(I would like to dedicate it to all of those who have died from cancer, especially my friends--Sharon, Steve, Mrs. Summers and Christina.)
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"It's deep, so deep they can't reach it...can they." questioned Sioban. She fanned her sparse remaining hair out over the bed and looked away from him at the wall. It hurt Henry to see his wife like this. He was crying but she was beyond tears. Sioban had done her crying, bargaining, her pleading to the Heavens. Now there was nothing left but the bitter acceptance of her fate.
"Would it help if we went to a vet?" she questioned. But, her faint voice trembled and was without hope. She already knew the answer.
Henry let out a bitter laugh full of contempt----not at his wife, but at life. If only they could do that, if only going to a veterinarian was the solution, if only it were that simple, for once being a werewolf would be helpful instead of a curse. If...only...if only...if only...
"No." he said as he despondantly, shook his head. "Here, in Wyoming, the vets would probably put you out of your misery without my permission. They'd say it would be the humane thing." Henry wished he had a better answer for Sioban, his wife, his love, his true mate but he didn't. He only had the hard, uncaring facts.
Henry only had the bitter and brutally honest truth. As a doctor, there should be something he could do---anything. But, all his medical knowledge was useless. The cold hard fact was that his Sioban was dying. The brain cancer was just too deep. There was no way around it. No miracle cure.There was nothing to do but wait.
"Oh" said Sioban heartbreakingly. She had already known the answer but asked the question anyway. That way, even for a brief second, there was a chance of hope. Henry could be content, escape the Hell they'd been living in for the past year and a half. Henry laughed bitterly again at life and sat next to Sioban on their marriage bed. He curled up next to her, laid his head on her lap, wanting to protect her from the inevitable. She embraced her husband, protecting him at the same time.
Probably the hardest thing for her now, was the loss of her hair due to chemo. She'd always done her long hair up in complicated designs. It was her pride and joy, she could hang it out the window and both peasant women and queens would be jealous of it's shimmer and gleam. Now his Sioban was losing more and more, day by day.
Henry knew Sioban thought she no longer looked beautiful. It didn't matter to him though. He'd seen her puking and coughing blood from the chemo. He'd suffered along with her. It cut him to his core to see his love, his true mate, in this much pain. He was a doctor, he should be able to do something and yet he was so powerless.
"Come here baby." said Sioban sweetly as she pulled Henry tighter into her breast. "It'll be alright." she said to him, lying but needing...wanting...wishing... it to be true. If she said it perhaps it could be true, some impossible cosmic miracle.
Henry gently lay on top of Sioban. They weren't fucking, they weren't having sex, they weren't making love. Sioban and Henry were doing something deeper than that. Only a couple who'd been together centuries like them could understand what they were doing as they moved against each other. Caressing their lover's body which they knew so well, tender kisses and soft touches. The lovers merged together. Kissing, hugging, being together as one entity.
As she moved in sync with Henry, Sioban was apologizing for dying, for not being able to be with Henry...for her light going out. Henry was also apologizing as he pleasured his true mate's body. He was apologizing for not being able to protect her, for no longer being able to be with her.
