Final Days

 
 
FINAL DAYS

       
C.L. QUINN

           
Published Nov 2013

                               
         Blak Kat Publishing

                               
         All Rights Reserved

Once in every life, love should leave you without a choice…

Once in every life, it should take your breath away.

“
Once upon a time” should happen once in every life.

         
Song Lyric by Billy Mann and Leslie  Satcher

 
In memory of Duncan, “I love you to the moon and back.”                 

Readers who came from Darkened Days, be aware this book begins with Alisa’s story a short time before she meets Koen in Book Four, and includes their first meeting from that book.

Prologue

What a rush! 
Adrenaline high on steroids!

Alisa had never jumped out of a plane before. 
Never expected to. 
But…what the hell!
 
If her subject, a
triple amputee, braved it, so could she!

Alisa caught Peter’s eyes as he scanned the open sky.  Their smiles lit up that brilliant cerulean blue that stretched from horizon to horizon.  She shot him the double thumbs up.  He shot back a thumb up with his right hand, the only one he had left after his recent tour in the
Middle East.  They were doing tandem jumps with two professional skydivers who made everything look so easy.  From the moment they arrived, she and Peter had felt complete trust that these big men would get them into the sky and back on the ground safely.  Still, stepping out of the plane had been terrifying.

She looked to the horizon, which seemed like it extended to the ends of the earth.  Well, it did…
it was just so incredible to be able to see the sky like that.  She was glad she let Peter convince her to come with him. 

What an a
mazing man.  Even with the loss of both legs above the knee and his entire left arm, his spirit of joy and hope was unbelievable.  That’s why she’d flown here to Wyoming to interview him.  He deserved to have his day, because he was the essence of a hero.  A lovely soul, he told her he was a lucky man to get to fight to protect people, and to get to come home from that war when so many of his friends did not.

She didn’t know if she could do that.  So joyfully pick up a life shattered on the battlefield.  A body so broken, nothing you did before would work now.  He even had a head injury that affected his ability to learn new
things. He’d laughed when she brought that up and told her, with his slow drawl, that he’d learned enough already.  The other stuff would just get in the way.  Brave.  Forgiving
.  An
angel on earth.
  The best of what it meant to be human.  She was half in love with the sweet young man.

Back on the ground, finally free of the straps and cables, she hurried over to hug Peter, now comfortable and safe in his wheelchair.

“I cannot believe I let you talk me into that!  And thank God you did!  That was spectacular!”

“Wasn’t it?  I always knew I wanted to fly.  You made a pretty bird, Alisa.”

“Thank you.  I thought you were quite the dashing bird yourself.”

“Missing my tail feathers, though.”

She shook her head with a soft smile. 

“Didn’t stop you from flying, did it?”

“No, ma’am.  I never expect to let it do so, either.  Life goes so quick, not enough time to see the whole of that sky.  I don’t plan to let this little problem stop me.”

Little problem
.  Wow.  Alisa brushed moisture from her eyes.  If all people could see the world from this young man’s eyes, everyone would be so much happier.

“You’re remarkable, Pete.  I’ve never met anyone like you.  Thank you for teaching me what matters.  I
won’t ever forget.”

“It’s just up to each of us to find the joy.  No matter what life gives us.  Sometimes it’s hard, but it usually can be found.  We’re not alone. Look at me today.  I wanted to jump out of an airplane.  A strong man
was here to help me and a beautiful woman flew with me.  My life has never looked better.  That’s not luck or providence.  That’s choice.”

Alisa couldn’t help herself, she hugged him again.

Fifteen years ago when she was a young, inexperienced reporter, she’d forced her boss Percy to take her on.   Even at 18, just out of high school, she had known it was what she wanted to do.  She had walked in off the street in downtown Chicago, blew past his secretary, and convinced Percy, editor of the paper for only three months at that time, that she would be his top reporter someday.

Percy had not been disappointed. 

Since then, she’d traveled around the world, met people who were considered important and powerful, and done high impact interviews with them.  Yet she’d come back home after all those “important” people to do what she knew would be one of the greatest interviews of her career with an injured soldier who still believed in his choice to enlist and serve his country.

Two nights later, in her apartment
, eight stories above the city of Chicago, with a bottle of white wine and four cardboard boxes of Chinese takeout, she wrote Pete’s story.  It took her late into the night, but that was always the time she did her best work.  As she typed the final words, the sun began to peek over the horizon.  Her windows faced east, so she walked out onto her balcony as the magenta sky gave way to honeyed peach and then bright white.

Ali
sa loved this life.  It had brought her joy and satisfaction beyond anything she’d ever expected.  The man who took a chance on that untried young woman, her boss Percy, had become family.  There was no one on earth she trusted more than that man.  She knew he felt exactly the same way by the way he worried about her every time she went overseas on assignment, which was often.   She knew how lucky she’d been and never took anything for granted.

Pete was right.  Choices made your life.  She was grateful hers had led her here.

One

The diagnosis finally came down.  The symptoms had been so slight for such a long time and she’d just been so busy.  Who had time to worry about a muscle twitch or clumsiness when the story had to be told?  When there were planes to catch and seas to sail?  When a young woman had the entire world stretched out before her.

She had what
seemed like forever to discover it, find bold adventures, exciting places and people to meet.  Ride the waves and change the world.  Fall in love.  She had to be there to tell the stories.

Too busy to stop for some tests in a hospital in Chicago on a brief layover set up by her boss.

