A Piece Of My Life (Captain Swan)

Chapter 4

Pulling back, her face flushed. "You blacked out, are you alright now?"

"That was awful," he muttered, seeming to not notice the forehead-kiss.

"You did great," Emma smiled and slid back into the grey chair.

Dr. Whale came in that moment. "The nurse said she saw you come to quickly so I figured I'd give you part of the results. We found you had an extremely low white blood cell count and when we did the CT scan, there was a mass. It goes from your frontal lobe, which assume was the starting point, down into the temporal lobe, and is brushed into the cerebellum. It's thin, but it's causing quite a few problems. Your hallucinations, outbursts of rage, and we expect to see more coming if we don't begin treatment as soon as possible." He rambled off a bunch of medical jumbo that neither of them understood. Noticing this, he dumbed it down, "You have stage two, bordering on stage 3, brain cancer."

Hook threw back his head and gave a hearty chuckled. Emma and Dr. Whale both looked at him oddly. "That's just great," he said while still laughing, "I'm going to die. I can't wait!"

Emma turned to Whale, "What is going on?"

He seemed just as confused, but managed to come up with a reasonable explanation, "Because of where the tumor is located, there can be personality changes. I guess it's just not letting him react the way he wants to." Glancing shortly at Hook, he shook his head, "He'll probably act more rationally in an hour or so, until then, you might want to go grab a coffee."

Emma glanced over to Hook to see him still laughing, though silently, and nodded. "Send someone for me if you need anything," she tried to tell him, but was unsure if he really understood.

-)(-

The coffee wasn't particularly great, but it did pump some caffeine into her veins. The diagnosis from earlier had caused her mind to go blank and she was still trying to turn the gears. Cancer. Brain cancer. It was unfair and didn't make any sense; a non magical disease in a town full of magic.

A nurse in light purple scrubs sat down across from her in the hospital cafeteria, disrupting her only thought train. "Emma, right?" She questioned and Emma nodded. "I'm Anastasia," the girl extended her hand and Emma shook it. "I was one of the fairies beach in the Enchanted Forest."

Emma nodded, "Is there something I can help with?"

Anastasia shook her head, "No, you just looked like you needed to talk with someone. I heard about the pirate's diagnosis and the laughing."

"I don't get it, he's laughing when he was just told he has cancer." Her head faced the blue speckled table in defeat.

The nurse put a hand on top of one of Emma's that was on the table. "I know it doesn't make sense yet, but you'll get used to it and learn how to handle it. The treatment options these days are amazing. Things may get worse before they get better, but it seems like it's always that way." Anastasia smiled and pushed her blond hair out of her eyes. Turning around, she looked at the clocked, "I should get back, and you should too."

After she had left, Emma followed her advice and went back to the room, hoping that things were more normal.

-)(-

He was looking at the thin white blanket blankly when Emma came into the room. Embarrassed at the earlier scene, his face flushed a shade of light pink. He wanted to look at her, to see understanding in her eyes, but he didn't want to see pity. Men didn't accept pity, it would be almost like an insult, but really, how much of a man was he really after crying during that test. That was probably the most excruciating and humiliating thing that had ever happened, one step down from getting his hand cut off.

"Hey," Emma said quietly, he could tell she was waiting to see if he would laugh again

He shook his head. "I'm done."

She sighed and sat down in a chair beside the bed, "Oh good."

"You don't need to stay here with me, you know." Pride was kicking in.

"I swear, if you push me away again, I will smack you, Killian Jones."

"Again?" He tried to give her his signature cocky smile, but even he could tell it failure miserably.

"Yes, again, you moron," she shook her head, but smiled "Did Dr. Whale come back at all?"

"Yes, he wants to start something called chemotherapy tomorrow and he gave me these steroid tablets that're supposed to stop swelling, I think."

"How's your back?"

He shrugged. A window jumping silence settled in between them.

After a while Hook sighed, "You don't have to be here, you know."

"Shut up."

"Swan?"

Emma looked straight into his eyes, "Don't push me away again. I won't have it this time."

Hook inclined his head, "As you wish, my lady."

A nurse came in a moment later, silencing them. "Alright, that's been thirty minutes. We're actually going to keep you overnight to monitor. You can put on your normal clothes and then try to get some rest. You might be sore tonight from the biopsy, but that's normal." She busied herself removing Hook's banana bag and then left them alone.

Hook slowly sat up and rubbed his face. It was a slow process for him to get up off the bed and to stand. He shuffled across the room to another chair that held a pair of jeans and a white tee shirt--Emma looked at him in confusion.

"I asked a nurse named Anastasia to see if she could get me some normal clothes," he said in explanation. Recognizing the name, she nodded.

Hook picked up the clothing and shuffled halfway to the bathroom before his arm twitched and the clothes fell from his grip. "Damn!" He swore and bent over to get them, but his leg spasmed and he has to hold the end of the bed for support.

"I'll get it," Emma murmured and stood up, but Hook held a hand up.

His face was red with either frustration, anger, or embarrassment, maybe a little of all three. "No, I can get it."

"You're going to hurt yourself," she told him as she watched him struggle to even let go of the bed.

Finally, Hook shakily let go of the bed and slowly bent over. He was so close when both his legs and arms spasmed, causing him to collapse on the floor in a heap. Emma stood up and walked over to where he was attempting to get into a sitting position. She sat down beside him and put a hand in his arm, "You're going to have to let some of that pride go," she muttered while taking and folding the clothes in her lap. Hook didn't say anything and refused to look at her. "Take my hand." Emma stood up and offered it. He seemed to want to refuse, but in the end conceded to let her help him up. "Go sit on the bed," she instructed. He did as told and Emma followed him.

Standing directly in front of him, she leaned her arms on his shoulders and began unbuttoning some of the gown so that it fell to his waist. Killian looked at her and she swore she saw innocence resting there. Taking the white shirt, she guided one arm into a hole and then the other. His eyes never left hers until she pulled the shirt over his head. "That wasn't so bad," she whispered, was it?" Without waiting for an answer, she handed him the pants, "I'll be outside the room while you put these on."