Photographs (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 26

I slept through the entire night. I wanted to be awake as least as possible. I couldn't handle the silent stares from my heartbroken family. The silence among us had become awkward, but I mean what are you suppose to say to your family member that is practically dying?

I sat up rubbing my eyes, looking over at my brother and sister who were sitting the in the chairs next to my bed. They both gave me a small smile. I could see from the bags under their eyes they haven't slept more than an hour.

"Where's dad?" I asked, seeing that he wasn't in the room again.

"Grabbing coffee," my brother, David, said.

On cue my dad walked into the room.

"Hey Baile," he said with a faint smile. I mumbled a hello before looking up at the clock, it was almost 10 am.

I reached over and grabbed my phone.

*Hey babe :) good luck today i'm having breakfast with my family this morning. I love you* I sent to Luke, that way I had an excuse if I missed his normal morning call.

"The doctor should be in here soon," my sister said quietly. We all knew what the discussion was going to be about.

My dad and sister were having a conversation about how overly priced hospital coffee was when the doctor walked in, making the room fall silent. She took a seat before opening her folder on her lap.

"First I want to say i'm sorry that you have to go through this, but we're going to do the best we can for your daughter," the doctor begun, earning a nod from my family, "Bailey's tumor has been developing for a few months, we caught it not too late, but not early either," she said looking at all of us.

"As of right now, she has about 6 months until it shuts down her brain, but," she said putting emphasis on the word 'but',

"The placement of the tumor is mostly harmless, meaning we can do a surgery to remove most of it. It has begun to develop on the speech portion of Bailey's brain so we can't remove that portion of the tumor without impairing her speech," she spoke slowly making sure we all understood. "If we do the surgery it could give Bailey from 8 months to a number of years. I can't say how many years because the growth is slow, but it will give her more time. It could be 5 years, it could be less, as time goes on hopefully we'll know more about it," she said stopping.

"Then we do the surgery," my dad said immediately.

"Let me just tell you there are risks with the surgery. Brain surgery is extremely complex, so there are risks that Bailey could be paralyzed. They aren't very high chances of that happening, but it has happened before," she said giving a concerned look.

"If it means we give her more time, we'll do it," my brother said eagerly.

I looked at each of them. I didn't disagree but I was quite offended how I didn't even get a chance to speak. The doctor looked at me and all I could do was nod in agreement. She looked around at my family, seeing if there were any questions, but the room stayed silent.

"I'll schedule her for surgery, it should be sometime early tomorrow morning, but I'll let you know what time it will be once I find out," she said standing up and exiting the room.

I let out a breath, I didn't know how to feel. I was going to live... possibly for 5 years. That was great, but I was still going to die. I was going to die before I got a chance to really live my life.

I may never get the chance to get married.

I may never get the chance to have kids.

I may never get the chance to have grandkids.