Noah woke up a couple of hours later and the first thing he saw was Luke standing outside his room but before Noah could react, he threw up. When Noah looked back up, it looked like Luke was debating on whether or not to walk into the room. The next time Luke looked back into the room, Noah waved him in and turned on the camera.

Luke slowly opened up the door to Noah's room and walked in. He took notice right away that Noah was looking thin and slightly greenish around the neck. He walked up to the bed with tears in his eyes.

"I'm really sorry for what I said at Java." Luke said with shame. "I'm sorry that I didn't believe you."

"It's okay."

"No, it's not." said Luke. "I only wanted to come in to apologize for that I said. I was a stupid son of a bitch and I know that you probably hate me now and I'll leave but I just wanted to tell that I was a jerk and I'm sorry." Luke finished with tears rolling down his face.

"I don't hate you, Luke but I will admit that I was very hurt by what you said." Noah spoke truthfully. "I was furious at you for a while but I've never been able to stay mad at you for very long."

"I completely understand if you don't want to see me but…"

"You can visit, Luke. I won't stop you." Noah turned greenish and started throwing up. Luke just stood there in shock, not knowing what to do. After Noah was done, Luke started talking again.

"You don't hate me?" Luke was shocked. He was expecting Noah to yell and scream at him.

"Remember you told me about how Lucinda changed after she got cancer?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's true. You do change and you do understand things differently than before. I shouldn't have told you in Java. I should have had you come to the hospital to Dr. Barnes office or told you with Lucinda around."

"No, I should have believed you." Luke still felt ashamed of his actions and words. "I shouldn't have jumped to the wrong conclusion."

"Like you've never done that before." laughed Noah. "It's okay. I forgive you, Luke."

Luke was surprised that Noah was laughing but he thought he should change the subject.

"So, what did the doctors say?"

"Well, it's leukemia and it's in an early stage since I didn't seem to have it when I was tested for brain surgery. They are trying chemotherapy and if that doesn't work, they will try radiation or a bone marrow transplant."

"Wow." Not knowing what else to say, Luke just stood there staring at Noah hoping someone would break the eerie silence that had crept into the room.

"Yeah." Noah lowered eye lids to hide the tears welling up in his eyes and blew out a quick breath.

"What's wrong?" He noticed Noah was hiding something.

"I've been through a lot with my father, with us, being blind and I just hope I have the strength to do this."

"Of course you can, Noah. You're a very strong person," he said positively.

"I'm not strong, Luke. You of all people should know that." Noah replied curtly.

"What about Richard?"

"What about him?"

"Isn't he here for you?"

"No, why would he?" Not knowing what Luke was asking.

"I thought that since you were close…"

"What? Luke, I told you we were just friends. Why don't you believe me?" Noah was ticked off. "I haven't seen him since I saw you kiss…um…for a while."

"You just seemed so close."

"You were jealous and assumed we were close. I don't think he's even in Oakdale anymore." Noah threw up again.

After Noah finished throwing up, he laid his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes for a few seconds. "I swear to god, I'm going to disembowel myself one of these times."

"Listen, you're tired and I'm going to get out of here and let you sleep."

"That might be good. I am getting tired."

Noah watched Luke walk out the door and turn towards the elevators, feeling even more depressed.

Luke held it together until he got out of sight of Noah's room and he totally broke down in Ali's arms as she was coming to see Noah. When Luke pulled himself together, he swore Ali to secrecy that she wouldn't tell anyone that he broke down. Luke knew what he had to do. He called his parents and asked them to meet him at the farm in an hour.

-P-

When Luke arrived at the farm, he rushed right in and found everyone sitting at the table waiting for him. "I just talked to Noah and I'm worried about him."

"What? I thought we told you to stay away from him." Holden replied in a loud voice.

"He waved me into his room." Luke played innocent.

Holden wasn't buying any of it but let it go.

"He thinks that he can't do this."

"We know." replied Lily. "Mother told us."

"We need to help him."

"We?" asked Emma.

"Yes, we all need to help him. We need to rally around him and show him that he's loved."

"Loved?" asked Holden.

"Dad, you and mom have broken up more than anyone I know. Don't get on my case now. We need to help Noah."

"Luke is right." replied Emma. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I'll pick out one of those small laptops with a 3G wireless in it, so he can get internet access where ever he is. We will get grandmother to give it to him. He won't turn her down. He can use that to have Will and Gwen, Jade, Maddie and anyone else we can get to email him. Then we can set up a rotation of people who can drop by and talk to him, for starters." replied Luke.

"Sounds like a pretty good start. I'm sure, on good days, he wouldn't mind a few oatmeal-raisin cookies." Holden winked at his mom.

-P-

A couple of days later, Noah laid in a hospital bed thinking about how drastically his life had changed in a year. He turned on the camera and started talking.

