Love and Basketball (Lauren/You)

Chapter 22

Y/N'S POV

"Remember how you told me you've always wanted to play basketball?" I ask Madison after we had all calmed down somewhat. She nods confusedly, looking between he mother and I. "Well now's your chance." I smiled, hoping to ease her nerves somewhat. I placed the small rubber basketball that came with the hoop on Madison's stomach since she wasn't really able to hold it and asked a nurse to come in to adjust the wires so Madison is able to walk. Everyone else in the room had various looks on their faces, some curious, others somewhat worried. I looked over to Lauren and gave her a small wink so that she wouldn't freak out as much as Madison's parents. I needed her to stay calm if she was going to help me get away with what I had planned. It took a couple minutes for a nurse to arrive but once she did, she seemed more confused than anyone else. I spoke of my plan to adjust the various wires connected to the small girl so that she could get up.

I knew that Madison's mother was holding herself back from saying anything no matter how much she wanted to. The nurse hesitated to do as I asked and that was clear when she didn't even want to take another step into the room. She stood underneath the doorway looking between all of the adults in the room, and I'm sure she saw how concerned the parents of the sick child were. I had to tell her who I was and what I was here for; and that was for Madison's wish to see me had her disease worsened. I was going to make sure that Madison received her wish to the best of my ability, and I wanted to make it as fun as possible. That was apparently something Camila couldn't even do, so that left everything to me. I didn't mind though, this was more wholesome than anything else I could have ever done. It seemed that finally she gained enough courage to speak up for the first time after my instructions. "She can't walk Ms. Y/LN-"

"Oh she will." I interrupted. The nurse did as I asked and Madison's family stood to the side still confused. Lauren had her arms crossed over her chest as she looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. I looked back over at Madison's parents who were both watching their daughter with watchful gazes. "I suggest recording what's about to happen. You're going to want to remember it." I smiled and shooed them out of the room. I had to give Lauren a peck on the lips for her to leave as well, because she was just as confused as anyone else. As soon as everyone had left I turned back to the sick girl who had an incredulous look on her face, yet there was a small smile there as well. I clapped my hands together once in excitement with a mega watt smile taking over my features. "Okay Madison, are you ready to walk?"

The much smaller girl allowed her smile to slowly fade, which in turn caused mine to do the same. I didn't mean to make her upset about anything; that was the last thing I wanted to do. I watched as she looked down at her fingers, even though she couldn't really move any part of her body. "But I can't." She stated sadly. I shook my head without answering verbally before I started removing the blankets on her small body. I wanted to make sure her hospital gown was tied in all the right places so that nothing could go wrong on that end. That was another thing we really didn't need happening at a time like this. There was wonder written all over Madison's eyes as she watched me move round the room in preparation for the surprise she didn't know was going to happen. Outside, there was supposed to be some of my people setting up what I had in mind, which should be set up behind Madison's family and also my girlfriend. I was finally ready to go through with everything so I went back to the side of Madison's bed, ignoring her confused look. I was sure she was going to love this, so the confusion would eventually be replaced; hopefully.

"Don't worry. I got you." I lifted her up and knelt next to her, keeping most of her body up and on me. I moved her arms and legs for her as she walked. It was a lot tougher than teaching a baby to walk, because in this instance I had to move all of her body parts for her. It took ups a while to get a rhythm down but eventually we found our groove. I tried not to be too rough with moving her limbs because she was still very fragile, and I didn't want to cause anymore harm to her. What I could notice though, was how little her body was for her age because of the disease she had developed. It almost felt as if she would break had I moved in a wrong way or maybe gripped too tight. This made my fear slowly rise in response, but I tried to keep it down so that I didn't freak anyone out. Shaking my head to myself, I slowly walked us to the door which caused Madison to cry out in happiness, the sound coming out more like a squeal than anything.