And Again

Chapter three

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, and before Nicky knew it, he was a 2 weeks away from his college graduation.

He was sitting in the cancer center, getting his last dose of chemo until after graduation. Usually he got infusions every other day for two weeks and then two weeks off, but he spoke to his doctor and they decided that it would be fine to take a short break from the treatment so he wouldn't feel sick at his graduation. He'd start treatment again right after.

"So what's your plan after graduation?" Jack asked. Jack was someone Nicky met while going through chemo.

"My girlfriend and I are moving to New York" Nicky said.

"What's in New York?"

"She got a job there and I'm gonna run the New York branch of my parents' company" Nicky told him.

"Man, I wish I was that put together right out of college" Jack chuckled. "I graduated college and then I lived with my parents for two years until I could afford my own place. I also worked shit, minimum wage jobs for way too long"

"Yeah, well I'm just lucky. I was born into a huge business where I have job security for life. Not everyone gets that. And not everyone gets parents who will pay 30 percent of the cost of their apartment just so they won't have to take out loans" Nicky said. Rory and Logan wanted to set their kids up for success as best they could, but at the same time, they wanted their kids to learn to support themselves. They paid for Nicky's college, but he still worked. When he wanted to live off campus, they paid for Nicky's apartment, but just the apartment. Utilities, furniture, and anything else relating to the apartment were his responsibility. They helped pay for his apartment because they didn't want him to have debt right as he was starting out, but they also expected to be paid back. Grace got the exact same treatment, so would Sammy, and so would Kate.

"Sounds like you've got great parents"

"Man, you don't know that half of it"

After chemo, Nicky went straight home to shower and go to bed.

A little after 2am, Allie was woken up by a loud crashing sound from the kitchen and Clover barking at her. Nicky wasn't in bed. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the kitchen where she found Nicky on the floor, next to what Allie assumed used to be a drinking glass, holding the side of his chest, clearly in pain and struggling to breathe. "What happened?"

"I don't know" Nicky groaned. "I can't breathe"

"Fuck. Ok, hold on" Allie said. She got her phone from her bedside table and called an ambulance before crouching down next to Nicky. "Hey, you're gonna be fine, ok? You're gonna be fine"

Nicky ended up passing out before the paramedics arrived. Allie rode in the ambulance with Nicky and called Logan on the way to the hospital.

As soon as they got to the hospital, Nicky was taken into a room by a bunch of doctors and nurses, and Allie was sent to the waiting room. Shortly after, Rory and Logan arrived. "Hey" Rory said and put her hand on Allie's shoulder. "What happened? Where is he?"

"He um...I don't know. He collapsed or something. I'm not sure. Clover woke me up and he was on the floor, saying that couldn't breathe, so I called 911" Allie said. "They're running tests"

Rory and Logan sat down with Allie and 40 minutes later 2 doctors, including Nicky's oncologist, came to talk to them.

"First of all, Nicky's ok. He's been sedated and intubated, and he's stable" the doctor said. "We originally didn't want to operate on his lungs to remove the cancer because we were hopeful that the chemo would be effective and surgery comes with risks, and at the time the tumor wasn't causing any problems. That's no longer the case. It's grown and is now hindering his ability to breathe so I'd like to operate and remove the tumor entirely, if possible"