All righty, now there is going to be a very tragic element in this chapter. It was hard for me to do, it was. But...as I thought about it and considered it, especially through a second pair of eyes, I knew it would work.

I want to thank my awesome friend and fellow Hey Arnold author One Fine Wire, who offered me this idea for this rather tragic element. Her feedback and opinions as well as suggestions have always been an immense help to me. Thank you, buddy!

And gosh, I am SO surprised you guys caught onto the lack of chemistry between Brainy and Helga. XD I don't know if it's because of my dispassion for the pair (no offence to fans of the pairing) or if subconsciously I was actually writing their chemistry down. Because honestly, I HAVE tried to display something between them.

It didn't work, did it? Man, I suck. XD I guess deep down I was holding back.

Oh well!

Anyway, enjoy what's to come. And again, there's something sad in there...get your tissues ready.

Oh yes, and I made some references to Stephen King's The Langoliers, the movie version...since I still have yet to read the book.

XXX

For the past three months, Brainy's mind was an absolute blur. He just couldn't think straight, no matter how hard he tried.

There was so much going on by now. The outside world did well to distract him, but when he was relaxed, and took the time to think, he couldn't. It would all hit him in the face. Everything.

Try as he may, he couldn't shake it off if he wanted to. He knew what he did, he knew what he was doing, and he knew what was going to happen. And yet, mystery still lay out within. But there was enough to punch him between the eyes. Enough to make him know what it was going to come down to, if things continued the way they were. Brainy could see, that he was...selfish. Something he never considered himself to be. All along he claimed that all was fine, that there was happiness to be found. That he deserved what he had now.

But there was a part of him that said he didn't. That part of him told him what a stupid mistake this was. How selfish he was. How idiotic he was. He was practically screwing with time. It was as if he had walked in Stephen King's The Langoliers, where you entered a time rift...and faced the destructive, meant to be unseen consequences of time travel. Brainy should have known this. You couldn't go back to 1963 and attempt to stop the assassination of President Kennedy. You couln't go back to when the Egyptians built the pyramids. You couldn't even go back to the dawning of the dinosaurs, and find the conclusive answers to when they walked the earth.

He was in a whole new timeline, combining elements of the past, and the future. The butterfly effect, only to face the consequences sooner, skipping over the present and going to the future.

Brainy could see the consequences clearly. Most especially, in his own wife. Helga was missing something in her life. She had no idea what it was. She had confided in him of it, some weeks ago. It wasn't out of sadness or resentment or horror, she was merely curious of what it meant.

XX

"I mean, I just don't get it, Brian. I'm happy with my life! I'm a kick ass powerful attorney of law, I have some pretty good friends, a great condo, a great city to live in, a fairly good family that have worked hard in turning around...and then, well, you of course. My husband, my love, holder of my heart." Helga smiled, drinking her coffee. "I don't know what could possibly be missing. Honestly. I don't get it."

"...How long have you felt this way?" Brainy asked cautiously.

"I don't even know." Helga shrugged. "For as long as I could remember, I guess. I always felt like something was there for me, waiting. But I never knew what it was."

"Well..." Brainy took a swig of his inhaler. His nervousness and anxiety were making it harder for him to breathe. "You always did...have a goal to travel the world, to see places. You never had much chance to do that."

"Brian, even I know I can't do that now." Helga said. "Maybe that's it, I don't know. Maybe I'll know when I see it. Still, it would be cool to travel, but I don't have time for that now! You finished medical school, and that's great, you just need to complete the program at the hospital and become the doctor you always wanted. And you need to work there at least a year or two as much as you can, because I think whisking off away on vacation so soon after starting isn't going to be very professional." She frowned at this. "But like I said, we'll travel when we can. We just can't do that now."

"Helga, I... I don't want you to feel that I'm holding you back." Brainy murmured. "If not being able to travel upsets you, you should-"

"Cool it, Brainy." Helga told him, touching his hand. "Sure I'm bummed my work and your work can't quite provide us with traveling right now, but we can't worry about that! We'll just take it when we can. 'Kay? So don't worry. Whenever we can travel, and whatever it is I'm missing, if there even IS anything, I'll figure it out."

Brainy gave a small nod, and went to drinking his coffee, as Helga looked over the newspaper. He felt a stab of pain in his heart. Not just for him, but for her too.

He knew what was missing in her life.

And it wasn't just traveling the world.

XX

Brainy knew. He knew it all. Not just from the knowledge of an outsider in a new world.

