Beyond - Legends Cough

In memory of Elizabeth Gebhardt, January 26, 1933 to March 11, 2005. May you rest in peace.

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It?s funny, really. She?d survived a childhood on the streets of Corellia and grown up in the turmoil of the Galactic Civil War and it?s aftermath. She?d even survived six years running refugees and working as a fighter in Karrde?s mercenary army during the scarheads? invasion. She?d fully expected, during any of those times, to die horribly in some battle-related death.

But instead, she?s dying of a kriffin? disease.

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She hadn?t thought much of it at first. It was just a cough, after all, and it would go away soon enough. But it didn?t go away, and after three months of listening to the sound of her breath rattle around in her chest, Ghitsa made her go to the doctor. The doctor poked and prodded at her and ultimately told her to take a vacation.

?Can you believe him? ?Take a break, he says.? ?Relax, he says.? I have work to do and-?

Ghitsa gives her a sly look.

?Well, I could do with a vacation. Why don?t you take sick leave and we?ll go to Afaris and relax for a week or two??

Fen yells about the job and responsibility and all the important parts of life, but it doesn?t matter. Ghitsa cons her into it after a few days. After nearly forty years of working together, she knows which of Fen?s buttons to push and when. To be fair, though, Fen knows the same of Ghitsa.

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The vacation is very nice, and Fen can see how Afaris got its? reputation as paradise. But two weeks of doing nothing don?t improve her cough, and Ghitsa drags her to another doctor, ?Just to check on it, you know?.

This new doctor pokes and prods just as the other had, but whatever he sees worries him. He takes X-rays and blood-tests and scans her with strange devices with even stranger acronyms. He sends her home, though, and tells her to make another appointment in a weeks? time.

A week later, Ghitsa drags her in again, and the doctor takes her aside, leaving Ghitsa in the receptionist?s office. The look on his face is bad, and for the first time since she turned sixty, she feels afraid. She suddenly doesn?t want to know what?s wrong, and she?s right, she doesn?t.

The doctor tells her she is sick and she is dying and that there is no cure.

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It?s a lung disease, of all things. They call it pulmonary fibrosis, and they know what it does, but precious little else. Maybe it?s an auto-immune disease, like rheumatoid arthritis. Maybe it?s hereditary. Who knows? Sometimes it goes fast ? you?re diagnosed and wham, bam, slam, you?re dead in a year. Other times it goes slow ? little by little your chest become tighter and tighter, and your hands shake and your heart trembles. Bacta sprays will slow it, somewhat. Bacta isn?t a miracle cure, though, no matter what the Thyferrans say about it.

They tell her that space flight will be dangerous, because she needs a lot of oxygen and space is rather famous for lacking it. It?s this last thing that hurts her the most, because she?s been flying since she was ten and giving it up seems even worse than dying.

But she stops flying anyway, because she doesn?t want to die.

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Shada transfers Ghitsa and her to Corellia. Two old women in a bar are natural magnets for gossip, and in this way they can still work for a living. After three months, though, she finds herself going blue in the lip for lack of oxygen. Despite the odds, despite the bacta sprays, despite hope, she finds that she?s going fast.

Ghitsa buys her an portable oxygen rig, and they hook her up to it. It?s just a little box, attached to her chest and hooked into her lungs, but with it she can breathe. Still, she feels her own mortality as never before. It?s just plain embarrassing to have to depend on a machine to breathe for her.

Still, she carries on, but she doesn?t move much out of her bar chai

 

A wonderful chronicle of a strong will. My condolences.

 

Fen <3

Oh, sometimes it's just not fair how some people die, is it?

 

that was beautiful. my condolences on your loss.