Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter. :) This chapter is starting to show their relationship progress. The point to why it seems like it may be moving fast is because I'm trying to skip time without it being absolutely boring... it's going to skip a few weeks here and there at times to fit in with what I want to do.

Let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Another thing I learned about Riker over the next few weeks was that his energy could come and go like the weather. He'd be bouncing up and down one second, and another he'd be face down on the couch and zoned out, barely awake at all. He'd said it was a side effect of all the medications, therapies, and every day life. Weekdays were the worst, he swore, as school and homework kept him absolutely drained. I spent many nights over there, trying to study with him for him only to fall asleep on the bed.

It was quite adorable, if I was honest. One minute he was talking and the next he was asleep in the notebook. I had giggled a couple times, taking pictures for future reference. Somehow, he had gotten into my phone to delete every single one of them.

It made for dates to be hard. I worked most weekends, especially now that Laura spent more time with Wes than anyone else, and weekdays often had us sitting on the couch, trying to stay awake for our favorite TV shows. His parents were very strict about where and when he could go places, making it feel like we were stuck in his house all the time.

He often tried to sneak out, Rydel covering for him. But sometimes, it was clear they were strict for a reason. We had gone to an arcade one night and gotten into a pretty intense ice hockey game when he almost collapsed, eyes bleak and his body trembling. It was then he admitted he forgot to eat before leaving the house. The trip home wasn't exactly pleasant.

It also taught me that he could eat more than any other person I knew. He had a supersized meal from one of the many fast food places along the way home, and had entered his own house to also eat a sandwich and half a bag of chips. While I knew it was the disease, I thought of my own body and exactly where everything would land within a few hours time. It was so hard for him to keep weight on.

Rydel often let me sit in on his therapy sessions, too. His parents didn't exactly approve of it, especially his father, but she was much more relaxed. Riker didn't seem to mind, and I often took mental notes in case he ever let me do what she did. Even though it seemed like it was tiresome on both parts, I knew one day if we did end up that serious, I would have to learn. His parents weren't going to come over each night so that they could do his therapy.

We often spent many nights locked up in the house talking about our futures.

I learned that Riker wanted to go to college to take up music, maybe one day working giving lessons to children on the guitar, or even opening up a music store. He spoke constantly about his favorite bands, and we often argued over what would be considered the greatest hits of our time. Despite his Fall Out Boy poster in his room, our tastes in music were still quite different. I liked a lot of it, but he also had deeper music tastes, often local bands I'd never heard of. When we did go out, he often took me to their shows. I did enjoy them, but still swore he would take me to see one of my favorites one day.

"As long as you're not into One Direction," he groaned and as if on cue, Rydel broke into singing Best Song Ever in the next room.

He gave me a pained glance. "Oh, come on. It's catchy," I laughed.

He rolled his eyes. "It's torture."

"It's catchy," I said again. "But no, I don't really care for them."

He seemed to be okay with this. "What would be the band you'd most like to see in concert?"

"Imagine Dragons," I said after a second. "They're blowing up the charts right now and their lyrics are amazing. I mean, I don't really know much more than the two songs they sing, but if those are good, they all must be."

He nodded. "If they come around here, we should definitely go."

The holidays were fast approaching, and I knew that I had to find something nice to give to Riker for our first Christmas together. Laura and Rydel wanted to go shopping with me, but I had absolutely no idea what to get him. It was the beginning of the season, which meant I had a lot of time ahead of me, but it didn't mean I wanted to wait until last minute, and be completely without ideas. I knew music themed would be a great idea, but it made me wonder what you could get a music guru like him.

We were shopping one afternoon, completely covered in bags. "I need to get him a gift," I said, throwing my bags onto the floor at the food court. "We've been together two months, but it feels like so much longer."

"I say just get him ice cream," Rydel said, rolling her eyes. "He still won't let me live down giving his away that night in the kitchen. Maybe if you offer him some, he'll shut up."

I giggled, but shook my head. "Seriously. What should I get him?"

"I got Wes a really nice watch," Laura offered. "Maybe he'd like one."

