As it turned out; to the worst-case scenario, it wasn't a simple flu but rather something much more serious. A rare form of blood cancer known as Alderson's Disease. There were some hopes early on that perhaps it was caught soon enough that maybe some test treatments in previous cases might be effective enough to help. Money certainly was no issue as Thomas was doing whatever he could for Martha in trying to help her.
Despite the best efforts and a few early signs of hope, nothing appeared to be working out which was shattering the couple's hearts. Bruce himself was being kept in the dark of much of it, but even he knew something was wrong, but neither parent was ready to break the news that Martha might not be long with them.
Over the course of a year, Martha's odds were looking more and more destitute, and she was now almost all but settled to the fact that she was going to die. Thomas still wasn't giving up hope which led him to turn to perhaps the last chance of saving her.
Thomas, in one of his rare days, had ventured to Wayne Entreprises, and was in a process of ranting to Dr. Leslie Thompkins in her lab, after attending a board meeting that turned on him, "Those bastards! They have no idea what I saw, how I'm feeling! They never saw how much Martha is struggling, hell, she tries to laugh and play games with Bruce, even if she's tired! The way they indicated that it is looking like she's going to die any day, that Bruce is still young enough to have another mother if I remarry, it's bullshit barbaric of them! I can't do that to Martha! She...she can't...I...can't...God, how am I going to tell Bruce that his mother...", heaving down with a sob as he collapsed into a chair, burying his face in his hands.
Dr. Thompkins was one of the leading experts in her medical field and being employed in the vast umbrella of Wayne Enterprises under one of their pharmaceutical branches. She herself was at the cutting edge of some much more... untested procedures that under normal circumstances wouldn't have even been considered but at this point, Thomas pretty much was out of options but knew very well both in his heart and from what she had said prior when they met a few times before, that what she had to offer was a very slim chance.
"I don't know.", Leslie shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne...". Thomas wanted her to call him Mr. rather than Dr. as a way of showing a little more respect to her since she had quite a lot more medical experience over him. "I can't even begin to think what I would do if I was in your shoes.".
"It's... it's alright...", Thomas admitted. "Sorry, I didn't mean to unload all of that on you... I'm... I'm just at the end of my rope with all this.".
"And you do know that I make no promises with my work in helping Mrs. Wayne. What we're proposing is something that hasn't even been remotely tested on humans.", Leslie nodded with a frown.
Thomas sighed deeply, "Leslie, you helped deliver my son, helped my wife through it all...She trusts you more than anyone else, except me...I...I can't lose Martha...She gave me a life that I never imagined having with all the pressure of being the Wayne head for a long time now...especially with my folks retiring to Florida...I know I can raise Bruce, but...not having a mother to guide him with homework and teasing him when he discovers the complicated phase of having crushes and beyond...I love her so much...this..this can't be the end...It was going to be a decade of marriage...God, we were talking 20, 30 years of marriage, but this...", looking down.
Leslie sighed deeply, "Mr. Wayne, hearing that you and Mrs. Wayne trust me, it means a lot to me, but you have to know that my proposal, on this procedure...We'd have to somehow give Martha a lot of protein and such for her to take, to keep down...She needs to be in decent health to survive this...And I...I can't see how much she takes before it gets too much for her...You realize that she might...".
"I know.", Thomas said. "Martha has pretty much accepted it by now, but I just can't... not until that day comes...". Leslie raised an eyebrow as he took a deep breath, "Yes, I know, this probably won't work, but... she's dying already, can't exactly be much worse, right?".
Leslie nodded once more, "Like I told you before; the range of possibilities with positive forces of gamma rays is almost limitless, a true next level breakthrough in medicine since antibiotics. And while my preliminary research and tests with it have shown promise; it's quite a dark room I've been stepping into when it comes to human practicalities.".
Thomas sighed deeply, "I know...I read your notes and everything...I may not be as highly educated as you, but I am still one of the best doctors, and if this whole thing had shown promise already in your tests, I have to try...I promise I'll tell her...I won't push her if she doesn't want this.", with a small nod.
Leslie looked at him, "There's no budging you from this, isn't there?", and Thomas shook his head, and she sighed, "Mrs. Wayne may agree with me that you are one of the most damn stubbornest men, but at least you care unlike many other stubborn men...Very well, I will get the first week of protein vials...I will come by with the next batch next week, if she still needs it, but I will do a check over to see how she's taking it, along with your help to tell me the symptoms, of course.".
"There was something else you mentioned... after the vials and all? The full-on therapy procedure where you basically... give her a heavy dose of gamma all at once.", Thomas brought up as Leslie nodded, "Yes... from my tests and theories... long story short, we'd need her here and have to strap her down to a special sort of bed and... well, as you said... heavy dose.".
