The older guy sitting next to him waited a grand total of thirty seconds before he said, “Does that happen to you often?”

If he said “yeah,” he’d be an egotistical ass. If he said “no,” he’d be a liar. He smiled and shrugged one shoulder.

“I’d be happy to help her out,” the guy said.

Drew gave him another nod and went back to reading the book he’d stowed in his backpack before he went to Kendall’s house. He’d seen the economist who wrote it on The Daily Show. The pilot was flying over South Seattle, descending into Sea-Tac Airport. He’d be through the airport, in his car, and on his way in half an hour or less.

DREW WALKED THROUGH the front doors of Children’s Hospital with a couple of poorly-concealed Dick’s Drive-In bags an hour later. The nurses behind the desk on Nolan’s floor pretended like they couldn’t see what he was carrying.

“He’s in the room,” one of them called out. “He’s about to have a treatment.” She glanced at the bags and glanced up at him. “A few bites, okay? Don’t let him go crazy.”

“Okay.” He moved closer to the desk. “How about I bring enough for you ladies next time?”

“Sure,” she grinned. Her colleagues shook their heads, wagged fingers at him, and laughed. Even health care professionals couldn’t resist Dick’s food.

Nolan was sitting up at the rolling table in his room with an older-model computer tablet playing a game. He was so deep in concentration that he didn’t glance up when Drew walked into his room.

“Hey, buddy. How ya doing?”

Nolan’s face lit up. “Drew! You’re here!”

He put down the tablet and tried to scramble off the bed like any other ten-year-old boy, but his movements were slow. Drew knew Nolan would be feeling even worse in a couple of hours due to the chemo treatment he’d just been warned about. He crossed the room for a fist bump and wondered if he should help the kid back into his bed.

Nolan wouldn’t want Drew to treat him like he was sick.

“Of course I’m here. It’s Tuesday.” He put the Dick’s bags down on another rolling table. “Listen, dude, the nurses are onto me.”

Nolan’s brow furrowed. “Did they tell you I can’t have any of that?”

“Nawww. They told me to take it easy, though. I’ll tell you what.” He pulled the chair that sat next to the bed closer to Nolan. “You can have some, and I’ll put the rest into the mini-fridge for you later.”

“My mom can heat it up?”

“Sure.” Drew grabbed the bag with two chocolate shakes. “Let me get you set up here.” He spread a paper napkin over the rest of the rolling table, pulled one of the shakes out of the bag, and put a straw in the lid. He handed it to Nolan. He shook a few still-hot French fries out onto the napkin, unwrapped a cheeseburger with ketchup for him, and uncapped a small plastic cup of ketchup for the fries. He pulled a cheeseburger out of the bag for himself.

“Can I have more fries?”

“In a while. I have plenty, you know. And another cheeseburger, but we’ll save that one for later. What were you doing with the tablet over there?”

“My mom got me some games,” Nolan said. “I wanted the really bloody one, but she got me Fruit Ninjas and a tower game. They’re okay.”

“You can’t play Madden on a tablet, can you?”

“I don’t think so.” Nolan was stuffing French fries in his mouth. He already had ketchup on one cheek. He sat up on his knees and took another sip of chocolate shake. “Do you play Madden?”

“Sure. We play when we’re done with practice and sometimes on the weekends.”

Nolan fell silent while he chewed more of his cheeseburger. Drew polished off a cheeseburger and ate a few fries. He could hear his phone vibrating in his pocket; his teammates were most likely on their way over here for an hour or two and texting to see if he’d join them.

“So, N-man, got a question for you.”

Nolan grinned at him. For all of his protests about wanting more food, he’d taken a few bites of the burger and was having a tough time polishing off the fifteen or so fries Drew shook out of the little paper sack. He’d taken more sips of the shake. Maybe it was easier on his stomach.

“Would you like me to stay while you have your treatment? If it will help, I’ll do it. If you want to spend time alone with your mom, I understand and I won’t be mad.”

Nolan’s brows knitted together. “You can stay if you want. My mom tries to get me to sleep sometimes.”

“Does sleeping make it easier?”

“A little. Sometimes I throw up, so I have to sleep sitting up.”

“That’s not fun.”

“No.” Nolan took another pull on the straw.

“Okay, then. If you don’t mind, I’ll ask your mom.”

Nolan nibbled at his cheeseburger and played a little with the food still on the napkin. Drew took a sip of his own shake. He was musing on whether or not he wanted another cheeseburger when he heard Nolan’s voice again.

“Drew, am I going to die?”

Drew felt that like a fist to the gut. Any Shark that visited kids in the hospital braced himself for the unexpected, but he hadn’t faced this question before. He sat up in his chair and leaned forward.

There were a million things he could have told Nolan at that moment, but the truth was always best.

“I hope not, Nolan. You have great doctors and nurses who care about you, and they’re doing everything they can to help you get well.”

“My mom cries sometimes.”

“I know she does, buddy. She’s just scared.”

“Are you scared?”

He looked into Nolan’s eyes. “No. Do you know why?”

Nolan shook his head.

“You can do this. You’re brave, and you’re tough.” Drew took a deep breath. “Do you know what we do every day before we go out on the field to practice?”

“No.”

“There’s a sign over the door that leads onto the practice field. Every day, I pass that sign. It reads ‘Always Win.’ I tap it before I go outside, because I’m in. I’m on the team, and I want my teammates to know that. I’m on your team. The other Sharks that visit here are on your team too. Your mom is on your team. So are all the doctors and nurses. We all want you to get better.”

Nolan’s eyes were huge. Drew was up off of the chair, looking for paper and markers in the small stack of items Nolan’s mom must have brought for him to do while he was in the hospital. He found a big piece of blank white paper and a black felt-tip marker, found an old magazine to blot the ink, and wrote in block letters: NOLAN WINS.

“Nolan, ring the nurse, will you?”

Nolan looked on in amazement.

“I’m going to hang this up by the door and every time someone goes in or out, you ask them if they’ll tap it. I’ll tap it. We’re your team. We want you to win. Will you do that for me, buddy?”

Nolan’s face lit up. His fist shot up in the air. “Yeah!”

The nurse arrived on the run. “Is something wrong?”

“No. Do you have a couple of pieces of tape we could use?”

She glanced at the sign. She started to shake her head, but she smiled. “I think I can find some. I’ll be right back.”

Nolan’s mom arrived twenty minutes later, and Nolan asked her to tap the new sign. She stared at Drew in amazement. Several of Drew’s teammates stopped in for a few minutes while Nolan had his treatment. They tapped the sign.

Derrick bumped fists with him and said, “You’re part of the team, Nolan. Don’t let us down.”

Nolan was a little drowsy, but managed to say, “I won’t.”

Derrick and Seth tapped the sign as they went out the door.

Nolan was falling asleep due to the medications and exhaustion. It had been a big day for him. Drew reached out to squeeze his hand.

“I’ll be back next Tuesday.”

“See you then,” Nolan said. “Tap the sign.”

“You know I will.”

Drew ran into Seth and Derrick in the hallway outside of Nolan’s room. The three men were silent until they got outside the hospital doors.