Sugar Crash by Elena Aitken

her back up, Darci kept singing and bopping her shoulders along with the beat.
    A moment later, she was rewarded with Taylor's voice, thin at first, but quickly up to full power.
    Darci turned and saw the huge grin on her daughter's face. Together they finished the song, shoulder dancing wildly, and singing into Taylor's microphone-fist. There had never been a stronger mother-daughter duo of Abba's classic and by the time Darci pulled up to the hospital doors, they were both smiling and laughing.  
    "Feel better?" Darci asked when they got back to Taylor's room.
    Taylor nodded.
    "Like I always say, there's nothing to put a smile on your face like a little Mama Mia and some shoulder grooving." Darci bopped her shoulders once more and Taylor laughed.  
    "It's true," Taylor said. "Nothing makes a sucky day better like Abba."  
    Darci smiled and said, "I'm really sorry you had to come back here, kiddo." She pulled her daughter into a tight hug and squeezed hard.
      "I know." Taylor returned the hug. "Thanks for tonight, Mom."  
    "Hey, I'm glad we went. You played hard tonight."
    Taylor gave her mom a squeeze and stepped back. "Thank you for the game, too," she said. "But I meant, thank you for..."
    "For Abba?" She finished for her.
    "Yeah, for Abba." Taylor's smile lit up her face.  
    "Did I hear somebody say, Abba?" Doctor Wilson came in the room. "That's more my generation, don't you think? Shouldn't you be listening to some puffy girls or something?"  
    They all laughed, and Taylor launched into a discussion about all her favorite bands. Abba made the top of the list.  
    "I'm surprised you're still here," Darci said to him when Taylor went into the bathroom to change.
    "I wanted to make sure our little star did okay tonight, so I thought I'd hang around."
    Darci's gaze flicked to the closed bathroom door. "You didn't think she'd be okay?"
    "Oh, no," Doctor Wilson said. "I knew she'd play fine, I was a little worried about how she'd handle coming back here instead of going home. But, it seems I had no reason to be concerned. You're both handling all this very well."  
    Darci felt like a fake. She wasn't handling any of it well. For the last few nights, she'd laid in bed crying herself to sleep. She wanted to run away screaming whenever she saw a needle, and the fact that this horrible disease was affecting her child, was consuming her with guilt. She wanted to tell Doctor Wilson that. Instead, she nodded and tried to smile.  
    "Well, I think she should be able to go home in another day or so and you both can work on getting your lives back to normal," he said. "I know it can't be easy trying to balance work with a child in the hospital, plus everything else you have to take care of."
    Work?  
    Oh no, she'd forgotten all about the staff meeting. Darci looked at the clock on the wall. Ten after eight. Felicity was going to kill her. Or fire her. Either way...
    She tried not to let her panic show on her face. The doctor didn't need to know the truth - that Darci really wasn't handling anything well at all.  
    She swallowed her fear and somehow managed not to yank her cellphone out of her bag and check messages until after she'd said goodnight to Taylor and left her in the capable hands of the nurses.  
    It was almost nine by the time she walked outside the hospital doors into the crisp night air and looked at her phone.  
    Two missed calls.  
    Crap.  
    She dialed her voicemail.  
    "First message," the computerized voice said.  
    Monica's voice came through the phone. "Darci, just wondering where you are. Felicity wanted me to call and remind you that the staff meeting was supposed to start five minutes ago. We're all waiting for you."
    She hit the button to delete and listened to the next one.  
    "Second message."
    "Darci, it's Felicity. Be at the store first thing in the morning. I've made some changes we need to discuss."
    Darci pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. Changes? Her mind raced with