She couldn’t believe the mess.

More than anything, she couldn’t believe she hadn't noticed the mess until she had gotten out of the shower and dressed. As she dried her hair with a towel, she looked around the room. The floor was covered in a layer of candy wrappers. The silver surfaces glistened as the rays of sun hit them at different angles. The white bed looked like a majestic island in a sea of silver mercury.

She wasn’t going to get mad, she loved him. She had known from the day she decided to be his wife, that this was part of the package. The mess. The childishness. The doting. The loving looks. She walked back to the bathroom and hung up the towel, arranging it so that it was aligned with the wall tiles. They were opposites in every way, that's part of the reason they had found themselves so drawn to each other. She was meticulous and proper. He was disheveled and honest.

She walked back to the room, her plastic steps echoing in the empty room and stood in front of her vanity. She applied light coats of mascara on her eyelashes before puckering her lips and dusting blush on her already rosy cheeks. She wasn’t a vain person, but she delighted in the feel of the brush caressing her cheeks. She loved seeing her eyelashes grow as the coat of mascara attached itself to even the thinnest strands. She smiled at herself in the mirror and begun putting her jewelry on. Her earrings glistened just as much as the floor, a present from her mother on her wedding day. Her breasts framed her great grandmother's necklace, almost disappearing into her cleavage, adding a splash of gold to an otherwise grey look.

"Jonah!" She screamed after her husband. When she didn’t get an answer she walked out of the room and into the office, where she was sure she was going to find him. She stopped at the door, leaning on the frame, she said more gently, "Good morning."

He turned around in his chair, pulling his gaze and fingers off the computer. "Good morning sunshine." He said, his eyes lighting up behind the thick frames of his glasses. She walked over to him and sat on his lap before planting a kiss on his chapped lips. "What happened to our room?" She asked mockingly. He cleared his throat, "I couldn’t sleep. Back to the future was playing on TV and I got hungry." To prove his point, he stretched his arm out and grabbed another candy from the Tupperware sitting on the corner of his desk, pealing the candy and aiming the wrapper at the trashcan but missing.

Sometimes she felt like she was married to a child, "you know what the doctor said, you have to eat healthier and there are things we can do for your insomnia." She had grown tired of reminding him that he had to take care of himself too, she couldn’t do it alone. He nuzzled her neck, knowing that she couldn’t resist it, and changed the subject, "I got quite a lot of writing done last night, after the movie ended." She smiled; at least his love of writing hadn't fallen out the same way his hair had.

She missed his hair. The thick dark curls that covered his scalp. She clearly remembers weaving her fingers through it while they were having sex and holding on tight, almost like if she didn’t, she would fall into some dark abyss. Before this, before the hair loss and insomnia, before the junk food that satisfied his munchies, before the chemo that had left him a mere memory of what he used to be, he used to take care of her. He would carry her like a sack of potatoes on his shoulder, up and down the stairs. She would come home and find a delicious meal waiting for her. He was the perfect man. He still was perfect in her eyes, if only a little weaker, frailer.

She pulled her husband's face away from her neck and held his gaze. In spite of everything he had gone through, his green eyes still shone the same way when looking at her duller brown ones. She brought her forehead towards his and closed her eyes for a mere second. Enough for one tear to fall on his cheek and travel down his chin. The tear was so small he didn’t even feel it, but she knew it had been there. She took a deep breath and pulled away to look him in the eye once again, "I have to go to work now, but promise me you're not going to be eating junk food all day," she said standing up. She was about to walk away when she stopped and said, "And please don't smoke out Aidan again. I don’t want to have to come up with more excuses for Sophie as to why Aiden is here instead of doing his homework at home." Jonah gave her his most devilish grin, "I'll try not to." She turned around and he spanked her before turning back to the computer. The cancer had taken away many things, but his playful spirit and his love for her, were luckily not two of them.

She could still hear the clutter of keys as she walked out of her house into the blinding sun. Most days she wanted to stay at home with Jonah. To love him and care for him the same way he had done when she had broken her ankle their sophomore year of college. She wanted to bury herself under the covers with him and pretend that nothing inside their little world had changed. But she knew that she needed to be strong for him, and that meant not babying him, even if he needed it. He was going to be ok; the doctors kept telling her most people make it out of this with nothing but a scar. But it had been two years already, and in spite of the surgery and treatment, his body was still waging a war against him.