Stanley had a complicated relationship with his family. Overall there were lots of regrets, anger and heartbreak where that’s concerned but in simplified terms: he burned bridges with his mother, never even constructed one with his younger sibling and as for his father that relationship was the victim of orbital bombardments long before even he realized. It only took around 15 years on his part for him to understand the veritable bottomless chasm he almost fell into trying to gain that man’s approval.

So yeah with that glowing review of the state of his familial relations one might think that it wasn’t complicated at all. But oh that was only three for four and the complications came in when one examines his relationship with the fourth member because unlike the rest Stanley actually has a good relationship with Natalie. A good relationship albeit a distant one but it was not due to any fault of his own, at least not deliberately.

Natalie understood him like none of the others did including the understanding that he can only tolerate someone intruding on his life in small doses. Plus she has her own life that Stanley certainly does not intrude upon so the understanding is mutual. The results of this mutual understanding culminates in infrequent calls and texts every other month (on special occasions, holidays and such) and the once-in-a-blue-moon-visitation on her part. It is a distant relationship to be sure, especially for the only family member who he can tolerate, but one that works for them.

‘God dammit Nat’ Stanley thought as he sat by her unconscious body.

It was also a relationship he realized he took for granted or so he thought while looking through the history of their correspondence. He’s been wrapped up in so many things as of late that he completely failed to notice a drop off in the frequency of messages from her. Said messages aren’t even personalized but just some throwaway quotes people mass send to their entire call library. It was with a start that Stanley realized he hasn’t actually spoken to or even really communicated with her in almost a year.

That was bad but it wasn’t as if their last encounter had gone horribly wrong either. At least he didn’t think so but something must have been wrong since they haven’t had a proper conversation for almost a year and the next time he sees her she’s being rushed to the hospital. Thanks to the whole fiasco with Ezraphel Stanley has taken to reevaluating his relationship with other people and it can very much be said that he could have made more effort to reach out to her.

On the other hand it wasn’t as if Natalie was blameless in all this. Especially after what Dr. Harrison told him.

‘Cancer’ Stanley thought while massaging his brow ‘of all things it just had to be fucking cancer.’

Natalie has cancer which was the cause of her sudden collapse and subsequent rush to the hospital earlier that day. It wouldn’t have been so bad if this was the first offence but that wasn’t the case because it turns out Natalie has been aware of her affliction for over a year now. The reason why she eventually stopped making contact with him was because she found out she had leukemia and started doing treatment with the goal of total remission.

Unfortunately the treatments aren’t working anymore and she’s now gone terminal. Dr. Harrison estimates that she has a few months without more treatment but a year with more treatment. The man was kind enough to tell him that he explained as much to Natalie already in a conversation they had a little over a week ago. This included spots for clinical trial which she signed up for of course though with how many people are on that list it will be a miracle if she manages to get through.

After receiving this information there was a lot of things he wanted to say. None would be tolerated in a hospital setting nor would they be deserved by present company. So instead of making a scene Stanley opted to sit his ass down on the available chair in the room and simply wait. He planned to wait out this coma either until she wakes up, visitation hours end or (by some machinations of that bastard Murphy) the rest of their family showed up.

A cursory glance at the time told him it has been several hours since he arrived which means that this secret was one his sister was keeping very close to the chest. He figured the fainting spell wasn’t exactly part of the plan so to speak and unfortunately for her she gave the hospital his information as her emergency contact.

‘And to think if this didn’t happen then there might be a good chance that I’d be seeing her in a morgue’ he morbidly mused to himself.

Said musing was interrupted by movement. It wasn’t the first time but unlike the others the movement persisted and upon seeing her eyes fluttering he…did nothing. As much as his first instinct was to stand up and hover over her to make sure she was alright and that the first thing she saw was a friendly face Stanley’s very tight control lingered. So he instead watched as she slowly came to, stared at the ceiling for a bit and audibly sighed before reaching for something.

She seemed to know what she was doing because a moment later she picked up what looked like a remote and pressed a button. Faintly Stanley heard a buzzer and he guessed that thing was used to call for a nurse, he forgot what the name was. Not that it mattered because Natalie finally seemed to register his presence in the corner and looking very much confused (and a bit perturbed) by his presence she asked the obvious question.

“Uh, hello?”

“…” Stanley said nothing as he glared at her.

“…okay I’ll bite” she said after a moment of silence which he refused to break “who are you?”

Stanley pursed his lips as his eyes narrowed before he realized ‘I keep forgetting I look different now.’

Not that he really cared.

“Been that long you don’t recognize me anymore?”

Her face scrunched at the name as she scrutinized him before her eyes widened in incredulity “Stan?”

Stanley lounged even further back into the chair with both hands draped over the hand rests before flopping them up “sup.”

Natalie almost recoiled as she scrutinized him further, giving him a once over before speaking “you look…different.”

Any other time he would have reveled in her shock but not this time.

In response he sneered “and you look like shit but I guess cancer will do that to you.”

Natalie recoiled in shock and a hint of nervousness broke through expression as she summed up her feelings in a single word “shit.”

“Yeah…”

Silence filled the room after his reply with Natalie unsure of how to proceed and Stanley willing to let her stew in the guilt and misery. It ended when the nurse arrived to check on Natalie’s condition. Eventually Dr. Harrison entered but Stanley remained seated and sequestered in his corner as he listened to their conversation. His expression was decidedly neutral and he made no comment throughout the brief conversation mostly because it wasn’t anything he hadn’t already heard before.

