I

A/N There will be flash backs! It will be a little heavy but Paily and Haleb to come!

Seven Years Ago

"Paige you don't have to do this. I feel like we're asking too much."

"First of all you didn't ask, I offered. And second of all, you are my best friends; I would do anything for you too." The three of them continued to fill out the paper work.

"Ms. McCullers we are going to need you to sign here and here. This just states that you are giving up the rights to your eggs and that any child produced from them will not be legally connected to you." Paige grabbed the pen and signed on the dotted line.

"Anything else?" She handed back the pen.

"I just have to ask…I don't mean to pry." The lawyer couldn't quite get the words out.

"Are you wondering why a twenty something is giving up their eggs to another twenty something couple?" His face began to get red and Paige knew she hit the nail on the head. Before Paige could begin, Emma interrupted.

"I have breast cancer. I went through my last cycle of chemo and am in remission but we don't know how long that's going to last. The doctor said this is our best window for having a kid and I was always meant to be a mom." She grabbed Caleb's hand and smiled.

"The thing is the chemo killed all of my eggs. All the parts still work but there would be no way for me to have my own. Paige came up with this idea so that I could get everything I wanted, the pregnancy and the baby."

"That's a big thing for a friend to do. Do you think your boyfriend or husband would mind?" He commented.

"P is gay and basically asexual." Paige hit Caleb in the arm as hard as she could.

"What he means is that I do not have anyone worrying where my eggs go. Anyways, I was meant to be the cool aunt and will dutifully fill that role."

6 Years Ago

Her phone started going off and she tried to silence it but ended up knocking it from the night stand. She shifted herself half off the bed and was finally able to grab the phone. Holding herself with one arm, she blurrily looked at the caller ID. Caleb.

"It is three in the morning Caleb, what could you possibly need?" She was still holding herself up, half of her body comfortable in the bed where the other half should be.

"It's time Paige." She didn't need to hear anything else. She fell out of the bed and rushed to throw on something presentable enough. She ran through her small apartment grabbing her keys, phone, and the small bear she had gotten for her little niece or nephew. When she got to the hospital, Caleb was waiting in a lounge. Paige ran up to him, surprised he wasn't in the room with his wife.

"Where's Emma?"

"They saw something on the ultrasound and said they needed to do an emergency c-section. They took her back ten minutes ago. Paige, he looked really worried." She dropped her belongings into the nearest chair and took him into a big hug. In that moment, Caleb broke down. Paige sat them down in adjacent chairs and held his hand.

"Everything's going to be fine. In a few hours, you are going to be a father and all of this is going to be a story we get to tell the little guy."

"Little guy?" Caleb questioned.

"I have a feeling it's a boy." They smiled at each other. They remained in silence for another hour waiting to hear anything. Caleb had dozed off on Paige's arm when the doctor walked through the door. The moment Paige saw him she knew something was wrong. She stood up waking Caleb.

"What happened?"

"Ma'am I need to talk to Mrs. River's husband." Caleb also heard the tone of his voice.

"Did we lose the baby?" Caleb grabbed Paige's hand.

"The baby is fine." Caleb breathed a sigh of relief but Paige knew that that wasn't the whole story.

"And the mother?" Paige barely got it out, when she saw the doctor's face fall.

"Your wife had a rare condition that usually goes unnoticed until they give birth. When the baby was born, the uterus collapsed and we tried to control the bleeding but it was too late. I am so sorry." Caleb collapsed on the ground. Tears started to come out of Paige's eyes as well but she knew she had to be the stronger of the two. She got down to Caleb's level and started to console him.

"Caleb I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He reached out and hugged her, not letting her go. Minutes passed as they sat together.

"Sir, would you like to see your daughter?" Caleb removed himself from Paige's chest and looked up at the doctor, shaking his head. He pulled himself up and started to wipe his eyes.

"I want to see her."

"Caleb you need to take a second." Paige warned.

"I just lost my wife, Paige. I don't want to lose my daughter too." The doctor took them through a few hallways, ending at a private nicu room. A nurse was tending to a cooing baby. Caleb stopped at the door, hardly able to move. Paige squeezed his hand and led them both into the room. The nurse, knowing the situation, looked at Caleb with sympathy. She picked up the new born baby and rocked it back and forth.

"She is absolutely beautiful and very healthy." The nurse handed the baby over to Caleb's unsure hands. The baby began to cry and Caleb tried to soothe it but looked so scared. He cradled her to his chest and the cries slowly faded away. He looked down at her and the tiny human stared directly into his eyes.

"Do you have a name in mind?" Caleb tore himself away from the trance he was in and looked at the nurse.

"Emma. Her name is Emma." He began crying again and handed his daughter back to the nurse.

"Mr. Rivers be with your daughter and we will take care of everything else." The doctor walked out of the room and Caleb sat down in the nearest chair. When everyone left, he broke down again.

"I can't do this alone." He started to lose his breath. "Paige, I have a daughter and I can't do this alone." She knelt in front of him rubbing his back.

"I'm here. I'll always be here, I promise."

Present Day

Paige had been standing by his bed for the better part of an hour. Every few minutes she would pace back and forth thinking it would make him wake up faster. Emma was exhausted and asleep on a pull out cot one of the nurses had found for them. The doctors didn't see any residual brain damage to cause him to be under for so long and were bewildered as to why he hadn't woken up yet.

"Caleb this isn't funny." Paige began pacing again at the end of his bed. She shook his leg and immediately regretted it, not knowing if he was injured there or not. She walked to the top of the bed by his head and ran a hand over his hair. She looked over to her daughter sleeping on the cot and was afraid she was going to be too loud. She knelt down by his ear, choosing to whisper.

"Please wake up Caleb…I can't do this alone." For the first time that day, she let a tear roll from her eye. She shook her head, thinking about how silly it was to think that would wake him up. She started to walk back to her seat when a hand grabbed her wrist. She quickly turned around, as Caleb blinked his eyes open.

"I'm not going anywhere P."

TBC