Juliet's heart stopped. She couldn't breathe. Her chest felt tight. Cancer? She blinked away tears. You are not going to cry, you are not going to cry, she kept repeating to herself.

"Breast cancer?" Shawn said as he squeezed Juliet's hand tighter.

"Yes." The doctor pulled out a black picture from his papers and put it up against the viewing box. "If you look here you can see that your ribs are intact, but if you look right here on your chest on the left side there is a dark, dense spot. That is possibly a breast cancer tumor."

Juliet just stared at the spot where his pen was hovering. That was her body with that tumor inside of it. How? Nobody in her family had ever had it. Why did she get it? How? When? Her boobs weren't even that big! How could this happen? She reached up to her chest and touched the spot where the dark spot was. She pushed down gently and felt a hard lump under her fingers. She quickly pulled her hand away and grabbed Shawn's hand again, only tighter this time.

Now it was Shawn's turn to hold back tears. Why Juliet? She was the greatest girl he'd ever known. She was his whole world. Why was she the one to get it? He knew she was strong, but he had heard the stories, and he knew being strong wasn't always enough.

"Would you like me to bring in the rest of your visitors?" the doctor asked, beckoning down the hall.

Juliet just nodded. He walked out and closed the door behind him.

"Shawn?" Juliet asked, trying, failing, at making her breath sound stable.

"Yes Jules?" Shawn was just now taking his head out of his hands.

"What am I going to do?"

"We're going to fight." He squeezed her hand. "I care about you, Jules. There is no way I'm letting you do this alone." He gave the back of her hand a quick kiss and forced a smile for her.

"Thank you, Shawn."

They stopped talking and looked up to Lassiter, Gus and Chief Vick walking in.

"Juliet!" Lassiter said when he saw her.

Everyone looked up at him. He never called her by her first name. Juliet was especially taken aback.

Gus cleared his throat, trying to brush over the sudden awkwardness. "What did the doctor say?"

Juliet looked at Shawn. She couldn't bring herself to say it. She thought that maybe if she didn't say it, it wouldn't be real and she would just wake up from this horrible dream and everything would be back to normal.

"She... uh..." Shawn stuttered, not knowing how to say it. "He thinks that she has… breast cancer."

The room got silent, except for a faint buzz coming from Juliet's IV machine.

How could this be happening?

Suddenly, Chief's phone started ringing, breaking the silence. "Yes... okay... okay, good... you know where to find me." She hung up her phone.

"Well, that was McNab. They found Carl."

"That low life scum su-" Lassiter started to say. He was mad! All he could think about was his partner laying on a hospital bed having just received devastating news, and it was all his fault! It wasn't fair! Juliet was like his little sister. He actually saw her more and was closer to her than he was Lou-Lou.

"Carlton!" Chief cut in, sharply. "This isn't Carl's fault!"

"If anything, we should be grateful for him." Gus said.

"What could possibly lead you to that conclusion?" Lassiter asked.

"Well, if you guys hadn't gotten hit, Juliet wouldn't have had trouble breathing, and they wouldn't have done the x-ray finding... it..." Gus said. "You could almost say you were lucky to get in that crash."

"I'm sorry!" Juliet said suddenly.

"Wait... what?" asked Chief.

"I'm sorry! It's my fault that you guys are here right now! You shouldn't have to be in the hospital with me right now, and it's my fault that you guys have this to think about. You shouldn't need to be worried about me!"

"Oh, Juliet!" Chief said. "There's nothing to be sorry about! This could happen to anyone, and it is not your fault at all."

"Juliet," Gus said, "Cancer is just a part of nature, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"You can't beat yourself up about this," Chief added.

There was a knock on the door and a nurse came in.

"Visiting hours are over, but you can come back tomorrow." Then she turned to Juliet. "The doctor has put in an order for you to stay here overnight, then he has scheduled an MRI and a biopsy in the morning to see what's what."

Juliet felt suddenly terrified. She was going to have to stay here all night, alone. "Can… Shawn stay?"

"Of course he may," said the nurse. "He will just need to come get authorized. We'll be back in about 15 minutes."

"Have a nice night Juliet," Gus said as they all filed out of the room.

"We'll come back when you are done tomorrow." Chief said.

"Shawn, can I talk to you for a minute?" Gus said, pulling him aside once they were in the hall. "Shawn, tell me how I can help you, because I have known you since we were 5 and the most serious thing you have ever dealt with was the death of your lizard when you were 12."

"Gus, I don't know what to do," Shawn said. "I'm going to have to be strong for her, but I have no idea how. Juliet is so strong and can deal with anything, and I'm not, yet I'm going to have to be the strong one."

"Listen, Shawn, this is going to be hard on everyone, especially Juliet. There is no way around it. Life sucks, and all we can do is pull through. Besides, we'll all be here -for both of you- as often as we can. You won't be doing this alone. I can promise you that."

"Thanks… So, I guess I will see you tomorrow?"

"Bright and early."


Juliet sat alone in her room. She listened to the faint buzz and beeps of her room. Now that she was alone, she realized how badly she needed a moment to herself. She needed a minute to think about what was happening.

I can't have cancer! she thought. Cancer is for other people, not me. Isn't cancer just supposed to be a story that you hear about?

No one in her family had ever gotten cancer, so why her?

She felt a tear run down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. She was not going to cry! If she cried, she would be letting it win and she was not going to do that!

The door opened again and Shawn walked back in wearing a white bracelet.

"All set!" he said, forcing a smile. "Where should I sleep?" he added, this time with a real and playful grin.

"I don't know!" Juliet said, letting out a sigh and playing along. "Gee, it's kinda cold in here!"

Shawn slipped next to Juliet in the hospital bed. He pulled the stiff bed sheet over their legs. She rested her head on his chest and smiled up at him.

"Goodnight, Jules," Shawn said, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Goodnight, Shawn," Juliet replied just before going to sleep.