Kellie Ross had been on pins and needles ever since the end of Thanksgiving break. Dakota hadn’t been at school. In talking to his twin sister, Lakota, she learned that the bulk of the family was still in Chicago with Dakota. Things weren’t sounding promising, but Lakota couldn’t bring herself to talk about it. Every time they dwelled on Dakota for too long, she would simply start crying.
The anxiety had been building for three weeks. By now, Lakota’s Aunt Marie had come to stay at the house with her. She waited until after Thanksgiving for the sake of her own family, then arrived.
During those three weeks, Kellie found that being a superheroine living along the Great Lakes in December was a slow proposition. The ice-themed attacks had stopped, and so had most crimes of the types superheroes deal with. She couldn’t even take out her frustrations on bad guys.
Then, on a Friday, Kellie got a call. “Hey, Kel,” Dakota said.
“Kota!” Kellie said. “How are you? Are you home?”
“To the second question, yeah,” Dakota said. “As to the first … meet me at the first HQ, OK?”
Kellie couldn’t help her voice coming out as a tiny squeak. “OK,” she said.
“Can you come now?” Dakota asked.
“Be right there,” Kellie answered.
The secluded section of riverbank where Kellie had made her first headquarters as Elevator Girl was less than five minutes walk from Kellie’s house. She was there in two. Dakota took a bit longer, but came under his own power.
Kellie almost broke down in tears at the sight of her boyfriend. He was sallow-looking, and his right elbow was clearly swollen. His hair, only recently returned, was gone again. It was clear the effort of walking here had exhausted him.
Kellie darted over to Dakota. She hugged him as tightly as she felt she dared, then helped him to the bank to sit.
For several minutes they sat on the bank, holding hands. Dakota alternated between staring at the sky, the water, the cave that had been Elevator Girl’s first headquarters, and Kellie. Kellie simply stared that him, trying to drink in every instant and afraid of what the news he bore might be.
Finally, Dakota patted her hand. “Kel, you can probably guess what I’m going to say.”
Kellie’s eyes already were filling with tears. “The news isn’t good, is it?”
Dakota smiled sadly and shook his head. “It’s not,” he said. “My cancer’s metastasized. It’s spread. That’s not a big surprise with lymphoma, really.”
Kellie sniffled loudly, and blushed slightly at doing so.
“They tried an experimental treatment on me at the hospital in Chicago. It didn’t work.”
Kellie had been down the road of cancer before, when it took the life of her father. “So, what’s the prognosis?” she asked faintly.
Now Dakota’s eyes filled with tears. He looked away from Kellie, then looked her in the eye and patted her hand again, and she knew without him saying the words.
“Oh, no!” Kellie wailed, and wrapped her arms around him. They wept together there, the superheroine and her dying boyfriend, for several minutes.
Then Dakota pulled back, wiping his eyes. “It’s funny,” he said. “I hadn’t cried since I got the news. Mom, Dad, Sis -- they all cried. Heck, Mom and Sis bawled. But I hadn’t cried … until now, with you.”
“How … how long do you have?” Kellie asked, fighting back sobs.
Dakota shrugged. “Weeks; maybe months,” he said. “I’ll make Christmas, New Year’s. Easter is iffy.” he closed his eyes before adding, “I’ve probably seen my last summer, they said.”
Kellie’s lower lip was quivering. “Why are you home, Kota?” she asked.
Dakota patted Kellie’s hand again and looked her straight in the eye. “They sent me home to die,” he said.
Kellie shook her head and stared at the ground. It couldn’t be happening again! It couldn’t be! And not to Dakota …
Dakota took both her hands, catching Kellie’s attention. “Kel, I cried now because of what this means for you,” he said. “You’ve been hurt so much, and I don’t want to hurt you, too, and I don’t want to leave you.”
Kellie wrapped her arms around Dakota and held him close. “Then don’t!” she said. “Fight this!”
“I’ve tried,” he said. “But the doctors are out of options. The cancer’s spread too much. It caught them all off-guard. There’s nothing to fight a cancer -- set of cancers, really -- like this with.”
Gently, Dakota pushed Kellie back, then guided her chin so she was looking him in the eye. “It’s the bottom of the ninth, and I’m down 27 to 2,” he said. “There’s a chance of a comeback, but it isn’t very good. I’m afraid my fight is just about over.”
Kellie’s eyes were wide and her mouth was pursed small.
“Kel, I need to tell you something,” Dakota said. “I’ve been on the verge of telling you a few times, but I really need to do it now.”
Dakota took a deep breath. “Kel, I knew my life was missing something for awhile, but I thought it was due to the cancer, or something else wrong with me. And then we found each other again … and I realized what I was missing … was you. You complete my life, Kellie Ross. As short as my life may be, as painful as this illness is, living’s been wonderful for me because of you.”
Their eyes locked as Dakota said, “I love you, Kellie Ross.”
Kellie’s lower lip quivered, then her whole lower jaw started to flail. “I -- I --” she managed to stammer out. Then bawling, she stood up, sobbed, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” and ran back toward her house, leaving Dakota sitting there.
Two minutes later, Lakota walked up. “Didn’t expect to find you here alone,” she said.
Dakota was staring at the cave. “I think it was too much for her,” he said.
“From what you told me of your plans, it would have been pretty intense,” Lakota said. “I mean, being told your boyfriend is dying and then having him profess his love of you …”
“Yeah,” he said. “I knew that, but I … “
“Don’t know how much time you have,” Lakota said.
Dakota nodded.
Lakota came over to her twin. “Let me help you up,” she said. “Then I’ll walk you home.”
“Sounds good,” Dakota said.
Once they were walking, Dakota leaning on Lakota, the girl said, “You’re going to need to rest when we get home.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Call and check on Kellie, will you, Sis? Make sure she’s OK.”
“Of course,” Lakota said. “She’s my friend, too, y’know.”
They hadn’t gotten far when Dakota said, “Hey, Sis, did you see that cave back there?”
Lakota’s brow furrowed. “Yeah. What about it?” she asked.
“I’ve got an odd request for you,” he said. “In case something happens to me sometime, I want you to leave something there for Kellie.”
Kellie had gone to her room and wept into her pillow. She was glad her mom was asleep at the time, and that she didn’t wake Gemma when she came in.
Lakota called, and let Kellie know she was welcome to come over whenever she wanted, as long as Dakota was up to it.
“Thanks,” Kellie said quietly.
“Kellie, you know, he’s been so much happier the last couple of months,” Lakota said, “and you’re most of that. Elevator Girl started it; She gave him hope. But you, you’ve given him joy. Whatever else happens, he’s happier with you in his life.”
“I know,” Kellie said quietly. She tried to respond further, but all her ideas sounded terrible if she tried to form them into words.
“It’s OK, Kellie,” Lakota said. “I don’t always know what to say, either. Just come when you’re ready, OK?”
“OK,” Kellie said.
Once the call was over, Kellie started to think. Before he had tumbled to her secret identity, Dakota had told Elevator Girl that she gave him hope, too. He told her she gave him hope with the way she thought outside the box.
Kellie’s eyes began to dart from side to side as she thought. Her mother had reminded her recently that cancer was cells growing out of control. Her powers as Elevator Girl let her control her growth. Was there a way to use them here?
Running to the closet, she pulled out the specialized SCUBA gear Super Scuba’s new incarnation had given her. Maybe there was a way.
Kellie ran to where she kept the manuals her late grandfather had given to her for maintaining the bracelet. She began to flip though pages, until she found a section on troubleshooting and jerry-rigging. Kellie started reading it intensely. There had to be something here. There just had to be! Dakota’s life depended on it!