𝙵𝙸𝙽𝙸𝙵𝚄𝙶𝙰𝙻 ° sky flaherty¹

hundred

I sat waiting impatiently, tapping my thumb rapidly against my leg. Sky seemed to notice and reached over, grabbing my hand in his, causing my eyes to turn away from the door to him.

"It's okay," He said with a small smile, though I could see the worry clouded in his eyes. "I'm here, no matter what."

The smallest smile came to my face as I looked at him, but my anxiety made it hard to give him a more convincing one. I was panicking. Majorly.

The sound of a knock on the room door caused my head to snap over, seeing as it opened and revealed a doctor on the other side. He gave me and Sky a small smile before he slipped inside and shut the door.

"Hey, Ms. Monroe." The man said, approaching my bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright." I told him with a small shrug. "And please, call me Kayla."

"Well, Kayla, my name is Dr. Irande." He said as he checked over my vitals and stuff, writing them down on a paper on his clipboard. "I've been the one in charge of your testing and all that jazz. Your primary is Spencer Crane, correct?"

I nodded. "Yeah, back in Colorado."

"You're a long way from home. What brings you here?"

"I'm on tour with my boyfriend and his show."

The doctor nodded and smiled over at Sky before flipping through the papers on his board. "Well, I got your previous records over from Dr. Crane and..." He let out a soft sigh. "I'm afraid it's...it's not good."

I furrowed my brows, my chest filled with pressure from the worry and fear I felt. "Oh?" Was all I managed to say, my voice barely a whisper; the redhead squeezed my hand a little tighter.

Dr. Irande shook his head slightly, reading over his papers before looking at me with a look I could only describe as remorse. "It seems as though...your body isn't reacting as it should to your chemotherapy. It's reacting at all really; neither good or bad. Your chart seems to have flat lined since you started treatments."

"Well, that's not all bad," Sky spoke up soft, looking at me before back to the doctor. "Right?"

"It not good either. At this point in time, chemo is the only, per say, 'cure' we have for lung cancer. Since the chemo isn't working properly...we're not sure how we are going to help you get better."

I just nodded slowly, not knowing what to say to this. My mind instantly went back to what my father went through, and how his body had a similar reaction; his chemo didn't work either.

"And..." Irande said softly, drawing out the word to gain back our attention. "We're afraid we found different cancerous cells in your testing."

"Different?" My boyfriend said before I could.

The doctor nodded slowly. "Pancreatic."

And there it was. The one word I hoped he hadn't said. The thing that, surely, determined my fate. I didn't realize I had zoned out until I felt Sky's grip on my hand tighten, causing me to focus on the man's words once more.

"And we can-"

"How long?" I interrupted the doctor, feeling the fear I felt intensifying. "My family has a history with it. I know what is happening. So, how long?"

The look in my eyes told the man all he needed to know; he knew what I was asking. "From what we can tell, anywhere from five to eleven."

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Thank you." I squeaked out, turning my head to look down at my lap.

Irande nodded to the both of us before turning with a sorry look on my face, leaving the room in silence with the tension he created hanging in the air.

"Kayla..." The boy's voice said softly after a few moments. "What did he mean about five to eleven?"

At the worry and hurt in his tone, it caused tears to brim in my eyes. I looked up and met his chocolate orbs that brought me so much comfort, but now only made me feel worse.

"My dad...." I started off, my voice cracking. "When he first got sick, the doctor's said he had pancreatic. But, even after months of being on chemo, it got worse. His body didn't react to it..."

Sky had tears in his eyes at this point, grasping my hand as though it was his lifeline. "But your dad..." He said softly, trailing off at the end.

I nodded. "He was given about ten months after we found out."

My words caused more tears to flow from my boyfriend's eyes, his head falling down to look at our clasped hands as he shook his head slightly; he didn't want to believe it any more than I did.

The more time that passed with silence between us, the tighter Sky's grip on my hand got, and mine got on his. Neither of us wanted to let go of the other, afraid of losing the short amount of time we had left together.