"Nah," I disagreed. "He wouldn't care for that."

"Concert tickets?" she suggested.

I shrugged. "It's best for us not to do that unless we go the day of to the concert. Sometimes he's too weak to make to the show and then the tickets get wasted." Laura had 'found out' about the disease about a month ago, after Rydel told her. She had acted perfectly surprised and sympathic.

"That sucks," Laura said. "It must suck to have to date someone like that."

The moment she said it, she knew it came out wrong, but Rydel and I still felt our eyes narrow.

"I didn't mean it like that," she quickly apologized. "Oh my God, don't hate me."

I had grown used to the way things worked, and it didn't really bother me. "It's okay. It can be hard. We find ways to make it work. I can say I've probably seen every movie that the local redbox has had in the last two months though," I said proudly. "I'm well versed movie wise."

She giggled. "I have been to more parties in the last two months than I've ever been to before," she countered.

I made a gagging noise. Parties just weren't my scene and never would be. She fit in more well at them, and while I could enjoy them if need be, I was glad she hadn't invited me to another once since that night after meeting up with Wes.

"You found a perfect match," Laura giggled. "At least he isn't a crazy partier."

I turned to Rydel. "Could you imagine Riker partying?"

She giggled. "No way. He would be miserable."

"He wasn't the night at the party when Wes asked me out," Laura pointed out.

"He had me," I admitted, smiling at the thought. "And he wasn't feeling well, so actually, he was pretty miserable."

Laura's smile faded. "Oh."

"No, it's okay," I added. "We quite like our movie dates."

We finished shopping that night, and I still hadn't found a gift that I liked for him.

Our first big fight came after a particularly grueling day for him. I should have known better than to push it, but a part of me wanted to be included in his daily life, the cystic fibrosis part of it. I had come home after work, and he had just arrived back from a pulmonary lung function appointment. The mood alone should have told me to back off, but being me, I stupidly didn't.

"Hey," I said, running into his room and flopping onto his bed.

He had his hands over his guitar, strumming quietly.

He barely looked up from it.

"Hey," I said again, rolling closer to him, trying to sneak a kiss. "Pouty, come on, look at me."

He didn't say a word, but dropped the guitar. I leaned forward so that he would kiss me, and we stayed like that for a few minutes. His lips always tasted faintly of vanilla, something I could never quite understand. He didn't use anything for that, so it seemed like maybe it was one of the pills and their aftereffects on him. He leaned into me so that I could deepen the kiss, and after a minute, I pulled away.

"How did the appointment go?"

The scowl returned. "I'm down from the last time," he mumbled. "Not as bad as when I entered the hospital back in the Spring, but it's not as good as I should be."

I frowned, not sure what to say. "Well, maybe today is just a bad day."

"No," he snapped. "I felt good today."

He was in rare form. Over the last couple months, I'd only seen him get down one other time, and it lasted only about five minutes. His parents had told him he couldn't go roller blading with the rest of us, and he had said he hated the disease, and stormed up into his room. I ended up staying home with him that night, while Rydel, Laura, and Wes went out with some new guy that Rydel had met at school. I think his name was Ellington.

Today felt different. He seemed to be in another world.

"Well, maybe it just means you need…" I trailed off. "Forget it. I don't know."

His expression softened. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," I said smoothly. "You're allowed off days."

He sighed, leaning back on the bed. "It sucks. I should be in a healthy range again, and I'm not. I haven't been able to do anything I've wanted to in the last few weeks, especially taking you to that show you wanted to go to. School has been a nightmare. The flare ups are happening more and more. They mentioned changing my antibiotic regimen to a different one, but even then… I just want it to be better."

I should have never said what I said next, "Maybe you could show me how to do your therapy," I said quickly. "It would help tremendously. Maybe that's why the flare ups keep happening in school. You probably need to be doing it three times a day."

His eyes flared. "I told you, I don't want you doing that. Why do you not get that?"

I also shouldn't have reacted the way I did. "Well, you're the one who told me you don't want secrets and you want me to know everything! That's part of it! You can't pick and choose which parts I get to see. You sit there and suffer in class half of the time when you don't have to."

