He's My Savior

Fourteen

Frost

I marched over to UT Southwestern, demanding the presence of her brother.

"Great... What do you want?" I had dragged him into a private office.

"Did you know that her anemia is back?" I questioned him. The annoyed look on his face dropped.

"What?" That meant no. "No, I didn't... I'm rarely at home... I don't live there anymore and she doesn't bother to check in."

"Do you know if you're a match?" He took four steps back.

"Oh, no. No, you're not guilting me into this. I love my sister to death, but she already told me to fuck off when I offered the first time." I narrowed my eyes. "I get it. You love her and don't want her to die. She hates hospitals. You'd be subjecting her to months in there if she went through another. She'll be stripped of her immune system, forced to endure more procedures that she is going to be in pain for, and before she's even a candidate for BMTs, they're going to consider bone grafts or SCTs, and she already exhausted both our cord bloods for it." So, I was backed into a corner. I covered my face. "What's your blood type? Because she and I are almost a ninety nine percent match. If I match with you, you'll match with her."

"I'm O neg."

*

I forced Shawn to go to the hospital. I put her in the truck and forced her to at least have the basic tests done.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Her voice was reduced to whispers.

"Because. Nobody is going to touch you without my express consent... I'm not going to let them fuck anything up, or I'll do it myself." She trusted me... But, legally, I couldn't treat her.

"You're taking me to UTSW...  That's-"

"Yep. Where your brother works. So you won't be alone." God knows she didn't need to be.

"Great... He's going to make all of them want to quit." She muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Enough of that. Come on."

*

Shawn

Needles. I hated needles.

"Relax." My brother said, sticking me and drawing on the first try. "Unlike the newest additions, I know how to hit a vein." He filled up six vials of blood and I was dizzy and lightheaded halfway through.

"I thought the normal was four?" My speech was now slurred and I felt like I was going to fall over.

"I'm getting blood so a match can be found." He said, pulling the needle out and held the wound with a gauze square. "Here. Drink up." He opened me a bottle of cranberry juice and put a straw in. "I'll be back shortly. You do know-"

"You're not giving me your bone marrow so toss that fucking thought out of your head right this instant." I laid back, eyes shut, and drank the cranberry juice down, feeling a tad bit more steady.

"A few of us here are O neg. A lot of these people are my friends and regularly donate blood, so just settle the hell down and let me do my thing... We may fight a lot but you're my damn sister, and I'm not about to let mom and dad down." He went on his way and Frost sat back, arms crossed. It was a few hours before James came back.

"Get changed."

*

After a CT, MRI, and X-rays, I was changed and received a large dose of chemo, which made me want to puke my guts up, but they found where the bones were acting up. Luckily, it was still at the early stages.