daycare // hemmings

fifteen- cause the hardest part of this, is leaving you

Tobie's bad day was just getting worse.

Pip and Kip had decided to tear up the entire house while she was gone, and since Tracy had a doctor's visit and the boys had to go write with some other artists, it was up to Tobie to clean everything up. She was supposed to meet Luke at noon to go to his mom's to pick Jamie up but writing was going later than expected, so he couldn't leave. She had gotten the text message from him that told her where Liz lived, since she didn't pay attention before. She tried putting that into the GPS, but her GPS broke, so she had to stop at every street Luke had said and look up the next one.

And, on top of that, she was hungry.

After an hour drive that should have taken twenty minutes, Tobie ended up at Liz's, but she could tell something was off.

Molly was pacing the yard, and Liz's car, Luke's dad Andy's car, and his brothers Jack and Ben's cars were all home. As Tobie shut the car off and walked up to the house, Molly whimpered and paced around Tobie's feet.

Taking a deep breath she knocked on the door, but she was met with a, "Mum says come in, Tobie!"

She opened the door and Molly shot upstairs faster than Tobie could take her Crocs off. She said hello to Jack and Ben, and they pointed upstairs when she asked where Liz and Jamie were.

"I'm warning you now," Jack said. "It's not good. At all. An ambulance is on the way."

"An ambulance?" Tobie asked. "What do you mean, an ambulance? What's wrong with Jamie?"

"Told you." Ben said to his brother. "Luke did the same thing."

"Luke? Is he on his way?"

"Can't." Jack said. "Car broke down at the studio. He said to tell you to go, and Cal's mom is gonna take them to the hospital."

"What the hell's wrong with Jamie?" She asked, wringing her hands in her shirt.

Jack went to say something, but Ben stopped him and said, "Mom's gonna tell you, okay? Go on up. They're in Luke's room."

Tobie nodded and headed up, following Molly. Liz met her at the door with teary eyes and a hug, and Tobie hugged her back. "What's wrong? Do you need some tea? I can make some."

"No, dear, but thank you. Jamie's waiting for you." She said, rubbing her eyes. Molly whimpered and sat at her feet, and Liz knelt down, kissing Molly's nose.

Tobie steeled herself and walked in, but she was shocked.

It was almost the Jamie from her dream.

Her eyes were changing from blue to gray, and she wasn't smiling. She wasn't crying, either, but she looked pretty damn close. Her cheekbones had sunk in, and her hair was looking thinner. She was even wearing a gray shirt.

"What's going on?" She asked. She had bags under her eyes and a lump at the back of her head, behind her ear, but as Tobie got closer she could see it. It wasn't a I-hit-my-head bump. There was something utterly wrong there. Had that been there before?

"Hey, Jamie, sweetie, you're okay," Tobie said, converting back to her work voice. She never had to use the work voice on Jamie. "We're gonna take a trip okay?"

"Why does my head hurt so much?" She asked. Tobie shook her head.

"I don't know sweetheart- we're gonna go find out in a couple minutes."

She still didn't know why Liz had called the ambulance in the first place, but she didn't need to stress Jamie out even more. "Hey, you wanna see the boys later?"

Jamie's eyes lit up. "Yeah!"

But as soon as she grew a smile, she clutched the back of her head and screamed. Like, you'd think someone had stabbed her. Tobie wanted to say that screaming would only make her headache worse, but Jamie was almost five. She wasn't going to understand that.

The sirens wailed in the driveway and Jamie covered her ears, no longer screaming but crying. Tobie took her hand and lead her downstairs, where Jack opened the door for her and she walked out after slipping on her shoes.

When she saw the ambulance, Jamie gave Tobie a look of despair that Tobie hadn't ever seen on a child before, and what she said was even worse.

"I'm like Mommy, aren't I?"

Tobie couldn't say anything. She looked at the medic with a plea for help in her expression, and the medic nodded, looking at Jamie. "Hey, rockstar, can you sit up on this bed for me?"

;

When Luke got to the hospital, Tobie didn't say anything to him, just walked over and hugged him. She wasn't tired, or sad, or even worried. She was just hurting for Jamie, and the only thing she wanted was a long, tight hug from Luke.

And he totally understood.

He rubbed her back as they stood in the doorway, Calum and Mikey filing past to get to Ashton, who was talking with a doctor to figure out what was going on.

"Do you know?" Tobie asked.

"I know." Luke said. "Mum told me."

"So I don't have to know." Tobie said, sighing. "I can pretend it's not real?"

"You can't do that. That's not fair to Jamie."

He was right, but there was so much information that Tobie didn't say anything, too busy trying to process it all.

Like her mom, Jamie had an Astrocytoma- which was a stage three brain tumor. The doctor had told Tobie that there was a very low chance that Jamie was going to survive, since she showed the symptoms so late. Apparently, the bump in the back of her head was the tumor, and it had been there for a while, but it only just got inflated, since the tumor was spreading. Jamie had thought it was a bug bite, and she hadn't told anyone she had the bump. Liz had found it earlier in the morning. They predicted she had about a week, maybe two if she was lucky.

They were going to try the chemo, but there wasn't a very optimistic outcome.

Tobie didn't want to believe it. Not Jamie Hemmings. Not Luke's niece.

Not Tobie's favorite patient.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Luke finally asked.

Tobie sighed, her breath shaky. "I don't think so, but it hasn't happened yet. Jamie's still here."

Luke nodded, and Tobie stepped back, looking him in the eye. His were red, and he had a tear line going down his cheek. Tobie wiped it away and kissed his temple, since his head was hung.

"Do you need anything?" Tobie asked. "Anything at all, darling."

"I could really go for a hug, some encouragement." He said, trying to lighten the mood. But his voice cracked, and Tobie pulled him down, hugging him around the neck. He started crying, really crying, and Tobie squeezed her eyes shut, trying to take away the pain.

But how do you take away the pain for something like that?

"Tobie," Luke said, in between catching his breath.

"Yes?" Tobie answered, feeling the tears on the back of her neck.

"I love you so much," he said, and her heart stopped. He started crying again, and she kissed the side of his head.

"I love you, too, Luke. Have since the start, and will until the end."