Christian entered his home at 5:00 on the dot. Christian smelled the air. Christian looked around and then smelled the air again. This was weird. There was no food cooking. AJ always made a big deal about him having a home cooked meal and there was no food.

"AJ!" Christian called out but there was no answer. Christian's heart started to beat fast. AJ always answered when he called. Panic arose in Christian. Christian went to the kitchen to see if AJ left a note but there was none. Christian walked into the living room and let out a sigh of relief. His AJ was asleep on the couch. Christian walked over to AJ. He was going to wake him to tell him he was at home but as he got closer he saw stains on his face. Christian quickly realized the stains were tearstains. His AJ had been crying. He would figure out why when he woke up. Christian picked up AJ bridal style and carried him upstairs to the bedroom. He laid AJ down on the bed and he laid next to AJ. He was determine to know what made his AJ sad as soon as he woke up.

AJ woke up from his cry-induced sleep. He noticed that he was in the bed. AJ could have sworn he fell asleep on the couch.

Great. I'm already staring to forget the little things.

"AJ you up?" AJ stiffened. Christian was home and he hadn't even found a way to tell him about the Dementia.

"Yeah baby I'm up." AJ said, turning over to look at Christian. Christian was looking at him with those concerned eyes.

"What?" AJ asked playfully.

"Why were you crying?" Christian was blunt and to the point. There was no point in beating around the bush.

"Crying?" AJ played dumb.

"You had tearstains on your cheeks and your eyes are red."

"Oh yeah." AJ turned away from Christian. "It's my allergies." That was the first lie that came to AJ's mine.

"Honey." Christian started. "You don't have allergies."

"Now I do." AJ said.

"AJ."

"What? I have allergies now." AJ said, still not looking at Christian. Christian noticed this and grabbed AJ's chin and made him look up at him.

"AJ, why were you crying?"

AJ looked up into Christian's eyes and couldn't control his emotions. The tears started to fall again. AJ started to cry very hard. Christian pulled AJ into his arms.

"Oh Christian." AJ said in between tears. Christian rubbed AJ's back.

"Baby whatever is wrong I can help you with it but you have to tell me." AJ pulled away from Christian and wiped his eyes. AJ closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again.

"I'm sick Christian." AJ revealed.

"How sick?"

"I have." AJ took a deep breath. "I have Dementia."

"AJ." Christian said shocked. He was expecting Cancer but Dementia. "How do you know?"

"For the past seven months, I have been going to doctors. After dad died, my memory got worst. At first I thought it was just depression from the grieving but it got worst. So I have been going to the doctors. My last doctor finally diagnosed me with Dementia, Early On Set Dementia."

"Seven months."

"I know. I hid it from you because I didn't want you to worry, just in case it wasn't anything. I'm sorry Christian." AJ hung his head low.

"Don't be sorry."

"No Christian. I am sorry. I'm sorry I won't be able to give you the one thing you wanted." Tears started to fall down AJ's face. "I don't want you to feel like you are obligated to take care of me because it is going to get worst. This isn't curable. If you want to put me in one of those homes, it fine I would blame you."

"AJ." Christian said angrily. "Is that what you think of me? You think I'm just going to throw you in a home and not take care of you. If I have to rearrange my whole life to take care of you, I will. Nothing is more important than you. I meant what I said. I took a vow. In sickness or health, for better or worst, til death do us part. As far as the thing I want the most, adoption is always and option."

"Who will let us adopt a child? The mom has dementia and the dad is a workaholic. The perfect family." AJ laughed and wiped his eyes. "Are you really going take care of me?"

"Til death do us part." Christian said again. AJ reached over Christian and grabbed the phone. "What are you doing?"

"I have to call my doctor."

"Would your doctor happen to be a woman?"

"Yea. How did you know?"

"A woman called the house this morning."

"Oh yeah that was her." "Oh hi Jamie…yeah he knows…tomorrow let me ask him." AJ looked over a Christian. "Can you come to her office tomorrow?"

"Yeah babe."

"Yeah he can come…ok see you tomorrow." AJ hung up the phone. "That's that."

"Hey." AJ looked up at Christian. "I don't want you to stress your self over this. I'm here for you. No more hiding stuff ok."

"Ok." AJ said. "Have you eaten?"

"No I went straight to sleep."

AJ clicked his tongue. "This won't do. Dinner will be done in thirty."

Christian pulled up to the doctor's office.

"Jamie is your doctor."

"Yeah. I thought I told you that."

"No you didn't but it's ok." The couple exited the car and walked in to the building. AJ grabbed Christian's hand as they walked down the hall. The hallway to Heaven AJ had named it.

Christian knocked on the door. They heard a come in from behind and the duo entered the room.

Jamie stood up and went over to the two. "Mr. Reso, it has been awhile."

"Yes it has Jamie. I see you are doing well."

"On count of you of course but sit. I do not wish to keep you guys long."

AJ and Christian both sat on the other side of the desk that Jamie was sitting on.

"So I know you have many questions so I'm going to try and explain this as best I can for you two." Jamie started. When she didn't get a response, she continued. "Dementia is a loss of cognitive abilities, or how they process the information. This causes the person to not remember things or be able to learn new things. This is also psychological so the person my forget how to feel in certain situations. They may not be able to reason either. Since AJ is so young, his Dementia is more than likely genetic. I would suggest you trace your family history to see if anyone had dementia or a neurological disorder. The reason why I took so many test was because dementia has many symptoms of other diseases so I had to make sure." Jamie stopped for a breath.

"I stressed the fact that Christian had to know because there are test that he will have to take as well. The IQCODE is a test that a close person takes to report on the progress of the patient. The GPAOC is a test that the both of you take to see the disease progression of the patient as well."

"Along with the loss of cognitive abilities, as time goes on you will be in pain. I do not know if the pain will be severe like in older patients but you will more than likely be in pain. As time goes on, it will be hard for you to communicate with Christian but when you are hurting, you need to find away to say something to Christian. If you are in pain, you could slip into depression and that is the last thing we want you to be in."

"There are many medicines out there. I'm going to prescribe you Cognex, Aricept, Razadyne, Exelon, and Namenda to treat the dementia and Vicodin to help with the pain. As time goes on, I may need to give you some antidepressants but that's only if you need them. Any questions?"

"How long do I have to live?" AJ asked.

"It really depends on the person. I had a patient that only lived for 4 years. I have one that has been living with dementia for 25 years. It really depends in your will to live and how you take your meds but on average people with dementia live in between 10-14 years. You are young. I believe you can make the 25 year mark."

AJ smiled. "Thanks for the faith."

"No problem. If you go to the pharmacy downstairs, they have your meds already. Start taking them tomorrow as directed on the bottle. If you have any questions, day o night, you call me."

"I will."

AJ and Christian left her office and went to the pharmacy. The pharmacist handed Christian a big bag of medicine and they walked out the door.

When the couple finally arrived at home, they immediately fell into bed.

"I have to tell ma tomorrow."

"Ok. We'll take the jet to Georgia tomorrow morning."

Thanks for reading

YoominC16