Aphmau's POV

*Play Song*

 Still don't know how that worked.

How my scars just disappeared.....

How the memories are not that painful anymore.....

Of course, they are still painful....but just not as much....

It's now been about a month since the incident......

And though it was a hard road of recovery.....

I was at least recovered in the end...

Or am I?

Today is Lilith's surgery.

We are gonna try and remove her brain tumor, and hopefully, obliterate her cancer in the process.

I walk into her hospital room, finding Aaron talking to her parents.

"So, this is it? It's really gonna come out?" Lilith mother exclaims, a tired smile at her lips.

"We can't guarantee anything, and it is a risky surgery, but if we get it out, yes, this will be it." Aaron smiles to them.

Lilith's parents hug each other, almost crying tears of joy.

This must have been a long road of pain for them...

Looks like I wasn't the one going through something hard.....

Lilith was sound asleep on her hospital bed, ready for surgery.

We roll her hospital bed out of the hospital room and down towards the surgery corridor.

We then stop in front of one of the O.R. doors, this one making me freeze momentarily, but it was more a lapse in judgment than anything as I snap back to reality to continue pushing Lilith's hospital bed.

We push a board underneath her, lifting her up before putting her on the surgery table.

I gulp at the sight of it, it's metal painfully familiar.

We proceed to prepare her for surgery, setting her head up, and organizing the tools for any routine craniotomy. 

"Is this one it?" His voice muffled by his mask as we start the surgery. 

"Huh?" I raise an eyebrow, not looking away from the flesh I was working on.

"Is this the O.R. you were in?" He questions a bit more quietly, switching tools.

"....maybe."

"Are you—good?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Aaron. You can stop worrying. I've had pain, suffered the aftermath and that's it, some people have it worse you know." I retort.

"Aphmau, you may sometimes forget I've been a surgeon for years, and I know how bad things can become I've seen it all."

"...and?"

"Nothing was worse than what happened to you..." Aaron replies, looking at me momentarily.

I return his look, exhaling.

Our conversation is shortlived, as we are interrupted by the loud crazy beeping of the heart monitor.

"B.P. Is dropping!" I state, working quicker now.

"Damn it! She's too unstable now for the dissection. We'll have to wait until she's stable enough to continue..."

*

I head down the hallway, turning a corner to find the waiting room.

I see Lilith's parents sitting tensely on one of the couches, clearly on edge.

When they spot me with frantic eyes, they rush over with a rehearsed question.

"How did it go? Is she okay?" They ask, fatigue weighing the parents down, ferociously. 

"In surgery, she got too unstable when we got around to the dissection so we have to hold off till she's stable enough to continue the surgery. We may have to reschedule it entirely." I recite Aaron's words.

"What." Lilith's mom whispers, burying her face into her husband's shoulder.

Then they both exchange a look—a look of anguish and of a bitter mental battle. 

Lilith's dad turns to me, eyes darkening with strife. 

"We need some fresh air. Do you mind if we head outside for a few minutes?" He asks, grasping his wife's hand.

"Of course, take all the time you need." I offer up a congenial smile, gesturing towards the main exit.

They slowly walk out, Lilith's mother looking back at me once, a glint of regret in her eye, as she turns back around, leaving the hospital.

I make my way towards Lilith's room, taking a quick detour to the vending machine, fighting with it in order to get my money's worth.

I then find Lilith in the ICU, sound asleep, with Aaron leaning against the wall inside her room.

"You can go home, you know, I'll watch her." I offer, arriving over at Lilith's side, making myself home in one of the comfortable hospital chairs.

"Nah, I won't leave you here alone. I'll stay as well." He comes over to my chair, and from behind, starts massaging my shoulders.

I immediately relax, easing into the cushions while smiling in pleasure.

Thank, Irene.

"Where are her parents?" Aaron questions, looking out the doorway, into the hallway.

"Wait, I thought they came here after they were done outside."

Our answer comes us in the form of a panicky Katelyn, who comes to a startling halt in the doorway. 

"We got a situation."

*******************

"They just—left?" I say, dumbfounded.

