Yup. Back… in all sorts of ways.
When we first found out that Lilith was sick, Jamie and I were too. That crud that’s been going around ever since the year started? It nailed Jamie in January, then me in February. And somewhere in between, Lilith had lymphoma. Coughing and post-nasal-dripping, we dragged her all over town, looking for a way to stop her pain.  And a way to deal with ours. To our disbelief, it seemed to work.
We’ve spent the last few months chasing and wrestling with Lilith, dragging her out from under our futon, our closet, or the bed to wrap her up in a towel and ram pills down her throat. The more effective the pills were, the harder it got. That part, you already know.
So it’s April now. The crud, or something like it, hit us again like a freight train. Jamie was down for days. Once she got back up, it slammed my ass into the ground. I’ve had it for a week. Exhausted. Wheezing. Rest and liquids, squeezing in scriptwriting duty while the energy comes to me in drips and drabs, have been my whole life for several days.
And what happens while we’re so tired, so damn weary that we literally crash into bed? Lilith is in trouble again. The lymphoma is back, only now it’s… expanding the bridge of her nose.  Her eyes water.  Her nose oozes the same flesh-colored junk. It’s back and it’s worse.
We’re practically strapped to the wheel of pain, fer crissakes. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s too much drama. But damn it, I’m tired. The weariness goes down to the heartmeat core. I knew her disease was going to return sooner or later, that it was going to win somehow. But did it have to be like this… when we’re all running on fumes, feeling that we’ve been going around, tracing the same ouroborus path, back to the end and starting again, left to wonder what was the point?
Strange thing, though. When we were first confronting Lilith’s mortality, the knowledge torn us apart. Jamie and I talked and talked, going over the same ground for days, uncertain about… everything. We weren’t sure if we’d done enough or whether we’d done the right things.  Now, three months later, we already know the outcome. Jamie might feel the pressure, I’m not sure. But I certainly don’t. I feel sad of late, but rock solid accepting. We know what to do; and that there isn’t much else we can do. We don’t have any doubts. I’m not sure whether we even have room for regret.
Actually… I think we do. We don’t want Lilith to go away.
But she will. We took the time to deal with that. And now we deal with it again.
Her time is almost up. It’ll be soon.
Maybe today.