over all your loved ones and see what they are doing...and that you can help them through anything that is worrying them or hurting them – any problems they might have. Most of all I think you feel a complete sense of serenity and just...totally at peace."
"I miss her so much. But...I'm glad she's in a better place. She was really sick, Troy."
"I know baby. But she's not sick or hurting anymore. And you know what – I reckon that Mackenzie would want you to be happy about that, and remember the good times that you had with her," Troy felt Gabriella nod against his shoulder.
"Before she...before she died – the very last time I spoke to her – she was asking me what I thought about all this stuff...death and dying, heaven...I just thought she was being all reflective but I guess she knew deep down she didn't have...didn't have much time," Gabriella's voice wavered a little and Troy pressed a meaningful kiss on her temple. She drew a deep breath before continuing. "You know what my Dad told me before he died about your lost loved ones becoming the brightest star in the night sky?"
"Mmhmm," Troy replied.
"Mackenzie really liked that idea. She told me that she believed there was magic in the stars."
Troy looked up at the vastness above them, filled with millions of tiny twinkling lights. "I have an idea," he said, turning his head to look at Gabriella once more. "Why don't we pick a star and make it Mackenzie's Star? I know whenever you miss your Dad you look for the brightest star you can see and it makes you feel better. If Mackenzie thought the stars were magic...then I bet she's up there amongst them right now, watching us."
Troy watched fondly as a smile spread across Gabriella's face. She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips before looking up at the stars, her forehead creased slightly in concentration. After a few moments of careful consideration, Gabriella's eyes suddenly grew wide and she pointed up.
"That one! That one right there – that's it! That's her!"
Troy followed Gabriella's gaze till he spotted a small but beautiful star slightly to the left of the main cluster above them. It was faintly pinkish in colour, and sparkled softly - almost as if it was winking at them.
"The Mackenzie Star. It's perfect," he told her softly, the hand he had resting on her waist moving to cup her cheek, tilting her face towards his, his thumb gently running back and forth over her smooth skin.
Gabriella gently nudged his nose with her own. "You're perfect."
HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM
The next morning, Gabriella awoke with a smile on her face as she remembered star gazing with Troy the night before and how sensitive and caring he had been, helping her to deal with Mackenzie's death. Stretching out, she excitedly began planning an outfit for the following afternoon's championship game – she had been looking forward to going for such a long time: not only was it the biggest game of the year, which made her proud of and excited for Troy, but it gave her a chance to play the supportive role to him for a change – his support for her had been unwavering over the past months and Gabriella was glad for the opportunity to be able to give some of that back to him by cheering him on tomorrow.
Her happy thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt, however, when she realised she could taste blood in her mouth. Groaning, Gabriella threw back the blankets and rolled up her pyjama pants. Just as she had expected, her legs were dotted with several dark, black bruises intermingled with tiny red dots the size of pin pricks. Picking up a small hand held mirror from her bedside table, Gabriella opened her mouth to take a closer look at the source of the bleeding.
"Mom?" she called out, flopping back onto her pillows with a sigh. "Mom?"
"Heeey, morning honey!" Maria smiled as she opened the door. "What's up?" she frowned as she saw Gabriella's less-than-impressed expression.
"I need to go to the hospital," Gabriella replied bluntly. Maria panicked.
"Why? What's wrong? Do you feel sick? Do you think you might throw up? Does it hurt somewhere?" she stressed, feeling her daughter's forehead.
Gabriella shook her head. "No I'm ok – I'm pretty sure I need a blood transfusion though. I have bruises and petechiae on my legs and my gums are bleeding: I think my platelets have dropped."
Maria noted Gabriella's pale face, dark circles under her eyes, and inspected her legs and mouth, before nodding her agreement. This was not the first time Gabriella had developed strange bruises or bled where there should be no bleeding. Platelets were another component of the blood whose levels fell due to the chemotherapy, and when they dropped too low it needed to be 'topped up' via a blood transfusion. The same went for red blood cells and haemoglobin.
"Alright, my girl – grab a book to read and your bag – we're in for a long day at the clinic, I think."
'A long day' turned out to be an understatement.
