Heyyyyy. Finally finished Chapter One! Here you'll meet Libby's mom, aunt, and a couple neighbors who may or may not return! It all depends on whether I can fit them into the story without wasting time. So, without further ado, here's your update!
Summary: Libby Folfax thought her life was over when her dad married again. But now her mom is dying, her stepmom is sending her to boarding school, and she just found a house in the woods with seven very short boys. Didn't she read this in a book once?
Fanfiction Link for Chapter Two
In the Eye of the Beholder
Chapter One: A Once Great Woman
Libby opened her eyes and checked her watch. There were still three hours to go until the bus reached the station in Hamilton. Then it was a ninety minute ride on a county bus to the station in Newville, and a forty minute car ride to her mom's house way out in the boonies. As much as Libby loved having the isolation of nature to share with her mom, she could never get used to the commute. She'd already been on the Greyhound for two hours, and her mind was about ready to melt.
She'd accidentally overslept and that hadn't given her time to charge her iPod. Heck, she'd barely made it to the bus station in time! Libby had tried asking her dad if she could just take a plane instead this time, but the wedding and honeymoon had taken up too much money and he couldn't splurge for a second plane ticket. So seven-hour trip it was.
Libby stretched her shoulders and flopped down on her stomach. At least the bus was pretty empty this time. Usually she was stuck sitting next to someone weird. The last time she visited her mom, she'd had to sit beside a man who kept looking suspiciously at her while he pet a small cardboard box and whispered comfortingly to it.
Reaching into her overnight bag, she retrieved her English notebook. She was supposed to write in it three times a week, and if she got her last entry done now, she wouldn't have to do it when she saw her mom later. Libby flipped to the next blank page and began writing about her dad's wedding. Her teacher was a huge romantic. She'd probably get full marks on this entry even if her spelling and grammar were horrible. Since she had plenty of time, Libby decided to embellish her wedding account with unnecessary details. She gushed about Georgia's dress, quoted the best man's toast word for word, and made up a bunch of things that the guests said to make it mushier.
"Well this'll make Miss Welles happy, at least," she whispered, writing more pretend things like how Georgia was nice to her, and how her mother was a guest and her parents still got along.
An hour later, Libby had finished all her homework. As her iPod was still quite dead, she decided she'd look at license plates. The bus had switched over to the interstate a little while ago. There should be something different out there. She looked out the window and craned her neck to see the plate in front of the bus. Texas. Behind: Oklahoma. There were also three New Mexicos, a Louisiana, and about fourteen more Texases. This wasn't as fun as she'd hoped.
She sighed. Why did today have to be so boring? There were still two hours to go before she switched buses. If she couldn't find anything to occupy her mind, she might as well take another nap.
At the station in Newville, Libby had to disembark outside despite the downpour before running inside to have her bus pass double-checked. Then she had to run across the boarding lane to the pavilion to wait for her ride. She was wet, she was tired, and she was hungry. It was definitely not a good combination. She sat on the bench closest to the parking lot, scowling at each and every person who passed her. Within minutes, she saw the familiar face of her Aunt Olivia standing in front of her. Without her mother. That could only mean one thing: she was too sick to leave the house again.
The two walked silently to Olivia's car, and drove for a while without speaking.
"It's not as bad as you think," Olivia said, "She was baking that chocolate lava cake you love so much and we all know if she'd left me behind, I'd end up burning it."
"Mama made me cake?" Libby smiled.
"Yup. We've been missing that cake lately. For all my other kitchen prowess, desserts escape me."
"How's she doing then? If she's up to baking, that's obviously good, but otherwise?"
Olivia gripped the steering wheel and pursed her lips. "Her blood pressure's up again. And she's been really tired lately. For a few weeks she had trouble seeing clearly, but that's gone now. She has migraines almost every day still, but that's been happening for three years now so it's not exactly a surprise."
"Wait, she couldn't see?" Libby turned to look at her aunt.
"No, she could see. It was just really blurry. She didn't tell you in any of our calls because she didn't want you to get too worried. I didn't tell you because I knew you'd overreact and I knew it would only be temporary." Olivia glanced over at Libby and ruffled her hair. "It's good to be concerned, but your mom doesn't want to be pitied either. Try not to dwell on her sickness too much, ok?"
"Can't promise that," Libby whispered.