Busybody.
 
Interfering where he shouldn’t.  Pain in
the ass.
Yeah, she knew he loved her like the daughter he never had.  She loved him back, like the father she’d never known.  And she knew something was terribly wrong.  He just made her admit it.

The symptoms were getting worse.  There were times her legs just didn’t want to obey...lately she stumbled a lot.   And although she wanted to say it was just clumsiness, the truth was, she’d never been clumsy.

No.  Percy was right.  She needed to keep those appointments.

They lasted
two weeks, the various doctor visits and out-patient tests in the hospital.   Then a diagnosis that shocked her and Percy, who sat by her side when Dr. Patel called her in to share the results.

ALS.
  Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  More popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

She hadn’t reacted.  What was there to say? 
Degenerative.  She would lose her ability to do anything physical at all.  A devastating disease.  Terminal.  A thief.

Eventually, she looked directly into the doctor’s kind eyes.

“You’re sure?” was all she asked, only vaguely aware of Percy taking her hand.  She couldn’t really feel it.

Dr. Patel nodded.

“I’m sorry, but yes.  We
do
have options.”

“It’s terminal. 
Right?  And soon?  Truth now, doctor, thank you.  I’m a reporter, I deal in the truth.  Please don’t think it’s okay to soften the blow.  There’s nothing soft here.  I’m used to cold, hard reality, and I’d rather know exactly what I face.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind she was amazed
that she sounded so reasonable.  And wow, she was taking this well. 
Wasn’t she?
  It’s not everyday someone gets a death sentence.  Percy’s hand tightened on hers.  She was grateful.  It gave her something to focus on while her world tilted radically, threatening to throw her off.

Alisa cleared her throat.

“So, not just sore muscles.  Bottom line.  Bottom line, Doc.  How long before…”  She stopped.  Then looked at Percy, who had shiny eyes and quivering lips.  Sad for her.  For him.  Oh, she hated pity.  They would all treat her that way.  She couldn’t stand that. 
When was the next flight to Bangkok?

“How long do you have?”  Dr. Patel finished her sentence.  She though
t how he must have to do this too often.  What a shit job!  Telling people they are going to die.

“Yes.”

“We don’t focus on that, Alisa.  It’s impossible to answer anyway.  Our job now is to keep you as well as we can for as long as possible. Some people live quite a few years after diagnosis.”

Though not as a fully functioning person
, Alisa thought. 
Not as a woman able to live her life
.  She realized Dr. Patel was still speaking.

  “
You are my mission now.  My job is to help you any way I can to have a longer quality of life.  I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you it was just sore muscles.”

“It’s okay,” Alisa said quietly. 
What else was there
to say?

He explained some new medications that helped to delay symptoms, some more tests,
appointments with other doctors.   Only part of her tried to listen, but it wasn’t important.  Not now.  Now there was just the realization, slowly making its way to her.  Just a mantra repeating in her head
.  It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.

Eventually Percy thanked the doctor, set up a round of appointments for her, and then led her out into a brilliant shiny morning that seemed cruelly offensive to Alisa now.
  She fished out her overlarge sunglasses that cost a week’s pay, but she loved them and was willing to pay the price.  Now, they felt like a piece of crap in her hands as she slid them over her eyes.

Percy led her to his heavy old Chrysler, a traditional reliable vehicle for a traditional reliable man.

After she’d belted in, he glanced at her staring straight ahead.

“Alisa, sweetheart, I’d give anything to change this.  I’d take it myself if I could.”

He made her laugh.

“You old goat.
  You would, too.  I love you for that, but…  This can’t be changed.  You told me a year ago to see a doctor, but I didn’t listen.  Well, I guess it wouldn’t have changed this diagnosis anyway.  And since there isn’t much they can do, well, timing doesn’t matter.  Gave me an extra year of glorious ignorance.”

She paused
and continued to stare straight out the windshield for several more minutes.  Then finally turned to look at him.

“I’m living a day in on
ly one of perhaps about a thousand left,  if we assume the average of three years for a patient with ALS.  When Dr. Patel mentioned the unlikely possibility two weeks ago, I looked it up anyway. That’s what I’ve seen on the internet.  Prognosis.  Degenerative.  Loss of muscle function, including eventually the ability to eat and speak.  Followed by death.  Within an average of three to five years following diagnosis.  I’ll just have to have Nurse Hallie put this in her big book of boo-boos.”

Percy’s head swung around.  “What?”

She sighed.  “It’s a children’s show.  Called Doc McStuffins.  About a little girl who plays doctor.  Her nurse is a purple hippo named Hallie, and that’s one of her lines.”

Alisa’s voice cracked then and she dropped her head to wipe away tears that made it to her eyes in spite of her best efforts.

“Um…”  A long pause.  “This is a really big boo-boo, Percy.”

“God, I know,
sweetie.  You know how much I love you, don’t you?”

She looked up at him with those huge blue eyes that
had won him from the first moment he met her.

“As big as the moon?”

“Bigger.  I remember that scrawny girl that walked into my office fifteen years ago and demanded I give her an entry level position because she was going to be my star reporter someday.  I will never forget her.  And you did it, too, Alisa.  You were the best damned reporter I ever worked with.”

“Oh, shit, Perce.  Don’t slip into past tense.  I’m
still
the best damn reporter you’ve ever worked with.”

He finally smiled. 
“Always, sweetie.  Always.”