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Anna held her guts, heel of her palm pressing deeply into her abdomen. The pain in her stomach had been flaring on and off all day. She bent over, resting her clammy forehead on the plain white desk provided for her office. There was already a trash can sat between her legs, despite the fact her pencil skirt didn't allow much movement. Letting out a loud groan, Anna grimaced to grit through the pain, as another bough of intense stabbing pain started in her abdomen.
There was a knock at her office door, and Anna hastily straightened herself out before glancing up. Castiel was stood, leaning against her open door, with a concerned expression on his face. Admittedly, Cas was one of Anna's favourite workers, he was very hard working and he was generally caring. Anna forced a shaky smile, beckoning Cas into her office.
"Miss. Milton, are you okay?" Castiel started, moving slowly closer to where Anna was sat. Her hand was still pushed into her stomach, but she nodded anyway. Cas looked a bit sceptical.
"Cas, I'm fine," she promised. Nodding, Cas watched her for a few seconds, just making sure she was alright. Thankfully, the pain subsided as he tried to peer over the desk. Anna relieved the pressure from her stomach and put both her arms on the desk, this seemed to appease Cas and he let her be. With a swish of his blazer, he strode back into the office, leaving Anna alone at last. Thank God.
Almost instantly, the pain returned, even more excruciating than before. She couldn't stop the moan that escaped her lips. Shuddering, she leant back over the desk and dry heaved over the wicker bin. She couldn't bare it any more. Her last resort was sitting in the black handbag sat by her desk, a box of extra-strength pain killers. Anna had hoped it wouldn't come to pills. They barely worked, and when they did, they made her so tired. It wasn't ideal to be drowsy at work, but her mind argued that it also wasn't ideal to be near throwing up.
Sighing deeply, Anna reached into her bag and brought out the foil packet. She stared at it for a few seconds, then pushed out two of the pills. The pills were sugar coated, so she could leave them in her mouth while she went to grab her water. With a gulp of water, she swallowed them down, and soon the pain began to numb.
As she pushed her bag back under her desk beside the bin, another knock at the door. She rose from her swivel chair, fully prepared to tell Castiel to go finish his workload and stop bothering her. When she saw it was actually her boss, a surprised squeak came out of her mouth.
"Mr. Shurley," Anna curtsied. A hearty chuckle came from the door way.
"I've told you, call me Michael," her boss smiled, walking into her office. "We're having a conference in an hour, Naomi's had a personal emergency, do you think you can fill in for her?" Anna felt for her stomach, a feeling of dread settling there. The pain had subsided, but she had no idea if it would come back soon. On the other hand, the more meetings she went to, the easier it would be for Anna to get promoted. Worry was present in her brain, but the reward of promotion won her over.
"I'd love to join you," Anna nodded, beginning to straighten her crisp, white shirt.
"Great, I need you to go copy these info packs quickly," Michael handed over a folder of charts and figures. "We need twelve copies, if you could read over the material before the conference that would be great. We'll be setting up in C3." Nodding gratefully, Anna took the papers and stored the information in the back of her mind, while Michael waved goodbye.
The copier on Anna's floor was right outside her office, so she didn't have to walk far before she reached the machine. It had only been a few months since the office had upgraded (God bless Raphael and her budgeting skills) and beside new computers, Anna's floor had enough left over for one of the newest models of printer. It took all but 2 seconds to print each side of paper. That left her about 18 minutes to get each info pack ready and for her to get the gist of the meeting in the same time.
Only, as her heels clicked, digging into the pale blue carpet like they were digging into her feet, her stomach pain came back so much stronger. Anna doubled over in agony, and her perfectly manicured fingers grabbed onto the nearest surface just for some support. She had an arm wrapped around her middle, but the holding it wasn't working like before. As her grip on the door frame tightened, one of her nail chipped against the wood. The stress was too much.
Anna gave in and collapsed on the ground. Then everything went black.
It was the shrill beeping from the heart monitor that brought Anna around. There were machines whirring and humming on every surface, in every crevice of the room. Anna's brown eyes flitted between each and every one of them, making a note of which where connected to her and which where emergency back ups. She shuddered at the thought of needing them.
