Twenty nine
It was three weeks after the first lot of chemotherapy that Oscar started feeling sick. He'd had all seven doses and he had a check up the next week to see if the kidney transfer and bone marrow transplant could go ahead. Alana and Oscar had both known the possible side effects of the treatment but the first night when Oscar had ran to the bathroom had scared Rick and Elektra. They hadn't known he could be sick so when they had heard him running to the bathroom they got scared. Alana had heard what was going on and yawning had gone to reassure Rick and Elektra. That had been three nights ago. Now everyone knew and pairs of people would take it in turns to stay awake and make sure Oscar was ok. He'd had a fever all day and Cassie and Alana, who were the ones on duty at that moment were trying to bring his temperature down using wet flannels. Rick was sitting nervously on his bed with Summer, who had come to stay the night while her foster dad went out. Alana stood up.
"It's not working, I don't know what to do," she said distressed. Summer traded with her and Rick wrapped his arms around Alana comfortingly while Summer tried to cool him down. The windows in Rick and Oscar's bedroom were wide open and all three girls were shivering from where they were only wearing their pyjamas, yet Oscar was boiling. Suddenly Oscar started having a fit. Alana jumped up and ran out.
"Mike, Oscar's having a fit," she shouted not caring who she woke up. Lots of bedroom lights flashed on and doors opened as Alana ran through the house to the night duty room. She saw Tee standing terrified in their bedroom door. She burst into the room and found Mike phoning an ambulance. He followed her back down the house. As they passed each bedroom the residents that lived there followed them. Mike went into the bedroom told Cassie, Summer and Rick to go outside and wait with the others. Jamie and Tyler led Alana downstairs towards the front door, so that they would be ready to answer it. Alana was crying silently. She had tears streaming down her face. It was her nightmares coming to life. She'd had them every night since the day she'd fallen asleep on the sofa. Jamie sat down on the piano stool while Tyler went to get Alana a glass of water. She took it and sat on the table with him. He wrapped his arms protectively around her, not caring she was getting his shirt wet. He kissed her gently on the top of her head. Alana carried on crying. Her brother was dying. Rick, Elektra and Summer came down the stairs before stopping halfway to the bottom and sitting down on them. Elektra and Summer were both crying too and Rick was doing his best to comfort both of them. Jamie stood up and led Elektra to the piano stool with him and took over comforting her. Alana looked up through Tyler's arms and saw Elektra and Summer's tear stricken faces and managed to pull herself together. She wasn't the only one being affected by this. For Elektra it was her boyfriend who was dying, for Summer it was the one person who she felt most comfortable around and able to talk to, other than Rick and Elektra. Rick was comforting Summer but Alana could see he was pained by what was happening to his best friend too. The doorbell rang and Tyler jumped up to answer it. Summer and Rick stood up on the stairs and led the way to Rick's room. Alana grabbed Elektra's hand as the two girls walked up the stairs behind Jamie and Tyler. Elektra looked at her shocked but realised why she'd done it. Elektra tightened her grip on Alana and they both looked at each other, knowing how the other felt. The paramedics managed to stop Oscar's fit but decided they had to take him to hospital. Mike went with them and Tracy, who had been called to come look after the others, tried to settle everyone back to sleep. She managed to get Harry, Johnny, Gus, Carmen, Tee, Cassie and Jody back to sleep. Rick, Summer, Elektra, Jamie , Tyler and Alana were all sat in the kitchen together. Alana was drinking some burning hot chocolate. The pain the drink was causing her was enough to make her feel safe. Tracy came down.
"Come on you lot, bed," she said softly. Alana looked at her.
"How can you expect me to go to bed!" Alana shouted at her. Her eyes started watering. "It's my brother," she almost whispered. "There is no way I will be able to sleep. I'm worried sick. Just let me stay up for tonight. Please. Tomorrow is a weekend," Alana pleaded. Tracy looked at the young girl.
"Alright you can stay but the rest of you bed," Tracy agreed. Alana smiled and picked up her drink again. The other five followed Tracy upstairs to bed reluctantly. Once out the kitchen Alana stood up and took her drink outside. She went and sat in the garden's den and drank her drink. She was still only wearing her pyjamas but the drink was keeping her warm. Tracy came and found her. "I thought you'd be here. Put this on," Tracy told her handing her Alana's own dressing gown. Alana smiled weakly. "he'll be ok. I promise." Alana nodded as she put the dressing gown on. She curled up next to Tracy just like she had the last time Oscar had been rushed to hospital. She soon fell into a deep sleep and Tracy covered her with a blanket and stayed with her all night, her mobile ready and waiting for news.