At sixty-three years old, once pop star Joseph Fatone was still as handsome as ever.
Sure, his once thick brown hair was starting to thin out, and grey had over taken most of it, and several wrinkles and smile lines had become permanent fixtures on his face, but, he was still attractive for an aging man.
Now, sitting silently next to the hospital bed, his normally happy, smiling face, was sad and worried.
The body that lay in the bed was his wife of nearly forty years. She had thinned out quite a bit in the past month, and she looked frail and helpless, just lying there.
Joey took her hand in his, and kissed it lightly. "Danielle," he whispered. "I'm here. I'm here for you. Stick with it. You'll make it through."
Joey starred at his wife, helplessly running his thumb back and forth over her lifeless hand.
"Daddy!" a voice cried from behind him.
Before Joey could even register the words, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him.
"Destiny," he breathed. "My baby."
Destiny, their twenty three-year-old daughter and only child, dropped to her knees next to her fathers chair. "I left school the second I got your message." she glanced at her mothers body. "How is mommy?"
"They don't know yet. The cancer came on so sudd-"
"Cancer? But, I thought they cured her of it! It was just breast cancer, and it was eight years ago!" Destiny cried, her long golden brown hair flipping over her shoulder with each outraged head movement.
Joey nodded. "They thought they had it. But, slowly, through out the years it's been spreading all over her body."
"But she comes for monthly checkups. Didn't they see it?"
Joey shrugged. "It was undetectable. And she hadn't been to the hospital in two months. Yesterday, she just collapsed.
Destiny stood up, and gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. "Mommy," she murmured. "I'm here now."
Joey starred at his daughter, thankful that he and Danielle had been able to conceive a child so late in their lives.
They'd put off having children for a while, because they both had important careers, and didn't want to have children until they were able to raise them properly. When they came to the point in their lived that they thought they were ready, they feared it was to late. It had seemed a miracle to them when she arrived.
Destiny knelt down next to her father once more. "Is she going to be all right?"
"I don't know, baby. I just don't know."
Destiny starred up at him, her green eyes wide with concern.
"God," he murmured, running his hands through her hair. "You look just like she did when she was your age."
"You really, really love her, daddy, don't you?" she asked.
"Yes. With all my heart and all my soul."
"Tell me about how you met mommy."
Joey closed his eyes, the moment he first saw Danielle frozen in his mind.
"Not just when you first met her, but your life with her."
Joey took a deep, shaky breath. "All right. . . "