Amneisa

Amnesia LXV

Addison sat down in an office like room. Doctor Reed came in and closed the door before taking a seat behind the desk. Caiden and Lorenzo waited outside giving Addison some space. "W-what's going on Doctor?" she asked.

Doctor Reed studied Addison for a few moments. He didn't know how to say it. He had said these types of things many times before, it came with the job. Yet that didn't make it any easier. "Clarissa has lupus."

Addison stared at Doctor Reed with an unreadable expression. Her mind was screaming. Clary had an autoimmune disease. Addison knew all about lupus, she had done a paper on it a few years back for extra credit. That's why she hated herself even more for not being able to see the signs more clearly earlier. Her heart began to race again. Lupus was a condition where the immune system attacked healthy cells and tissues. It was a complex and incurable condition.

A single tear fell from Addison's eye as her last thought replayed in her mind. Incurable.

"How long has she been diagnosed with it?"

"Over two years."

Two years. Two years Clary had kept Addison in the dark. Two years she had not known that Clary was living with the disease. Two years was a long time. "Has she been having treatments?" Somehow Addison was managing to keep herself together.

Doctor Reed nodded. "The best of the best. Chemotherapy and a lot of medication. She comes in for check ups every week, in fact, she came in for one yesterday."

Addison thought about that. No wonder Lorenzo looked confused at the court. He and Clary weren't going for a lunch date, she was going to the hospital. That made Addison question something, did Lorenzo know? "And the treatments have been working, yes?"

Doctor Reed looked down at his desk and twiddled his thumbs. "It did for a while, but recently her body stopped reacting to the chemotherapy and the medication."

Addison's heart picked up speed. "What do you mean stopped reacting?"

Doctor Reed then finally looked up at Addison. "Her body's shutting down Addison. We will try our best but it's not looking good."

And then everything stopped. Her world stopped spinning, her heart stopped beating, and all the air in her lungs was gone. "S-shutting d-down?" Addison repeated slowly.

The Doctor nodded his head. Addison couldn't comprehend those two words. Shutting down. Her body was shutting down? But that would mean-? "No," Addison said as she stood up in horror and utter fear. "No!" Then it suddenly felt like someone had flipped a switch. All that fear turned into anger. Anger that needed to be let out before she exploded. "I don't care what you have to do! Kill someone if you have to but you are going to keep Clary alive! Do you understand me?"

Caiden and Lorenzo then entered the room. Addison took one look at them and then looked back at Doctor Reed. In one swift movement, she pushed everything off of the table and slammed her hands down onto it. "Nothing happens to Clary. Do you get that? Nothing. Have I made myself clear Doctor?"

When Doctor Reed didn't answer but looked at her in fear, Addison made a move to pounce on him but Caiden held her back. Addison struggled in his grip. She wanted nothing more than to hurt the Doctor who was telling her that he would do 'his best'. Addison knew that that was his way of keeping his conscience clear. That if anything happened to Clary then at least he could say he 'tried his best'. His best was not good enough. Not good enough at all. "Let go of me Caiden!"

Caiden's arms came around Addison and as soon as she relaxed and stopped struggling, she burst into tears. She cried in Caiden's arms like she had no intention of ever stopping. She cried so much that she was surprised that she even had any water left in her. In her mind she knew that Doctor Reed would indeed do all that he could to save Clary, he would leave no stone unturned. Yet her fate was not in his hands. Not when she had lupus.