SOMETHING SO SERIES

by Madison, Natasha

  “Page Steve,” I tell Mallory. “Fever is gone, and he’s awake.” She smiles and runs out and goes to call Steve. This time, Shirley and Arnold race inside the room, and she puts her hand to her mouth and silently cries.

  “You scared the bejesus out of Grandpa,” she says, coming over to him as he blinks his eyes slowly. He doesn’t say anything, and I put the straw in his mouth again.

  “I have to pee,” he finally says, and I just nod as I get up and make sure everything is attached before Zack lifts him and carries him to the bathroom.

  Steve comes in about thirty minutes later, the blanket mark still on his face from when he was sleeping. “Well, what do we have here?” he says, taking in Jack who is now sitting up and attempting to eat some Jell-O and chicken broth.

  “I’m eating yellow Jell-O,” he says, laughing. “It rhymes.”

  “It does,” he says, coming over and smiling at me. “I take it you took all his vitals?”

  I roll my eyes. “Obviously,” I tell him, and he laughs. “His pressure is a little bit high, but it’s normal.”

  “Well, then,” he says, grabbing the chart. “I’m going to look over this and see if you’re on your A game,” he says, coming in and doing all the tests I just did. “You scared a lot of people with your long nap,” Steve tells Jack with a smile. “Happy you woke up.”

  I walk out with him and wait for him to turn around. “What now?”

  “Now we wait and hope that fever doesn’t come back,” he says, bringing me close and hugging me. “I will do everything I can for him.”

  I hug him back. “I wouldn’t trust him with anyone else,” I say honestly and then go back to my men.

  Shirley and Arnold go home, leaving the three of us in the room. Zack and I cuddle Jack in the middle of us, and I finally close my eyes. When I wake, Zack has his arm around the three of us.

  I kiss Jack’s cheek and slowly move away from him, having Zack open his eyes. “I have to go to the bathroom,” I tell him, and I walk out, going to the nurses’ desk first. “Did anyone take any more vitals while I was sleeping?” I ask them, and Mallory looks at me with one eyebrow perked up. “Don’t use that eyebrow on me.”

  “I will use what I want to with you. You aren’t a doctor right now. You’re a patient’s family member,” she says, crossing her arms.

  “Now go away and get something to eat. You look like you’re all sticks and bones.” Now I really do roll my eyes. I walk to the bathroom and the whole day we spend on pins and needles as we wait to see if his fever will spike again. He goes a full twenty-four hours before we can say that he is out of the woods.

  “Knock, knock.” We hear from the door on the second day, and Evie and Janet walk in followed by Darryl and Brock.

  “Hey,” I say, smiling at Evie. “How is she feeling?”

  “Amazing,” Janet says. “We were going to stay in a motel,” she says and then looks over my shoulder at Zack, “but someone canceled, and we are staying two blocks over.”

  “It’s so cool,” Brock says. “We even got our own robes.”

  “How is Jack doing?” I look over and see that Evie jumped in bed with him and is now playing on his iPad as they giggle together.

  “He’s doing good,” I tell her. “If he goes another night without a fever, they will let him go home.”

  She squeezes my hand. “Being the strong one is harder than it looks,” she whispers to me. “It’s being a mom.” She walks to the bed as I look at them.

  I sit down and take in the chatter around me. “So in three weeks, we are all going to gather and shave our heads.” I hear Zack and finally look up. “The whole team is doing it and Michael also.”

  “Everyone is going to look like us?” Evie says, looking at Jack who nods his head.

  “I bet I can get my team to do it too,” Brock says. “I’ll do it for sure.”

  “That sounds amazing,” I say when Steve comes in smiling with Olivier following him.

  “I heard there was a party,” Olivier says, smiling and waving at everyone. “And what is going to be amazing?”

  “Everyone is shaving their head for me,” Jack says. “And Evie too.”

  “Really?” Steve says. “Maybe I should do it too.” He runs his hand through his hair.

  “Everyone is going to do it,” Jack says. “Except Denise.”

