A Difficult Ending

Chapter 3: Some News

A/N: no it wasn't a heart attack (lol)…Thanks for the reviews though guys…there're great.

"Tristan!" she immediately grabbed her phone from the counter and dialed 911. "Oh god…Tris." She could barely breathe.

"Hello?" someone had answered on the third ring.

"Yes, this is 911 the emergency line."

"My boyfriend just passed out I think. I tried getting him to wake up but he won't."

"Could you describe what happened and when."

"He stood up from the couch saying he wanted something from the kitchen and when he turned the corner I heard him fall to the floor, and since I couldn't wake him I called. It's been about ten minutes."

"Alright. I've alerted the ambulance, they should be there soon. If you would like I could stay on the line with you until they arrive."

"Um, no thanks." She hung up the phone and stared at Tristans' chest to make sure that he was still breathing. She had never dealt with something like this before. Everything was spinning, as if she herself were going to pass out. She couldn't seem to remember how to breathe. What if something was terribly wrong with him?

She could hear the sirens and quickly gathered up her phone and her purse before opening the door for the two men that would soon arrive.

Tristan was still motionless on the floor but for the steady rising of his chest.

"Mom, I'm sitting in the waiting room at the hospital." Rory was seconds from crying.

"What's going on?"

"Tristan passed out or something in the kitchen and he wouldn't wake up."

"I'm coming over there."

"You don't have to."

"I want to."

"But you need to be at the inn."

"I think they can handle it without me today."

She could hear her moms' keys jingle as she grabbed them from the table.

"I'll be there in about 20 minutes. I Love you, call me if you find out anything."

"Alright." Rory snapped her phone closed and curled up in the chair, the tears were unavoidable.

The waiting room was empty and hardly any doctors were wandering around. She didn't get any news until about 2 hours after they had arrived in the ambulance.

"We had to do an MRI and a CT scan." The doctor was still standing. "He woke up just after we were finishing up." He smiled at her but it quickly disappeared. "If you would like to come with me back to his room I can give you both the news."

"I'll stay out here Rory." Lorelai said.

"Is it good or bad?"

"Most likely bad." He said

Lorelai squeezed her hand. "Go on."

Rory followed the doctor down the hall and into Tristans room.

Tristan smiled at her and held out a hand. She pulled up a chair and quickly grasped it.

"We have good news and bad." He Placed the x-ray images of Tristans Brain on the light board and after a moment circled a black spot with his finger. "Right there." He stated "in the cerebrum," he circled a wide area in the grey matter. "Your tumor is basically in-between your right ear and your forehead and if we do not surgically remove it, it will eventually grow into your motor cortex, and the side-effects of this are pretty self explanatory." The doctor turned around to look at them. "The good news about this whole thing is that we will most likely be able to remove the whole thing. If it is in fact cancerous you will have to go into radiation or chemotherapy to keep it from returning."

Rory had started to cry again, she was too afraid to look at Tristan.

"I'll give you two a moment to talk about this." He paused for a moment, looking between the two of them. "I really am sorry to be the bearer of this news." He exited the room and closed the door silently behind himself.

"I could have found out so much earlier. I was having headaches a lot on that side of my head, really bad ones. But I didn't think anything of it, I took ibuprofen and they went away."

"It isn't your fault."

"Rory, I'm scared."

"So am I Tris," she finally looked at him and realized that he was crying too. "But we'll pull through this."

He gripped her hand harder. "I might have cancer…." this fact was spoken more to himself, he just couldn't get it through his mind.

They had made the decision to have the surgery the next day and about eleven hours later the surgery was over and he was in recovery.

Dr. Stevenson came out into the waiting room, a worried look on his face. He took a seat beside Rory before speaking. "We couldn't remove all of it." He was whispering. "There were so many vital nerves in the way, we couldn't take the risk."

Rory was silent.

"We sent the mass out to the lab. We should know in a day at the most." He was studying her closely. "Are you two married?"

"No, but we have been dating for a while now."

"When he is awake I want to tell him about this. I think you should be there. He loves you, I can see it all over his face." He patted her hand. "You can go in if you want." He gestured towards the hallway leading to Tristans' room.

"Alright." She watched as the doctor walked back into the offices and then flipped open her phone. "Mom?"

She finally went to find Tristan. He was lying in bed; his head wrapped up.

He smiled weakly at her. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" she blinked back the tears, she needed to keep them at bay and took a deep breath. "That was a long surgery."

"I'm numb is what I am." He laughed weakly. "The nurse told me the doc would be in soon. Said he had something to tell me."

"I know." She smiled weakly.

"What is it?"

She opened her mouth to tell him but the doctor beat her to it.

"We could not fully remove the tumor do to several major nerves in the way. But if it is not cancerous it will most likely not grow in any more. We can't be sure though."

Tristans smile fell away, Rory could see the tears glistening in his eyes.

"Tris…." She immediately went to him. "I won't say that everything will turn out wonderful but I can say there is hope in there. I love you, and I will not leave your side in this mess I promise." She kissed his lips gently, "I love you way too much for that."

He wouldn't look at her, but she could still see everything in his eyes, a lot of what she found was anger and shock."I would like to be left alone for a while Rory. I need to and think."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll send someone after you when I'm ready." He removed his hand from hers and looked away.

He didn't move his eyes until both the doctor and Rory had left the room.

It was only then that he let himself cry.

He knew that he could die from this whole thing. That he would not have long to live if it was in fact cancer.

He also knew that Rory was the only person that would be with him through all of it too. His mother and father had passed away and his sister had moved halfway around the world to get away from him. They had gotten into a terrible fight and haven't talked since the year before.

He needed Rory even though he did not want her hurt anymore. He didn't want her to have to go through this.

Tristan wiped his eyes and pressed the call button attached to his bed.

A/N: Just in case you weren't sure what all those terms meant the definitions are below (I learned all this stuff in psychology so I am 100 positive that it is correct.)

CT Scan: computerized tomography- uses a computer to construct an image of the brain by combining thousands of separate x-rays taken at different angles.

MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging- provides a detailed, three-dimensional computer generated image of brain structures and activity by aiming a powerful magnetic field at the body.

Cerebrum: forebrain- controls the movement and memories.

Motor Cortex: (part of cerebrum) Rear portion of the frontal lobe- Plans/executes movement.