6 CH.6 - Nurse Brandy.

"Laura, are you okay?" Brandy asks, her face full of fear resembling the fear I used to see in her as a child. It's been a long time since I've seen her so fearful. Tears well in my eyes. "Laura..." Brandy begins to tear up. "Is it that serious?" She asks as a tear falls down her cheek. "They are retaking my labs because there might have been a mistake... but if there wasn't one..." I pause as my tears start streaming down my face. "I might have cancer." Shock floods over her face. I close my eyes and cover my face as I start to sob. I hardly ever cry, but when I do it's not pretty. Seeing her so scared and upset was overwhelming. Something that hasn't happened in quite a while happened... I could feel her sadness and internal agony... I... I could feel everyone in the room. They all were wailing internally, it felt as if they were being crushed viciously by worry and despair. I look up in shock then at seeing their faces and eyes filled with tears I sobbed uncontrollably harder. I couldn't bear this amount of sadness coming from all directions. I couldn't bare seeing them hurting so much. Once I began sobbing harder I felt their despair triple... except for Brandy... her despair changed... I look up at her trying to determine what it had changed to, I myself still overwhelmed and sobbing. Her despair... it.... changed... to... to determination... and... and protectiveness? I can see it in her eyes. Even though tears are still flowing out I see it... I feel it. It's inspirational! It's beautiful! It warms my soul and makes me proud.

"Laura! What did they say about your blood work." She asks with drive in her eyes. I stop sobbing so uncontrollably and wipe my tears. I explain everything that happened from the beginning excluding the part about when I saw the wolf. "That definitely not right! Your blood work shouldn't be like that because your A1C couldn't be perfect from what you and mom was telling me before this happened. They had to have mixed it up...And even if they didn't and you do have cancer I'm going to make sure you are taken care of and get better. I'm not going to leave you, I'm going to be there for you no matter what." She says calmly yet extremely determined and intense at the same time. Her Love and determination is so strong like a raging fire deep within her ready to burst out and consume any obstacle that threatens her goal. She sits beside me on the bed and puts her hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eyes. "You are going to be ok." She says lovingly and hugs me. It's been so many years sense she has shown such affection to me. For a while I thought she hated me or resented me because I couldn't protect her from Grandpa. I thought Grandma had turned her completely against me filling her head with lies about me just causing trouble trying to get money from grandpa. I thought they had brainwashed her completely into hating me or something. I wrap my arms around her and hold her as I softly sniffle.

After awhile of talking and determining weather the test results were wrong or not, everyone calmed down. The doctor and nurse come back in. "Well the labs are done. I apologize that it has taken longer than normal to get the new lab results back. The reason for this is because even after I went to the lab myself and made sure there were no issues, the results remained the same. So seeing as Brian from the cancer society of Tennessee was here and would be leaving soon, I tracked him down and asked if he could test your blood from the extra vile for cancer. He agreed because it would be three days until someone would be able to be here to do the testing." Doctor Habib pauses. "You do not have cancer." Sighs of relief fill the room. "If it's not cancer what could it be?" Brandy asks. "I've never heard of anything like this, and I'm about to be graduating nursing school next year." She states. "Ah! Yes. This is where I recognize you from. I am certain I have seen you during some of my demonstrations. Becky is it?" He asks. "Brandy, Brandy Ellen." She says. "Ah. Yes. Brandy. I myself have never seen such a thing. We will have to get imaging on your sister's entire body to even begin to have a clue." He states. Brandy nods. "Seeing as you are Miss. Ellen's sister and are in nursing school, with your sister's permission you can assist me. This situation is rather rare and can be beneficial to your education." He adds. Brandy looks towards me with burning passion in her eyes. I can't help but chuckle. "You don't even have to ask. Go ahead, I trust you. You are the best CNA I've ever seen and I already know you will be the best nurse ever! I can't let you miss this opportunity." I say proudly as I smile ear to ear seeing how ecstatic she was at hearing me say that.

