A Love Like This

Terminal

November 1, One month and one week since diagnosis
Scout: 11
Sage:8

Terminal. It's terminal.

These words spoken by the doctor rang in Amelia's ears. That moment she lost her sense of everything.

Amelia knew terminal from a medical point of view but the more she thought about she constantly reminded herself.

"Terminal is death. Terminal means your husband will die. Terminal means Link is going to die." Amelia thought.

"Dr. Shepherd?" Dr. Rutten asked.

"I-I'm sorry please repeat the last bit." Amelia said.

"It's going to get very hard. You're going to see things from Atticus that you've never seen before. Since there is so much there will be steps we have to take." Dr. Rutten said.

"What are those steps?" Amelia asked.

"Well the wound on his abdomen will need to be dressed and changed. The farther in we get his body will begin to shut down and will require more dressing to keep his abdomen from quite literally falling apart. It will be messy and scary, I am so incredibly sorry. There is more but we shall send you packets and pamphlets." Dr. Rutten said.

"Umm how long do you think he has?" Amelia asked.

"Depends. Timelines are hard but I give you 6 months at most, 3 months at the least." Dr. Rutten said.

Amelia couldn't breathe. 6 months at most is what life Link had left to live. A life full of pain and fear.

"I suggest the further in you go, call this number. Beverly Pruitt. She is an angel and she will ease the process at the end. And I recommend you have this therapist. Matthew Barnett. He is wonderful and very gifted at what he does." Dr. Rutten scribbled some numbers on a piece of paper before handing it to Amelia.

"Thank you." Amelia murmured.

"And starting extremely soon I'd like him on morphine." Dr. Rutten instructed.

"Why?" Amelia was anxious because her addiction, that meant needles, drugs in her house.

"His body will shut down. It is painful and his organs are going to in the best word feel like they are twisting and the wounds on his abdomen might come open and we just want him to be comfortable." Dr. Rutten said carefully.

"Who would administer the medicine?" Amelia asked.

Dear god she prayed it didn't have to be her. She couldn't do that.

"In most cases they call a registered nurse once a day to administer. Now for the next month or so he will be fine. So any last wishes like bucket lists or anything of that nature should be done in the next month. After that he will be weak and always sick so get what you dream of doing now." Dr. Rutten said.

-

"So umm what do we do?" Link asked.

"Well anything we want to do physically should be done in the next month. He uh- said after that you would be too weak and sick to do it." Amelia cried.

"Amelia-" Link held her hand.

"You promised me. You promised me you would be okay. And now you're not. You promised me when we got married we would be together forever. And we aren't going to be." Amelia cried.

Watching Amelia's tears fall and her broken voice caused Link to begin to cry.

"What about the kids? I don't want them to know pain. This is so much pain." Link cried.

"I know but umm we will figure it out." Amelia wiped her tears.

"DADDY." Scout and Sage called out as they ran into Link's room with Marcus.

"Hey babies, hey." Link smiled.

"We didn't know where you had gone." Sage said.

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"The nurse gave us the wrong room." Marcus said.

"Oh. Come here Scout. Why are you sitting at the foot of the bed. Come up here closer." Link held out the arm that wasn't wrapped around Sage.

Sage was snuggled into his chest and had his fingers laced in hers while she smiled up at Link.

"Are you crying daddy?" Sage asked.

"Yeah but only because I am so happy to be over with this and I get to come home with you guys." Link lied.

"What happened daddy?" Scout asked.

"Well daddy has some bad parts in his stomach, which means I have cancer but you see me I'm okay?" Link said.

"But don't people with cancer die?" Scout asked.

"Do I look like I died?" Link asked.

"No cause you're here holding us." Sage answered softly.

"That's right my Sagey girl." Link kissed her head.

Marcus looked to Amelia and mouthed the word "terminal?", he was afraid of her answer and his said assumption was correct.

Amelia nodded yes with tears in her eyes and it took everything in Marcus to not break down right there.

That was his best friend. Like his brother and now all of a sudden he was terminal.

"So daddy are you coming home after your surgery?" Scout asked.

"Well I already had my surgery and I'm here for a few more days but yes." Link smiled.

"We could throw you a welcome home party." Sage smiled.

"You do that Sagey." Link laughed.

Amelia sat on the other side of Scout in a chair.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you Scout." Amelia said.

"It's fine." Scout said quietly.

"No Scout it's not, I was stressed and I lost my temper." Amelia said.

"Mom I said it's fine just drop it." Scout grumbled.

Amelia reached out for his arm only to have Scout jerk it away and scoot closer into Link.

"I don't know." Link mouthed to Amelia.

At this point Amelia wasn't sure what she knew.