"my hands feel funny," spencer mumbled, rubbing his eyes sleepily as his dad refilled the cup of water on his bedside table.

They were back in the hospital for spencer's fourth round of chemotherapy. His counts had made a slow rise, enabling chemo to be started. They hadn't been as high as edmonds would have preferred, but they were high enough to be within the safe margins for more chemo.

"funny how?" dave asked.

"like...numb. Pins and needles, sort of," spencer tried to explain.

Reaching down, dave closed his hands gently around spencer's.

"spence, your hands are freezing!" he exclaimed.

"it's cold in here," spencer said nonchalantly. "can dr edmonds give me more pain meds?"

"is your head still hurting?" dave asked.

Spencer shrugged, one hand going to the back of his head as he grimaced slightly; whether it was nausea or the headache, dave didn't know. "it's just achy. Like when you're tired"

Dave nodded understandingly. "i'll go find dr edmonds, you get some rest, ok? Basin's there if you need it"

Spencer snuggled under the covers, his eyes already drooping heavily as dave headed for the door. He had been so exhausted over the past few days, but unfortunately, no amount of sleep seemed to be helping. No matter how long or how well he slept, he always woke up feeling just as tired as before he'd fallen asleep.

Stepping out into the hallway, dave pulled the door closed behind his. The ward was quiet, which was unusual for the afternoon. He could hear a toddler riding around on one of the medical tricycles somewhere around the corner. It sickened him to know that kids that young could get cancer. He'd met a gorgeous little boy, who hadn't even turned three yet and was fighting an aggressive brain tumour for the second time.

Shaking the saddening thoughts away, dave looked around the corner towards the main offices of the oncology ward. It was there he saw dr edmonds leaning against the counter, going over some of his patient files as he crammed down one of the sandwiches from the hospital cafeteria.

It was a simple action, but it was one that reminded dave just how incredible the doctors and nurses at the hospital were. Dr edmonds, among so many others, gave up a routine, normal sleep (or any sleep), and the chance to eat his meals in peace and quiet at set times, all to help save the lives of the people who walked through their doors every day.

Smiling slightly, dave took a deep breath. Sometimes, he needed to remind herself how grateful he was for everything dr edmonds had done to keep spencer alive.

Walking towards him, he smiled wider when he looked up.

"dave," he said warmly, a smile crossing his handsome face as he set his lunch down on the plastic wrap. "what can i do for you? Everything ok?"

Sighing, dave shrugged. "kind of...spencer's in more pain. This headache is persisting and even though i know the scan was clear...it's really worrying me"

Edmonds nodded knowingly. "i know. And i promise i'm running every test i can think of to make sure it's just an average headache. I'm almost certain it's just his chemo doing it, which is common with vincristine, but i'm double and triple checking everything to be sure"

"i know, and i appreciate that you're checking so thoroughly. It's just...something changed with him on tuesday and he's had even less energy since then. He hasn't been talking, he's been throwing up more often than usual, and he's in more pain," dave replied.

"i'm sure it's just his chemo. It's starting to catch up with him in a bad way. But him being so unwell also means the chemo is doing its job," edmonds explained. "but like i said, i'm checking everything. I'll let you know if anything even slightly out of the ordinary comes up"

"thank you," dave said gratefully.

"i'll finish my lunch," edmonds said with a grin, gesturing to his sandwich, "and then i'll write up some orders and get steph to come and administer some more pain medication for spencer. We'll get his through this as comfortable as possible, i promise"

Grinning, dave nodded, turning and leaving him to his sandwich as he headed back to spencer's room.

He only hoped the end would arrive sooner rather than later. Because seeing spencer so unwell was starting to drive his insane.

"you sure you'll be alright?" dave questioned, looking pointedly at the two teenagers.

Derek and emily nodded, derek beckoning for his father to leave.

"go. We'll be just fine, i promise. We'll have a rave, and spencer will have the time of his life," he teased. A weak laugh came from his side, making his cheeky grin grow even wider.

Dave rolled his eyes. "i'll be back by eight. Don't let his puke on you, it'll burn"

Derek saluted. "yes sir"

Emily laughed as dave shook his head and turned for the door.

"behave you three," he called over his shoulder as he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

"so," derek started, turning to spencer, "since we can't have a hospital rave, what do you want to do?"

Spencer smiled. "can emily teach me russian?" he asked in a small voice.

Emily looked surprised. She had been learning russian in her spare time, she enjoyed learning new languages. This was her fourth one, she was almost fluent in them all.

"you want me to teach you russian?"

Spencer nodded.

"of course," emily said with a grin. "where should we start?"

"how about...fuck off cancer?" derek suggested. Spencer laughed, while emily rolled his eyes, unable to suppress a giggle at his brother.

Looking pointedly at him, hegrinned. "otvali rak"

Spencer burst out laughing. "that's awesome! Otvali rak!"

Shaking his head as he laughed at his baby brother, derek held up a warning finger. "don't ever repeat that to anyone but us. Because you know that someone somewhere will somehow find out what it means"

Emily grinned. "now i'm just a bad influence on you, spencer"

Sitting up, spencer threw his arms around emily in a surprising hug. "you're my favourite bad influence though"