The Biggest Fight of Our Lives {Our Battle Series- Book 1}

NYC Marathon

Shay's POV: 

Today was the day of the New York City Marathon, probably the biggest marathon I've ever ran. I can't believe I'm running my 4rth marathon (AN: Don't quote me on that fact), but what was most special was the entire family had flown out to see me run. I woke up that morning pumped and ready to run, the kids and Colette were still asleep when I woke up that morning. I got dressed in my marathon clothes ate a banana and did a little stretching, I looked around the room and smiled. To my right sleeping on a cot was Avia her beanie covering her bald head she was curled up with a bucket next to her in case she threw up from some medication she had the night before, to my left there was Gavin he was asleep with one of his legs dangling from the cot he was almost to big for. In the queen bed slept Emmi and Brock, Emmi was sucking her thumb and clutching the blanket. Brock was surrounded by stuffed animals and sprawled out across his part of the bed. Colette must have heard me getting ready because she woke up, got out of bed and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Morning" I said getting up and kissing her on the lips, "you ready" she asked me engulfing me in a hug. "I'm always ready" I said hugging her back, I grabbed the vlog camera and put it in my pocket so that way I could film during the race. I was about to leave when I heard a small tired voice call my name out, I knew immediately it was Avia. Morning I said walking over and giving her a kiss on the head, she got on her knees and gave me a huge hug. "What's that for" I asked hugging her back, "for luck" she told me. "I'm sorry I might not be able to come to the finish line when the race is over" she told me getting back into bed. "Your health is more important than seeing me finish a race" I told her pulling the covers back up over her small frail body. Chemotherapy, the primary drug for curing cancer, wiped out the patient's immune system making them more susceptible for disease and Colette and I weren't sure if we wanted to bring Avia down to the finish line and risk her getting sick, although she had already gone through the airport we were still weary about it. I told her I had to leave now to go down to the race she wished me good luck again and began coughing, I knew that meant she was about to throw up. She put the bucket between her knees and leaned her head over it as vomit caused by her chemotherapy pills spilled out of her mouth. We were using the chemo pills in place of IV chemotherapy treatments while we were in New York. I sat with her and rubbed her back until she finished throwing up, I gave her a glass of water and I gave her another hug and a kiss before going down to the lobby to meet the rest of the team. Bye I yelled to Colette who was in the bathroom taking a shower, I walked out of the room and meet Carlie on the way down to the elevator. "How'd you sleep " I asked her assuming that she probably didn't get much sleep because she would be so excited for today, she told me that she was excited and nervous and had a difficult time falling asleep. She asked me how I slept, I told her not well. Avia had been up for around half the night throwing up from the chemo pill and I was up with Colette every time she threw up because well that's what dads do. On the way down to the lobby we talked about how excited we were about the race and about how we lucked out that we had gotten such a nice to run. When we got to the lobby we meet up with David and Rawn and headed out toward the starting line, when we got there and checked in we realized that it was a little cold and we had a few groups ahead of us before we even had to get in line to start so we found a tarp and hid under trying to block out the cold. I vlogged everybody asking them about what their thoughts about today were and if they were excited, the tarp situation lightened the mood and made for some pretty funny footage of us trying to stay covered. It didn't feel like we were under the tarp for long because as quickly as we got there we left having to go to the finish line because we were about to start. I grabbed the camera out of my pocket and launched into one of my motivation speeches about how this was life changing and how blessed I was to being doing this. When our herd got to the front I turned the vlog camera on me and the crowd behind me to show what the starting of the New York City Marathon looked like, once the horn went off I filmed for a minute or two before putting the camera back in my pocket making sure not to waste my energy. Me, Carlie and David stayed together throughout the race and we lost Rawn early on because he had to walk because he was having problems with his knee. While we were running I filmed a bit trying to keep people around us motivated and happy about what they were doing. My motivation for the race was my nine year old daughter Avia, she had been through hell and back in these past few months and did it all with a smile almost never complaining about her situation. I figured if she could do that at such a young age then I could easily do this. During the race Colette texted me saying how Avia was going to stay with my grandma while she brought the rest of the kids down to see me because Avia was still suffering from some side effects of the chemo pill, as sad I was that she couldn't come down and see me finish I knew that her health was more important. When we were approaching the finish line I told Carlie and David that we should hold hands when we cross the finish line, when we were a couple of yards out we grabbed each other's hands and picked up the pace wanting to get the race over with as this point. Once we crossed the finish line I began looking around for Colette and the kids, I looked around and a little further back and slightly removed from the crowd I saw Colette and too my surprise Avia sitting on top of her shoulders holding a sign that she had made for me. I ran toward them and hugged Colette over the police barricade she kissed me and told me that she was so proud of me, I looked up at Avia and asked what she was doing here. She pulled her mask down off of her face and said that the text Colette sent me was a lie and that she wanted to surprise me when I finished, I took her off of Colette's shoulders swung her around before placing her on my shoulders. I hopped the police barricade myself giving the rest of my kid's hugs, we were all laughing and having a good time. The kids asked me questions about the marathon and I answered them asking them questions about what they had seen in New York before coming to see me. We were in the middle of talking when Avia said she wanted to try walking without her crutches, this shocked me. Avia had been doing well on her crutches but was having a hard time learning how to walk without them, she was having trouble because her nerves hadn't fully developed back and caused searing pains up her legs whenever she tried to walk without support. I took her down off of my shoulders and placed her down next to the barricade while I walked back a few feet and opened my arms. She took her hand off the police barricade and shakily and slowly began walking toward me, Colette had the camera out and was filming. Tears were brimming in her eyes as well as mine when Avia walked into my arms, I picked her up and hugged her telling