The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans (13 page)

             
"Do you really think that he'll help you?"

             
Frank shook his head. "The greedy little bastard will never need to work again when this works."

             
"You think the cure to cancer would catch on?"

             
"Are you kidding? It would make Bill Gates look like a hobo! I'm just sorry I didn't keep pursuing it years ago. Maybe I'd have saved millions of people by now."

             
Karen showered and made scrambled cheesy eggs with ham as Ellie hit the shower next. When breakfast was ready, Ellie sat down and opened a can of cola to match her mother's mug of coffee. "So, how was last night, mom? I want all of the details!"

             
Her mom stared at her. "You know, sometimes you're so weird. You're aware that you're thirteen, not thirty, right?"

             
"You love me for it! And did you want to explain to me what being a thirty-year-old is like, mother?"

             
Karen smiled. "I love you more and more every day." She proceeded to tell Ellie about the romantic fancy restaurant, the delicious meal and about the dessert tray. She mentioned how wonderful everything was and how happy she was when Frank proposed. She had decided she would withhold some of the details from Ellie until need be. She couldn't bring herself to tell her daughter she had cancer, even after Frank mentioned he thought he could save her. She had to tweak her engagement story or Ellie would have known.

             
Ellie clapped her hands. "Oh, that sounds so romantic, mom! I can only imagine how happy you must be!"

             
Karen wiped her lips. "You know, I can honestly say that I feel a new hope for life and the future, Ellie."

             
Ellie had a little smile. "Wow. You must have had a really great time. No wonder you didn't pick me up last night!"

             
"Ellie Randall! We aren't supposed to have conversations like this until you're at least twenty! Thirty would be better!"

             
"Oh, the talks we will get to have! It'll be awesome!"

             
Karen stood up, grabbed her keys and coffee, walked around the table to Ellie's side and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Have a good day, honey. Don't rush growing up, baby. Be good, please!"

             
Ellie shrugged non-committally. "It's too early in the day to make a decision like that. Are you going to be home today or is tonight
your
turn to sleep at the Fox household?"

             
"Frank is starting that new project today, so there probably won't be too many episodes like last night."

****

              Ellie heard the garage door going up and noticed that her mom's purse was lying on the counter. She grabbed it and ran for the garage. The garage door just finished going down as she got up to it. She sighed hoping her mom wouldn't need it. She sent a text letting her know she forgot it, but heard a phone buzzing after she sent the text--her mother also left her cell at home.

             
Ellie looked around the kitchen and thought she'd clean it up. She put the plates in the sink and cleaned up the leftover mess. The Saturday sirens started blaring the fire department made sure every week that the tornado sirens were up and in working order, regardless of the time of year. She grabbed her phone and texted Shaun, "
Adel's being invaded! Russians?
"

             
Shaun sent back a winking smiley face. "
;-) I'm pretty sure it's just Saturday. You want to go see a movie today if the Ruskies don't take control?
"

             
Ellie flirted back, "
I don't know you and I seem to get into all kinds of trouble when we watch movies together.
"

             
"
Only the good kind of trouble, I'll be a perfect gentleman.
"

             
"
Well in that case forget it.
"

             
Shaun returned, "
Meet you in an hour at your place?
"

             
Ellie replied, "
Don't take too long making yourself handsome.
"

             
"
LOL, I'm handsome all day long!
"

             
Ellie sat the phone down on the counter and looked at her mom's purse sitting there laying sideways and open. She noticed a red stamp on an envelope that said "Medical & Confidential". She didn't usually snoop through her mom's stuff, but her mom never kept anything from her, and she had an hour to kill. For a minute, while opening it, she actually thought maybe her mom was pregnant. She thought to herself that would be freaking insane! She didn't really have any intentions of being a big sister but wouldn't look down on the idea.

             
She looked at the papers and every line made her a bit more curious. She read a description which made absolutely no sense to her using unfamiliar terms. She scanned over the paper and only one thing really stuck out.

             
Bone cancer--level five.

             
The word cancer hit her like a sledgehammer. She put the paper back down with shaking hands and looked around the empty house. She couldn't help but think about Shaun and his late mother. The tears flowed freely, and she called E&T but couldn't get a hold of her mom.

             
She couldn't believe her mom was going through this alone and hadn't told her yet. At the same time she couldn't see her getting engaged to Frank last night if her mom thought the illness was serious. There was no way she would put someone through that, but sometimes love is blind. Even worse she couldn't think of a way to bring this up which wasn't short of telling her mom how she had completely invaded her personal privacy. She didn't think her mom would get mad, but she didn't want to instigate the conversation either. She wished she hadn't made plans with Shaun now.

****

              Karen headed straight up to the office. She went to check her cell and realized she'd forgotten it along with her purse. She was hoping Frank wouldn't need to see any of the medical papers, but knew she could make copies of them when she got home and send them directly by email. She didn't have any idea how he was going to do this, but knew he would try anything. She loved him so much it really did seem like this was a match made in heaven. The fact he might have the ability to save her felt like she had a guardian angel looking out for her.

