Noah sat with Nicole and Hannah in his living room as the three of them watched Cody wrap up a keyboard lesson with Spencer. Nicole had been back from the hospital for a week, and though her recovery was rough, she was just happy to be relaxing for once and not shuffling from class to class as she had been since double-majoring. She was wearing what was comfortable for her at the moment - an oversized t-shirt with fleece pajama bottoms. Every day she had been waking up and putting on fresh new pajamas, as she needed something loose-fitting and wasn't leaving the house anyway. She laid down on the couch as Hannah sat in between Nicole's legs and facing her.

"Was the hospital scary?" Hannah asked.

"It was scary, but the doctors and nurses made me really comfortable." She told her.

"I've never been to the hospital before." Spencer butted in as him and Cody deconstructed the keyboard.

"Yes you have!" Spencer retorted.

"No I haven't!"

"Yes, you have!" He faced her and put his hands on his hips. Noah stepped in.

"You definitely have, Hannah." He said as he faced her. "When you were a baby, your Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Nicole and I were with you when you got a hanger caught in your eye while playing in a closet."

"I don't remember that."

"Well of course you didn't, you were a baby." Nicole laughed.

"You also went to a hospital when I got my tonsils out! Remember?" Spencer told her.

"That doesn't count!" She said to him.

"Yes it does!"

"No, it do—" Noah stepped in once more.

"Be nice to each other." He looked over to Nicole. "Did we ever fight this much when we were kids?" Nicole shrugged and nodded her head. Hannah moved on and looked over to Nicole and placed her hands on Nicole's knees.

"Aunt Nicole, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's up?" Hannah's eyes began to light up.

"Can I see your scars?" She exclaimed. Nicole gave a worried face, wondering what she just heard from sweet little Hannah.

"My surgery scars?" Nicole asked, confused at her question. Spencer began to giggle as he turned over to Nicole.

"I wanna see, I wanna see! It's gonna look so gross!" She looked over at Noah and laughed.

"Is 'gross' the new 'cool'?" Noah retorted to himself.

"Sorry guys, I'm all bandaged up. But I think I have some photos on my phone." She began to reach for the phone herself, but before she could reach the counter, she began to hold her side in pain.

"Let me get it for you." Noah said as he sided her a look. She knew better than to give herself extra strain. He handed the phone over to her and she began to unlock her phone and scroll through her photos until she got to the right one. Spencer leaned over to Nicole's phone to look on with her.

"Woah!" Spencer said in amazement.

"I wanna see, I wanna see!" She went on her knees and leaned over to Nicole's chest, but as soon as Noah realized what she was about to do, he gently took her by her stomach and rested her on the edge of the couch.

"Hannah, please be careful. You almost touched her tummy." Hannah quickly looked over to Nicole, remembering her parents had said to be extra careful as to not hurt her.

"Sorry, Aunt Nicole."

"That's okay." Noah took the phone from Nicole's hands to show to Hannah, and she made a grossed-out face, which made her quickly regret her decision of wanting to see.

"Ewww. Does it hurt?" She asked.

"Yes, but not as much anymore." She told her. Cody came back from putting the keyboard away and looked over to the kids.

"Your parents will probably be here any second now." Hannah and Spencer groaned.

"Aww, can't we stay a little longer?" Spencer asked Noah.

"Yeah, I wanna spend more time with Aunt Nicole!" Hannah said. Noah began to chuckle.

"You guys will see her in a month, don't worry. And I'm sure you two have homework to do at home." Hannah frowned as she began to get up from off the couch. "Do you have your backpacks ready? Your mom won't want to wait long for you."

"Yes, I do." Spencer groaned. Him and Hannah looked over to Nicole, who was still laying on the couch. They looked over to the window as they saw the lights of Bethany and Joshua's minivan pull up into the driveway, and the kids pouted at Noah and Nicole. Cody took Hannah and Spencer's backpack and brought it over to the couch as Noah let the two of them in.

"Nicole!" She began to sit up as much as she could bear as she smiled over to Bethany and Joshua. Joshua came over and knelt down to give her a hug at her shoulder area, while Bethany, who was very pregnant, stood next to Joshua.

"I wish I could bend down to your level, but I'll just pat you on the head." Bethany giggled as she stroked her hair. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than I did this time last week." Nicole noted. "What about you? How's pregnancy?"

"Just counting down the days until maternity leave!" She sighed. "I've been so tired this go around, I'll probably go right to sleep after eating." She looked back over to Hannah and Spencer. "Say thank you to Cody and uncle Noah for having you two over." They looked over to Noah and Cody and smiled.

"Thank you!" They said together.

"No problem." They walked over to the door as Joshua took their backpacks in his hands.

"It was good to see you again, Nicole." Bethany said. "Well, not because of the circumstances, but, you know what I mean." Nicole gave a light chuckle.

"You're good."

"We'll see you fall break?"

"Yes!" Joshua opened the door and let Bethany and the kids go first, then waved over to Cody, Nicole, and Noah.

"Bye, Nicole. See you next month." The door closed and the family began to load into their car, and Nicole breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for saving me there with Hannah. I would have been in pain all night." She said to Noah, who was sitting on the opposite couch with Cody.

"No problem. You know how she gets." Noah said to her.

"So, what now?" Nicole asked. As Noah and Nicole discussed movies, Cody's phone began to buzz and he looked down as he read the text.

"Ah, crap." He murmured.

"What?" He pulled himself out of the conversation and looked over to Cody's face. He put his phone in his pocket as Cody readied to walk into his home office.

"I have a stream tonight that I totally forgot about."