"I was very happy when Luke and I moved in together but everything changed when I went blind. I did what I always did in a time of crisis, I receded into myself to work things out but only this time things couldn't be worked out. I was blind for life unless I could get someone to fix it, but Luke kept pushing me and the harder Luke pushed, the more I receded into himself. The more Luke tried to help, the angrier I got. Luke finally gave me an ultimatum when he got tired of me. Either I'm all in or I'm all out. Well, I was dumb and chose out. I let the love of my life go because I couldn't grasp being blind and I didn't want to hold him back. I didn't want him to become my caretaker. I wanted him to be my lover, only I didn't think I couldn't be that anymore. Without my eyes, I felt I couldn't contribute properly. Stupid isn't it? Looking back, I wonder how I could have believed that. Well, it was my father coming through again. You're either perfect or your shit. God, why did I listen to that man? I never should have." He began to cry.

"When I got my sight back, it was one of the happiest times in my life, until I saw Luke kissing Dr. Oliver at Lily's house. I was so angry. He had agreed to work on our relationship but he was kissing another man. All I could think of is Brian. Like Dr. Oliver, Brian wasn't much of a catch but Luke kissed him anyway. I suppose I wasn't much of a catch either at first but Dr. Oliver, man, the guy has a bad attitude. He never utters a word unless it's an insult. Anyway, we got to Yo's and that's when Luke said that he wanted to be with me and not Reid. When I told him that I saw him kissing Dr. Oliver, he was surprised that I didn't tell him that I could see. Well, when could I have, between his and Dr. Oliver's kisses?" Noah paused, he was getting tired again.

"Well, after the passionate kiss he and Dr. Oliver had, it was obviously he had feelings for him. There was no way I could stand in his way. It was my own fault for pushing him away. There was no way I could take him choosing another man over me, so I didn't let him choose. I chose for him. I concentrated on my future and tried to let him go but the more I tried the more I thought about him every day. Hell, I even helped out their relationship because I didn't want to see Luke unhappy but Dr. Oliver and Luke kept coming into Java all the time. I could almost swear it was just to shove it in my face. I tried to ignore it and even considered quitting but I needed the job to stay in college and to live. I'm poor and when you have no money, you have to do things that you may not want to do. Luke could do what he wanted, he was born into money and Dr. Oliver is a lot older than us and is established in his field and has money because of that. I'm just a poor son of a bitch who has nobody. My father is in jail for killing my mother and I have no other family than an aunt, which I'm not very close with. I was really excited when I got the funding to do a movie in Los Angeles. A chance at a new beginning for me. A chance to start making movies, which is what I've always wanted to do and a chance to move on with my life, without Luke and without running into Luke and his new boyfriend on almost daily basis. Sure, I was going to start living my dream, but when I met Luke, he became my biggest dream. Making movies fell to a distant second." Noah sighed. He yawned and then shut off his camera and drifted back off to sleep again. It was the first time he was able to get through a taping without throwing up in the middle of it.

-P-

Luke set his plans into motion. He's lined up people to go visit Noah and purchased a small laptop with an active wireless 3G card in it, so Noah can have access to the internet without having to rely on the hospital's wireless connection. He sat down and emailed friends, letting them know about Noah and suggested they email Noah but not let on that they know he has cancer. He did make one phone call though.

"Hello" said Maddie, as she answered her phone.

"Maddie, its Luke. How are you doing?"

"It's great to hear from you Luke. How are you thing going in Oakdale?"

"Not so good. I have some bad news to give you."

"What is it?" Luke could hear the fear in her voice.

"It's Noah. He has leukemia. They caught it early though."

"Oh my God." Maddie started to cry. "Is he okay?"

"He's just started his chemotherapy but he's really depressed. He could really use his friends to rally around him. If could email him and not let on you know, I know he would appreciate it."

"Okay, I'll do that now. How is he emotionally?"

"As I said, he's really depressed and I didn't handle it too well…"

"What did you do?"

"Well, I accused him of lying to me..." He was ashamed.

"Why, Luke, why did you say that?" Maddie was angry.

"He told me he loved me and then he comes up with this leukemia thing. What was I supposed to think? I swear, I didn't know."

"Luciano Snyder, if I was there I would kick your ass," Maddie shouted into the phone.

"I know I deserve it but he accepted my apology."

"Okay, I'll let it go for now but maybe you shouldn't see him."

Luke was in shock. How could she say such a thing?

"I'm not saying this to hurt you Luke but you're not with Noah anymore and he's still in love with you. It may be worse for you to be there for Noah."

"No, Maddie, you can't think…"

"I'm just saying it. You don't have to take my advice but this is about Noah, not about you. You need to put him first."

"Why do you think I'm calling you?"

"I'm sorry, Luke, you know I love you but you have a tendency not to think sometimes. I have to get to class. I'll email Noah. Thanks for telling me." She hung up the phone quickly.

Luke just sat there stunned by the conversation. "I can't stay away from Noah. He needs me and I need him."

-P-

Lucinda dropped by Noah's hospital room with a laptop and shortly thereafter all his friends have started emailing and calling him. "Something is going on and it must be Luke." Noah thought to himself. Catching up with everyone helped bring up Noah's spirits a bit and giving him the opportunity to not focus on being stuck in the hospital because he couldn't stop throwing up after chemotherapy. The doctors have tried multiple medicines but so far nothing was working.