“Congratulations, Kris.” His doctor smiled brightly at him as he handed him the release forms. “You’re ready to go.”

The stoic look on his face faltered a little as he slowly sat up in his hospital bed. “Does this mean…”

“You’re cleared, Kris.” He nodded. “You can call yourself a cancer survivor now.”

Kris opened his mouth to speak but no words came out for a second or two. “How… How about remission?”

“The chances are very low, Kris.” Doctor Evans reassured him.

“I…” He in a sharp breath. This was all too overwhelming. “Thank you.”

“Your mother’s just settling some papers but she’ll be here soon. I also talked to her about some medications you have to continue taking at home.” The middle aged man got up from his seat; his smile back on his face. “Continue taking care of yourself, alright? Not everyone’s given the chance to start all over again so use it well.”

He nodded earnestly. “I will.”

                It was when Doctor Evans left that Kris found himself getting up from his hospital bed, slowly making his way to the bathroom. Flicking the lights open, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. He had lost a lot of weight in his many weeks and months of chemotherapy and radiation. He was just nearly bald now that his hair was beginning to grow. Cancer had changed his life more than a year ago and now that he, as what Doctor Evans said, was a survivor, he was given a new life or a second one, if you would.

                Kris turned off the lights and instead of making his way back to his bed, he went out of his room. It would probably take a while before his mom returned and he just needed to step out for a minute, take one last look at the place that he’d unwillingly call home for the past how many weeks. He hated being in the hospital, but it taught him a great deal about life and just how precious it really was.

                He really had no intended destination and he just let his feet drag him to wherever. That did the trick, it seemed, and not before long, Kris found himself stopping outside the viewing room of the nursery. A small, soft smile lit his face as his eyes scanned the babies; some asleep and some fussing. He was twenty years old and far from being a baby. But just like these new-borns, who were just experiencing life for the first time, he felt the exact same way.

“Everyone’s waiting at home for you.” His mother said happily as she packed the last of his shirts in the bag. “They’re so excited.”

Kris managed a smile at that. “Really?”

She nodded, zipping the bag close and lifting it off the bed. “We’re ready to go home now.”

                The idea of home – the real home, not how this hospital had been for the past weeks – made him excited; a feeling he hadn’t quite had for a long time. The smile on his face grew as he hopped off the bed, taking one last look at his room before he followed his mother outside. They had barely taken five steps away from the door when a gurney was rushed past them, bearing an unconscious blonde girl. Her skin was deathly pale and blood dripped from her nose. Kris froze; his feet unwilling to move as he watch Doctor Evans run after the gurney.

He knew right there and then that she was a cancer patient too.

Just like he had been

                It was a week later when Kris found it in himself to return to the hospital. Sure, he had been comfortable and even happy to be back home, yet he couldn’t get the image of the young child being wheeled into the hospital out of his mind. Was she okay? Was it really cancer or was it just a false alarm? But if it wasn’t cancer, then why was Doctor Evans, out of all the doctors in the hospital, the one attending to her?

“Kris?”

He turned around, finding his own attending nurse standing there. “Nurse Kate…”

“What are you doing here?” She asked with a warm smile on her face. “It’s been only a week and you look livelier already.”

“Thanks.” Kris smiled. “I… Who was the kid, Nurse Kate?”

“Who?”

“The blonde kid… The one Doctor Evans was attending to the day I got discharged.”

“Ah.” Recognition swept across her face and she smiled a sad smile. “That’s Margaret Scott, Kris. She’s only twelve.”

She didn’t need to say it to know that his suspicions had been confirmed.

He never really understood it when he found out he had Leukemia back then. But why a twelve year old child?