Waking up at the hospital that morning just before 9am, spencer had been taken to have his counts checked. His favourite turtle was packed safely in his arms the whole time.

Counts had been just below perfect, allowing the first round of high dose chemotherapy to go ahead. Therefore, spencer had been taken to room 4. Incidentally, it was the same room in which gabby was residing for her round of chemo.

The first bag of drugs had gone up at lunchtime; a six-hour infusion of cisplatin, which would be followed by six hours of hydration. Spencer and gabby had talked and giggled until gabby ran out of steam. All had seemed well, and Dave had wondered if chemo was going to remain that simple.

In a few short hours, he realised it wasn't.

"my stomach hurts," spencer groaned, his voice catching in his throat as he clutched the emesis basin in one hand. He hadn't yet vomited, but Dave sensed it wasn't far off.

Edmonds had explained that it could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for the side effects of chemo to start. Unfortunately, it had been the former, and the cisplatin had hit spencer hard.

"lizzie said the anti-nausea should kick in soon. It'll help settle your stomach, so some of the pain will subside as well," Dave said reassuringly.

Spencer opened his mouth to reply but was unable to speak. For as soon as he had opened his mouth, up came the entire contents of his stomach, plus a horrendous amount of bile. Thankfully, the basin was right in his lap, and spencer actually managed to get it.

Leaping up, Dave held one hand on the basin, steadying it as spencer was sick, rubbing gentle circles between his son's shoulder blades as he waited for him to stop vomiting.

When it finally ceased, he lifted the used basin from spencer's hands and replaced it with a clean one, before carrying the dirty one over to the sink to rinse it out.

"i wanna go home," spencer said sadly.

"i know baby. We'll be home in just a couple of days," Dave replied as he rinsed the basin. He knew spencer just wanted the comfort of his own bed, especially when he was feeling so sick and miserable.

Setting the now clean basin down on the drainer, he moved back over to the recliner, taking his seat and picking up his book again. Spencer proceeded to curl up under his blanket, the clean basin clutched tightly in his arms.

"try to get some sleep, ok?" dave said softly, reaching out and giving spencer's hand a squeeze. "i love you"

"love you too," spencer mumbled, burrowing down beneath the covers, his turtle perched on the pillow just above his head.

Walking through the house as he made sure all the lights were off, Aaron hated the silence that came with spencer being in hospital.

As he passed through the kitchen on the way to the stairs, he heard a sniff come from the other side of the kitchen counter.

Turning slowly, Aaron approached the counter, peering over the top to find his daughter sitting on the floor on the other side.

"jj?" he said softly, moving around the counter to sit down beside his daughter.

"hey dad," jj mumbled softly.

"you ok?" Aaron asked, looking at jj with concern. He didn't bother asking why jj was sitting in the kitchen of all places. All he knew was something was bothering daughter.

And he had a pretty good idea what it was.

"do you get scared? That spencer's in hospital?" jj asked her father, turning to look at him. "like...do you get scared that...he might not come home?"

Aaron sighed. He hated being right.

"honestly jj? I'm more scared of when he does come home. At least in the hospital, if something happens, he's surrounded by an incredibly skilled team that can provide the treatment he needs. If something happens at home, what can we do other than get his to the hospital and hope we get him there in time?" he admitted.

"i'm scared...every day. That he just won't come home. That we'll lose him," jj mumbled.

Aaron opened his mouth to reply, but found that he just didn't have any words to say. And what could he say? Spencer was a fighter? He would get through this? While true, nothing was strong enough to reassure them that everything would be ok. Because when everything was stripped away, they had one thing they could be sure of, one thing that reminded them that was a chance everything was not going to be ok.

Spencer was fighting cancer..

Cancer was unpredictable.

So was the future.