Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 46

"More like how did I get so lucky?" I reply as his lips then begin to trail down my jaw then my neck, and he begins to nip at my sweet spot.  My fingers start gripping at the edge of his shirt, lifting it up slightly in the hopes he would figure it out I wanted it off.  

"Impatient much?" Calum asks, as he  traces the lace on the edge of my panties and I scoff before saying "You're the one wearing too many clothes." "That's true, and it's a problem we can easily solve...." Calum says before he quickly takes off his shirt, the muscles in chest rippling slightly before he revealed his tan chest. 

"Finally." I mutter as Cal smirks before his hand is at the back of my neck as our lips reconnect, as I tangle my hands in his hair which is almost always soft for reasons unknown.  My phone then begins to ring and I glance at it as it buzzes against the coffee table.  Calum hears it and he pulls away and I sigh as I look over at the phone.  And luckily enough it's my mother.  

I groan as I pick it up and answer.  "Hello?" "NATALIE!  Finally I got a hold of you!" my mom says loudly and I pull the phone away from my ear to prevent me from going completely deaf.  "Hi mom...." I say rubbing my eyes and Cal doesn't say anything and I gently get off of him and stand up. 

"I was just wondering where you were  after all your fathers test results are coming in today but I got dragged into a last minute conference... is it possible you could take him?" my mom asked and I feel my stomach twist.  It wasn't that I didn't want to help out, it was that I was terrified that the worst could happen.  

"Yeah sorry I'm at Cal's but I was about to leave anyways..." I say and my mom says something before I say "Alright bye."  I turn off my phone and slump down onto the couch.  "What's up?" he asks and I sigh and say "I'm gonna have to take my dad to the doctors today.  I'm gonna get ready so that I can go and pick him up." "Well at least that gives me time to get you some last minute gifts..." "Oh shit I have to try and find you something too!" I say in realization.  Today was the 23rd.... to say I was doing gift-giving last minute would really be an understatement.

I quickly threw on my shorts and MY shirt, before Calum pushed some of his stuff aside, pushing back his hair slightly.  "Good luck at the doctors yeah?" Cal says pressing his lips on my own quickly before I bit my lip nodding, and heading out to the car.

The drive wasn't long, and before I knew it, I was back home, picking my dad up and heading to the doctor's office.  The car ride was silent before my dad said "So what're you planning on doing Christmas Eve?"  I bite my lip and shrug.  Truth was, ever since I'd come back I hadn't thought much of Christmas, because the condition of my dad took up most of my mind.  

"If you want, you can invite all your friends over-" "I thought we were having the family over this year?" I cut him off confused.  "Oh no, we're celebrating at Yasmine and Evan's this year." "They have a place?" I question.  Evan was my older cousin, and he was now 27 and married, but I had no idea he had already gotten his own place and was living his life already. 

"Yeah, it's a small house but it'll be enough to fit the Lane's in for an evening." Dad jokes and I look at him and smile.  "Well if the house is mine I might as well invite the others.  Hopefully they won't have too many plans..." "Oh and another thing: do you want to invite Calum to come over Christmas Day?  We might as well have him join our gift-giving." 

I'm shocked that my dad was saying all this.  But then again, he was WAY more laid back than my mom, and besides: he would be able to charm her into relaxing a bit and giving me a little lee-way.  "You want CALUM, my BOYFRIEND to come over Christmas Day and open presents with us?" I ask and my dad chuckles and says "Why not sweetheart?" "Did you even talk to mom about this?" I ask as I take a left, seeing the clinic up ahead.  

"Well, I tried, and she wasn't TOO against it...why don't you talk to Calum and see what he's up to?" my dad says as I pull into the parking lot, and quickly go into a spot.  "Might as well." I say, as I take the keys out of the ignition.

While we're waiting in the waiting room, I make sure to text everyone and tell them about the party at my place.  I also end up asking Cal if wanted to come over Christmas Day.  He said he would double-check considering he was still home alone and I desperately wanted to be beside him cuddling with him and possibly fucking.

"Robert Lane?" Me and my dad both looked up to see a male doctor standing a couple feet away, the typical white lab coat on, clipboard in hand.  The man smiles before saying "Come on in."  My dad gets up and begins to follow him, and I reluctantly do so as well.  We go past a couple examination rooms before finally turning into one, and the doctor shuts the door.

"Oh I completely forgot to introduce myself to your..." "Daughter.  I'm Natalie." I say before the doctor grins, sticking his hand out, and I shake his hand.  "Nice to meet you Natalie.  I'm Dr. Carlton." he says before sitting down.  The doctor quickly opens up some file on his computer before turning to my father.  "So how have the pains been?" "They've been okay...but I still get them." "And your appetite how has that been?" "Alright as well.  But I find some foods I can't seem to keep down." Dr. Carlton nods as he scribbles away at his clipboard.

"Well I do have the results of your tests including the blood tests and the CT scan...." Dr. Carlton says, flipping through some pages and beginning to pull up images on the computer screen.  He sighs then and says "I'm not going to beat around the bush about this.  But if you take a look here on the CT scan you can see that there's a handful of organs here...but I mainly want you to focus on the pancreas."  He points to an darkish area on the mass of grey coloured organs.

"Now here's what a normal pancreas SHOULD look like..." Dr. Carlton says as he puts the first image up.  The pancreas doesn't seem too large, and is just another roundish sort of shape amongst everything on the screen.  "And this is what YOUR CT scan back with..." he says clicking on something else and putting the second image beside the first.  I see that the pancreas is larger, and almost seems to have a small black dot in it, like something was inside of it.

And it hit me.

"Mr. Lane....you have pancreatic cancer.  We've caught it just as it's hitting stage two, which means there's a good chance with chemotherapy and some radiation therapy we can stop the cancer cells from spreading, and begin to work at the tumour.  We'll be setting you up with some other specialists who will help, and we can start-" Dr. Carlton rambled on and on, but I couldn't hear a single thing.  

My dad has cancer.  My dad was dying.  And it was completely and utterly out of my control.  Those thoughts kept running through my head, and I was numbed as we finally left the doctor's office.  The only words I did remember Dr. Carlton say as we were leaving were the typical doctor's pity: "I'm so sorry." 

My dad and I were silent the whole way home.  I couldn't even say anything.  The lump that had grown in my throat was choking me, and the shock of this all had made me speechless.  When we finally arrive home, I pull into the driveway and I pulled the keys out of the ignition.  We both sat in the car for a good five minutes, not moving, not speaking.  I was surprised we were both even breathing at that point.  

I felt my cheeks suddenly become wet and it's only then that I realize that I'm crying, and it's impossible to stop the tears that are streaming down my face.  I start shaking as I try to wipe away the tears but it's useless because my eyes have suddenly turned into the broken waterworks and I sit there unable to do anything.  

I then feel my dad's hand slowly slip into mine as he holds my hand squeezing it tightly.  "It's alright sweetheart.  It's alright." he whispers and I then sob even harder because no matter how many times either of us said it, it wasn't alright and from now on, I didn't know if it ever would be.