A/N: Hey, guys! Sorry it's been so long. Life got in the way as usual and I've been super busy working on Kidfic and school and just about everything else. Hopefully, this will more than make up for that. Enjoy!

It'd all happened in a flash. One minute, Connie was running away from him into the streets; the next, she was lying motionless on the concrete road, surrounded by many civilians and coughing up her own blood.

"Oh God..." Steven couldn't help but mutter repeatedly. "Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God..."

With all the strength he could muster up, he bulldozed his way through the crowd and towards the woman he'd known since he was but a twelve-year-old boy. He could hardly fathom how badly mangled her body looked, from the way her spine had contorted itself to her bent out of shape nose to the conspicuously bruised and gashed-up face to part of a bone that was sticking out of her leg.

"Oh my God, would someone please call an ambulance?!" he was practically screaming at the top of his lungs. "She could be fine if one of you guys would just call an ambulance!"

He scooped up his wife and started cradling her in his arms, sobbing in between pleas for her to pull through. Surely there was hope. There had to be.

There wasn't. She was pronounced dead on arrival; to say that he didn't take it well would be an understatement. What was he to do now? Sure, he had his daughter Capri and the children he'd adopted with Connie over the years they'd been married, but now he'd been deprived of spending the rest of his life with her. He couldn't help but blame himself for what had happened. He couldn't help but think that maybe things would be better if he hadn't cured her infertility with his healing saliva.

All of a sudden, he felt someone place their hand on his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. He looked up to see his good friend Hitomi Suzumiya.

"Hitomi?" he asked in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought I'd stop by and see how Mom's handling her chemotherapy," she replied. "I'm sorry to hear about Connie. You must be so broken up over this."

"Oh, I am. I mean, I thought it was bad when Connie and I lost the baby a couple days ago, but now... nothing seems to make sense."

Hitomi calmly sat down beside him and wrapped her arm alongside his back. "That makes two of us. I'm still in shock over Mom having breast cancer, but, with medical science on our side, my family and I hope she'll be able to pull through and beat this thing once and for all."

"Me too. Your mom seems like a pretty brave woman."

"Thanks, Steven. I'll be sure to tell her that sometime today. Well, here's hoping you and your family can get through this tough time."

"You too, Hitomi. See you around?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Great! See you later!"

"You too, Steven."

He watched as Hitomi got up and left him to see her mother. Something about this felt... different. It was almost as if the feelings of despair and regret had instantaneously washed away and made room for what were surely feelings of deeper admiration and yearning instead.