Idea by ( ): Can you write something about Kyle having cancer. All the brothers are together.

Warning of major character death!

Chapter 3 – Sometimes Life is Short

Braxton House – Kyle's bedroom

Brax was stood in the doorway of his brother's bedroom watching him sleep.

I don't understand why this had to happen to Kyle out of all us he's the good one. Yeah he may be on probation still but unlike us three he has never been to jail. Hell he wouldn't have been on probation if hadn't been for our dead beat dad. Now this happens and there is nothing anything of us can do to fix this.

They had just returned from the hospital after finding out that the chemotherapy and medication, Kyle was receiving was no longer working and there was nothing else they could do but make him as comfortable as possible. Brax knew what was going to happen and he had told Nate that he wasn't going to let it happen in hospital with none of his things around.

Voices suddenly filled Brax's ears so he closed Kyle's bedroom door and walked back down the hall.

Braxton House – Living Room

Everyone was currently sat in the living room when Brax entered.

"So what did the doc say?" Heath asks as Bianca passes him a beer.

Brax didn't say anything instead he went and sat down in the chair.

"Brax, what did Nate say?" Ricky asks her boyfriend.

Brax went to open his month when Phoebe appeared in the doorway.

"SO has Kyle been given the all clear?" She asks but stops when she notice that everyone was quiet and Kyle was missing. "What happened Brax?"

"Phoebe can you please sit down? I have something I need to you all." Brax tells them.

Phoebe sits down beside Casey at the dinning room table: "So what did Nate say?"

"Its not good news." Brax said "Apparently the chemo and medication aren't working any more?"

"So what does that mean?" Casey asks shocked by the news of Kyle's treatment not working.

"Nate said that the treatment wasn't working and that there was nothing else they could do for him other than make him comfortable." Brax told them all as he started to feel a tear slip down his own face.

"Your lying!" Phoebe shouted as the tears made her mascara run.

"I wish I was Pheebs but I'm not. Nate said that Kyle doesn't have long left. So I brought him home as Nate suggested getting Kyle into a room at the hospital but I didn't want the last thing he saw to be a hospital room instead I wanted he to be in his own bed surrounded by his stuff and us."

"Are you sure there hasn't been a mistake?" Bianca asks as she joins Ricky who was trying to calm Phoebe down.

"That's what I said but no they haven't."

"Well, where is he now?" Heath asks wondering where his brother was.

"He's asleep in his room. Today's trip to the hospital really took it out of him." Brax replies as he sees Phoebe stand up and make her way out of the living room.

Braxton House – Kyle's Bedroom

Phoebe could hear the coughing before she had even got close to her boyfriend's bedroom. As she pushed the door open she saw Kyle in the middle of what appeared to be a full scale coughing fit.

She ran over and starts to rub his back as the coughing starts to subside.

"Hey Pheebs!" Kyle says weakly.

"Hey yourself." She replies.

Kyle laughs a little when he looks at her face.

"What?" She asks him.

"You have panda eyes."

"Oh god! I must look a mess."

"Pheebs you could never look a mess to me and don't you ever forget that."

"Oh Kyle, I can't loose you!"

"I'm not going anywhere Pheebs." He tells her then places a kiss on her lips and wraps his arms around her.

Braxton House – Garden

After Phoebe had left the room, Casey got up and went outside as he felt like the fresh air might help him make sense of the situation.

Why him? We only just found him and now we are going to lose him! Kyle is my best friend and brother at the same time, who will I play video games with and annoy Brax and Heath with. Why is life so cruel?

Casey was broken from his train of thought when Ricky appeared beside him.

"Hey, how are you doing?" She asks the youngest Braxton.

"Shouldn't you be asking Kyle that question considering he's the one that's going to die soon." Casey answers her.

"No because right now I'm worried about how your dealing with the news. I know how heard it can be to lose someone and I just want you to know that I'm here if you need to talk."

"Thanks Ricky and I know you are but I just don't understand."

"No one understands why this happens Case, it just does but the important thing is we are there for Kyle."

"I don't want him to die Rick." Casey said as he started to cry.

"I know you don't" Ricky said as she hugged Casey.

Braxton House – Kitchen

Heath was stood watching his brother and friend from the kitchen window when Bianca appeared.

"I'm going to get us all something to eat. Do you want to come with me?" Bianca asks him, knowing what he will say.

