Calum's PoV

The day of Poppy's final treatment came and with stress practically making my chest so tight I was unable to breathe, I got myself and Kai ready and left Poppy to her thoughts whilst she got ready. I was beyond nervous, and it was for a multitude of reasons... this was our first time in the public eye since her sickness was outed by the team, were the paps going to hound us the whole way? Were they going to be snapping photos of Poppy as she looked her illest? To take photos of Kai and make up stories about how his life will be affected by all this already? Take photos of me looking stressed and play up on it? That was only my first worry, next was having to be at the hospital as Poppy got her chemo and I looked after Kai. I'd managed to stay away from that place for as long as I could, especially since I had that awful dream that saw Poppy looking so well in a room full of people who looked terrible. Would I finally see that they were the effects of people having chemo and Poppy did resemble them now?

"You ready, Cal?" Her voice called out from the other room, the hoarseness of it seemingly normal to us now. Before I used to worry, hate the sound of my wife's voice being so different, but now it was what I'd gotten used to. She couldn't help it, it was just a part of what she had to go through, so I was going through it with her. I felt so helpless though, it was so upsetting to me that I couldn't help her in any way, to take any of this burden from her so it was even just a little bit easier.

"Yeah, the boys are good to go." I tried to remain positive, happy sounding as I picked up our little bundle of joy and headed out to the front room where Poppy sat on the sofa, her legs pulled up to her chest as she rested her head on the sofa cushion behind her. "Babe?" My stomach dropped as I heard her suck in a sharp breath as if she was in pain. Her head moved to rest on her knees.

"I'll be okay in a minute." She croaked out, breathing in and out deeply to try and make the pain subside.

"What's wrong? Your throat? Your stomach?" My legs seemed to be turning into jelly as I put Kai into his car seat and pulled my phone out. "I'm calling Sam."

"You don't need..." she began but got cut off as she groaned out in pain. My decision was made that instant and my phone shot to my ear without a second thought.

"Hey Calum, everything okay? We're scheduled to see you in like half an hour." Sam said, getting straight to the point. I didn't blame him, he was a very busy and in demand doctor who took patients like Poppy under his wing. Luckily for us, he also called us friends.

"It's Poppy. She's curled up in a ball on the sofa in pain. We were meant to be leaving but I'm not sure she'll make it." I said in a shaky breath, letting the worry out for what seemed like the first time. Sam sighed.

"Hand the phone over please." He said instantly and I wasted no time in throwing it over to her. She shot me a glare as she took the phone, but put it to her ear without anything other than a groan.

"Hey Sam. Honestly I'm fine. You know Calum, he's-" he obviously cut her off. Her eyes scanned left to right as he listed something off to her, obviously hitting a nerve as her eye-line sunk to the floor. "Yes... No... God no..." she began answering him as if he asked her questions but hesitated before the final answer for quite a while. "Yes..." she sighed defeatedly. I could hear Sam's voice become more urgent. "That's not necessary Sam." Poppy began to plead. "You don't need to, please.." her other hand came to her head as if she was stressed out with what he said. "I'll make it in the car, please don't send an ambulance over." My eyes widened as her gaze flicked over to me, my stomach knotted in fear. He wanted to send an ambulance over? She must be bad. I began to panic, wringing my hands together as I fought the want to butt into the conversation and add to the fearful feeling within the room. "Alright, thanks Sam. See you soon." Poppy ended the call and threw the phone away from her. She rubbed her eyes with her hands before she spoke to me. "Sam's coming to get me in his doctors car. If anything bad happens he'll put his siren on. He's asked if you could drive yourself and Kai to meet us there." I gulped down the nervous feeling once again and faked a smile.

"Okay, whatever means you're safest." I headed over to get to grab my phone and gave her a kiss.

"I love you. And I'm sorry." Poppy said as I turned away to head back to Kai.

"Sorry for what?" I queried. She sighed as best she could whilst the pain remained. She scratched at her throat for a moment, then prodded and poked at it.

"For all of this. It feels like I've ruined your very good life with my existence. You've had to put your tour on hold, you're stressed and sad and it's all my fault." She let a stray tear fall but wiped it away angrily, clearly not wanted to show any sadness to me.

"I met you in a hospital bed. I'd drunk myself silly because I was miserable and lonely. I broke my ankle and rib. I don't think my life was good before you. Yes, I'm in a band with my best friends and I love that, but I needed a life outside of that too and that's what you became. This shit is just another hurdle for us, we've made it through so much already I'm sure we can make it through this. Just stay strong." I gave her such a good speech I nearly began to believe it myself. Could we make it through this? I hoped so but I felt like I was on the merge of a breakdown daily and really wanted some rest. Poppy looked worse too, losing weight from not eating as much as she used to, her face becoming gaunt and tired. Although this was her last chemo, it wasn't the end of the cancer. We'd have to go through vigorous tests again after this. We had a long way to go.

We could make it through this... right?