A/N: Sorry it took so long, but here it is. I've decided to stop the story, but I'm going to give it a proper ending. I have up to two more actual chapters I had written beforehand to upload before I'll upload like two newer chapters that I'm going to write. They'll pretty much be huge summaries and flashforwards b/c I don't have time to write each chapter. It'll just give you an understanding on why some things happen etc...

The next chapter should be up in two days or three. :)

The entire house decided to celebrate that night. They had just received the phone call from the dance director saying that Miley had gotten the lead part in his new production. Everyone went crazy as they hugged her congratulations, and Tish even shed a few proud tears. Suddenly, Miley was beaming as if the phone call had flipped a switch inside of her.

They had decided to go to the small Italian restaurant on the corner of the boardwalk to celebrate. It was a restaurant they had been going to before Nick, Miley, and Joe could even walk. It was almost a tradition to spend every major holiday or celebration in Antonio's Plaza. If anyone could serve a better pizza or pasta, it was here.

The entire group entered the glass doors, laughing as the twinkling sound of the broken bells on top of the door began to ring. Nick let Tish hold onto his arm to keep herself steady. They had first argued over the fact that Tish was too weak to be let out of the house, but she had refused to give in. It was her daughter's celebratory dinner, and she wasn't going to miss it for the world.

Nick slowly led her to their usual table at the back, the same table they had been going to since they had first gotten there. He carefully set Tish at a seat, watching as she slowly took a seat. Nick could feel people's stares from all around the restaurant. Many were stares of awe at Miley. Something about her looked different today, Nick realized with his own building awe. Her hair looked a little more fluorescent, her blue- gray eyes that made Nick go crazy began to twinkle, and her lightly tanned skin seemed to almost shine. She looked absolutely beautiful.

And she didn't even know.

Sadly, other eyes were trailing on them because of Tish. Her hair had thinned out to almost nothing, her face had tinged to a light gray as if she was already beginning to die away, and the veins protruded so clearly at certain points of her body that it felt as if she were a map of blue and purple lines.

"I'm starving," Joe grumbled as he took a seat across from Nick. He grabbed the small plastic menus and shuffled through the pages, though Nick knew he would most probably just buy his usual tomato ravioli. Nick already knew he was going to get his margarita pizza. It was almost impossible for him to not order it when they ate her.

Miley had taken the seat right next to Nick's as she began to shuffle through her own menu. She was probably the only one on the table who would order something completely different off the menu. Every time the two families would eat here, she would never order the same thing she had ordered before. She was someone who nearly always craved for something new.

"If I choose the same thing over and over again, how will I ever know if the others are just as good? For all I know, I might be missing out on something so much better," was what she had always said when Joe and Nick teased her about her spontaneous choosing.

Tish and Denise had sat next to each other as they whispered and laughed about almost everything. Even at their ages with full families, they still managed to act like two best friends in high school. Nick always loved that about them. With each other, nothing ever seemed to change.

Once the food had arrived, everyone around the table raised their glasses of water in the air. "To Miley being the best dancer in the entire state of Virginia," Denise cheered gleefully as the others hooted in agreement. Miley blushed next to Nick and laughed along as she raised her glass. Nick hadn't seen her so happy since last summer, before everything that had happened this summer.

"So when is the performance?" Joe asked, already chewing away on a breadstick.

"Two weeks away," Miley explained. Nick began to wonder how much longer Tish could last. She could barely even walk anymore. He made a silent prayer in his head to allow Tish to live long enough to see her daughter perform. He would give up anything.

"Well, you're going to do great, hun," Denise grinned, patting Miley's arm.

"I know she is," Nick smiled at her. She turned to look at him with a smile twisted across her lips. For a moment, they just sat there looking at each other as if they were seeing each other for the first time. They were sitting so closely that Nick realized If he leaned forward just an inch, he could kiss her.

Instead, Nick reached out and found her hand underneath the table. He curled his fingers around hers, and smiled to himself as her own hands seemed to curl naturally into his own fingers. They fit so perfectly that it made Nick wonder if God really made hands like puzzle pieces; that Miley was his perfect fit.

"You know, working on the sets is hard work too," Joe grinned playfully.

"Sure, Joseph. Sure," Denise laughed, nudging her son. The entire table broke into laughter and suddenly it was as if they were back to all those summer nights when they had nothing to worry about except for what to do the next day, trying to fit everything they wanted to do in the small time summer handed them.

Denise and Tish had began to tell old stories that would always leave everyone cracking up in laughter, and for once Tish seemed to gain just a bit of color in her cheeks.

Nick glanced at the breath- taking brunette laughing next to him, and she coincidentally turned to look at him at the exact moment he did. Their eyes met again and an invisible line of electricity jolted between them. As he squeezed her tiny fingers and mirrored her smile, they both knew that starting from that moment, things weren't going to be that bad.