  I shake my head. “He loves my hair.” I smile, and he smiles back at me.

  “Brock said his team would probably do it also,” Zack says, and Olivier looks at him.

  “Give me your coach’s name and number, and I think I could work something out,” Olivier says to Brock, who smiles and then looks at me.

  “Cool,” he says, and the rest of the day, Evie and Jack watch a movie, color, and Jack gets up and walks around with her. I grab my camera and take a picture of them walking down the hall hand in hand.

  Two days later, we all get in the car to drive Arnold and Shirley back to the airport. “For the first time, I don’t have to worry leaving them,” she says in my ear as they wait in line to check their luggage. “You love them with everything you have, and I couldn’t wish for more.”

  I hug her, and then we make plans for them to come down soon. The three of us walk back to the truck with Jack in the middle of us. “How you feeling?” I ask him again for the fiftieth time that day, but at least it isn’t a hundred.

  “I’m fine,” he says. “Can we have movie night?” he asks us, knowing we will give him whatever he wants.

  Chapter Thirty

  Denise

  Three weeks later . . .

  “Denise!” I hear shouting from somewhere inside the house. “Denise.” I look at the pile of laundry that I need to fold and think to myself how did most of my clothes end up here?

  “In the laundry room!” I shout back and hear his feet coming closer as I smile.

  “Look,” he says and grabs my hand to his head. “Feel. It’s my hair.” His smile fills his whole face. I touch his head, and sure enough, you can feel little stubble coming through.

  I gasp. “Your hair is growing back,” I say, gathering him up in my arms and kissing him.

  Zack is coming home tonight. He’s been on the road for a week, yet I still come here every night. I keep saying that it’s because Zack isn’t home, and I’m just going to check on Jack, but it’s a lie. I come here every night because I can’t seem to be away from them.

  “We need to take a picture for the book,” he says, going to grab my camera. We started a scrapbook, taking a picture of all his milestones.

  On the cover of the scrapbook is a picture of Evie and him walking hand in hand. It’s something that Janet and I decided to do and later share with Melissa.

  He hands me the phone, and I take a picture of his head and then send it to Janet and then to Zack. I bring the laundry to the living room, and he hops on the couch with me and helps me pair the socks. It’s a little thing, but to me, it’s bliss. When it’s time for bed, we do our routine, which is him taking a bath, my reading to him, and us saying our prayers.

  Something new we started is to give thanks to everyone we are thankful for. I kiss him good night, but I don’t leave. Instead, I lie with him, cuddling him to my chest and watching the glow star stickers we put on Jack’s ceiling. I’m going to wait till he falls asleep, and then I’m going to leave, I tell myself.

  “Baby.” I hear whispered next to my ear, and then I feel his lips on me. “I’m home.” I smile, turning and hugging him. He helps me up off the bed, and I walk out of the room, my lips on his.

  “I missed you,” I tell him between kissing him and peeling off his jacket. “I don’t like it when you’re gone.”

  He places me on the bed, taking off his jacket and kicking off his shoes. “Nothing better in the world than coming home to both of you.”

  I get on my elbows, looking at him. “I have more clothes here than at my loft.”

  He looks at me. “Why do you still have clothes there?”
/>   “It’s where I live,” I tell him.

  He holds out his hand to me. “Come shower with me?” he says, and I get up, and he takes me to the shower. He opens the water, setting the temperature while I undress, and he comes over, kissing me. I step under the warm water, letting it run down my back. He steps in and stands behind me. “I want you to move in with us,” he tells me while his hands roam over my hips to my breasts. “I want all your stuff here.”

  “It is here,” I tell him, trying to concentrate on his words instead of his hands.

  “I want it all,” he tells me, and by the end of the shower, I give it all to him and agree to move in with him.

  “What time do we have to be there?” Jack asks, coming down the stairs dressed in his Stingers jersey.

  “As soon as we get there,” Zack says. “We should go and look for houses.”

  “I want to go,” Jack says. “Can we have a yard like Michael?” he asks, and Zack looks at me.

