"Dad!" derek yelled from upstairs. "get up hise!"

Throwing his book down, aaron leapt into action, racing out of the lounge room and up the stairs to the landing. Derek's voice had sounded so urgent; his heart was pounding.

Seeing penelope and jj standing just outside the open bathroom door, all the colour draining from their faces, aaron moved quickly past them into the small room.

"oh spence," he said softly. Spencer was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, emily was holding a cloth bunched tightly against his nose as blood dripped down his t-shirt, which was already badly stained.

"he was just standing in front of me and blood started pouring out of his nose. What's happened, why is he bleeding?" derek asked anxiously.

"okay, its okay its probably just a reaction to some of his meds," aaron replied his voice shaking through the response. He placed his hand on top of the badly stained cloth being held against spencer's nose. "em its okay, i've got it, go get yourself cleaned up"

"okay dad," he responded, his face worrisome lacking in any colour.

Turning to his son momentarily, aaron took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "it's ok. He'll be alright. Just take pen and jj to your room, i've got it under control"

Looking anxiously between his dad and brother, derek nodded. "ok"

Turning back to spencer, aaron gave him a gentle smile. "you ok?"

"i feel a little dizzy," spencer said thickly, lifting the cloth away. As he released the pressure, dark red drops spilled from his nose, running down over his lips and dripping down to his t-shirt. More blood ran down the outside of the nj tube, staining the dressing holding it in place.

"keep the cloth on. I'll have to take you to the hospital, ok?" Aaron told him, gently moving spencer's hand back up to his.

Spencers eyes flickered for a moment before they closed, his head nodding forward.

"spence, buddy you gotta stay awake" aaron said tapping at his cheek in an attempt to bring the boy back into consciousness. The attempt did nothing. "dave!" Aaron shouted. "dave!" He said again.

Dave came running upstairs to find the two together in the bathroom. "shit" he said, "what happned?"

"hes having a nosebleed, i need you to call 911,"

"okay,"

"oh my god," emily gasped, quickly turning towards the door. "keep the others outside! Keep them out please and call an ambulance!" he instructed, knowing that if the other kids saw spencer in that state, they would be horrified. When emily nodded and headed over to dereks room, aaron turned back to his hysterical little boy, who was flashing in and out of consciousness.

"it's ok, it's ok," he said gently, smiling a little at spencer to try and reassure him. Reaching over to the bathroom cabinet, he grabbed a washcloth off the stack they kept thise and gently wiped away the blood on spencer's face, his hands shaking as he did. "it's going to be alright, try to calm down"

"why...am i...bleeding?" spencer mumbled, his tears mixing with the blood coming from his eyes.

"the chemo is probably affecting your blood. It's alright. You're going to be fine, ok?" aaron replied, keeping the washcloth underneath spencer's nose to try and soak the blood gushing from it. "we'll go the hospital and they'll have you all fixed up in no time, ok sweet boy?"

At that moment, dave came into the room, the phone to his ear. "it's my four year old son. He's bleeding. Profusely"

Aaron gave spencer quiet reassurance as dave paused to listen to the dispatcher.

"from where sir?"

"from his nose, hes coming in and out of consciousness" he said a moment later.

"does he have an existing blood condition or recent trauma?"

"yes, he's being treated for cancer"

Unable to fight off the drowsiness, spencer closed his eyes, hoping to rest them for just a second.

"spence, stay awake for me baby," came his father's gentle voice. "let's get you into some clean clothes"

"i'm still bleeding," spencer mumbled, his words slurring together as he fought to focus on his dad's face.

"i know. Come on, let's get you up," aaron said gently, sliding an arm beneath spencer's shoulders and helping his to sit up. Spencer leaned heavily against aaron, his eyes drooping closed as he sat slumped over against the edge of the bathtub.

With aaron making sure spencer was stable and wasn't about to topple over, dave moved over to his dresser to grab some clean clothes. He made quick work of helping spencer undress, not wanting to leave his son's skin exposed to the air for too long; he knew blood loss would make his body temperature begin to drop very quickly.

Much to spencer's dismay, he was unable to handle his clothes by hisself; he was simply too tired and too sluggish to coordinate hisself. He had tried to pull them on his own, but found he just didn't have the energy. He had reluctantly allowed his dad to finish dressing him.

Once he had spencer dressed, aaron wrapped him up in a thick blanket, scooping him into his arms and carrying his out of the room. Spencer was still holding the cloth to his nose, albeit not very well, and it was clear the bleeding wasn't going to slow on its own any time soon.

