Chapter 26: Chapter 26

"What do you mean you're going to Europe?" Mark asks, struggling to keep up with me as I practically run to get to our new gate.

"We're going to Europe, not just me." I say turning around for not a half second then continuing to run.

"You know what I mean. Now, can you slow down?" I slow down only because we've made it to the gate. "Can you answer my question now?"

"We're going to Europe because it's been my dream and I'm starting treatment in a week and from then on for the next six months to a year I'll be too sick to do anything." I hear over the loudspeaker that they're calling the flight to London UK. I look about ready to cry. "Now you can get on that plane with me or you can go back home and wait for me to come back in a week. I'm doing this with or without you."

"Shouldn't we call your dad. He'll be expecting you home." I smile when he's coming but drop it fast.

"No! He'd do anything in his power to get me home and it would work. Besides, I don't have a curfew anymore." I turn back to the gate and begin to walk towards it. "We'll call everyone when we land. Ok?" I asked him to give my ticket to the flight attendant.

He hesitates thinking about it for a moment. "Fine."

"Yes." I say doing my little happy dance.

I'm interrupted by the flight attendant. "You have to board now Miss."

"Right. Europe." I smile uncontrollably.

We landed 18 hours later and called my dad. "Where the hell are you?!" He screams into the phone.

"In London." I shrink down even though he can't see me.

"What are you doing there?" He yells again.

"Traveling." I say shrugging down more. I feel like few word responses are better in this situation.

"That's not good enough! Give me a real explanation." I wonder if people are looking at him and yelling at me through the phone, if he's alone in his office, or maybe at home pacing in front of Maddy.

I move a little further away from Mark so he can't hear me as well. "You know that this has been a dream of mine forever. If I don't do this now when am I. I promise we'll be back a day before treatment." I make a certain face as if I'm begging even though, again he can't see me.

"Fine. Be safe and have fun." I hear him sigh.

I smile. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I rush into the phone. "IfI could, I'd give you a really big hug right now."

"Save it for when you get home. I love you." He sighs again.

"Love you too dad." Then we hang up and I rush over to Mark. "He's ok with it!" I screech.

"Good, now can we go and check into the hotel so you can rest?" Mark asks, chauffeuring me out the door.

"I don't need to rest! What I need is to explore. I will rest when treatment starts." I yell out to the world. I calm down a little and turn back to Mark. "Let's walk. The hotel isn't that far."

"I'm not getting out of this am I?" Mark asks, sighing and not bothering to push it.

"Nope!" I say popping off the end. "And we can stop at a little official coffee shop in London."

"You don't like coffee." Mark reasons.

"I'm guessing if the coffee shops in Missouri have hot chocolate so will the London one's." I reason back.

"I'm not getting out of this either, am I?" He asks mostly jokingly.

"No! Now let's go." I say running down the street and smelling the open, wet air of London.

"Your dad is going to kill me if you get sick here and can't do your treatment!" Mark yells from 12 feet behind me.

I stop at the first coffee shop I see and before going in I let Mark catch up.

"You. Are. Very. Fast." Mark breathes out catching his breath.

"I know, I'm a jerk." I explained.

"What?" Mark asks, confused.

I can't help but chuckle. "So do you want to go inside?" I ask changing the subject while trying to suppress my smile.

"Sure. Fine." He says smiling while putting his arm around me.

When we get up to the counter the server asks in his British accent, "What can I get for you?"

I turn around to Mark and give him an over excited look, he just rolls his eyes. "Um. Do you have hot chocolate?" I ask calmly.

"Yes, how many would you like?" I turn back to Mark again and he gives me a small nod.

"Two please." I smile.

When we sit down and take a few sips we start to talk a little. "How are you feeling?" Mark asks. It's not the exact conversation I was hoping for but it's still a conversation.

"Can we not talk about that right now. I have one full week of freedon before I go home and rest for the next year. Right now I want to talk about what we're doing tomorrow." I explained feeling like crying again.

There's a small silence. "What are we doing tomorrow?" Mark asks. look up to him and smile.

I take a breath. "Let's wing it." I smile and shrug. Another version of the blush and shrug.

The next day we walked to the London Eye, went out to lunch, went to Big Ben, then went back to the hotel because I was smart this time and told Mark I had a headache.

The day after that Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, then went out to supper. Another headache and I woke up all sweaty the next day.

The third day we went out to breakfast, but I had a stomach ache and couldn't eat that much. We went to The British Museum and Hyde Park. In Hyde Park we walked around and I saw someone I knew.

I turned to sam. "Oh my gosh! That's Parker Mason." I whisper to him.

"Who?" He asks, looking at me confused.

"Parker Mason is the lead in Catalog 9." I explained in a duh tone.

"And what's that?" He asks, still clueless.