Katelyn nods, her hands resting on her hips, slightly pushing back at her white doctor's coat.

"They aren't even on the grid, it's like they both just vanished off the face of the earth. They had to have had some form of preparation."

"What type of parents would just leave like that, and with a sick child in the hospital?" Aaron scratches his head.

"We don't know, but child services are coming to talk to you two," Katelyn says.

"Us?" Aaron and I say simultaneously.

She nods, shrugging to signify she had no intel on the matter either. 

Then a tall woman with long chocolate brown hair, similar eyes, and a tawny complexion comes up to Aaron and I.

"Good evening, my name is Teony. I'm the social worker that you guys called for." She raises her hand to us.

Aaron takes it, shaking it, introducing his professional name. I do the same.

"We just want to know what you guys are planning to do with Lilith," I say, crossing my arms.

"Well, for now, she will be put into temporary living, then we will determine a more proper situation. Though it will be harder than usual considering she's a cancer patient." Teony answers, her left arm wrapped around a clipboard, her other hand loosely holding a ballpoint pen.

"What if her parents are found?" Katelyn questions.

"Lilith's parents will deal with the consequences of their actions, but this will not affect Lilith physically, but mentally and emotionally, she will become distraught, going from foster family to foster family."

"Oh my Irene." I cover my mouth with trembling fingers.

Who would do something like that?

Those who have the privilege of even having kids...

Why would they just abandon them...in their dearest time of need?

"We'll take her, if that's okay." Aaron offers.

"What?" We all say at once.

Out of Teony, Katelyn, and I, I was the most shocked.

What is he doing?

"Aphmau and I have both developed somewhat of a bond with Lilith. I've been there since the beginning of her treatment and Lilith has shown obvious admiration for Aphmau."

Aaron...

"Hmm..." Teony scratches her chin, her gaze bouncing between us, contemplating—calculating.

"It would be better than Lilith being bounced around homes with total strangers..." Katelyn offers.

"Mommy? Daddy?" We hear a squeaky voice say.

We all turn to Lilith, who seemed half in the clutches of sleep, but was still frantically searching the room for her parents.

"Hey there, Lilith...Mommy and Daddy aren't here right now." I say to her, with what I hoped was a comforting smile.

"Where dwid they gwo?" She asks, her electric blue eyes glowing with wonder.

"They left for a while, they went on...vacation." Aaron sits down on the other side of her bed.

"Oh..." She answers, briefly yawning afterward, loosely rubbing her eyelids with her fists.

"Rest, sweetie." I say, bringing the blanket higher on her body.

She lies back down, her head wrapped in bandages, almost immediately falling asleep.

It was Teony's voice that startles me and brings me back to the present.

"Fine, after Lilith gets out of the hospital, I'll give you guys a trial week, and see how this goes..."

We all thank Teony as she leaves.

"I'll leave you guys be." Katelyn says before following Teony's footsteps.

Once alone, Aaron addresses the elephant in the room: "I'm sorry I didn't ask you first before I—"

"Aaron, you don't have to be sorry. Of course, I'd want to do this."

"But are you sure Aph, that you're ready?"

"I'm sure." I look back to the little girl, her little pale fists resting by her head. "Plus, Lilith deserves a family—a family that won't abandon her."

"Aph?"

"Yeah?"

"You are going to make an—amazing mother."

I feel my heart tumble as his lips press against mine.

I kiss back, cupping his face with my hands.

We then release, both of us turning back to Lilith, who was sleeping soundly.

Katelyn's POV

"Katelyn, where are we even going?" Travis asks, being followed by Garroth, Cadenza, Zane, Laurence, Lucinda, and Kawaii~chan. The latter was wearing a blindfold so she doesn't kill everyone's eardrums when I show her what I wanted to show everyone.

"Just look and shhhh." I shush them, pointing to a certain room in the ICU.

Everyone smiles warmly, some even shedding a tear or two of joy.

Aaron was standing behind Aphmau, who was sitting in a chair right at Lilith's bedside.

They had found their family.

But another question is...

Will they be able to keep it together?

Have a nice day my crystals!