Disclaimer: Wow. Never have I wanted to own something this much. Even so, They Kiss Again does NOT belong to me. If it did, I would have already sent a script to Nick Cassavetes so that he can direct yet another timeless romantic drama.

He knew immediately something was wrong.

"The baby's crowning! Very good, Xiang Qin, just one more push!"

Throughout the whole labor, she had his hand in a vice, squeezing so tight during contractions that he was sure the bones were bruised. But just now, during this last push, she barely managed to hold on to his hand, her hand trembling from the effort.

"Xiang Qin?" He tore his eyes away from where his child was entering the world to look at his wife. She was white, her head lolling on the bed. Something was definitely wrong.

'Xiang Qin!" immediately, he felt for a pulse, his mind racing through the possibilities.

"Just one more, and you're done!" the doctor shouted.

"She can't do it anymore, something…something's wrong!" Her pulse was too weak and getting weaker. Zhi Shu's mind was racing, yet blank at the same time. Medical information passed like a roller coaster through his consciousness, but all he could see before him was Xiang Qin. Xiang Qin's face was white and drawn with pain, her eyes fluttering and chest heaving to catch her breath.

"Zhi Shu…" she moaned, "the baby?"

He snapped back into reality. The doctor had pulled the baby out with forceps. He listened. No crying. The only sound came from the hurried whispers of the doctor and nurses crouched over their baby and Xiang Qin's side.

"Fine. The baby's out." He lied, chest tight and throat thick. "You can relax now." He held her too-cold hand desperately, raging at his inability to think, to act, to save his wife that was...

She smiled weakly - so unlike herself! - and closed her eyes, falling silent in the already too quiet room. The only sound…the only sound…

Thu-thump…Thu-thump…thu-thump…

There. A gallop-rhythm heartbeat.

"Pulmonary embolism." he said, looking up and noticing the doctor and nurses around Xiang Qin for the first time.

The doctor, busy intubating the already unconscious Xiang Qin, looked up anxiously. "What?"

"The heart rhythm. It's a pulmonary embolism." His voice sounded hollow even to his own ears. "Her mother…her mother died of a pulmonary embolism while giving birth*." Fear overtook him.

Not even second-guessing him, the doctor turned to the nurse beside him. "Get some heparin in here NOW." The doctor glanced at heart monitor with it's rapidly falling blood pressure and sighed. "Better get some streptokinase in here too**."

"Xiang Qin, look at me. Xiang Qin." He kept on repeating her name, ignoring the activity around him, until he felt someone bodily drag him back.

"Dr. Jiang, you need to get out." Zhi Shu threw them off and pushed his way back to Xiang Qin, only to be pulled back forcefully again. "Dr. Jiang-"

"Get off!" He struggled angrily as he was dragged out of the room. "Xiang Qin, Xiang Qin!"

"Dr. Jiang-" His elbow made contact with their ribs. The man's grip momentarily loosened, Zhi Shu made a dash for the door to Xiang Qin's room.

"Zhi Shu!" A fist landed squarely with Zhi Shu's jaw, and he was thrown and pinned to the ground. It was Qi Tai. His eyes were rimmed with red.

"Zhi Shu…" Qi Tai got up and offered Zhi Shu a hand. He felt like it was almost an out-of-body experience, as if it wasn't his feet that were moving to get up. As if it wasn't his body that fell boneless against the wall. As if it wasn't his forehead pressed against the cold tile.

Not another word passed between them. Qi Tai just watched silently, eyes flitting from the door with the broken woman inside to the broken man outside, shoulders heaving in soundless sobs.

*I know, Xiang Qin's mom did NOT necessarily die while giving birth to her, but I will make it as such. Poetic liberty.

**For the non-medical, a pulmonary embolism(PE) is a life-threatening condition in which there is a clot in the lungs. To treat a PE, the clot can be removed by using blood thinners called anti-coagulants like heparin. In life-threatening cases, thrombolytics - clot-busting drugs - like streptokinase are used. PEs in general can be caused by the stress pregnancy puts on the body, and family incidences of PE can increase a person's risk of getting a clot.