Untitled 6/?
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine...
A/N: Sorry it took so long for an update. I had the chapter nearly finished, and then my computer crashed and I had to completely rewrite it on another computer.
Andy blinked her eyes blearily. She didn't recognize the room she was in, dimly lit with light gray walls. As she became more lucid, she began to panic. The last thing she remembered was being called into Miranda's office. Had she been sent on an errand that was so horrible she had blocked it from her psyche? She scanned the room franticly until she felt a hand on her own. She turned to the side to see none other than Miranda Priestly sitting beside her with an unreadable look upon her face. As she focused on Miranda, she willed her heart rate to steady.
Just as Andy opened her mouth to speak, the door opened and the doctor strode in. "Welcome back to the land of the living Andy," she said with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
"Umm, I'm alright." She chanced a glance out of the corner of her eye at Miranda who still wore the same unreadable look.
The doctor sighed. "Andy, I told you you had to take better care of yourself. Now, not only are you dehydrated, but you've..." she trailed off when she noticed Andy's eyes darting between her and Miranda. "I've already informed Ms. Priestly as to what's going on." She began looking through the chart in her hands. "She is your emergency contact is she not?"
Andy closed her eyes and laid her head back against the bed. "No, yeah, she is."
"Okay," the doctor said slowly. "As I was saying, not only are you dehydrated, but you've developed an infection as well. We're going to keep you for a few days until we're certain the infection is under control. We also ran some blood tests, and it appears as if your CA-125 levels are still highly elevated. Once we've gotten the infection taken care of and you've gotten some strength back, I think we'll have to change your treatment from oral to intravenously. Have you been able to keep food down?"
Andy sat back up and shook her head. "Not really. Chicken broth is about the only thing, and it's hit and miss mostly."
"Alright. I'll have Jason bring you some broth and crackers later. I think that's about it for now unless you have any questions for me."
"You didn't call my dad did you Sarah?" Andy asked, slightly pleadingly.
Sarah sighed. "No Andy, I didn't. I also kept Ms. Priestly from calling them as well." She stepped forward and placed a hand on Andy's shoulder. "You really need to tell them Andy. How fair is it for you to have to handle this by yourself or to have them find out after the fact?" She leaned forward and kissed Andy's forehead. "Call them," she whispered. She sighed again when she saw the look of determination on Andy's face. She stood back up and stepped back. "Well if you don't have any other questions, I'm headed home for the day. I'll come back by in the morning to check on you."
"Okay. Be sure to give Jamie a kiss for me," Andy smiled.
Sarah beamed. "I will. If you're feeling up to it tomorrow, I'll see about having Nathan bring him by to see you. He's been asking about Aunt Andy lately."
The room fell into an oppressive silence once Sarah had left. Andy finally chanced a look at Miranda and was instantly trapped in the intense blue eyes. The stare down felt as if it lasted forever before Miranda finally spoke in a low tone. "You seem to be rather friendly with the doctor Andrea. Have you been seeing her long?"
Andy mentally winced at the tone. "We grew up together and stayed in touch when we found out we both lived in the city. I've been seeing her professionally since after Fashion Week."
"Hmm," she said noncommittally. They held each other's eye again until Andy began to feel uncomfortable and looked down to her hands that were nervously fidgeting with the blanket.
"Cancer Andrea!" Miranda finally exclaimed. She seemed to shoot out of her chair with the admission and began pacing at the foot of the bed. Andy silently watched as she had never seen Miranda act in such an uncontrolled manner. Miranda finally stopped and turned to her with the saddest look in her eyes. "How could you not tell me?"
"Miranda," she said softly and held out her hand. She waited to begin speaking again until Miranda took it and she gently pulled her to sit on the edge of the bed. "Knowing a person with cancer can be very...hard. It can be completely draining. And I know how much of yourself you already give to Runway and of course to Caroline and Cassidy. I just couldn't bring myself to put this burden on you. I didn't want you to feel like you had to-"
Her words were silenced by Miranda placing a gentle finger on her lips then cupping her face with her hands. "I'm beginning to see that you have no idea just what you mean to me," Miranda said softly.
