Chapter 5: Too Young

A/N: Just wanted to say that you need to remember it is still 1960 so things we take for granted, like medicine, don't exist yet. Can't give much away but, I thought I should remind people that while 1960 was that start of some big changes medicine wasn't hitting on much.

Still don't own them.

Amber didn't return for a week. When finally she did return, she moved toward her room like a zombie.

"What did the doctor say?" Meeks asked.

Amber just shook her head and walked toward her room. Knox tried to follow her, but Todd stopped him.

"She'll tell you when she wants you to know. Let her be right now." Todd whispered.

Knox bit his bottom lip but nodded. He knew that Todd was right. He went back in a his room, and tried to concentrate on the physics he'd been studying.

About a half an hour later, Amber emerged from her room, eyes red and puffy. She knocked on Knox and Charlie's door, and grabbed Knox's wrist and pulled him to her room, where she slammed the door and kissed him full on the lips, then burst into tears.

"What the hell?" Knox was so confused.

"I just had to do it. I don't know how many more opportunities I'll get. I'm… I'm dying Knox." Amber managed to get out.

"But…your…I mean…"Knox sat down on the floor.

"Have you ever heard of Leukemia?" Amber asked, sitting beside him.

"Once or twice, studying about diseases in biology. I know it's a type of cancer, and that they're working on treatments…but nothing has come out of it. No…No…No…" Knox looked like he couldn't believe it.

"Yes. I've got maybe a year left, maybe a few months more, a few less." Amber tried to check the wavering in her voice.

"There isn't anything that they can do?" Knox asked. He looked about ready to cry.

"Everything is just too experimental. My mother won't risk it." Amber said, standing up. "Knox, promise me something. You'll stay with me, until…you know."

Knox nodded. "I promise." He didn't want to argue over inevitabilities just yet. It still hadn't fully sunk in yet.

" Knox, is there somewhere we go, so I can tell the guys before Nolan makes a huge ordeal over it in services on Sunday?"

Knox nodded. "I know just the place."

Amber stood up, steadied her nerves and followed Knox to get the boys and to the luggage room.

"This can't be good. The five of us are magnets for bad news in this room." Meeks said.

"Sorry Meeks, it isn't any better this time." Amber said, looking around at the puzzled and worried faces in front of her. " I can't think of a way to put this delicately, so I just have to come right out and say it. I'm dying. I have Leukemia." Amber quickly lowered her gaze to her lap, she couldn't stand to look them in their eyes, it would've been too painful.

All was quite for a moment, as they let the news seep in. Finally, Charlie broke the silence.

"There's nothing anyone can do?" He asked, softer than Amber had ever heard before.

"No. It's all still in experimental stages." Amber said, still looking down.

"How long do you have?" Pitts finally asked the inevitable question.

"A year, maybe a little more, a little less. And I haven't even told you the worst of it." Amber said, finally looking up.

"There's worse news?" Knox asked, from his place on an overturned luggage with Amber at his feet on the floor.

"My mother wants to pull me out of Welton. I got her to let me stay through Christmas break…" Amber started, but was interrupted by Todd, who, before he could stop it, blurted out, "That's only two weeks away."

"I know. She's coming back the day before we leave, and taking me out to lunch, where hopefully we will discuss things like adults, which is highly unlikely. Hopefully, she will see my point that I'd rather spend what little time I have here, with you guys, my family." Amber looked at the sea of faces, all so lost and hurt. Pitts stood by the little window, head on the glass, thoughtful. Meeks sat in the corner, on a piece off baggage, face turned to the wall to hide his emotion. Todd stood against the wall of suitcases, arms crossed, head down, occasionally reaching up to wipe his eyes.

Amber turned to Knox, who sat with his head in his hands. Twice he'd heard her say that phrase and each time it hurt more than before.

Amber looked across at Charlie. Even he was misty-eyed. Her bad-boy was shaken. It was too much for her. She'd vowed, after the night she'd comforted Knox in the hallway, never to see a man cry again. She stood up and ran out of the room.

The boys looked up at the slam of the door, but silently agreed to let her be.

It wasn't like their was anything they could do anyway.

Finally Charlie broke the silence. "Un Be -Fucking -lievable. Absolutely unbelievable." He called out to no one imparticular . "How in the hell do they expect us to believe in a just and loving God when shit like this happens?"

"Haven't you learned, Nuwanda, that life is completely unfair? First Neil, now Amber. People get ripped from us like crazy anymore." Knox said. Bitterly. He'd moved from Denial and Shock to Anger.

"Maybe it's good we know now." Todd said, quietly. Four pairs of eyes looked at him expectedly.

"Think about it. How much worse would it be if she'd never found out and died in a year without so much as any warning? Remember how awful the shock was when Neil…well…you know? At least now we have a chance to come to terms with it all. It's horrible, awful, and unbelievably unfair. But it's a fact and it can't be changed, no matter how much we want it to. So we just have to do what we can to enjoy this year and when the time comes, it won't hit so hard." Todd finished. He stood in his place in silence, waiting to see what his friends would think.

He didn't have to wait long. Charlie got up and gave him a friendly hug. "Todd, thank you." Was all he said, but Todd knew he'd said the right things.

On an impulse , the boys stood up. As one. Which was how they'd have to remain if they were to make it through the year.