David was quick to notice the shocked expressions on the faces of the seven people who stared back at him in disbelief. But he knew their initial stunned silence wouldn’t last long, and mentally braced himself for the fallout that would begin any moment now.
Unsurprisingly Laura began to weep softly, as she had done every single time there had been bad news to share about her daughter’s illness. Neil slid an arm around his wife’s shoulder comfortingly, but the look on his own face was one of utter devastation. Candace Gilmore, Laura’s mother, had also started to sob, but unlike her daughter’s husband, Barton made no move to console his own wife. Instead, the tall, silver-haired man who had a reputation for never taking no for an answer, looked angry enough to burst a vein.
“What sort of total BS is this?” he boomed in a deep voice that resonated around the room, causing every other person except for Jackson to shudder a bit in reaction. “You told us less than two months ago that my granddaughter was showing improvement from her latest treatment. Now you’re telling us that she’s dying? What the hell sort of specialist are you?”
Before David could politely remind the belligerent Barton that he was, in fact, regarded as one of the top dozen physicians in his field in the entire country, Jackson Gilmore kindly did it for him.
“Dad, you know damned well that Doctor Parks is pretty much the top pediatric oncologist in the whole country, and definitely in the state of Arizona,” Jackson reminded his father patiently but firmly. “You ought to remember that, after all, considering the amount of research you had me do on the subject. And we all agreed that no one else would be able to do a better job helping Hannah. As far as what David told us in February, while he might have said Hannah was responding to the new treatment he also cautioned us that the effects would probably be very temporary, something to buy her a little more time. So calm the hell down, would you? Yelling and making threats is only going to upset Laura and Mom even more than they already are.”
David gave the youngest - and also the smartest and most reasonable - of the Gilmores a grateful nod, while Barton glowered ferociously at his youngest child. And while such a glare would have caused most anyone else to shake in their boots, Jackson Gilmore merely gave his father an unconcerned shrug.
“Jackson is correct,” replied David. “The treatment Hannah was receiving this past winter was always intended to be a very short term solution. And while it did make her feel better for a time, we always knew it wasn’t a cure. There might be one other type of treatment we can administer, we’ll have to see if she’s a candidate for it, but if so that’s only going to give us a few more weeks at best. I’ve been very clear with all of you for months now that the only treatment that’s going to offer Hannah any chance of going into remission is a bone marrow transplant. Needless to say our staff here checks the donor registries on a daily basis to see if any potential matches pop up and we’ll keep doing so.”
Neil Brockmeyer appeared close to tears himself as he asked the question David knew was forthcoming.
“If - if there’s no other recourse,” he mumbled, “would you even consider using my mother as a donor? I know she isn’t a perfect match, but you did say she’s the closest of anyone.”
“You and Laura would need to make that decision,” David stated firmly. “Knowing full well that it would be at best a fifty maybe sixty percent chance that Hannah’s body would accept the transplant and not reject it. Those are the best odds we can give, I’m afraid. And in making that sort of decision, you would also need to realize that if Hannah rejects the transplant it would most likely mean - “
“Yes,” interjected Neil before David could finish his sentence. “We - we understand the risks. All of them. So using my mother as a donor would be the absolute last resort, correct?”
David gave a short nod of assent. “Correct. But given how weak Hannah is right now I would hate to put her through the ordeal of prepping for the transplant with those sort of odds. The final decision, however, will be up to the two of you.”
Despondently, the family began to take their leave, each of them looking as though their world was swiftly coming to an end.
And it was definitely days like this one - when he’d had to deal with not just Barton’s arrogance but with the entire family’s sorrow - that made David wonder if he should have followed his father’s advice and pursued a career in plastic surgery instead.
Chapter Two
Jackson Gilmore impatiently shoved aside the building plans he’d been studying - more like trying to study - for the past hour, knowing that the possibility of getting any real work done this afternoon was slim to none. After hearing the grim news about his beloved niece Hannah, the very last thing he’d felt like doing was returning to the office and looking over plans for the new condominium complex the company was getting ready to build. Instead, he’d felt the overwhelming urge to call up his best friend Riley Donoghue - who would have been almost certain to agree to anything Jackson suggested - and hit up one of their favorite watering holes, not particularly giving a shit if it was still two hours before the unofficial start of Happy Hour. Or to text his current girlfriend Devon Burns to see if she could sneak away from work an hour or so early and meet up at his condo for what he sensed would have been a bout of semi-dirty and physically intense fucking.
But he’d stopped himself from contacting either his best friend or his girlfriend, and not just because the last thing Riley needed was any sort of encouragement to get plastered. Or because it was starting to feel like Devon was getting a little too clingy, and had begun to throw not-so-subtle hints that it was time to take their ten month old relationship to the next level. Plus, while he had zero complaints about Devon as a lover, she was also far from being a wild woman between the sheets, and would most likely have objected to the lack of control he would have exhibited today.
No, better that he deal with his misery alone, the same way he’d done so many times in his twenty-nine years. Any sort of emotional weakness, even the hint of it, was frowned upon by Barton when it came to his sons. Even from the time they had been small boys, he had expected his three male children to follow in his footsteps, not just in the family construction business but also to emulate their father’s mannerisms and even his controlling, domineering personality. It had always been of utmost importance to Barton Gilmore that everyone in his family - but especially his sons - adhere to his own particular code of conduct, and to willingly go along with whatever rules, guidelines, or demands he dished out. The fact that Jackson was the only one of his four children to have ever defied him over the years was an almost constant source of frustration to the dictatorial older man, and Jackson had counted himself very lucky that his father didn’t believe in physical discipline. Otherwise, he realized with a grimace, he would have acquired far too many bruises and scars over the years as punishment for the numerous times he’d disagreed with and outright disobeyed his father.
There had been many times in his life when Jackson had felt like the odd one out in his family - the only one who not only had the nerve to question or disagree with Barton but who simply felt and thought differently than his parents and siblings. His values, politics, and general outlook on life more often than not clashed with the rest of his family, and he’d never felt that any of them truly understood him. He was quite a bit younger than his brothers and sister, for one thing, having been a “surprise” baby, born when his mother was nearly forty years old, so he hadn’t been especially close to any of his siblings growing up. That situation hadn’t changed much when he had reached adulthood, and Jackson was more or less convinced that more than half of what he said sailed over his not-too-bright brothers’ heads, and that they simply couldn’t understand why he just couldn’t go along with their father’s demands and keep peace in the family.