“Mommy, please?” Lanie begged from her spot in the living room where she had been watching TV. About two weeks had passed since she had been home. So far, so good. She had gotten a high fever only twice now and both times we were able to control it. It was now Halloween and she was begging Shelby to let her go trick-or-treating.
“Baby, stop arguing with me,” Shelby said firmly from the kitchen in the next room. She was making Halloween cookies. “No. I don’t want you out there. No more asking. You, me and Daddy will all watch a Halloween movie and have cookies, okay?” She sighed as she put the cookies in the oven.
She was only three weeks pregnant and getting more and more feisty every day. At this point she had bad cramps and was tired all the time. “Hey baby,” I smiled and kissed her softly as I came into the kitchen. “Everything okay?” I could hear them arguing from the dining room where I was setting up candy for the trick-or-treaters that night.
“Daddy, I wanna go trick-or-treating…” Lanie pouted as she came into the kitchen and latched onto my leg. I scooped her up into my arms.
“Lanie Marie,” Shelby scolded and folded her arms across her chest. “What did I tell you? Stop asking.” Shelby sighed. I kissed Lanie’s temple and placed her on the floor.
“Baby girl, go play in the living room for a minute, okay?” I said. She nodded and made her way to the living room slowly. She was really starting to slow down now with the chemo treatment. Her body was much weaker than it ever had been. I sighed and looked at Shelby. This entire situation would be much different than I imagined. The doctor was wanting to increase Lanie’s medication and try to speed up the process. He, also, wanted to perform surgery in the future on Lanie’s lymph nodes by her throat to try and get rid of the cancer that way. He said there was a possibility they could get rid of all the cancer there, but he wasn’t sure at this point.
“Nick, I just don’t think it’s good for her to be out around all those people and germs right now,” Shelby stated and sighed glancing down at the counter.
“Shell,” I mumbled and took her hand in mine. I had to word this as gently as possible. I swallowed the lump in my throat and went on to continue. “We should let her trick-or-treat at a few houses, at least.” Before she could interject, I continued. “What if she’s too sick next year to trick-or-treat? Or even the year after?” I muttered. I refused to let myself consider the idea that maybe she wouldn’t be around to do it at all. I pushed all those thoughts to the back of my mind.
“What if she’s too sick this year, Nick?” She quickly jumped back. Tears pooled in her eyes. “I don’t want to do anything to risk her getting more sick, okay? She’s not even strong enough to go up the stairs.” She wiped at her eyes. With the pregnancy, her emotions were really starting to come out even more so than before.
“How about we take the wagon out and just take her to a few houses. Just let her have some fun,” I tried to reason with her. Shelby knew me and knew I was too big of a kid to just sit back and watch Lanie not have a fun Halloween. “Twenty minutes out, tops.”
She sighed and looked into the living room where Lanie was watching a Halloween special on the TV. She rolled her eyes and walked into the room. I followed her, unsure of what she was going to do. “Baby, come here a second.” She sat down on the couch. Lanie walked over and plopped down on her lap. She wasn’t upset with Shelby, she was just confused as to why she couldn’t go out. “I wasn’t trying to be mean when I said you couldn’t go out, okay?” She asked and Lanie nodded. “I just don’t want you to feel worse.”
“Mommy, trick-or-treating will make me better!” Lanie sounded so determined; it brought a smile to my face. Shelby chuckled and kissed Lanie’s temple.
“That would be wonderful, baby,” she whispered. “But listen. I talked it over with daddy and I think we’ll let you go out for a little while, okay? Not too long though, and you have to ride in the wagon,” Shelby quickly added in the conditions to the agreement before Lanie got too excited.
“Okay, mommy! I promise!” Lanie squeezed Shelby tightly and then reached up for me. I picked her up and kissed her cheek. “Thank you mommy and daddy!” She exclaimed. “Can I be a princess?” She looked down at me. I glanced at Shelby who nodded.
“That’d be perfect because we have a Cinderella dress here that fits you,” I chimed in, remembering the dress I had gotten for Lanie when she came to visit once before and we went to Disneyland. I thought she would have outgrown it, but now that her body had become so frail and tiny, I was sure it would fit without a problem.
“Let’s go get you dressed,” Shelby smiled and took her from my arms. “Nick, in five minutes could you take the cookies out of the oven?” She asked me and I nodded.
“Be careful,” I instructed as I watched her walk up the stairs. We hadn’t told Lanie about the pregnancy just yet. It was too soon. The doctor said we were still in the stage where there could be a miscarriage, so we didn’t want to say anything just yet. We weren’t even sure she’d understand completely.
“I will,” she smirked at me and then kissed Lanie’s forehead.
As she disappeared upstairs, I picked up the phone and dialed the familiar number. “Hello?” I heard the familiar voice. I needed to hear her voice. I had so many questions for her and I was so unsure of what was going on. She was the only one that could answer my questions. “It’s Nick. I need to meet with you.”
“O-Okay…” she stumbled over her words. We made the arrangements and then I hung up. Something had to be done.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I'm really bummed about the lack of reviews for that last chapter =[ Thanks to the two people that did review!! Sorry this one's short and complicated! Sorry about the cliffhanger =] Enjoy and if you review, I'll try to post more soon!!
