The house was buzzing with activity when Anna woke up in Ryan's arms the next afternoon.

Seth and Summer were bickering in the living room, oblivious to her passing. Luke, Larry, Sandy and Rosa were picking at fruit when she walked into the kitchen.

"He's still sleeping," she told them, accepting Larry's solemn hug.

"When'd you get here?" Sandy asked, taking her hand and squeezing it with a smile.

"A few hours ago," she told Sandy.

"Couldn't stay away either?" Luke asked.

"Not really. He…he says he's not scared but…"

"This is fucking scary," Larry finished.

Anna sat down between them.

In his room, Ryan woke up alone, Anna's pillow in his arms. The nausea was the first thing he focused on, the headache assaulting him next.

He didn't want to move.

"You okay?" Kirsten's voice was too loud.

"I feel like…I feel bad…" Ryan admitted, not sitting up.

"It's time for your meds, do you think you can keep them down?"

"No," he answered honestly. "But I have to try…"

"Headache?" she whispered, pulling back the covers and exposing his face to the dim light of the lamp.

"Yeah…almost like I'm seasick…"

She lifted his head and held up a cup of water. He sipped it gratefully and she put several pills in his open palm.

"Thanks…"

"Turn over and lie on your stomach. Try to sleep, you'll feel better when you wake up…"

He slowly rolled over to lie on his belly. His stomach revolted suddenly, burning from lack of food and his recent vomiting, but he managed to keep settled.

"Just take deep breaths and relax…"

He inhaled Anna's scent off her pillow and felt himself relax under Kirsten's watch. She started to massage his head and he drifted to sleep, comforted and safe.

Larry and Anna took the next shift while Sandy and Kirsten were out car shopping with Luke and Seth. Ryan was sleeping soundly and they decided to kill time on the playstation, Anna's ninjas annihilating Larry's.

"How're you handling it?" Anna asked him.

"Me?" Larry scoffed.

"Yeah. It's a little…too recent, isn't it?"

Larry sighed.

He was drastically different from high school, his Mohawk traded for a buzz cut and piercings in his nose and eyebrows. He was a millionaire with his own recording company and a two-year-old daughter that lived in Tahoe with his ex-wife. He'd stayed with his father throughout his illness, being there when the man took his last breath.

"He doesn't deserve this. Nobody does. But I want to be here for him. What about you?"

"He's…he's so strong. He hates being weak. But…already, it's taking its toll. I want to be here for him."

Ryan stirred for the first time in hours, reacting to their voices. She recognized his blue eyes as he recognized her. "Anna…hey, Larry…"

She helped him sit up, his chemotherapy pill having been given to him by Kirsten earlier and having drained him again.

"Long time no see," Larry grinned, shaking his hand.

"True, it's been, what, a month?" Ryan yawned.

"How're you feeling?"

"I feel like ass…and not in a good way," Ryan grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"It's just us, you don't have to get up," Anna said.

Ryan immediately lay down again, tugging the blankets around him. "I'm not very good company right now, but I don't want you guys to go anywhere."

"Rest. We can catch up later. Right now, your girl and I are in the middle of a battle extraordinaire," Larry said.

"You mind?" Ryan asked her.

"Rest. I'm not going anywhere," she promised.

He closed his eyes, complacent. She would have held his hand, but he was buried under the covers.

Seth was with him when he woke up again, playing a muted game on the playstation.

His head was pounding worse this time and his throat was parched.

Seth noticed him almost immediately with a grin. "Hey…what do you need?"

Ryan sat up and reached over for the glass of water on the nightstand but was assaulted with vertigo, spilling it all over the bed.

"That was a bad idea," Ryan said hoarsely, apologetic at his mess.

"Go get cleaned up, I'll find some dry sheets and I won't even joke about you wetting the bed…"

"Thanks, Seth." He knew that he'd been sleeping most of the day but as he got to his feet and noticed the small stack of pills for his next dose, he didn't think that he was going to have the energy to go out and socialize.

Ryan drank some of the cool water from a pitcher before going to get cleaned up.

The shower was warm and refreshing but his muscles were hurting by the time he dried off and dressed.

"It's kind of late, everybody's pretty crashed out…but Summer started snoring so I came down to check on you," Seth said, making the bed when he stepped out.

"Where's Anna?"

"She fell asleep in the living room and she seemed pretty comfortable. How're you doing?"

"Drained," Ryan said, swallowing the pills.

"You want to get some air?" Seth offered.

"I think…I think I better lie down," Ryan replied, dizzy suddenly. He sat down on the bed before Seth could realize that he was having trouble.

"Dude, you've been in here for, like, fourteen hours…"

But Ryan couldn't hear him because everything went black as he leaned back against the bed.

