The next day Neil walked in to the office, feeling like a weight had been lifted. He called his team together and told them everything. Jake had leukaemia, but they had just found out that he was in remission. The prognosis was good. He was going to get better.
As he told them this he looked over at Grace, trying to silently apologise for keeping it a secret from her, but he was shocked when he saw the dark shadows under her eyes, eyes that had lost their sparkle. She looked at him with an expression that showed both betrayal, and what looked like envy, but Neil dismissed that straight away. Why would she be envious of him having to go through that?
After his announcement Grace, who was feeling fairly emotional, quietly walked over to Terry and asked if she could talk to him in private. Terry agreed and they went and sat in the briefing room, where he sat down and Grace started pacing up and down as words started flowing out of her mouth.
"Terry," she started, "I have grown to think of you as a brother that I never had, and I really need to confide in you about something, but I need you to swear that you'll keep it to yourself."
Terry nodded, and said, "Is Max pestering you again?" but Grace shook her head, indicating the negative, before she continued.
"I'm not an only child, as everyone assumes. My parents had me when they were fairly young, and seven years ago my mum fell pregnant with my little sister, Anita. She was their miracle baby and she is absolutely beautiful. But two years ago, she was diagnosed with leukaemia. She hasn't ever recovered or gone into remission, it's just gradually got slightly worse. Then at the end of last week I got a phone call from my mum. They'd had to take Annie to hospital because her condition had suddenly deteriorated. She can't leave the hospital, and so every night I am leaving here at 5pm, I sit with her all night whilst my parents get some sleep and then at 5am I go home, have a shower, get changed, and come into work. It's bad Terry," she sobbed, a single solitary tear slowly starting to trickle down her cheek. Terry leant forward and grabbed one of her hands to try and comfort her as she looked at him and said, "I'm just waiting for that call now that says that I need to go and say… say… goodbye."
And with that the tears that had started welling up in her eyes started flowing freely, and Terry pulled her to him in a tight hug. Now he understood why Grace was so upset when Neil told them about his son earlier. A small part of it may have been disappointment and betrayal that he hadn't told her, but it was probably mainly that Neil got to keep his son, whilst her sister was slipping away.
After a few minutes Grace pulled away, wiping her eyes.
"Thanks Terry," she said quietly, "I needed to tell someone."
Terry nodded, "And you know that I'm here for you okay? You can call me any time you want. After all, what are brothers for?"
Grace nodded, closed her eyes briefly to regain her sense of control, and then in a stronger tone of voice said, "Right, back to work then."