Love Will Find A Way

Part One - Chapter Seven: Learning to Cope

Nicole and Sergio didn’t get much sleep that night after Cristiano had dropped them off at Joseph’s house before he headed home himself, he knew that they needed to tell their family something important.

After telling Joseph, Nicole decided to call her father so that he wasn’t left out about what was happening; Lorenzo was devastated when he learnt his only daughter had Chronic Leukaemia.

So it wasn’t surprising when he announced that he was taking the first flight to Madrid as soon as he could, to spend time with Nicole and support her.

Evelyn supportively held Nicole as she continued to cry, they quietly discussed Nicole moving in with her and Joseph and cutting back on some of her hours at the library.

After picking up Lorenzo from the airport; Nicole, Joseph and Lorenzo went to Dr. Fernandez’s Surgery to hear more about what the Doctor had discovered.

Nicole hadn’t really been listening after she had received the results of the blood test; so now was a good a time of any to learn what she could have done to treat the Leukaemia.

The three of them quietly sat in Dr. Fernandez’s office as he looked over Nicole’s results again before smiling sadly at the family.

“I know this isn’t much of a positive but at least, we caught it as early as we did,” Dr. Fernandez said picking up several leaflets and handing them to Nicole, who nodded quietly as she tried to wrap her head around the fact that this was all happening; she wished she could just wake up and it would all be a dream.

“Nicole, you are in the chronic stage of Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia; this means 10 per cent of the blood and bone marrow cells are blasts, and you only currently display relatively mild symptoms. Luckily patients, like you, respond well to standard treatment at this stage,” Dr. Fernandez said making Nicole nod only just listening.

Her father asked some questions about what could be done at home to help boost the chances of her recovery, since the last thing he needed was a repeat of what had happened with his wife.

Dr. Fernandez looked at Nicole, who had yet to speak about what was happening to her making him sigh, he knew that this was all a nasty shock for the brunette but he had hoped she’d had time to wrap her head around this since she found out the day before.

“The treatment we thought would best suit you, Nicole, is Chemotherapy; intravenous is the best option for this… so we’d see you every two weeks to do treatment through a catheter placed in the vein,” Dr. Fernandez explained making Nicole nod as she tried to process what was happening before he handed her a business card knowing that it would be beneficial for her.

“This is a number of a support group that helps young women like yourself deal with illnesses such as Cancer and Leukaemia since your treatments will start at the end of this month I highly recommend you go,” he said making Nicole look at him thankful.

She doubted that she would go but she needed to know that if she ever wanted to talk about it then she wasn’t going to be alone.

Dr. Fernandez looked between the family, he knew that this was the start of a long couple of months for Nicole and he hoped that she was prepared for just how much her life was going to change for here.

***

Sergio turned up for training the following morning although he didn’t have his head in the game and it didn’t go un-noticed by his teammates who watched him concerned; they all knew that this was related to what had happened two days ago.

Cristiano pulled on his top and looked across at a depressed looking Sergio, who wasn’t interacting with those around him like he normal did; it was like his mind was somewhere else and he had been like this since he had arrived.

Iker followed Cristiano’s gaze and sighed, he was also concerned about his best friend; he didn’t know what had happened with Nicole but he knew that it couldn’t be a good thing. 

“Whatever’s going on it must be bad,” Iker commented making Cristiano nod, worried about the brunette; she was all he had thought about since the night that he had helped Sergio find her, he knew that it was wrong but he couldn’t help find himself caring about her.

Iker patted Cristiano’s shoulder and smiled lightly, he wasn’t the only one that had noticed a sudden change in the forward and he knew that it was down to Nicole.

“So how are things with Irina? She hasn’t called you today,” the goalkeeper asked making Cristiano shrug as he pulled on his jacket.

He didn’t want to talk about it but he knew they would notice sooner or later that the Russian was no longer in his life and no longer seemed to be coming to Spain to spend time with him or calling him constantly.

“We broke up,” Cristiano said simply making Iker look at him surprised before he smiled at the younger man and patted him on his shoulder; he knew that long distance relationships hardly ever worked and with Irina living in America it was bound to cause them problems.

“What happened? I mean you two seemed so…” Iker said not sure how to finish the sentence; Cristiano smiled at him and looked at Sergio, he knew what had been the end of the relationship and it had all begun when he had met the brunette that had come into his life because of his team-mate.

“It wasn’t working out,” Cristiano replied as he thought about the warning that he had received from his friend, he couldn’t help but feel a little put down that he had promised to stay away; he wanted to get closer to Nicole and he wasn’t sure how since he had been warned to stay away from her.

Last night after seeing Nicole breakdown, the Portuguese couldn’t put up with Irina anymore and he had spent the night worrying about her after he had ended his relationship of a year.

Iker and Kaka seemed to realise what was happening as they stared at their friend, it was clear that whatever had happened when Cristiano and Sergio had found Nicole had shaken the forward; he hadn’t been himself after he had dropped the pair off and he had quickly disappeared not wanting to talk to anyone.

Cristiano sighed as he finished getting ready, he picked up his sports bag and said his goodbyes since he planned on heading home for a couple of hours and resting; he hadn’t slept well and had spent the night sat in his living room alone, his thoughts all focused on Nicole Bartolini Garcia.

As the footballer left the room Kaka and Iker smiled between themselves as they watched him go, they both knew that maybe this would be a good thing for not only the forward but for Nicole as well.

“Who would have thought Cristiano Ronaldo falling in love,” Iker said in awe, he never thought he would see the day; he knew that the Portuguese was used to doing things for himself but ever since he had meet Nicole.

Everyone had noticed the change in him and they had all heard about what Cristiano had done to get closer to the brunette; he had tracked her down and when she had turned him down, he had gone through Sergio to get closer to Nicole.