Never coming home *Mikey Way*

Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Death is taking another

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sighed Grace, tapping her foot as she leaned against the kitchen counter.

"It was mother's funeral and you were away for the weekend!" Huffed Meadow while she crossed her arms in annoyance. "And besides, Gerard and Mikey were here. If I really was sick, like you say I am, then they would've gotten it too."

Grace stopped tapping her foot. "What do you mean? Gerard and Mikey were here during the weekend? Did they sleep?"

Meadow sighed and rubbed her temples, "yes grandmother they did sleep, everyone sleeps! It's natural!"

"Don't you use that tone with me, missy. Did they sleepover?"

Meadow chewed at the inside of her cheek, "yes, but nothing happened! Mikey stayed one night and we just chilled and then Gerard stayed as well on the second night and we just watched Disney movies!"

"You and Mikey were alone?" Asked Grace calmly.

Meadow nodded her head.

"You two were alone?! Meadow, I thought you knew better than this!" Grace yelled while waving her arms around, her calm demeanour gone.

Meadow breathed deeply in response, "look, I get that you're angry but can we please get back onto the original topic? I coughed up blood. Shouldn't we get that looked at?"

Grace's face immediately softened, "alright. Get in the car. We are going to see your doctor."

The car ride to the doctors' was silent beside Grace tapping her fingers against the steering wheel in worry, what if something really was wrong with her only granddaughter? 

As it turns out, Grace had a right to be worried.

---

The doctor looked over at the stack of papers at her desk, "I'm going to give you a referral to get some scans done on your chest. It's probably nothing but it's better to be safe than sorry. Do you think you could get the scans done by today? They do them at the local hospital as we don't have the equipment at this clinic."

"Yes, we can get them done by today. Be honest with me Doctor Kimbal, do I need to worry about Meadow? Is something seriously wrong with her?"

The doctor's facial expression turned into one of sympathy but it quickly faded into a neutral expression. "Meadow should be fine, she is strong."

Grace nodded her head and beckoned Meadow out of the office, "thank you, doctor. Have a good day. I'll come and drop by with the scans later on."

The pair dropped down into the car, "so what was Doctor Kimbal saying?" Meadow asked.

Grace sighed, "she just wants to get some scans done on your chest but as she said before, you're probably fine, my little Doe."

Meadow smiled softly at the nickname, "yeah, probably." 

The car descended into a comfortable silence that was quickly interrupted by Meadow's phone receiving a text message. 

From Bee: July 16th.

To Bee:?

From Bee: That's the day I'm moving to 'Merica so mark off the date on your calendar and get ready to partyyyy. 

To Bee: Maybe.

From Bee: Maybe? What do you mean, 'maybe'?

To Bee: Well the 16th of July is only two weeks away and I'm still sick.

From Bee: But surely you'll be better by then? It's only bronchitis!

To Bee: Yeah, maybe.

The car slowed to a halt in front of the hospital, announcing their arrival. "Time to go get scanned," Meadow whispered mostly to herself. Grace and Meadow walked into the hospital, Meadow with her head down as every single possibility whirled through her head. If their doctor told them to get scans done, this must be important. 

Once checked into the hospital, Meadow changed into the hospital gown and made her way to the scan with a nurse. In her opinion, the medical scanner looked like a giant doughnut, a scary doughnut at that. Perhaps it would eat her whole, or open up to reveal something similar to a black hole and pull her into the world of doughnuts. Meadow giggled quietly, making her receive weird looks from the nurse beside her.

With the assistance of the nurse, Meadow made herself comfortable in the scan and closed her eyes, listening to the whirl of the machine coming to life. She hummed to herself quietly and tried to distract herself from the feeling of claustrophobia. Soon enough, the soft whirling stopped and she was taken out of the scanner.

As she walked out of the room, Meadow saw a gaggle of doctors around a screen, pointing and whispering. "Excuse me," she started, "are those my scans?" The doctors turned around abruptly and covered the screen they were previously looking at.

One of the doctors stepped forward, a woman with shortly cropped blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.  

"Yes there are, little one, but you are not allowed to look at them yet because the professionals are busy." The lady talked in a condescending tone, making Meadow irritated and unamused.

"Well, I'm sorry, miss," Meadow started sarcastically, "I didn't mean to intrude on such an important matter, you know, the one involving me."

The lady gave Meadow an annoyed look, "if you would please go and wait back in your room, we should be with you and your parents when we are done. It would be too long, I promise."

"I would love to do that but my room is at home, not here, and besides, I can't wait with my parents because they're dead." As Meadow said that, the lady's face immediately softened, like most people's do when she shares that information. "Please don't give me that look, miss, it happened years ago." With that, Meadow walked out of the room and down to her allocated hospital room down the hall. Her grandmother was waiting for her by the bed, reading a novel. "Hi, grandmother."

Grace looked up from her book, "hi sweetie. Now get into bed, it's cold and I don't want you getting any sicker!" She added a light chuckle at the end, trying to mask the fact that she was worried, so worried, about her granddaughter. It didn't fool Meadow though, like always, she could tell exactly when her grandmother was nervous, which was why she got into bed with no complaints. They sat in silence for a few moments before Grace sparked another conversation, "so how was it? The scan, I mean."

Meadow shrugged her shoulders and continued to pick at her nails, "I mean it wasn't bad. The scan itself was okay, one of the doctors has a stick shoved up her a-"

"Meadow! That is no way to speak about someone who is helping you!" Grace scolded her while shaking her head and crossing her arms.

"What?! It's true! She's mean and thinks she's better than everyone else and just because I'm not as old as her or as smart she thinks she can just roll all over me you know? You should've heard what she was saying, grandmother, you should've heard what she was saying," Meadow felt herself grow angry as she talked, "she was talking to me like a little kid! 'oh the professionals are busy', 'oh go back to your room with your parents', because everyone has parents today apparently and everyone is just, ugh!" Meadow looked over to Grace, who was silent. "Grandmother? Aren't you going to say anything?" Grace motioned her head to the doorway where a lady was standing, the same doctor from before.

Meadow felt her face heat up and covered it with her hands as she silently scolded herself. The lady cleared her throat, "I am Doctor Smith and I, along with a few more doctors, were looking over your scans." She stopped talking for a moment, "and as we continued to look we noticed something that is... unwanted." Doctor Smith turned her attention to Meadow, "you've had bronchitis for a couple of weeks, yes?" Meadow nodded. "And you coughed up blood yesterday?" Meadow nodded again. "These symptoms, along with our scans, confirm our worst suspicions. I am sorry to inform you, but Meadow, you have lung cancer."

Grace stood up and talked to the doctor, all a blur of muffled words to Meadow as she could only her four words circling her mind; 'You have lung cancer.'