Long time no post! I know, I know. It's been a while. But I've been so focused on my other story, that this one has fallen into the background. Here is me saying that I'm going to try to update both now. Besides, this one isn't too much longer. I have several events planned and it should only take about seven or so more chapters. But like I say in every story, it's possible that it'll take a life of it's own. But for right now, that's the plan. Anyway, thank you to all of you who reviewed the last chapter, and I'm glad that you all enjoy this story. It's definitely been a lot of fun to write, and has gotten me to do a lot of research on a disease that not too many people focus on. Anyway, I'll shut up now.

Please let me know what you think. Enjoy!

The days after the holiday were quite slow, both between my personal and my working life. Most retail stores tend to be mostly returns following the holiday season, and my store was no different. We spent more time arguing with people that you needed a receipt than we did actually selling merchandise. It made what should be easy days, into long, annoying, and exhausting days. But as the sun went down, so did the customers, and I found myself reading a magazine an hour before closing, while the manager worked on rearranging the back room for the next shipment of clothing to receive.

Our store is evidently too high fashion for a door bell, so I never saw it coming.

One second I was trying to find out how to get rid of frizz and the next, something was placed against my head. I immediately felt my stomach drop when my eyes met back a pair of cold, dark brown ones with a face that was covered by a ski mask. I was about to die the most cliché ending in a book ever.

Might as well go out with a bang, literally and figuratively, or maybe the fact that I'm an idiot still didn't register to anyone else yet. "Hit me with your best shot?" I asked numbly.

The mask seemed momentarily confused by my question and then simply said, "You're going to open the cash register, give me anything that is in it, and not make a single noise as you do so. Any funny business and you'll find my shot is always on par." The voice, male and oddly calm sent chills down my spine.

I glanced toward the back room, wondering what my chances were if I yelled then and ran. Slim, I was sure, and I slowly put my hands up to do as I was told. "We don't get much cash," I told him honestly. "The clothes in this store cost more than I make in a week here. Most people use credit cards."

"Don't talk, just do it."

I swallowed again, noticing my boss coming toward me from the corner of my eye with no suspicion at all. If I didn't warn him, he'd be shot. If I did warn him, I'd be shot. This was a pretty crappy situation. You'd think in such a high end place, they'd have a panic button, or a gun of our own. I don't even think we had a sharp enough box cutter to hurt anyone.

"I'm opening the drawer," I told him.

The gun was still pointed at me.

My boss entered view then, noticing what was going on, and the last thing I remember before the gun went off was my own pathetic scream.

My vision came back in what I thought was only seconds later, but must have been several minutes. There were officers all around me, and the police tape you saw usually in movies and shows surrounding my store. I groaned from where I lay on what looked to be a gurney, getting attention from both an officer and my parents. They rushed over, gushing at me, asking me if I was okay, and that's when I noticed I hadn't been shot myself.

I was fine.

I glanced to where I had fallen. "My boss?" was the first words out of my mouth.

The paramedic shook their head. "Bled out," they said quietly.

My eyes watered. "Remy!"

Riker rushed toward me, pushing past police and paramedics with strength you wouldn't suspect such a skinny guy like him had. He was at my side, followed by Rydel in seconds. His fear oddly calmed me as he wrapped me into a hug, pressing kisses all over my face. "Oh my God," he muttered. "I saw it on the news. I thought… I thought it was you."

"I'm okay," I whispered back to him, letting him hold me as tightly as he could. Everything was fuzzy around me and I had to focus on his voice to keep from losing myself in the situation again. Rydel spoke a bunch, her voice still somehow bubbly even in a situation like the one we were in. I tried to nod and give her my attention, but it just didn't work.

Words didn't come to mind.

"Can she go home with us?"

The paramedics wanted to bring me to the hospital for observation, but I stood up and walked a few feet to prove I was fine. Luckily, my bodily function seemed to be fine, my mind on the other hand was probably far from it. "Don't make me go," I murmured, finally finding something to say. "I just want to go home."