Heath looks away from the scene happening in the garden and turns to his wife: "Sorry babe but I think I will stay here just in case something happens. I don't want to miss the chance to say goodbye if I have to."

"That's ok and I won't be long I promise." Bianca says as she walks out of the kitchen.

4 hours and 55 minutes later…

Braxton House – Living Room

"He hasn't got long to go." Nate tells the group of people who were sat around him. "If I were you I would go and say your goodbyes now before you don't have a chance."

Everyone was quiet for the second time that day. Brax had called Nate because Kyle was unable to stop coughing and was worried but what Nate had just said was not what he wanted to hear.

"You must be wrong Nate apart from the cough Kyle is fine." Phoebe says through sobs.

"I wish and I do mean I wish that I was wrong but unfortunately I'm not. I want to be able to do something but all I can really do is give him some pain relief."

"I'm going to see him." Ricky says as she stands up. "I never got to say goodbye to my mum and I sure as hell won't miss out on the chance to goodbye to Kyle."

Braxton House – Kyle's Bedroom

Kyle was sat looking through photos of him and Phoebe that Ricky had given them as a present when there was a knock at the door.

"Can I come in?" Ricky asked him.

"Sure." He replied.

"What you up to then?"

"Just looking through the album that you give me and Pheebs at Christmas."

"The hardest thing about doing that album of you and Phoebe was there was so many photos of the two of you that would have been perfect for the album but there wasn't enough space."

Kyle coughed before speaking: "I gu guess you will ha have to mak make us anoth another one."

"Will I now?" Ricky said as she tried to ignore the fact that he wasn't going to be there for the next Christmas.

"Yeah and that way Phoebe will have a load of photos to look back on when I'm gone."

"Don't say that Kyle."

"It's true though Ricky. I heard Nate telling you all I don't have long left and to be honest I'm tried and in pain. I just want it all to be over."

Ricky started to cry when Kyle said that. She had grown to love the young man as a brother and couldn't think of not having him around everyday.

"Aww Rick don't cry. Please stop crying I don't want you to cry when I'm gone." Kyle says as he hugs her.

"Can I interrupt?" Bianca says as she knocks on the door.

"Yeah I'll leave you to it. Kyle I want you to know that this place won't be the same without you." Ricky says as she gets up and leaves.

Bianca fills the spot that Ricky had just vacated: "I hate this!"

"I take it this is bringing up memories of Rocco?" Kyle asks.

"You know me to well. I wished you had the chance to meet him."

"I will soon."

"Kyle…"

"I know, don't say stuff like that."

"Took the words right out of my mouth."

"I promise that I will let Rocco know how much you love and miss him, if I see him in heaven."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

1 hour later…

Bianca had left and Heath was now sitting with Kyle talking about the footie and anything other than what was happening.

"Hey Heath, will you prom promise me someth something?" Kyle asks his brother.

"Okay." Heath replied curious to know what Kyle was going to ask.

"Will you tell Harley about me. I mean Darcy is old enough to remember me but Harley isn't."

"Kylie I promise that you will always be remembered no matter what we are doing and I will talk about you to Harley everyday."

"Maybe not everyday but sometimes." Kyle finished with a cough which had Heath patting his back.

"Anyway who do you think will the season." Heath asks.

The two of them continue talking about the football for the next two hours with Heath patting Kyle's back every time he coughed.

2 hours later…

Heath left the room just as Casey came in.

"Yo, brother from another mother." Casey said like he always did when he wanted to make Kyle laugh.

"Hey Case…" Kyle said before stopping and grabbing the bucket beside his bed.

Casey walked over to the bed and grabbed the glass of water which he passed to Kyle once he was finished being sick.

"Thanks."

"No problem I know you would do the same for me if the roles were reversed."

"Funny how once upon a time I hated you so much that I probably wouldn't have done this for you."

"Yeah it is but we got to know each other and we became brothers eventually."

"Yeah, I'm going to miss our jam sessions."

"I'm going to miss how much fun we used to have winding Heath and Brax up." Casey said which caused the two brothers to start laughing. "Who will be my partner in crime now?"

"Maybe Josh or Pheebs she loves winding Brax up."

"Yeah but it won't be the same without you there to laugh with after." Casey said.

Unbeknown to the two youngest Braxtons on the other side of the door Brax was listening to the conversation and smiled when he remembered how many times him and Heath were annoyed over the stuff that the two youngest did to them.

