All I Didn't Say ✧ Michael Jackson

Chapter 27 | Hope for the best

~ a week later ~

"Is it a problem if I go in with you?" Michael asks Olivia. 

They're at the hospital waiting for Jonathan's exams result. Michael's anxious, all he wants is to get out of this hospital with a solution for this boy. He'll do whatever it takes. 

"There's absolutely no problem at all, Michael." Olivia replies. "Actually, I want to thank you." She says and Michael takes his eyes off his shoes and looks up at her. "For everything. I should've thanked you sooner but... you and Jonathan have spent these past days together so I didn't get the chance." Olivia sighs and stares at Michael. "You've always done so much for my son and I will never be able to thank you enough, Michael." 

"It's okay, I do it all for him." Michael crosses his arms. "But you should be thanking your mother, Olivia. And apologizing too." Olivia frowns. "After all she did for Jonathan, you should have at least let her say goodbye to her grandson. But you just took him away." There's some kind of resentment in Michael's voice.

"You don't know my side of the story, Michael." She replies, taking her eyes away from him.

"I don't need to know-" Michael is interrupted by Doctor George. This doctor has known Michael since he was diagnosed with lupus which, by the way, is absolutely controlled now.

"Hi," the doctor says once he gets closer. "We have done all the exams already. He's taking a nap in his room. You can come see him now. Follow me." The three of them get in the room. Jonathan is sleeping like an angel, he must be really tired. "Well, I'm sure you want me to quit the soft talking and give you answers."

"Yes," Michael is the first to manifest his ongoing despair. "Please, tell me there is something that can be done." He is really scared. In Japan, Jonathan was told he only had two more years to live. 

"CF is a really... peculiar disease." Doctor George starts. "Its main target its the lungs but sometimes, which thankfully is not Jonathan's case, it affects the kidneys, livers and also the pancreas. Jonathan made a lot of exams, his lungs are the only affected organ."

Michael closes his eyes in some kind of relief, although Jonathan's lungs are affected. "Where did all this come from?" Michael questions.

"Well, CF stands up for Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic disorder. What happens is that a person with CF has two copies of the gene CFTR, making the protein that's responsible for producing sweat, fluids, and mucus not functional. If the protein is not functional, the secretions that are thin become thick, ridiculously thick. And that keeps the person from breathing, it causes infertility, lower growth, malnutrition and several digestive problems."

Olivia and Michael let all this information sink in and then she talks. "Will my son... make it?"

"That's the point I wanted to talk to you about Miss Olivia..." Doctor George sits down next to them. "If Jonathan keeps taking the medication and only that, I'm afraid he will only live 'till he is 24... that's the maximum age CF patients live up to, there are exceptions of course but... it's rare." He pauses. "Also with age, it's more likely to have the other organs infected as well, they aren't now but they might be in the future."

"What does the medication do exactly?" Michael asks, rubbing his forehead to wipe the sweat.

"It just regulates. It's all it does, to be honest. I don't have the guts to seat here and say that the medication will cure your son." He looks at Olivia. "But, for sure, it will give him the chance to live longer."

"Is that all we can do?! Give him medication and hope that he doesn't die in the next hour, the next minute?" Olivia stands up and exhales loudly. She's in the verge of tears and so is Michael, but he's controlling himself.