I own nothing. More angst. Enjoy.


"Hey Nick," Chris said picking up the phone, "I thought you guys would have been home by now. Is everything alright?"

"No," I said slowly, "They found a tumor in Greg's brain. The doctor said that they had to do surgery."

"Oh," he said sighing, "Nick, I'm so sorry."

"They don't know if it's anything at all," I said quickly, "It might be nothing at all."

"I know," he said calmly, "Do you want me to bring Angel to the hospital?"

"I don't think it will be a good idea," I said shaking my head.

I didn't want to Angel to see Greg like that. From what I was told it tore her up when he was in the hospital after the lab blew up. I couldn't put either of them through that again.

"Trust me Nick," Chris said softly, "I wish I had brought Spencer to my doctor from the beginning. It will be for the best."

"Okay," I said sighing, "Bring her down. Just give us an hour okay?"

"Sure," he said quickly, "Trust me Nick. I went through the same thing with Spencer. It will all work out."

"Yeah," I said numbly, "See you in an hour."

I hung up the phone and turned back to the nurse. She smiled sympathetically and took the phone away from me. I tried to smile back and started to walk back to Greg's room.

The surgery was scheduled for tomorrow morning and both Greg and I were scared to death. Neither of us had been in a situation like this at any point in time. We didn't know what to do.

I wanted to ask Chris all about when he had his cancer and hopefully get some advice of how to handle it with Angel. The only problem was that Angel wasn't Spencer and I didn't know if we should try what worked on him.

"Did you call Chris?" Greg asked softly.

"Yeah," I said taking his hand, "He's bringing Angel and Spencer in an hour."

"What?" he said shocked, "I don't want Angel to see me like this."

"I think it's a good idea," I said slowly, "So does Chris. He told me that Spencer basically broke down while he was in the hospital and it would have been better if Spencer had known everything from the beginning instead of hearing anything at once."

"You should have asked me," he said angrily.

"You would have said no," I said shrugging, "I know you want to protect her, but she already knows what is going on. She deserves to know the rest."

"Fine," he said sighing.

"It will be fine Greg," I said squeezing his hand, "You'll be fine."

"I hope," he said kissing the back of my hand.

We lapsed into silence after that. I hated that all I was thinking about was what would happen to Angel if Greg didn't pull through. He had to. I couldn't lose Greg. I've only had him and Angel for a few years.

Greg must have been reading my mind because he pulled me closer to him and hugged me tightly. A sigh slipped from his lips before he made me look into his eyes. I didn't like what I saw.

"I want you to take care of Angel," Greg said softly, "If I don't make it out."

"You will," I said firmly.

"You don't know that," he said calmly, "Please, I need to know that Angel will go someplace that will take care of her."

I stared at Greg for a moment. I didn't want to answer him. It felt like if I told him Angel would be safe he wouldn't fight as hard as he would if Angel didn't have anywhere to go.

"Please," Greg said loudly, "Just give me that."

"Okay," I said nodding, "But you're not going anywhere."

"Nick," he said sighing.

"No," I yelled standing up.

"Papa," a tiny voice said behind me.

Turning around quickly I saw Angel standing at the doorway with Chris and Spencer. Her eyes were wide with shock. She had never heard me raise my voice to anyone before.

"Angel," I said taking a step closer to her.

Before I was able to do anything she took off down the hallway. Spencer was quick to follow her. I expected Chris to follow them, but he just walked into the room and sat next to Greg.

"Don't," Chris said as I started to leave the room, "Let Spencer take care of it. He'll help her more then any of us could."

"How do you know?" I asked confused.

"Because he's been there," he said sadly.

Chris looked sad as he looked at Greg laying in the bed. For the first time I realized that Chris held a troubled look in his eyes. He had been here before, expect it was him in the hospital bed.

I never really thought about how Chris had come so close to dying and Spencer came to losing his father. At the moment it made me even more glad that we had gone into that salon years ago.

Neither Chris nor Spencer ever talked about when Chris had cancer. It even took a lot to get Jenny to talk about it. Greg and I never had asked about it or the crash that had killed Spencer's mother.

"I was twenty-two," Chris said softly, "Lily had taken the car to pick up some milk for the pancakes. I would have gone, but Spencer had been up all night with a fever and I was taking care of him. It was really early in the morning, around five, I think. Lily said that some chocolate chip pancakes would make everything better. She always said that when one of us was sick.

After an hour of waiting I called my mom and had her come take care of Spencer. I went driving around until I found the wreck. Some rich guy was stumbling out of his car with barely a scratch on him. He kept yelling about how the lady had hit him and it was her fault. I could smell the alcohol on him from ten feet away. I snapped. I ended up putting him in the hospital and got arrested. Luckily I knew a good lawyer and I didn't hurt the guy too badly.

Anyway, Lily was dead on arrival. They said that she didn't feel anything, but I know that was a lie. Lily felt everything. Spencer fell and scrapped his leg Lily was crying right along with him. She was the rock holding the family together. When she was gone Spencer shut down. He wouldn't talk and would barely speak. I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked.

He went to a psychiatrist for awhile. After a few months we finally started to hear him talk again. Not much, but it was still something and I was so happy for that. Then I was diagnosed with cancer. That time it became worse. I didn't bring him to any of the doctors appointments and it was like he didn't exist for awhile. I found out he was running away from home when he was supposed to be sleeping.

I was so scared, but he always came home safely. Once I was out of the hospital though it didn't stop. That's why we moved to Texas. Spencer didn't feel safe anymore in that house or that city. So, that is what happened when I had cancer and when Lily died. Greg, I'm telling you this because I know you don't want Angel to see you like this, that it will break her, but not seeing you will hurt even more. You have to trust that when Angel has had enough she will tell you. Don't take that away from her like I did Spencer. She'll only think that the worst is happening."

I stared at Chris in wonder. I didn't know that he had gone through so much so quickly and I doubted that was the whole story. He must have left a lot out of how he felt and how Spencer had felt.

My eyes went to Greg and I saw tears in his eyes. I sat next to him and pulled him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his head in my stomach as tears soaked into my shirt.

"Papa," Angel said softly.

"Angel," I said matching her tone.

"You're not going to yell again?" she asked biting her lip.

"No Princess," I said sighing, "I'm sorry I scared you before."

"It's okay," she said nodding, "Spencer said you were mad at the situation. I guess that makes sense."

"Come here," Greg said patting the bed.

Angel smiled slightly and ran over to the bed. She climbed in and cuddled into Greg's side while grabbing my hand. I smiled back and kissed both Greg's and Angel's forehead.

I heard a chair scrape against the floor and saw Chris standing up and walking to Spencer, who had yet to walk into the hospital room. Spencer already looked like he was trying not to run away again.

They talked for a moment before Chris brought Spencer into the room and had him sit down. Spencer still don't like comfortable, but he wasn't going to run away anymore.

"Thanks Spencer," Angel said softly.

"No problem," Spencer said smiling.

Angel moved and pressed a kiss to Spencer's cheek before resting her head on Greg's chest once again. Chris, Greg, and I shared a smirk as we saw Spencer start blushing again.

"Spencer and I will go get some food," Chris said calmly.

"Chocolate chip pancakes," Spencer said back, "Mom said they were magic."