Thomas sighed with a frown, "It has to be done at night when most people are gone...I can't afford to have people rushing in and finding out and interrupting, making everything worse, for them to accuse us...even losing her in the middle of it all, if they dared thinking that she's in pain for the wrong reasons...I'll blame those people really hard...", with a growl.
"You don't even care about the Wayne chair if that happens..", Leslie looked at him in shock, and Thomas replied, "Family matters more than a stupid chair...I'd take Martha, Bruce, and even Alfred, and you, if you want to, go someplace, where people wouldn't know us...", with a determined set of narrowed eyes.
Leslie exhaled, "You're serious...", and Thomas nodded, and Leslie replied, "I agree, night would be safer and better, but first, you'd have to tell her. It's her choice, not yours, to do this. Give me a moment to get the first batch of protein vials.", before leaving to head into her personal lab refrigerator which is big, walking in to grab a lab suitcase to fill the protein vials into the slots of the lab suitcase.
After a few moments, she returned back after closing up the big lab refrigerator, giving the suitcase, "Be very careful, Mr. Wayne...Thomas...Try to give her two vials for breakfast and dinner, starting with tonight, if she is good for it...Remember, it's up to her if she wants all of this, after you tell her, alright?".
"Of course.", Thomas nodded. "And Dr... whatever happens after all this... I thank you for at least trying your best.". Leslie gave a small, grateful smile, "Thank you very much, sir.".
Thomas took his leave as Leslie sighed and looked back at her notes, "I certainly hope that this might be right...", as she went back to work. "We already had dinner...", Martha told Thomas a few hours later when he arrived back home.
Obviously, first things first were him holding her in a hug. She was certainly looking much worse for wear than she had been before the disease started to show. It pained him every day to see her getting weaker and weaker, but she kept on trying to fight to give perhaps just a few more extra months of being alive with her family, "Bruce is in his room right now.".
"Sorry I missed it... I... I was held up at the boardroom, apart from other places.", Thomas said as he tightened his grip a bit on the case. "Other places?", Martha asked as Thomas took a deep breath and started to get the case opened up.
"Essentially seeing if there might be one or two more things we could try out with you...", Thomas said as he grabbed one of the vials. "Thomas...", Martha sighed.
"Please, Martha... at least let me try everything possible until it's over, one way or another.", Thomas pleaded gently. There was a pause before she nodded. Couldn't hurt much more after everything by this point.
"Okay, fine. What exactly is this?", Martha asked. "Was talking with Dr. Leslie Thompkins, she has... well, untested and hasn't really been tried.", Thomas admitted. "Those vials you take for a few weeks as sort of preparation.".
Martha raised an eyebrow, "What kind of vials?", and Thomas replied, "Protein vials...She told me that it has to be taken two times a day for this week, and if it goes well this week, she could increase the number of vials or the strength of them after a checkup...Martha...It's...I can't lie that it's going to be scary, but I...I looked at the research and the notes of her experimental work, relating to gamma rays...".
"Thomas...There's something else you're not saying...", Martha reached wearily to caress his cheek, and Thomas' breath caught, and he sighed, embracing her hand with his other hand, sighing as he kissed her fingers gently.
Thomas whispered, "The board turned on me...Luckily, they avoided me the rest of the day...They..they went too far...", with a slight weary, angry glint in his eyes.
"Please tell me...", Martha replied strongly as much as she could speak, "I may be tired and weak in my body, but my mind isn't, no one is not going to rob the last morality part of me if I can help it.", with an air of determination.
"They think that I'm too focused on you...", Thomas admitted as he shook his head. "That I'm wasting both my time as well as the entire enterprises' time focusing on you and trying to help. Some even straight up mentioned why I'm even bothering and just to move on to the next woman.". Martha was stunned to hear that. "I know a few of them have mistresses' or have had affairs on their own wives so clearly they don't think too much about willing to do whatever it takes for love.".
Martha narrowed her eyes as she gave a sharp scowl, "How dare they...I know how much you work on things for the enterprise, and you seek my advice when you're held up sometimes, and heck, I checked the grammar and spelling on some things for you...".
Thomas gave a small, proud chuckle, "And I'm glad for that, Martha...", as Martha then replied, "And they don't even know how much I fight to keep trying to live on, to see that I want to spend Christmas, to see Bruce turn 8, to just feel your embrace, to be surrounded by love all around!", ranting before she came into coughing and hacking.
"Martha?", Thomas gave her a bit of distance; hoping this wasn't a real serious cough and hack that she had been having for months. After a few moments, she was able to calm down, "Sorry... sorry...".