When I got home, Stormie had already been waiting by our door with soup for me and a sad smile. I thanked her as politely as I could, setting the homemade soup in the kitchen before taking my exhausted and numb body up the stairs into my room, where I laid for what felt like hours, when Riker made his return. He came up beside me with no words and simply laid down. His fingers wrapped around mine, squeezing my hand ever so gently, saying more than any words ever could have. I sighed softly and turned to face him.

He gave me a twisted smile similar to his mother's, but this one felt different. It calmed me somewhat, and I focused on his fingers tangled in mine. I knew I wouldn't be able to talk, my mind still such a mess, but instead allowed myself to think of good times at my store instead of the horror I was replaying over and over again.

He kissed my forehead as my hands began to shake.

We fell asleep that way.

The next morning, I awoke and felt like a celebrity. People all around the neighborhood were coming by, even coining me a hero. It was ridiculous. I fainted. Real hero status. Riker was great, keeping me company and never having to say much but keeping me sane at the same time. We were both exhausted for completely different reasons, but it was the closest I'd felt to him in weeks. No one was interrupting us, no one dared to even look at me the wrong way.

"I have another PFT tomorrow," he said absently a few hours into the afternoon in his room. "I was thinking of canceling it. I want to make sure you're okay."

I immediately shook my head. Riker's health came before anything else in my mind.

"No, don't do that. Please don't."

He was silent for a moment, "Would you like to come?"

"Depends," I said honestly. "Not if your father's there."

He smiled slightly. "No. Just you and me."

"Then yes," I told him. "It'll keep my mind off things."

"Are you going to go back to work?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Probably not. Laura said that two other employees have already quit and we'd make four total. No one feels safe."

He nodded. "Don't blame them."

We faded into another nap.

The next day, I felt more like myself. No longer hiding in a sweatshirt and behind my boyfriend, I ventured into the warm, sunny day. His appointment was only an hour away, and we took the long way to the hospital to get the tests done. The ride was calming, especially with the music we blasted on the way. I felt good again. Not completely how I felt previous what I was calling 'the day of hell', but enough that I could smile without guilt plaguing me.

Inside the hospital, Riker led me to a more secluded area, where there was a room with what looked like a giant, empty telephone booth. When I told Riker this, he laughed. "It's meant to see how much oxygen your lungs can hold," he explained. He walked closer to it while waiting for the nurse to come in, showing how the door opened and then closed, how it was connected to a computer and what it did. He explained that would be one of the two tests he'd be doing that day.

A young nurse entered the room then. She was pretty, tall and smiling as if she recognized Riker. "Good afternoon," she said in a tone that was way too happy for the jump she had. "Riker Lynch, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, great. I see you're here for a check in PFT today."

"That'd be right, yes."

"Would you like to start with the spirometry or the body plethysmograph?"

"English, please?" I asked.

He pointed to the telephone booth. "That's the body one." He turned to the nurse. "Whichever is easier for you."

"We'll go with the former first then," she agreed, pulling up his information and handing him a tube which connected to the computer she was on. "You know how this works, right?"

He nodded.

"Oh!" He was handed a pair of plugs for his nose.

I giggled.

"You his girlfriend?"

"Yes."

She smiled at me. "She's pretty."

"Thank you."

"Get ready," she said. She counted to three and then he took a deep breath, blowing it into the tube. She encouraged him on for the next few seconds, until he pulled it out of his mouth to cough. She eyed the computer. "We'll consider it a practice run, yeah?"

He nodded. "Sorry."

"Having a harder time breathing lately?"

He nodded again. "More than usual."

He never said that to me. He wouldn't meet my gaze. "Okay, again."

He did it again and it took several tries before he was able to complete the test without stopping to cough. By the time he was done, he looked exhausted and sweaty.

"Good job," she encouraged. "Not too bad. You're at about fifty percent right now."

"I was at sixty before the spring," he muttered. "That's ten percent down in less than a year."

She nodded. "Yes, but maybe you just need to talk to your doctor about your medications and treatments."

"I guess so," he grumbled.

"Onto the next part?"

