Having had his next round of chemotherapy in the days prior, that morning spencer was curled up on the couch, half asleep as the terrible daytime soaps played on the tv. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was feeling awful; one look at his skin was enough, let alone the bucket placed on the floor next to the couch.
He was getting considerably worse. Hardly anything stayed down anymore, even his feeds which were designed to cause as little nausea as possible. The first week with the tube had been fine, but after that, spencer had started throwing up all his feeds.
Aaron was home, having taken a day off because spencer was having a particularly bad week. At that moment, he was leaning against the frame of the arch that opened into the lounge room, looking at his little boy with an expression that could only read as sadness.
Moving into the room, he walked past the couch spencer was on and seated himself down on the adjacent lounger. On the tv, a young girl was crying, gripping the hands of the young man as he stood stoically before his.
"he's cheating on his, so he stopped taking his birth control and got pregnant to him," spencer mumbled from behind aaron.
Aaron laughed, turning to look at his son. "why do you watch this crap spence?"
"because it's the only crap on tv at this time," spencer sighed, pulling his beanie down a little more.
His hair was completely gone. It had shocked everyone how quickly it had fallen out, but dr edmonds had assured them it was completely consistent with cisplatin.
Spencer had at first been upset, but was now completely indifferent. He was feeling too sick and miserable to care. Even though his eyes were almost lash bare, and his eyebrows were patchy at best, he had gotten past the point of being upset by it.
Leaning forward so his elbows were on his knees, aaron smirked at his son. "how do you know about birth control and getting pregnant?"
"Derek," spencer replied simply, without missing a beat.
Instead of feeling slightly horrified at the thought of his five year old girl knowing about sex, aaron had to laugh. Derek and spencer were just as bad as each other, earning themselves the nickname 'the terrible twosome'.
Getting up from the lounger, aaron walked over to the hat stand that was positioned behind the arm of the couch where spencer's head was resting. It was time for one of his countless medications.
In order to prevent spencer having to spend exorbitant amounts of time in hospital, he and dave had had to create makeshift iv stands; one in the lounge room, and one in spencer's bedroom, to ensure that he was receiving medications, fluids, and feeds when he needed them without having to go to allegheny general.
Both were hat stands. One was a hat stand that had sat unused in the corner of the lounge room for as long as aaron could remember. Another was one that Aaron had bought at a yard sale for five dollars and subsequently never used.
Currently on the stand was a bag of saline to be used to flush spencer's line, a bag of pain medication, a bag of anti nausea medication, and the continuous bolus infuser for spencer's ng tube.
Checking the infuser, aaron picked up a syringe and a jar that was sitting beside the stand. Drawing up the required dose, he set the jar down and pressed 'hold' on the infuser to stop the feed momentarily.
"Spence, can you sit up for a minute?" he asked softly. Spencer nodded, gripping the hand his dad offered his as he pulled himself up to sit.
Disconnecting the bolus tube from the plastic valve on the end of the ng tube, aaron inserted the syringe, pushing on it gently to administer the medication.
Once the syringe was emptied, he quickly drew up some saline in the syringe and easily flushed it down the tube to get the medicine moving faster and keep the tube clear.
Hooking the bolus back into the valve, he kissed the top of spencer's head before he lay down again.
"love you. Stop watching this crap," he chuckled.
"love you too. No," spencer mumbled in reply, making his dad laugh as he walked away.
Aaron was glad that spencer's dry wit seemed to be sticking around despite the fact that he was so sick. It gave him hope.
It made things feel a little more normal.
Spencer had slept most of the afternoon, until his siblings came home from school.
When Derek had eagerly told dave his plans to go trick or treating with his friends and their younger siblings, all hell broke loose.
Spencer had remembered what day it was and had staggered over to his dad, asking to go trick or treating with his brother.
It had all gone downhill from there.
"i wanna go trick or treating, it's halloween, pappa, i love halloween," spencer begged, his voice filled with more energy than had been there earlier. He was on the verge of tears.
"spence, you can barely stand and your immune system isn't very strong. You need to stay home," dave replied, taking spencer's hands in hers. "it's not a good idea for you to be around so many other people"
Derek stood nearby, his shoulders slumped and guilt etched in his expression. Spencer hadn't even remembered it was halloween until he'd mentioned his plans. He should've kept quiet.
"Pappa, please, i wanna go," spencer replied tearfully, the first few tears beginning to fall. "i just want to do something normal, please pappa," he stated, finally bursting into tears as he tugged on his father's hands.
Seeing his son cry so desperately broke dave's heart, but he had to stand his ground. Spencer was not strong enough to leave the house, and that was final.
"please let me go. Please," spencer sobbed, his pale face streaked with tears.
"i'm sorry, spence, but your health is more important," dave said softly, trying to keep his voice from cracking.
Spencer gave up, collapsing in tears as his dad moved in and wrapped his arms around his.
"don't cry my little one, you can go next year," he said softly, his voice soothing as he lifted his up and turned towards the stairs.
"next year is stupid," spencer sobbed from his dad's shoulder as he carried his up the stairs.
Derek watched guiltily as his dad carried his devastated brother up to his room, before turning to his dad.
"i'm not going," he said softly.
Aaron lifted his face, looking at his son sadly. "Derek...your brother's disease shouldn't make everyone stop what they want to do. If you want to go, you can go"
Derek shook his head. "that's the thing. I don't want to anymore. Spence loves trick or treating, i'm not going if he can't. It wouldn't be fair"
Aaron stood in silence for a moment, before pulling his boy into a warm hug.
"you're a wonderful brother derek. It's lovely that you're thinking of your brother...but if you change your mind, you are more than welcome to go, ok?" he said softly, pulling back and kissing his son's forehead once he finished speaking.
Derek nodded, reaching up and gently closing his hand around his father's wrist for a moment before he too retreated up the stairs to his bedroom.
Aaron watched sadly, his hands wrapped slightly around himself as he stood alone in the kitchen archway.
No matter what, he was not going to let the bitch cancer tear away what remained of the sense of normality in their little family.