             
She kept thinking about Ellie, worried she might go through her purse if she needed money for anything. She couldn't think about how upset her daughter would be if she saw the medical papers. She made a decision right there and then to make sure to talk to her soon--she didn't want it to be more awkward than it needed to be.

             
She came up behind Frank and gave him a kiss on the back of his head. There were three empty foam cups lying side by side on the desk and a half eaten bag of donuts lying on its side. Karen said, "You must be good because I've heard only the sloppiest scientists ever discover anything. Please don't tell me you keep that sexy body so finely tuned eating like this."

             
Frank looked up smiling, took off his black reading glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He stood grabbing a cup. "Let's walk down to the coffee machine. I have a double bag brewing and I'm ready for a refill. I try to eat healthy, usually, but when a vending machine is going to be breakfast, lunch, and supper, one tends not to be too picky. The cafeteria isn't open on the weekends."

             
"Well, as long as I'm feeling among the living, I'll make sure to bring you meals every so often. I got to keep my man strong so you don't get sick. We need to take care of ourselves."

             
Frank nodded. "Home cooked food would be great! I'd be even more grateful to know that Shaun would have some warm meals every so often. He is pretty self-reliant, but he would never ask you for help. To tell you the truth, I hate being gone away all the time from the house, but it just seems like we can't get along to save our lives sometimes."

             
Karen frowned. "Is it me?"

             
"No! It's not you, personally. It's Ellie--he likes her and he thinks I'm ruining his chances."

             
"It's always money or love right?"

             
Frank nodded leaning into kiss her. "I told him already that there wouldn't be any discussion about it. A teenage crush comes and goes, but that true love can't be passed on."

             
"Well, how did he take that?"

             
"Poorly, but he's young and I think that he's going to come around eventually. He isn't really the type to talk about how he feels." Frank, forgetting his coffee, pointed to the seat next to a row of syringes and other blood collecting materials. "What I want to do is take a half a pint, and then every seven days we'll take your CBC results. It's all we need to verify that it's not getting worse. I want you to get on a heavy vitamin regimen. You can take these," he continued, pointing at some small bottles. "I have them all showing what dosage you need and how often. It won't stop the cancer but should take care of anything else you could possibly get."

             
Karen nodded as he inserted a needle into a vein. "Did you find your research papers you needed? Is it all coming back to you?"

             
"It's just the formula. I wanted to do some research on cancer to see what I could do to maybe bulk up the formula a bit. I'll need to drastically change what we had, but with the basic structure I hope we can start something. If I can keep your CBC going then I think that will be a good stepping stone."

             
"You know for the most part you're speaking Greek to me right?"

             
He grinned. "I just wanted to make sure you appreciated how difficult this is going to be before I get too far into it."

             
Karen slid off the stool. "When is Rogers heading in to start working with you?"

             
Frank laughed. "He's flying here right now! You better get out of here or he's going to have more and more questions. I'm going to tell him these are samples from a cancer treatment center that's retaining me to come up with something to help. I don't have to tell him I already have all of the building blocks I need, but I'm not sure how to do that. I'm thinking of making him some hard copies that he checks in and out with me for the research."

             
After looking at the blood samples and the research strewn across the table, Karen kissed Frank softly on the lips. Frank finally broke the kiss, almost dizzy from a lack of oxygen. "Well, if you keep doing that, I'm not going to be able to concentrate!"

             
She smiled. "Well, once you come up with the cure, then I'll be able to do that all day, every day, won't I?"

             
Frank walked her to the door, gave her bottom a quick pat as she turned away, and leaned in the doorway to watch her walk down to the quadruple set of elevator doors. He called, "Love you!" then turned around and headed back into the lab.

             
Rogers came out of the cafeteria with a large tray of different drinks, and waited outside the one elevator working on Saturdays. As the doors opened, he was greeted by an amazingly beautiful woman. Rogers smiled, trying to balance the assortment of treats on the tray, and crooned, "Well, good afternoon! I didn't think anyone but the science geeks would be in today."

             
Karen smiled thinking of Frank as anything but a science geek. "Well, I'm just on my way out actually, but the accounting bean counters also tend to put in an hour or two on the weekend ... believe it or not."

             
Rogers tried to lean against the elevator door. "Well, do you think maybe you'd be interested in catching a drink with me later?"

             
Karen looked as uncomfortable as a woman could. "Sorry, I'm already taken." She showed off her new sparkling ring. "Do you know Dr. Fox? He's one of those science geeks."

             
"Oh, shit. I mean, congratulations! That is wonderful news! Um ... do you think maybe we could keep this little conversation between just the two of us? I'd hate for him to think I'm hitting on every girl I see in the office...!"

             
"Well so far, Rogers," she soothed, flicking his name badge up to read it more clearly, "you're batting a thousand. Don't sweat it though."

             
Rogers looked at her relieved. "Wait! You said you're in bean counting--I mean, accounting--right? So don't you work in the business wing of the company? What are you doing over here, then?"