October 2007

Two men waited patiently inside a Barnes and Noble along with thousands of other people. Both of them were rather short in stature. The slightly taller of the two had black hair and dark brown eyes, he bounced on his heels with excitement. The shorter male rolled his eyes, although he was just as excited he hid it better.

"Relax Mike." The shorter man chastised his long time friend. The one called Mike ignored his friend. Nothing could ruin this moment. In just a short thirty minutes he would meet his idol Y2J himself, Chris Jericho.

"But he's going to be here." Mike remarked. He felt like a little child on Christmas morning. But with all the excitement he could not forget the promise he made to their other friend. The two men usually were accompanied by a young woman. But the woman could not make it to the book signing. "Lex would understand."

"Well Lex is not here and your bouncing around like an idiot is annoying the hell outta me." The shorter brown haired man snapped.

"Come on Keith lighten up." Mike grinned at his companion. Another male approached the twosome, he was taller than both the other two men. His name was Cesar. He smiled at Keith and Mike before giving them both hugs.

"Where's Lex?" He asked looking around for the only female member of their group. Keith and Mike looked at each other. Both frowning simultaneously.

"It came back." Was all Keith would say. "This time it does not look good." Cesar looked to the ground then. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself.

"Why am I just hearing about this now?" He asked a little hurt that three of his friends could keep something like that from him.

"We only found out like two days ago. She called us to explain why she could not come with us today." Mike explained. "I guess she's known for a few months now but never said anything."

"Foolish ass woman." Cesar shook his head in disgust. "Did she make you promise to tell him anything for her?"

"No, but she sounded so disappointed that she could not go that we decided to try and get Jericho to say hi to her on the phone or something." Keith said before shrugging. "It's worth a shot right?"

"Yea I guess." Cesar agreed.

"Come on guys I know the situation sucks but we are here going to meet Jericho." Mike was ever the optimist.

–

"We're next guys." Mike could barely contain his excitement at that point. He was about to meet his idol. The only way this could be any better for him is if Ronnie James Dio was there too.

"Next." The security guard yelled. Mike made his way up to Chris Jericho. The blonde wrestler smiled at the young man as he approached.

"Hi." Jericho greeted him. "What's your name?" He asked as Mike handed him the book.

"Michael." Mike managed to get out after having some difficulty. Jericho signed the book and handed it back to him. "Can I get a picture with you?"

"Sure." Jericho motioned for him to take the seat next to him. Mike practically skipped over to his hero. Keith, who had the camera, stepped forward.

"Ok smile guys." Both men smiled for the camera.

"Chris, I just want you to know that you are like my idol and all I want to do is give you a hug right now cause you are that awesome."

"So do it." Mike's jaw hit the floor. He looked at Jericho for a moment. The blonde wrestler had stood up and was waiting. Without having to be told twice Mike was on his feet and embracing the older man.

"I never want to let go." Jericho just laughed.

"Me either." He played along. Then it got weird. They broke their embrace. Mike gathered his book and was about to walk away when he remember Alexia.

"Hey Chris I really do not want to bug you but one of my best friends is a huge fan of ours too but she couldn't be here today because she is battling leukemia. If I called her would you say hi?" Mike knew he was being a pain in the ass now but he knew it would make Lex's year.

"Jimmy, I am going to take a five minute break." Jericho announced.

"Dude seriously you couldn't have waited till me and Cesar got our books signed!" Keith exclaimed.

"Come with me guys." Jericho requested of them. The three friends followed Jericho towards a back corner of the store. "You guys are serious right? This isn't some kind of joke?"

"No, we're serious as a heart attack." Mike piped up. "Our friend Alexia or Lex as we call her, had leukemia when she was ten years old and then she has been in remission until a few months ago. She's twenty-one now and it's back with a vengeance."

"Dial the number." Jericho handed Keith his cell phone. Keith did as requested and handed the phone back to Jericho.

–

Alexia "Lex" Marren was looking up at the ceiling of her hospital room. She was still really upset that she could not accompany her friends. The chemo was just way too much on her body. She couldn't even stand up on her own anymore, so forget about standing in line.

There was nothing on TV at that time of day and she was too restless to try to read a book. So she just forced herself to stare at the ceiling. She did that a lot now a days to keep herself from crying. She tried to be strong but sometimes it just became too much. How does one be cheerful when they know that they could die at any time?

Her cell phone started ringing. With much more energy than she would have liked she lifted herself into a sitting position and reached to grab her phone on the bedside table. She did not recognize the number but answered it anyways.

"Hello." Her voice came out raspy. That bugged her to no end but what was she going to do. There was nothing that could be done.

"Hi is this Alexia?" The voice on the other end of the line seemed familiar but she could not place it.

"Yes this is she."

"Lex, this is Chris Jericho." After hearing those words she just broke down. Her friends had somehow gotten Chris Jericho to call her on the phone.

"I am so sorry Mr. Jericho it's just that this means so much to me." she sobbed. As much as she tried to calm herself down she just couldn't.

"How are you doing Sweetheart?" Chris asked.

"I've been better." Lex laughed through her tears.

"Yea, I bet you have." Jericho agreed. "You have some great friends here Lex. They made sure I knew about you."

"They are great guys." She had finally stopped crying. She was now beaming. This was probably the closets thing to Make A Wish she was ever going to get.

"Listen Lex I have to be going but you rest up and get better."

"Alright. Thank you so much for calling me. You have no idea how much better I feel now that I have talked to you." Her words tugged on Chris's heart-strings. She was so young and from what he could hear in her voice, so brave.

"Bye bye Sweetheart." He hung up the phone. He placed it back into her pocket. "Before you guys leave would you write down Lex's full name and the hospital information. I would like to send her some signed stuff."

All three men grinned at him. They agreed to give him the information he asked for. "Hey since we are all here can we get pictures too?" Cesar asked.

"Sure." After all the books were signed Keith jotted down the information on a small piece of line paper. Chris stuck it in his pocket.

After he was all done with his signing he took the now crumpled up piece of paper out of his pocket.

Alexia Marren

Massachusetts General Hospital

Blake & Ellison Building 13th floor

Room 1324

"Well Ms. Marren what do you say to a surprise visit?" He smiled as he stuck the paper back into his pocket. He figured him showing up to see her would mean so much more than anything that he signed a sent to her.