Timeless // T.H

28// We still have time

Brace yourselves. It's the final chapter. Dadada da, dada da da da, if you know the song I'll love you forever
Love E x
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A week or so after, the doctors finally had the hard conversation that no one ever was prepared for. This time, Tom was with Betty, he was there to hold her hand and experience the moment beside her. They knew it was bad news the minute the doctor asked them to step into her office, it was the same doctor who'd had to diagnose Roo, the same flawless woman doing the dirty work and for some reason it reassured Betty, it told her the doctor was invested in her sons illness.

"Ms Evans, I'm going to be honest because there is no easy way to have this conversation and you deserve the honest truth. Despite everyone's best efforts, your sons cancer has continued to spread to what's known as Stage IV; this means it's no longer just in his brain, it's everywhere. The cancer cells as multiplying faster than any treatment can eradicate them; I'm so sorry, but there is nothing more we can do for your son."

Betty nodded slowly, she'd known this was coming, she could sense it. Maybe it was a maternal thing, she wasn't sure, but she'd been watching Roo suffer through the relentless treatments and had known it was too late. Tom's head just dropped, his breathing slowed and his mind just flipped into over drive away from the conversation. Whilst he was tapped out, Betty and the doctor began discussing the next steps.

"From this point, we really don't know how much longer Ruben has, he's definitely a fighter but I honestly couldn't say whether it's a matter of days or whether he has months left in him." She explained respectfully, "Most kids his age apply to make a wish to meet Spiderman, but clearly, that's not an issue." She lightly joked, nodding to Tom, who she clearly recognised. "But I would recommend giving him as much of a life as he can get with what time he has left." Tom came back to earth just as the women stood up to part ways. "Ms Evans, I am so sorry I couldn't save your son." Dr Sheen's voice came out raw with emotion as she shook Tom and Betty's hands before they left the room.

They lay beside each other that night, not touching, just staring up at the ceiling. It had been one of those days in a person's lifetime when the world just won't seem to stop spinning until someone trips and everyone gets hurt. The sort of day when everything is too much and yet nothing is really enough either; they tango in limbo as everything collapses around them. Betty's hand eventually found Toms and their fingers tangled into each other.

"Betty?" Tom whispered through the dark to her. Her head turned to allow her to look at him; she saw him holding the ring out to her and, from the tiniest beam of streetlight creeping through the curtains, she could see it sparkling. "Marry me." He said looking back at her.

She nodded, slowly at first, but the more she nodded, the faster her head moved- she rolled over to close the gap between them and pressed her lips to his.

"I love you," she whispered and his arms wrapped around her, holding her close to him as she began to cry softly against him. Hiding beneath the covers with Tom seemed to slow the world for a while; she felt safe a grounded there. They could get through this, she was losing her world, but she'd always have Tom and she felt that in the way he pressed soft kisses to the side of her head.

It took a week for Roo to be discharged from hospital, just a week away from his fourth birthday. Tom had been planning a party for him for a month previously, it had some serious adjustments made after finding out that Roo was ill, but he was still excited for it. He'd booked out a warehouse and designed a huge soft play area that he'd hoped Roo could play in with all his friends. Instead of children, he invited the avengers cast and crew that Roo had come to love and they would play in it with him instead. He didn't tell Betty the plan, because he wanted to surprise her and he hadn't told anyone that Roo was ill because he hadn't been able to bring himself to.