Her Song (Florence Pugh)

Don't Stop

"I didn't know she could speak French," Florence whispers. It's late night by now, and everyone else is asleep. Visiting hours are technically over, but Scarlett and Lizzie basically refused to leave, and then requested a better room. So now we're in one of the biggest rooms on the peds floor.

"Yeah, I started teaching her as soon as she got a handle on English. It's better to learn young. I didn't realize she could speak it that well, though."

"She has a good teacher," Flo smiles. "You should probably get some sleep, Y/N. It's been a long day."

"I know. It's just," I breathe, "I hate that this isn't over, you know? She still has to undergo chemo. And I don't know if I can handle her being that sick."

"I know, darling. Come here." She grabs my hand and pulls me toward her, so I'm practically laying on top of her on the small couch. I curl into her side and breathe in her perfume. It relaxes me and my muscles finally loosen as everything fades to black.

TWO WEEKS LATER

"They're gonna do what?" Syd asks wide-eyed.

"They're just gonna put a tiny tube in your arm so you can get the medicine you need," I explain calmly. "I'll be there the whole time and you can squeeze my hand as tight as you want, okay?"

Once it's time for the chemo to be administered, she states at me with wide eyes full of fear, determined to not look at the small tube in her arm. We sit there together and I reassure her that everything is okay.

She's stronger than I ever imagined and she gets through the first treatment with a brave face. For the first time, I feel like we just might beat this.

THREE WEEKS LATER

When Florence returns to the hospital after her meeting, she's met with a sobbing child.

"Syd, baby, I promise it will grow back," I try to calm her down.

"No! I'll be bald and ugly! You can't take my hair, I won't let you!"

"Syd...we don't have a choice, honey. The medicine is  making your hair fall out and it's only gonna get worse."

"Sydney," Florence says, coming to stand behind her in the bathroom, "I promise you won't be ugly. You are beautiful. And your mom is right; hair grows back. After everything you've faced, this is nothing. So let's face it together, yeah?"

She grabs the scissors off the sink and I expect her to cut Syd's hair but to my surprise, she reaches up and begins to cut her own hair. My jaw drops as I watch long strips of blonde hair fall to the ground. Syd watches in fascination and her tears slowly dry. After a few minutes, Flo is left with a messy haircut that will definitely need some touching up.

"What do you think?" she asks Syd with a smirk, discreetly winking at me.

"You don't know how to cut hair, do you?" Syd asks, shaking her head and grimacing.

Flo scoffs in fake offense. "I'll have you know, I cut my brother's hair...once." Sydney laughs. "Okay, whatever. Maybe if I'm nice, your mom will help me fix it later. So, are you ready for your turn?"

Syd only hesitates for a second before nodding. Flo hands me the scissors and I slowly cut the sickly thin hair shorter. Once it's short enough, I shave the rest. After I'm done, I crouch down and spin Syd to face me, smiling softly.

"You look beautiful, Sydney."

She looks to Florence for approval, who smiles and says, "utterly dashing."

"I'm sleepy," Sydney mumbles. "I'm going to take a nap." I press a kiss to her head and she goes to lay down.

"You didn't have to do that, Flo."

"I know," she shrugs. "But it helped, didn't it? It made her feel better. Besides, I've been wanting to cut my hair. Everyone needs a little change once in a while."

"You're a dork," I laugh. "Come here."

She steps closer, resting her hands on my hips and I run my hands through her messy short hair. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to fix this," I giggle.

I grab the scissors and spend the next ten minutes fixing her hair until it looks perfectly messy. After I set the scissors back down on the counter, she wiggles her eyebrows, asking "how do I look?"

I pull her closer with one hand and run my other hand through her hair, before suddenly grabbing it and pulling her head back. "Well, it's still long enough to pull," I whisper in her ear, biting lightly before pushing her away and reveling in the fiery blush that lights up her face.

...

"It's amazing what you've done with such a modest budget. I like that boulder. That is a NICE boulder."

Shrek. Again. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Shrek in the last month.

Syd is sitting in her bed, watching happily. I'm sitting in Florence's lap with my feet kicked up on the bed, leaning back against her front and texting David and Ash to make sure the shop is still running smoothly. Florence has her arm wrapped protectively around my waist, resting her head on my shoulder as she watches Shrek.

Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Robbins walk in the room with smiles on their faces. Arizona smiles politely at Florence and I. Since that night when Flo got obviously jealous, she hasn't been anything other than professional.

"We have some news for you guys," Dr. Shepherd starts. She gestures for me to follow them into the hall, so I stand up. When I realize Florence isn't following, I stop and wave her out with me. I think she's afraid of overstepping, but I couldn't do this without her.

"Based on the blood tests and scans, the cancer isn't gone," Dr. Robbins starts.

"However," Dr. Shepherd says, "it is shrinking. We got a good majority of the tumor with surgery, but the remaining cancerous cells have decreased significantly since then."

"Does this mean..." I ask, scared to get my hopes up.

"I can't guarantee anything, but there's a good chance she's going to make it out of this. But you have to remember that those chances can decrease over the years."

"I know. I've done my research." I let out a watery laugh. "But at least there's hope, right?"

"There's hope," Dr. Robbins says. They leave and I turn to Florence with a stupid smile on my face.

There are tears falling freely down both of our faces. I wrap my arms around her neck in a tight hug and bury my face in her shoulder. I'm not sure if I'm laughing or crying, but I don't really care.

...

a/n: sooo you know how i said i wanted to start another story? yeah, i did it. it's about two girls in their senior year of high school and one of them is an undercover shield agent. go check it out (or not homie it's up to you)