Spencer had been home for three days with no real change in his condition. Chemo was wreaking havoc on his system, which was exactly how edmonds wanted it to be.

"are you sure you'll be ok tonight?" dave asked nervously as he sat across from his son at the dining table.

Derek nodded. "dad, honestly, we'll be fine. I've given spencer his meds before, i can get his cleaned up if he's sick, and if anything seems out of the ordinary, you have dr edmonds' number on the fridge"

Dave swallowed thickly. He and aaron had been invited out to a dinner that night with some of their friends. Seeing as they hadn't been out together with friends since before spencer was diagnosed, they had decided to go. But as the time to leave drew closer and closer, dave couldn't help but worry.

"em will be here as well, dad, so there'll always be someone with spencer. We'll be fine," derek said reassuringly, reaching across the table and squeezing his dad's hand.

Taking a deep breath, dave nodded. "i know. It's just...reverse separation anxiety"

"i know, pops. It's hard to leave his when he's so sick. But you and dad haven't been out in months. You need a night to just be a normal couple for once, not the parents of a kid with cancer. Just try to relax, and have fun"

Smiling, dave placed his other hand on top of derek '.

"you're a good kid derek, you know that?"

Derek grinned.

"i try my hardest"

"you know where all his medications are, and the emergency numbers are on the fridge. Alistair and rebecca are home if you need anything -"

"pops," derek cut in gently. "we'll be fine. Go have fun with dad, ok?"

Dave sighed, giving his son a quick hug and kissing his forehead. Looking over his shoulder at emily, he smiled. "you make sure he behaves himself"

Emily laughed. "i'll keep him in line, i promise"

Aaron took dave's hand as he let go of derek, gently pulling his towards the front door. "come on. The kids will be fine. You know our lot"

Dave laughed, shrugging in defeat as he obliged. "i certainly do"

Before too long, they were gone, and it was just derek, emily, and spencer, with penelope and jj playing upstairs. Derek heaved a sigh of relief. When it had come to five o'clock, he had seen the anxiety in his father's eyes, and he knew he was close to pulling the pin on their night out.

He had been looking forward to spending time with both spencer and emily, despite spencer being as sick as he was, but in larger part, he had mostly just wanted to see his parents enjoy a night out.

They deserved it more than anyone.

Sitting on the floor of the lounge room with their backs against the couch, the two oldest had shared a pizza while spencer dozed on the opposite couch. A movie was playing on the tv, but after deciding he wasn't that interested in it, derek got up to change it.

"wanna watch monty python and the holy grail?" he asked, turning to emily with a grin.

Emily laughed. "sure, why not?"

Grabbing the familiar cassette that he and his dad had watched at least a hundred times, derek put it into the vcr and pressed play before moving back to sit beside emily.

The men were talking loudly across the table as the women paired off into their own conversations. It was a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, and dave had found herself feeling very grateful for derek ' pep talks earlier in the day.

"you doing ok?"

Looking up at the voice of his best friend, dave smiled, shifting his chair so nicole could sit down.

"do i look ok?" he asked, a meek smile crossing his face.

Nicole shrugged. "you look a little worried. Is spencer home with derek ?"

Dave nodded. "and emily. I trust those two to take care of him, and...i don't think anything is likely to go wrong...but spence hasn't been home without one of us there since he got sick"

"i was honestly half expecting you to call and say you weren't coming. It's not like we wouldn't have understood. Is he doing ok at the moment? I know you said he was due for more chemo"

Sighing, dave flipped his hand to and fro. "he's...not good...but not awful either. Just the usual symptoms, but worse than usual. I can't wait for this to be over so i can stop watching them pump all that crap into his little body"

Nicole nodded sadly. "tyler's been asking to see him, but i knew he hadn't been well, so i was holding off"

"yeah, he's not very well. Even if tyler did come to see him, all spence does at the moment is sleep and throw up, so he's not exactly exciting to be around," dave said.

"maybe we'll bring him round when he's feeling a bit better then" nicole replied. "we could watch him for a couple hours, give you and aaron some time to yourselves. I know this hasn't been easy for you's both".

"yeah, you know i think he'd like that" dave said, his face lightening.

Standing up as the movie neared its finish, derek picked up the empty pizza box and soda cans from the floor.

"need a hand?" emily asked as he started walking to the kitchen.

Derek shook his head, calling over his shoulder. "nah, i should be fine"

Carrying them into the kitchen, he crushed the box down to a smaller size before dumping it and the soda cans into the trash.

Grabbing the cloth out of the sink, he wiped down the counter and cleared away the syringes he 'd used to administer spencer's medication before dinner. He still couldn't believe how many it took to administer one batch of meds twice a day.

Once the counter was clean, he turned to the sink to rinse the syringes, knowing that if he didn't do it soon, the medicine leftover inside the tubes would clog them up and render them useless.

As he flicked on the tap, he heard a muffled thump from the lounge room.

"derek!"

"emily?" he called back, shutting off the water straight away. His blood started to run cold; emily sounded scared.

"call 911! Now!"

At the urgency in emily 's voice, derek grabbed the phone and sprinted back through to the lounge room, where he found the reason for the sudden emergency.

Emily was huddled over spencer, who had ended up on the lounge room floor. And from what derek could see, spencer was shaking vigorously, his eyes still closed as emily glanced at his watch repeatedly.

Derek ' heart leapt into his throat.

Spencer was having a seizure.