Chapter
64
“Ash?”
Ashalyn looked up to see Brian enter the living room. She quickly brushed tears from her eyes and
smiled sheepishly up at him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Ashalyn sighed.
“It’s Elyssa. She’s had another
relapse,” she said, feeling tears well up in her eyes again. “That was just Jenna on the phone. She said AJ just called her and said that
Elyssa collapsed this afternoon, and he took her to the hospital, and they
found more cancer cells in her blood.
She’s being sent back to that hospital in Tampa.”
“Oh, Ash, I’m so sorry.
I can’t believe she has to go through it again,” Brian said with a
sigh.
“Me neither,” she said tearfully. “When will this ever end? You know, we haven’t toured in at least a
year. We were supposed to be getting
together to work on songs for the new album, but that didn’t work out
either. And you guys. You haven’t worked on anything in such a long
time either. Why do all these tragedies
keep happening to us?” Ashalyn began to
weep bitterly, and Brian drew her into his arms.
“I don’t know, Ash,” he whispered. “But at least we’ve all got each other.”
Ashalyn looked up and giggled through her tears.
“What?” Brian asked, confused.
“Brian, that was just way too cheesy,” Ashalyn
laughed.
Brian grinned and began to chuckle himself. Sure, the comment did sound like something
that would be said at the end of a “Full House” episode, but it was true. They had each other, and that was what they
needed to get through this.
***
Serena was getting dinner ready, when the phone rang. “Hello?” she asked, grabbing the phone in the
kitchen.
“Hey, Rena? This is
AJ,” came AJ’s familiar raspy voice.
“Oh, hey, J,” Serena replied. “What’s up?”
“I’m at Tampa General right now,” AJ said.
“The hospital? Oh my
God, what happened?” Serena asked in alarm.
“It looks like Elyssa’s had another relapse,” AJ replied
sadly.
Serena bit her lip, feeling tears start to rise in her
eyes. They were tears of sadness, of
worry for Elyssa, but more so, they were tears of anger and guilt.
In the past two weeks, ever since Andrea’s death, Serena
had barely spoken to Elyssa, who had once been her very best friend. She wasn’t exactly sure why – she didn’t
truly blame Elyssa for the baby’s death.
She knew that there really wasn’t a known cause, and Elyssa was
definitely not at fault. But at the
time, she had found the need to blame someone, and that someone had been
Elyssa. Days later, she had come to
terms with the fact that it was not Elyssa’s fault, but could not bring herself
to apologize out of humiliation. And
now, two weeks later, she and Elyssa still had not spoken, and it was all
Serena’s fault.
And now Elyssa had had a relapse.
“AJ,” Serena started, her voice breaking, “Tell her I’m
sorry. I’m so sorry.” She began to cry and was unable to continue.
“Shhh,” AJ soothed over the phone. “I know, Rena, I know. And I’ll tell her.”
“God, I’m so sorry,” Serena continued to sob. “Why was I so stupid? I bet she hates me, and I don’t blame her.”
“Rena, she doesn’t hate you,” AJ assured her. “You’re her best friend; she could never hate
you. But I’ll tell her you’re
sorry. I think that will help her. She’s… she’s, uh, been having a real time of
it ever since… well, you know. She
blames herself.”
“I know, and that’s all my fault,” Serena cried, feeling as
low as she could possibly be. What kind
of friend was she, thinking that Elyssa would be the reason behind her baby’s
death? “Tell her it’s not her fault,
that I’ve known it all alone, and I didn’t mean to make her feel at blame that
night. I just, I was panicking, and I
wasn’t thinking, and…”
“It’s okay, Serena.
I’ll tell her, and she’ll understand.
Don’t you worry,” AJ said.
“Thank you, AJ,” Serena said gratefully. “Can… can I come up to see her sometime? Tomorrow, maybe?”
“Sure. I think she’d
like that,” AJ replied.
“Okay,” Serena said.
“I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon then.
Tell her to hang in there.”
“I will. Gotta go
now,” AJ said.
“Okay, bye.” Serena
hung up the phone, slowly sank into a chair, and began to cry once again.
***
“Elyssa?”
“Go away,” Elyssa moaned, her eyes shut tightly. It was early the next morning; she had no
idea how early. She had been checked into Tampa General
Hospital the past evening, had gone through a few more blood tests and another
horrible bone marrow exam, and had then fallen into an exhausted sleep. And now someone was in her room, trying to
wake her up from it.
“Elyssa, it’s Dr. Sanford.
We need to talk,” came her doctor’s deep voice.
That got Elyssa’s attention. Groggily, she rolled over to face him and
opened her eyes. “Hey,” she mumbled
weakly.
“Good morning,” the doctor greeted her, smiling sympathetically. “I’m sorry to wake you up, but I was so busy
last night I couldn’t get in to see you, and I would like to talk to you as
soon as possible.”
Elyssa nodded, forcing herself to sit up in bed. “So, how bad is it?” she asked.
Dr. Sanford pressed his lips together in a grim smile. “Besides there being cancer cells in your
blood, there are now some in your bone marrow.”
Her eyes widened.
“Meaning…?” She had a feeling she
already knew what that meant, but she wanted to hear it from him before she jumped
to conclusions.
“The only real treatment option now is a bone marrow
transplant,” he replied, confirming her suspicions.
Elyssa nodded. “So,
no more chemo?” she asked, feeling almost relieved.
“Well, not quite.
You’ll have to be back on chemo until you get a transplant, which could
take some time, depending on if we can find a donor or not,” Dr. Sanford
replied. “But… there’s something else.”
Elyssa did not know how much more she could take. With everything he said, her hopes were
getting further and further dashed. The
last part would finish them off.
“You can’t have a transplant while you’re pregnant.”
***
