McKayla's POV:
"Peyton Blaney here to see Dr. Johnson," I say to the receptionist. They type in her name and point up towards the room. I place my hand on Peyton's shoulder as we walked down the hallway, I was a nervous wreck.
"Hello McKayla, nice to see you again." Dr. Johnson says striding into the room. "Hey kiddo, how you doing?"
"Okay," Peyton replies, unsure
"What seems to be the matter?"
"She got sick all the sudden." I started listing off her symptoms. "I just wanna make sure her cancer isn't-"
"I get it." He nods, understandably. "I'll do a regular check up and then we'll run some tests." He says, sympathetically patting my shoulder. He just starts off with a regular check-up, then asks her to get in a gown. He exits the room as I helped Peyton get dressed in it before a nurse came in to take her for testing.
I stayed in the room for a while, ending up pacing around the room thinking that would speed up time. My mind was going through every scenario. What if she did have cancer, or what if she didn't? I would look up at the clock every so often, time moved slowly.
Ryan's POV:
"Be good in school today," I say, turning towards the kids. "Mom or I will pick you up after school."
"We will Daddy," Summerlyn says unbuckling herself. She swings her backpack over her shoulders. "Bye daddy see you after school." She waves hopping out of the car.
"Bye bud." Noah waves and hops out following closely behind Summerlyn. I wait until they are safely in the school, and pull out.
My mind was wandering off to Peyton's appointment. When Peyton was first diagnosed, that was the worst feeling ever. I didn't want myself to ever feel that pain or helplessness. Neither did I want McKayla to feel that. I would never want Peyton especially to feel that pain again.
I picked up my phone at a light and dialed Chase's number.
"Hey, are you on your way?"
"Hey, I'm not coming in. Something came up that I gotta take care of." I replied.
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah, it's fine. Don't worry about. I'll be in tomorrow."
"Alright, see you tomorrow then." I hang up and drove to the doctor's office as fast as I could.
"What are you doing here? I thought you had to work?" McKayla asks as she sees me walking into the room.
"I told Chase I wasn't coming in. This is more important than work." I replied, pulling her into a hug. I could feel her hands trembling in nervousness. Her heart was beating out of her chest. "Did they already take her in?" I asked, still keeping her in my embrace.
"About twenty minutes ago." She replies. The door swings open, Peyton comes walking in.
"Hi daddy." She smiles.
"Doctor Johnson is reviewing the test results. He should be arriving in a few minutes." The nurse kindly smiles.
"Thank you." I smiled back. She exits the door, closing the door behind her. Minutes passed as we stood there waiting to hear about our daughter's future. Finally, a hard knock on the door echoed, making McKayla and I jump a bit.
"Come in." She says. The doctor comes in, I tried to read his facial expression, trying to prepare myself for good or bad news. The doctor quietly sighs and places his computer on the table.
"Well, I've got some bad news and some good news." He says. "Bad news is her cancer is indeed back, around the same area she had it last. The good news is, we've caught it at its early stages. She just needs surgery to remove the tumor, and a few weeks of treatment."
"So, does she need to be transferred right away?" I asked.
"Yes, the sooner we can get her into surgery, the better. We don't want to wait too long, because it is a rapidly growing tumor." He says. "I'll transfer all the tests and papers over to the hospital. I'll have a nurse take her up."
He exits the room. My eyes looked towards Peyton, her head down. The older she got, the more she understood how serious and dangerous cancer was. I didn't really know what to do at this point. The nurse arrives pushing in a wheelchair.
"Alright, honey I'm going to take you upstairs and get you settled in." The nurse says. Peyton settles down in the chair. "The front desk in the pediatric ward will have paperwork for you to fill out."
Life wasn't supposed to be this way for her. It felt like my life was slowly falling apart.
The nurse pushes her out of the room. I pulled McKayla into my arms, seeing that she was on the verge of tears.
"We're gonna get through this. We always do, I promise." I whispered.
