FicWad

Danny remembered it like it was yesterday. She was riding with her boyfriend on a bike path in the park.

"/Can’t keep up with me, Gee?" Danny yelled at her boyfriend who was way behind her.

"Nah, I just love the chase." Gerard yelled back peddling faster.

"Well, you better hurry up!" Danny said laughing. "Otherwise WHOA!" Danny suddenly flew off her bike and landed hard on a big rock.

"Danny!" Gerard yelled, jumping off his bike and running over to her. "Are you all right?"

"Ugh, what happened?" Danny asked sitting up.

"You hit a hole in the ground." Gerard said pointing to the hole her bike was lying by.

"Oh, well that AH!" Danny winced as Gerard touched her side trying to help her up.

"What is it?" Gerard asked as she stood up. Danny lifted her shirt and there on her side was a huge bruise. "Ouch!"

"Yeah, I landed on a rock" Danny said rolling her shirt back down. "Well, let's get goin'."

"You sure?" Gerard asked. "With that bruise and all?"

"I'm fine, it'll be gone by morning." Danny said, picking up her bike./

But wasn't gone by the next day, if anything it looked worse. It just wouldn’t go away, it even got bigger as time went by. She began to feel sick all the time, as well. The week after she got that bruise, she came down with a fever of 101 and barely got out of bed. Gerard came to see her everyday after school, talking to her, listening to her, and just being there for her. Her mom finally decided to take her to see a doctor.

Danny fidgeted in her seat, flipping through an old copy of Kerrang! in the waiting room, waiting for the doctor to call you was almost as bad as waiting for the dentist to call you. She hated doctors, if her mom wasn’t there she probably would've run out after a minute. She was scared to death, whatever was wrong with her was serious. Ever since that day in the park, it just kept getting worse.

Suddenly a nurse came out the door and called "Baxter, Danielle."

"That's me." Danny said, standing up.

"Will you please come with me?" The nurse said, and Danny followed. The nurse led her to an examining room. "The doctor will be with you shortly." Danny tapped her foot impatiently, absently looking around the little room. Suddenly the door opened, revealing a tall man in glasses.

"Hello, Miss Baxter, I am Dr. Sampson. Well, let's see what the problem is, shall we?" Dr. Sampson did the usual check up stuff, stick out your tongue, take a deep breath, and stuff like that. Then he took a sample of her blood and a sample of bone marrow. "I'll have to run some tests. It could take some time. Have your mother bring you back in tomorrow."

The next day her mother brought her in again, but instead of being taken to an exam room, they were taken to the doctor’s office. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Baxter. I've got the results of Danny's tests back. I think you may need to sit down."

"Uh oh." Danny groaned fearfully. Being asked to sit down was never a sign of good news.

"I'm afraid there is an irregularity in Danny's blood. I'm afraid the tests conclude that Danny has acute leukemia." The doctor said, taking off his glasses and polishing them. Danny felt her stomach do a summersault, she had cancer. She was too stunned to hear what the doctor was saying.

"Am…am I going to die?" She asked in a small voice.

"Of course not, Sweetie." Her mother said, hugging her. But Danny could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

"This is a very serious illness, but I think we’ve caught it in time." Dr. Giles said. "There's a new chemotherapy that's just been approved. It’s the strongest treatment available, and thankfully the cancer isn't far along so it's even more likely to work."

"When can we start?" May asked, trying not to let her emotions get the best of her.

"We can begin immediately. Staring tomorrow we can…" Dr. Sampson said, but Danny tuned out the doctor’s words.

Danny felt like the world was spinning into the sun. She was like a zombie on the ride home, just stared into space, too shell-shocked to say anything. Even after they got home, she just went to her room, sat on her bed and just spaced out.

"Dan?" came a voice from the door. Danny's little sister, Lisa, stuck her head in the door. "Dan, Gee called. He said he's coming over to see you."

The announcement seemed to shake Danny from her trance, because she suddenly looked wide-eyed at her sister and began shaking her head. "No. No. No! No, no, no! He can't come here!"

"What? Why?" Lisa asked, shocked at her sister’s vehemence.

"I don't want him to see me like this!" Danny said, beginning to cry.

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked. "You look like you always do."

"I have /cancer/, Lise!" Danny cried.

"So? Gerard won't care about that!" Lisa said.

"I don't want him involved. I don't want him to know that his girlfriend is diseased!"

"It's not like it's your fault you got cancer!" Lisa cried, flustered at her sister’s behavior.

"I don't want to see him! If he shows up tell him to go away!" Danny practically screamed.

"All right, fine." Lisa said, giving up trying to fight with her.

"Great. Now please just leave me alone." Danny said, turning away from Lisa.

"OK." Lisa said, leaving her sister's room. When the door shut, Danny fell into bed and wrapped the covers around her, trying to hide from the world, and from the truth. When she fell asleep, she dreamt that she and Gerard were out dancing, she wasn't sick and they were happy.