How My World Changed Forever...Again

She's Just a Little Girl

Colleen's POV
Rachel and I have had the girls for exactly one week and two days. Katie has been texting me and asked to talk to me today and finally tell me what's going on. I mean, I'm not annoyed she didn't tell me earlier, just stressed for their family. I have grown to love these girls so much that any amount of bad news is going to be absolutely horrible to hear.   Rachel and I have been just trying to keep them happy and put a smile on our faces.  We're assuming the worst, and hopefully, anything short of that is a happy surprise.
     I'm sitting in my office, showing the girls a whole bunch of stuff from haters back off.  Not because I am completely conceded but because they asked to see it.  My phone rings on my desk.  I look at the screen and it's Katie Leblanc.  I answer it and say, "Hello?"
     Katie says, sounding like she has been crying, "Hey, Colleen.  Sorry to bother you, but I really, really need to talk to you."
     "Oh my god, of course!  Let me just...hold on a second."
     I whisper to the girls, "can you guys go downstairs please?  I'm sorry.  We can finish this another time...thanks girls!"
    The girls leave the room and I sit down in my desk chair.
     "Okay, sorry about that, I'm ready now," I say.
     Katie takes a deep breath and begins talking.

Rachel's POV
     I'm sitting in my room, across the hall is Colleen's office.  I hear her on the phone and she's crying.  It's making me really nervous.  I think it's probably Katie.  When Colleen hasn't spoken for a while, Matt, who is beside me, says, "go get your sister, Rach."
     "Yeah," I whisper with a lump in my throat. 
     I walk across the hall and kneel on the floor in front of Colleen in her office chair.  "What happened?" I ask, quietly.
     "Rachel!" Colleen whisper-yells into her hands that are in mine.
     I say, "Colleen, it's okay."

Annie's POV
     Hayley and I are downstairs sitting in Colleen's living room playing Heads Up on my phone.  When Colleen got her phone call, I panicked for a second, but, like, what can you do?  I got it together and started playing a game with my little sister.  We haven't seen Colleen or Rachel is a while but I'm not going to go find them.  They're allowed to be alone for a few minutes. We're fine by ourselves.  I just hope nothing's wrong.  Deep down, I know something happened.

Colleen's POV
     It's time. It's time to tell the girls.  Well, I don't have to.  When Katie called me, we decided that she would call me back in an hour so she could tell her kids.  It's ten minutes till three, which is when Katie's calling.  I'm standing in my bedroom now with Rachel.  I'm pacing around and she's standing in the middle of the room.  "They're little girls Rachel!"
     "I know, Colleen.  It'll be okay.  You gotta calm down.  You're right, they're little, and seeing adults cry about something will make it ten times worse."
     "I don't want to be an adult though!" I whine like a baby.
     "Same.  I mean, literally me but we have to today."
     "I know."
     "Colleen. I'm scared.  I don't know how to do this."
     "We're gonna be fine.  You're right. Lets just stop crying and go down there.  She's gonna call in like a minute."
     Rachel and I walk down the stairs, hold hands.  On the third step from the second floor, my phone rings. Katie.  I answer it as we continue to walk.  "Hey Katie."
     "Ready?"
     "Rach and I are walking downstairs now.  Just a second."
     "Colleen?"
     "Hold my girls for me."
     "We will."
     I sit down on the couch put my phone on speaker and say to the girls, "Hey, your mom is going to tell you what's going on.  Come up here," I say, gesturing for them to get up on the couch with Rachel and me.
Annie sits between Rachel and I and Hayley sits on Rachel lap.
"Katie? Okay, we're ready."
Since I already know what she's about to say, I already feel like I'm going to start bawling.
"Okay girls? Um, so Daddy and I are here because something happened. We're all okay. Don't worry. It's, okay, we found out that...Katie...um...Katie Donnelly, she was...she was diagnosed with...childhood acute myelogenous leukemia," Katie says into the phone.  She stops, she can't continue.
     I thought that hearing those words for the second time would be just a little easier.  It's not.  I look over at the girls, both are crying.  They know, they know what that means.  Annie's face is completely white.  All color is lost.  All emotion is gone.  She's seen this happen before.