Anna looked down at herself, finding soft white linen in place of business attire she was wearing before. A feeling of disappointment ran down her spine as she realised she missed the meeting. She cursed herself, before trying to push herself up. Cas opened the door at that precise moment, rushing to her side with a cup of coffee.
"Miss. Milton, you shouldn't be moving," Castiel scolded, placing the coffee on the side and focusing on helping her sit up more. "You were out for a while, we should call a nurse." He was standing up to leave the room when Anna clamped her hand on his forearm.
"Can you call Jo," Anna asked. "She's gonna be so pissed."
"Jo?" Castiel questioned, reaching for Anna's handbag where he knew she kept her cell.
"She's my girlfriend, 2 on speed dial," Anna told him, though her teeth were grinding. Whatever pain number they'd given her was beginning to wear off. She winced, watching Castiel talk to Jo when that's all she wanted to do. He reeled of the information Jo would need, before she hung up on him mid sentence. Despite herself, Anna smiled. It was so typically Jo Harvelle, that Anna snickered into the back of her hand. Cas glared at her.
As Anna reached for her abdomen again, Castiel looked worried. Without a second thought, he turned away to go find a nurse. He came back a second later, a short women with dark hair in tow. She had on the pale blue scrubs that marked her as a nurse and had a chart that her eyes were glancing over as she walked. The nurse smiled at Anna, and pushed around Castiel to get to her.
"Hi, I'm Meg," she nodded. "I'll be your nurse. Now your vitals are looking great, your blood pressure is a little high but considering the stress you're under, that is normal. We're still waiting for results for the blood test, but as things are looking, you're doing great."
"That's great and all," Anna groaned, clutching her throbbing stomach. "But I'm in a lot of pain right now." Holding a finger up, Meg went out of the room and game back a second later with a different form. Her eyes scanned the blue sheet, and Anna could check what they were looking for. What medication she's on, what she's allergic to, her past medical history.
Anna knew all that stuff, had to know for her own safety. When she was younger, Anna had been sick a lot. As it turned out, she had polycystic ovarian syndrome, and it had affected her ever since. The pains she'd had from the cramps were horrendous, but they didn't compare to the pain that had been sat in her stomach all day.
"Well, you're okay to take morphine," Meg said, not looking up from her sheet. Chewing on the end of her pencil, she stared at the machines all working beside Anna before stumbling up to a grey monitor. There was a slim tube and a needle attached to the side. Carefully eyeing the needle, Meg checked the sharpness before placing it at Anna's arm. She looked to Anna for conformation, and when given a nod, Meg stuck the needle into one of green veins running under her skin. "I think it should be alright for you to rest now."
Nodding, Anna settled back down into the clean sheets. Meg was running around doing something or other as Anna let herself drift off into a gentle sleep.
"Anna!" The voice was familiar as Anna woke up, and Anna tried to sit up to see who it was. "Anna, for God's sake!" She knew the voice, she recognised the blonde hair, but it took her a second to realise what she was looking at. Maybe it was the morphine.
Jo was stood over her, hair tickling Anna's pale cheeks. She wore a concerned expression as she shook Anna's shoulders lightly. With a smile, Anna surged up to place a gentle kiss on Jo's lips, and though she reciprocated, Jo still seemed upset about something.
"You came," Anna giggled to herself.
"Of course I came, you idiot," Jo sighed, planting herself on the bed beside Anna's thighs. She still had one arm placed by Anna's hair so she could lean over to speak to her girlfriend. "What have I told you about overworking yourself? You are too stressed."
"The doctor said I'm fine," Anna shrugged off, wriggling around in the cool sheets. Taking her hint, Jo laid beside Anna in the bed.
"No, the doctor said you have high blood pressure," Jo argued. "I did talk to them you know." Anna scrunched up her nose in annoyance, but snuggled into Jo anyway. Jo was wearing a soft plaid shirt and jogger bottoms. The comforting material soothed Anna even more than the drugs, and she buried her face into Jo's chest.
It didn't take long before Anna was softly snoring again. Jo gently stroked her hair until she was so out of it, she couldn't feel the delicate fingers.
