"What's going on?" Dylan asked as the nurse came out into the hallway.

"We're taking her off her meds and fluids. Shouldn't be more than another half hour or so before she's released."

"Released?" Dylan frowned, totally confused. "What happened? Did we get the biopsy results back or something?"

A mild nod. "We got them in this morning, yes."

And based on the flat tone, the results weren't good. Still, she had to ask, because she really didn't want to imagine the worst. "I'm not sure I understand. If you're taking her off fluids and medication, does that mean she's going to be all right?"

The nurse's expression fell a bit. "You haven't talked with her yet..."

Dylan glanced over her shoulder into the room. Her mother was sitting on the edge of her bed facing the window as she put on a sky blue cardigan sweater. She was fully dressed, hair combed and styled. Looking like she was ready to walk out of the hospital any minute.

"Why is my mother being released?"

The nurse cleared her throat. "I, um...I really think you need to talk with her about that, okay?"

As the woman left, Dylan scrubbed her hands with the alcohol gel and went inside.

"Mom?"

She pivoted on the bed and gave her a big, happy smile. "Oh! Dylan. I didn't expect to see you back so soon, baby. I would have called you later."

"Good thing I came when I did. I just heard they're letting you go home in a few minutes."

"Yes," she replied. "Yes, it's time. I don't want to stay here anymore."

Dylan didn't like the resignation in her mother's voice. It was too light, too accepting.

It sounded a lot like relief.

"Your nurse just told me the biopsy came back this morning."

"Let's not talk about that." She waved her hand dismissively and walked over to the table where the now opened box of chocolates sat. She picked up the candies and held them out to Dylan. "Try one of these truffles. They're delicious! Gordon brought them for me last night - in fact, he was here just minutes after you left. I wish you had waited so you could meet him. He wants to meet you, Dylan. He was very interested when I told him that you're going to need a new job - "

"Oh, Mom. You didn't," Dylan groaned. It was bad enough her mother had bragged to her boss about Dylan's story regarding the mountain cave, but to have her trying to find Dylan a job from her hospital bed was too much.

"Gordon has connections with a lot of important people in the city. He can help you, baby. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he could help you land something with one of the big news companies?"

"Mom," Dylan said, more forcefully now. "I don't want to talk about a job, or about Gordon Fasso, or anything else. All I want to talk about is what's going on with you. Obviously, the test results weren't good. So, why are you being released today?"

"Because that's what I want." She sighed, and walked over to Dylan. "I don't want to stay here anymore. I don't want any more tests, or tubes, or needles. I'm tired, and I just want to go home."

"What did the doctors say? Can we talk with them about the biopsy results?"

"There's nothing more they can do, sweetheart. Except prolong the inevitable, and only for a little while."

Dylan lowered her voice to just above a whisper. "What if I told you that I know someone who might be able to make you healthy?"

"I don't want any more treatments. I'm done - "

"This wouldn't be anything like that. It's a kind of...alternative healing. Something you can't get in a hospital. It's not a guarantee, but there is a chance that you could be cured completely. I think it might be a good chance, Mom. I think it might be the only one..."

Her mother smiled gently as she laid her cool fingers against Dylan's cheek. "I know how hard this is for you, baby. I do. But the choice is mine to make, on my own. I've had a full life. I'm not looking for miracles now."

"What about me?" Dylan's voice was thick. "Would you try it...for me?"

In the long silence that answered, Dylan tried desperately to hold back the sob that was rising up in her throat. Her heart was cracked in pieces, but she could see that her mother's mind was made up. It had probably been made up long before this moment. "Okay," she said finally. "Okay, then...tell me what you want me to do, Mom."

"Take me home. Let's have lunch together, and some tea, and let's just talk. That's what I'd really like right now, more than anything."

Chapter Thirty-two

Rio didn't hear from Dylan again until late that afternoon. When his cell phone went off in his pocket, he was in the lab with Lucan, Gideon, Niko, and Chase, the five of them discussing Gerard Starkn's apparent snow job and how the Order could best take control of things with the Gen One situation. He excused himself from the meeting and took Dylan's call out in the corridor.

"What's wrong?" It wasn't much of a greeting, but he could sense her upset on the other end as soon as the call connected and the feeling went through him like live electricity. "Are you okay?"

There was a pause, then: "I'm okay, yeah. I'm going to be okay eventually, I think."

"How is your mother?"

"Tired," Dylan said, sounding weary herself. "Oh, Rio...I've been with her all afternoon at her apartment in Queens. She checked herself out of the hospital today, and she's refusing any further treatment. She wants to...she doesn't want to live anymore, Rio. She's made up her mind about that."

He swore softly, feeling Dylan's anguish like it was his own. "Did you tell her about Tess?"

"I tried to, but she wouldn't hear it. It's killing me, but if this is what she truly wants, then I know I have to let her go."

"Ah, love. I don't know what to say."

"It's all right. I don't know what I need to hear right now." Dylan sniffled a little, but she was holding herself together with admirable courage. "We spent the day talking - something we haven't been able to do for a long time. It was nice. I told her about you, that I met a very special man and that I love him very much. She's looking forward to meeting you sometime."

Rio smiled, wishing he could be there right now. "I'm sure that can be arranged."

"I talked with her doctor as we were leaving the hospital. He says that realistically, without treatment, Mom probably only has weeks left...maybe a couple of months. They're going to give her medicine for the pain, but they warned us that the time she has left isn't going to be easy."

"Shit, Dylan. Do you want me to come out there tonight? It's almost sundown. If you need me there, I could leave right at dusk and be in the city by around eleven."

"What about the Order? I'm sure you have other things you have to do."