"So does this mean I still can't eat yet?" I ask with an aching belly. "We do not need any more blood for now so you should be able to have some food now." He says. He turns to the nurse and asks her to find me something to eat. "Miss. Ellen, you are diabetic aren't you? We should check your glucose level." He says. He looks towards Brandy. "Miss. Ellen, would you go to the cabinet over there and take out the glucose test kit?" He asks. Brandy and I look at him confused. "Oh! HaHa! I mean Miss. Brandy Ellen." He chuckles. "You can call me Miss. Brandy if you think it'll help avoid confusion." Brandy smiles as she opens the cabinet. "I will do that then." He smiles back. Brandy brings him the test kit. "Good, thank you. Now please check your sister's glucose level." He asks. Brandy's face lights up. She slathers hand sanitizer on her hands and grabs a pair of rubber gloves. She puts them on an sets out the supplies. "My I use your hospital ID?" She asks Doctor Habib. He stops watching her every move and smiles. "Yes. Here you are." He says as he hands it to her then returns to studying her every move. She scans his ID and the supplies she is about to use with the scanner on the tester. "Can I see your wrist band please?" She asks me. "Yes nurse Brandy." I say with a smile. She smiles back and scans my wrist band. She swabs my finger with alcohol inserts the strip into the tester and makes sure the alcohol on my finger was dry. She asks if I'm ready for her to prick my finger. I nod. She counts " one... two... three. I close my eyes tight at the sound of the click from the lancet. "Oh... that wasn't bad. Usually these hospital lancets hurt like crazy." I tell her as she applies my blood to the test strip. She smiles and sets the tester down as is reads my blood. She wipes my finger with an alcohol swab and smooths a Band-Aid over my finger. She grabs the tester. "98" She reads aloud and shows the doctor. "Perfect. Miss. Ellen we will take your glucose again after you eat. Miss. Brandy, you were very professional. I have no doubt that you will be an outstanding nurse. If you would come with me we need to go over a few things." He says as he heads to the door. "Miss. Ellen we will see you again shortly in the CAT scan department." He says and smiles as he steps out of the room. Brandy smiles and waves. I smile and give her a thumbs up. "See you soon!" I proudly say.

A few seconds go by and the nurse brings in some food. "Mom, are y'all hungry? You can go get something to eat if you want it's way past dinner time. I should be fine for a while." I say. "We probably should get something... we also need to let everyone else know what is going on." Mom says as she turns to Seth. "Yeah that's probably what we should do." He answers back. He hands me my cell phone and charger. "If anything happens or you find something out while we are gone, call us." He asks. They stand up and hug and kiss me good bye. They walk out the door. Seth pops his head back in. "Tell your sister we'll bring something back for her to eat." He says. I nod and smile. He leaves and I hear his feet pattering down the hallway trying to catch up to mom. I smile, say a quick silent prayer thanking God for my family and ask for him to bless us then I dig into my food. As I eat I think about Seth. "He is really a great stepdad. I'm so glad he is my stepdad. Seth loves mom, brandy and I so much. Plus because of him we have Ethan... he's a great little brother. Seth has always been there for us through thick and thin. He's always treated Brandy and I like we were his own kids. I'm so happy he even bothered staying with mom... he was nineteen and taking care of two children that weren't even his, and protected us from my dad and grandpa and all of the people they hired to cause problems for us and take Brandy and I away. He was so young and could have not even bothered. I'm at least glad that dad and Seth get along now and grandpa stopped meddling with us sense we moved to Tennessee. I'm glad I have Seth as a dad I just wish my dad hadn't been such a but hole... I guess if dad hadn't been mom never would have left... and... we would still be being abused by grandpa.

"Hey... Laura... wake up." Brandy says softly while patting me gently. "Huh.... oh I fell asleep." I mumble as I slowly sit up. "Are you ready to get your scans done?" Brandy asks. "Yeah." I say while I rub my eyes. "Here let me help you into the wheelchair." She says as she gently helps me up. "Did everyone go to the waiting room?" She asks. "No. I told them that they should get something to eat. So they went out to eat. They are going to bring something back for you to eat." I say as we wheel out of the room. "Okay good... I'm getting super hungry! Do you know when they are coming back?" She asks. "No, but it should be soon now." I answer.