There was a knock on the door. Zac scowled.
"Come in," he growled, and in came his assistant.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you," he said, "but we've just gotten a call from Jacinta about Hope."
Zac rested his head in his hand, the respective elbow leaning on the desk.
"Yes Josh?"
"Hope just collapsed during shooting. Jacinta's taken her to hospital."
"What? Which hospital?"
Josh told him and Zac was entering the hospital before he realised it.
"Mr Hanson?" asked a young woman.
"Jacinta?" Zac asked.
She nodded.
"How is she? Where is she?"
"In one of the private rooms, and that's the extent of my knowledge. I'm not family. They gave me these forms - I took the liberty to fill out what I knew. Now that you're here I'll go get the doctor who took care of her."
Zac nodded and sat down. He had finished filling out the last details when Jacinta returned with the doctor.
"Why did she collapse?" Zac demanded.
"I have some ideas, but I can't be sure until we do some tests. I've just been speaking to her, actually, to get an idea of how she's been feeling, eating habits, that sort of thing."
"She's awake now?" Jacinta asked.
"Yes. This way Mr Hanson."
Zac followed.
"So, what are some of these ideas?" Zac asked.
"At this stage it could be anything from a simple one off occurrence to diabetes, or even a brain tumour."
Zac stopped short.
"Brain tumour?" he repeated, wide eyed.
"Yes… something uhh… wrong?"
"Her mother died of a brain tumour," Zac replied quietly.
"Oh."
Soon they reached Hope's room and Zac went in, smiling at her.
"Hey Hope. How you doing?"
"I'm fine now," she smiled, giving him a hug.
However, when the final diagnosis came, Zac thought he was going to cry. A brain tumour was exactly what it turned out to be.
"I lost Cassie to a brain tumour," he sobbed as Kelsey hugged him. "I don't wanna lose Hope the same way!"
"Who would?" Kelsey asked. "I'm sure everything is going to work out. They found it when it was small and they… they have better technology than when Cassie was alive."
"Oh, yeah, and that's meant to make me feel better?"
"No, it's meant to show you reason - that Hope can, and will, survive."
Zac refused to be consoled and rolled over in the bed. Kelsey sighed. The whole mess might not have been so bad if the media hadn't found out. But someone had leaked and now they all knew. Different family members had been jumped a few times by nosy reporters, a number of whom had done their homework about Hope's mother.
Hope got exasperated one day. The reporter had, in an effort to get some attention, blurted out "Are you going to die like your mother did?" Hope stared at her with a furious glare that none, or at least extremely few, had ever seen on her face before.
"Are you going to die like your mother did?" she demanded. "Listen here, punk, get a life and leave me the heck alone before I shove your head in a blender going at high speed. I've put up with you morons long enough. If you don't stop hassling me, I'm going to get restraining orders on the lot of you!"
And on that note, she turned on her heel and stormed into the studio.