Thomas carefully watched her, "Your lungs must be hurting...", with a frown, and Martha glanced at him tiredly, "What else is new? At least it wasn't blood this time...", and Thomas' heart clenched at that, grabbing the pitcher from the side table, filling a glass, handing it to her, "Nice and steady sips, Martha...".
Martha nodded, sipping it slowly and steady in her slightly shaking hands, and then smiled gratefully as she handed it back, "Thank you...I hate this...I...I will make a deal with you, Thomas...I will take tonight's vial, and if I am a bit stronger, if not a bit better in the morning before breakfast, you tell me absolutely everything about this procedure...I'm just so tired to now listen fully...".
Thomas nodded, "I can do that...", giving her the vial, popping the cork out, and went to fill the glass again of water, and Martha took a deep breath before trying to be swift by taking it in one shot, and she blinked in surprise as she wrinkled her nose and smacked her lips, "That's not actually not worse than that remedy of Alfred...Almost like cough medicine...", before trading the empty vial with the glass of water from Thomas's hand, and sipped water again.
"It might take a while before something takes effect to help you out from that protein vial, but thank you...", Thomas exhaled deeply as he closed the case and moved to put it into the heirloom closet cabinet, deep behind the clothes, taking off his day clothes before changing into his pajamas before returning to Martha who gave him a warm, tired smile, "Keep me company?".
Thomas gave a gentle smile, "Always...", climbing into the other side of the bed, and gently embraced Martha as she sighed, keeping a tight hold on him as much as she could, listening to her husband's heartbeat and such, her breaths becoming sleeping breaths as she gave into dreamland, feeling Thomas's tender kiss on her forehead.
Several minutes later, Alfred made his rounds, and smiled sadly as he flicked off the lights, not blaming Master Wayne's forgetfulness to turn off the lights, as he had watched him despair and strive with struggling hope, and tried to help abide Mistress Wayne's pain and fatigue by giving soups, tea, and keeping Bruce distracted with lessons between visiting Martha for brief visits of playing games and such.
He then went to check on Master Bruce's room, and with a frown, seeing the lights on, he went to open the door, and sighed softly as he saw the shadow of Master Bruce through the blanket, hearing little sniffles, seeing signs of messy crumbs from the head chef's famous gingerbread cookies.
He moved to sit down gently on the bed, and saw Master Bruce shift slightly, seeing him apparently through the blanket, yet kept quiet. Alfred gently inquired, "Let me guess, you snuck out for a snack, Master Bruce?".
"You aren't telling Chef Kirk on me?", Bruce's little voice spoke, and Alfred replied, "I won't, if you tell me what's wrong, hmm?".
Bruce was quiet for a moment before he spoke hesitantly, "I...After I got out with my stash of cookies, I...I saw Father ducking into the master bedroom before I could call for him...I...I listened through the door...I ran away to my room after...after I heard Mother having one of her bad coughs...Alfred...The really bad coughs...did she really cough blood? Does it mean she's...she's going to die?".
"Ah, you're truly taking after your father...take off that blanket, please...I need to see you, Master Bruce...", Alfred inquired firmly yet gently.
There was a brief pause before Bruce finally revealed himself to Alfred before Alfred sighed. He knew it was probably unwise to lie to the boy but what else could one say in this situation? "I'm sorry you heard that...", he first apologized.
"How long?", Bruce asked as Alfred sighed once more. "Depends on the question, how much longer does she probably have or how long has this been?".
Bruce closed his eyes hearing that. "How much longer...", he whimpered as he was on the verge of crying again. "I don't know. Some of the treatments that she had may have given her a bit more time if what Master Thomas explained to me. But I can't give you a true time about how much longer Mistress Martha will be with us.", Alfred exhaled deeply.
Bruce sniffed softly, "It was my fault...If I hadn't begged Mother for a whole snow day outside together, she couldn't have gotten sick...".
Alfred replied, "Do not dare, Master Bruce! Do not blame yourself!", with a sharp, firm look at the boy, and he sniffled, "I...I really thought grownups can't get sick...".
Alfred sighed deeply, "Grownups can get really sick, Master Bruce...And you would never hurt your mother, would you?", and Bruce looked at him in terror, "NO, I wouldn't! I love her so much!".
"And that's why it isn't your fault that Mistress Martha got sick. It...it's much different than what you know...You only knew colds and a few occasions of rare mild flu season...I...", Alfred sighed deeply.
Bruce sniffled, "Does...Does Father know what it is?", and Alfred nodded, and Bruce whispered, "How long has it been, Alfred?".
Alfred looked at him, "Are you sure you want to know?", and Bruce looked at him, "I'm not little anymore, Alfred! I'm a really big boy almost!".