vigorli

Title: ONCE
Author: obvmluver
Type: RPS
Pairing: Orlando/Viggo
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: These events never happened. I get no profit from this.
Beta: Not betaed
Summary: Orlando falls ill. Can he and Viggo survive through it together?
Author’s Notes: I read a wonderful story in the 90s that was in the Reader’s Digest. I can never thank the real people behind the original story enough. Send feedback to my address. Thanks.
P.S.... This is the third short chapter of this story. Read the other two chapters and let me know if I should continue this. :)

Tuesday, May the 6th. I woke up at 7:00 AM. The shift changes on the ward B 3. I walk to the corridor and I notice for the first time that there are seven other patients besides us.
The morning goes on. Nurses are swarming around in their doings, handing out breakfast, bathing patients and changing sheets. Some nurses are taking blood tests. All of us walk to the shower, nurse Nancy, Orlando, the IV-machine and me.
In the afternoon, when Orlando is sleeping, I realize the room starts to resemble our bedroom in its own way. Dr. Baker walks in right in the middle of a fit of laughter and tells us that Orlando’s results have come from the university. We should discuss about them. The same conference room, the same cold and uncontrollable waves. But now there’s something else in the air, something that’s too horrible to hear and too heavy to bear. Disbelief, horror, shock, despair and anger takes me over. “I’m sorry but the tests show that Orlando has M6” doctor says being serious. I handled the news yesterday but it seems that dr. Baker’s strategy today is new and now he’s trying to explain the rules to me. Half of the patients will reach remission and the other half won’t make it. There is no way to cure this type of leukemia. Dr. Baker says he’s sorry, that he made a miscalculation. He also apologises for the incompleteness in medical science. Then I ask a horrible question. “Do you mean that Orlando will die before a year has been lived?” Dr. Baker shrugs and nods. Then he wants to tell me about the way of Orli’s treatment. The way of treating AML is experimental. Orlando will receive two different chemicals straight to his veins – ARA-C for seven days and Adriamycin as an injection three times. Then he’d rest for a week and then follows another period. “If we get this symptomless, we will try to keep it like that with chemotherapy and radiation treatment.” As I fight against hysteria dr. Baker explains that radiation treatment won’t affect Orlando in any way. Without the specific treatment the cancer could spread to Orlando’s central nervous system. Then he continues that they actually should penetrate the spinal cord to take a sample of it – today. That would show the possible carcinogenic cells in the spinal cord. Dr. Baker sees that I’m nearly going crazy and he thinks this is enough for one day. He takes the licence from his files, pushes it to my armpit and points me towards B 3. Early in the evening I stand in the hallway and cry.

Orlando screams: “Vig!” He wants to go to the bathroom and he’s embarrassed to ask a nurse for help. I push the IV-rack and Orli holds the tubes. Afterwards we stumble back to our room. When the nurse, Jeannette, measures the temperature, pulse and blood pressure dr. Baker comes in. He stops to the front of Orli’s bed. Dr. Baker tells Orli what he wants to do next. Orlando stares at him being irritated. The thermometer is sticking out of his mouth as if he’s grimacing to us. “Tomorrow.” Orli says. “Today.” the doctor answers. “Later, please.” Orli asks. “How about in half an hour?” “About in an hour.” “Okay. We’ll meet in an hour.” Dr. Baker says. After the doctor has left we play hangman. I watch him and he watches the clock. Bravery is tiring.
After the spinal cord sample is taken Orlando wants to sleep. Antibiotics are doing their job. Orli’s fever has lowered and in a deep sleep he looks better. We squeeze our eyes shut and imagine that Orli is at home and that I cover him under our own black satin cover. A merely audible knock on the door and a shy “Hello!” brings us back to reality. We sit down on the floor and face it.
Later I’m with Orlando alone. I lie on a couch being stiff. I wonder that this can’t happen to us. I toss and turn with my pillow and try to sleep.
I give up trying and crouch to read some magazines. A bounding fills my head as I read about radiation treatment and I feel it almost breaking in two when I read about the poisonous effects of medicines. I feel dizzy when I read about alternative medicine science and the ways of treatment. A rainy morning dawns on Wednesday. It’s May the 7th and I’m ready to carry on.

The brightness of white jackets is blinding. Doctors have a ‘hallway discussion’. They are holding their notes as they walk into Orli’s room. Orli and doctor Baker’s eyes meet and I startle as I see how trustfully and respectfully he takes this. Dr. Baker takes his chance. They’re goofing off together. Every other staff member walks quietly out. Finally Dan Baker leaves like any other young hero. Orli leans back and sighs heavily. Thousands of questions are running through my head that I wait to get answers to. What are the results? When would we start the chemotherapy?
Dan Baker is checking the information papers of patients in the office of the ward. He looks up being confused when I walk towards him. “Is there any carcinogenic cells in his central nervous system?” “No. Not a sign of them. Did I forget to tell you?” I’m hysteric and start to laugh. Dr. Baker looks a bit embarrassed. “We didn’t expect to find any this early. I think I said it a bit indistinctly” he explains. This is the first good news after our nightmare started three days ago. Then I tell dr. Baker to start the chemotherapy. He’s looking at me attentively and says that Orli’s drugs would come tomorrow. Today they’d have to make a blood transfusion to him because the amount of erythrocytes is very very low.