“Dad! Are you all right?”
Lauren stands from her chair at the side of the bed while my dad turns and holds out his hand. I can’t help but notice the bags of fluid on a stand and the needle taped to the inside of his elbow.
“What happened?” I ask, rushing over to grab my dad’s hand.
He manages a weak smile. “Sorry to worry you, princess.”
“Dad, you’re in the hospital,” I reply, tears finally starting to fall. “Of course I’m worried. What happened?”
Lauren is wringing her hands in a way that I’d learned meant she thought she was at fault for something. “We just thought it was indigestion,” she starts. “It’s not uncommon to have more heartburn and indigestion as you get older, and the over-the-counter meds seemed to help. We really had no way of knowing it was anything more serious.”
So far, it doesn’t sound serious, but it doesn’t explain why Dad’s in a hospital bed.
“Then,” she continues, “last night your father started vomiting and couldn’t stop. I called an ambulance when he told me there was blood. We spent most of the night in the ER.”
“And you didn’t call me then?” I demand.
She looks to the floor. “We thought it was just a stomach upset. But since it was after hours for the clinic, we had to come here.”
I take a deep breath to get my emotions under control. Indigestion and vomiting are not reasons for somebody to be in the hospital, which means that if that’s what they came in for, the reality surprised them as well.
“I’m sorry. Go on.”
Lauren looks at me, then back to the floor. “When they finally saw us, they performed an endoscopy on your father and found swelling in his esophagus. They took some samples and sent them off to the lab, then decided to admit him to get his fluid levels back up since he’d been vomiting so much.”
“Okay.”
Lauren breaks into tears. “They came in just before I called you. Your…your father…”
She’s sobbing too much to continue, and I look to my dad, whose eyes are on me.
“I have cancer, princess.”
I’m grateful that there’s a second chair in the room as I collapse onto it. “Cancer?”
He nods, voice raspy. “It’s in my esophagus. The oncologist will be here soon, and I wanted you here.”
“I’m so sorry,” Lauren hiccups. “I…I thought it was just…”
Dad reaches over and pats her shoulder. “I didn’t think it was serious, either, sweetheart.”
A part of me is mad, and I want to blame Lauren for not taking proper care of my dad. But I know I’d have probably made the same assumptions.
“You’re fighting it, right?” I ask.
“Damn right, I’m fighting,” Dad replies. “I’m not ready to shuffle off this mortal coil just yet.”
I nod, feeling slightly better. If Dad’s fighting, then he’s going to make it. He’s too stubborn to lose to a disease once he’s stated his intention to win.
“But it won’t be easy,” Dad continues. “The doctor who gave us the news says it’s already in a more advanced stage, so it’ll be a longer and harder road to recovery.”
“Just as long as you’re fighting,” I reply.
“Your dad’s not done yet, princess.”
There’s a knock at the door, then a man in a long white lab coat walks in. “David Sullivan?”
“That’s me,” Dad rasps.
“I’m Doctor Richards, one of the oncologists on staff. I’ve been assigned to your case.”
“That fellow from the ER says I have a lump in my esophagus that’s gone and turned to cancer,” Dad said, trying to add a smile to his joking tone.
The doctor smiles, but it’s grim. “That’s essentially the gist of it. Now, it’s my job to help you get rid of it.”
“Well, pull up a chair, then, ‘cause if the TV’s taught me anything, it’s that every minute counts with cancer, so the sooner we can get started, the better my chances of getting rid of it.”
Doctor Richards actually smiles at that. “That’s exactly the attitude I want to see, and your chances just shot up considerably.”
“How’s that?”
“Because once you’re convinced that it’s going the wrong way, it usually does. But I can see you have every intention of being cancer-free. So, now we need to make it happen.”
I shift my chair to take Dad’s hand, the one with the IVs going into his arm, as we listen to Doctor Richards lay out the initial treatment plan.
I could see Dad succumbing to exhaustion while the doctor went over everything, and Lauren focused more and more on him rather than on what the doctor was saying. Doctor Richards had barely left the room before Dad passed out, and Lauren was frantic, worried that cancer had caused him to become unconscious rather than him just falling asleep.
“You said you were up all night,” I say. “And the doctor said his system was already strained. He’s only asleep.”
She doesn’t seem to believe me, but the dark circles under her eyes indicate that she’s just as tired as Dad.
“What are we going to do?” Lauren asks as she finally starts to calm down.
“We’re going to fight.”
She looks up at me, fresh tears in her eyes. “No, what are we going to do? The doctor said your father can’t work. He gets medical leave, but it’s unpaid, and we’ll still need to cover his insurance plan in the meantime.”
Reality settles like a stone in my stomach.
“I don’t know how we can afford to pay for his insurance and not have his income. But if we don’t, we won’t be able to get treatment,” she says.
Lauren may not like me, but this is about more than the two of us. It’s my dad’s life on the line, as well as their necessities as a family.
My three-month evaluation is soon, and if I do well on it, it will come with a raise. I’ll prove to Declan and Axel, that I’m a valuable asset to the team. It’s not only my life that’s depending on my job now but my Dad’s and step family’s, as well. I’ll give them every spare penny I can until dad is back on his feet.
“We’ll figure it out, as a family,” I reply.
9
Axel
“Harper?”
I arrive at our scheduled meeting to find her staring at her notes. But she hasn’t looked up or even acknowledged my presence in the couple of minutes since I walked in.
She continues to rifle through her notes, seeming to see them but not actually look at them.
“Harper?”
She seems to stare through the papers in her hands.
I walk over and rest my hand on her shoulder. “Harper?”
She jumps with a little squeak of surprise, blue eyes wide in shock as she turns to me. “Axel!”
I pull a chair around and sit, facing her. “Hey, sorry. I thought you heard me come in.”
She shakes her head. “No.”
I frown. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she replies curtly, reaching for a couple papers.