"Go do your thing, Cody, you're good." Nicole smiled.

"I'm gonna be in my office. I'll see you tomorrow, Nicole, if you're asleep by then."

"His streams can go pretty long, you might wanna sleep with some earplugs." Noah joked. He kissed Cody's cheek as he got up from the couch, then Cody waved as he left the twins to themselves.

"Can you help me up?" Noah nodded as he grabbed her hand, then took his other hand on her back to help her stand up. "Thanks." Nicole walked slowly behind Noah as he began to walk to the guest room, and closed the door behind them as Nicole climbed into bed and Noah turned on the TV.

"What do you wanna watch?" He asked. They looked over to the TV guide, then Nicole tapped him on the shoulder as they scrolled past Disney Channel.

"It's Halloweentown!" She cooed.

"We've seen this movie like 100 times."

"Then this'll be time one hundred and one." Noah rolled his eyes and smiled as he turned it on. The movie had just started, so he sat down on the chair near her bed.

"You can come on up on the bed." Noah looked surprised.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Of course." Noah rolled onto bed and rested his head on the headrest as he sat up and watched the movie with her. The movie was only twenty minutes in, though Nicole practically knew every word at this point.

"You've changed so much since this time last year." Noah looked shyly over at Nicole.

"I haven't made that much of an improvement."

"You toured half the summer on two days notice as Justin's replacement, you're living on your own with your boyfriend you had previously spent three years avoiding in this awesome house, and you're going back to school for art, something you promised yourself you'd never do again after their death. You were having a panic attack every week, avoiding real-life, and boring yourself to death in the same routine to avoid any advancement or improvement in your life."

"I just wish they could have seen where we're at now." Nicole looked down and began to think about their parents.

"I do, too. I wish a lot of things about mom and dad. I wish we could have learned how to drive from them. I wish they could have been there for us at our high school graduation, and so much more. We only got them for fourteen years of our life, and there's nothing we could do to change that. When I went to therapy, I was able to understand and cope with that, but you weren't." Noah began to pull at the ends of his hair.

"It was really hard for me. It's still really hard for me. There are days where I come back from my therapy sessions in tears. I'm not just suddenly healed because I discussed a memory of them with Hannah."

"No, I know that, and I would never say that. I just… I can't believe how much you've grown this past year, and I hope you know that, too. I want you to know I'm really proud of you." Noah slowed his breathing down as the memories of his mom and dad came flooding into his mind, then looked towards Nicole with a grin on his face. She smiled back at him as they looked back at the TV. "Thanks for letting me stay here, Noah. And for taking care of me. I know it's not easy to take care of me. I'm stubborn."

Noah chuckled. "You get it from mom." There was a pause from both of them, then Noah spoke up.

"You've changed so much too, Nicole. This time last year, you were an Astronomy major living alone in a single dorm, with hardly any real friends. Now you're in a serious relationship with someone I was on TV with and you're studying to be a music teacher. That deserves some celebrating too, Nicole, doesn't it?" She didn't respond back. Noah gave her a moment, then nudged her arm and looked over to her; she had fallen asleep. He began to turn the volume down on the TV then turned the lights off as he closed the door and quietly exited to get ready for bed himself.

He wanted to check in with Cody and his stream, so he opened the door quietly to his home office before heading into his room. He had his headphones in and was sitting at his desk with a controller in his hand playing a game in front of the PC on his desk. He had a ringlight sitting on the desk and he had a green screen behind him, and was streaming himself playing a game with another streamer. Noah listened as Cody played and answered some questions.

"'Will you ever get Noah to play with you on streams?'" He read out loud as he played Overwatch. "That's a good question, and I've asked him this, but I stream too late at night for him to play with me." Cody chuckled. "Don't tell him I said this, but he's a grandpa. You know the quote early to bed, early to rise? That's Noah for you." Cody began to read off more questions.

"'What are you doing after the Drama Brothers?'" He chuckled nervously and his cheeks turned red as he thought of a good answer. "Uhhh, I don't know. I'm still working it out. I guess you could say streaming is my plan. I wish I had a better answer for you guys." Noah knows Cody feels resentful towards Harold and Trent for having post-Drama Brothers plans, though he doesn't try to, they creep up in the back of his mind. At this point, Noah felt like he was spying on Cody rather than checking up on him, so he began to head over to his room. He closed the door behind him as he plugged in his phone and began to change into his pajamas. He plopped into bed and checked his phone once more before bed and saw a new text from Trent.

Trent

Sorry to bother you, just haven't heard from Nicole much today. Is she ok?

Noah started to draft a response.

Noah

she took some painkillers and slept for most of the day. the kids came over and we hung out with them and she went right to sleep as soon as they left. Right during halloweentown, too.

Trent

Man, she must have been really tired if she fell asleep in October during her favorite movie. Thanks for the response dude, ill see you soon.

Noah

See you!

Noah put the phone down, went under the covers, and closed his eyes as he fell into a deep sleep.

A/N: I had been doing a really great job of updating regularly, but these past few weeks I had been pretty busy with school, work, & vacation. I missed you all! Hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't worry, I am back on track, so I will have another chapter next week sometime! If you liked this please leave a review, and if you're missing the Noah content, don't worry, things will be back on track next chapter! I even have some new characters to introduce next who will play a big role in Noah's journey in school, so make sure you check it out! See you all next time!

PS- a fun fact about the story of baby Hannah in the hospital is that the story is based off a real-life experience I had! When I was a baby I got a hanger stuck in my eye, and had to go to the hospital by ambulance to get it taken out.

~Sami