  “What do you say, Denise?” he asks me, smiling and kissing me. “Want to move to the suburbs with us?”

  “Like a family,” Jack says, grinning.

  “I thought we decided that yesterday,” I say, smiling, looking down at my own Stingers jersey.

  “We are going to be late if you guys start kissing again,” Jack says, and I laugh, pushing Zack away from me.

  We walk out of the house and make our way over to the arena where the St. Baldrick’s will be today. They made Jack the grand marshal, whatever that means. And I don’t even care because my boy has been walking around with a smile ever since they brought him the crown to wear today.

  Zack buckles him into the car, and we make our way there, and there is one more surprise he doesn’t know about. When we get there, he asks for his crown, then puts it on his head without a hat on. “Picture time,” I tell him, grabbing my phone and taking a picture of him.

  “Let’s go,” Zack says, and we follow Zack in and spot Matthew, Karrie, Cooper, Vivi, and Franny.

  “Hey,” I say to them, my hand in Zack’s now. “Are you guys excited?”

  “Mommy said we can’t do our hair, only Cooper can,” Vivi says, frowning.

  “You girls just got your hair sprayed green,” Karrie says.

  I look around and spot the woman who has become a very good friend to me, more than she will ever know. “Janet,” I say to myself.

  “Evie.” Jack spots her wearing her own crown and the beautiful Stingers princess gown that I had made for her for this occasion. “You have a crown.”

  She runs over to us, and I see something different. I see a sparkle in her eye, and her color looks so much better. “I got a crown and a new dress,” she tells him, and I bend down to kiss her cheek.

  “We need a picture,” Janet says, and they pose together with their arms around each other.

  “Okay, people.” Olivier comes in. “We need the grand marshals front and center.” I watch Jack take Evie’s hand, and they walk to the front. We snap more pictures of them and the both of us have tears in our eyes.

  Zack leans down from behind me and kisses my neck. “Love you,” he says, and I bask in his arms around my waist as he holds me.

  We watch Jack get into a golf cart with Evie, Doug in the driver’s seat. He honks the horn, and Evie and Jack giggle. “You have to wave to your fans,” Doug tells them, and he starts driving and making his way into the arena, the ice covered with a wood floor as people all stand and cheer as he drives around. He stops in the middle of the arena, and we walk out and watch as Doug helps them down and grabs the microphone. “Hello,” he says, blowing air across it. “Okay, this is working.”

  We all laugh, and I feel a hand on my shoulder and look to see Max there with Michael in his arms. I lean into him, and we both look at Doug. “Welcome to the first ever Stingers St. Baldrick.” Everyone around us cheers. “This year, we have our very own special grand marshals. These two are the bravest fighters you will ever see, Evie Wilson and Jack Morrow,” he says, and Evie and Jack wave like crazy. “The chairs have been set.” Spotlights come on, so you can see the barber chairs set up on the side. “We have the barbers ready.” The barbers come forward. “It’s time to get our shave on.”

  The crowd cheers as Max, Zack, and Matthew are the first ones in the chairs. Their hair being shaved off makes Jack laugh when Zack gets out of the chair, and he rubs his head. I walk out to them and snap a picture of them together. “You look like twins,” I tell them and then Michael gets his done and so does Cooper. The three of them hold their sons, and I take a picture.

  Olivier takes the same picture and puts it on Twitter. “Stingers unite,” he says, and I just shake my head. “Family pictures,” he says, turning around, waiting for Karrie and Allison to go with them. “You too,” Olivier says to me, and I walk to my boys.

  Steve and Olivier are the next to sit in the chairs while they hold hands, and you see their matching wedding bands. Those two up and eloped without saying a word to anyone. I smile to myself when Olivier closes his eyes the minute the razor comes close to him.

  I am brought to tears when Brock comes out with his whole team following him, and they each take turns sitting down in the chairs. What started as a little thing became a whole dream come true for these boys. They were given tickets to the game tomorrow with free accommodations for them and their family. Olivier never does anything small, and I can’t say I’m surprised by this. But I’m sure that he couldn’t have done it without Doug’s blessing. It’s a big deal to fly in seventy people for a fundraising event.

