Julie fell asleep on Noah's lap last night. When she woke up this morning, Noah was gone. She sat up and put the blanket around her, it was cold.

She looked throughout the house for Noah, and finally found him on the rooftop deck, looking out at the water below.

"Noah." Julie whispered, handing him a cup of coffee.

Noah didn't say anything for a while, but Julie didn't mind.

"Noah, what can I do?" Julie asked quietly.

Noah took her hands in his "You're doing what you can. Being there for me when I need you. At this point, that's all I can ask."

Julie kissed him slowly.

"I have a doctor's appointment in an hour." Noah informed her "You want to come?"

Julie knew he needed her, and she needed him, she nodded.

"Hi Noah." The doctor said, motioning for Noah to follow him into the room.
Noah took Julie's hand and walked into the office. Julie sat silently as the doctor ran tons of tests. Then the doctor left for a good hour, before finally returning.

"Well Noah, I wish I had better news." The doctor said sadly.

Noah squeezed Julie's hand tight.

"The cancer has spread considerably in the past few weeks." The doctor said.

"What does that mean?" Noah asked "Can you get rid of it?"

"Well, not at this point." The doctor told him.

Noah's eyes started to water "You mean you're just gonna let the cancer take over my body!" he yelled.

Julie just stroked his hand, trying to stay as strong as she could.

"Well, maybe not." The doctor said, which confused Noah even more "You see, there is this new procedure, but it can only be used when the cancer gets to the worst possible point."

"You're kidding" Noah mumbled.

"We can't do it before a certain point in the spread of the cancer cells. I'm sorry Noah, but that's our only hope."

Noah took a deep breath "How long until I get to the worst point?"

"Could be 2 weeks, could be 2 months"

Noah and Julie drove silently home.

------------

2 weeks later the symptoms got much worse. Since no one could get in touch with Noah's parents, Julie has been staying with him. Haley's been coming over every day too.

Julie has gotten about as much sleep as Noah since she's up with him all night when he gets sick.

Tonight was a bad night, Noah was on the edge of the bed, vomiting every five minutes.

"Shhhhh. It's okay." Julie assured him as she wiped his face with a wash cloth. Noah was so overtired that he could barely sit up by himself.

Julie called Haley to come over and help her…she couldn't do it on her own anymore.

"Honey." Haley said as she walked in, Noah had his head on her lap "How's he doing?"

"Worse then ever." Julie told her mom.

Haley helped Julie all night. By the next morning, Noah stopped vomiting as much.

"Mrs. Scott." Noah said quietly to Haley who was sitting on the chair next to the bed "I have a question."

"What is it?" Haley asked, trying to smile for him.

"I…..I want to marry your daughter."

Haley gave him a very confused look.

"Mrs. Scott, I know we're young, and we haven't been dating for long, but she's been my best friend. And I need her to know that, I want to marry her, just in case I…….don't….make it." Noah said, choking off tears at the end.

Haley thought about it for a moment. "Are you sure you want to do this? What if….I mean, when you get better is this gonna be what you want?"

"Mrs. Scott, I've thought about this since I found out about the cancer. I love your daughter more than anything in the world. And I want to spend the rest of my life….no matter how long that is, with her."

Haley smiled "Have you talked to Julie about it?"

Noah shook his head, "I wanted your approval first."

"Well" Haley said