Like a Skyscraper

Sunday

”What do you mean you got dizzy?” Lila asked her daughter sternly. Kaelyn had gotten in so late Saturday night that her mom had already gone to sleep and they didn’t get a chance to talk about her dizzy spell.

“Just that. One minute I was fine and then I was falling over. Emmett caught me before I hit the water…” Kaelyn said softly. Lila held back the lump in their throat and went into the kitchen.

“Mom, what are you doing?”

“I'm calling the doctor. You need to go in and see what’s going on,” Lila’s hand trembled around the kitchen phone.

“Mom, we both know what’s going on,” Kaelyn whispered. Lila sighed heavily and nodded, but she dialed the doctor’s office anyway. Kaelyn sat at the kitchen table and listened to her mom on the phone.

“Yes, thank you. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Lila hung up and turned to face her daughter.

“We’re going to see Dr. Bensen tomorrow at noon.”

Kaelyn looked down at her hands and closed her eyes. She already knew what the doctor was going to tell her. It was inevitable; she’s been sick since she was 11. She’s surprised that she’s even made it this long…

“Kaelyn Schultz?” the nurse called into the waiting room. Lila nudged her daughter to stand and they followed the nurse into another room where they waited for Dr. Bensen to meet them.

A tall brunette entered the room a couple of minutes later. Her long, wavy hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and she had black, square framed glasses on. She was pretty, but looked experienced. Kaelyn was happy for this.

“Hi, Kaelyn. I’m Dr. Bensen. I’ve been looking at your file that Dr. Rymer over-nighted to me from Miami. It seems like you’ve been through a lot,” she commented as she read a few more notes in Kaelyn’s thick file.

“You could say that,” Kaelyn mumbled and fiddled with her fingers.

“We came in because she had a dizzy spell on Saturday and passed out on a dock in Strawberry Bay,” Lila filled the doctor in. Dr. Bensen raised her eyebrows and nodded. She took off her glasses and put them in her lab coat pocket.

“I’m going to suggest that we head over to Forks Hospital to run a few tests considering your current condition. We won’t be able to run all the tests from our office. I can accompany you there.” Lila jumped at the offer and soon all three were walking into Forks Hospital.

Dr. Bensen walked over to a nurse at the front desk and filled her in. Soon they were being escorted into another room. There several tests were run; blood, MRI, CT scan, chest X-rays and much more. Kaelyn was exhausted when they finished a couple of hours later.

“You guys can rest in here. I’m going to go over some of your tests and see if everything is still okay. I’ll be back soon,” Dr. Bensen closed the door behind them. Lila hugged her daughter and held back her tears. She felt useless all over again.

“I’m really tired, Mom.”

“Lay down, Honey. She’ll be gone for a little bit.” Kaelyn nodded and climbed into the empty bed in the room. Twenty minutes later, Dr. Bensen returned looking grim.

“It seems that your leukemia has gotten exceedingly worse. Your white blood cells are multiplying rapidly and attacking your red blood cells. Your dizziness was caused by your anemic condition from your lack of red blood cells. And you’ve already tried chemo several different times. If you want, we can try again—“

“No, I'm not going through that for a fourth time. If it didn’t work the first three times, it won’t work now. Is there anything else?” Kaelyn asked.

“We rank cancer in levels, one being the least severe and four being the most. Right now, you’re almost at a four. There aren’t very many treatment options left. I can prescribe a blood thickener to slow down your red blood cell depletion,” Dr. Bensen recommended.

“Okay, but what else do we do? Watch her die?!” Lila exclaimed fighting back her tears. Kaelyn was surprisingly quiet; she expected this to happen soon.

“If you don’t want chemo, then the best thing to do is to take your daughter home and let her live the rest of her life happily. Make sure she’s comfortable—“

“And how much longer is her life?” Lila asked bitterly. Dr. Bensen looked truly regretful for having to tell them all this.

“I’d say a little under half a year…” Lila broke down and held onto Kaelyn who was sitting calmly on the bed. She stared at the floor in shock. She knew it would be soon, but six months…

“If you have any questions, this is my pager number and personal cell phone number. Please call me if you need anything,” Dr. Bensen handed Lila her card before leaving to give the two women some privacy.

“I’ll get to graduate high school,” Kaelyn whispered.

“Baby, I'm so sorry,” Lila sobbed holding onto her daughter tightly. She lost her husband, and now Kaelyn was being torn away from her too?!

“Mom, I need to go get something to drink. Can you uh go get the car ready?” she asked softly. Lila wiped her tears away and nodded. She kissed her daughter’s forehead before leaving the room. Kaelyn took a shaky breath before walked out as well and down the hallway. She kept her eyes trained on the floor trying to think. It was hard when her mom was holding onto her.

Kaelyn turned the corner and ran into someone. The other person quickly grabbed her arm to steady her before she fell. Kaelyn looked up and saw a beautiful man in front of her.

“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking,” Kaelyn apologized. The man smiled back at her.

“Don’t worry about it; neither was I. I’m Dr. Cullen. Do you need help with anything?” he asked. Kaelyn stared in awe at him. This was Emmett’s adoptive dad. She’d heard that he was attractive, but she’s never had the chance to meet him.

“I’m Kaelyn and no. I was just um leaving…” she trailed off.

“Kaelyn Schultz? You're friends with Emmett, right? What are you doing here?” he asked connecting the dots.

“Oh uh yeah, that’s me. I was um just getting a checkup?” she said, but it came out sounding like a question. Carlisle raised an eyebrow.

“Is everything alright?” he asked sounding concerned.

“Just peachy. It was nice to meet you, but my mom is waiting for me outside. Bye Dr. Cullen,” she said quickly and sped walked out of the hospital. Her mom was waiting for her when she reached the car.

~*~

“Do you know Kaelyn?” Dr. Bensen walked up beside Carlisle. He glanced at her and nodded.

“One of my sons has a crush on her,” he grinned a little. Dr. Bensen smiled sadly.

“It’s a shame… She’s so young…” Carlisle looked at her confused. The brunette sighed and turned to face him completely.

“Can we talk in your office? I need to get your advice on what I told her today…” Carlisle nodded and led her down to his office. To say he was caught off guard was an understatement…