"Then can you promise to help us with the spring cleaning? I worked a lot of double shifts over the winter and the house got pretty messy."
"Ew. I have to clean all week?"
"Just a little. I'll do most of it. Just, maybe dust a few rooms or something. Trim back the hedges along the walkway. Easy stuff."
Libby sighed. "Ok, I guess."
"Good," Aunt Olivia smiled and turned onto the windy dirt road she and Libby's mother lived on. They wove through overgrown oak trees, large roadside boulders, and had to stop for several animals before they reached the driveway. It was narrow and the gravel cracked beneath the tires as the car slowly approached the house. Each time she came, Libby felt as if she was coming for the first time. The house always appeared better than her memories, and the brick walkway always looked like it was opening up just for her.
Without waiting for her aunt to pull the car into the garage, Libby unbuckled her seatbelt and ran up to the big red French doors. She pulled one open and made her way down the hall to the kitchen, where her mom was cleaning up after baking her famous chocolate lava cake.
Smiling wide, she rushed in and gave her mother a hug.
"Hey baby," her mom said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "How was your trip?"
"Awful. We better have something good for dinner because the mac and cheese I got at the bus station tasted like cardboard."
Aunt Olivia walked into the kitchen. "Would you consider hickory barbecued tofu and garlic mashed potatoes 'something good?'"
"With extra sauce?"
"Naturally."
"I'm gonna get so spoiled this week." Libby clapped her hands together and followed her aunt and mother to the dining room. They spent dinner catching up on recent events, talking about their favorite TV programs, and teasing one another. They took their lava cakes to the den to watch Back to the Future.
"Mama, what are we gonna do tomorrow?" Libby asked, scooping out one last bite of cake before putting her cup on the side table.
"I have a doctor's appointment at eleven, but the rest of the day is ours," Natasha answered, tucking her legs under herself and putting her empty cake cup beside Libby's. "I've been really tired lately, and my doctor said my blood pressure medication is probably causing it. So she's thinking of changing me over to another one to see if I have less side effects."
Libby traced her finger over the pattern in the couch. "How long will you be at the doctor's?"
"About an hour and a half. I'm due for another CBF drain, and some routine scans. Deryl and Lina's dog had puppies a few weeks ago. They've invited you over to play with them, if you want to go there while we're in town."
"I could do that," She smiled.
The next morning, they all slept in and had a big breakfast of omelets loaded with cheese and peppers. They sat around the breakfast bar with big mugs of hot apple cider while they read the comics in the newspaper.
Aunt Olivia tucked her feet under herself and traded pages with Libby. "You can have the first shower while we clean up in here. Then when we're getting ready maybe you could trim the hedges like I asked. We should be done within the hour, so we can all do something then."
"Sounds good," Libby said, draining the last of her cider. She put her dishes in the sink and went off to shower. Her mother looked up and gave her a smile as she passed. It looked a little strained. Her eyes were squinting and she was trying not to let Libby see her holding her head. Choosing to take her aunt's advice and ignore it, Libby smiled back and slipped out of the room.
An hour and forty minutes later, Aunt Olivia was ushering Libby's mother into the car. "The CSF drain shouldn't take more than an hour, and after that it's a standard checkup. I don't think that'll take more than thirty minutes. So, taking our ridiculous commute into account, we should be back shortly before one. Have fun with Deryl and Lina. Don't steal any of their puppies, no matter how cute they are. They've all been adopted anyway."
"Don't worry, I won't take any. My dad's allergic, remember?" Libby said, leaning against the door frame.
"Oh, right. Anyway…" she trailed off, fiddling with her car keys.
"Libby?" Natasha called quietly, "I've got a surprise for you, when we come back. You'll never guess what it is either."
"Ugh, Mama! Way to leave me in suspense!" Libby laughed, closing the door behind her and trotting out to the car. "I'm gonna go crazy if you don't give me a hint."
She grinned slyly, before wincing and putting her left hand to her head again, poorly disguising the motion by brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "No hints. You know the rules."
"But Mama—"
"Natasha, we really need to go. Those lab techs hate to be kept waiting." Olivia turned to Libby again. "Brb!"
"Stop using text speak in real life. It's weird." Libby said, cringing and moving away from the car so her aunt could drive off towards the hospital. When the car was almost out of sight, she whispered, "Please get better Mama."
