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"The doctors told me there was a ... a complication with the chemotherapy."

"Trust me, I felt it," Arabelle said. "Oh yeah, I felt it. A complication, all right." She was trying to joke, but Jennifer struggled to keep up with her mom's dark humor.

Arabelle was a stubborn one, and she wasn't ever going to admit that she was in pain. That was why it took the doctors so long to catch the cancer in the first place—she went on acting like she was invincible for far too long. It had taken a lot ofconvincing in the first place to let Jennifer help pay for the treatment when Arabelle's health insurance wouldn't cover the treatment.

"Mom ... Dr. Carlton said it was serious. I know you're not feeling good right now, but they said the sooner we decide, the better. Hours could make a difference."

"The doctors say a lot of things, hon."

Jennifer buried her face in her hands. This wasn't the type of conversation to have when her mom was loopy on morphine and she was still processing the shock of the situation, but they had to make decisions quickly.

"Please, I don't want to lose you, not after all this," Jennifer said. "We need to at least talk about it."

At last, Arabelle sighed and adjusted her head on her pillow so she could sit up straight. "I know, I know, but after they put me under, I've had a lot of time to think. This last year has been hard, Jenny."

Jennifer shook her head. "You're not about to say what I think you're going to say. No. You can't give up."

"I'm not giving up, I couldn't, not with you still around. I'm just trying to be realistic, okay? Dr. Carlton said it's my blood that reacted poorly to the radiation treatment, something about the proteins. According to him, it's very rare to have as extreme a reaction as I did ... and there's very little they can do."

"He told me what happened." Jennifer wiped the tears from her hot face. "I should have been there for you."

"You can't live your whole life looking after me. It's no way for a young woman to live. I already hate that you gave up your dream job and that nice boy of yours to come here ..."

Jennifer leaned forward and hugged her mom. It was an awkward gesture because her mom was lying down, but they made it work. After a year of the emotional trauma of her mom's diagnosis, Jennifer appreciated every moment she could get with her, but holding her like this, it was hard not to notice how small and frail she'd become over a couple of months of chemotherapy.

"That's so like you, to worry more about my romantic life than your health," Jennifer said.

Arabelle squeezed her tight. "As much as I love having you here ... the truth is, until now, your love life was in more danger than I ever was."

"Don't say that, mom. I'll worry about finding a new boyfriend once you're better."

"You say that like you're not afraid of what's going to happen next. Jenny, they can't use chemotherapy to treat my tumor anymore."

"This isn't the end of the road, not yet," Jennifer said with a hint of desperation. "Dr. Carlton said there's a special treatment. We need to decide right now. You already know what my answer is."

Arabelle sighed, closing her eyes as if she'd never been so exhausted before. "I know, but like I said, we need to be realistic. We can't afford the treatment. If my insurance wouldn't cover the chemo, it's not going to cover some experimental drug, either."

"I don't care. I'll pay for it. I can get a third job if that's what it takes. I'm not going to let you die if there's still something I can do."

Arabelle shook her head sadly. "You're going to get yourself killed doing that, and then what will all that work be for?"

"If I can save you, then it'll be worth it."

Jennifer wasn't going to admit it out loud, but she would do anything it took to save her mom. Her mom was the most important person in the world to her, and she couldn't imagine losing her. She would never let something as mundane as money end up causing her death.

"Did Dr. Carlton tell you much about the new treatment?" Arabelle said.

"He told me it's a new, revolutionary medication that can detect cancer cells. It will target and kill them without harming the rest of your body. You'll still get sick while you're on the pills, but it should be less harmful than chemo, and it won't affect your blood nearly as much, which is why he thinks it will work for you."

"But it's still in the very early stages, and it's not cheap. Did he tell you how much?"

Jennifer shook her head. "I told him I didn't care, I would pay whatever amount it would take to save you."

Arabelle gestured to a stack of papers on the table beside her bed. "Those are the forms right there. It says the total amount."

Jennifer took the papers, a lump in her throat forming as she started scanning the pages. She really didn't want to know how much it was going to cost. It was one thing to say she would pay whatever she had to, another to face the reality of the high costs of medical care.

The forms went over the specifics of the treatment, mostly repeating what Dr. Carlton told her about how the pills worked, that it was experimental and couldn't guarantee results or the frequency of side effects, but that trials so far had been favorable. Ninety-eight out of one hundred early trials experienced complete eradication of their cancer after several months of treatment, depending on the type.