He nodded. The telephone machine thing was pretty awesome, I had to admit. Riker, while still pretty upset about whatever the results meant, even had to smile when I started to sing Call Me Maybe through the box as it measured his lung capacity. We got yelled at twice when he had started to laugh, as it messed up the test results.

By the time it was done, we'd made good friends with the nurse, and even Riker seemed to be in decent spirits.

On the way home, we stopped for food and took a trip to a local park. "I'm sorry for not telling you about the breathing thing," he said as he took a sip of his smoothie. "I didn't want to scare you. It happens a lot and usually it's just a tweak in a medication and everything is fine."

My expression must have been obvious. "You don't have to hide it from me. I can handle it."

"I didn't want to scare you," he repeated. He paused, collecting his thoughts as he sat down on a bench. "I'm not used to having someone other than my family around for this. I know you know that, but I need reminding sometimes."

"Are your levels really down that low?"

He again paused, staring off at the trees beyond us. "Considering, yes. I hope the nurse is right and that adjusting my medication will suffice. I was down really low last time I was sick and was in the hospital a few months. Under forty percent. Getting back up to where I was before that would be really nice."

"How can you do that?" I was curious to how that worked. I often found myself researching more about Riker's condition when he wasn't around. While it was morbid most of the time, it also made me understand further what I was dealing with. Usually, it was hard to improve lung function. Hard, but not impossible. But Riker was looking for an improvement that in my eyes, would probably take time. I wondered if being in a relationship would help or hinder him. Some conditions made illnesses improve. I could only hope my involvement with him would be the former of the two.

"Keeping up with my treatments and making sure I don't miss medications," he finally answered me. "Making sure if I do feel under the weather, I don't over do it. It's pretty much what I'm doing now. But it does what it wants. I just need to make sure I don't do anything to make it worse. I can only control so much, but what I can control is important."

The conversation went on for several minutes. He glanced at his phone. "This reminds me, I need to get home to take my afternoon medications and eat something for lunch." He offered me his hand as he stood up. "I'm sure whatever my mom made she has extra of, how do you feel about coming over?"

I grinned. "I'd love to. Your mom's cooking is my favorite."

The rest of our holiday break from school was quiet, and I think everyone was happy for that. Riker's father left me alone, Riker spent plenty of time over my house, and I spent plenty of time over his, and it was just all around nice. New Years was only a couple days away, and I was pretty thrilled. I'd gone on a few dates in the past, but Riker was my first steady boyfriend. And I'd never had a New Years Eve kiss. I know, it's sort of a cliché and usually ridiculous, but I was so excited. Not to my surprise, the Lynchs' were having company for the holiday, and my family was invited over. I prepared a few desserts for the night, and kept my mind on how it would feel to kiss my boyfriend on the start of a new year.

A fresh start, hit the clear key. It was going to be awesome.

When I got to the door, balancing about three dozen cupcakes and a few types of cookies on my arms, Rydel answered. She was dressed in a sparkly pink dress that hugged her every curve. Her make up was on par, and I noticed while she smiled back at me, she looked nervous. I smiled back at her as she took some of the food off my hands, and then went in for the kill, "You look sort of nervous. Is everything okay?"

She blurted, "Do I look okay?"

I raised my eyebrows. Usually Rydel had been a powerhouse, someone that knew she looked good all the time, but never was cocky about it. Seeing her insecure made me wonder what was going down tonight.

At my expression, she smiled the same one from before, explaining, "I have someone coming to the party tonight. He's from my old school. We haven't talked in a while, and he was one of the few guys who still liked to hang out with me and knew about Riker. I always wanted to go on a date with him, but he'd been dating this girl long term, and I wasn't the type to try to intrude. He's single now though, and he messaged me a few weeks back. I invited him here tonight. I'm really scared."

This time, I smiled. "Why? You clearly like each other and you look stunning, Ry. Don't be scared. What's his name?"

She almost blushed. "His name is Ellington."

"That's a name," I giggled. "When is he arriving?"

