Next To Me

Nicole:

Things have been a bit easier now that Beau knows about Mason being sick, but I still feel bad about not telling Taylor. I mean he really does love Mason and he deserves to know. So today I am taking Mason with me to Beau's practice so I can talk to Taylor. He hasn't been playing lately due to injury and I'm still not sure if he is going to play in Calgary or not.

We got to the rink and I carried Mason inside. Because of the cancer, he has been very weak lately. It is so hard for Beau and I to see him struggling, but we have to stay strong for him. I put Mase in a seat by the glass to watch practice and went into the locker room to find Taylor. I walked in and Taylor was talking to a trainer about his ankle. "Hey Nicole." "Hi. Can I steal Taylor for a minute?" "Sure, we were just finishing anyways." Taylor reluctantly followed me into the hallway. "What." He looked at me with his arms crossed. I was thinking about how to tell him and I felt the tears forming in my eyes. He suddenly realized something was wrong and held my hand. "Nicole what is it?" I walked past him and couldn't stop the tears from flowing. "Nicole what is it? Tell me." "It's Mason." I could tell Taylor was getting scared and nervous. "What? What's wrong? Is he okay?" I shook my head and couldn't say a thing. Taylor held my hand and wiped my tears. "The reason I can't take Mason away is, because." I took a deep breath and looked up at Taylor. "Mason has cancer."

Taylor's jaw dropped and he fell to the floor. "What?" "That's why I want to keep him here now more than ever. If I took him away from everyone he knows and loves, especially while he is sick, he would be so scared and alone." Taylor wrapped me in a hug as he started to cry. "Nicole, I'm so sorry. For our argument the other day and everything else. I understand why you couldn't leave, and I'm glad you didn't." "Thank you." "By the way, I'm not going to Calgary. Especially now." "Why not?" I looked at him confused, yet happy he wasn't leaving. "After talking to you the other day, I realized that even though you and Beau may be back together, that doesn't mean I can't see Mason." "I never wanted to keep him from you, I just thought I needed to get away from everyone for awhile, but once I found out he was sick I knew I couldn't leave." "Does he know? Like that he is sick?" "Yeah, he started feeling really tired lately, especially because he is having tests and has to take a bunch of medicine." "I feel terrible for him, I wish he didn't have to go through it." "Trust me, your not the only one." We walked back over by Mason and he was curled up in the chair by the glass sleeping. "I should probably let him sleep, he hasn't gotten much since we were at the hospital late the last two nights." "Is he going to start chemotherapy?" "Yeah, in a few days. He isn't so much worried about being sick, he's more worried about loosing his hair." We both laughed a bit. "Sounds like Beau, crazy about his hair."

Taylor and I sat by Mase for the rest of practice and once it was over Beau and I headed back home. I let Mase sleep as long as he wanted because he looked so drained. I came out of Mason's room and sat with Beau on the couch. "Beau I feel terrible." He rubbed my arm and kissed my head. "I know, me too." "I can't do anything to help him, or even cheer him up. He is so tired and I just, I hate seeing him like that." Tears were falling and Beau held me tighter. "All we can do is love him and support him. If we show him we are upset and scared he will feel that way. We just have to treat him as if he wasn't sick, he is still the same Mason." "I wish he didn't have to go through all this." "Nicole, I would switch positions with him if I could, I know you feel the same way, but for some reason the cancer chose him instead of one of us and we can't change that." "I know, I just wish there was something we could do to cheer him up." "Me too." Beau kissed my head and we watched some tv before having dinner. I honestly wish there was something, anything to make Mason a little happier and help him through all this.

Taylor:

I texted Beau last night to see how Mason was doing and he said same as before, tired. We talked about different things that might help cheer him up and I came up with an idea that Beau loved. The whole team was in on the idea and we decided to surprise Nicole and Mason today when they came to practice. We all sat in the locker room and waited as Beau called Nicole and told her to come to the locker room so he could show her something. It was dead silent right before she walked in.

Nicole:

"Okay Beau what did you-" She stopped and stood with tears forming in her eyes as she saw the surprise we had planed. "Surprise!" Beau walked toward her and she started crying. "You guys really did this? For him?" "Of course. We all love him and want to support him and what better than this?" "Mase look at everybody. They look like you now." Mason had a big smile on his face as he saw all the guys with their heads shaved just like him. "They look silly." Everyone laughed as Mase didn't seem tired, and actually seemed like him self for once. It was a nice change, even if it only was for a little while. "Hey Mason, someone else shaved their head too. Look." Taylor walked over and showed Mason the picture he was sent by somebody else Mason loves. "Tyler! He did it too! Look mom!" "I see!" I wiped a few tears that were close to falling and hugged Beau. ""Thank you for doing this." "Your welcome, but it wasn't me. Taylor thought of doing this for him." I looked over at Taylor who gave me a reassuring smile. I gave him a smile back and laughed as Mase walked around feeling everyone's buzzed heads.

Beau walked over and sat with his teammates as Mason laughed at all the guys because of how silly they looked to him. "Hey Taylor, can we talk?" Taylor followed me outside into the hall. "Thank you, so much. For that." I gave him a hug and he kissed me on the cheek. "Of course. Anything to help you and Mason. They guys were more than happy to do it." "He also really liked that Tyler shaved his head too." "Yeah, I thought he would. The bruins were doing their annual cuts for a cause when I texted him about it so he sent me that picture to show Mason." "Well, thank you again. I really appreciate it." I gave him another hug and we went back into the locker room to see what Mason was doing. Having the whole team shave their heads was definitely a great thing for Mason. It is going to make this whole cancer thing a little easier for him I think. I'm so grateful that Taylor thought of the idea and the whole team joined in, which made it a million times better. Hopefully this will cheer Mason up for a while and he gets back to acting like his happy and energetic self.