Brad and Kelli Smith give an update on their son Chase's health. Scans this week showed more cancer growth. Indianapolis Star

IndyStar is documentingChase and Sadie Smith's lives as they settle into a new marriage and battle Chase's terminal cancer.

Sadie Smith sat outside the hospital, the sunshine streaming down,and she cried. People walked by laughing. Her world felt like it was collapsing.

It's not good, her husband, Chase Smith, had just texted her from his appointment Thursday.

The tumors already invading his body had multiplied. One near his esophagus had grown rapidly. There were new tumors on his thyroid and adrenal glands and many more in his right lung.

Chase almost never cries at appointments, said his mom Kelli Smith. But as he heard the news, tears ran down his face. When the palliative care doctor toldChaseit might betime for hospice, he cried again. So did Kelli.

Their story from the beginning: 'You don't see a love like this'

As Chase and Kellileft Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, he went into the restroom for a long time. He emerged, his face red and swollen.On the car ride home, he was silent.

That night, Sadie turned to her husbandas they laid down to go to sleep."Do you want to talk about anything?" she asked him.

Chase Smith plays gently with the hair of his wife, Sadie, after an interview with Inside Edition by video conference at their home in Bargersville, Ind., on Monday, May 25, 2020. (Photo: Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar)

"Not really," Chase told her. "Do you?"

"I just want to know, 'Are you going to try?'" Sadie said.

Chase had made a promise to Sadie before they married April 29 when he had been giventhree to five months to live.He told her then he would never give up. He told her he never wanted to be away from this earth because that would mean losing Sadie.

"So, he is still willing to do that. Heis not giving up at all," Sadie said Friday, as Chase slept upstairs. "He's willing to try anything and everything he can."

Inside the family's Bargersville kitchen Friday afternoon, Kelli stood with the endless bottles of pills. Next to her was a notepad.

She is the one who knows all of Chase's medical history, his six-year journey with Ewing's sarcoma,and all his medications. With Chase's OK, Kelliwas adding new drugs to the mix.

He started the morning taking a diabetes pill for the first time. Cancer feeds on sugar. This drug willbe almost like putting him on a Keto diet without changing his food intake, Kelli said.

Kelli Smith talks about new medications for her son Chase at their home in Bargersville, Ind., on Friday, June 12, 2020. Since Chase's cancer diagnosis in 2014, Kelli has been the one to keep up with medications. "I'm the only one that does this and I've got to write it down in case I was in a car accident or something," Kelli said as she sorts through the medications. "Nobody would have any idea." (Photo: Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar)

Three days later, Chase will start a de-wormer, the human version. Research has shown it can help kill cancer. In three more days, he will start a cholesterol drug to help break down the cell walls so that the other drugs can get into them. And finally, three days after that, Chase willbegin taking a drug to attack the cancer stem cells.

Traditional treatment hasn't worked. And the cancer is ravaging Chase's body. No one expected it to happen so quickly. Or maybe they did, they just didn't want to think it, said Chase's dad, Brad Smith.

Young, in love and running out of time: Why Chase and Sadie's parents gave their blessing

He stayed home Thursday during Chase's appointment at Riley with Chase's sister Kaitlin. Due to COVID-19 restrictions only Kelli was allowed in the room and the family didn't expect the results they received.

"We were kind of hoping there would be no more tumors at this point," Brad said,"at least not right now."

But as Kelli Facetimed Brad whilethey met with the doctor and Brad saw Kelli sobbing and Chase silent, he turned to Kaitlin.

"I'm leaving," he said. "I'm going."

By the time he got to Riley, Chase and Kelli were out of the hospital walking toward the parking garage. Brad saw Chase's stone face. He just wanted to get home, shower, take pain medication and digest what he had just heard.

Brad knew that, but he tried to hug him. Chase didn't hug him back. Within 40 seconds of being in the car, Brad got a text from Chase that said, "I'm sorry."

Brad told him there was no need for sorry, not one bit of sorry. "I knew he just couldn't," Brad said. "He just couldn't."

Chase turned 19 on June 4, but there was no celebration.He spent his birthday at Riley trying to figure out why he was in so much pain.

After a week at the Cleveland Clinic getting radiation onhis head earlier this month, Chase's health took a turn for the worse last Thursday on his birthday. Hecould barely swallow. When he did, it wasstabbing pain and then a 45-second burn.

He stopped eating. He had a sore throat, heartburn and sores on his throat. Doctors thought he had shingles, a side effect of steroids used for the radiation.

All he could do was liein bed.

"It's been hard the last few days. Chase is just always our comic and keeping us all on our toes and he's just been stuck in bed," said Kelli."Not being able to give him any answers, not being able to give him any idea of how much longer this is going to go on to givehim any direction and hope with it, it's been really difficult."

After the medications not working and days of nothing but water, his doctor at Riley, Melissa K. Bear, told Kelli that Chase should go to Riley's emergency room. Chase can make his own medical decisions now that he's an adult and he refused.

He never wants to be admitted to a hospital again, Kelli said.

But on Thursday, he agreed to see Bear because he knew she wouldn't pressure him. And that's when he got the scans and the heartbreaking results.

Sadie will not leave Chase's side. When they got home from Riley Thursday, she laid with him inbed until he fell asleep, just as she had the week before, as he slept for days.

Every so often, she would get in her Jeep and go on a drive, just for a little bit. And then she would come back and lay with him.

Chase finally told her,"It's OK. This isn't healthy for you to liein bed like this."

After preparing and delivering dinner for the Smiths, family friend Stacie Volz visits and tells a childhood story about Chase Smith and one of her sons on Friday, June 12, 2020. She gives a hug to Sadie before leaving. Every Friday, Volz prepares dinner for the family.(Photo: Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar)

But Sadie wanted to be there.

"I know being by his side calms him and it makes me feel protected when I know he's asleep or he's feeling well," she said. "Weboth promised not to leave each other's side throughout this whole thing. We just feel protected when we're together."

When Chase got up Thursday night, he came downstairs. His family and Sadie and her parents were on the back deck.

He felt well enough to have mashed potatoes, half of a Frosty, five glasses of chocolate milk and a few bites of cucumber. He sat outside and talked, even laughed a little, said Kelli.

"We kind of had our Chaser back," said Brad. "It was therapeutic and healing. It was kind of a breath of relief."

Chase didn't get out of bed most of the day Friday. But as his familysat on the back deck again, they told stories about Chase. What a presence he is. How he always tries to protect them from his pain.

Above them hung a board etched with Chase's favorite Bible verse. Brad said, it gives them hope, even as hope fades.

"Even youths grow tired and weary,and young menstumble and fall; but those who hopein theLord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary,they will walk and not be faint."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

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Chase and Sadie get heartbreaking results as his cancer spreads: 'Promise me you will try' - IndyStar