As the ambulance pulled into the driveway, derek rushed up to his father, the worry evident on his face.

"is he ok? Pops, why did you have to call an ambulance?" he asked hurriedly, his voice wavering on every word.

"i think hes reacting to one of his meds, we don't really know bud, but because of his condition the nosebleed is quite serious, its gonna be okay though," dave said gently, trying to reassure his son that everything would be ok.

Hearing aaron at the front door, speaking quickly and calmly to the paramedics as he led them into the house, dave moved away from the kitchen where they were standing and towards the front entryway.

As he reached the front hall, he caught sight of the two paramedics. Both were rather young, but from what he could tell, incredibly professional and serious about their job. He led them over to the couch where aaron was sitting, holding spencer in his arms.

"here he is," dave said softly, gently jostling spencer to try and keep his awake.

One of the medics stepped forward, giving dave a comforting smile as he lifted his penlight to check spencer's eyes.

"ok, he's not very alert, but he's conscious which is good. How much blood do you think he lost?" he asked, looking up at dave with striking green eyes.

Dave shrugged. "hard to say. It's all over the bathroom though"

Dave was quick to lead the other medic through the house to take a quick look at the bathroom. They knew it wasn't going to help get an accurate figure, but it was a start.

"let's get his out to the ambulance and we can start some iv fluids to keep his volume up. I can carry his out if you like. It's a little icy out there," the first medic said warmly to aaron. For the first time, he noticed his name tag. Jake.

"i need to grab my coat, so that would be great," aaron replied. Jake nodded, holding out his arms to take his.

"come here buddy," he said gently, holding spencer securely in his arms as he turned and headed out to the ambulance.

When aaron finally made it out there with his coat and shoes on, the second medic, alan, right behind his, he found jake talking calmly to spencer, trying to keep his oriented and alert.

Alan jumped in the driver's seat, starting the ignition before turning to quickly speak to jake.

"i would say definitely a litre, possibly two," he relayed. Jake nodded, before sliding along the bench a little so that aaron was able to sit down.

As they pulled out of the driveway and began to head for the hospital, jake reached up for a bag of saline.

"ok, let's get an iv started-"

"he has a central line, if that's easier," aaron cut in.

"ah, of course. You came prepared today, didn't you spencer?" he said with a smile. Turning to aaron, he got the end of the saline tube ready to go. "can you just grab his line for me?"

Aaron obliged, appreciating that he hadn't simply stuck his hand down his son's shirt; he knew in some situations it was unavoidable, but he was still glad he had asked.

Retrieving the end of the line, he watched as he hooked it up and opened the valve on the bag, hanging it from a hook above the gurney.

Jake worked quickly and calmly, always talking to both aaron and spencer, even managing to elicit a few spoken responses from spencer once the fluid had started to increase his volume a little.

"so what's he being treated for?" he asked as he took his blood pressure. "they mentioned on the radio we were responding to a little boy being treated for cancer"

"stage four leukaemia," aaron said sadly. He hated those words. They were like venom on his tongue.

"i'm sorry to hear that. I assume he's doing well, aside from tonight?" jake replied. Dave nodded, reaching over and taking spencer's free hand.

"he's doing okay, he's had a couple rounds of chemo. But clearly this round isn't going too well," he explained.

Jake nodded in understanding. "believe it or not, alan and i have been called out for lots of kids after their rounds of chemo over the last couple of years. It seems to be a recurring theme. Spencer's very strong. I'm sure you'll find it's his platelets or something in his counts. A transfusion or two and he'll be sprinting out of the hospital tomorrow"

Aaron laughed, knowing that spencer was always a bundle of energy after a transfusion. "he probably will"

Spencer squeezed his hand, finally managing to bring his eyes up to meet his dad's. When aaron bent down to kiss his forehead, he closed his eyes for a moment, smiling ever so slightly.

When his dad was there, everything was ok.

When his dad was there, he was safe, even from cancer.

Snapping on his surgical gloves, edmonds smiled at spencer. "so what have we got here then?"

"i had a bit of a bloody nose" spencer said as he removed the cloth so edmonds could have a look at his nose. "it was bleeding lots and it made me sleepy"

Edmonds laughed. "a bit," he replied sarcastically as he leant down and shone the torch up spencer's nose. It was still bleeding fairly heavily, and by now, his shirt was ruined.

