Classes are to resume the next day, much to Pete's dismay. He isn't ready for fourth period when, no doubt, there's going to be more yelling.

Especially if Andy finds out about what Joe and Horacio did. All Pete can hope for is that that piece of vital information stays hidden for a while.

Pete is awoken in the middle of the night to a light tapping on the door. He almost doesn't hear it, thinks he's dreaming. But it doesn't stop. So he gets up to open the door, and his eyes widen when he sees his boyfriend lying on the ground, hands covering his face. "Patrick?" Pete asks, bending down to make sure his boyfriend is alright. Pete's eyes widen when he pries Patrick's hands from his face and finds his boyfriend blankly staring back at him. "Honey? Are you okay?"

"Throat. Hurts." Patrick manages to get out before completely covering his face again. Pete forces him to stand, shutting the door behind him and all but dragging Patrick to Alyssa's room.

Alyssa looks worried when she opens the door, probably completely freaking out since it's probably around two in the morning and someone's knocking at her door. "Pete? Patrick? What's wrong?"

"I don't know. Something's hurting him bad. I think he ended up staying in Joe's dorm last night instead of with Gavin, and he's been at my door for god knows how long trying to wake me up." Pete says, talking completely too fast, and he's surprised Alyssa can understand him.

However, she grabs a coat and slips on a pair of shoes and leads the boy's to her office. "I'm going to call Gavin and let him know what's going on. Take him to a bed for me?" Alyssa asks, and Pete nods, wrapping his fingers around Patrick's wrist. Pete leads Patrick to one of the beds and watches his boyfriend curl into a ball, his hands clutching his neck.

It hurts Pete's heart to see his boyfriend like this, obviously in pain. Pete sits beside Patrick on the bed, running a hand through Patrick's hair and trying to soothe him.

Patrick is burning up, quite literally. Pete forces Patrick to sit up so he can pull the letterman jacket off of him and unbutton his shirt enough to find his necklace and slip it over his boyfriend's head.

It helps quite a bit, but Patrick still clearly has a fever. Alyssa comes back a few moments later. "Finish unbuttoning your shirt, Patrick. I'm going to need to get a clear view of your chest so I can take some x-rays."

Patrick struggles to undo his own buttons, turning to Pete for help. Pete unbuttons the rest of the buttons, and Patrick shrugs it off of his shoulders. Alyssa looks nervous, like she's not telling Pete something.

"You know something that you're not telling me." Pete says in an accusing tone. Alyssa starts to say something, probably to defend herself, but Gavin comes running in the door.

"Baby, are you okay?" Gavin asks as soon as he sees Patrick. He's dressed in a pair of flannel pyjamas and a jacket hastily thrown over his shirtless body. Gavin rushes to the side of the bed that Pete isn't on and begins pushing Patrick's hair out of his face. "Oh my god, Alyssa. You said it wouldn't come back."

"I said it shouldn't come back, Gavin. I told you that treatments are difficult in these situations." Alyssa fires back, and Gavin just shakes his head, tears coming to his eyes.

"Look at you. You're burning up." Gavin lies his head on his son's chest and huffs out a breath.

"What shouldn't come back?" Pete almost demands, looking down at his boyfriend. Fuck, the way Gavin and Alyssa are talking scares the shit out of him.

"I'm going to call Trevor to come and get Pete. You two should talk." Alyssa says, and then she walks out of the room. Gavin doesn't make any move to speak, head still on Patrick's chest as he looks at his son with a weary gaze.

"Gav, you're scaring the fuck out of me." Pete says, not bothering to watch his language. Gavin sighs and lifts his head to look Pete in the eyes.

"Laryngeal cancer. Cancer of the larynx. Patrick was twelve when he was diagnosed, and with treatments, he was 'cured,' so to speak, at age fourteen." Gavin somehow says calmly, but Pete's whole world stops spinning. Cancer. Patrick had already beat it once, and it's now rearing its ugly head yet again.

"That's what's wrong with his vocal cords? I thought it had something to do with a fire." Pete trails off, wondering if everything he knows about Patrick is a lie.

"It's a cover up story. Well, not really. It happened. It just didn't fuck Patrick's vocal cords up like you think. The damages were more external than internal. Vocal cord paralysis was caused by the cancer, but Patrick fought like hell to keep his larynx. This time, though, I don't think it's going to happen." Gavin's words sting like nothing Pete's ever heard before. Cancer. Cancer caused Patrick to sound the way he does, even though it's beautiful in Pete's ears.

And now cancer could cost Patrick his life.

Pete can't help the tears rolling down his face as he touches Patrick's cheek. His boyfriend is asleep now, thank god, and no longer thrashing everywhere to get comfortable.

"Neither Trevor nor Cate picked up. I called TJ. He's coming to pick up Pete, Andy, and Joe to take back to his place." Alyssa says as she re-enters the room.

Pete immediately shakes his head and clutches his boyfriend's hand. "I'm not leaving him."

"I'm sorry, Pete, but Patrick has to go off campus to hopefully have an emergency surgery. If we can get his larynx out quick enough, we should be able to completely eradicate the cancer from his body before it can spread." Alyssa explains. "Only Gavin, Uncle Sam, and I are allowed off campus. You can't go. I'm sorry, Pete."

Now the tears are really rolling, and Pete can't stop them. "I love him. I love him so much. He needs me there."

"I know you do, son. I know you do. But there are no exceptions to the rules. I'll be by his side the whole time, and you'll be the first to know of everything that happens." Gavin clutches Pete's shoulder, and Pete's hand that isn't on Patrick's cheek reaches up to clasp with Gavin's.

"TJ is here. He's already gotten Andy and Joe." Alyssa says, and Pete nods. He squeezes Gavin's hand again and kisses Patrick's cheek before walking out to find his friends and TJ.

The first thing that happens is Pete being engulfed into a hug by .. Andy? This is strange, but Pete won't dwell on it now.

When he pulls away, Pete notices Andy's hair is now a dark green. Once again, not something to comment on at this time, but still. Pete's mind is running wild. He can't focus specifically on one thing.

Andy and Joe both offer out a hand to Pete, and he walks in between the two of them, hands linked, behind TJ. They all three climb in the backseat of TJ's car and stay silent on the ride to his house.

This day has already been hell, and it's only half passed three. Great. But at least Andy and Joe seem to have put their differences aside for the time being.

ok a rollercoaster of a chapter but i've had this planned all along as well

patrick will be fine, but his vocal cords are fucked. he'll have to do speech therapy to be able to speak again.