Pieces of Your Heart

Among the Stars

Late that afternoon, Elodie was startled from her sleep. She peaked her head out from under the blankets in search of the sound that had disturbed the silence. She leaned over the side of the bed and found Ian slumped on the floor, eyes squeezed shut, moaning in pain.

She jumped out of bed and gingerly slid onto the floor next to him. "Ian. Ian! Are you ok? What happened?"

"Elle, it's ok, go back to sleep," he said, as the beginnings of tears crept out of his tightly closed eyelids.

"Did you fall? What happened?"

"No, I didn't fall, I'm fine."
"Oh for fucks sake, Ian, tell me what's wrong!" she shouted, drowning in her helplessness.

"My leg," he grunted. "I got up, and my legs just gave out from under me. It hurts like hell."

"Which one, both of them? What hurts?"

"Right side. My right leg, it feels like my bones are on fire."

"We need to go the hospital," she said, her heart in her throat. "Can you walk?"

He let out an animalistic howl of pain as he tried to push himself up and slumped back down again. His face was pale and covered in drops of cold sweat.

"No. I can't. I can't walk. I can't even get up off this fucking floor," he said, a low sob escaping from his throat.

"Shit," she said through gritted teeth. She fumbled around for her cell phone and dialed his parents. Within minutes, Jerry was in the room, kneeling on the floor beside his son.

"Now Elle, if you get onto the other side, put your arm under his and lift with your legs. I'll get him on the other side. You ready?"

Jerry, Elodie and Patrice heaved Ian from the floor and got him out of the house and into Jerry's red Jeep Wrangler, Ian's groans growing further apart as he tried to suppress the tears that so badly wanted to escape from his eyes.

"Elle, you follow us in your car, take Patty with you," Jerry ordered as he closed the passenger door.

Elodie stood, stunned, tears rolling down her face, unable to say anything.

"Elle. Elley. Elodie!" Jerry said, his hands on her shoulders. "You have to be strong. I need you to drive your car and follow us to the hospital. Ok?"

She nodded her head. "Ok," she managed to get out. "Ok."

She rooted around in her bag for her keys and walked with Patrice towards her car. The drive to the hospital was silent. Once they parked, Elodie ran into the ER waiting room to secure a wheel chair for Ian.

Hours passed as tests were run, tests that would tell them what Elodie already knew: Ian's cancer had spread to his bones, and that, the doctor would tell them, meant the symptoms could be treated so that he might feel better and live a little longer, but that the cancer was in fact, not curable.

"Now Mrs. Kennedy, your husband is running a low grade fever, so we want to keep in here in the hospital for several days so we can monitor him closely. We can then further discuss with both of you what the options are at this point."

"Ok, what do you mean by that?"

"Well, because of the course the cancer has taken, it's a good time to discuss how much further treatment your husband wishes to seek. He can continue with the chemo, and start radiation treatments if there are no contraindications; or he may choose to stop treatment all together, at which point we would offer palliative care."