They'll Never Understand. // d.h. fanfic

Chapter 24: Mother.

Nicole's P.O.V.

five days later

It's been almost a week since my mom went into hospice. You could be in there for weeks, even months. But she's going to a better place soon, and I'm glad she won't have to suffer anymore.

Today, I'm gonna get my final chance to visit her. See, when people are in hospice, their family only has one chance to see them. I'm going with my dad, unfortunately, and Cory.

Once we get to her room, I go up to her and give her a gentle hug. "How are you, mom?" I ask. She replies incoherently, meaning she can't talk right. But she uses sign language, which I can understand almost perfectly. You may be wondering, why does she know sign language? Well, when I was little, I had to use sign language. I'm not deaf, but I just couldn't speak for the first 6 years of my life, and I couldn't understand what people were saying to me. Therefore, I had to use it.

Looking at her hands, I read, "Good, but I can't speak."

"Aww. Well at least you won't suffer anymore, mom," I say with tears forming in my eyes.

I look at her hands again, and I read, "That's right. I love you, I'm gonna miss you so much. I wish the best for you."

I start to cry right in front of her. My dad goes to hug her. "I love you, Laura," he says to her.

"I love you too, Greg," my dad and I both read.

"Mom, thanks so much for everything you've done for all of us. You're the best mom anyone could ask for," Cory says to her.

"Cory... I love you to the moon and back. I'll miss you all so much..." we read.

She asks the nurse to help sit her up. They do so, and she brings her arms out. We all have our very last group hug. We were all crying, including dad. I've only seen him cry once.

We all head out, saying our goodbyes and I love yous. Once we get to the parking lot, my dad stops us. "Guys... I owe you an apology," he says to us.

"Out of the blue?" I ask.

"No, ever since she was diagnosed with leukemia I've been treating you guys like garbage. None of you deserve that," he says.

"But you weren't treating us right before that," Cory says to him.

"You're right, but I don't know. I just feel like a bad father.. I won't treat you guys like this anymore. I promise," he says with a smile.

"Promise?" I ask.

"Yes, I love you guys," he says. We all have a group hug and then get into the car.

—

"Hi, Dan," I say to him on Skype... again.

"Hey, Nicole. How was it?" he asks.

"It was sad... I don't want her to leave us," I say. "My dad said something to Cory and I today."

"What did he say?" he asks.

"He said he feels bad about treating us like shit, and he never meant to hurt us. He was just so scared for my mom, which I can understand."

"So, he's not gonna hurt you guys anymore?"

"He promised."

He smiles big. "Well I'm glad!" he says to me.

"DAD! GET IN HERE!" I yell, almost scaring Dan to death.

My dad comes in and smiles at Dan. "Hey, I'm Greg," he politely introduces himself.

"I'm Dan, nice to meet you!" he says.

"So you guys did meet at VidCon?" my dad asks.

"Yep, and I'm lucky. I have the best girlfriend in the world," Dan says, making me blush.

"I'm glad you're happy together," my dad says to us. All of a sudden, I hear the home phone go off. "Hang on, I'll get that." He runs out of the room to get the phone.

"Wow, he totally changed," Dan says. "Where's Cory?"

"At Elyse's I think," I say.

"Your family seems very nice... at first I didn't like your dad because of what you told me, but I guess he's changing," Dan says, and I nod.

"Yeah, I felt the same way, but I guess since this whole thing happened it stressed him out," I say.

"What?" I hear my dad say from my room. "But, I just saw her."

"Can you hear him?" I ask Dan.

"A little, yeah," he tells me.

We listen in on the conversation he's having over the phone for a little longer.

He comes in, with a tear falling from his eye.

"What happened?" Dan asks.

"Mom's gone."

—

This is so sad😭😭😭 By the way, merry late Christmas! I hope you all had an awesome day yesterday. I got the Dan and Phil 2017 Calendar so I'm good. But I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! -Tess

Song: Bad Day by Daniel Powter