45 minutes later…

Braxton House – Living Room

Casey entered the living room to find everyone sat around drinking cups of coffee.

"How is he?" Ricky asks in a mother hen type way.

"He's getting worse." Casey replies with a look of sadness on his face.

"Pheebs why don't you go and see him, he'd like that." Brax tells her wanting to be last.

"Brax if you don't mind I would rather see him last as I want the last thing he sees before he goes to sleep is my face." Phoebe replies.

"Ok but only if your sure?"

"I'm sure." Phoebe says as Brax heads out the room towards Kyle's bedroom.

Braxton House – Kyle's Bedroom

"Hey mate, how you feeling?" Brax asks as he approaches his brother.

"Tired." Kyle replies quietly.

"Well I want you to now that you can sleep whenever you want, I don't want you to worry about any of us. So when your ready just shut those eyes of yours and sleep." Brax said with tears in eyes.

"I want you to do something for me Brax before I do go to sleep."

"Anything, you name it I'll do it."

"I need you to look after Phoebe for me. I know she will tell you she's fine and that she doesn't need your help but she'll be lying. Before you ask how I know that, she did the same thing when her granddad passed away and she kept telling all us she was fine but she wasn't. All the grief built up till it exploded while we were in the middle of a gig."

"Kyle you know I will look after Phoebe. Heck we all will so don't you worrying about her. Anything she ever needs I will help her with even if that means taking her to preform somewhere."

"Thank you Brax."

"You welcome. Kyle can I just say when you first came to the Bay, I didn't really want to know you I only brought you here to help Casey then I was going to send you back to Melbourne."

"I had a feeling that was what you were going to do." Kyle interrupted.

"I am sorry about that. But I was saying since then I have had the privilege to get to know you as a person. I got to see you be happy and in love with Phoebe and you are certainly the best manager that Angelos has ever had. I want you to know that you will always be a member of this family even when you your gone."

"Thank you Brax, that means a lot. I know I wasn't the nicest person when I came here but you helped me to grow in way my foster family never did." Kyle coughed again.

"You welcome. Anyway I better leave and let Phoebe get in here before she kills me." Brax laughed as he got up and walked out the room.

With that Brax walked out the room to let Phoebe enter.

5 hours and 22 minutes later…

"Tell me Denny didn't really say that?" Kyle laughed in between the coughing.

"Yeah she did. I just looked at her as if to see don't those word really come out of your mouth." Phoebe replied as she tried to ignore the coughing.

As the laughing died down Kyle looked at Phoebe and said: "You know Brax says you can stay here for as long as you want right."

"I know he said that but to be honest I wouldn't feel comfortable being in the house without you."

"Pheebs stop I don't want you to have to move because I'm not here anymore. I need you to promise that you will stay for as long as you need. I also need you to promise that you will get back out there and find a man who would be lucky to have you, just like I was. I also want you to keep playing music for the both of us."

"Kyle I will promise you I will stay for as long as I need and about the music but the one thing I can't promise you is that I would date someone else."

"Pheebs please, I don't want you to be single for the rest of your life I want you to go through life with happiness."

"I can't Kyle it would hurt to much as I would feel like I'm cheating on you and then it would make miss you more."

"You know I will always be in your heart and memory, plus you will always have the photo album that Ricky made us."

"There are some great photos in here aren't they."

"Yeah she took some great shots of us. My favourite will always be the one of us at the beach looking into each others eyes because I remember that at the moment in time you Phoebe Nicholson were the girl that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with." Kyle spoke quietly.

"Your going to make me cry again. But your right I do love that photo but not as much as the photo from Casey's birthday party when we were sat playing that new song that we wrote and your smile that day was a smile that I hadn't seen since before your dad came into your life again." Phoebe said as she flicked through the album.

When Kyle didn't reply straight away she turned round to find Kyle with his eyes shut and no wheezing sound which he made when he was asleep.

"KYLE! KYLE, WAKE UP!" Phoebe screamed as tears streamed down her face. "KYLE PLEASE WAKE UP!"

Everyone came running into Kyle's bedroom when they had heard Phoebe scream. They all stood there as the young girl desperately tried to wake Kyle up. Brax walked over to her and picked her up off the bed.

"He's gone Pheebs."

I'm so sorry about how long this one shot is but I felt like I wouldn't be able to right less than what I did.

P.S. I actually cried writing this just thinking about what if this had happened on the show.