Gwen watched the animated conversation between Dr. Corber and Jeremy from the Sunrise consultation room window. Her doctor quickly headed back into the clinic escaping the rain. Moments later a taxi showed up and her neighbor quickly slipped in. "He's running? Typical!"
Madeline entered the room. "Please have a seat, Gwendolyn." The mother of three stood and watched the taxi leave the grounds before taking a seat. "I think you should stay at the clinic as we conduct more tests."
"I was kinda hoping to go home to my kids." Gwen tried to bargain with her doctor. "Maybe Dr. Capella can do more bloodwork and send it to you?"
"Those aren't the kind of tests we will be conducting, Gwendolyn."
"Just Gwen, Dr. Corber. Gwendolyn sounds like I am a character in a children's storybook." She stunned her doctor. "Sorry but that was beginning to get to me. "
Dr. Corber laughed. "I can do that ~ Gwen."
"Where'd did Jeremy go? Get a lawyer or something?" Gwen rolled her eyes.
"What do you mean?" The doctor frowned. "He is just in the garden across the way."
A shake of Gwen's head told Madeline something happened. "What did you see?"
"He took off in a cab. Typical man, running from a problem. I haven't met one that would stick around long enough to make a difference." Gwen stopped when she looked at Dr. Corber frowning yet again. "What?"
"You two aren't ~ you know? Together are you?"
"What? Jeremy and me? Are you serious?" Gwen laughed. "In his dreams. He is my neighbor! I mean it wouldn’t be out of the question. But he has never let on he was ever interested!"
"Really?" Madeline laughed. "Anything else you need to get off your chest?"
"He is cute in a caveman sort of way." She pointed a finger at Madeline. "But you didn't hear that from me." Gwen raised an eyebrow. "And you can not tell him I said that. The whole doctor-patient thingy."
Madeline stifled her laughter. "Yeah, that thingy, Gwen." She gestured, pointing to her patient and back to herself. "Shall we go through the tests we will be doing over the next day and a bit?"
"Yeah, I would like that, doctor." Gwen moved up on her seat. "Can I ask if...?"
"If?" Madeline had no idea what Gwen could possibly be asking. "I am pretty smart and I know a lot of cool things but I don't read minds. So you are going to need to finish your sentence." She added a smile to help her patient along.
"Okay. Like I want to know if I have a good chance at beating this. Is it fifty-fifty?" Gwen breathed then gave out a sigh. "I need to know."
"Good question, Gwen." Madeline made eye contact with her patient giving her a feeling of trust. "I try to stay away from cliches with an aggressive form of cancer we have not seen here. Very few have survived much longer than eighteen months at this stage with such an aggressive form of cancer."
"But some have? I mean five percent maybe ten live long lives?" Gwen tried to find a glimmer of hope. "Doctor?"
"Gwen." Dr. Corber slowly shook her head. "The cancer you and Jeremy have is new to us. It's aggressive in nature and with cancers like these just one percent of patients survive longer than eighteen months when treatments begin at this stage."
"You keep saying aggressive! What, exactly do you mean by that?" Gwen shot her hands into the air. "My last boyfriend was aggressive so I kicked his ass!"
Dr. Corber did not mince her words. "Aggressive, as in only one patient ever lived past five years."
"Who? Are they still living?" Gwen spoke as if it were a boxing match and she bounced off the ropes swinging, refusing to fall to the mat. "That can be me!"
"Gwen." Madeline tried to manage her patient's expectations. "I can see you are a fighter. That's very important but I need to be truthful here when speaking about the odds. They are stacked against you living past next Christmas." The doctor adjusted her seating position.
"Doctor, I am a healthy thirty- something-year-old woman. Before this, I had never been sick! I raise three beautiful kids all by myself. I am never tired and I never run from a fight!" Gwen proved to be a firecracker standing up pointing at her doctor.
"Gwen, sit. Please." Dr. Corber's face showed strain as she tried to calm her patient. "Sit." Gwen sat. "I can not guarantee you will beat this. We don't even know what this is yet."
"Then don't guarantee it!" Gwen shrugged. "Leave that to me."
"I don't understand, Gwen. Tell me how do I leave it to you?" The doctor had a puzzled look on her face.
"Dr. Corber, this is who I am. I never give in and I am sure, as hell, never giving up!" Just then Gwen felt a sharp pain in her back. "I am a survivor, damn it!" She winced throwing both elbows back.
"Gwen!" Madeline rushed around her desk to ease her back into her chair.
"It's my back. It's been killing me for about a year now." Gwen's face reacted as if she were being tortured.
Dr. Corber pressed the intercom. "Patricia, could you bring fifty milligrams of Demerol to the Sunrise room?"
The head nurse rushed in, moving quickly, swabbing Gwen's shoulder and administering the pain medication. "You should begin to feel better in just a bit, Miss Printin."
"Thanks, Patricia. Could you log that for me?"
"Sure thing, Dr. Corber." Patricia left as quickly as she arrived.
"Just relax here for a moment. I'll be right back!" The doctor abruptly left the room, rushed to her office and quickly called Jeremy's cell. "Ever have a sore back?"
"Dr. Corber. I no longer want your help." Jeremy ended the conversation.
She dialed again.
"Why are you calling me?!" Jeremy raised his voice.
