Dancing to his tunes

09|His Reasons

"Hello, Mr Smith, this is Dr William's assistant Anna, I just would like to remind you of your appointment today at 3 pm."

"Hello Anna, thank you for your reminder, however there seems to be a problem. I'm out of town and I don't think I'd be able to fly to America anytime soon, so can you please ask Dr William to hold a virtual session with me at 3 pm."

"Sure Mr Smith, I'll ask him and get back to you in a bit."

"Alright."

"Mr Smith, Dr William is fine with holding a telemedicine session with you, I'll email you the link of the session."

"Thank you Anna. Have a good day."

"Likewise Mr Smith."

Since Dubai was 8 hours ahead of America, 3 pm American time meant 11 pm here in Dubai, so Aaron had roughly 2 hours before his virtual session. In the meantime, Aaron briefed the team one last time before it headed to Pakistan and also used his connections in the media, the Forensic and Mechanical Engineering section of the Dubai Police Forensic Laboratory (DPFL) and the Municipality to suppress the news of ADZ textiles catching fire and to go easy on the investigation. Almost half an hour was left before his appointment, so Aaron decided to take a shower to soothe his nerves. The entire while he tried not to think about his pitiful condition but the moment his fingers touched the scar mark while wrapping a towel around his waist, he couldn't help but think of his dreadful fate.

9th December 2013, Manhattan, New York

He was in New York at the time for a business meeting, when whilst showering, he noticed that his right testicle was swollen slightly more than his left testicle, however on palpation there was neither redness nor pain. But he did feel a lump in both the testes, which alarmed him and so he decided to visit the New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell hospital nearby before leaving for Paris, where the doctor upon taking his history and conducting physical examination and U/S of the scrotum had asked him to get his laboratory workup for AFP and B-HCG and CT scan of the scrotum done since he found bilateral testicular masses. He had undergone those tests and had received the dreadful results in a few hours (much to the credit of his social status and the fact that he had to return to Dubai). In a span of hours, his life had taken a 180° with the diagnosis of synchronous bilateral testicular tumor. His AFP levels were raised while his B-HCG levels were within normal range and so he was advised by the doctor to undergo other tests like CT abdomen, chest xray and semen analysis to check for metastasis and fertility. Never in his 28 years of life had he felt that helpless and shattered, he had wanted to escape reality and just run away from the hospital but before that, he had undergone the semen analysis and nothing could have prepared him for the shock and despair that he had felt that day, when he had realized he not only had cancer but he was also infertile for his semen analysis showed azoospermia. His life had actually stopped at that moment and he had trudged out of the hospital without the reports. He had taken a taxi instead of his car and had asked the driver to just drive him around. After 2 hours of driving around the taxi driver had dropped him at the local bar. But he couldn't enter it, he had promised his wife that he wouldn't drink and so he had just roamed around before hailing another cab and had asked to be dropped off to the beach, a place his Bia loved to be at. He had spent the entire night at the beach, hoping to find some semblance of calm and peace that his Bia claimed a beach provided. He had cancelled his return to Dubai for as much he had needed Bia at that instance, he didn't want to talk to anyone about his disease. For two days he had moped around, gotten himself retested, and had prayed incessantly to Allah to somehow change his fate for he couldn't accept it. However, on the third day after the tests from various labs had come out positive, he had decided to leave for Ohio to meet his childhood friend and oncologist Dr Noah William at Cleveland despite knowing that Noah would tell him the exact same thing as the other doctors.