"He should be here soon," she answered, setting down the food on the counter. Stormie was at the stove, stirring something that smelled amazing. She kissed my cheek when she saw me, and gushed over what I'd made. I glanced at the clock; the party would start in an hour. Then, I noticed someone was missing. Where was my adorable boyfriend?

"He's showering," Rydel said, as if she read my mind. Her eyebrows wiggled. "Maybe you should go upstairs."

"Absolutely not!" her mother laughed, waving a fork at the girl. "Rydel Mary Lynch, you're my good child!"

She giggled and I had to ask, "Riker's the rebel?"

"Well," Stormie shrugged. "They're both good, but I used to have to chase Riker all over when he was a child. So, I'm always assuming that'll always be the case."

I smiled again, looking up toward the stairs. Both women stared at me. "I'm going to wait in his room," I explained. "Promise no funny business."

The two of them giggled and then I headed up the stairs, slowly when I could hear the shower still on. I walked the short distance to his bedroom, and then sat down on the bed. I noticed the machines he used were pulled out from underneath, looking as if they'd been recently used. A frown found its way onto my face without meaning to. I know it's necessary, but knowing he sat there several times a day in pain like that still hurt me.

The shower went off, and I pulled my feet up on his bed, getting comfortable. If the party didn't start for a while still, we could have some fun before having to show our faces. I heard the door open, but did not expect to see Riker enter the room in just a towel. I mean, I should have expected it. You generally wear just a towel when you're exiting a shower in your own house, when you assume your room is empty. Except, it wasn't.

Riker jumped back, colliding with the wall. "Remy!" he scolded me. "What are you doing here?"

I smiled slyly. "Enjoying the view, clearly." Riker might have been skinny, but he still was good to look at. He blushed at my flirting, shaking his head. He quickly shut the door to his room, still giving me a look as he made it to his closet. It wasn't exactly a large walk in closet, but it was enough that he could close the door and get dressed without giving me a show. I was highly disappointed.

"If my mom walks in right now, I'd be dead," he called out from inside. "And I'd rather live to see the New Year, thanks."

I giggled. "You forgot something before you went in there."

"What's that?"

I peeked at his open underwear drawer that he hadn't stopped in. "Going commando today, Mr. Lynch?"

I could almost feel the blush on his cheeks from behind the doors. He scuffed, "Maybe I am."

"It'll make for a better time later when we're up here," I teased. "Great."

"You just want my parents to kill me," he grumbled. "Stop it."

I continued to laugh until the door reopened, and Riker walked out in a simple button down plaid shirt. I have a confession. Riker in plaid shirts might have been my favorite thing ever. There is just something so sexy about it. He sat down on the bed next to me, quickly stealing a kiss from my lips. I wanted more, but knew there would be time for that later. He stood up, giving me a slight smile until he found his dresser, where a bottle of water and his line of medications sat. I watched him down too many pills than I'd ever want to take.

He swallowed them and then returned to me, kissing me once more. I ran my hands over his chest, feeling his lungs push the air through their scarred interiors. It too was a bit morbid, but I liked feeling him breath when I could. It just made me realize that he was currently above the stupid disease that plagued him. He brought back my attention by kissing my neck, which almost sent me into overdrive. "That's cruel to do when we have to head downstairs in a few minutes," I sputtered.

He twisted around so that I could sit underneath him. "Ever hear of being fashionably late, Remy?"

Fashionably late turned into almost a half an hour later than we imagined. I was in his bathroom, trying to fix my hair and make up (how it got that messed up I don't even know, we were mostly clothed!) and look like we just hadn't had one of the best make out sessions of my life. He was beside me, still somehow looking effortlessly gorgeous, and a part of me was jealous. Riker Lynch was better looking than me.

"So, what do you know about Ellington?" I asked, giving one last pull on my hair before turning to him. "Rydel looks like she really likes him."

