Thanks so much to everyone who reads this story, it humbles me to read your reviews so keep them coming. I also want to apologize for the delay in between updates. Real life and work are making me busy- busy, but I promise I will finish this story. A quick warning, I know nothing about cancer treatment and diagnosis and I'm going with the research I did on the net. So if you find something horribly wrong point it put and I will fix it. I do know a few women that are survivors and I dedicate this story to all of the courageous women who fight against cancer.

8 Choices

"Ok, Em. I'll call you as soon as we have more news. And thanks again for taking both kids for the day… Ok. Bye."

Elizabeth ended the call and placed her phone back on her pocket. She turned to find Jason still sitting down on a plastic chair in the waiting area. The moment her words had sunk in his weight had dropped on the chair and he hadn't moved an inch.

Lucky was still pacing back and forth, looking like a caged animal that wanted to ripped something apart. She was still confused at the situation at hand, but she wasn't about to ask either of them.

Elizabeth walked over and sat beside Jason. Tentatively she placed her small hand over his thigh. He blinked a few times and turned his head to look at her.

"Do you want something? Water, coffee?" She asked.

"Some answers would be good right about now."

"I'm sorry. That's the only thing I can't give you. I'm not really sure what is going on here."

He ran his hands over his face and sighed. "I knew something was wrong. I – I – saw the signs, but I thought she was pregnant. I never…"

She had a questions on the tip of her tongue when the voice of Doctor Torres made them all turn towards her.

"Mr. Spencer. I'm sorry we have to meet again in such a difficult situation."

The Latin American woman walked over to Lucky. Who immediately questioned, "How is she?"

"I gave her a sedative to calm her down. They are taking her to a private room as we speak. And she wants to see you."

Jason stood up and walked closer to the doctor. "Excuse me. I'm Jason Morgan, Sam's…" He trailed off not really knowing how to introduce himself.

"I know who you are, although we haven't officially met. I think we have a lot to talk about. So why don't you come with me to my office, while Mr. Spencer visits with Sam."

Jason's eyes turned cold and unblinking at the younger doctor. She couldn't be older than his sister Emily. "I want to see her."

"I don't think that is the wiser thing to do right now. I know you must be worried and have a million questions. But I guarantee that Sam is stable for now. She will be asleep soon and we have a lot to talk about."

Jason took a step closer to the Doctor and Lucky in his menacing 'Borg' persona, but Elizabeth walked up to him and grabbed his arm. Standing in front of him she spoke slowly. "Jason, I think is better if you go get some answers before you see her."

The doctor turned to Lucky. "Room 718."

"Thank you." He said as he walked by Elizabeth and Jason. Neither knew if he was talking to Elizabeth or the doctor.

"Mr. Morgan. Come with me, this way please. Elizabeth, thank you for you help."

Elizabeth nodded to the doctor and dropped her hand from Jason's arm. She bit her lip and looked back at him. "I can't promise everything is going to be okay. But I can promise I'll be here for you."

The knot in his chest tightened at her words, and he looked at the doctor again. "Can Elizabeth come with us?"

"If you wish."

"I do." Jason said his gaze never wavering form Elizabeth's.

"I love your iceland, Auntie Em. It's very great…"

Lila had been chatting none stop since they arrived at the docks and took the launch. Cameron in the other hand had been uncharacteristically quiet. He usually was eager to take the boat and sit at the captain's chair. But today it was different.

Even after Elizabeth had warned her about the kid's rivalry, she didn't imagine the extent of it. As soon as Emily walked into the schoolroom, both Cam and Lila had jumped off their sit. They ran straight for her talking a mile a minute asking her to tell the other that she and Nickolas and Paige were theirs.

After sitting down with both kids, she had tried to explain that they were both part of her family for different reasons.

"So that means that Cam is my family by heart, because I love his mother like a sister and he's my Godson and I love him a lot. But Lila, who I love very much also, is my brother's daughter, which makes her my niece."

Both Cam and Lila stayed quiet for a minute both pondering her answer, which she hoped she had managed to do right. After a minute a sneaky smile draw on Lila's lips.

"If my daddy is your brother, and Cam's mommy is not. That means you love me more. Because I'm your fambly and he is not."

Cameron's face fell and he took a step back. But Emily grabbed his hand made him step closer.

"That is not true Lila. Cameron is as much my family as you are. Because a family is made by people that love each other and takes care of each other and is there when the other needs them the most. And Elizabeth, Cam's mommy, has been my best friend in the world. I love her very much, just as much as I love your daddy. So that makes Cameron a very important part of my family."

That answer made Cameron smile, and Lila's lip to turn down. "If he is your fambly and I am your fambly. Does it mean he and me are fambly?"

Cameron's eyes became big as saucers and his mouth opened in surprise and disgust. "Nah ah… I don't want her as my family ever!"

Once the boat was docked, Emily grabbed both kids by the hand and helped them out into the docks.

"It's pronounced 'island' Lila. And it's not really mine, it's your uncle Nick's."

"But it's yours too. And Paige. Where is Paige today? Is it her birthday yet?"

"Not yet. Paige's birthday will be in two weeks."

"Can I go play with her?"

"I'm sorry Lila, but Paige is on a trip out of town visiting her grandma Laura with her dad."

"Hummm… But I still can play with her dolls right?"

Emily let out a giggle. "Of course you can darling."

