*I'm not sure what the actual time lapse is between Opie's death and now, so I'm kind of making that part up.

A Year and a half later:

Tania sat in the doctor's office after the doctor had left the room. She was unable to comprehend anything the doctor had just told her. The only thing she remembered was the word cancer. She closed her eyes tight and tried to remember what he said.

"Tania, you have stage III ovarian cancer," Dr. Bishop had told her.

Tania looked up at him in shock. "What?" she asked quietly.

"You have ovarian cancer," he replied softly, "This cancer is treatable if we start soon."

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. In the two minutes that had elapsed since he told her this news, she was already convinced that she was a dead girl. Her kids had already lost their father, what would they do if they lost their mother too?

"What does treatment consist of?" Tania mumbled, looking down at her hands.

"Well, first we would do a couple cycles of chemo," Dr. Bishop responded, "And then we would do another CT Scan to see if the cancerous cells have responded. From there, if we have to, we would take the ovaries out. But you are still young and we want to try to avoid that if at all possible."

Gee thanks, she thought to herself. It's not like I need my ovaries, my husband is dead and nobody else is going to want damaged goods.

She sadly smiled up at him. She didn't know what to do.

She shook her head and grabbed her bag before finally managing to walk out of the office. She walked around downtown Phoenix aimlessly for a while before she realized that she had to go and pick up her kids from her friend Michelle's house.

She had cried the whole way there. She didn't know what to do and she had no idea how to tell her children that their mommy was sick. She quickly wiped the tears away, got out of the car and slowly walked up the path to Michelle's front door.

Tania let herself in and called out, "Momma's here!"

"Momma," her kids screeched in unison as they ran down the stairs and straight into her arms, "We missed you."

She crouched down and held them in her arms. She was so blessed to have two very sweet and respectable children. She didn't know what she would do right now if she didn't have them with her. She kissed her 9 year old son, Hunter on the forehead and then moved on to her 7 year old daughter, Savannah.

"Oh, I missed you too kiddos," she replied happily

In that moment, she looked closely at her son and she could see a lot of Opie in his features. Her heart ached at the thought. She stood up and messed up Hunter's hair. He looked up at her and gave her his best annoyed look before breaking into a huge smile and taking off back up the stairs with Savannah close on his heels.

"Hey Tania," Michelle said, smiling at her as she walked into the hallway, "Do you have time for a cup of coffee?

"Sure," Tania replied, following Michelle back into the kitchen, "I have nothing going on. Were the kids good this afternoon?"

"They were perfect, as always," Michelle answered, "Hunter has finished his homework already and Savannah didn't have any today."

Such well behaved and well trained children she had. She smiled at the thought.

"You mentioned you had a doctor's appointment this afternoon," Michelle said, setting down a full cup of coffee in front of Tania, "Is everything ok? I have noticed that you have been a little off the last couple weeks and I just wanted to check in."

Tania's heart began to pound in her chest, her body broke out into a cold sweat and she began to shake. She looked across the table at Michelle, who had been such a great friend since Tania had first moved to Phoenix a little over a year ago, and she was unable to get the words out. The tears threatened to fall from her eyes and she blinked, hoping that the moment would pass.

"Sweetheart," Michelle said quietly, reaching across the table for Tania's hand, "Tell me what's wrong."

"I'm sick," she mumbled in response, "I've been told that I have stage III ovarian cancer. My family doctor is making an appointment for me to meet with an oncologist as soon as possible to figure out the best course of treatment."

Michelle stared at Tania, the shock very evident on her face. Clearly, she had not expected this to be Tania's news. Michelle stood up and moved to sit beside her friend. She pulled her in for a hug and both of them cried.

"If I deal with the situation now, it shouldn't be a big problem down the road," Tania continued a couple minutes later, "It's just the treatment that will be hard. The positive thing is that Dr. Bishop hasn't given me a death sentence. But I'm terrified. I can't do this on my own and I don't have the money to do it. I don't know what to tell Hunter and Savannah."