After a finger prick to test her blood counts revealed that her platelets were – as suspected – critically low, Gabriella was admitted to the day unit for a blood transfusion. Amanda, her nurse on duty, felt she was bordering on dehydration as well, so hooked up two bags of fluids to run through her central line as well.
Two hours after Gabriella arrived on the day unit, her platelets still hadn't arrived to be transfused. She was bored, tired, her finger was still bleeding a little from the finger prick – a testament to just how low her platelets were - and she was beginning to get 'the grumps'. Maria tried her best to keep her entertained, but was running out of ideas fast. A blessing came in the form of a text message from Taylor at 3.30pm – when they had been waiting in the day unit for around four hours.
Gabsi, where are you? I dropped by to visit but you weren't home – everything ok? Tay x
Gabriella quickly hit the reply button.
I'm stuck at the hospital. Need blood but still waiting! SO BORED! Gabs x
Within seconds, her phone buzzed, announcing a reply from Taylor.
Help is on the way!
Gabriella smiled, although she was a little confused. 'Help is on the way?' She didn't have time to contemplate the reply, however, as Amanda returned with a dose of Benadryl.
"I'm so sorry about the wait, Gabi – the blood bank has had some delivery hassles today and we're still waiting on seven different units of blood for non-urgent patients. They are around 15 minutes away now, so I'm going to go ahead and pre-medicate you in case of an allergic reaction like last time."
Gabriella grimaced at the thought. Last time she had received platelets she had ended up covered from head to toe in huge, red, itchy welts – Dr Zamitt told her that hives was not an uncommon reaction to platelet transfusions. However, it was not something Gabriella wanted to experience again in a hurry.
She took the Benadryl and was just starting to feel a little drowsy when she spotted two familiar faces walk through the entrance of the day unit. Taylor and Sharpay spotted her quickly and headed her way.
"Your boredom relief team is heeeere!" Sharpay announced with a smile. Taylor rolled her eyes jokingly behind her back.
"I was halfway over when the Pink Princess here decided she wanted to spread the joy," she laughed. Sharpay pouted.
"Wow, Shar – are they new earrings?" Gabriella said quickly. Sharpay brightened immediately.
"Yes! Aren't they just fabulous? Daddy bought them back from Paris!"
Gabriella tried not to laugh as Taylor rolled her eyes jokingly again.
"Aaah, we've got a party happening in here now have we?" Amanda grinned as she came back with the small plastic pouch of platelets.
"Pretty much," Gabriella laughed.
"The boyfriend not around today?" Amanda teased as Sharpay and Taylor sniggered.
Gabriella rolled her eyes. "No, he has an extra basketball training session this afternoon – his team are playing in their championships tomorrow," Gabriella's eyes lit up as she chattered on about Troy. "I love watching Troy play and I can't wait to go and cheer him on – I've been looking forward to it for so long!"
Taylor smiled at Gabriella's enthusiasm. Sharpay pretended to gag. Taylor slapped her arm lightly, laughing.
"Ok, I'll need to get to your central line to connect the platelets – do you want the girls to wait outside or are they ok to stay?" Amanda asked kindly, pulling the curtains around Gabriella's bed.
Gabriella shrugged. "I don't mind them staying, it's up to them."
"I'll stay," Taylor replied.
Sharpay was a little hesitant. "I won't have to watch any needles or anything will I? Like, it won't hurt her will it?"
"No," Amanda replied with a smile. "Gabi doesn't feel a thing."
She lifted Gabriella's top a little and found the end of the central line. Seeing as the red side of the line was hooked up to the fluids, she uncapped the white side, explaining to Sharpay and Taylor what she was doing as she went.
"This is Gabi's central line – this is what we run her chemo and other medications through, as well as drawing blood and keeping her hydrated. It runs through a vein in her neck, all the way into her heart and comes out on the side of her chest there. We tape it down so it doesn't pull out but the ends hang freely, for us to use. I've just uncapped the line ready to clip the platelets in, so I'm just going to give it a clean with this Isowipe to make sure there are no germs getting in, and..." Amanda connected the tube from the bag of platelets into Gabriella's central line, "...voila! All done. The transfusion should take no more than two hours to run through completely. In the meantime, Gabriella needs to try not to move around too much. Now Gabi, are you comfortable enough there?"
