Tawny gripped the sides of her chair as she sat in the hospital waiting room.

Maddie was gracious to put up the funds so that Tawny could get a cheap flight back to her hometown. Once there, she met with her neighbours, the Landers, and they drove her immediately to the hospital where her mother was being held.

The wait was interminable. Tawny stared at the clock hanging near the ceiling, inwardly wincing as each second ticked by with the harsh staccato of the skinny, red, second hand.

If there's one thing she didn't want on her mind at this moment, it was time.

A nurse had approached her. "Tawny Matthews?"

---

Tawny was led by the nurse into a small, white hospital room. There, she gasped. Sitting in a bed just a few feet away from Tawny, her mother lay still. The senior Matthews, Grace, was staring up at the ceiling, with several tubes and wires sticking out from various spots in her body. From Tawny's vantage point, her mother appeared to be dead.

"Mom?" Tawny asked. She breathed a sigh of relief when her mother turned her head at the sound of her voice.

"Hey....pumpkin," Grace said, her voice so weak and hoarse. Despite that, there was a smile on her lips. "What a pleasant surprise."

"Hi Mom," Tawny said, forcing herself to smile back, but inwardly feeling guttted. She approached the bed and took her mother's hand into her own. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, not so bad..." insisted Grace. "Would you believe working a double shift in retail on a Black Friday is worse than this? At least with this I get to rest in a nice, soft bed."

"Glad to hear you're comfortable," Tawny said. "And that Gabby's being taken care of. But how long have you been like this?"

"A few months," Grace admitted. "I started to have symptoms not too long after I dropped you off to your new school. I felt tired and dizzy all the time, but I kept soldiering through because I needed to work to put food on the table, and you know how expensive doctors can be?

There was a hint of sadness in Grace's voice as her eyes flitted downward. "In December, I couldn't handle it anymore. I was supposed to pick up Gabby from the Landers after work one afternoon, but I collapsed in the middle of my shift. When I came to, I was here, in the hospital."

"I can't believe Ally didn't tell me you were sick..." Tawny said bitterly.

"Don't be mad at Ally," Grace said. "I made her promise not to tell you. I didn't want anything to distract you while you were getting your education at Ivoree Gates. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you, Tawny. I couldn't stand the thought of you dropping out and throwing it all away just to take care of me."

"What are you talking about?" Tawny said, feeling herself get angry in spite of herself. "You're my mom, silly. Why wouldn't I drop everything? You obviously need help..."

"Tawny?" Tawny turned to look at the door. There, a young male doctor with glasses stood, holding a clipboard, a somber look on his face. "Could I have a word with you outside, please?"

"Okay," Tawny still wanted to continue the conversation with her mother, but she complied and followed the doctor into the hallway.

"How bad is it, Doctor?" Tawny asked. "What's wrong with her?"

The doctor frowned, staring at the papers attached to the clipboard. "I'm not sure if you're aware of the severity of your mother's condition. She has a rare autoimmune blood disorder. It's the cause of her fatigue and, in her current state, would make it impossible for her to go back to work."

"Is there any cure?" Tawny asked.

"You can't cure an autoimmune disease," the doctor said. "At best, we could provide treatment. With a robust therapy plan, she should be able to live a long, fulfilling life..."

As the doctor continued, Tawny began to fill with a sense of dread. Her mother was sick, with an untreatable illness. And she'd been in the hospital for several weeks.

They didn't have insurance. They didn't have savings. How were they going to afford all this?

"...Miss Matthews?" the doctor asked. "Are you paying attention?"

Tawny blinked, coming back to reality. "How much is the treatment?"

The doctor exhaled slowly. His eyes wandered from her back to the clipboard. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Given your mother's age, the complexity of the treatment, and its experimental nature, I'd say a fair estimate is that she's looking at a total health cost of $100,000 a year."

Tawny's knees buckled. she gripped the side of the wall for support, as the doctor grabbed her arm to keep her from falling.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah...yeah," Tawny said robotically. Though in truth she was screaming inside.

A hundred grand? Every single year?

Even with Tawny's tuition being fully covered, this was a daunting amout.

How the hell were they going to afford this?