"Stop hanging up on me and I will answer that! Now did you ever have a sore back?"
"Why?"
"Just answer my question, please."
Jeremy blasted out an answer. "Yes. It has been killing me for the last eight months."
"That was the cancer telling you it arrived." Dr. Corber continued. "And that tells me it is more aggressive than I first thought."
"So now you are telling me I will likely die sooner than you predicted?" Jeremy looked out the window of the cab. "Great! Just frickin great!"
"Jeremy, please come back to the clinic. Let us help you fight this." Madeline pleaded with the young man.
"Sorry Dr. Corber, I can't do that."
"Why are you so against medical intervention?" The doctor wanted to find the root cause of his unwillingness to accept help.
"My father succumbed to cancer just after I took over his company. Mom nursed him through those difficult nights filled with pain." Jeremy released the flood gates and it all rushed through the dam. "They believed in medicine. They did everything asked of them and what did they get for it all?"
Dr. Corber could only listen. What words could she offer?
"Dad looked like a ghost after a few months of treatment. I couldn't believe my hero could look so vulnerable. He passed away in late fall and Mom lasted until that Christmas dying of a broken heart." Jeremy sniffed back tears. "I remember the look on their faces, doctor. I witnessed regret."
"Jeremy...I am truly sorry for your loss. It is difficult to watch a loved one lose a battle with cancer." Madeline made one more attempt to reel him back in. "I will not promise you anything but our commitment to helping you live the best life you can."
"Nice try, Dr. Corber. But I need to go out my way. Good luck with Gwendolyn. She is not what I expected up close and personal." Jeremy admitted. "She's actually pretty funny."
Madeline felt she was back in high school relaying secret messages between crushes. "Right. Just for my own curiosity Jeremy, what do you think of Gwen?"
"You can't tell her this, but I loved the way her hair smelled. I would have thought with three kids, running a business, and fending off men she wouldn't have time to be that put together on a Tuesday morning."
Madeline laughed. "You have no idea, Mr. Bachelor!" She just remembered. "Oh, the next time you run into her, it's just Gwen by the way. Sort of hates her full name, Gwendolyn."
"Makes sense." Jeremy actually found a laugh to share. "Sounds like a character from a children's storybook."
Dr. Corber felt deja vu with overlapping perspectives from the two neighbors. She laughed. "You are too much, Mr. Fartham. I need to get back to Gwen. She's in quite a lot of pain at the moment."
"Something happened? I hope she'll be okay." Jeremy seemed genuinely concerned for a neighbor he has basically ignored for almost twenty years.
"Why not stop by and tell her yourself? You know? Before you head back to town with the shuttle."
"Ha!" Another laughed shot from Jeremy.
"Just stop by, Jeremy. I would like to give you something before you set off on your journey." Madeline waited. "Just say yes. No more selling you on trusting medicine. Okay?" The doctor waited for his response.
He hesitated, looked at the car rental sign then answered the doctor. "Sure." Jeremy ended the call with the doctor before directing the taxi driver back to the clinic.
Dr. Corber shook her head. "Sure? This guy's an enigma. Sure?" She scoffed. "This is crazy!"
Dr. Carolynne Webster walked in on those last words. "What's so crazy?"
"I am getting the distinct impression that our new patients from that small town have far more interest in each other than they let on." Madeline couldn't hold back a smile.
The Director of the clinic and head of Oncology knew exactly who she spoke of. "The ruggedly handsome mason and the salon queen?" Carolynne nailed the description to both patients.
Dr. Corber corrected her boss. "She labeled him cute in a caveman sort of way. But what I just told you is a doctor-patient sort of thingy. You know?" The two laughed.
"You don't say?" Carolynne loved the gossip as much as Gwen. "Is Mr. Ruggedly Handsome returning?"
"Only to say goodbye, Carolynne." Madeline shrugged. "He has his reasons."
"That's disappointing. I hope he finds peace."
"He'd better, I don't think either has much time regardless." The doctor gave a grim look to the head of the clinic.
Before Carolynne walked away she tried to raise Madeline's spirits. "Listen, you are the best hope patients have and you know it! You will find a treatment to slow this one down. You always do, Maddy!"
Madeline's shoulders sagged. "Thanks for the pep talk. I really couldn't do any of this without you." Her voice began to break. "Ever since I lost Ian during the pandemic life has not been the same. I don't sleep well and..."
"Maddy?" The Director waited for her star doctor to look at her. "You need time away from this place."
"What? No way, Carolynne!" Madeline fought the suggestion. "This is my life! Their lives count on my being here!"
"Their lives count on you being the very best you can be, Maddy. Simply being here is not enough!" Carolynne could see her friend hurting.
"What are you saying, Carolynne?"
The Director knew exactly what needed to be done. "I am drawing the line right in front of Miss Printin."
"Our Salon Queen?" Madeline frowned. "What line is that?"
"The vacation line. The leave of absence line. Call it whatever you want but you need to get away." The head of the clinic stared at her best doctor. "Michael will take over."
"Michael?!" Madeline objected.
"He is ready, Maddy. Four years under you is long enough. Time to let him spread his wings." Dr. Webster then made it official. "Maddy, you are on leave." Madeline raised her finger to object again. "No, Maddy. I am making the call."
"Damn it!" Madeline knew the call Carolynne made was final.