TLDR: Natalie fainted due to the symptoms of her cancer. She was going to be kept overnight for observation and testing. Depending on what they find or what happens in that time she will either be discharged with some meds or kept in the hospital for longer.

Once that was done Natalie thanked the doctor who clearly noticed the tension between them and quickly excused himself. And once again Stanley was alone with his sister who very much looked uncomfortable in the silence that was decidedly becoming awkward. Stanley himself gave nothing away even if his thoughts had once again becoming a roaring tempest he was very much trying to control.

Eventually Natalie decided to break the silence by gesturing to him “so new look? What’s that all about?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had Leukemia?”

The woman winced before closing her eyes and muttered “here we go. Can we not do this right now? I just woke up.”

“We could” Stanley nodded “but I’m not feeling very accommodating after my date was interrupted by a call from the hospital about my sister fainting-”

“…date?”

Ignoring her he continued “then I come down here and the doctor whose been your personal doctor for a year now tells me you have cancer and you’ve had cancer for a year now and even went through chemo…which fucking failed!”

“Wait-wait-wait back up!” she held up her hand “you had a date? You?” she once again emphasized.

That right there was the last straw as Stanley surged to his feet and yelled “TAKE THIS FUCKING SERIOUSLY! YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!”

That drained the fledgling levity that she’d try to build up and Natalie frowned at her brother.

For a long moment she looked him in the eye before shrugging “yeah looks like it.”

Stanley’s eyes narrowed “why didn’t you tell me?”

“You really want to know?”

In response Stan folded his arms ‘this ought to be good.’

Taking his action for what it was Natalie replied “you didn’t ask.”

That genuinely threw him for a loop and Stan gaped at the audacity “are you-”

“No shut up!” Natalie snapped “I found out I had Leukemia almost a year ago and I admit, I was scared but Dr. Harrison said I had a chance with chemotherapy so I said fuck it and went ahead with the procedure. I did it for months and pretty much dropped off the grid and during that time not even once did you even make an attempt to reach out to me.”

Stanley lost his indignance in that moment as he once again remembered the drop off of engagements between them.

Natalie gave a watery laugh at his expression “I wasn’t joking when I said I didn’t tell you because you didn’t ask. I’ve had friends check up on me, co-workers, even mom and Steph.”

Stanley flinched at her admission.

This time the unshed tears were starting to trickle down “but my one and only brother who’s supposed to have my back couldn’t even make a token fucking effort, the bare goddamn minimum of a call or text to check up on his big sis.”

Stanley’s hands dropped as Natalie’s words sunk in and for a moment he opened his mouth “that-”

That’s not fair.

“Y-you-”

You know how I am.

As if hearing his unsaid words she continued “and yeah I know how you are which is why I shouldn’t expect much but I really hoped that just this one time you’d pull your head out of your ass and stop acting like such a selfish shit heel” she flipped her arm up dismissively “my mistake.”

Once again Stan opened his mouth “I-” but before the words could be heard Natalie continued.

“I love you Stan, despite all your faults I really do. You’re my fucking brother but I needed an emotional rock and if you can’t even put in the effort to send a courtesy text why the hell should I tell you about this?”

“…”

Abruptly Stanley did an about face and left the room and while he did his enhanced hearing picked up Natalie’s next words.

“Yeah, I thought so.”

The parting shot practically nailed him in the heart yet he didn’t show anything beyond a neutral façade as he power walked into the nearest bathroom that was thankfully empty. Once inside Stanley quickly turned on the faucet and splashed his face in a bid to wash the salt from his eyes and disguise his tears. He did this multiple times for what must have been several minutes before gripping the edges of the counter. For several seconds Stanley took deep panting breaths.

He pointedly refused to look at his reflection for fear of punching the mirror because Stanley really despised himself right now. Stanley couldn’t even bring himself to make an argument to defend himself because what Natalie said was the truth, no questions about it. Despite claiming her to be the only family he really cared for it didn’t even cross his mind to check up on her. He could say at least part of that reason could be attributed to Ezraphel but that was a poor excuse. There is a high chance that even if Ezraphel hadn’t fallen into his life he would have been just as oblivious and uncaring.

He was so wrapped up in his own shit that other concerns fell to the wayside. Willful ignorance, that’s how it was and how it still is to a certain extent.

‘But that’s not how it always will be.’

Stanley didn’t want it to be like that going forward and this time he didn’t have any reservations or concerns with how it would affect his so-called idyllic life. The lifestyle he lived before Ezraphel showed up was truly dead and gone and this…this might just be the final nail in the coffin for it.

With a final deep breath he finally raised his head to look himself in the mirror. Thanks to his incubus physiology aside from his face being wet nothing else was amiss about him. He did not at all look like a man who has spent the last couple minutes crying.

‘Good’ he still had a reputation to maintain after all.

He didn’t know exactly what his next move was going to be. Stanley was just making it up as he went along but if there is one thing he was sure of it was that he wouldn’t apologize. He also wouldn’t spend any length of time feeling sorry for himself. He fucked up and he recognized that so he was going to own it.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror Stanley spoke out loud “don’t be sorry, be better.”

And with that quote from the God of War himself Stanley cleaned himself up and exited the bathroom.