"Honey, I'm home," Marlin cried into the house with delight. It had been another successful day at the office but he was eager to see his wife. He also wanted to know how the ultrasound had gone. This was the first one he wasn't able to attend thanks to the merger meeting. Rotten thing, Marlin thought while searching the rooms for his wife.

Each door opened up to a room already decorated for its purpose. There was an office, two kid's bedrooms and one nursery. The nursery was lovingly adorned with teddy bears and stuffed toy elephants. The atmosphere caused Marlin's smile to brighten further. He honestly couldn't wait till his children were born.

But where was his wife? Marlin was getting anxious and rushed to the master bedroom. He swung the door open to find Coral lying in bed. Her brow was crinkled and sweat flecked her skin and the sheets. Her breathing came in hitched and rattled. "Coral?" Marlin asked as he crossed the distance between the door and bed.

"Marlin?" the woman said through closed eyes. Her hands removed themselves from the sheets and came searching for her husband's. "I don't feel so well." Marlin took Coral's hands with care before placing the back of one on her forehead. "You feel cold."

It took ten minutes before the paramedics were there. They were lucky Marlin wasn't one to yell or else they would have gotten an ear full. Instead they were met by a very fidgety and worried man at the door. They rushed past him toward the direction he pointed. The older of the two took the lead and quickly accessed Coral's condition. "This isn't good," he said to his partner. Marlin was all but ignored as they carried his wife out on a stretcher to the ambulance.

Marlin paced back and forth in the waiting room. He couldn't stop thinking about all the "what if"s. What if he hadn't had to be at work today? What if he had gone to the ultrasound with Coral? What if she had been delayed at the doctor's just a little longer? What if they were only having one child?

So far the distraught husband knew that Coral had been like that for over an hour. They said it appeared to be a complication with the birth. The younger paramedic even went so far as to hint at the multiple birth aspect as being the instigator of the problem. Coral was a small woman to begin with anyway. The young man said he body didn't seem ready to support so many children at once.

The ER waiting room felt empty of life. Marlin was the only one well enough to pace. Everyone else stayed seated as their eyes followed him back and forth. The tears that spilled from his eyes kept most from talking to him. They were all afraid of being told a story of woe they weren't prepared to hear.

Hours passed before finally a doctor pushed his way out of the double doors and up to Marlin. "Mr. Fische?" the doctor said while extending his hand toward the anxious man. "Yes, that's me," Marlin replied. He took the offered hand but didn't put half as much effort into the shake as he usually did.

"I'm sorry." Before the doctor could continue, Marlin had collapsed on the floor. He cried until there was nothing left in him. He didn't care why exactly the doctor was sorry. He only knew that something had gone wrong. Someone wasn't making it out of the hospital okay. That thought in of itself was enough to break even the toughest dad. Marlin was anything but tough.

Once Marlin was propped up in a chair and was no longer weeping, the doctor managed to get out the rest of what he had to tell. Anyone could see in his face how much it hurt him to tell Marlin. "Your wife didn't make it. Neither did two of your children." The doctor's giant cold hand thumped onto Marlin's shoulders in an act of comfort. A small hopeful smile was forced onto his face before be continued. "However, one of your sons did."

Marlin's face shot up and took the doctor's at full view. "Really? He's alright?" The doctor's smile fell as he stood. "I can't say that. He's not going to be like other children. Now, that's not saying he can't live a full life… Well… Why don't you come see him?" Marlin nodded his head dumbly as the news sunk in. He got up and followed the doctor to the nursery to see his son, all the while praying for his child's health.

The baby was so small. He was in the same room as all the other sickly children, but Marlin only had eyes for him. His tiny eyes were shut and his chest rose thanks to a machine. But the thing that disturbed Marlin was his son's legs. Only one was fully there, his right leg had stopped forming at the knee. "Oh, Nemo," Marlin whispered to the baby.

"He'll be okay," a nurse said, coming up to check on Nemo. "He'll just need some extra help, is all." The woman was very adamant about this prospect. She checked his vitals before turning back to the father. "He'll need you to be there for him. ALL there for him. Don't let his mama's death destroy you. You're responsible for someone now. "

The nurse soon left and Marlin numbly put his hands in the gloves that allowed one to touch the babes in the ICUs. "Nemo… Coral, I'm so sorry." Marlin's tears fell once more while he stroked his son's cheek. He wished things had gone differently.