Tears pooled in Andy's eyes, but any response was cut off by the door opening. And although she dropped her hands, Andy was pleased to see Miranda made no move to get up from the bed. She quickly blinked the tears away then turned to the nurse and smiled. "Hey Jason."
"Andy," he said with a grin.
"Thanks," she said as he placed the tray in front of her. The thought of eating making her stomach roll viciously, she turned back to him. "How'd that test go?"
"Aced it," he said brightly holding up a hand to receive a high-five. He then furrowed his brows. "What are you doing Andy? Sarah said you came in her looking like crap, not taking care of yourself."
She waved her hand dismissively. "I'm fine. Your sister blows things out of proportion. I just wanted to see you again," she said with a grin and a wink.
The young man blushed furiously. "You're horrible," he said as he made his way out of the door.
"You seem to have that effect on numerous people Andrea," Miranda said dryly after Jason had left. "You should have seen them fawning over you when we brought you in."
Andy blushed and laughed. "Well, I already knew a lot of them through Sarah, but since all this is going on, they've pretty much become like family."
Miranda cleared her throat delicately. "Speaking of family, why are you refusing to call your parents? And since when am I your emergency contact?"
"After Emily's accident and the way you reacted when we had no idea where she was, I realized it was probably a good idea to inform Runway if something happened." After she answered, Andy looked back down to her hands that had begun fidgeting again.
"And your parents?" Miranda asked softly, sensing that it wasn't something Andrea wanted to talk about, but not able to hide her curiosity.
"I can't put them through this again," Andy whispered. When she raised her head, there were tears in her eyes that couldn't be held back this time. "My mother passed away almost twenty years ago. I was only eight and don't remember much about her time during treatment or the pain she was in, but I'll never forget the after affects. Something in my dad died with her, and I had to practically raise myself. I had to remind him to go grocery shopping and pay the bills because if he wasn't working, he was drinking and remembering. I was what he liked to call an unexpected blessing, and my brother was much older, already in college at this time. From the stories I've been told, he reminds me of the twins: extremely bright and unchallenged in school, so he was always a bit of a troublemaker. After Mother died, he dropped out of college and got into drugs and some minor trouble with the law. It took him well over a year to shake away any of the grief and return back to any form of normalcy and my father almost three years."
Miranda kept steady eyes on her and gently rubbed her hands throughout the explanation. "But you speak of your mother all the time? I've even heard you speak to her on the phone?"
"That's my step-mother," Andy answered as she brushed away her tears. "She was a childhood friend of my dad's, and after he pulled himself out of his drunken stupor, she was there. They married two years later."
They sat silently for a moment, Miranda trying to take everything in. She was somewhat afraid to ask her next question. Andrea's mother most likely wasn't even as old as she was now when she had passed away, and that Andrea had been diagnosed with cancer at such a young age couldn't be a good sign. "What type of cancer did your mother have Andrea?"
Andy looked straight into Miranda's eyes and squeezed her hand lightly as she answered. "Ovarian cancer, same as myself. There's a long line of cancer in my family. It seems like at least someone in every generation has one form or another. Mother was only forty-four when she passed away, and had been fighting it for three years. She had gone into remission at some point, but it came back."
“What exactly does that mean for you?” Miranda whispered with tears in her eyes.
“Well,” Andy took a deep steadying breathe, “it's not exactly good news. But Sarah says we've caught it fairly early for someone my age. She removed the affected ovary and fallopian tube as well as the surrounding lymph nodes, and we've started chemo. Even though the levels from the blood test were still high, it's early days yet, and like she said, we'll just switch treatment.”
Miranda was making a gallant attempt at holding her tears back. Andy began speaking softly to her. “It's not the best news, but it's not a death sentence either Miranda. We're doing everything in our power to beat this, and I refuse to believe anything other than that I'll be fine.”
“How can you be so certain?” Miranda asked as a single tear finally fell.
“There's no way to be sure,” Andy said as she raised her hand to wipe the tear away. “I can only have the utmost faith in myself and the doctors and medicine we're using.”
Miranda leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Andrea's lips. “I have faith in you as well Darling.”
A/N: I have been blessed in the way that I have no family members or friends that have been diagnosed with cancer. That being said, I have no real experience with it whatsoever, but I tried to do research. If some things aren't exactly how they really play out, please overlook it.