Brian paced nervously in the waiting area, anxious for Leighanne to meet up with him, anxious to get back to the hospital to Nick. When he left his best friend this morning, his spirits were still down and Brian had tried his best to put confidence into Nick’s attitude - which was a hard thing to do when his own attitude wasn’t the best either.
With all that had gone on with airports in the past year, it made slipping into an airport unnoticed harder than ever, and Brian’s eyes were darting around the room, praying that no one would recognize him and start questioning why he was in Tampa.
His heart leapt when a cluster of passengers entered the lobby and he caught a glimpse of Leighanne. He felt like he hadn’t seen her in a lifetime even though it had only been a week. His eyes took in her image like a parched thoat would take in iced tea on a hot summer day.
“Hey babe,” Brian cooed as he embraced her and kissed her gently.
Leighanne noticed immediately how the embrace seemed to linger, she could literally feel the tension in Brian’s body. She pulled back and looked at her husband’s blue eyes. She could tell how tired he was and that he hadn’t been getting much sleep. They always said ‘your eyes are the windows to your soul’ and Brian’s eyes never hid anything.
“Awe, sweetheart, you look so tired,” Leighanne murmered as Brian took the handle to her carryon bag that was on wheels.
Brian shrugged his shoulders, trying to downplay it. “My body’s still messed up on the time changes.” He glanced over at his wife as they walked towards the exit, noticing that her belly was poking out a little more than the last time he saw her. Leighanne noticed his stare and blushed as she placed a protective hand onto her slightly rounded stomach.
“You kinda popped out a little,” Brian grinned.
Leighanne smiled. “Well, I’m a little over four months so I guess it’s bound to happen eventually.”
Although they were both estatic about the baby, Brian and Leighanne wanted to keep things hushed as far as the media was concerned. Nick still was the only one that knew about the baby in their inner circle, she hadn’t even told Kevin’s wife but Lee could tell the woman was starting to get a little suspicious the other day when she had stopped over to her house.
“It looks nice on you,” Brian assured.
“I’m just afriad when I get farther along I’m going to be all baby. If I recall, your mother said you were a pretty big baby,” Leighanne sighed as she opened the car door.
Brian chuckled. “My mom exaggerates too much. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, just a little tired,” she sighed, smoothing her pink cotton shirt over her slightly rounded stomach.
After a few moments of akward silence, Leighanne shifted in her seat, turning towards her husband. “Brian, what’s going on with Nick?”
Brian momentarialy took his foot of the accelerator, the car slowed up. Gripping the steering wheel tighter, he adjusted the speed on cruise control and continued down the highway. “Um, we need to talk, but I can’t when I’m driving. We’ll stop at Nick’s so you can freshen up and we’ll sit down and talk then,” he stated, his voice cracking.
Leighanne raised an eyebrow as she looked at Brian. She could see the tears forming in his eyes. She reached out and placed a hand on his thigh. Brian reciprocated and laid his hand ontop of hers.
Leighanne sat down on the leather couch waiting for her husband to join her. He seemed to have made himself preoccupied with Nick’s dogs and then the kitchen - which was immaculate - and little other things.
“Brian, come on, sit down and talk to me,” she begged.
“I’ve just got to straighten up a few more things---”
“Honey please,” Leighanne interrupted. She saw his back stiffen and then his shoulders sagged.
Brian walked over towards the couch like a man walking to the electric chair on death row. This was the one thing he didn’t want to talk about. Nick pretty much had given his blessings for Brian to confide in his wife, but he felt that with him telling Leighanne about the cancer, it would solidify the situation, making it a reality instead of a horrible nightmare.
Sitting on the edge of the coffee table, Brian sat directly in front of her. He leaned his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands in front of him. Before he started to speak, the tears started flowing down his cheeks.
Seeing her husband crying upset Leighanne and the tears started welling up in her eyes. Brian had always been a good listener to everyone and now it was her turn to be a good listener for him. She waited patiently for him to compose himself, she feared that something was really bad and she knew that this was going to be hard for him to speak about whatever was happening. After a few minutes of Brian slowly shaking his head back and forth and wiping the tears off his cheeks, Leighanne softly patted the seat next to her.
Brian accepted the offer and quickly took the seat next to her. As he leaned forward, she rubbed his back in small circles, waiting for him to muster up the courage to talk to her. She was getting scared but she dared not talk for fear he would lose the courage to talk to her about what was going on. Finally, Brian drew out a long sigh.
“Nick has cancer.”
Leighanne’s eyes widened in shock, her mouth fell open. She had been getting suspicious about what was going on but she denied that it would be something this bad. She had been expecting Brian to tell her that Nick had developed an ulcer from drinking - never cancer! Still feeling slightly hopeful that it was something small and was removed, she swallowed before asking, “How bad?”
Brian couldn’t speak again and for a few moments, fresh tears splashed off his cheeks onto the floor as he held his head in his hands. He managed to mumble, “It’s bad.”
“But the surgery... that took care of it, right?” Leighanne tried to grasp the situation and asked with hope in her shaking voice.
Brian sighed again. “No, it was for the chemo, they had to place a thing in his body for the infusions.” As he spoke, he subconsciously placed his hand where Nick’s port was placed.
“What kind of cancer is it?” Leighanne pressed, still numb from hearing what had been happening.
“It’s Hodgskins,” Brian replied in a hushed whisper.
“Oh my god,” she gasped. “He’s going to be okay with the chemo, right? It’s going to get it out of him, right?”
Brian could only shrug his shoulders and shake his head “no.”
“Oh god, Brian.” Pulling her husband into an embrace Leighanne cried along with him.
