Luke was hungry after leaving Noah's room, so he went down to the cafeteria. He purchased what he wanted and noticed Lucinda sitting at a table with some tea. "Hi Grandmother."
"You looked troubled dear. Do you want to talk about it?"
"It's Noah and Reid."
"Ah. I think I know what's coming. Out with it."
"Have you ever been in love with two men at once?" Luke asked in total confusion.
"Of course darling."
"How did you handle it?"
"Well, you weigh the pros and the cons of both relationships and you go with the one you think will be best."
Luke was surprised. "Really?"
"Well, it doesn't always work out. Tell me about it."
"There is a place in my heart that will always be Noah's, but I'm scared of him leaving again when things get tough."
"And Reid is the safe one?"
"He is. I think I'm beginning to love him but I keep thinking about Noah."
"You know, I'm on the outs with your mother at the moment. I interfered when I shouldn't have, so I'm not going to make the same mistake here but you know those videos that Noah's shooting?"
"Yes."
"They can give you the answer you seek."
"What's on them?"
"When the time is right, you will watch them and know which decision to make."
Bob walked into the cafeteria and interrupted their conversation. "Noah's chemotherapy drip is done. You should be able to take him home in an hour or two."
"That's great. Is he feeling okay?" asked Lucinda.
"He's sleeping and blowing chunks, as the younger generation says," laughed Bob. "But otherwise, he's okay."
-P-
Lucinda took Noah to the farm and while he was sleeping, Lily, Emma and Holden were talking about Noah and how nobody was a match for Noah, except for Reid, whose bone marrow he didn't want, when Ethan interrupted their conversation.
"Maybe I match," said Ethan.
"It's sweet of you to ask…" started Lily only to be interrupted.
"Nowah is my brudder. I want to help." Ethan was getting mad.
Lily, Emma and Holden just looked at each other.
"It can be painful, if you're a match," replied Holden.
"Will it hurt forever?" Ethan asked with a frown on his face.
"No, just a day or two."
"I help then." Ethan smiled.
"What about me?" asked Natalie. "Nobody asked me either. I want to help Noah too."
Emma started to tear up. Lily and Holden looked at each of their children and nodded their consent.
"Okay, let's go down to the hospital to be tested."
"Yeah," yelled Natalie and Ethan.
They got ready and left for the hospital. When they got there, Luke was coming out of a meeting. "Hey, what are you all doing here?"
"They want to be tested to see if they match for Noah." Lily responded proudly.
Luke was surprised.
"Even though you don't like him anymore, he's still my brudder," said Ethan innocently.
"It's not..." Luke was going to explain but stopped. He was touched by what Ethan had said. "I think you like him more than me," laughed Luke, poking Ethan in the stomach.
"I do." Ethan giggled back squirming.
Luke picked up his little brother and gave him a big hug. "Well, let's get you tested." He turned and started walking towards the lab.
-P-
The next day, Lily got a call on her cell phone. It was the hospital telling her that Ethan was a complete match for Noah. Lily and Holden were surprised but Ethan was ecstatic. He wanted to go right over to the farm to tell Noah. When they arrived, Ethan ran out of the car in search of Noah.
"Nowah. I'm a match," Ethan yelled out proudly, when he found him.
"You're a match for what, Ethan?" Noah playfully padded Ethan's hair.
"Your marrow," replied Lily.
"What?" Noah was taken aback by the news. "Why would you get him tested?"
"He wanted to. He and Natalie asked to get tested when they heard us talking about it," said Lily. "They were quite insistent."
"I'm a match," said Ethan all excited with his hands in the air.
"You sure are. You're my favorite little man." said Noah, while giving Ethan a big hug but giving Lily a not so nice glare.
"I have to tell Grandma." Ethan squirmed out of the hug and ran out the room.
Noah started crying as soon as Ethan was out of the room, that he didn't even feel Lily's motherly arms embrace him into a hug.
"Haven't I hurt enough of your family?"
"What will hurt us, Noah, is if you don't accept the bone marrow from Ethan and we both know there's a chance you might need it."
Noah continued to cry in Lily's arms, until he fell asleep.
-P-
Noah woke up, wondering where everyone was. He slowly got up from the bed and even managed to walk down and onto the porch when Casey walked in.
"Hi Casey. Let's tape this..." said Noah.
Casey hooked up the camera to the tripod and stood behind it, while Noah sat down on the comfortable couch on the porch.
"My friend Casey is running the camera," said Noah.
"Yo." Casey shouted out, causing Noah to laugh.
"Well, I just found out that Ethan is a complete bone marrow match. I didn't know he was getting tested. I can't believe this shit. How am I suppose to ask little Ethan to do this for me? God, this is so fucked up."
"What's all this swearing out there?" Emma yelled out from her kitchen before she walked onto the porch.
"Sorry, Emma," Noah replied embarrassed. "Everyone, this is Emma Snyder." Emma looked embarrassed but waved to the camera.
Noah waved her over to the couch to sit with him. She hesitated but she did sit down next to Noah.
"This is the nicest person you will ever meet," started Noah, "She's kind, loving, funny, traditional, a great cook, fiercely loyal but becomes a pitbull and will attack if anyone threatens her loved ones." Everyone laughed. "Most of her adult life has been spent working hard on this farm and raising five children on her own after her husband died. She owns one of the best horse breeding farms in the world and one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on this earth."
"Oh, you sweet talker," laughed Emma. "But you forgot that I wrote romance novels."
"What? I didn't know that?" Noah was shocked.
"I wrote under the pen name of Amber d'Amour."
"So that's where Luke gets his writing from?"
"Yes. My son Seth is a writer too." Emma was proud.
Noah paused for a minute. "I want to thank you, Emma. You took me in when I had nowhere to go and invited me into your family when I needed one." Tears streamed down Noah face as he took her hand. "You have no idea how much I needed that. I never really had a family before and it took me a while to get used to it."
"But you kept pulling away."
"I grew up with literally no family and then all of a sudden, I'm living in a house with about ten to fifteen people, who were all family. I didn't know how to act. It was kind of overwhelming," Noah replied truthfully.
"Is that why you disappeared a lot at first?"
"Yes. I would get overwhelmed by it all, so I would take a little break but the good thing about that was that Luke would sit with me. He would hold me or I would be holding him."
Emma reached up to the window sill over their head and pulled down a plate of cookies. "I made some cookies. They are still warm, so eat up."
"I told you she was wonderful. We've smelled them for a while, oatmeal raisin, my favorite."
"Casey, come have some cookies." Emma smiled.
Before anyone could react, Casey was grabbing a few cookies, taking a big bite out of one. Noah laughed.
"I'll get you some milk." Emma got up and went into the house.
Noah looked into the camera. "Just like I said, she is the best. These cookies are Oscar winning cookies." Noah and Casey laughed.