Ten minutes into the drive, Natasha's silence was starting to worry Olivia. She quickly glanced over towards her older sister, slumped against the side of the car as if she didn't even have the energy to hold herself up.
"Tash, you're fatigue's much worse lately than it's ever been," Olivia said quietly.
"I know. But I'm sure it's just the medication. Fatigue is a side effect, after all. I'm sure if I just change meds, I should get my energy back again."
"You can't keep hiding all of these problems from her. She's going to find out, and it'll just hurt her more that you didn't tell her. She's your daughter, and she deserves to know."
"Liv, please. Not now," Natasha squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hands to her temples to ward off the headache. She seemed unable to keep them steady, however. Her hands began to gently shake, followed by her right foot.
Olivia pressed her lips into a thin line. "Well. The tremors are new."
"But why—?"
"I'm not sure. But we have to tell Dr. Schwarz. He'll run more tests. IH doesn't cause tremors, I know that."
Libby zipped her purple Smally Big-Big hoodie and headed down the driveway. She turned right once she got to the street and walked at a leisurely pace along the side of the narrow, one-lane road towards Deryl and Lina's house. She watched the chipmunks scurry among the tree roots and the birds fly from branch to branch. The newly opened tree buds swayed to and fro in the early spring breeze. Quietly the birds chirped to one another; a melody to accompany the rhythm of the snapping twigs and crunching leaves.
The short quarter-mile hike up the empty road lead her to another long gravel driveway. She was hardly ten feet in when she heard loud, energetic barking. A small white schnauzer bolted out of the trees and jumped up to lick her hands.
"Hey there Freyja," she cooed gently, reaching out to pat her on the head. "You gonna let me play with your babies, are ya?" Freyja barked sharply once, then ran around her legs and headed back the way she'd come, through the trees and towards the yard.
Deciding to take the dog's lead, Libby cut through the thin woods to where Deryl and Lina lay sprawled on the grass, covered in hyper puppies and panting with exhaustion. Lina's eyes slid over towards her and her face lit up.
"Libby!" She said, brushing a puppy off her chest and sitting up. "I was starting to think you'd never come."
"But I'm early," Libby said, putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head with amusement. Lina, with all the impatience of an eight year old, ran over towards her and pulled her by the hand until she was in the midst of puppy world. Five little puppies yapped and jumped all over her, knocking her to the ground in their excitement.
"So how long are you staying this time, Libby? I have so many things to show you. I started playing the violin, did you know? I wrote a song, will you listen? I wanna know what you think of it! And I have to show you my dance, too, since you probably won't get to come to the recital—" Lina babbled, picking up a puppy and cradling it in her arms like a baby.
"Jeez, you're such a crazy woman," Deryl said quietly. "One thing at a time."
"Sorry," she breathed, eyes widening with embarrassment.
"It's ok," Libby said. She reached out and let a puppy sniff her hand before she scooped it up and held it close to her chest. "I'd love to hear you play your song. Anything for a fellow musician." Lina beamed at her. "What about you, Deryl? Anything new from the pen of Mr. Poet?"
"Nothing good."
"I'm sure that's not true," she assured him.
"It is, though. I've been battling a horrible writer's block for two months." He scowled. "I blame school! Homework has been eating me alive this year. I thought once spring break came along, I'd be able to write again, but nothing's coming to me. The fountain of words is dry."
"Middle school's that bad, huh?"
"You don't even wanna know."
"So how long are you here Libby?" Lina asked again, grabbing two more puppies.
"Just a week. I have to go back once my dad comes home from his honeymoon. I still have school, you know." Lina's face fell and she back down in the grass, looking up at the clouds. Libby looked down at the puppy in her arms and scratched it behind the ears. "So, what did you name the puppies?"
Deryl pointed lazily in her direction, "The one you've got is Loki, 'cause he's a trickster."
"I've got Ran, Sif, and Odin," Lina piped up, gesturing towards each puppy with her chin. "Odin was born first, and he runs the show. Ran was second. She's always stealing my things. And Sif likes to snuggle with Thor, who's over there with Freyja right now." Libby looked over towards Freyja, the mother dog. She was sniffing around the vegetable garden, tiny little Thor following in her footsteps and sniffing at all the plants she sniffed at.
"How much longer until they go home with their new owners?" she asked, pushing Loki's face away from her earrings.
