Chapter Text
Fili was listening on the lecture about taxation of charity organisations, and he was dead tired. He loved his studies and he loved his future profession, but many aspects of taxation were really boring.
Dori one of the most liked professors was talking about the importance of using the privileges of deducing charitable donations from costs, and Fili generally did agree to the idea as such, he wasn’t at all enthusiastic about it.
“I understand many of you have not had any financial trouble in your lifetime.” The older professor faced the people in the lecture hall. “I understand many of you have never met a terminally ill person, or suffered from serious illness. These laws were appointed for a reason, the reason begin helping others is a bit more important. The authorities give these privileges to spur the charity organisations to help those who cannot help themselves. But no matter how much money you have, you cannot buy the one true value in life – health and life.”
Dori turned to the screen and began showing pictures of children in one of the cancer programs, then he flipped to wildlife programs and educational programs. “There are many things to chose from, many of these organisations do not ask for money, but for your time and hands on help. Some need money to buy medical equipment or pay for operations. Some loonies even try to buyout the Amazon rainforest in order to assure a better future for our planet. I’m just asking all of you, in your own conscience, does it cost you anything to help in a dog shelter a few hours once a week? Or to give blood or bone marrow?”
He stopped talking and put on the last slide for the lecture. “Your homework – in what ways can modern business help charities, and is there a profit to it? I want you to look into taxation, but also the humane side of the problem. Thank you for today.”
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“You look a bit pale, are you sure you should be drinking?” Gimli asked Fili a bit worried and took away the beer from Fili.
“Just a bit tired after yesterday.” Fili smiled, but deep inside he wasn’t really feeling well.
“You know what, maybe you should get some sleep, we can play pool another night.” Dain noticed.
“Yeah that sounds like a good idea...” Fili grunted and walked to his room, in the posh house they were renting.
But the next day he wasn’t feeling better at all.
“I’ve made you some breakfast...” Eomer pushed at him a plate with food.
“I’m not hungry...” Fili complained.
“Eat at least a bit...” Dain insisted and they watched him until he finally ate something.
“Stay home today... I’ll take notes for you.” Gimli assured him and urged him to go back to bed.
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When Gimli came home Fili was still tired and in bed. Soon it became a norm, Fili was tired despite not doing much, he seemed dizzy, but no matter how much the boys insisted he didn’t see anything alarming in it.
Finally Dain had enough.
“Thorin?” Dain called Fili’s uncle. “Yeah, it’s been a while... No I’m not calling about the training in your company. We need to talk about Fili... Well I’m not really sure what’s wrong, but he’s acting strange recently... No, not like hangover drunk, or on drugs, more like he’s not feeling well... It’s been like five - six weeks, he isn’t drinking, he’s spending most time resting, he can’t seem to focus on his studies, and well mainly he’s saying he’s not feeling well... Yeah we’ve been suggesting he goes to the doctor’s but he doesn’t seem to realise something is wrong... He’s pretending it’s all fine, but there is a huge difference. He doesn’t play football or tennis anymore, he’s always tired and nauseous, he lost his appetite... the list is really long... Yeah that would be great!” Dain agreed.
“So?” Gimli asked impatiently.
“He’s going to come and drag Fili to a good doctor.” Dain smiled at his friends, but he could easily see the worry on their faces.
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Thorin had a huge battle with Fili about going to the doctor’s, but after a really long fight, Fili gave in just for the sake of making Thorin shut up about it.
“I’m fine...” Fili grunted as they drove to Elrond’s clinic.
“Well you certainly don’t look fine!” Thorin hissed. “You lost weight, and you look like you haven’t slept in weeks, and what they boys said you sleep all the time...”
“I’m just a bit anaemic... that’s all...” Fili noticed.
“Let’s pray to Mahal that’s all...” Thorin grunted, feeling increasingly worried with every minute.
As they waited for the visit, the worry in Thorin was growing. He loved Fili, he was his closest relative, the last of his kin. He did have some distant family, but he raised Fili since childhood and the whole notion that Fili might be ill was worrying him gravely.
“Please come in.” Elrond asked them into the office. After many standard examinations, blood pressure, eyes, weight and height. Elrond asked for the symptoms. Thorin gave him a list of this the three house mates told him, and soon Fili added a few more. Like blood from gums. Easy bruising and headaches. With every minute Elrond seemed more and more concerned.
“You’re staying here with us, we need to do some blood tests and other physical tests. You’ll have a visit with a cardiologist and neurologist.” Elrond made the call.
“I’m not staying...” Fili began but under Thorin’s cold glare he stopped.
“Of course he’s staying.” Thorin nodded. “I’ll bring some of his things.”
“The nurse will show you to your room in a few minutes, please stay here.” Elrond told them, and Thorin’s keen eyes noticed the note on the blood test sheet in red Elrond wrote ‘URGENT’.
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The next weeks were hell. Elrond’s grim glare told Thorin it wasn’t just anaemia, or something trivial. But the diagnosis was stunning. Chronic granulocytic leukaemia. Fatal in the accelerated phase. The first treatment was drugs, but tyrosine-kinase inhibitors did not work. They checked the whole family for the bone marrow transplant, but no one was a match, so finally Elrond began chemotherapy. And he told them to pray a match would be found in the American Bone Marrow database.
“It’s not so easy.” Elrond gasped when Thorin cornered him. “He’s got 0 rh - , which is one rarest blood group. He can give his blood to anyone, but he can only receive blood from people with the exact same group. Do you know how many people we’ve got registered for blood donors with that group?”
Thorin just shook his head.
“Eleven. In the whole US, we’ve got eleven blood donors with that blood type. But do you know what’s the real catch?” Elrond continued. “We need a bone marrow transplant, not a blood transfusion. The donor has to have the same blood group, and at least thirty HLA markers. Now do you know how many markers does Fili share with those eleven donors?” His voice was strained. “No more than fifteen... that means the marrow will be rejected.”
“So what are we going to do?” Thorin was dead scared.
“We’re searching internationally and worldwide. I’ve marked him as an urgent case, so all hospitals with patients with his blood group will try to contact their patients. Meanwhile we’re not giving up on chemotherapy and we pray!” Elrond gasped.
“Is there anything I can do? I can pay...” Thorin was in tears.
“No money can pay for what your nephew needs. Just pray and try to keep him up, positive thinking can do miracles.” Elrond advised.