Even with a metaphorical kick to the gonads to get a move on the whole Grace situation, Nate wasn't ready to act just yet. And for once it wasn't because he was feeling like a coward. Instead he was sitting in an oncologist's waiting room, having gone with Ophelia to her appointment. He already knew the bad news, she had told him chances were that she was getting signed up for a double mastectomy. It was drastic but the survival rate was rather high. Nate had been doing some googling to make sure of that. The facts were buzzing around his head like a swarm of angry, hungry bees and yet he couldn’t' shake the feeling that something really, really bad was still coming.
His knee was bouncing, the foot tapping against the foot in an irritating rat-at-at-tat that no one seemed to have the heart to yell at him for, kind of bouncing. The other people waiting in the room with him all had a similar look to them, a combination of grim determination and exhausted fatigue. A few of the patients were obvious, gaunt and skeletal like Ophelia was , hairless and with an aura of illness. Others were as healthy looking at Nathaniel himself and some of them Nate was surprised to realize were healthy family members and just looked sickly due to stress. When the nurse had seen Nathaniel walk in with Ophelia, she had wrongly assumed he was her boyfriend and offered to allow him in with Opi as emotional support. It was just too complicated to explain thier relationship to anyone and neither one of them cared what the reception nurse thought so Ophelia just declined and Nate sat in a chair like a nervous virgin on his wedding night.
It didn't help that Carlitos' words were still lingering in his mind, making the young Vega feel guilty that he wasn't able to focus his 100% on Ophelia when he knew she would need some kind of support system today. She'd decided that she didn't want him in there with her for this, but he was still there for when she came out. And yet he couldn't get his best friend and their potential romantic relationship out of his head. The guilt added to the anxiety and Nate actually felt like throwing up into the conveniently placed garbage can near the door. At least I didn't eat before this... he mused softly as finally the door opened and a very pale Ophelia walked out.
There have been a few moments in Nate's life where time seems to slow to a crawl. One of those had been the night he'd gone through a locked bedroom door to face off with a pissed off coke dealer who was trying to hurt Grace. This was another moment. Ophelia's body language was rigid and slow, as if her bones were iron and the muscles switched from malleable flesh to heavy concrete. Her eyes were empty, no life, hope or energy left in them and even though there were no tears or other facial expression but her usual cool aloofness, her agony was etched on her face in a way only Nate could see. He stood up and walked over to her, oblivious of the doctor who clearly wanted to speak to him, and just wrapped Ophelia up in a big hug. She wasn't an overly demonstrative person when it came to affection or comfort, Nate knew that and yet he still knew that this was one of those rare times that Ophelia James definitely needed a hug. Someone to stand between her and the world, for just a moment.
"La noticia es tan malo?" Nate asked, knowing that Ophelia understood Spanish even if she never really spoke it. (The news is that bad?)
He felt her head nod against his chest and didn't press for further information from her yet. A cold knot of terror had settled in his stomach when he'd seen how dead her eyes had been, and now the cold was snaking through his veins, chilling him from core to skin. "Let's go in and discuss shall we?" Nate said to the doctor, his arm over Ophelia’s shoulders still and keeping her tight to his side. It wasn't like her to accept someone to lean on so he knew just how shattered she must be.
Her doctor seemed to appreciate Nathaniel's straightforward nature and took them to a small office instead of a examination room. "We've received the results of Ophelia's latest biopsy. Her status had been stage three and a double, partial radial mastectomy had been the best option at the time to help increase Ophelia's five year survival rate." The doctor cleared her throat, not an emotional sound but as if she was just giving him the moment to process the information.
YOU ARE READING
Aces Wild (House of Cards Series 4)
Teen Fiction(Sequel to Queen of Spades/King of Hearts stories) Nathaniel Vega grew up in a less than conventional family. His mother and father had once been student and teacher, his best friend was also his adoptive sister and his family seemed to include peop...
