You're My Way Home, You're My Backbone.

The exact moment the house phone started ringing Brendon all but dropped his acoustic guitar onto his bed and ran more like hobbled, to the closest phone in the hallway. His heart was beating fast, almost leaping out of his chest as he picked it up and hit the answer button.

Dr Murray had said once the tests results were back he would be called right away for an appointment, no matter if the results were serious or not. It has been almost a week already and Brendon was fed up with waiting and hiding in his house waiting for that one call.

He was also avoiding his friends for the time being and it made him feel guilty every time someone texted or called him.

“About time you answered!” Spencer exclaimed down the phone line loud enough to made Brendon flinch. “Did you decide to jump off the edge of the world for a bit?”

Brendon let out a puff of air and turned to lean against the wall to take some weight off his leg. It was frustrating that it wasn’t the doctors’ surgery calling again, but it was nice to hear from Spencer. Brendon hoped his annoyance wasn’t obvious in his voice and half forced a laugh.

“Can’t a person keep to themselves these days?” He asked keeping his tone light. “Sleeping is important and I need all the beauty sleep I can get, gotta keep myself looking pretty.”

“Sounds more like hibernating,” Ryan muttered in the background, but loud enough for Brendon to hear.

“That actually sounds like a good idea.” He mused.

“I wouldn’t put that past you as something you’d try.” Spencer laughed.

Brendon smiled and shrugged though the other two couldn’t see it. Pushing himself off the wall, he treaded carefully into the kitchen to look at the clock. There was still plenty of time left for the doctors to ring. If they call today.

Quiet muttering came from Spencer’s end of the line, sounded very much like arguing over who was going to hold the phone, followed by a loud huff.

“I’m going to put the phone on loud speaker, ok?” Spencer stated more than asked over a bunch of rustling.

“No, wait,” Brendon said just as he heard a click and his voice came back echoed through the line.
“Why?” Ryan asked.

Too late. Brendon rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and ran a hand through his hair.

“Call me back on my mobile. I need the house line open, I’m waiting for a call.”

Brendon started heading for the lounge room to where his mobile phone was sitting on the coffee table.

“Why, what’s so important?” Spencer asked this time.

“Just call my other phone, please.”

Brendon hug up the house phone and swapped it for the other on the table. Before he managed to sit down on the couch his mobile started ringing. He made sure he was comfortable on the couch with his leg up before answering it.

“That took what, two seconds? I’m impressed.”

“So you should be,” Ryan stated easily as the same click was heard as before.

“Aw, I feel wanted!” Brendon laughed. “What my autograph or my bed?”

“Thanks for the offers,” Spencer chuckled. “So, who are you waiting for a phone call from?”

Looking around the room, Brendon quickly thought up something to say that wouldn’t sound too fishy and caught a glance of his family photo album.

“My Mum,” He lied. “I wanted a recipe for some oven dish she makes. She won’t make it for me so I have to do it myself.”

He could almost feel their silent conversation through the phone line and could almost make out what they were saying; ‘believe him?’, ‘not sure’, ‘I don’t think he’d lie about something simple as that’. It wasn’t the best cover but the only one he had on short notice, and hoped that it was enough.

It must have been because Spencer laughed.

“Doesn’t you Mum realise that you have a high chance of actually burning your kitchen down when trying to cook?”

“I’m not that bad!” Brendon pouted, but was relieved and a little guilty that they brought the lie.

“I don’t have a smoke damaged ceiling in my house for no reason,” Ryan stated sounding more amused than annoyed.

“Okay, so there was that one time, but it was totally Jon’s fault! He was distracting me; he even changed the alarm on the egg timer when my back was turned-“

The house phone ringing cut Brendon’s explanation off. Frozen for a second, he blinked at it before bursting into motion and snatched the phone off the coffee table. He hit the answer button as he placed the mobile speaker down on his thigh.

“Hello?”

“Good afternoon, is this Brendon Urie?” A lady with a professional voice asked.

“It is.” He answered hesitantly, hoping that it wasn’t some journalist because Zack would never let him hear the end of it.

From the mobile, Brendon could faintly hear his friends trying to ask who was calling, so he tapped the speaker in hopes that would make them be quiet, though he highly doubts the lady could hear them anyway.