"That's not what I asked you." In fact, he was supposed to be on a mission tonight, but fuck it. If Dylan wanted him with her, Lucan would have to assign someone else to the patrol. "Do you need me there tonight, Dylan?"

She sighed. "I'd love to see you. You know I'd never turn you down, Rio. Do you really want to come all this way tonight?"

"Just try to stop me," he said, sensing her brighten on the other end. In the background now, he heard a truck horn blast. "Are you driving somewhere?"

"Uh-huh. I'm on my way to pick up some of my mom's things at the shelter. We called her friends over there as we were leaving the hospital, just to fill them in on what's going on. Everyone's pretty worried about her, as you can imagine. And I guess some of the shelter clients and their kids made up a special card for her too."

"She'll like that."

"Yeah," Dylan said. "I'm going to swing by and grab some takeout for dinner back at Mom's place. She wants baby back ribs, sweet potatoes, and cornbread - oh, and some fancy champagne, as she put it, to celebrate my newfound love."

"Sounds like you have quite an evening planned."

Dylan was quiet for a moment. "It's really good to see her smiling, Rio. I want her to enjoy these next few weeks as much as she can."

He understood, of course. And as Dylan wrapped up the conversation and promised to call him when she was back at her mother's apartment, Rio wondered how he was going to get through the weeks - perhaps a couple of months - away from Dylan. It wasn't a long time, certainly not by Breed standards, but for a male in love with his mate, the duration was going to seem endless.

He needed to be with Dylan through this.

And he knew that she needed him too.

When he flipped the cell phone closed, he found Lucan standing outside the tech lab doors. Rio had told him earlier about Dylan's mother, and about what Dylan meant to him, how deeply he'd fallen in love with her. He'd laid it all out for Lucan - from the fact that he and Dylan were blood-bonded now, to the offer he'd made her concerning Tess's healing abilities.

Rio didn't know how long Lucan had been standing there, but the shrewd gray eyes seemed fully aware that things were not going well on the other end.

"How is Dylan holding up?"

Rio nodded. "She's strong. She'll get through this."

"What about you, my man?"

He started to say that he'd be fine too, but Lucan's stare tore through that bullshit before the words even left Rio's lips.

"I told her I'd be there tonight," he told the Order's leader. "I have to go to her, Lucan. For my own sanity, if nothing else. If I stay here, I'm not sure what good I'd be, to tell you the truth. She's the only thing that's held me together in a very long time. I'm a wreck for this woman, my friend. She owns me now."

"Even more than the Order?"

Rio paused, deliberating over what he was being asked. "I would die for the Order - for you and any one of my brethren. You know that."

"Yes. I know you would," Lucan replied. "Hell, you almost have, more than once."

"I'd die to serve the Order, but Dylan...Cristo. This woman, more than anything before, gives me a reason to live. I have to be with her now, Lucan."

He nodded soberly. "I'll put one of the other guys on your patrol tonight. You do what you have - "

"Lucan." Rio met the male's gaze and held it. "I have to be with Dylan until she's through this ordeal with her mother. It could be weeks, maybe months."

"So, what are you telling me?"

Rio cursed under his breath. "I'm telling you that I'm leaving to be with her, for as long as it takes. I'm quitting the Order, Lucan. I head out for New York tonight."

"Here's a box for those things, honey." Janet came into Dylan's mom's office carrying an empty copy paper container. "It's nice and sturdy and it's got a lid too."

"Thanks," Dylan said, setting it down on the cluttered desk. "Mom is kind of a pack rat, isn't she?"

Janet laughed. "Oh, honey! That woman hasn't thrown away a note or a greeting card or a photograph since I've known her. She saves everything like it was gold, bless her heart." The older woman glanced around the room, her eyes going moist with tears. "We sure are going to miss Sharon around here. She had such a way with the girls. Everyone adored her, even Mr. Fasso was charmed by her and he's not easily impressed. Her free spirit drew people to her, I think."

Dylan smiled at the sentiment, but it was very hard hearing her mother referred to in the past tense already. "Thanks for the box, Janet."

"Oh, you're welcome, honey. Would you like some help finishing up in here?"

"No, thanks. I'm almost done."

She waited as Janet made her exit, then she went back to the task at hand. It was difficult to tell what might be important to her mother and what could be tossed, so finally Dylan just started gathering papers and old photos by the handful and placing them in the box.

She paused to look at a few of the pictures - her mother standing with her arms around the thin shoulders of two young shelter girls with bad 1980s hair, tube tops, and short shorts; another of her mom smiling behind the counter of an ice cream shop, beaming at the "Employee of the Month" award the young girl next to her was holding up like a prize.

Her mother had befriended nearly every troubled young woman who came through the place, genuinely invested in seeing them succeed and rise above the problems that had made the girls run away from home or feel that they didn't, or couldn't, fit into normal society. Her mother had tried to make a difference. And in a lot of cases, she had.

Dylan wiped at the tears of pride that sprang into her eyes. She looked for a tissue among the clutter and couldn't find any. Just what she didn't need, to be sitting in her mother's office crying like a baby in front of the evening shift staff.

"Shit." She remembered seeing a stack of loose paper towels in one of the drawers of the back credenza. Pivoting her mother's chair around, she scooted across the worn carpet and began a quick search of the cabinet.

Ah. Success.

Dabbing at her wet eyes and face, she spun back around and nearly fell out of her seat.

There, standing before her on the other side of her mother's desk, was a ghostly apparition. The young woman was joined by another, both of them wavering in and out of visibility. Then another girl appeared, and still another. And then, finally, there was Toni again, the girl Dylan had seen in her mother's hospital room the other night.