Standing in the doorway as he watched his youngest child sleeping, dave found himself filled with more hatred for the vicious disease that had taken over their family.

Spencer looked terrible. He was clearly deteriorating rapidly now that the chemo had heavily settled in his system. His skin had taken on a sick shade of grey, and the circles under his eyes had grown even darker. His bones were clearly visible beneath his skin, and on top of all that, he was struggling with his walking once more, a sign that the vincristine was doing its job.

"one step forward, two steps back, hey?" aaron said softly, coming up behind his husband and wrapping his arms around his. He'd known exactly what he was thinking about. It wasn't hard to guess. Everyone had noticed spencer's condition recently.

"something like that," dave murmured, leaning back against his husband's chest. "i'm hoping that changes soon"

"it will. Do you really think spencer is going to let this disease take over his life? Not a chance. That kid is headstrong enough for this whole family," aaron said seriously.

Dave laughed, pulling away from his husband and reaching in to close spencer's bedroom door.

"i can't believe he'll be five on saturday. Where did our babies go?" he said as he quietly closed the door, slipping his hand into his husband's as he led his to the front lounge room.

"grown up too quickly, that's where," aaron replied, sitting down on the couch and patting the space beside him.

Sighing, dave joined his husband on the couch, resting his head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around his.

"remember when we brought emily home?" aaron said softly, his heart becoming heavy with his words.

"yeah," he replied quietly, his voice catching in his throat.

"she was our first baby and we didn't have a clue what to do," aaron chuckled, his eyes growing bright as he remembered his precious baby em.

"time sure has flown since then," dave contemplated. "emily will be starting high school soon, and derek's going to middle school in september"

Running his fingers through dave's blonde hair, aaron pressed a kiss to his temple.

"we made five beautiful kids. They have grown into amazing people. Spencer is going to beat this and he's going to do great things, as is emily, and derek, and pen and jj," he said softly.

"yeah, and we'll be there to watch over them," dave replied, turning and resting his head in the crook of aaron's neck.

"we sure will, my dear. We sure will"