I nearly dropped my phone as my mother told something that I never wanted to hear. I knew it would come eventually, but not this soon. It was too soon for this to be happening. He was supposed to have months left according to the doctor and all of the tests and scans that they had run.

My hand was shaking as it gripped my phone, holding it to my ear. "Honey, I don't know how much longer he has, but you should hurry, he wants to see you."

"Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes." I muttered quickly before hanging up and searching madly for my shoes. I got my shoes on and scrambled in my purse for my car keys. I didn't need to worry about Elise seeing as she was with Bellamy's mom for the week.

I ran down the hall and didn't bother wasting time with the elevator and instead running down three flights of stairs. I didn't bother catching my breath before running across the parking lot to my car. My hands were shaking so bad that it took me longer than normal to get the key in the door.

Several minutes later I found myself bent over him, sobbing on his shoulder as he put his arms around me, whispering how much he loved me. Charlotte was just on his other side and I backed away to give her a chance with him. But, he stopped me and slipped his watch into my hand.

I felt my mother's arms pull me back to her and we just stood and watched as Charlotte sobbed on his shoulder.

I woke up quickly, feeling tears on my face, I looked around to see that I was in my own bed and that it was 5:30 in the morning. I wiped the tears from my face and laid down, trying to slow down my heart that was beating extremely fast and tried to go back to sleep. But sleep wasn't happening, I couldn't get the call from my mom out of my head, even if it wasn't real. But what if that happened and I never talked to him since the day he told me? What if he died thinking that I hated him?

I needed to see him, so I sent him a quick text. I knew he would be up for work and wasn't surprised when I got a quick reply saying lunch at the normal spot at 12:30, the usual time.

With that I managed to fall asleep and was only woken with the sound of Raven and Octavia banging things around in the kitchen. "Rae, just give me my phone."

"Not until you let me do the cooking for once."

I buried myself deeper into the covers, trying to block out the noise. After that terrible dream, I wasn't in the mood to be around the two in the kitchen. I just wanted to bury myself so far under the covers that I wouldn't be noticed and that they would leave me alone. I knew that I needed to talk to someone before I exploded, but I didn't know how to bring it up. And honestly, I didn't want them to feel bad for me because it would only make me feel worse. Only a week had passed, but everyday that passed, I worried more that it was getting closer to the time when the tumor would kill him and I would get the call that no one ever wants to hear.

After several minutes I came to the conclusion that a shower would be the best way to avoid them and it would be good to shower before going out in public anyway.

"Dad, seriously? You're so embarrassing. We pretty much just started dating and you're already talking about the wedding." I buried my beet red face in my hands, shaking my head.

"What? She seems good for you." He shrugged it off and smiled at my embarrassment. "You do realize we're going to meet at some point, right?"

I nodded into my hands, "Yeah, I know. I can't wait."

He picked up the sarcasm and just played along, "Oh, I know, honey. I know, believe me."

"Promise me, you won't be totally embarrassing."

He nodded and laughed, "Your mother's the one to worry about. She loves to bring out the photo albums. I just make sure she knows what will happen to her if she breaks your heart."

I groaned into my hands once more, "Dad, that's not helping at all."

He laughed in the way he did when he knew he'd accomplished his goal of embarrassing me beyond belief. It hit me suddenly that in the near future I wouldn't hear that laugh anymore or have him here to embarrass me like dads were supposed to do. I wouldn't have him there to walk me down the aisle when I finally got married. There were so many things he wouldn't be here for.

I felt his hand grab mine and realized how my hands had dropped from my face and blinked back the tears threatening to spill over as I looked over at him.

***

I was woken up by a soft tapping on my forehead. I opened my eyes and jumped as I saw Elise's brown eyes staring back at me with tears on her face. I loosened Lexa's grip on me and sat up, doing my best not to wake her.

"What's wrong, baby?"

Her quivered as she looked up at me, gripping onto her baby blanket, "I had a nightmare."

I removed the covers from my legs and got to my feet, bending down to pick up the crying toddler, "We'll just go get you a drink and then go back to bed, ok?"

She nodded in response as she sucked on her thumb, something she did when she was upset. It was rare that she had nightmares, but when she did she always came to me and I would get her sippy cup to rehydrate her and then normally she would end up in bed with me, too afraid to sleep alone in her room.

I set her on the counter before bending down to one of the lower cabinets and retrieving her pink sippy cup. I got her some water before putting the lid on and handing it to her. She was still clearly upset and I really wanted to know what was bothering her so much.

"Baby, what did you dream?" I asked and was surprised by her answer.

"Someone took you and Daddy didn't want me anymore. He left me in the woods with scary things."

I was expecting her to say something about monsters in her dreams or something about being stuck in one of the doors from Monster's Inc, but this one was so real and it scared me a little. Why was she dreaming such terrible things?

"I promise I won't let anything happen to me or you and daddy will never leave, ok?"

She nodded, "Can I sweep wif you?"

"Of course you can, are you ready to go back to bed?" I asked, noting that it was 1:30 in the morning.

She was feeling much better as she dashed down the hall into my bedroom, leaping up onto the bed making a squealing noise as she got very close to Lexa's face. "Elise, be quiet and lay down." I whispered to her as I got in bed, pulling the covers over us. I turned over and looked over Elise to find Lexa staring back at me, before I could say anything, Elise realized that Lexa wasn't asleep and reached up and poked her nose, "Hi, Wexa."

Lexa just rolled her eyes and laughed sleepily.