"Pretty much the new Doogie Howser." I again explain in a duh tone.

"Oh." He realizes. "Go say hi." He urges.

My eyes go wide at his advice. "What? You don't just walk up to Parker Mason and say hi." I reason in a duh tone for the millionth time this day.

"Why not?" He asks almost accusing me.

"Well..." I start. "Ok nothing really, but you still don't." I turn back to look at him again. "Shut up, he's walking over here."

Mark does shut up and when Parker Mason is closer he pushes me towards him and whispers, "You're welcome."

I bump into him and make a fool of myself. "I uh... I'm... sorry." I can feel my face scrunch up and I bet I look like an idiot.

"Hi I'm Parker." He says in his british accent while holding his hand out for me to shake.

I'm frozen. Mark comes up from behind me. "Her name is Alyanna." He says take Parker Mason's hand for me.

"Ok." He says a little confused. "Nice to meet you both."

Mark puts his arm around my shoulder. "She's a huge fan of your work in Carload-" I cut him off.

"Catalog." I say still frozen.

"Catalog, thank you. She's a huge fan of your work in Catalog 9." I can feel his teasing smile towards me as he's looking at Parker Mason.

I finally snap out of it. "I'm Alyanna." I say sticking out my hand even though Mark already did all this for me.

"Again. Nice to meet you." He says with a confused smile on his face again.

"Sorry, my wife is a little slow today. All this fresh air is getting to her." Mark teases me again. I elbow him in the gut softly. He tenses up. At least I think it was soft.

"Your wife? You two are married?" Parker Mason asks.

"Yes. We're on our honeymoon." I answer because Mark is still grabbing his gut in pain.

"Yep, that's what's happening." Mark says recovering.

"Well ok." He says, clapping his hands together. "So sorry but I have to get going. Again, it was nice to meet you both." He says waving.

"Nice to meet you too Parker." Mark says, waving back. Parker Mason turns back to us and waves are still confused.

When he turns back round and walks away I elbow Mark in the gut again. "Why do you do this to me?" I ask, smiling. I'm not that mad or annoyed just as little.

"It's my job. Besides you said you wanted to have fun for the week and meeting a celebrity seems pretty fun." He says while continuing to walk back to the hotel.

I smile and sigh. "You're so annoying."

The fourth day we walked everywhere. Mostly random stuff like shopping for souvenirs. I got a sweatshirt for myself, a keychain for Hannah to put on her backpack, and a notebook that says 'London' on it for Sophie because I know she likes to write. I don't know what to get for Will so I don't get anything for him. For my mom I got a T-shirt that says 'My daughter went to London' on it. Yep they had a shirt that said that. My dad got a coffee mug that said London. Maddy, I got her a shirt. Maya, a tea cup and saucer because she'd like that I'm guessing.

I decided not to get anything for Charlie because I'm still really mad and I can't find anything either.

The fifth day we packed up and went to the airport to go home. I said we'd be back a day before I start treatment which meant that we'd have to leave two days before treatment.

We have a 12 hour flight and I promised we'd be home 24 hours before. The first round of my chemo starts at 3:30 pm. 36 hours before that is the latest when we can leave. But what if there's a delay so our flight leaves 40 hours before my first round of chemo.

I did all that math in my head on the way to the airport. I'm brought back by Mark slamming his door shut and grabbing the bags.

"Did you enjoy your freedom?" He asks.

I take a breath. "Yeah. I did, but I'm ready to go home and get better. With or without freedom I'm glad you'll be there." I tell Mark instantly regretting it for some reason.

I quickly grab my bags and walk away, not looking back towards Mark.

"I enjoyed watching you interact with that Parker guy." Mark teases. "Shut up would you." I blush.

"I'm just saying seeing you frozen and being stupid was a first for me and it was liberating." He teases more.

I elbow him again. "Can you stop?"

"Sure." He grunts. "You should stop doing that, you know." He reasons.

"And what should I do?" I ask skipping my victory.

"Because it hurts." Mark whines.

"You'll get used to it." I say brushing it off as we make our way through security.

"What if I don't want to get used to it?" Mark laughs out, as we now make our way through the airport to our gate.

"You're going to have to if you're married to me." I explained as I take a seat in the waiting area of our gate. "Now you can sit and wait for our flight to be called with me and be happy or pout. You choose." I reason by pulling out a book.

"Fine." He sits down and fakes a smile but he's not necessarily pouting.

"What are you doing?" I ask him to put my book down.

"I'm houting." He answers. "It's halfway between being happy and pouting." He explains.

"Oh. That's nice." I say then go back to my book.

I sneak a peek at Mark who's annoyed at my reaction. I try to hide my smile by bringing my book up to my face. It doesn't work because soon I burst out laughing.

Mark joins me after a few moments of looking at me weird.

I like London but I'm happy to be going home.