  A man walks by with a little step stool and puts it up against Brock’s chair. “Evie!” Brock yells for her. “Come and shave my head,” he says, and she walks to him, getting on the stool and holding the razor with the barber as she shaves Brock’s head. Her laughter drowning out everything.

  I stand next to them and look up at Zack, his eyes smiling with pride, with happiness, with love, and then to Jack whose eyes are identical to his father. He cornered me in my brother’s living room, and what was supposed to be a scripted case became something so unscripted.

  Epilogue

  Zack

  Two months later . . .

  “You need to relax,” I tell Denise as she sits down in the chair in Steve’s office, her leg bouncing up and down.

  “I don’t understand,” she starts. “He got the results this morning, and he wouldn’t even show me.” Today is the day we get the results back from his last treatment. I’m a nervous wreck, but it makes me feel better to calm her down.

  I put my hand on hers. “Breathe,” I tell her, and she leans forward and runs her hand in my growing hair. Hair that now matches Jack as his is growing back. The knock comes, and I look at the door, and it opens and Steve walks in with Jack who comes over and sits on my lap. “Did you have a good visit?” I ask him about the visit he wanted to do with the nurses, showing off his new hair. Even though we are always here volunteering or picking up Denise. It’s different for him, so I watch Steve go around the desk and sit.

  “Thank you for coming in,” he says, looking down, and I hear Denise groan. He looks down and laughs a bit.

  “Spit it out.” She gets up now. “Or I swear …”

  “I got the results back from the blood we drew last week, and,” he says, looking down and then up again, “I’m happy to say that from this his T-cells counts are normal. Jack, you, my friend, are in remission.”

  “Oh my god,” Denise says from beside me, sobbing out, holding her chest as she cries. Grabbing Jack from me, she buries her face in his neck. I lean over, taking both of them in my arms as we cry around Jack.

  This, right here, the support she’s given us, the love she gives me and my son every single day.

  “I have to call Janet,” Denise says, and I just nod at her. Evie got her results yesterday, and like Jack, she is going to be okay.

  “I don’t know how to thank you,” I tell Steve, kissing Jack’s head now that Denise gets up and goes to call
Janet. “You saved him.”

  He shakes his head. “I wish I could take the credit, but I can’t,” he says, smiling and getting up. “Jack, now that you’re going to be better, what are you going to do?”

  “We are going to Disneyland,” he says to Steve, and he throws his head back and laughs.

  “As soon as the season is over, we are going to go to Disneyland,” I tell Steve. “It’s a family trip.”

  “Michael is coming too and maybe Evie,” Jack says, and I get up and walk out of the room. I spot Denise at the nurses’ desk as she cries in Mallory’s arms.

  I walk to them, and Mallory smiles at me. “Go celebrate,” she whispers to Denise, and she nods at me. “We need a picture for our wall of fame,” Mallory says, and I grab Denise, bringing her to me and kissing her tears away.

  We pose for the photo, both of us squatting down next to Jack, and the picture comes out perfect.

  We get in the car, and I slowly make my way over to Long Island. “Are we going to Max’s?” she asks while she texts. “I’m texting them with the good news,” she tells me, and I don’t answer. Instead, I keep driving. I pull up in front of a house where I spent the past two weeks coming anytime I had free time.

  “Where are we?” she asks, and I open the door and get out. Walking around the car, I get Jack out. I look and see Denise standing there looking up at this gray two-story house with a wraparound white balcony.

  Six steps lead to the white front door, which is half glass. I grab her hand, intertwining it with mine, and I walk up the steps with her following me. “What is this?” she asks again, and this time, I take the key out of my pocket.

  “Welcome home, baby,” I tell her, turning the key and watching her face turn to shock. “I know I should have talked to you first.”

  “You bought us a house?” she asks, shocked.

  “I did,” I tell her, opening the door and pushing it open. Putting my hand on her lower back, I usher us inside the room.

  She steps in and sees the winding staircase. “This is beautiful,” she says.