"it went everywhere and there was a huge mess!" spencer said excitedly, his voice coming out all nasally as edmonds started to plug his nose with gauze.

"sounds like you had a good day," he chuckled. "alright spencer, i'd bet my life savings that when we get your counts back, your platelets are low. I'm going to have to cauterize your nose, which means i have to take out your nj tube and put a new one in later"

Spencer nodded. "ok"

Once spencer's nose was plugged, edmonds handed his a damp cloth to wipe the blood off of his face and neck. After he was clean, he found one of the spare t-shirts they kept stockpiled on the paediatric floor so he could change out of his bloody shirt.

"i'll come back in a little while to cauterize the vessels, ok?" he told his.

After getting a nod from spencer, he gave his a grin and left the room.

A few hours later, spencer had had his nose cauterized. The nj tube had yet to be replaced, as dr edmonds didn't want to be poking around in spencer's nose with the tube and cause anothis bleed.

Aaron sat in the recliner beside spencer's bed, watching as spencer focused intently on the schoolwork that his teacher had put together and given to him through his siblings. The platelets were infusing steadily through spencer's central line, potentially saving his life.

"daddy?" spencer asked, frowning at the paper before his.

"yeah spence?" aaron replied, looking up from his crossword puzzle.

"can you help me?"

Setting the magazine down, aaron got up from the recliner, sitting up beside spencer and putting his arm around his as he read the question spencer was stuck on.

"oh, ok. Well, you've got four over x equals fifty six over x, but that's a big number. So what do you think you have to do?"

Spencer frowned. "multip...divide!" he exclaimed, poking his pencil up into the air in triumph. Aaron laughed.

"yes, you have to divide. What are you going to divide?"

"fifty six by four?" spencer clarified. Getting a nod from his dad, he turned to the paper, only to look back up at aaron.

"i don't know what fifty six divided by four is," he said simply. Aaron chuckled.

"well, here. What's forty divided by four?"

"ten!"

"and sixteen divided by four?"

"four!"

"ten plus four?"

"fourteen! Fifty six divided by four is fourteen!" spencer said happily, scribbling the answer down beneath his working.

"good job," aaron laughed, glad that spencer was able to follow his thinking.

Hearing a soft chuckle from the door, both father and son looked up to see dr edmonds standing in the doorway.

"working hard spencer?" he asked as he walked over to spencer's bed.

"extremely hard, i think i'm breaking a sweat," spencer joked, making both his father and his doctor laugh.

"good to hear," edmonds said warmly. "so we're basically ready to put a new tube in, and then after that, maybe miss helen can help you with your homework"

"that would be good," spencer agreed. "dr edmonds, does my tube have to go in the same side?"

Edmonds shook his head. "if that side is hurting, we can put it in the other side. Want to do that?"

Spencer nodded, sliding off the bed and allowing his father to help him into his wheelchair.

Edmonds smiled, turning and walking to the door.

"off we go"

The tube had gone in without too much hassle. However, shortly after, spencer had spiked a temperature, presumably from the platelets, requiring a mandatory 48 hour admission.

As the antibiotics ran their course, spencer drifted in and out of a restless sleep, his mood deteriorating every time he woke up.

Hearing a knock on the door, aaron got up, leaving his grumpy child to go and see who was in the hallway.

Stepping outside, he found dr edmonds standing with a woman who looked to be about dave's age. He assumed the woman was miss helen, the teacher edmonds had referred to earlier.

"i was just coming to see how spencer's doing, and i thought i would introduce you to helen. Helen, this is spencer's father aaron," edmonds explained.

Aaron smiled, shaking the hand helen extended to his.

"nice to meet you," helen said warmly. "how's spencer's schoolwork going?"

Aaron turned his hand from side to side. "he's keeping up, but just. Most of the time he's too tired to actually manage doing it"

Helen nodded. "fairly standard then. That's ok. I can help his keep up. Is he up to a visit right now?"

Aaron shook his head. "he's cranky and miserable. He's not feeling well at all today"

Helen nodded in understanding. "i'll be sure to come and see his when he's feeling better, we can have a chat about his school and what he finds difficult"

Aaron nodded in agreement, bidding goodbye to helen as the other woman walked off to pay a visit to some of the other children on the ward.

Smiling at aaron, edmonds led his into the room spencer was in. "let's get his healthy so he's home for new year's"

Dave grinned.

"sounds like a plan"

Moments like this would make the dark days seem few and far between.