"It's normal for him to be fatigued…" Dr. Tarleton said, sitting down with them in the den. Seth had woken everyone in the house when Ryan had fallen asleep mid-conversation and Kirsten had called the man for a housecall.

"Dr. Tarleton, he was lifting weights a week ago, he played basketball with Luke last weekend, and now, he won't even leave his room…" Seth said.

Summer put her arm around him to comfort him.

"He's not only getting the chemo when he comes to the hospital, he's taking oral medication. Every time you give him a dose of pills, it's like introducing poison into his body, it's poisoning the cancer but it's going to affect his health as well," the man explained quietly. "It's going to take a few days for him to get back on his feet."

"So we're overreacting," Kirsten said.

"It's nothing to worry about. Just keep watching him closely, make him eat, even if he gets sick, he has to eat so he can get as many nutrients as possible in him. His temperature's normal, pulse is normal for sleeping and you all say he's lucid when he wakes up…"

"Thank you for coming so late," Sandy said.

"Any time. I'm worried about him, too, but he's getting the best treatment we could find."

Sandy woke Ryan when it was time for him to take his pills again. Ryan didn't even bother trying speaking, he simply swallowed the pills and rolled over again.

Anna stepped over, shaking him gently. "Ryan, honey, wake up…"

"Tired," Ryan rasped, his voice gone. He wouldn't open his eyes.

"You have to get up and eat something, Ryan," she urged.

"Later," he mumbled.

"Now. Ryan, come on, sit up." She glanced at Sandy and they pulled the covers back and she lifted him to sit up.

He blinked groggily at them, annoyed. "I'm not hungry."

"It doesn't matter. You're going to get dehydrated and you won't have any energy if you don't eat or drink something. Now, come on, we're taking you out for some sun and sugar."

Ryan shook his head at her, covering his eyes solemnly. He swung his feet off the bed. "No sun. Quiet. Somewhere still…"

"Still?" Sandy asked.

"Everything's spinning all the time…I need it to be still," Ryan stated curiously, not moving his hand from his face.

"Ryan, are you dizzy?"

He lowered his hand and she saw that his nose had started to bleed and his pupils were fully dilated. "Water?"

Anna studied him as his shoulders slumped suddenly and his eyelids fell closed.

"Ryan, wait, stay with us…" Sandy said, supporting him as he went limp.

"Anna, call an ambulance," Sandy said after a long moment when Ryan didn't move again. He was out cold. She was frozen.

"Anna. He's going to be all right, just use the phone in the den," Sandy urged.

She rushed from the room.

Larry, Luke and Summer stayed home to keep down on the chaos. Sandy rode with Ryan in the ambulance while Seth, Anna and Kirsten followed in Seth's new car.

It was four hours before Dr. Tarleton found them in the waiting room.

"Dr…"

"He's okay. He had a bad reaction to one of the medications," Dr. Tarleton admitted.

"You said he was fine…" Seth said.

"I thought he was, I'm sorry…" Dr. Tarleton started.

"What kind of reaction?" Anna asked quietly.

"An allergic reaction. It altered his breathing…but we've counteracted it. His brain activity is normal, we've flushed his system and we're working on balancing his electrolytes. He's conscious and he asked me to tell you that he's feeling better. Would you like to see him?"

"You don't have to ask," Anna whispered, Kirsten's arm keeping her steady.

"Follow me," Dr. Tarleton said, leading them up the elevators to Ryan's room.

"Rita, I don't want it, it tastes like ocean water," Ryan's weak voice was aggravated from the room.

"You have to eat something, its soup not brine," Rita scolded.

"Well, he's feeling well enough to be stubborn," Sandy smiled.

"God, I feel like I've been on a long trip," Ryan said, relief in his eyes.

Anna rushed over and immediately worked around his iv's and monitors to embrace him tightly. "Don't you ever do that again…"

"I'll certainly try…I don't remember what happened but I'm sorry I scared you," he said.

"I can breathe again now that I see you…are you all right? How do you feel?" She asked. She didn't want to smother him and she knew that Kirsten and Sandy wanted to see him, too, but she had been dying without him.

"Tired, but not like before. I felt like I was sinking, it…it sucked," Ryan replied.

"Ryan, don't say 'suck'," Kirsten said, walking to the other side of the bed with Sandy.

"Sorry," he smiled.

"When can you come home?" Seth asked quietly.

"I'm going to stick around and have my next chemo treatment. Make sure nothing else is going to set me off," Ryan replied. He turned to Anna apologetically. "Sorry I won't be home to keep you company."

"I'm not going anywhere," Anna whispered. It bothered her that he was so fine with his recent scare but when she laced her fingers with his, she could feel his fear.

tbc...I promise...