"Well I'm here for you," Michelle said quietly after a minute, "I wouldn't tell the kids until you know for sure what is going to happen. As for the money situation, that will work itself out."

Tania gave Michelle a small smile, but she was still scared and there was only one place she felt she could turn to.

They sat there and drank their coffee and talked a little longer, but Tania was tired and she had to get the kids home and ready for bed. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and cry. Besides Michelle, she had no one else to turn to.

A few hours later, Tania was sitting in her living room, drinking a beer and staring at the phone. Hunter and Savannah helped her clean up the dinner dishes earlier and both had a bath and went to bed easily enough. But now she was left alone with her thoughts. She had thought about it over and over in the time since she had left Michelle's house and she came to the conclusion that the only thing she could do was go back home to her family. It wasn't part of her plan to go home. There were too many memories of her life with Opie back in Charming and it hurt too much. She had tried to stay for a couple months after his death, but the pain was just too much for her to deal with and in the span of a week she had her bags packed and she moved the kids to Phoenix, Arizona.

She pressed the number for her aunt into her phone and listened as it rang.

"Hello," Gemma said on the other end.

"Auntie Gem," Tania said quietly, trying to fight the tears that were threatening to fall again, "It's Tania."

"Sweetheart, how are you?" Gemma asked, sounding concerned, "I've missed hearing your voice."

Tania understood how Gemma was feeling. In the beginning when she had first moved to Phoenix, her aunt Gemma would call at least once a week to make sure everything was ok and that she was coping alright. Eventually though, Tania started screening her calls and then she just stopped calling Gemma back. She received a couple phone calls from Jax as well in the beginning, but again, she just stopped answering the phone. She felt awful for leaving her life and family behind in Charming, but she found that it was too hard and hurt too much. She wanted to try and make a new life for herself and if she kept in touch, she would more than likely run back to her safe haven.

"I'm not doing very well Gem," Tania said quietly, "And I've missed all of you so very much. I'm sorry I've shut myself off from you guys."

"We understand Tania," Gemma replied with a hint of understanding in her voice, "We all know that you wanted to try and start a new life away from all the pain. So what's wrong sweetheart?"

"Auntie Gem," Tania said quietly, her lip trembling, "I'm sick. I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean, you're sick?" Gemma questioned, "How sick?"

"Pretty sick," she replied, "I have stage III ovarian cancer. Dr. Bishop is making a specialist appointment for me to meet with an oncologist to figure out what the best and most successful course of treatment will be. Dr. Bishop, my family doctor, hasn't given me a death sentence, but I'm still terrified and the only person I have here is my friend Michelle. Gem, what do I do? I can't afford the treatments and I don't want to do this alone."

"Oh baby, I'm so sorry," Gemma said, her voice cracking, "We finally sold your house and have put that money in an account to give to you when we saw you next."

"Thank you so much for taking care of that," Tania replied.

"I know you don't want to hear this," Gemma stated, "But come home. We will take care of you here. We will find you the best oncologist either here at St. Thomas or somewhere close. The money from the sale of the house will help, but I'm sure the club will help you."

Tania may not have voiced it, but secretly she wanted someone, anyone, to ask her to come home. She wanted to feel missed and this was enough to make her pack up her bags and go back to Charming.

"Gemma, please don't tell anyone," Tania requested, "at least not right now. Let me do it."

"Ok sweetheart," Gemma replied, "Come home and get situated, get the kids back into their school and then you tell them when you are ready."

"Thanks Gemma," Tania said as she wiped a few stray tears from her face, "I've already quit my job, hoping that you would tell me to come back. I'll get us packed up and we'll drive out there in the next week or so."

"You aren't doing this alone," Gemma exclaimed, "I will fly out there with one of the guys. Whoever Jax sends with me and we will help you pack and then we will drive back to Charming with you."

Tania agreed with her and then quickly said goodbye. She was scared, but she also felt happy that she was going back home to be with family, to be with people who cared about her. Gemma had told her that they would be there in the next day or so to help her out.

She felt so relieved that she wouldn't have to do this on her own.