“I’m ringing from the local doctors’ surgery. You test results have just arrived this morning and your doctor has asked for you to come in as soon as possible to discuss the medical tests that you have taken recently.” She explained. “It’s very important.”

Brendon heart started racing as fast, if not faster than when the house phone had first rang this afternoon. Suddenly his throat felt dry replaying the words over in his head and the urgent tone that the lady was failing to hide.

Something in those test results was not good. He could almost feel it.

“I, I can come in right now, or do I need an appointment?” He stuttered a little trying to find his voice.

“Dr Murray is the on-call doctor today and has no appointments booked for this afternoon. So if you can come down to the surgery now you should be able to see him right away, pervading there is no sudden emergency.”

Brendon nodded mostly to get his mind working again and taking both phones in each hand, he carefully slid off the couch as the doctor’s receptionist told him to head straight for the nurse’s waiting area and said she would inform the doctor he would be arriving shortly. Once she ended the call, Brendon dropped the house phone onto the couch and made his way over to the kitchen bench where his car keys were placed by the empty fruit bowl.

“So was that your-“

“Guys, I have to go. It’s important,” Brendon said cutting off Spencer. “I’ll call you back later, tonight maybe.”

“Is there something wrong?”

Ryan’s question made Brendon freeze for a moment. Slowly he shook his head only to realise a second later he wasn’t in the same room as them. He kind of wished they were.

“Nah, everything’s fine, but I have to go right now. Buy guys!”

Not wasting a moment Brendon threw his mobile onto the couch next to the other phone and headed for the door after grabbing his wallet from the kitchen table. As he made his way to his car Brendon could just hear his mobile ringing from inside, but ignored it. He didn’t have time to talk to anyone; he needed to go to the doctors’ surgery.

*

“As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, your test results did not come back with very much good news.” Dr Murray said with soft, apologetic eyes.

Brendon felt his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach as panic started to spread throughout his body. What happened if this was really serious? What happened if this interfered with the band, with touring?

Sighing almost sadly, Dr Murray picked up pictures of the x-ray and stood from his desk chair gesturing nicely for Brendon to follow. He got up carefully and walked over to where the older man slid the prints into one of them light up boards before turning the light on.

Brendon held back a gasp of shock even as his jaw fell open. He didn’t know much in the medical field but even he knew that the huge white mass on his x-ray was not good. The lump on his leg was rather large now, but seeing it like that made him realise how big it really was.

It was twice the size of what it appeared to be from the outside.

“As you can see, there is a huge mass of tissue here,” Dr Murray said pointing to it. “That is most abnormal and really, it should not be there. To put it in basic terms it appears to be a tumour: an abnormal growth.”

If Brendon’s heart could stop from shock it probably would have right then. His throat felt closed and he felt lightheaded at the news, but somehow managed to get himself together enough to nod to show that he understood.

“A-a tumour...as in cancer or?” He half choked out.

“Not all tumours are cancerous and it is too early to say if it is or not yet,” The Doc started to explain slowly and clearly. “More tests need to be done, but first I have to write you a refurl to see a specialist in this area. He or she would be able to explain what will happen next and any procedures you may have to undertake.”

Brendon’s mind raced as he stood there silent with cloudy eyes locked onto the x-ray. The doctor let Brendon take his time, let all the information sink in.

“I- Okay,” He nodded shortly after a few minutes. “How, how would they find out if this is cancer or not, or will the specialist explain that?”

Do Murray turned the light off and collected the x-rays before heading back to his desk. For a moment Brendon didn’t move, then slowly shuffled over to the seat he had been sitting in before.

“What they will do is a biopsy, where they take a small sample of the tissue and test it. They may do it before or during sugary to remove the growth. The specialist will explain that further and how they will go about doing so.” He explained as he linked his hands together on the desk top. “I’m guessing that they would want the biopsy done as soon as possible, with the rate that it is growing. I’ll try and put you in as an urgent patient.”

Brendon nodded feeling numb and sat quietly as Dr Murray explained what he knew further about the basics of what the other doctors would do and what he could do for the time being to ease the pain in his leg besides the painkillers he was already subscribed.

When he was finally released to go back home with his copy of the refurl and a bunch of other papers for things, he was still in a shocked, overwhelmed daze. The memory of the drive home was blank and when he stepped into his house, he went straight to bed forgetting all about calling Spencer and Ryan back.