"Three weeks," Deryl said. "We managed to convince this nice lady to take both Sif and Thor together, because we thought they might miss each other too much if they got separated. But the rest are going by themselves."
Libby sat down and crossed her legs. "Being by yourself isn't all that fun."
"Yeah, but they're all going to families with kids or other pets. So they'll do ok." Deryl smiled gently and took Odin from his little sister. "We've talked enough about dogs. How're things going for you?"
"Alright, I guess." She sighed. "I'm not really sure how having a stepmom is going to be. She'll take up a lot of my dad's time, so I won't get him all to myself anymore."
"What's she like? Your new stepmom?"
"She's ok. She can be pretty mean sometimes, but mostly she doesn't really care about me. But she's really beautiful. It's kind of unreal. I think it kinda amazes my dad. He has that look like 'The pretty girl likes me! My friends'll be jealous!'" she deepened her voice in an imitation of a man's voice as she said the last bit. Deryl and Lina laughed.
"She probably likes you more than you think. Maybe you're just upset that she's so important to your dad now," Deryl offered.
"Maybe, I don't know." She set Loki down and played with the zipper on her hoodie.
Lina and Deryl exchanged a glance. Lina put Sif and Ran down and crawled over to where Libby was sitting. "Can you braid my hair so it looks like yours? It's so pretty!"
Libby laughed quietly. "Yeah sure, I could do that." They headed inside to Lina's bedroom, Deryl tagging along behind, gathering up the dogs as he went.
Sometime later, the three sat around the coffee table in the living room, eating cookies and milk and watching old cartoons On Demand. Libby checked the clock on the wall for the fifth time in ten minutes. It was almost two thirty. Her aunt and mom were over ninety minutes late. She reached for another peanut butter cookie pursed her lips in worry. Before she could take a bite however, she heard the phone ringing in the kitchen. Deryl stood and disappeared through the door to answer it. A few moments later, he came back and silently motioned for her to join him. "Your aunt," he mouthed.
Apprehensively, she went into the kitchen and took the phone. "Hello?"
"Sorry we're late Libs. The doctor has to run some more tests, and the results won't be available for a few more hours. If you want, you can come here and we'll all go out for dinner while the tests are being processed." Olivia's voice was unnaturally high and rushed. Something was going on that she wasn't telling her about.
"What happened, Aunt Olivia?" Libby asked with obvious annoyance.
On the other side, she heard her aunt sigh. "She had some new symptoms on the way over, and they're not from the pressure in her head. The most likely explanation is that she's developed some other sickness as well."
"What do they think it is?"
"They're not sure. Her symptoms are pretty generic. They're testing for things that are related to IH first."
"What do you think it is?"
"I'm not a doctor, I'm an EMT. I'm only trained to treat emergency conditions, not to diagnose people. Go ask House if you want answers before tests."
Libby frowned. "Ok, jeez. No need to jump down my throat."
"Sorry. I'm just frustrated. The IH is hard enough for her to deal with, and I just don't want her to have to tackle something else." She paused. "So, do you want to come to town and catch an early dinner or what?"
"Yeah. I just have to wait for Jackie to come home. She went out to get milk and bread, but she should be back in about ten minutes."
"Ok, so…half an hour, give or take?"
"Sounds like a plan." She hung up and shook her head, sighing.
"It's your mom again," Deryl whispered.
"Yeah. She's got something else now, but they don't know what it is yet." Libby answered quietly.
"What do you think will happen?"
"Hopefully they can fix it. But I don't know. She's already pretty sick."
The kitchen door opened, and Deryl's mother walked in, a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread in hand. "Hey kids," she smiled, heading toward the refrigerator. "What's going on?"
"Hey Jackie."
"Hey Mom."
"Mommy!" Lina ran into the kitchen, her long red braids flowing behind her. "Look what Libby did to my hair!"
"It looks beautiful, hun." Jackie kissed Lina on the head.
"And she taught me how, too! So now I can do it all the time."
"That's cool. Could you teach me?" Lina shook her head excitedly.
"Um, Jackie?" Libby asked, folding her hands behind her back.
"Hmmm?"
"My mom's taking longer at the doctor's than usual and my aunt wants to be there just in case, so could you maybe drive me over to the hospital? We were all going to have dinner in town after the tests were done."