Jo cautiously patted Anna's shoulder to wake up as she heard the door open. Turning over, Anna spotted a woman with equally red hair as hers and a sparkling white lab coat on. She must have been the doctor looking after her. Her suspicions were confirmed when Meg came in a second later and handed a clipboard over.
The doctor came over to them and smiled down at where their hands were joined. The light of the smile didn't quite reach her eyes, and Jo felt her heart drop. She could feel the bad news coming.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Bradbury, your umm... doctor," the redhead smiled, extending her hand to first Anna, then Jo. "I assume you're Anna's next of kin?"
"I'm her girlfriend but I'm her closest relation," Jo replied, letting Dr. Bradbury's hand slip out of hers.
"Great, well, not so much," She said, glancing nervously down to her clipboard. The beating of Jo's heart sped up, fear, adrenalin pumping through her body. Anna's hand tightened around her arm, and she could tell that, even if she was still numb from the drugs, Anna was just as anxious as her. "I'm afraid have some bad news." Jo gulped. Dr. Bradbury pulled up a chair beside Anna's bed, her eyes level with Anna and Jo's.
"Anna has stage three uterine cancer," she informed, regret in her eyes. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but you have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and with that causes some complications. Usually it's recommended you go on birth control and that can lessen the effects of PCOS."
"I knew I had it," Anna replied, sitting up more fully. "But my doctor said there wasn't anything they could do. Birth control wasn't even suggested as an option!"
"What the Hell," Jo cursed, slamming her hand down on the metal bars beside the bed.
"Well, I'd recommend you sue for medical negligence," Dr. Bradbury huffed. "The cancer usually comes from the build up of the lining of the uterus, obviously if you PCOS is stopping you from menstruating, the lining will build up. Birth control chemically induces you period to get rid of that."
"So you're saying if she'd had birth control, she could have prevented this," Jo raged. "Fuck this, I'm calling Sam he'll sort it all out." Jo leapt out of bed and grabbed her phone from her pocket, already tapping out numbers as she stormed out of the room.
"Is the cancer terminal?" Anna asked, voice small in the large room.
"Fortunately, no," Dr. Bradbury answered, checking down her clipboard. "As it's stage three, there is possibility of the tumour moving, but it can be contained if we act fast. First we can try chemotherapy, which is use of medication. There will be some side-effects, but I can promise it will be worth it. If chemotherapy doesn't work, we have radiotherapy, which is use of gamma radiation. Yes radiation sounds scary, but the the device is very accurate as to where the gamma goes."
"So, I'm going to be okay?" Anna breathed out hopefully, a smile on her face since her conversation with Michael.
"Most likely yes," Dr. Bradbury smiled back at her. She leant over and grabbed Anna's hand, stroking over it gently. "You're lucky to have someone like your partner, she seems so worried about this. I'll leave you two to talk."
Dr. Bradbury and Meg left the room, leaving Anna by herself in the bed. There was still a feeling of panic in her chest, but the doctor seemed so supportive. Outside, she could hear Jo ranting on the phone. She hoped Dr. Bradbury was right, that Jo was genuinely concerned. Gulping, she waited for her girlfriend to return to her.
After another few minutes, the white door slowly pushed open and Jo shuffled in. There was a sad smile on her face. Her brown eyes flickered from Anna, to the empty space beside her, to the blue plastic chair Dr. Bradbury had just been sat in. Eventually, she settled for the chair, pulling it closer to the bed and using her position to lay her head on Anna's thigh.
"It's okay if you want to break up, I know this is a big deal," Anna said absently, not looking at Jo as she spoke. She couldn't trust herself to, she knew she would cry if she did.
"What, I wouldn't Anna," Jo gasped, reaching out for Anna's hand. Looking at Jo, Anna started to tear up. "Seriously, I love you too much to just... leave. I don't care about this, I care about you."
"What about when I go through chemo and I lose all my hair," Anna sniffed.
"Your hair is great, but I love you for more than that," Jo sighed, shaking her head. "When it starts coming out, I'll shave my hair too, okay? We do this together."
"Thank you." Anna was full out crying, tears streaming down her cheek and her cheeks flushing. She didn't care though. Jo was by her side, always and forever. They would get through it.