her that I was so proud of her. I looked over at Colette who was crying and filming us, I then looked at Avia who had the biggest grin on her face. I placed her on my shoulders again and I walked over to get my marathon medal, when we got over to the table I gave her my name and race number, she walked back to a stack of boxes and came back with two medals and she handed me both of them. I asked her of course why she was giving me two medals, she told me it was because she watched Avia walk without her crutches and heard us talking to the camera about how big of a deal it was. Won't you run out Avia asked examining the medal, nope the lady told us we order a lot of extra in case we lose any. Thank you that's so kind of you I said placing the medal around my neck, Avia placed hers around her neck as well and also thanked the lady. We walked back over to where the kids and Colette were to decide what we were going to do for the rest of the day. When we got back over Colette asked Avia why she had a marathon medal, she explained that lady at the table giving them heard us talking about her and watched her take her first steps without support and felt that Avia deserved one. She took it down off her neck and gave it to Gavin to pass it around so that way all of the kids could see it, Emmi asked if she could have one too. We laughed and told her no saying that we didn't want to take anymore unearned medals from the race, Avia said that Emmi could wear hers though but had it to give it back when we got to the hotel later that afternoon. We decided to go out to lunch with everybody who was at the race and after that my family was going to try and see a show, we were probably going to try and see Matilda because Avia who recently discovered musical theatre fell in love with the show. Also a girl who is in it does youtube and I wanna try to meet her. We decided to go to Friday's for lunch because it was a safe food option, that means that there is something that literally everybody likes. Colette asked me if I'd rather her carry Avia because I was tired from the race, I told her that it was fine and I didn't mind. Colette called the restaurant and let them know we were coming because we had such a big group, once Colette got off the phone we made our way to the restaurant. On the way over Emmi kept asking me if I could carry her because she was tired of walking, I told her I couldn't because I was carrying Avia. But Avia being the good older sister that she is told me that she could walk the rest of the way, I asked her if she was sure because we were still a couple of blocks out from Time's Square where it was located. She said she was sure, so I took her off of my shoulders and placed her on the ground. I helped her stay balanced until she could get her crutches of the stroller, she attached them to her wrists and pressed the red button on either side of them (pretend that's how they work) and began walking forward. Avia kept a good pace and kept up with us as we continued toward the restaurant, when we got to Friday's I could tell that Avia was exhausted. When we got inside we had to wait a few minutes so I put Emmi down and picked Avia up, giving her legs a break. "Hey what was that for" Emmi said when I put her down and picked Avia up, I explained to her that Avia's legs were still healing and that they were probably sore and needed a break. She looked at Avia as to confirm this, Avia nodded her head in agreement and rested her head on my shoulder taking in the surroundings. A few minutes later the host called out names and took us to a table upstairs overlooking Times Square, I was going to carry Avia up the stairs when she told me to put her down so that way I could help Colette carry the stroller up the stairs. I placed Avia on the ground and helped Colette carry the stroller up the stairs, I looked back when we reached the top and saw Gavin helping Avia up the stairs. He walked behind her keeping her balanced and standing and Avia held onto the handrail with one hand, her crutch in the other pushing herself up on to each step. Eventually the two of them reached the top of the stairs and walked over to the table, the two of the same sat down in the open chairs at the end of the table. The kids were on one side and the adults on the other giving the adults a little bit of peace and quiet from the kids, lunch was interesting to say the least. Emmi had asked Colette to take her to the bathroom and on the way back to her seat she took Avia's hat off of her head knowing it would make Avia uncomfortable. Recently Emmi had been very mean towards Avia and Colette and I weren't sure why, we tried having her talk to specialists, us, even Avia's doctors and no one could get her to break. Once Emmi took Avia's hat, Avia quickly whipped her hood over head to avoid her bald head being shown in public for long. It took a few minutes but eventually Colette was able to get Avia her hat back, Avia took her hood of and quickly pulled the beanie back on sparing no time. After we dealt with Emmi and Avia lunch ended up being fairly normal, once we finished I told Colette to take the kids back to the hotel room while I went to the Shubert Theatre to go and pick up tickets for the show. I walked to theatre and asked them if they had 4 tickets to this evenings show, the man working asked me if the balcony was okay. I asked him where the balcony was and if there was an elevator in the theatre if we needed to go upstairs, he told us that there wasn't an elevator in the theatre and that we would have to walk up the stairs. I explained to the man that we had a child that wasn't able to walk upstairs due to a medical condition, ohh well he said turning back to his computer. "Ohh give the man a break Oscar", I turned around and saw two girls standing there both of them had on cast jackets which meant that they were part of the show. The slightly taller girl came up and said how many tickets do you need 4 I said looking at the girl curiously, she went and side the theatre leaving me alone with her friend. The two of us stood there awkwardly waiting for the girls return, she came back a few minutes later with 4 tickets in her hand. "Here you go 4 orchestra tickets" the girl said handing me the tickets, how'd you get these I asked her. "House manager always has extra tickets" she explained, I'm Sam by the way and that's Ava. Sam that name sounded oddly familiar, I went out on a limb and asked if she did Youtube. You watch my youtube videos she asked me surprised, yeah my daughter Avia loves them. That's seriously so cool she told me, explaining how we inspired her to start a Youtube channel when she started rehearsal two years ago for Matilda. I knew that we always inspired people to start vlogging or pursue their dreams but this had to be the coolest meeting of fan/creator ever. We stood outside the theatre for a little while longer before they had to go inside and begin warming up for their show. That night was amazing we saw Sam and Ava go on for Bruce and Lavender their swing roles that they rarely got to go one for, Sam although a girl played a male character for comfort and also because she suffered from the same type of cancer as Avia which allowed her to play male roles. All the kids sat through the two hour show enthralled by what was happening on stage, that night when we got back to the hotel room Avia declared that she had one of the best days ever.