Till The End

20

Warnings:
-Mentions amputation/surgeries
-Mentions chemotherapy

Clay's POV

I was in the hospital since George's day was completely filled with surgeries. Firstly, they were going to remove the tumour in his lungs and arm. Then they would amputate his leg and remove the tumours in his shin.

When they did that, he needed to recover for a really long time. I read that he needed a tube to breathe for a little, a catheter so he could still pee, a tube in his nose to eat and drink and a drain coming from his wound.

It would be a very intense surgery and he would have to lay in a room on the IC so they could keep an eye on him the whole day. Then he would move back to his room and start recovering.

I was sitting with George who was constantly crying and I took a lot of medication so I would feel decent enough to be here with George.

Obviously, my cancer wasn't gone either. I felt better than I did when I was on chemo, but I still felt sick and mostly exhausted. I slept all day and was still too weak to go back to school.

In the time I was at home, I worked more on my phobia since I actually really wanted to get rid of it. We called a therapist who came to my house and I had a short therapy session every day while I slowly started lowering my calming medication doses. From now on, it seemed to go pretty well.

George turned to me and grabbed my hand. 'I'm so scared. I don't want to wake up without a leg anymore,' he sniffed.

I kissed his beanie and hugged him gently. 'I'm going to be here with you when you wake up.'

'Are you not too sick?' he whispered.

'My dad is here, your parents are and Sap is here so they will keep an eye on me, don't worry. I'm going to be okay, I'm just tired.'

He smiled and then a doctor came in to take him to the surgery room. I hugged him again, everyone said goodbye and his mother went with him to be with him when he fell asleep. He was also holding his panda and I smiled as I waved when he got driven away.

I sat down on a chair next to Sapnap who noticed I was really tired. He smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, letting me rest my head on his shoulder.

'Close your eyes,' he told me in a soft voice, taking off my beanie to put it under my head and his shoulder as a pillow.

'I'm sorry for putting so much stress on you,' I whispered. 'George has cancer and now I'm here too. It-.'

'Stop, Clay. I'm not the one with cancer and I'm having a way more easy time than you have. Don't think about that, I'm totally fine and I'll do everything I can to be here for you.'

'I love you and George,' I mumbled, being too tired to realise what I was saying. 'I miss him.'

'Aww, I bet you do. But he's coming back and hopefully his cancer will be gone! I love you too, dude.'

'I hope so too. I hope my cancer will be gone soon too, but I think it will take a while. I don't want chemo anymore,' I sniffed.

'Me and George will be with you.'

Sapnap pulled my legs up over his lap and pulled me closer so I sat really comfortably. 'Just try to sleep for a little, I'll wake you up when George gets back.'

'Thank you for being my friend. I never used to have friends at school. There's only these two nice boys, Bad and Ant. They were sweet to me and gave me a book for my birthday. I'm going to start reading it when I'm in the hospital again next week.'

Sapnap smiled and grabbed my bag to give me the bear I got from George. I held it tightly while I closed my eyes and curled up like a ball against Sapnap. He was softly stroking my head to calm me down and I ended up falling asleep a few minutes later.

~~~

It was hours later when I woke up since it was darker outside now. I looked up at Sapnap who still sat next to me and he smiled. 'Hi! How are you?'

'Okay,' I mumbled. 'Still tired. Where is George?'

'The surgeries are done and he's currently sleeping somewhere. His parents are with him and when he wakes up we can go to him too. I didn't want to wake you up earlier since you were sleeping very deeply,' he explained.

I smiled. 'How did the surgeries go?'

'The doctor was just here and he told us they went really well. It looks like they removed all the cancer in his leg, arm and lungs and his amputation went really well. He will have a lot of pain though in the next few weeks, but he will be here in the hospital with good doctors around him!'

'I think he's just as beautiful as he was before,' I admitted.

'I'm sure he is,' Sapnap smiled as he looked up at George's mother walking in.

'Clay, can you come? He's repeatedly asking for you. He's really tired and cries a lot because he misses you.'

I smiled and stood up, walking with his mother to George's room. His dad smiled at me and left us alone in a room.

I grabbed George's hand. 'How are you?' I whispered since I noticed he was very sensitive to sounds.

'Ow,' he mumbled to show me he had a lot of pain.

'The surgeries went really well, I heard from Sapnap. You deserve that so much after everything you've gone through. Now I'll be here with you during your recovery.'

He smiled very faintly and pulled me closer as he slowly opened his eyes. 'H-hug?'

I gave him a careful hug and kissed his forehead softly. 'You did so great, I'm so proud of you. I love you.'

'Love too,' he tried to say, holding my hand tightly since he was out of breath. 'How do you feel?'

'I'm okay,' I smiled. 'I've slept from when you got driven away till a few minutes ago.'

He nodded slowly and opened his eyes, blinking a lot because of the light. I held my hand in front of the light so it wasn't shining in his face anymore and a smile filled his face. He lifted his good arm and pointed at me.

'Very beautiful.'

I blushed and giggled softly. 'What a coincidence that I find you veeeery beautiful,' I laughed, stretching the "very" by a lot.

George just smiled and then closed his eyes again. He was so tired that he fell asleep within a second.

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