"Yes thanks," Gabriella nodded.
"You let me know if you start to feel sick or itchy or dizzy or anything like last time, ok? I'll be back in about a half hour to take your temperature again – it was a little high for my liking in pathology."
"Thanks Amanda," Maria smiled as the nurse packed up her trolley.
Gabriella looked at her mother. "I didn't have a temperature at home," she fretted. "How could it have been high in pathology?"
Maria stroked her head soothingly. "It's ok, Gabi – don't stress. You are a little warm, but Amanda is probably just being cautious because your counts are on the low side. We'll be out of here and back home before you know it. Now I'm just going to get you some Gatorade from the cafeteria, I'll check with Briony in pathology what your temps were while I'm down there. Does anyone else want anything?"
"No thank you," Taylor and Sharpay shook their heads and Maria headed out of the bay.
Gabriella looked up at her friends. "Sorry for the thrilling afternoon's entertainment," she sighed. "You can go home if you want to."
"Are you kidding?" Taylor asked. "We came here to keep you company and we aren't going anywhere," she turned her attention back to Gabriella's central line which she had been studying, the long clear tube protruding from under Gabriella's top and running up to the bags of fluid and platelets hanging from her IV pole. "That is amazing, really," she gushed. "I can't believe that they can give you so many different treatments directly into your body without a needle stick each time!"
"Yeah, it's pretty handy. I think I would have run screaming from the place by now if I had to have even more needle sticks than I already do."
Sharpay eyed off the side of the line that had the blood running through it. "So has that blood come from, like...someone else's body?" she asked, sounding a little queasy.
"Yep!' Gabriella replied. "People go into blood banks and donate blood and platelets, which are then cleaned and transfused into patients like me!"
"I think Daddy owned a blood bank once," Sharpay replied vaguely, diverting her eyes from the line. "Or maybe he just gave someone the money to open one. Whatever. How do you think the boys are going at basketball practice?"
"Hopefully Coach isn't drilling them too hard, he'll wear them out before the game," Taylor laughed. "Have you picked an outfit yet Gabsi?"
"Not yet," Gabriella shook her head, stifling a yawn. "I have a couple of ideas. What about you, Shar?"
"Oh, I've had mine planned forever! I picked up this totally gorgeous pair of white Capri's in the city last week, and I have this amazing red halter top that just screams 'Wildcats'..."
"I can't wait to see Troy play again," Gabriella sighed. "How are Chad and Zeke? All geared up?"
"I can tell Zeke is nervous – he burnt some cookies this morning," Sharpay replied sadly.
"Wow!" Gabriella exclaimed. "He must be preoccupied...Oh hey Mom – what did Briony say?"
"Your temperature is a little on the high side, honey," Maria replied gently. "You had better lie there as still as possible with all your fingers and toes crossed that it doesn't rise in the next hour or so, before we can escape."
Unfortunately for Gabriella, no amount of finger or toe crossing was going to avert her fever – today was just not her day. Amanda came back when the platelets were around three quarters finished – just after Sharpay and Taylor had left - and stuck the electric thermometer in Gabriella's ear. One sigh from Amanda after the instrument beeped, and Gabriella's heart sank.
"100.3 degrees – it's a fever, Gabi."
Gabriella looked pleadingly at her mother, knowing what a fever meant. "Mom, what about the game?" she whimpered softly, her eyes brimming with tears.
Maria leaned down and kissed her daughter's forehead. "I know, baby, but there's not much we can do."
"Can't I just rest up really well at home?" Gabriella bargained with her nurse. "I promise between now and tomorrow afternoon I won't move a muscle – I'll keep up my fluids, I'll do anything you want."
Amanda shook her head. "I'm sorry Gabi, I know how much tomorrow means to you but you know your health has to come first. And right now you could have an infection. We can't chance it – I really am sorry honey, but we're going to have to admit you to the ward."
See. Told ya it was nothing special! Hopefully the next chapter will be more exciting for you all!
Next up: Wishes, wishes everywhere...but will any come true?
Please review even though the chapter was kinda boring!!! You guys are the best!
