Jennifer's POV.
Back and forth, she went back and forth. For hours. Her mom was having surgery, and some Emma girl was performing it, Leah spoke of her like she was the best thing there was and I guess she was, they all let her do it.
"Leah...come sit down already, you need to rest." "I- I can't. I feel like if I sit down I'll throw up or something. I feel sick. I'm nervous. I- Jen, I'm not ready." She started breathing heavily. I bit my lip and tried to figure a way to help her go through this, words weren't really my thing, like I could come out with some really good advises and stuff but sometimes I'd said some things that made absolutely no sense or were too mean, not appropriate enough.
"I'm sorry." I stood up, that was all I could come up with, "I truly am. But let's hope she's going to get better." "Jen, you don't understand, this is something that is way out of our hands, this is eating her alive." She said and started crying. "Baby- please..." I touched her arm and she looked up at me. "Please hold me. I just want you and need you to hold me..." she said and I nodded. I sat down and opened my arms for her. She sat down beside me and I just placed my arms over her and squeezed her. "I know she's going to die. I'm just not ready." She whispered.
Oh woah...
I didn't say anything, I just hugged her even tighter.
A few hours passed by and Leah finally fell asleep and I did too, eventually.
-
"Hello..." I heard and then someone touched my arm. Leah was still on my lap. "Hm- hey..." "I'm Emma Stevens, nice to meet you." Oh this was Emma. She was blonde and blue eyed, really good looking. She was wearing scrubs and she was all smiles.
"Oh, Emma, how was it!?" Leah said standing up quickly. "Well...sit down." She said.
Oh no...
"Look- everything went fine. She is okay, but, we found out the cancer took place over her stomach. It's not really too big but we don't know if it's a benign one, which could be the case and then we would need to go deeper with surgery again and but if not, then more chemo, a really aggressive one." She said and bit her lip. Leah was speechless. She sighed, "Do you think is it worth it? Isn't it killing her? I don't know what to do." She said. "Well...it could be very aggressive and it could kill her faster. Either way this is not easy to treat or to handle. I will continue performing the surgery. I need to go pick the results first." "I'll go with you." Leah said and I stood up too and started following them. Emma nodded.
"Amelia Remini." She said to the nurse. "There you go." She handed her an envelope and she opened it.
"I'm sorry " Emma said and looked up at Leah. "Fuck!!!! Damnit." Leah yelled and started crying. "What is it?" I asked Emma quietly. "It's malignant." She told me and I closed my eyes. Damnit. "I'm not putting her through this. Just close her up and let's wait until she wakes up so we can decide something, I don't want her to go through this. It's just too much. But it's her decision and well, I guess my siblings." She said and sighed. "Okay... let me go ahead then." She nodded. "Stevens...What if...hm maybe you can try and remove it and then some radiation and chemo?" Leah asked and tears were forming again. "Oh baby, you know that'd not work at all. We could try but it's just not going to be enough. It spread already, its nearly impossible to get it all out. Chemo would be too aggressive...we could try, but it could appear somewhere else, it already got to her stomach, it could go anywhere." She sighed and gave Leah this sad look as she was just crying rivers. It made me so sad to see her like this. She turned to me and hugged me letting herself cry. I rubbed her back. "Do you really want me to take it out?" Emma asked. "Yes...do it... you said it was not too big, let's try that. That'd give her a few more time, right?" She asked hopeful. "I- yeah...I'd guess so. You know I can't promise you anything, Remini." "Okay, remove it. We are going with radiation and chemo." She said. "Okay, let's try it your way. I'll go, I'll try and do it and then close her up... I'll get a nurse to come and update you later. Go rest, I'll send her to your office." She smiled and kissed Leah's cheek. "Emma, please...take care of her." She hugged her tightly and then left.
"Goddamn, I guess she's just dying. I don't want her to go, I- don't want her to go." Leah said. "It's unfair, I'm so sorry. I wish I could do something that would help her or the situation." "Thank you for being with me through this." Leah said and hugged me. "Let's go rest." She said and we walked to her office to have some well deserved sleep. Even though, she never actually did. I could feel her getting up and walking around, she wasn't really sleeping, at all.
Hours later I felt a knock on the door and Leah rushed to it. I was still half asleep.
"Everything went fine. I took as much as possible. We need to wait until she's stable enough to get her to radiation and all that. For now she's under recovery, she's not fully stable at the moment." Emma said. "Can I see her?" Leah asked. "Just wait a few hours okay...Leah, please go and rest, you need it. She needs you strong right now." She said, "okay?" "Yeah, it's not easy but I will try, thanks Stevens." "Just Emma." "No-" Leah said. "Whatever. I miss you." She added. Wait what?
"I miss you too. Thank you for performing my mom's surgery and taking care of her in general."
wait WHAT?
"Always a pleasure. I love her. It's okay, she's going to be here for a little longer." She finished and then they said goodbyes and Leah joined me in bed.
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