There and Back Again (Farkas)

We sit in the neurology office, waiting waiting and waiting some more. The two of us play some very simple games, like I-Spy and other things. Anna gets tired after hours of waiting and still no doctor, and briefly falls asleep for a few minutes. I sit in a chair off to the side, just looking around, watching, waiting. Dr. Robbins comes in and conducts an examination, then fetches another doctor, Dr. Shen is her name. I've met her once before, she's a nice women, if reserved. The news she brings on the other hand is not nice at all. "You have a small tumor in your brain, miss Lenox." She says to Anna. I close my eyes for a minute, then open them again. This is a dream, this has to be some kind of nightmare. Anna goes to say something, but nothing comes out. She wrings her hands in despair, looking as if she'll burst into tears the second they leave. Dr Shen writes a referral to admittance and then the two doctors exit the room. Anna slides down from the table, and just stands still for a second, then starts sniffiling, shaking and bursts into tears. Poor Anna. I quickly go over to her and hold her close to me, trying my best to calm her. Eventually she stops crying and I wipe the few remaining tears away from her face. "Come on Len. We have a few hours before we're supposed to be upstairs. Wanna go get lunch?" She nods. I gently take her hand and lead her out of the clinic.

Out in the hall the two of us wait for an elevator. Anna still looks sad, her eyes are still a bit red, and her face is pale. She grips my hand tightly, like she'll fall if she lets go. An older man with grey hair and an eye patch walks over and stands next to us "you alright missy?" He asks Anna. She shakes her head. "What's the matter?" He asks, with what seems like genuine comcern. She signs out
 "T-U-M-O-R." The man seems confused "we just got out of neurology. They found a small brain tumor." I say. The older man nods "well you and I both then. Just got out of opthomology myself. Cancer of the eye." He says pointing to his eyepatch. The elevator dings "doors opening. Please stand clear." Anna giggles "what?" I ask as the three of us step in, and press 7 the floor with the cafeteria. "When I was little. We'd go to Children's in Daggerfall and they had talking elevators with flashing lights so if you were deaf or blind." It was nice to hear her giggle, it's a cute sound. Though one that hear reasonably often for one case or another. It's still cute. The doors open again and we step out going down the hall and into the large open room. We get our food and then sit over by the Windows. There's ships out on the river sailing around. The man with the eyepatch comes over and sits across from us "do you mind if I sit here?" He asks hesitantly. We say it's perfectly fine and he sits down "I'm terribly sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Peter Tynd." He says and offers his hand, I shake it "I'm Farkas, and this is Anna. Anna Lenox." I say gesturing to Anna. "Psst, Ann's." I say tapping her on the arm. She looks back at us "hmm? Oh, Hi!" Then goes back to looking out the window. After lunch, and a facsinating conversation on history, and the exchange of contact information. Anna and I head upstairs to the Oncology floor. A kind nurse greets us and shows Anna her room, it too has a window, and an extra bed for guests. And by guest I mean me, or if a child is admitted their guardian or parent. The nurse, Shannon's her name, gives Anna a pair of hospital cloths and then comes back with someone to put an IV in. Oh this will be interesting, Annas a hard stick. Like, a REALLY hard stick. I know, diastat is not fun to give to someone whose got very small veins. She winces and makes a little choked sound when the IV goes in. But otherwise seems fine. Then the chemotherapy gets hooked up and starts running. Anna bits her lip and says something. That looks painful. She just sits there for a while, unmoving, but not exactly sleeping. Just staring at the wall. Like she's afraid to move. Only when the packet is over and done with and changed to regular fluids does she perk up a bit. She chooses her dinner and then we play a game of chutes and ladders from the common room to pass the time. She picks at her dinner then pushes it away. I push it back towards her. We get into a cycle. She pushes it away, I push it back, over and over and over. Eventually she gets annoyed "stop!" She bites out angrily. I take the plate away, placing it on a counter. Then walk back over and sit at the end of the bed "I'm going to go home quickly. Do you want me to bring you anything?" Anna rattles off a list of things, I write a quickly scrawled list and then head on my way, get home and quickly grab the things, and take a quick shower and change my cloths, then go back. It's evening by the time I'm back, it's around 9:45 I hand Anna the change of cloths and she goes into the bathroom that's attached to the room, quickly changes and then comes back out. I'm sitting in one of the fairly comfortable chairs next to the bed, reading a book. Anna walks over and sits on the bed looking at me. I look back at her, the nurses had left for the night and assume Annas asleep already, as the lights off. She gets up and crawls into my lap, snuggling against me. "You have a bed you know." I say laughing slightly. "Don't care, your warm. Beds not." She says softly. "Well I have an idea, you go back to your bed, and I sleep next to you. How's that sound?" I reply back. Anna gets off of me and then goes and sits in bed. I slide in next to her and then gently hold her, bring weary of the IV in her left arm. Her eyes flutter closed as her breath becomes more even. I look up at the machine that monitors oxygen and heart rate "75 beats per second and oxygen rate of 96 out of 100" it reads. Good. "I love you Anna." I whisper placing a soft kiss on her lips. She smiles. I stay there the entire night, and into the morning.

Ender-Chan here's your fluff. As well as Farkas's account of the appointment. With some added stuff.

Until next time,
Max