Room 1013

What Happened

Keith was immediately admitted when they arrived. When Dr. Sallow came in and saw his condition, his face dropped a little. He told them that they had to run a lot of tests to confirm what was happening, but from what Lance could see, he already knew what was going on. And it wasn't good. Many nurses and doctors came in to draw blood and examine his eyes and skin rashes. Lance held his hand the whole time and prayed that he would be okay.

Once they were left alone, Keith spoke to him. His eyes hurt too much for him to open them, so he couldn't look at him. "I'm sorry."

Lance kissed his hand, "It's okay. I forgive you." He choked down all his fear and anxiety, "I'm sorry about everything. I've been such an asshole to you."

Keith let out a cough and brought his hand up to stroke Lance's cheek. "It's okay. I forgive you. You were only trying to protect me."

"Yeah," a tear escaped his eye, "I just didn't-I wanted to just-" he cut himself off.

Keith's hands shook along with his voice, "Lance?"

"Yeah?"

He sniffled and bit his lip. He spoke in a hushed whisper, "I'm really scared."

Lance nodded and squeezed his eyes shut, "Yeah. Me too." He stood from his chair and kissed Keith's forehead, "But we're together, so everything will be just fine."

Keith took a few wheezing breaths, "Do you really believe that?"

After hours of waiting, Dr. Sallow returned and shut the door behind him. Lance squeezed Keith's hand tighter and watched as the doctor walked over to stand at the foot of the bed. He kept his mouth pressed in a thin line and his hands on a clipboard. "I've received all the results of the tests and I wanted to go over them with you."

Keith's breath hitched. He could only open his eyes to a small slit. "Just tell me what's going on."

Dr. Sallow opened his mouth to respond, but shut it and nodded. He switched his eyes from Keith to Lance, "I'm afraid there's been a complication with your transplant."

Lance audibly sighed as his face contorted into a sorrowful realization. He kissed Keith's hand and held on tighter.

"Remember when we went over the possible things that could happen?" Dr Sallow continued his speech. "This is one of them. I'm afraid it's a very common complication of bone marrow transplants."

"What is it?" Lance's jaw tightened and he swallowed his shaky voice.

"It's called graft-versus-host disease, or GvHD." Dr Sallow lifted his clipboard to look at it, but set it down on the counter behind him. "GvHD is a condition in which the donated cells start attacking the recipient's cells. A small amount of GvHD is alright, but a lot can be very serious."

"So," Keith scrunched his eyebrows together, "Mine isn't normal?"

He shook his head, "I'm afraid not. It's actually very serious for you." Dr. Sallow sighed and leaned his hands on the handles of the bed. "There's two types of GvHD: acute and chronic. Keith, you have chronic GvHD. All that means is that it happened more than three months after the transplant. It also means that the cells are attacking organ systems."

"Which organs?" Keith cut him off in a panic.

"It's attacking your eyes, lungs, skin, and GI tract." Dr. Sallow's eyes slowly fell. "That's a lot more than we originally predicted."

"So what does that mean?" Lance pushed for any answer that could help. "What can you do?"

"I'm afraid all we can do now is try to treat it, but the outlook doesn't look good."

Lance slammed his hand down on the end table, "But what does that mean?!"

Dr. Sallow jumped at the sudden noise, but calmed down. "Keith, I'm afraid that I don't think you will recover. I'm very sorry. We will try all we can, but you must understand that."

Lance's heart stopped. Everything was alright a few days ago, so why is it all fucked up now? "Are you saying that Keith is dying?"

Dr. Sallow nodded, "I'm very sorry, Mr. Kogane. We will do all we can." He slowly exited the room and shut the door.

They were silent for a while. Keith brought a hand up to cover his mouth. "Can you call my mom?"

Lance nodded, "Yeah, I will." He pulled his phone out and searched through his contacts.

"Hey Lance?" Keith's soft voice sounded once more.

"Yes?" A tear fell down Lance's cheek and clung to his jaw. He was still processing the words the doctor had said.

Keith turned onto his side and pulled Lance's hand up to hug it. "I'm so sorry I'm dying."

A waterfall of tears streaked Lance's cheeks. His throat let out a sob and forced a smile. He leaned forward to kiss his forehead, "It's not your fault."