Brendon hated this. Ever since he was a little kid. Only this time was worse. He'd already had the cold stethoscope against his chest, been robbed of eight vials of blood and had a wrap too tight around his arm. All standard things that he would've been happy going on without in his life.

Now, he had to lay motionless for an hour listening to an obnoxious clicking while this machine scanned him. The doctor would continuously remind him to stay still whenever he couldn't fight back his fidgets. It wasn't as easy as people might think, especially for Brendon.

There was nothing he could do to occupy himself other than think, so that's what he did. He stared up at the curved covering he was under, questioning if he was doing the right thing. He felt it deep inside him that he was, but there was still that hesitation. He wondered if the machine could read his doubts. Would it catch the way his heart was racing in his chest or the bundle of nerves twisting in his stomach? Of course those were only fleeting thoughts.

Brendon couldn't wait to go back with his boyfriend. Ryan was on the verge of turning into a Karen when he was told he wasn't allowed to be in the observation room while Brendon got tested. Brendon let his thoughts gear toward Ryan. What was he doing? Was he waiting by the door till they finished? Did he go back to the waiting room?

A part of Brendon hoped Ryan went out and got them some food. Brendon wasn't allowed to eat before his appointment and was barely managing to make it through this torture on an empty stomach.

When they were finally done, Brendon changed out of the hospital gown and back into his street clothes. A nurse led him back to lobby. Brendon's eyes moved over the other patients until they landed on his boyfriend standing with another doctor. Ryan was waving his hands around, his body was tense and a scowl sat on his forehead, pushing his eyebrows down into a frown.

The doctor had her bottom lip pulled into her mouth as she fought to keep the corners of her mouth from moving up into a smile. Brendon watched her cover her mouth as she let out a fake cough before regaining a straight face as Ryan continued with his rant.

Brendon smirked as Ryan huffed out a breath and crossed his arms as the doctor finally replied to whatever he'd said. Brendon chuckled and went over to the two.

"What's got you all worked up?"

Ryan spun around to the sound of Brendon's voice. "You're done?" He pulled Brendon into a hug before even getting an answer. "You hungry? Let's go eat while we wait for the results.

"Geez Ross. It's like you flipped a switch."

Brendon turned to the doctor. She was a few inches shorter than him. Her blonde hair would've hung past her shoulders if it wasn't pulled into a pony tail. She wore black, square framed glasses fitting nicely with her round face. She flashed them a smile, showing two rows of coffee stained teeth.

"Someone was upset that he was forced to follow hospital rules and was complaining about it to me for twenty minutes," she said.

"Well Shannon it was you fault for asking me 'what's wrong'?" Ryan pouted as he pulled back from Brendon, leaving his hand resting on Brendon's lower back.

Shannon rolled her eyes with a small laugh and head shake. "He's here now so you can stop pouting you big baby. I gotta go. I'm a little behind on paperwork now thanks to someone." She threw a non menacing glare at Ryan before turning and moving down a hall leading deeper into the hospital.

"Who was that?" Brendon asked.

"Dr. Clark. She works with Patrick in PEDs."

Brendon nodded in response. His stomach rumbled loud enough for Ryan to hear. His ducked his head in embarrassment when Ryan chuckled.

"Let's go get some lunch. There's a nice burger place not far from here."

Brendon didn't protest as Ryan held his hand and guided them out the hospital.

Within a few hours, they were back in the doctor's office. Brendon had his head hanging while Ryan was at the edge of his seat.

"I'm sorry," Brendon whispered to Ryan, not knowing how to fill the silence.

Ryan grabbed his hand, locking their fingers together. Ryan kept his eyes on Tyler, not being able to look away.

Tyler scratched the back of his neck and peered up at Ryan. "I'm sorry, but you know with number like th-"

"But there's a chance," Ryan interrupted.

"Well yeah," Tyler said with a shrug of a shoulder and turned back to the results in front of him. "But it's not as big of a chance as we hoped for." He couldn't look at the two, not without that pity grimace for having to be the one to tell the couple the bad news.

"But there's still a chance." Ryan got up and squatted in front of Brendon, holding their joined hands to his chest. He leaned forward enough to meet Brendon's eyes. "All we need is a chance," he whispered, his voice soft and hopeful. He kissed Brendon's knuckle and gave his hands a squeeze.

Letting go of one hand, Ryan turned on his heels to look at Tyler. "How do we move forward?"

~~~

A/N:

I swear I'm not trying to do one update a month! I've just been busy. I'm in the process of writing an original story and that's been eating up my time. I don't want to leave this story unfinished because 1. I have OCD and it'll eat me alive, 2. I know how this ending will go and I just need to write it down. Thank you for being patient with me and this story.