Unexpected Turns

I don’t know how long I sat by her side. Marc stood behind me the entire time and held me when I cried. The news had yet to sink in on him and he was staring into space the entire time. Sometime in the middle of the night, I must of fell asleep, because when I woke up, I was laying in the bed next to Natalie’s and Marc was sleeping in the chair next to her. Her tiny hand was wrapped around his large thumb and she was breathing lightly next to his arm. I quietly slid my iPhone out of my pocket and snapped a picture carefully.

“These are the moments you will remember forever.” A voice whispered form the door. I was started and stared at the man in surprise. He was younger than Dr. Santino and defiantly better looking. His short blonde hair contrasted perfectly with his light red shirt under his lab coat. “I’m Dr. Ross. Dr. Santino isn’t a specialist in the category of your daughters illness. Can I speak with you for a moment? Or do you want to wait for your husband?” He asked and flashed a perfectly white smile. I felt compelled to smile back and swung my legs over the bed.

“Oh no, we aren’t married. We aren’t even together. Lets go somewhere else.” I said quietly and squeezed her little foot on my way out. Neither of them moved and once we were safely in the hallway, Dr. Ross started talking in a normal voice.

“When you brought your daughter in yesterday, we all were worried. At first everyone thought they were siblings, not twins. When Nico calmed down and explained everything to us, the situation became clearer.” He said when we sat down at a small table in the food court. I nodded for him to continue, not knowing if I could take the outcome. “When a women has twins, an embryo splits in half and forms into two babies. Each child has the same genes, or in this case, one is a boy and one is a girl. When your embryo split, not all of the genes were split and given to both kids. Nico’s brain is bigger and he is smarter than normal, where as Natalie is on the downside. Are you following me?” He asked.

“You are saying that Nico received more genes than Natalie. That is why he is so smart and Natalie has the symptoms of a child that has a mental disease.” I said unsure. Dr. Ross nodded.

“It is very rare. I have only heard about this type of case once. Nico is very advanced for his age, seeing he has twice the brain genes. Natalie has just enough to get by. This is why when you brought her to get tested there results were all normal. She doesn’t have the genes to produce brain cells. Now the cells she can produce are producing to rapidly, when they should have stopped awhile ago.” He explained further.

“So her tumor is just left over brain cells? Can’t you go in and take them out somehow?” I asked, suddenly getting nervous.

“The tumor is on the inside of her brain. Last night, we did a small brain biopsy. We went into the back of her skull and extracted a small part of the tumor. I know you are going to say why we can’t just pull all of it out, but it’s impossible. She is too small to undergo major surgery and it will just come back in larger amounts.” He said and I bit my lip, not wanting to hear what he was telling me.

“What were the results?” I asked and tried to look strong. He could see right through me and stared at me for a long moment.

“I am so sorry Ms. Adams. Your daughter has a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma. It spreads rapidly and we can’t control it.” He said, with a sincere voice. I tried to pull myself together and asked him what we could do and how long she would have. “We can only wait. She will wake up in less than an hour and after that, it is a matter of days. Maybe two weeks if she is lucky. Do you have any family in the area?” He asked quietly.

“No. I mean yes. Well, Marc plays hockey in New York. He is so close to getting back. I live with his brother Jordan. Both of our families live in Canada.” I explained and he nodded.

“I watch hockey. I know who they are.” He whispered. “I would call who ever was in the waiting room later or even tomorrow. You and Marc should get as much time with your daughter as possible. I can talk to him also if you can’t explain everything.” He said and I nodded. When we stood up to go back to the room, he pulled me into a hug. It was a friendly hug. One that almost made me feel better. When he pulled away, I was snapped back into reality, the reality that my daughter was dying. When we got back to the room, Marc was in the hallway, on the phone.

“I don’t know when I will get back. I have been skating and feel fine. The headaches are gone. I can play, yes, but I am not coming back until my daughter is okay and back home. I don’t give a fuck about a goddamn contract.” Marc said angrily into his phone. At that point he ran a hand through his hair and looked up. “I have to go. I will call you later coach. Merry Christmas.” He said, trying to sound happy about the last part.

“Hey. This is Dr. Ross. He will explain the situation.” I said and squeezed his shoulder. Marc nodded and the doctor sat next to him as I walked into the room. I stood by her bed and a nurse walked in.

“Do you want to hold her? She will be waking up any moment and might feel beter if she is in your arms.” She said in a happy voice. I smiled and nodded. She had me sit on the bed and carefully picked up Natalie. “Now you have to hold her like you did after you gave birth.” She explained and set her into my waiting arms. Natalie shifted a little in her sleep, but stayed down.

“Thank you.” I whispered and laid back. The nurse smiled as she took the vitals and left the room with a final, encouraging smile. Before I could even process the information dumped on me, Marc walked into the room and sat down heavily in the chair next to me. I didn’t know what to say. He looked mad at first, but when I took a better look, he looked defeated. His light eyes filled with tears and he covered his face with his hands.

“Why? She didn’t do anything wrong. How did this happen to us?” He asked and looked at me, two tears streaming down his cheeks.

“I don’t know, but we need to stay strong. We can save the crying for after. We can break down and blame the world after she is gone. Right now Nico and Natalie need us. I need you too.” I whispered the last part and leaned over to wipe the tear off of his cheek. “You haven’t been here that long, but they love you more than anything. Nico will see you every moment he can. I won’t keep them away anymore. I’m sorry.” I said, finally realizing he never got to know his only daughter. I kept both of them away from him, hidden from the world. I didn’t want them to see him because of what I thought people would think.

Before he could respond, one of the monitors started to beep and nurses came rushing in.

“She is waking up. Her heart rate is increasing and she is slowly moving.” An older nurse told me. I nodded and prayed they would let me hold her the entire time. Marc stood up and kept a firm grip on my shoulder and Natalie slowly opened her light blue eyes. It seemed as if she was in a daze and barely grasped my finger when I put it in her hand. Slowly she gained her senses and was almost normal, or as normal as she could get. The nurses took her vitals, then left Marc and I alone in the room with her.

“I’m not going back until she gets better.” Marc said. His voice was defiant, but his eyes told a whole other story.

“You will go back when your coaches say. She won’t last long anyway.” I whispered back, knowing she didn’t understand us.

“I’ll go back when you and Nico are settled.” He replied, compromising with me. I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to get him to budge any farther on the subject. We sat in silence, holding our daughter for what seemed like hours. Natalie’s breathing evened out and her heart kept a good paced. She drifted in and out of sleep as we sat in silence. Marc started to accept what was going to happen and he left the room quietly to call his family.

Twenty minutes later, Linda Staal burst through the door unannounced and Marc put his arm firmly around her mouth before she could say anything. Natalie was still sleeping. She quickly swatted away his hand and walked slowly over to her only granddaughter. She started crying quietly and I let her hold Natalie’s hand. There was no way anyone but Marc was taking my baby out of my hands. Everyone had to same reaction as Linda. They were rendered speechless at the sight of all the tubes and monitors, then started crying. Even Eric was in tears, but refused to let any of them fall. Parker came in with his mom, but said nothing. He didn’t understand what was going on.

Finally after everyone visited, Marc came back in holding Nico’s hand. Nico walked right up to t
he bed and let Marc set him on it. He laid down next to me and as soon as he did, Natalie woke up. She smiled softly at her brother before reaching for him. It was as if they were talking without making any sound. Nico grabbed her tiny hand before pulling her into a hug. He was careful of all the cords and I moved onto my side. Nico lay next to his sister as he held her tiny body in his arms. Her breathing evened out again as she drifted back into sleep and silent tears started to leave Nico’s eyes.