Young mother, Sari Yen looked at her son, Reiya's doctor, Doctor Jamison, her eyes wide. "A-are you sure, doctor?" she quietly asked, tears spilling down her pale, freckled cheeks. Sari's husband, Jim wrapped a comforting arm around Sari's thin, trembling shoulders, pulling the small women to his chest.
Dale Jamison frowned, regretting this part of his job. He nodded, looking over the charts in his hands.
"Mrs. Yen, I'm very sorry, but all the tests say the same thing." The doctor said, running a hand over his scratchy beard. Dale looked over to the boy he was talking about, watching as the small five year old played with a teddy bear, oblivious to what was going on. He didn't even understand how sick he was.
"He's really got leukemia ...is he going to d-die?' Sari asked, taking a shuddering breath.
At that Reiya's little silvered head looked up, startled. He knew what that word meant and it scared him.
"Mommy, I'm going to die? I dun wanna die. Member when granny die? They put her in the dark ground... " Reiya blinked, tears in his bright green eyes, "I dun wanna go in ground... I scerd of dark." Reiya wailed.
Jim let go of Sari and knelt down next to Reiya, "Shh, Rei, you're not going to die." he whispered, hugging the boy. The man looked up at Dale, "right?"
Dale rubbed his chin, "I'm sorry, with things like this we can never know for sure what will happen, but there is something we can do to help make things better for little Reiya."
Sari, who was sobbing, looked at Dale, "what?" she asked, her voice shaky.
"Step one to his recovery and remission is chemotherapy."
---
Doctor Dale Jamison looked over Reiya's charts, frowning. The young teenager had been on chemo for a long time. He saw that things were no longer working and instead of Reiya's red blood cells looking better, they were looking worse.
He sighed, knowing he'd have to call Reiya's parents and let them know the bad news.
Reiya was now thirteen and had been on chemo since he was five. When he turned six, he went into a short remission, but the cancer came back when he was nearing nine years of age. Reiya and his parents had been devastated, but there was nothing anyone could do, but put the boy back on chemo.
"But now his chemo is no longer working," Dale mused, picking up his telephone. He dialed a number he knew well by now. Mr. and Mrs. Yen and Reiya had become like family to the doctor. Those three would always have a soft spot in the aging man's heart.
The phone rang three times before a breathless Reiya answered. Dale sighed, licking his lips.
"Hello, is this Reiya?" he asked.
"Yip!" Was Reiya's hyper response.
"Can I speak to your mother or father, please?" Dale asked.
"Yip!"
Dale smiled, hearing Reiya shout for his father. The teen was so hyper around his parents and some of the staff at the hospital, but Dale knew how shy the boy normally was around new people.
'Even though he's so sick, he's hyper and cheery around his parents and close friends.' Dale thought, waiting for Jim to answer the phone.
"Hello?" Jim's voice could be heard.
Dale cleared his throat, "Jim, this is Dale. I need you and your wife to bring Reiya in as soon as possible."
Hearing Jim gulp, Dale squeezed his eyes shut. It was always said that you shouldn't get so involved with your charges, but how could you not when your charges were like cute little Reiya. You couldn't help but love and feel for him and his family.
"We'll be in right away," Jim finally said, his voice sounding pained.
---
"The chemo's no longer working?" Sari asked, just making sure she was hearing things right. Her eyes teared up.
Reiya looked down, his long silver hair falling over his eyes. It was a wonder he even had any hair, in fact he had many bold spots, but Reiya tried to not let that bother him. It had saddened the life out of him when he first lost all of his hair. Reiya's unique, silver hair was one of his best qualities, so said many people when they saw him with a full head of hair.
The thirteen year old, who was far ahead of his time, bit his lip, "am I finally out of straws?" he whispered.
Dale felt tears come to his own eyes, but knew that was very unprofessional of him, so he did everything in his part to not cry; he'd do that later. "I'm sorry, son. We'll give you pills to make the pain bearable and also put you on the list for a bone marrow transplant."
"H-how does that work?" Jim asked.
Dale cleared his throat. "There are many people on the list, waiting to be matched up with someone. When we have a donor whose Reiya's match, we'll page you. We'll be giving you a special pager. As soon as we page you, you and Reiya are to come straight to the hospital."
"Couldn't me or Jim be matches for Reiya?" Sari asked in a whispered voice.
"There is good chance, and we'll have both of you tested." Dale looked away from Sari, "I won't lie to you guys, if one of you don't match the chance of a none relative match having enough matching factors in their blood is one in ten and them having enough matching factors in their DNA is one in eight. "
Sari gulped, the chances didn't sound too good. Looking up, Sari prayed to God that Reiya would be lucky and find the match he needed.
---
"Mom, it's not you or dad's fault that your bone marrow's don't match mine," Reiya whispered, wrapping his long, pencil thin arms around Sari's neck. Sari sobbed, holding Reiya's weak body in her arms.
"I know that, but..." Sari trailed off, thinking of the almost impossible chance of Reiya being matched with a stranger. "I asked your Aunt Elizabeth if she minded having Cannon tested. She and your cousin are both being tested, but the chance is very low. The doctor told me that the best match for someone needing a bone marrow transplant would be a full blooded sibling."
Reiya had read about that. When he found out he needed a bone marrow transplant to live, he went online to learn a little about it.
"Mom, no matter what happens, I love you and I've never once blamed you or dad or anyone." Reiya weakly smiled, wincing in pain when he started to cough.
"I love you, too, Rei. So does daddy." Sari said, giving Reiya a worried look when he started to cough. She knew that before her eyes her son was slowly dying and if he didn't get his transplant, he would really die.
