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Laney was secretly glad that Brian had to go out of town to do promotional work.  She didn’t want him around while she felt depressed.  She knew he would have tried to do anything he could to help her feel better but she wanted to, no needed to break out of the funk on her own.   Plus, his absence gave her time to fully take in the information from all her discussion with doctors the last few weeks.


“You know how to get a hold of me if there is an emergency?” Brian asked for the third time. 


“Brian, I’ll be fine. Such a worry wart.” She smiled at him. 


“I’ll call you every night.” He pulled her close and gently kissed her lips.  “I am going to miss you.”


“I won’t have time to miss you. So many boyfriends, so little time.” She smirked and pressed her lips down on his before he could make some comment back.   The sound horn of the car waiting outside broke them apart and they stood smiling at each other. 


Brian squeezed Laney’s hand one last time before grabbing his bags and heading to the car that would take him to the airport.  She watched as he put his bags in the trunk and climbed in, blowing him a kiss when he turned to look back at her.  The car drove down the drive and was soon out of sight.  Laney sighed and closed the door behind her.


Laney fought the urge to just put the television on and start to watch all the romantic movies that Brian usually rolled his eyes at when she chose them for movie night.  Instead she made her way upstairs, she turned on her computer before stripping down and climbing into the shower. 


The hot water felt good rolling down her back.  There was no reason for her to be in the shower except to stand there and let the hot water fall over her.  She’d never been a fan of baths, sitting in water, in your filth, never really appealed to her but she liked the feeling of hot water, it was a comfort to her at times.  Especially when she was on her period.


Laney couldn’t understand why this month was affecting her more, why the depression settled in and didn’t seem to want to leave no matter how hard she fought against it.  Maybe it was the recent trip to the hospital? Maybe the diagnosis from the doctor was just now really setting in?  Whatever the reasons she was glad, at least, that Brian had to be out of town.  Forcing the normal banter had been difficult for her and she was sure he saw right through it.  She wouldn’t doubt that a friend would be calling her in the next couple of days to ask her to grab dinner with them; Brian would have set it up.


The water started to get cool; it was time Laney got out of the shower.  She pulled on her fleece Eeyore sweatshirt and the pants that went with it.  Pulling her legs to her chest she sat in her chair facing the computer, she was going to research information about what was going on herself. 


Laney’s eyes widened at the amount of hits that she received with just typing that in. It seemed that her doctor was right, it was fairly common anymore.  If it was so common then how come they didn’t have an answer as to what caused it and they really didn’t seem to have anything to fix it.  


Laney clicked on the first page that came up in the search and started to read.


                Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition in which there is an imbalance of a woman's female sex hormones. This hormone imbalance may cause changes in the menstrual cycle, skin changes, small cysts in the ovaries, trouble getting pregnant, and other problems


Laney continued to read the site and when she reached the section about having a small surgical procedure to drill a hole in the ovary so an egg can be released she was having a small anxiety attack. She could feel tears forming in her eyes.   Maybe she really did want Brian around after all. 


She closed the site and started looking for anything that mentioned any other treatments besides drugs and surgeries.  She was happy to find that there were a few alternative medicine choices.  She could try acupuncture to increase her hormone levels, there was also one book that claimed the women who followed the methods inside were told they were too old or were never going to have children and they were able to conceive naturally once some even multiple times.


Drowsiness started to come over Laney and she could no longer look at the computer screen any longer.  She turned her computer off and made her way downstairs.  She dug out a packet of hot chocolate and turned on the television.  She curled up on the couch and searched the Lifetime and Hallmark channels for the sappy romance movies, or cheesy suspense movies she knew they would have.  She found one about a woman unable to get pregnant kidnapping a pregnant teen.  She knew she shouldn’t be watching a movie with this storyline but she couldn’t help it, she was a sucker for cheesy movies.


The ringing phone startled her and when she reached for it she realized that her movie had long ago ended and the channel was in the middle of an equally as cheesy movie. 


“I must have fallen asleep,” she mumbled to herself as she hit the talk button on her phone. “Hello?” she asked.


“Hey babe,” Brian’s voice was a welcome sound to her.


“Hi.”


“Did I wake you?” Brian’s voice sounded concerned.


“I fell asleep watching TV.” She chuckled.


“Boyfriend already wearing you out?” Brian teased.


“Always.”  She let out and uneasy laugh and sat silent on the phone.


“Today was good.  You know, the usual interviews.”


“Good.” She said, but she didn’t really know what to say.  She knew he’d be calling but though she wanted him there to hold her tight there wasn’t much she wanted to say to him.  “I miss you.” She threw out.


“I miss you, too.” he responded.   He talked a little more about what he’d been doing all day and he mentioned something that one of the other guys had done that was somewhat comical.  Laney listened but her eyes were trained on the television, her ears trying to focus on the TV and the phone at the same time and the phone was sadly losing. 


“Bri, I’m really tired. Can we just talk more tomorrow?” She asked and he reluctantly agreed.  She sighed when they got off the phone.  She was tired, but she wasn’t going to sleep.  She pulled a blanket over her and started to watch more made for TV movies.  She knew, after that call that Brian would be calling someone to check on her tomorrow.  She couldn’t find it in her to care though, depression had won this round.

Chapter End Notes:

Hope the POV switch doesn't throw you off too much, but with this kind of story it's easier to write the woman's emotions for me. the POV will likely go between Brian and Laney from here on out.