"Of course! Deryl and Lina, you two clean up from your snack, and I'll drive Libby. Make sure you feed the dogs one more time before I get back."
Libby followed Jackie into an old Volkswagen Beatle with a loose back bumper. After a shaky start up, they were heading down the road towards town. With each passing minute, Libby grew more worried.
She walked into the waiting room of the Clinical Decision Unit, where she found her mother and her aunt sitting on a small couch in the corner. Her mother was gently massaging the sides of her head, but otherwise looked alright. Olivia was flipping through a pile of magazines.
As she approached the two women, they looked up at her and smiled.
"Don't you just love how doctors think that the only thing you could possibly want to read about is pregnancy?" Olivia asked, throwing the magazines aside.
"They're useful if you're actually having a baby," Natasha said, picking up a few that had fallen to the floor and placing them gently on the table in front of them.
"Unless I find a man worthy of my divine essence, that's not going to happen anytime soon."
Libby raised an eyebrow. "Divine essence?"
"I am a goddess. I will not settle for anything less than the perfect man, because I'm worth it." She threw her hair back raised her nose in the air. Libby and her mother looked at each other and laughed.
"Well," Natasha said, calming down a bit. "They've done all their tests and X-rays, so we have three hours before all the results are in. Where do you want to eat?"
"Can we go to Mindy's?" Libby asked, "Lina told me they have some new vegetarian dishes, and they sound pretty good."
She nodded. "Of course. Whatever you want."
"Well, let's get going, then!" Olivia jumped up and grabbed hers and Natasha's purses from under the couch. They drove to the center of town, parked in a municipal lot, and walked into the small local restaurant. They took their time ordering, and lingered around long after finishing their meals, talking to Mindy Waters, the owner of the restaurant. She had been in Aunt Olivia's graduating class, and the two had been friends since childhood. But after a long and leisurely dinner, the three headed back to the hospital to hear the test results.
Dr. Schwarz sat them down in his office. He flipped absentmindedly through Libby's mother's thick medical file and played with the hem of his shirt.
He looked up at the three of them waiting expectantly and sighed. "We've got results, and it's not good news. Not at all."
"What news? Will the new medication cause bad reactions with my current ones?" Natasha asked nervously, not noticing that the tremors had begun in her hands again.
The doctor removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "No." Putting them back on, he stood and picked up Natasha's X-Ray. He pinned it up to the light board and flipped the switch. The X-Ray lit up, and Natasha's cranium was clearly visible. "Usually, intracranial hypertension acts alone. The pressure causes papilledema once in a while, fatigue, migraines, high blood pressure, among other things. You've had all these symptoms over the past three years, and you've been dealing with it fabulously. You were even willing to have a catheter attached to the back of your head to make it easier for us to drain the cerebrospinal fluid and reduce the pressure."
"Well, yeah…the lumbar punctures kind of made me immobile," Natasha replied, raising an eyebrow. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong now?"
"Sometimes, because of the extreme pressure and fluid buildup, IH can cause other problems," He pointed to an area near the bottom of the X-ray. "You have a tumor. In your brain stem."
Libby's eyes widened and she looked at her mother, who to her credit sat stoically silent. "When will I begin treatment?"
"You won't. It's inoperable. We took a biopsy while we were running some of the other blood tests. It's malignant. Chemotherapy won't do anything to it, and trying to operate without paralyzing you is impossible." He shook his head and sat down at his desk again. "Chemo will make it smaller, but it'll just come back with a vengeance. Operating will make you a quadriplegic until it comes back for round two."
"How long does she have?" Libby asked, her voice shaking.
"It's hard to say exactly. I'd estimate at least three months, but no more than six." He looked at them again. "I can give you something for the pain, but that's it. You can go back home and try to live your life as you normally would. But once the tumor begins to affect your motor functions, you can be admitted to hospice if you want."
Libby and her mother looked at each other, tears in their eyes. "Mama, am I even going to get to see you before that happens? I have school! I live seven hours away with Dad!"
"Baby, your father is not going to keep you away when the time comes. You'll see me before I go. I promise you that." Natasha grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. Aunt Olivia reached across her sister and rested her hand on Libby's knee.
"We'll get through this," she said, with conviction.
Libby sniffed and nodded. She used her free hand to wipe the tears out of her eyes. "Then let's make this week count."
