Two Punks In Love

Unf*ckingbelievable

Kat

I pull the Lambo into the medical campus, behind my parent's car, with security on our tail. The nurse ushers us beyond the waiting room, directing my parents to what looks like a small conference room and indicates she will put me in a patient exam room.

"Just to go over her health screen first," she says cheerily to my parents. "When Ashlynn arrives, we'll do the same with her and then everyone will meet together."

"Is everything okay?" I ask the nurse, nervously.

She smiles noncommittally. "The doctor will be in just a few minutes."

"Can we wait on my fiancé?" I ask.

"Sure."

I fidget nervously in the patient chair for about twenty minutes. I text Trace. He says he, Leed and Ashlynn are parking now.

I wait for another fifteen minutes. The door opens and Leed walks in, then stops short.

He grins, raking through his hair. "Shit. Sorry." He turns pokes his head out. "They said fourth door on the right." He turns to step back into the hall, his eyes counting rooms. "Yeah, they've got their Ballards bamboozled. I'll go find where I belong..."

Before he can close the door, I hiss, "Where the fuck is Trace?"

Leed, sensing my irritation, steps back in and closes the door. He looks me over carefully, apparently recognizes how agitated I am, and hops up on the exam table, crinkling paper as he crosses his legs.

"What's up, HellKat?"

"I just...I would really like Trace to be here right now."

Leed sighs. "Well, he was on a call, but I thought he was right behind me. I'm sure he'll be right here. Listen, you don't have to be scared. Nobody's cutting your kidney out today, you know. In fact, nobody has to cut it out ever. Your mom doesn't expect that. Your dad doesn't expect that. Personally, I think it's kind of a bad idea to rush into this. Ellen's doing okay at the moment. She had a lupus flare, her dialysis went wonky for a couple of weeks, but things are looking better. I think we should all just take a beat."

"I'm not scared to give my mom a kidney," I say evenly, looking at my hands.

"Well, I'm fucking terrified that Ash is considering it," Leed admits. "I know we don't talk about it, but we're going to have to, today. I don't want her to do it. But I can't tell her not to, either. As worried as I am that it might cause either her seizures or her drug problem to relapse, I know it's not my place."

I stare at him in surprise. "That's so not where I thought your head was at. You're ferocious when it comes to protecting her."

"That's different," he smiles. "I can protect her from the world. I can't protect her from her own conscience. If I begged her not to do this for me, for our kids, and something happened to her mom? I figure that could cause more damage than a relapse. Ash and I can get through the seizures. We've done it before. We could even get through a drug relapse, I'm pretty sure. I'm not sure I could heal her heart if something happened to your mom that she could have prevented."

"Trace said something similar to me, earlier..." I murmur.

"So what's the problem here?" Leed asks. "Are you worried about making the decision between you and Ashlynn? Some kind of family balance thing?"

"No, it's...not that."

My mom's doctor breezes in. He's supposedly the best Transplant Physician in the state, but his bedside manner leaves me longing for Dr. Call-Me-Kade. I've taken my mother to a number of doctor's appointments, but he never seems to recall whether I'm Katheryn or Ashlynn.