The rest of Dave's morning had been tiring. He had been diligently rinsing out vomit bowls, helping SPENCER to the bathroom, and consoling him distraught five year old after an incident that could only be blamed on the c-diff bacteria that was causing him current state of infection.
Dave had left the room for five minutes to get a coffee, as by then he had been in dire need of one. He had barely started boiling the water when one of the nurses, Abigail, had come to find him. During SPENCER's dressing change on him central line, the c-diff had reared its ugly head, causing SPENCER to have an accident that left him completely mortified.
While Abigail and Lizzie got SPENCER's bed cleaned up, Dave had helped him sobbing child shower and change him clothes. He had tried to calm SPENCER down, but it was hard. Him poor boy was miserable, unwell, and embarrassed that at five, he was losing control of his body due to cancer and all of the lovely side illnesses that came with it.
Now Dave found herself cuddled up on the bed with him youngest, occasionally moving to catch vomit with the nearest emesis basin. SPENCER had stopped crying, but was still sniffing, and refused to speak to or look at anyone.
They watched the little TV in the room for a while, neither one saying a word. Lizzie came in and out, checking SPENCER's various pumps and letting them know just how much longer the chemo infusion had left.
A ringing sound came from inside daves bag, he quickly realised it to be his cell phone and hastily grabbed it, answering it as he stood up and left the room being careful not to disturb his almost asleep child.
"hello" he said.
"Dave, it me" Aaron replied.
"hey, what's up?"
"Dave I'm so sorry to do this but ive had a complete work catastrophy, its just been so…"
"hey, hey its fine, what do you need?" he asked.
"I, I just need you to pick up the kids from school, ive tried calling everyone else I could think of but no one is available."
"hey its okay, ill go pick them up and bring then back to the hospital to spend some time with spence. It might make him fell a bit better."
"okay, thank you. I love you so much"
"I love you too."
Walking back into spencer room, he stood over his sleeping son.
"Spence," Dave said softly.
When SPENCER didn't reply, Dave pulled him a little closer, kissing the top of him head. "Spence, look at me"
SPENCER lifted him face, him puffy eyes finally meeting him pappa's for the first time that day.
"I need to go home," Dave said slowly, not knowing how SPENCER was going to react. "There's some things I need to do at home which can't really wait."
"No," SPENCER cut in, him voice wavering and him eyes filling with tears. "No Pappa, I want you to stay, I don't want you to leave, I want you," he said quickly, tears beginning to fall as he quickly started getting very upset once more.
"Ok, ok," Dave said hastily, pulling SPENCER back towards him and rubbing him back. "Im sorry bud, but I still need to go home and I don't want to leave you by yourself. Is there someone you are ok having sit with you?"
SPENCER remained silent, burying him face in the curve of him pappa's neck.
Taking a deep breath, Dave was suddenly struck with an idea.
"What about Nicole?"
Hearing the name of him parents best friend, a woman he loved and trusted as much as him own mother, SPENCER lifted him face slowly. Looking up at him pappa for a moment, he nodded slowly.
"Ok," Dave breathed, heaving a sigh of relief. "I'll go and call her now"
Luckily, Nicole had been more than willing to spend a few hours at SPENCER's bedside, as long as Dave was able to pick Sophia her daughter up from school.
"Thank you so much Nic. When I suggested leaving him alone, I nearly had another crying mess on my hands," Dave said gratefully, hugging him closest friend as they reached each other in the hallway.
"He's had a rough day?" Nicole replied sympathetically.
Dave nodded, raising him eyebrows. "I'll spare you the details but yes. Him stomach's no good today, so be prepared to rinse basins. Lizzie is him favourite nurse, and he's going to be hanging around close by in case...well, I'll just say that the reason SPENCER is in isolation is because he has developed something similar to a colon infection. So Lizzie is nearby if he needs anything"
"Poor kiddo, he's just not catching a break is he?"
Dave shook him head. "Hopefully I won't be too long, but I'll call Doctor Edmonds to let him know if I'm going to be extremely late. Now, he's not going to be very chatty, in fact he's probably just about ready to go back to sleep. We had an incident this morning and he's been quiet ever since"
Nicole nodded, following Dave as he turned and headed back towards SPENCER's room.
"Spence, Nic's here," Dave said softly as he entered the room.
SPENCER turned him head, managing to greet Nicole with a weak smile before he burrowed further under him blankets.
After Dave had explained what to do if certain pumps began to beep, he bid him goodbyes, giving SPENCER a prolonged hug and a loving kiss with the promise that he would be back soon.
As Dave had promised, SPENCER fell asleep shortly after him pappa left, leaving Nicole to entertain herself with the small TV, and the magazines he had brought along.
However, with every few pages she read, she couldn't help but cast a glance over at her best friend's sleeping child.
sHe couldn't imagine being in the same position with Sophia. Seeing SPENCER battle cancer was heart breaking enough, he hated to imagine what it would feel like to see Sophia go through it.
As he read articles of celebrities talking about their battles with breast cancer, smiling as if it was no big deal, he found herself wishing the world could see what cancer was really like. That childhood cancer was awful, that it wasn't smiling kids with fuzzy heads posing with celebrities for pictures.
And it was that moment that Nicole decided he was going to do something about it.
xxx
"Feeling a bit better today? Yesterday was pretty rough hey," Edmonds said as he attached a bag of hydration fluid to SPENCER's central line.
"Yeah. But Doctor Edmonds, if you stick me with one more needle, I'm going to throw up on your white coat," SPENCER replied, him words slurring together as him pain medication swam through him veins.
Dave bit back a laugh. As sad as it was to see such strong drugs being given to him child, he had to admit the resulting slurred mess him child became was actually pretty funny.
"You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?" Edmonds chuckled. "Because I'm pretty sure me sticking you with a needle has nothing to do with you vomiting"
"Sometimes it does," SPENCER replied, looking up at him oncologist through a haze of drugs. "When you're bored...and have no time"
At that, Dave had to laugh. He wished he had a camera so he could go back later and show SPENCER what the drugs did to him.
"Ok, I'll be back in a little while when you're a bit more lucid," Edmonds laughed, before turning and leaving the room.
"Try and sleep it off, ok little monkey?" Dave said through a grin.
Him heart nearly swelled right out of him chest when SPENCER curled up on him side, burrowed under him blankets, and gripped him pappa's hand tightly with him own.
"I love you," he whispered loudly, making Dave grin once more.
"I love you too," he whispered back, leaning over to kiss SPENCER's forehead. Squeezing SPENCER's hand, he held tight with the promise that he would still be there when he woke up.