He smiled. "He was one of her few friends. He didn't care that she didn't often hang out outside of her own house. He was over a lot. I don't know if his girlfriend liked it—don't get me wrong, she was very nice—but it is a bit awkward when your boyfriend has a really close, beautiful friend who you probably know is crushing on your boyfriend, you know? But, I really did like him. He made her happy. They lost contact when I was in the hospital; they both were going through hard times. He'd just broken up with his long time girlfriend, and Rydel was preoccupied with me. I hope this works out for them."

"Me too," I agreed, opening the door. "Let's go see if the boy is here, huh?"

Downstairs looked similar to Christmas. People I didn't know were everywhere, talking and chatting like old friends. I saw my parents talking to Stormie near the door, both smiling and took this as a good sign. Several of our other neighbors were there, too. I followed Riker to the kitchen, where he grabbed a plate of food and we found an empty spot for us to share. I picked at the finger foods as I watched for shimming pink, but didn't see much. A part of me wanted to bet my boyfriend that they were making out somewhere, but I didn't know how he'd feel about that. He said he liked Ellington, but he was still her older brother.

Then, she appeared. And she glowed. A cute brunet she was next to, his hand in hers. His eyes were locked on hers even though she wasn't looking at him right then, instead talking to a relative I recognized from the week prior. He looked relatively normal. He was about her height and too wearing plaid (weird). He didn't look nervous. And of course he seemed to adore her, and I inwardly approved. A part of me giggled as I explained this to Riker when he asked. "I feel like she's become a part of my family," I realized.

Riker seemed pleased at this. "That makes me really happy."

Rydel finally found her way over to where we were sitting. She beamed at me and I returned it as she yelled over the music, "Remy, this is Ellington. Ellington, Remy. She's Riker's girlfriend. And of course you remember my big brother."

"Yeah man," the boy said. "Nice to see you again. Feeling good, bro?"

A serious question with sincerity. I truly liked this guy. "Yeah," Riker replied easily. "Feeling pretty good. Nice to see you again. How long are you in town for?"

"Two days," he added, and the boys began to talk. Rydel took this as a chance to grab my arm and pull me away from them. We found a quieter spot near the backyard door. Her smile was almost instantaneous.

"So, what do you think?"

"He's adorable," I told her, nodding. "I approve."

"Isn't he?" she sighed, leaning back. "I wish he was closer. It's almost a two hour drive away. He's staying overnight, but it's not enough. I want him back."

"I'm sure if you need to, you'll make it work," I assured her. "If he matters that much to you, you'll find a way."

She nodded, deciding on that. "I guess you're right. So, good times with you and my brother? You took a while to come down."

My blush gave away the answer.

"Oh, Remy," she teased.

I returned to Riker a few minutes later, and watched Rydel disappear with Ellington. He and I mingled for a while, talking to a few relatives and I spent a good a lot of time meeting ones I didn't know. We danced a bit to the New Years Eve show, took a few turns going outside to get away from the craziness, and then found ourselves back inside at a half hour to midnight.

Being on the west coast makes you feel like you're the last ones to ring in the New Year, but for once, I didn't care. Soon, Riker's living room was over crowded with everyone at their house and people were talking excitedly as the countdown neared. The year hadn't been bad. I looked at Riker, who was watching Rydel, and smiled. After all, it had introduced him to me. Pretty good year, then. There were bad times too, but I couldn't help but think the good times with him made everything better.

"Five minutes," he whispered into my ear.

I glanced up at him, grinning ear to ear. My arm went around his waist, hugging it, as we stared at the countdown. Some notable events over the last year were playing, and we watched it with smiles. Finally, the video returned to the host and another countdown appeared. One minute.

Fifty seconds.

Forty seconds.

Thirty.

Twenty.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two…

One…

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The TV had screamed and I turned to face Riker. I didn't have a chance to do much more because he had his hands on the side of my face, pressing a kiss onto my anticipating lips. Everything around us melted. The cheering, the toasts, I was simply in my little Riker land where everything was perfect. Finally, we broke apart, and I noticed Rydel and Ellington in the corner, doing the same as us. He cleared his throat, smirking at the two of them. I pulled his attention away, smiling widely at him, "Happy New Year, Riker."