A months since her admission, Stephanie met with Paul and they went to meet with Dr. Meyers at the hospital. They scheduled another MRI and CT Scan to see if there has been any signs of improvement. If so, the plan was for her to be released from the hospice and to get treatment at home.

After spending an entire day at the hospital, she was cleared to be released and returned to the hospice.

"I wish there was a way for me to just sneak in and spend the night here with you to comfort you."

"It is what it is, right?" Stephanie asked sadly. She hugged him tightly and gave him a kiss. "I'll see you in a few hours." Paul reminded her. Stephanie displayed half a smile and nodded. "I love you. Tell the girls I miss them and love them." Stephanie reminded him. "I will." He replied.

They said their goodbyes and he went back home. Stephanie walked through the doors and noticed how quiet and eerie it was. Everyone must have been inside. The staff welcomed her back and continued to work. Stephanie walked over to her room but before entering she noticed the light was on. Strange. She thought. She could have sworn her light was off all day. She walked up to the door and grasped onto the doorknob. She held her breath and very quietly she twisted it and pushed the door open just a little. Slowly she opened it more only to see Ryan waiting for her.

"Jesus, Ryan you scared the hell out of me!" she scolded him quietly. "I'm sorry. Sorry. I was waiting for you to return." He explained. "Well I can see that!" she continued. "Would you just close the door and get in here before we get in trouble!" he told her as he pulled her in and closed the door. "Get in trouble? What the hell did you do?" she asked him with much confusion. Ryan walked over to the small fridge that she had in her room and took out two small plates with something she hadn't seen in a while: chocolate cake.

"Ryan, what did you do? Steal this?" she asked with a smile. "Not really. We aren't really allowed to have anything sweet at this hour. So shush before someone hears us." He said and handed her a plate and a spoon. "So you snuck it in my room. Gee, thanks. I hope you own up and take the blame when we get caught." Stephanie joked. "Not when. If. The key word is if. As in, 'If you stop talking to loudly, we won't get caught'." Ryan joked. Stephanie looked at him unamused for his joked. "Okay fine." She replied. "Good. Come on, dig in." he said excitedly but before he could even cut his piece of the cake, Stephanie asked what the reason was for him bringing cake and waiting all day until her arrival to eat it.

"Well," he began and put his plate down. "It's my birthday."

Stephanie's jaw dropped. "And you were just going to eat it without even telling me?" she exclaimed. Ryan debated on how to answer that. "Well… I was going to tell you. After we ate it." He said. "Well you aren't eating it yet." She informed him. She went through her nightstand and took out her tablet. After turning it on, Stephanie looked through the app store and downloaded a specific app.

"No birthday is complete without singing the song and having candles on the cake." She reminded him and turned her tablet over to show a birthday cake with candles on it. Stephanie sang the birthday song and Ryan laughed and hid his face in his hands. After she finished, she told him to make a wish and blow the candles. He thought for a while about what to wish for before smiling at her and blowing out the digital candles on the tablet. Stephanie cheered and put away the tablet before finally sinking her teeth into that piece of chocolate cake.

"So what did you wish for?" she asked. "Can't say or it won't come true." Ryan reminded her. "That's true. Is it at least realistic like asking for a toy?" she asked. "Yes." He laughed. The two finished eating their cake before talking for a while.

"So where did you go?"

"I went to see my doctor. I had to do an MRI and CT Scan to see if there has been any changed with the tumor. I'm crossing my fingers that with all that chemotherapy, it's shrunk a little." Stephanie explained. "Well I have faith that you'll be better in no time." Ryan said.

Just then, a pain ran down her right arm. Stephanie held her arm and Ryan asked if she was okay. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. That was strange. Not sure where that came from." She explained. "Maybe I better get the nurse." He suggested. Stephanie shook her head. "No. I'll be fine. It must have just been from the tests today. Probably just the stress from today." She explained. Worried and concerned, Ryan sat closer to her on the bed. "Are you sure you're okay? I can just ask the nurse to come and take a look." He said again. "Ryan, I'm fine!" she said with anger. He backed away and felt uncomfortable. He grabbed the paper plates and threw them away before wishing her goodnight and leaving to return to his room.