"You're my girlfriend, Remy! Not my family! It shouldn't be that way, and I refuse to make you my caretaker. We're supposed to have fun together. I bet Laura and Wes don't sit up in his room every night and have someone start pounding him on the back so that he can breathe!"

I laughed. "You're absolutely ridiculous. I get it, your life is hard. I know that. But this fucking pity party you're on right now needs to stop. Yeah, their relationship is different. But you pretty much made me aware of that the moment we met. I know that know. I accepted that, so why don't you. You tell me that you think I'm special and that I reacted in no way that anyone else has before, but then you go and do shit like this."

He glared back at me. "Well, maybe I just want this part of my life to remain normal!"

"Nothing about this is normal, Riker! It's never going to be normal!" I screamed back, causing Rydel to peek her head in. We both yelled at her to get out. "So either suck it up, and let me help, or tell me to leave because I don't want to be treated like this!"

He closed his eyes, curled up into a ball, and turned his back to me.

"Fine," I snapped, slamming the door as I left.

That night I heard sirens from inside my house.

The doctors didn't think his levels were that low, but I guess the added stress from our fight, and the infection he'd been already fighting put him over the edge. His parents called for the ambulance at about two. I had come running from my house, bare foot and in nothing but shorts and a tank top as they pulled up. The paramedics pushed me aside, telling me to get out of the way when I saw Rydel.

She was trying her hardest to calm me down, but I couldn't listen to her.

He really wasn't as bad off as they made it seem. His levels had dropped dangerously low, but that was only because he had skipped half of his medications that night. His respiratory therapy could only do so much if he didn't use everything, she said. They had him on oxygen as they put him on the stretcher, and his gaze came my way. My eyes were already full of tears, and seeing him like that made me choke on air myself. I burrowed my face into Rydel's shirt, who again told me it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

I wasn't allowed to go to the hospital that night, and my parents forced me into school the next day. They couldn't force me to go to work though, and I immediately took my car to the hospital to see him, despite everything that had happened the night before. Rydel was waiting for me at the entrance, looking like she hadn't slept or eaten since early that morning.

"How is he?" I demanded.

She smiled weakly. "Other than being moody as hell and the biggest jerk in the world, he's doing better already. It doesn't take much to let the disease take over. I heard you guys fighting last night… he's stubborn. Please know that. Just… let him have his moments when he does, okay? Honestly, he knows what he did was wrong, and he is obviously regretting it right now, so don't bring it up. Okay?"

I didn't plan to. Honestly, I was terrified. Much like Rydel said, he was already doing better and his lung function was already double what it was when they brought him in last night. It wouldn't be a long visit, she swore. He'd probably be out by tomorrow, if it all went well. It didn't mean that it didn't scare me, or anyone else for that matter. Seeing your boyfriend being wheeled into an ambulance sort of scars you.

"Can I see him?" I asked.

She nodded. "You need to be clean, though. Not that you're not. But extra clean. And you have to wear a face mask. Hospital orders."

I didn't care if I had to wear a bright yellow suit. I nearly ran all the way to his room, surprised not to find his parents there when I got in. He was watching TV, his eyes wide when he saw me there. I immediately crossed the room, tears filling my eyes as we embraced.

"Please don't be mad at me," he whispered. He was attached to several different IVs and also had oxygen tubes in his nose, but otherwise, he looked just like the boyfriend I knew. He seemed incredibly embarrassed to be where he was and brushed his hair from his face. "I messed up. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I said last night."

"Me too," I answered. "I shouldn't have pushed you. It's none of my business."

"It is your business," he disagreed. "And you're right… if we are in this for the long haul, you should know how to do the therapy. Just… give me time. It's hard. I understand that you want to help, but I need to feel okay with it, too. Maybe in a few months… just not now."

I nodded, no longer caring about that. I was just glad he was okay. "I…" I stopped at what I almost went to say. He didn't seem to notice, but it just changed everything. We were three months into a relationship and I almost just told him I loved him.