She turned to look at Cam, who was walking with his head bent down. "Hey Cam, you've been very quiet. It's something wrong?"

He shook his head no.

"Are you hungry?"

Again he shook his head no.

"Are you tired?"

The shake of his head was almost imperceptible now.

"Hey Auntie Em, what is that?" Lila said stopping abruptly making Emily, who had both kids by the hand, stop Cameron too.

"Those are trees."

"I know that. Why are they taking your trees to the inside of the house?"

"Because, Cameron's mommy, Elizabeth, is building an Enchanted Forest for Paige's birthday."

Cameron looked up interested, a smile finally forming on his lips.

"Really? My mommy is doing that?" Asked excitedly.

"Yes she is. And if you guys behave, do your homework and don't fight for a few hours… I might take you to see how it's going."

"Cool!" Both kids said at the same time.

The air inside Doctor Torres' office was thick with tension. Jason and Elizabeth sat waiting for her to start her explanation.

"I think I'll start from the beginning. After giving birth to baby Lila, Samantha was very on point about meeting her OBGYN for routine check ups. One day while breastfeeding Lila, she noticed a lump in her left breast. Apparently she wrote it off as nothing at first but then a few weeks later realized that the lump had doubled in size. She immediately went for a check up and had a mammogram. The results lead to a biopsy and that lead to the confirmation that she indeed had breast cancer."

Jason swallowed and spoke clearly. "All of this happened three years ago? Why didn't she say anything?"

"I really can't answer that question Mr. Morgan. As it is I'm breaking doctor patient confidentiality and I'm doing that because I know it's what Sam wanted. She asked that when this time came I would explain everything to you in as much detail as I could."

Elizabeth's hand made its way to his thigh and she squeezed carefully in support. He looked down and grabbed her hand in his.

"Sam was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer. This type of cancer is often more aggressive than other types and the prognosis isn't very enthusiastic. She didn't want you to know about this so she made some calls and scheduled an appointment at my office. She wanted to transfer her record from General Hospital to Mercy."

Jason just nodded to the woman in understanding and wanting to know everything. Elizabeth just sat there taking everything in. How could Sam go through all of this alone and not tell Jason, the father of her only child?

"We moved quickly when we had the prognosis and she opted to have a lumpectomy."

At Jason's blank expression, Elizabeth explained. "That's a partial removal of the breast, they take out only the affected areas."

"In her case we brought in a plastic surgeon and removed her implants too, trying to avoid future complications."

"She was out of town for two weeks. She said she wanted to take them out because of the baby, she never said anything about cancer." Jason said in a small voice.

"Sam probably didn't want to scare you and Lila was so little…" Elizabeth said trying to rationalize the other woman's behavior.

"She wasn't out of town she was right here at Mercy. We did an aggressive bout of radiation therapy and in time she began her recovery."

"What happened then? Why is she in a hospital bed now? Why was she taking medication?" Jason asked getting agitated. Elizabeth's hold the only thing keeping him from getting up and pacing the room.

"TNBC is very aggressive. And the treatment is long and painful. In between her treatments she met Lucky and they began their relationship. So she left her meds and stopped her treatment. The risks were subsiding she was doing much better…"

That made Jason stand up and his fury boil over. "Are you telling me that Sam stopped her treatment because of Lucky? She put herself in this position all because of that good for nothing motherfu…."

Elizabeth spoke then, even if her head was still spinning with all the information. "Jason… just, please lets hear everything the doctor has to say. Come on sit down."

"I have no intention of getting in between your personal problems Mr. Morgan. I am doing my best to explain how things progressed to the stage we are in now. Samantha thought she was okay. The side effects where diminishing, her health was improving and she was falling in love."

Lucky entered the room and was taken aback by the sounds of the monitors surrounding her. She was so tiny sitting in the middle of the white sterile sheets. His heart was breaking at the sight of her. The black bags under her eyes, the yellow hue to her skin, it only made him want to take her away and protect her even more.

She opened her eyes slowly as if sensing his presence. He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to smile but failed.

"You are here."

"Where else would I be?"

"I'm s-s-sorry." Her voice was tired and the oxygen mask made it difficult to understand her.

"You have nothing to be sorry about." Lucky said pulling up a chair and sitting at her side grabbing her hand.

"I-I- I was with her…"

"I know. She told us when she called. Ironically, I was with him."

She moved her head to the side to look at him slightly panicked at what that meant.

"He knows about us. He said he knew about us since that first time at Jake's."

"W-whe- where is he?"

"He's with Doctor Torres. They most be learning everything as we speak."

"They?"

"Elizabeth hasn't left his side the whole time we've been here." His lips curled at the thought of them together.

Sam's lip curled up a little in an attempt to smile and closed her eyes.

Lucky's fingers started to caress her hair and she let out a content sigh.

"When she came back for her check up, we noticed things weren't as normal as we once thought. Sam started to have some unusual pains and aches. Soon she was back on her cocktail of meds. We went back in and realized that she had developed metastatic breast cancer and it was far approaching the brain, so we took drastic measures and began chemotherapy. But it's not working as we thought it would, the cancer is reproducing at a much faster speed that we can attack it and…"

"She's not going to make it." Elizabeth said a tear rolling down her cheeks.

She was heartbroken for the young woman, the small child who was about to loose a mother and the man that meant so much to her and whose world had turned upside down.