The next morning, Stephanie saw Ryan outside playing his guitar and walked over to him.

"What are you playing?" she asked feeling a little embarrassed after her treatment towards him last night. "Just something I've been working on for a while. How are you feeling?" he asked her as he was playing his guitar. He didn't want to make any eye contact with her since the incident last night. "Ryan, I'm sorry for last night. I didn't mean for that to happen. It wasn't me. I mean… it was me, but… with this fucking tumor, I can't control my emotions sometimes." She explained. He stopped playing his guitar and looked at her. "Steph, you don't need to apologize. It's fine." He assured. "No, it's not, Ryan. Because here you are, the sweetest guy here, the most optimistic guy who cares about everyone else but himself. You act as though you have no Leukemia. Like you're some… answer to our prayers. You stay up late at night just for my sake yet never once have you asked me for help. It's always someone else asking for yours. I hate that. I hate that you have to pretend to be okay when you know you're not. I hate that you're such a nice person and you're fighting for your life but… but you would rather make sure someone else is okay instead of yourself. And I hate that you have to fake it all." Stephanie said.

Ryan turned to face her and put his guitar down. "You wanna know why I do what I do? A long time ago, when I was about 10, I was coming home from school and I heard this song at the bakery when my friends and I stopped to buy some brownies. It was 'Don't Fear the Reaper' by Blue Oyster Cult. It was about not fearing Death. It will eventually come and find us so why be scared of it? To this day, I follow that song. I don't fear the Reaper because if not today, tomorrow, or the next he will come to me. All I can do is be happy, help others, and just live my life each day until he finds me. Last night when you got upset at me, I knew I annoyed you. I wasn't angry at you. I saw you were getting annoyed and I wanted to leave because I knew you had a rough day and you needed some alone time. I never gave you that opportunity and it was my fault. I shouldn't have come into your room like that but I was excited to see you and celebrate my birthday with you. You cooled off. I got my rest. End of story. Today is a new day, right? We just need to remind ourselves that the past is just that: the past. Forget it and move on and focus on today. You can't constantly bring yourself down and beat yourself up. Always look forward to the next adventure. That's what makes life so beautiful."

Stephanie had no words. Instead she just rested her head on his shoulder and looked up at the sky. Everything he said was true. She knew he was right. The only problem was, she didn't know how to do that. She never lived her life that way. She has always been so involved and focused with work that she never learned to live and have fun.

About 24 hours later, Paul and Stephanie were in Dr. Meyers' office and discussing the results from the MRI and CT Scan.

"Any good news?" Paul asked. Dr. Meyers unfolded his hands and tapped the tips of fingers. He sat for a moment silently before telling them the results.

"There has been no change."

Paul and Stephanie looked down in disappointment. They were hoping that although it is a life threatening tumor, that the treatment would give them some sort of hope. "Nothing at all? Come on, doctor. She's doing all this radiation and chemotherapy. How can there be absolutely no progress?" Paul asked. "The problem is the tumor regenerates itself if does shrink. The chemo does work. The problem is this thing has taken a life of its own. It is virtually impossible to kill it." The doctor explained.

"So I'm really going to die from this, aren't I?" Stephanie asked as she looked at him with no emotion. The doctor did not want to answer her question. She accepted her fate and stood up. Without a word, she walked out of the office and Paul chased after her.

"Steph! Steph! Wait up!"

"Paul, I just wanna go back." She said. "Honey, are you –" Paul started. "I'm fine. Just take me back." She interrupted him. Paul didn't know what to do or say. He stood for a moment to look at her. She got into the SUV and waited for him to get in. When he finally did, he drove off and dropped her off at the hospice. Without even saying goodbye, she got out of the car and entered the hospice.