SECOND CHANCES - Forgiving Isn't Always Easy

Chapter fifteen: Hope

"Hope is a good thing - maybe the best thing, and no good thing ever dies"

                                ~~~~~Stephen King

“It's common for children her age and it’s scientific name is Wilms Tumor. It affects either one or both kidneys. The good news is that in our tests we have concluded that it has only affected one kidney, the left one to be precise. We will need to perform a radical nephrectomy, which in simple words means removing the tumorigenic mass by removing the whole kidney. It seems frightening and it’s dangerous, but medically speaking it’s an ideal situation. The tumor seems to be in stage one and though we can be completely sure only after the surgery, we are quite confident. Selen,”- he than turned his full attention to her, -“ you know I have been Hope's doctor ever since day one, I even insisted I be the one to tell you the news and Hope’s case became prominent for all of us. You can be sure,”- he then leaned a little back and looked both the scared parents, -“ that we will do everything in our hand to ensure her safety and I can assure you that the chances of survival and normal continuation of life are very, very good.”

This words rang in both their ears as they sat quietly in his office chairs. After filling them in, Dr. McKinley had left them be and gone to attend a patient. Of course their own attention had trailed off after those words and they couldn’t care less if anyone was in that room dancing over a bicycle with no seat, naked.

Selena’s thoughts were trapped in what she heard him speak: tumor. She couldn’t believe it. Her baby had tumor! She wanted to contradict, to say ‘Hell No!’, to scream out loud… yet all she did was stand there, sitting in her chair, staring at the small table in front, with eyes fixated in a dot there and most importantly, have a blank mind and heart. She felt nothing. She was numb to her very core and from somewhere within she felt a  coldness take place and start consuming her.

Alex stood there too, only he wasn’t as motionless as she was, not that he had noticed, for everything and everyone had faded off of her mind at the moment. He started pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair, messing it up worse than a child’s after nap time and he couldn’t care less. The man had always been impeccable, immaculate and yet there he was, completely in disarray; shirt unbuttoned at the collar, revealing a few inches of that broad chest of his, tie thrown somewhere in the room and the previous hair.

However it was his head that was more in disarray. They had suspected cancer before, but to have the doctor actually tell them that his child had something as terrifying as a tumor was a different thing. The wait was horrible and mortifying, but the revelation was like that final blow, kicking you when you were down and sending your dead-weight crushing down.

He couldn’t wrap his head around what he had just heard. Hope needed to undergo a surgery in order to save her life and though he knew and understood that was the best solution , and by the doctor's words, this was the best case scenario, he still couldn’t believe it, or stop fearing it. A surgery was never easy, even at the most commonly done operation there is that one percent chance of mistake; and his girl was about to be subjected to a highly difficult one. He didn’t want to think about the chances of failure or something going wrong, even though the fear was creeping at the back of his head.

In one of his spins he noticed that Selen had been staring at nowhere in the table in front and had a lost look on her face. She was shocked to say the very least and he didn’t even want to imagine what she was feeling. She was a mother, and though fathers feel for their children, nothing can be compared to the motherly love or fear. It is the mother that carries that life within her body and feeds that baby from her very soul. It is she, the most sensitive creature on the planet, that experiences the greatest love for her baby and as the saying goes, the greatest pain as well.

Kneeling down besides her, he clasped her hands with his and slowly turned her head to him.

“Selen, look at me.”- he spoke while softly gripping her chin between his thumb and index finger.  She, however, kept that disoriented, off track look in her eyes and face, never turning them on him.

“Selen”- he spoke a bit sterner, though never losing that caring, mellow, pliant tone. Yet again he received no reply, no change, no shift in her composure what so ever.

“She is going to be alright! She will go through the surgery and in no time she will be her old cheerful self and we will forget this ever happened.”- he tried to console her, though nothing seemed to work. Just when he was about to give up with a sigh, she said:

“Swear?”

“I swear!”- and with that she turned her attention to him and let out all the tears she had been holding. Alex slowly wrapped his hands around her, one at her waist and the other holding her head at his chest. They both needed each-others support and presence. She might have been alone through what had happened with their baby boy, but there was no way in hell she'd go through this one alone or that the outcome would be the same. Not if he could help it and Hell knew he wouldn’t!

After who know how many minutes they had stayed in that office in each-others embrace, they made their ways in their daughter’s room. She was cheerfully playing in there with Maria and Michael, who had joined them yesterday and hadn’t left since. Sure, he had been absent for a couple of hours, due to his work commitments, but he had ventured back for most of the time and had been a very positive influence on their child. Hope took to him immediately, remembering the first time they had met and how he had made her laugh, and was now in a full discussion with him about some sort of toy. It was a fierce argument that ended up in giggles and tears. Yes, bloody indeed.

Alex and Selena’s  hearts were beaming a little at the giggles of their miracle and smiles were plastered in their faces. It was then when Selen knew! Knew that no matter the tumor, no matter the surgery, no matter the uncertainty, she would make it and that squeaky little loud voice would be with them for the rest of their lives. Was she going to be terrified to death? Was her heart going to skip beats for every second her daughter was going to be cut open? Was she going to be praying to every possible God out there even though she was atheist? Yes, yes, and Yes! But there would always be HOPE in her heart… Her very own Hope!

-----A/N----

As promised the next chapter is out and about 😛

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-X-O-