Bruce had finally finished his treatment. It had been 7 grueling weeks of nonstop pain, nonstop doubt, and nonstop griping and moaning. He had been a grumpy fuck. His family had suffered his mood swings, and not once complained about it. Well, Paddy and Griffin had put him in his spot a few times, but other than that, they had put up with him. He could never repay them. Now he had another tough road ahead of him, the road to recovery. His immune system was still shot, so he still was weary about going out and about. He took short walks around his neighborhood, usually down to the local pub to catch up with his old drinking mates. They knew what he had been going through. They were glad to see he was on the mend. The landlord was hellbent on helping him put his weight back on by drinking beer, "Don't think my Doc or Paddy would appreciate that" Bruce chuckled at the suggestion, "but I'll start by having one right now." He took a sip of his favorite beer, Fullers ESB, his tastebuds were slowly coming back, but he knew it was going to take a while until they would be fully online. And he had a feeling his sweet tooth would never be the same, which upset him, because he always had a thing for chocolate bars.
The one thing that had worried him since day one, besides surviving the cancer of course, was his voice. Would he be able to sing again? He feared that the radiation would make him sound like Tom Waits, not that there was anything wrong with Tom Waits, but that just wasn't the right voice for Maiden. He also had to keep in mind that the shape of his tongue was different now. They had cut a golf-ball sized tumor from the back of it, so now he had to adapt to that. His Doctor told him to take it easy for a few months after the radiation, let everything come back to normal before he started singing. His saliva glands had to work themselves back online, his mucus membranes...pretty much everything that a singer relies on. Bruce wanted to try his voice out anyway, he waited until he was home alone and sang "If Eternity Should Fail". He stopped after singing the first verse, it hurt, it hurt like hell, but fuck, he sounded good. Not quite 100% yet, but damn it, he sounded good. He felt his eyes tear up. "I fucking did it." he said to himself. He had promised Griffin that he was going to beat it, and he did. Bruce laughed as he belted out "Hush" by Deep Purple. "Fucking hell Dickinson, you're fucking back." He decided to go for a drive. He had been cooped up for far too long.
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Steve sat in the recording studio of his house playing back "The Book of Souls" album. They had finished recording it and produced it, now it was ready to be put out for sale. He couldn't believe how good Bruce sounded. There was no indication that there was something wrong with him. H had mentioned that he noticed him grimacing a few times hitting some of the notes, but Steve didn't pay attention. Now he kicked himself in the ass for not doing so. If he had paid attention to his friend, maybe he could have talked him into going to the Doctor earlier and he could have been seen earlier. He had promised Emma he wouldn't take Bruce's cancer so hard, but, he couldn't help it. Emma wasn't home, she had gone out shopping with some friends so Steve was alone to do as he pleased. And he wanted to dwell on Bruce and his cancer. He was listening to "Empire of the Clouds" when he heard the front gate bell going off. "Who the fuck could that be?" he wondered. He wasn't expecting anyone. He sighed as he put the song on pause and walked toward the front door where the intercom system was.
"Who is it?" "Open the gate won't you? Beer will get warm if you take any longer." Steve felt his breath catch in his chest, "Bruce? Is that you mate?" "Yes it's me. Now open the gate." Steve pushed the button to let Bruce in. He opened up the front door and went outside. He saw Bruce's Jaguar pulling up the driveway. Steve could feel his heart beating hard in his chest. He hadn't seen Bruce since he had heard of his diagnosis. He didn't know what to expect.
Bruce could see Steve waiting for him in the driveway. He knew he was nervous, he could see it in his face. Bruce was nervous as well. He knew he looked different, he had lost a lot of weight and still looked gaunt. He didn't want Steve to feel pity for him. Bruce sighed, he grabbed the case of beer and stepped out of the car, "Hey 'Arry." he said as he walked up to Steve, giving him a shy smile, "How have you been?" Steve looked at Bruce, he looked good. He had lost weight, sure, but he looked good. Steve smiled back at Bruce, "I should be asking you that, how have you been?" Bruce put down the case of beer, and ran his hand through his hair, "I've been better, but I definitely been loads worse." he chuckled, "I beat it Steve. I beat fucking cancer. I almost died on that fucking trampoline you gave me, but I fucking beat cancer." Steve let out a gasp of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding, "What? Did you say you fucking beat it?" Bruce nodded, "Yeah, that's why I'm here, with some beer. I told you once I beat it I'd come celebrate." Without thinking, Steve pulled Bruce into a hug, he cried into the crook of Bruce's neck. He could hear him breathing, could feel his heartbeat, could smell his natural aroma, Bruce was alive. "Fuck Bruce. Don't ever scare me like that again. I don't think I could take it." Bruce hugged him back, feeling himself getting lost in the love and admiration he had for the man he considered his brother, "I didn't mean to scare you the first time, Steve. But don't worry, I have no plans to go through that shit again." Bruce pulled away from Steve and smiled at him, "Let's get ourselves together and drink some beer. Now that I'm better, let's talk about the tour and about Maiden." Steve laughed at Bruce, "You won't believe this, but fuck the tour and fuck the band. Let's just drink beer and talk about anything and everything but that."
