The next day, Lance came to the clinic by himself. Rather than enter Joey’s room straightaway, he stuck his arm through the crack in the door and waved around a scrap of white paper in lieu of a flag. “Permission to enter safely?” he called.

Unable to repress a small smile at the gesture, Joey answered, “Sure, Lance. Come on in.”

Even after the door was wide open, Lance came forward very slowly and warily, as if approaching a time bomb. When he reached Joey, who sat at the window for a change, the first thing he said was, “Still wearing that hat, I see, eh?”

“Yes, I am,” said Joey, managing to keep his cool. “Is there a problem with that?”

Lance shook his head hastily. “No. No, of course not. It looks great on you.” He waited another minute or two before going on. “So, that was the Sheri who’d dropped in on you before?”

“Yes.”

“Well, she came off as a major sweetheart. I can attest to that much.” Lance fidgeted a little, a pink glow coming out in his cheeks. “And…erm…I’m sorry I wasn’t more receptive of her yesterday.”

Taken a little aback at the apology, Joey told him, “You weren’t so bad. Not like JC or the others.”

With his gaze on his shoes, Lance said in a low, halting tone, “Still, I have to confess…her appearance truly shocked and sickened me at the first. Something like that was the last thing I would have ever expected to see in my life.”

If Joey hadn’t also been so appalled the first time he’d set eyes on Sheri, Lance’s confession would have stewed his blood.

“Dare I ask what happened to her?”

Joey said quietly, “From what she told me, it was due to her cancer. They had to cut off her leg to save her from a monster tumor.”

Now the pink in Lance’s face receded in patches, giving him the impression of poorly mixed strawberry ice cream. “Are you serious?”

“As serious as she was.”

For a long moment, Lance was speechless, though his mouth opened and closed a number of times. The sight reminded Joey of a fish run aground; he would have made a crack about that, were the current situation not so serious. When Lance found his voice again, all he could give utterance to was, “I…I didn’t know.”

“Now you do,” Joey told him without malice.

“Oh, Joey, that’s…that’s…that’s horrible!” Lance sank into one of the nearest chairs, as if his legs could no longer hold him. A trembling hand lifted to his forehead. “The poor girl…will she be all right?”

“I take it so. She told me yesterday that she’ll soon be heading for home, so I suppose that’s a good omen.” Even as Joey said it, some part of him was not convinced. Even now, he could still see Sheri’s puzzling expression, hear her odd tone when she spoke of “going home to stay.” It was only through respect and restraint that he hadn’t probed any further.

Now both of Lance’s hands slid entirely over his face, and his body sagged in the chair. “Aw, geez,” he groaned into his palms, “now I feel really guilty. I feel like I could just bag my head.”

Taking pity on his mate, Joey reached out a hand and gave Lance’s shoulder a light pat. “If it will alleviate your guilt, she told me to tell you guys that she holds nothing against any of you.”

With his face still hidden, Lance shook his head from side to side and lamented, “Why is it we always act so imbecilic around someone, and only become aware of it afterwards?”

Joey kept his hand on Lance’s shoulder, but said nothing.

For the next little while, none of the two spoke.

When Lance at last withdrew his hands and opened his eyes, Joey asked him, “Where are the others?”

“Still at headquarters,” Lance replied. “We weren’t sure how you felt about seeing all four of us, so I came as a sort of representative. The guys told me to let them know whether it was safe to come around here again; if so, they might drop by sometime today or tomorrow.”

Though Joey still seethed from the previous day’s episode, he just said, “Anyone’s free to come and go as they like.” In another minute, curiosity got the better of him and he asked, “How did it go with JC after you left?”

A lopsided smile played on Lance’s lips. “He was pretty mad, I can tell you, especially about you throwing us out. He could hardly speak as we were leaving, and the rest of us kept our distance because he looked ready to punch out the first person who came near him.” He paused, then added, “To tell you the truth, I think you knocked him for a major loop, too.”

“Oh, really?”

“You know how most of the time, he’s the one to dish out orders. But the way you stood up to him…” Lance shook his head, his handsome visage giving off hints of admiration and amusement. “I never saw anything like it. For once, he got a taste of his own medicine—and you did it in five minutes flat.”

Joey grinned, feeling a great thrill of self-satisfaction. “What about Chris and Justin?”

Now Lance sobered. “I think the sight of Sheri dealt them both a nasty shock,” he said. “Chris wouldn’t look at anyone and shut himself up in the bathroom as soon as we got back, and Justin barely spoke two words throughout the day.”

“I guess I can’t totally fault you guys for that,” Joey said with a sigh. “Even so…”

Lance nodded meekly. “I know. We could have been nicer to her, and we should have.” After another lengthy pause, he said, “You know, Joey, you’re lucky to have found a friend like Sheri in this place.”

Joey felt the blood rush to his face, and he found himself fumbling with words. “Well, I don’t know if you’d call it that. I mean, we only talked to each other three times, and she’ll be shipping out any day, so the odds of our paths crossing again—”

Lance smiled. “You like her, don’t you?”

Joey held back for a time before admitting, “Well…yeah, I guess so. Kind of.” He added quickly, “In a purely platonic way, mind you.”

“Sure, I understand. Nothing wrong with that, either.” Reaching into his jacket for his cell, Lance asked, “So, may I give the guys the official go-ahead, now?”

“Yeah, sure. Tell JC if he’s willing to call a truce, then so am I.”

Inwardly, Joey wondered why the others would bother showing their faces around here again. After all, even before Sheri came along, it was no secret that none of them were keen on hanging about this joint. In fact, Joey had a hunch they would never come at all if they didn’t feel some sort of obligation.

They were his friends, better than brothers…but after this cancer business, Joey hardly knew them. Even when they were right in front of him, there might as well have been a wall of solid brick between them.