WHAT IF

N I N E T E E N

Shuffling sounds on the floor. That's what Claire's been hearing as she tries to sleep throughtout the night but because of the noises around her, she can't seems to successfully do it. The sounds suddenly came into a stop so she decided to not mind it and just sleep it off until it begun again and this time, someone is softly shaking her body, making her eyes to slowly open and found her nine years old daughter, smiling widely at her.

"Y/n, sweetie..." she said. Her voice id hoarse because she just woke up from a deep sleep that she doesn't noticed because of how exhausted she is before. She moves her hand to her face and gently rubs her eyes as it slowly adjust to the lighting of the room before speaking again, "why are you still up? It's still-" she cut off herself when she saw the bright light coming from the open windows and suddenly noticed that it's already morning.

"Mom, it's already three in the afternoon... you literally sleeps the whole morning because of how tired you are yesterday and Dad doesn't want to wake you up because he said you needed it" her daughter Y/n said as she kneel in front of her and give her a kiss on the forehead before speaking again, "come on Mom, you need to eat for you to have a full energy for tomorrow" and slowly stood up as she walks towards the door, glancing back at her mother.

"Why? What's happening tomorrow?" She playfully asked Y/n as she slowly sits up on her bed and look at Y/n who's now sadly looking at her as she smile widely at Y/n. "Advance happy birthday sweetie... come here" she softly said as she opens her arms for her to take and Y/n immediately jumped on the bed and hug her mother thightly. At the middle of their hug, she suddenly cough loudly, making Y/n to quickly pull away and look at her worriedly.

"Are you okay Mom?" She lowly asked and Claire immediately smiles at her before nodding rather quicky at her and said,

"Yes sweetie... but can you call your Dad for me, please?" She sweetly asked her daughter as she brushes her fingers to her hair softly.

Y/n quickly skakes her head up and down before smiling widely at her as she slowly get off the bed and quickly walk out of the room, leaving her mother behind.

Claire's smile quickly faded when she slowly looked back at her hand that has a blood stains on it and quickly swallow the metallic taste in her mouth and throat. She quickly felted her throat suddenly getting more itchy than before and it's making her cough so she did, again and again, cough after cough until she started to feel her chest was hurting when she have a hard time breathing. She slowly takes a breathe in and out before she slightly feel relaxed and back to normal again. When she slowly pulls the comforter off of her legs and let her feet touches the floor as she slowly stood up but when she did, she quickly got dizzy that mades her thinks that everything is falling apart and then she suddenly fainted and falls. Just the exact moment when John enters the room and saw her fainted, making him rushes to her as he tries to wake her up while calling for an emergency on his phone.

An hour in and Claire's now resting while laying in this room's bed and asleep when the doctor suddenly comes inside of the room, making bot John and Y/n to look at him anxiously about the result of the test the did on her.

"Mr. Y/ln. If you may follow me please..." he called out for him and gestured him outside and John quickly stood up from his seat and glances at Y/n who's already looking back at him before following the doctor outside.

"So... h-how is she?" He nervously asked him who's looking sadly at him.

"I'm afraid to say this to you Mr. Y/ln but... your wife have a stage three lung cancer and she's not doing well. The primary tumor has spread further in her chest... and she needs a surgery as quickly as possible for the spreading to stop... completely. It's our only option Mr. Y/ln... I hope you consider this" the doctor told him and John slowly averted his eyes elsewhere for a minute before looking back at him.