A Tough Moment

Chapter Thirteen

I gazed down at Ethan as he continued sobbing, nothing that I said seemed to have an effect on him. My brain spun, I couldn't understand what could have happened to get him in such a state. I sighed and gently stroked his hair, desperately trying to calm him down.

"Ethan we need to talk." I whispered as I knelt in front of him and gazed into his eyes.

He sighed and quickly looked at the floor, unable to look me in the eyes.

"Ethan you're scaring me now." I said gently, trying to get through to him.

"Sorry." he whispered.

"It's okay, you can stop apologising, but you need to tell me what's going on." I told him.

"Mum passed away." he said quietly.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry." I said gently.

I watched his back as he walked away from me and gazed out of the window.

"There's more." he added.

"Just tell me Ethan." I pleaded. The wait was the worst part. For every moment that he kept me waiting, my brain spun with the possibilities of what he was about to tell me.

He sighed and continued staring out of the window.

"I don't know how too." he admitted.

"We have to be honest with each other." I said quietly.

As I continued watching him, a terrifying thought entered my head. When I'd found him in Georgia's bedroom, he'd apologised over and over again. What did he have to be sorry for, what could he possibly have done?

"Ethan, what have you done?" I asked nervously.

He slowly turned to face me and raised his eyebrow.

"What exactly are you accusing me of?!" he exclaimed, sounding slightly angry.

"I don't know, but what have you done that you need to apologise for?" I muttered, tears rolling down my cheeks.

He'd been disappearing with Caleb a lot lately, I just assumed they were visiting their Mother, but maybe I was wrong.

"I haven't done anything." he stated dismissively.

"Then why were you apologising?" I frowned.

"Because..." he started, but trailed off.

"Because what?!" I cried. I'd had enough of trying to extract the information from him. He needed to just tell me what was going on, then we could try and work through it together.

He stared at me in silence.

"For god sake Ethan!" I pleaded, trying in vain to stop myself from crying.

"I was apologising because I never wanted to hurt you." he said quickly.

"Oh god." I whispered, stepping back slowly.

He frowned at me in confusion for a moment, before a look of realisation crossed his face.

"It's not that." he quickly reassured me.

I sniffed and angrily wiped away my tears.

"Mum had Huntingdon's disease." he mumbled.

I stared at him for a moment, not really sure what to say. I didn't know much about the illness, only what I'd seen during my time working as a nurse.

"Cal and I took the test." he added.

"And?" I asked, starting to panic.

"Cal's fine, but..." he started.

"No...Ethan." I said nervously.

"Mine was positive." he nodded.

I quickly turned away from him and perched on the bed, to prevent myself from falling over. Of all the things that he could have told me, I wasn't expecting this. Even though I was hurting, I knew that he would be feeling it even more. I had to be strong for him, he was going through enough, without having to feel guilty about me.

I slowly stood up and walked over to him. Eventually he sighed and made eye contact with me.

"It'll be okay, we'll get through this." I reassured him.

"How?!" he exclaimed, causing me to jump.

"I don't think you realise what this means, it starts between the age of thirty five and forty four, and I'll be dead within twenty years of it starting. Not only that I'll be in a wheelchair, unable to stop twitching or even pick Georgia up!" he ranted.

I swallowed the lump that had risen in my throat. All the hopes and dreams that we had for our future had been shattered as a result of a few moments. As a result of this condition, Ethan and I wouldn't grow old together. Even though he still had a few years before he was thirty five, it felt like an axe was hanging over our heads, just waiting to fall and destroy everything.

"We just have to make the most of the time that we have." I told him.

"It'll be constantly hanging over us." he replied.

"I know, but there's nothing we can do about that." I pointed out.

"You deserve so much better." he said quietly.

"We can't spend our lives worrying about the future, because we don't know what will happen." I sighed.

He sighed and pulled me into his arms, I bit my lip as I rested my head against his chest. I couldn't let him see how upset I was. During my time working as a nurse, I'd seen patients with Huntingtons, and the thought of seeing him in that helpless state terrified the hell out of me.

"I love you." I told him quietly.

AN: Updating on my lunch break, you can't say I'm not good to you guys! ;)