Always

Part 8

When I got to the hospital, James' family greeted me.
"Any word on James?" I asked, hoping the doctors told his parents what happened.
"They don't know what happened," Mrs. Wyatt said, "they said he was fine and then all of a sudden he had another seizure."
"They're giving him an MRI now," Mr. Wyatt added.
"I- I don't understand," I stammered, "the doctor said he would be okay after the surgery." I realized I was raising my voice now. "He's supposed to be okay!"
"Aubrey, Aubrey please," Mrs. Wyatt said as she gripped my shoulders, "we need to stay calm."
"You're right," I said, trying to slow my breathing, "I'm sorry." Right then the doctor came out into the lobby and asked us to come back to James' room. We were back to the ICU wing of the hospital, I feared the worst.

"You might want to sit down for this," the doctor said as he gestured to some chairs on the other side of the room. Once we were seated, the doctor continued.
"I'm afraid I don't have good news for you folks," the doctor paused and glanced at the ground, "at the moment, James is comatose. Most of his vitals are functioning, but he's still in pretty bad shape." At this news, Mrs. Wyatt put her hand on her forehead, and I wrapped my arms around Mia who was sitting in my lap.
"Do you have any idea when he might wake up?" asked Mr. Wyatt.
"That's the thing," the doctor hesitated, "at first, James' tumor wasn't a problem. We thought we could remove it with a surgery and everything would be fine, but the MRI revealed that there must have been a part that didn't get taken out." Mrs. Wyatt's face turned white, and the doctor continued. "The remnants of the tumor have mutated into a very rare, very dangerous brain tumor. The cells grow rapidly, and that's what caused the second seizure." Mrs. Wyatt's face change from white to a sickly green.
"Is this treatable?' Mr. Wyatt asked with a trace of anger in his voice.
"Normally, we would try to surgically remove this, but since James recently has a surgery, we can't risk it. We'll try chemo, but there's no guarantee." The doctor explained, "I'm afraid James' survival is uncertain."