---
"Why did you not come to school yesterday?" Cannon's friend, Yuuri asked.
Cannon looked over at his dark haired friend. The sixteen year old shrugged, "I was taking a test to see if my bone marrow matched up with my cousin's." he explained, looking down at his desk, feeling bad that neither his or his mom had matched up with Reiya's.
"You're cousin?" Yuuri said, "oh, the one that lives in England?"
"Yeah, if my bone marrow had matched, mom and I were going to go over to England to help out...but it didn't match." Cannon said sadly.
"That's too bad. Is your cousin very sick?"
"Yes, if he doesn't get a bone marrow...he'll die." Cannon whispered.
---
That day Yuuri left school his thoughts on his friend's small cousin, whom he didn't even know his name; Cannon never mentioned it. The teen hardly ever even talked about the teen; so sad about his situation.
"That's so sad," Yuuri whispered, as he walked into his home.
"What's sad?" Yuuri's mother, Mai asked, giving her son a worried look. The teen looked so down.
"Cannon's cousin is dying because he has cancer."
"What! That's horrible. Isn't there anything the doctors can do?"
Suddenly Yuuri had a thought; he nodded, "yes, he needs a bone marrow transplant, but so far nobodies his match."
For a few seconds, Yuuri let that info sink in...then blurted, "can I be tested?"
"I-I know I don't even know the boy and I probably never will, and I know the chance of me matching with him is very low...but I want to help...and if I don't match with him there's a good chance I could match with someone who needs my marrow. I want to help!" He shouted, without even taking a breath.
---
Dale starred down at the memo that had just been faxed to his office, his eyes wide with shock. Could it really be true? Was he really seeing what he thought he was?
One hundred percent match
He kept seeing that sentence over and over again in his mind.
"One hundred...but how? Never is a match that close."
He looked down at the memo and read more.
"The donor lives in America, but is willing to fly to England to do the transplant." he read.
"This is too good to be true," Dale breathed out, smiling wide.
---
Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep...
It had been two months since they'd learned Reiya had no chance of living with out a marrow transplant, so when Sari heard the pager go off, she almost ignored it. It didn't take long though for her to register what that beeping was.
"Oh, my God!" Sari jumped up, grabbing the pager. "Jim!" Sari yelled, running to Jim's den. "The pager!" Tears were streaming down Sari's cheeks as she held her trembling hand out. "It's going off."
Jim stood up so fast, that he knocked several things off his desk, but he didn't not seem to notice or care.
"Grab Reiya, I'll pull the car around." Jim shouted, running out of the den.
Sari quickly ran to Reiya's room, going over to the teen's bed. She frowned, looking at his ragged breathing. The boy was so small and sickly now, that Sari had no problem picking him up and holding him in her arms.
"Come on, Rei, we're going to the hospital." She whispered.
---
Jim and Sari looked at Dale, their eyes full of questions as he came out of Reiya's room, just having finished Reiya's transplant.
'H-how's Rei?" Sari stuttered out, her finger tips in her mouth. Jim looked at her and saw that she'd bit her nails down to the quick in her nervous state.
The doctor smiled, "So far, Reiya is fine."
"Will he be okay?" Jim asked, knowing that some times the transplant did not work.
"The next few months are the most crucial. Well keep Reiya constantly monitored, making sure his new marrow is working correctly."
Jim and Sari nodded. Only time would tell if their sweet, little son would pull through.
---
"How's everything looking, doc?"
Dale grinned, looking at Reiya who even after a few years was still as small as ever. He didn't look like he was seventeen at all.
"Everything is still in tip top shape. You can tell your parents to stop fretting and coddling you." He patted Reiya on the shoulder, know how his family babied him like he'd break at any given moment bothered him. "You're as healthy as ever."
Reiya smiled, happy that the bone marrow he'd received from some kind donor years ago was still working.
Jumping up, Reiya told Dale "goodbye" making his way out of the check up room, and to the elevator. Humming a tune, he hit the button that would take him to the lobby.
As he left the lobby, Reiya smiled, saying "hi" and "bye" to nearly everyone he saw. In all the time he'd spent being sick, Reiya had gotten to know everyone at the hospital very well.
---
"Rei, are you sure you want to do this?" Sari asked.
"Of course ma." Reiya pouted, "you should be happy for me; I got excepted to college early because I worked so hard. Everyone thought I'd be way behind because I missed a lot of school before the bone marrow transplant, but I excelled."
"Oh, baby I am happy for you; just sad that you've decided to go to a school so far away." Sari couldn't hide how worried she was about letting Reiya go; knowing she wouldn't be able to check on him everyday and make sure he was okay.
"I'll be fine; one more year and I'll have been in remission for five years." Reiya smiled.
"I know, but you know there is always the chance that the..." Sari couldn't finish what she wanted to say.
"That the cancer will come back, I know. Every month, I'll go to the local hospital to get a check up. Dale has refereed me to one of his friends that works at the hospital near my school."
---
"Why in the world are you transferring?" A friend of Yuuri's asked, giving his friend a strange look.
Yuuri grinned, "I heard about this great school in England, and I've always wanted to go there, so I turned in my transfer."
"How long have you wanted to go there?"
"Ever since I was about sixteen." Yuuri answered. He didn't tell his friend that the main reason he wanted to go was because of the boy he'd donated his marrow to. He still knew nothing about the teen; no name, address or if he was even still alive.
'If only Cannon hadn't had to move suddenly, I could of asked him everything. I really hope my marrow helped him out. I know it was a match, but even still there's the chance the kid wasn't able to adapt to it.'
"Wake up, Yuuri, you went in la la land."
"Sorry," the twenty year old student muttered.
---
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