She shifted in her seat. “My back. Man, they gave me the shots in my lower back, but my whole spine feels like it’s crumbling.”

“What kind of shots?”

They passed by a supermarket. Andrew had been planning to grab some food on the way home to make for dinner. That would have to wait.

“Lots of stuff with names I can’t remember.”

Kate opened the window, face tilted up toward the incoming breeze.

“How many shots?”

She’d had shots for her lupus before. Because her stomach had such a hard time metabolizing medication, especially the types of meds designed to treat lupus, she was often given an entire month’s dosage in a couple of injections.

But never in her back.

“Dr. K said eight, but it felt like a hundred.”

He opened his mouth but found he couldn’t find the right words to say.

She cried for a moment, turning away from the car next to them when they stopped at a light. “The best part is, he said it’s going to hurt for weeks. He gave me something to knock me out today, but after that, it’s just ice packs and pray for it to end.”

Andrew desperately wanted to take the pain away, even if it meant doubling it for himself. He never got used to seeing her like this. A sympathetic twinge in his back forced him to move up in his seat. He could only imagine what it was like for her.

“You at least feeling a little groggy now?” he asked.

She nodded, wiping away her tears.

“I’ll get you all set up when we get home. You want to be in the living room or the bedroom?”

“Living room.”

“You got it. I’ll make a bag of ice for your back.”

“Not now. I just want to sleep while I can.”

“Okay.”

“But have that ice ready. I think I’m going to need it when I wake up.”

They turned off Route 9, leaving the endless array of strip malls behind.

Andrew saw that she was getting very sleepy. Her eyelids drooped, her head rolling liquidly with each turn. Before she went out entirely, he asked, “Why did they give you eight shots in the back?”

Staring straight ahead, she said, “It was that or chemo. I’m beginning to wonder if I made the right choice.”

With that, she closed her eyes and fell silent.

Chemo.

Christ.

* * *

Four hours later and Kate was still asleep. That was a good thing. Let her sleep through the worst of it…if today was indeed the worst of it. Andrew had a sinking feeling it wasn’t.