Alice took Dana’s hand as she drove, never breaking the contact she’d longed to have for so long. As they arrived at Dana’s, she parked up and they went inside.

Silence.  They went through and together curled up on Dana’s bed digesting the information they had just received individually for ten minutes.

It was Alice who spoke first

“I love you Dana, I love you more than I love myself, you make me whole and I’ve been longing for you to reach out to me again for months.  I know you love me and you left because of some sort of insecurity because I know you.  I knew it wasn’t me and I hoped and God I prayed that one day you’d manage to move past your defence mechanism that you instilled in yourself from the age of 14 and trust someone with your whole heart. Watching you these last few weeks I knew there was something up, you looked tired and you were irritable. Ok so we now know it’s cancer and that sucks but you chose me to be with you today Dane and there ain’t anywhere I’d rather be. I’m not here with you now out of pity or because I think it’s my obligation as your friend but because you are the love of my life and we are going to fight this thing head on so we can spend the rest of our lives together.”

Dana and Alice both had tears freely flowing down their faces as Dana moved to embrace Alice in a sensuous kiss that she used to try and express how much she loved her.

“I love you Al, it’s always been you and I messed up and it was awful but I haven’t spent one minute of the last seven months and three days longing for you back.  I didn’t think it was fair and I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you again and…and I know I will hurt you if I die but without you I don’t see any point in fighting it.” Dana collapsed into Alice’s arms heart wrenching sobs escaping from the bottom of her heart.

They sat there as one crying together, for each other for hours until they were both exhausted succumbed in to an uneasy slumber.

When Alice woke she realised the sun was shining through the window signalling the dawn of a new day.  That meant it was Tuesday, Dana’s surgery was scheduled for Friday morning.

As Dana stirred in Alice’s arms she reached out to kiss her good morning.

“It’s weird, I knew something wasn’t right, I thought it was the flu or something but I just kept training, harder and harder hoping to fight it off but although I now know its cancer and, as scary as that is, I haven’t felt as good as I feel waking up in your arms in months.

Alice smiled warmly

“Ironic huh?”

Now it was Dana’s turn to smile but it soon faded.

“I need to tell everyone…I’ve got 3 days to do it all.”

“No baby you have 3 days to tell your friends and family. Let Bill and the others take care of your tennis stuff, I don’t want you stressed out more than you need to be for Friday.”

“I know but I still need to tell the guys and my Mom, Dad and Howie.”

“Will I arrange for them all to be at the Planet this morning?”

“Yeh we’d better, ten o’clock? Then we can drive up to my parents.”

“You want me to come with you?”

“I know this sounds clingy but one lesson I’ve learned already is you don’t know what life is going to through at you so fuck it. I don’t want you to leave my side Al. I want you and I need you like I need oxygen and it really sucks that its taken some horrible disease for me to wake up and realise that properly.”

“Well there isn’t anywhere I’d rather be than by your side and that is exactly where i’m going to be throughout this whole thing. 24/7 baby!” Alice chuckled lightly then whispered,

 “Through thick and thin.”