A Spine-Tingling Story - TDG Fanfic

A Few Good Men

"What did I tell you?" May-Li said after they came out of the clinic.

"He didn't say 'no'," Ryan said. "He just said that there would be loads of legalities involved in something like this."

"We can't afford a lawyer, Ryan," May-Li sighed. "Not unless you want no allowance whatsoever for the rest of your time in care."

Ryan huffed. Understandably, he was extremely miffed at the turnout of the meeting. Dr Gareth had consulted the neurosurgery department as promised, but as expected, they refused to comply. They had claimed, not without reason, that carrying out the paralytic surgery would be violating the Hippocratic Oath - which, as Dr Gareth had explained, was an oath that everyone working in the medical profession had to take that has them swear to never do harm to a patient. (When Ryan had pointed out that modern medicine made this virtually impossible, citing chemotherapy as an example, Dr Gareth had agreed, saying that there was an ongoing debate as to whether the Hippocratic Oath was outdated.) To go against the Oath to this degree would be medical malpractice and therefore punishable by law. Penalties included jail time and a permanent revoking of one's medical license.

"One junior doctor said that going through with this would be the equivalent of grabbing a piece of paper with the Oath written on it, slicing it to ribbons in a paper shredder, setting the strips on fire and then putting out the flames by urinating on them," Gareth had said, which made them all chuckle a bit in spite of themselves. "It would probably take some very clever maneuvering of legal loopholes to allow it. Even then, you would probably only get through by the skin of your teeth."

The appointment ended with Dr Gareth prescribing Ryan a course of radiotherapy, with potential partial surgery in the future. The doctor had assured Ryan that chemotherapy would only be a last resort.

"Maybe this is for the best," May-Li said as they stepped into the (thankfully empty) lift to get to the ground floor. "Radiotherapy can be quite effective."

"My dad had that as well as chemo, but look at what happened to him," Ryan scoffed.

"That doesn't mean you'll go the same way," May-Li said. "Besides, they have to do something other than that operation. If we don't do anything, you probably won't last a year."

"The average survival rate for astrocytoma is only 3 to 4 years, even with treatment," Ryan said. "At this rate, I'll probably die before I can drink."

May-Li let out a sigh, but didn't respond further.

The lift stopped a couple of floors above the ground floor and pinged open to let two people in. One of them appeared to be a grown woman, but she was surprisingly short, barely taller than Ryan's cane. What surprised them even more, however, was who those two people were.

"Ryan?"

"Hi, Harry," Ryan greeted, smiling properly for the first time in weeks.

"Wow, it's really you!" Harry exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. He noticed with confusion that his old friend had a cane, but decided to ask him later. "And May-Li too!"

"Hi, great to see you," she replied, going over to give him a hug. "How have you been?"

"It's been great, hasn't it Harry?" Ange smiled. "He's been such a good little boy, we've all been getting along like a house on fire."

"I'm happy for you, mate," Ryan said, clapping Harry on the shoulder and trying to ignore the familiar sting of Harry being happier with his foster family than with him. "What are you here for then?"

"Lou did his back in whilst in the garage last week," Ange explained. "Of course, being a dwarf, it could've been quite serious for him. But he's been having physio for it and the doctors say he's on the mend."