Title:BELIEVING IN LOVE - Chapter 22 Author: Gumby [ Send a Private Message ]
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Copyright: Gumby 2007 Content Rating: PG Disclaimer: The story is mine as well as a handful of characters, the rest belong to IC and Showtime. Author's Note:
Hey Everyone,
Sorry it has been a while since I posted, but I've had some projects that I'm working on and they've taken me a while. I am also going on a mini trip to an amusement park, I am one of a few adults taking the kids in my family so this should be a blast! It's only overnight because I'm not sure the adults can handle more!
Now, I did promise Smiley a shout out and I plan on keeping it! So, without futher delay, here it is my friend!
Smiley - first I have to thank you for your support with my writing. I hope you know how much it means to me! That being said, Smoke and Mirrors won't be my next story that I work on (I'm running away). I have a few ideas, but I'll wrap up Enter Stage Right first, it's hard to write two stories at the same time! Woman, they are polar opposite too, I feel like I have a spilt personality!
Proofie - *Hugs*
I'd like to thank you for the support in either reading, or leaving a comment (which inspires me for sure), or PM'g me to share your thoughts. The support, in whatever form, means a a lot. So, thank you for that and I hope you enjoy!
Summary: Bette and Megan talk while Angelica falls even further in hot water.... Total Views: 3374 times.
Bette swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat as she stood in the gallery where she and Megan were constructing what the art magazines were now calling 'the most passionate show of the decade'. Bette blinked back tears as she began to see each piece in front of her take on new meaning.
Bette walked up to the piece she had been working on and let her shaking fingers pass over the firm surface as her mind raced through several thoughts quickly.
"I wonder if this is Janet."
Bette blinked back tears, shaking her head trying to silence the emotions she worked to bottle up, as they begged to be expressed.
"How would Janet feel knowing Megan won't fight for their daughter?"
Bette slumped into the stool that was set up in front of the large sculpture she created from the ground up with Megan's expert advice and guidance. She put her face in her hands and allowed the tears to fall freely down her face.
She looked up as a hand gently touched her shoulder to break into her thoughts. Bette looked up and met a pair of warm and expressive eyes.
"Why aren't you fighting?" Bette's thoughts began to spill out of her mind.
"That's your first question?" Megan asked surprised to be met with a saddened Bette rather than an angry one, given she had kept her true intent from Bette. "I would have thought you'd be mad."
"I am mad, but not for the reasons you think I am."
"You believe you know what I think?" Megan challenged.
"I watched my own father decline treatment and spent every moment I had trying to hold onto him when it wasn't meant to be. I think I have a slight idea how you feel in terms of hopelessness, but you don't have to take the same path."
Megan pulled up a stool and turned Bette's to face her head-on. She held Bette's shaking hands in her own and offered a warm smile. She closed her eyes briefly, opening them only after taking a calming breath and a moment to gather her thoughts.
"I want to start at the beginning," Megan said softly as she leaned forward to be closer to Bette. "I can tell that Tina's told you what's going on and likely about my unorthodox request. I can only imagine that you have a million questions running through your head..."
"You're still young," Bette began to plead. "You have time still to fight."
"I know I'm not your Dad's age Bette, but it doesn't make my decision any less valid."
"You have a daughter!"
"And so did your father," Megan said calmly as she watched Bette's tears flow down her face. "You said so yourself the night Angelica came home drunk, you never stop being a parent, even when your children are grown. You've made peace with his passing, but you seem at odds about my choice. The only difference between your father and me is that Sarah won't be grown up and watch me die. I'll do it when she's young and can't understand what's going on."
"Have you even gone and gotten the best medical care you possibly can?" Bette challenged.
"Now you sound like your wife," Megan smiled warmly. "I'll tell you what I told her. I've been given a 20% chance at beating it and it isn't even long-term. They are certain it will come back, surgery is not an option, the only way to rid myself of cancer is through treatment and I won't spend my life in and out of hospitals so Sarah can spend her young life watching me die. She can't be put through that."
Bette blinked, surprised at the comparison between her and Tina, given how hard she had been on Tina, accusing her of being somewhat resigned to Megan dying to obtain her dream of another child.
"Tina fought you on this?"
"Tooth and nail, but it only reinforced my decision that she's an amazing person and one that I want in Sarah's life to shape it and guide her."
"I don't agree with your decision to just give up."
"It's a good thing I'm not asking you to," Megan still remained calm. "I'm just asking that you respect it. You need to learn to respect what you don't understand."
"I respect things that are well thought out and have purpose and meaning."
"Bette," Megan scolded her friend. "How many pieces of art do you hang on these walls that have as many interpretations as they do viewers? You don't always agree with those interpretations, but that's why you celebrate art. It's the diversity that challenges us to grow."
"This isn't art. This is your life and the life of your child!"
"Bette," Megan tried to calmly reason with her pained friend. "Let's review the facts. There is nobody that I love more than my daughter. This is why I am making arrangements and sparing us both an uphill fight for it to end the same. What if I give myself a chance, and that's all it is at this point, at prolonging the inevitable? All I've done is allow Sarah to get older and make more memories of me that cause her pain when I'm gone."
"You can't do this," Bette said in a weak voice, shaking her head and crying.
"I have to do this," Megan held Bette close to her as she rubbed her back and whispered close to her ear. "This is the scariest, hardest, most painful thing I've ever done. To give up the one person that I love, but it's because I love her more than I love myself that I must put those fears aside and do what's right for her. Any amount of time that I buy, means more pain for her, and the same ending Bette."
Bette clung onto Megan with flashes of memory running through her head. The first, Melvin in her house calling out for her mother while Tina held her close beside his bed. The second, providing water for her dying father through an eyedropper.
"Describe your Dad in one word," Shane prodded.
"Dying."
Bette began to cry harder as Megan held her close. She closed her eyes as thoughts raced through her head once more.
"We have to turn her over and check the baby," Davina said.
"What is that?" Bette asked worried trying to hold a writhing Tina lying before her in pain.
"The baby is in distress, we need to move this to the hospital."
"Don't let her die Babe," Tina begged in the ambulance. "God don't let her die Bette."
Bette cried harder as she began to remember the night of Angelica's birth, drawing her closer to Megan as a mother understanding the love of another mother.
"I couldn't do it," Bette said pulling back and wiping her tears. "I could never leave Angelica."
"I pray to God you're never faced with the choice," Megan said through her own tears. "It was the single hardest decision I've ever had to make and it scares me to even think about how I did it. It was like instinct took over, my mother's intuition took over and I made the best decision I could for Sarah."
"You love her," Bette said sniffling. "I can see that."
"With more than I ever thought I was."
"How long were you given?" Bette asked not sure if it was insensitive to do so.
"A year at most, but I used a few months of it to mourn Janet and take care of Sarah," Megan said. "I clung to Sarah at a time where, if she hadn't survived, I would have definitely ended things because it was so painful."
"She saved your life," Bette said quietly.
"Now I'll save hers," Megan said back. "I want to talk to you about the request I made of Tina."
"Tina," Bette sighed feeling a sense of guilt form in her stomach. "I accused her of not arguing with you for her own self-serving purpose."
"Not at all, she argued my head off."
Bette chuckled as she wiped her tears away once more.