But it was as if it were common sense. He'd wanted to deny it, to push it away, to not bring in the guilt, the anxiety, the paranoia...all of it. But Brainy knew there was no running from it. It was obvious. The moment he saw it, it was right there. Even if Helga didn't know it.

There was something missing in Helga's life.

Or rather...someone.

She didn't even know it. Of course she didn't. She had himself to distract her. She had her happy life to distract her. It all held her back from searching deep into what she was feeling. Her life, though not huge and luxurious full of mountains of money, was well and happy, she didn't need anything else. It was why she had no idea what she truly wanted, what she was missing all along.

It never left. It was always there.

Brainy knew it very well now. He had tried to hide, but nothing could mask it.

There was no question.

Even in this timeline, Arnold was her true love. Even in a life of not having him in her life. Even in a life where she fell in love with someone else, namely him. Even in a life where she lived well, and ended up with a very happy and content life and job she loved. Even in a life where he offered her everything he could, all the love she deserved, with no holding back, or repressed feelings that took seven years to resurface.

It was plain and simple. Arnold was, and always would be, her true love. There was a void in her heart that only he could fill. Brainy could give her all the gold in China, and it wouldn't compare to the love she felt.

She was happy in her life here, but she was missing something. And that was Arnold. She didn't even know it. Her life and everything in it was there to distract her.

Brainy didn't even know what to do. And yet, he knew...that he had to do the right thing. But how? It wouldn't be that simple. There was so much involved, he couldn't just flip a switch and make everything as it should've been. Could've been. Would've been.

Sometimes he couldn't sleep at night. He'd have nightmares. Restless nights. It was consuming him slowly.

But nothing seemed to hit him more, than what hit him tonight.

It was 3:30 in the morning, and Brainy was just dozing off. Another night of nightmares, and being awake for half an hour. He was finally getting to sleep, but that was when Helga suddenly sat up in bed, so abruptly he could've sworn it occurred in half a second. Maybe even less. She didn't yell, she didn't scream, she didn't even do anything. She just stared straight ahead, wide-eyed, her chest heaving as her breathing seemed to slow and quicken all at once.

Pushing everything aside, Brainy rolled over to looked at her, sitting up a little bit. "Helga? ...Helga, what's wrong?"

Helga didn't answer him for a few moments, she just stared ahead, and brushed some of her hair from her face, and held a hand to her chest, looking at the bedcovers, and then straight ahead once more. "...Brian, I have a really bad feeling right now. I...I can't explain it, but I just...I have a really bad feeling. I don't know why. It's hard to explain."

Brainy frowned, wondering what this was about. Even he couldn't deduce what could have been wrong. What was going on? What was her bad feeling? What did it relate to? He couldn't even think of an explanation for it. Not at all. He was completely clueless as to what was wrong.

But before he could think of it further, his private hospital cell phone, which was sitting on the bedside table on his side of the bed, then vibrated. It was in the middle of being charged, and was over halfway through. The hospital was calling, there was an emergency.

Quickly, Brainy grabbed it and answered it. "Hello?"

"Brian...oh Brian thank goodness!" Came the panicked, yet relieved voice of Stella on the other line. "We...we need your help! My daughter-in-law Ruth is in labour, and it's...it's not looking very good at all. Dr. Hobson and Dr. Maxwell's assistants are both unavailable right now and we need all the help we can get! I don't normally help to operate on family, but I know I have no choice. You have worked in the maternity department, right?"

"Y-Yes, I have Dr. Short-"

"Then can you please come down and help us? We need your help, we have to perform a Caesarian procedure, the baby is stuck and we believe that the umbilical cord may have wrapped around her neck. Please, hurry!"

Brainy threw the covers off him, with Helga looking to him in confusion. Despite everything happening, he could never turn away from work, and especially not like this. He would never wish this kind of thing on anyone, and especially not Arnold or Ruth. "All right Dr. Shortman, don't worry, I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Thank you Brian, thank you. Hurry, please!" Was all Stella said before she hung up.

Putting his phone back down, Brainy turned on his lamp, and then quickly went to his drawers, hurrying to change into some clothes.

"Brian? Honey, what's going on?" Helga asked, worried.

"It's Ruth, she's in labour and they have to perform a C-section, since the baby is stuck and might have the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. They're operating and they need my help."

"Oh my God!" Helga immediately got out of bed. "I'll go with you."

"Helga it's okay, this doesn't concern you, you go back to bed and I'll be back when-"

"No. You listen to me, buster!" Helga immediately came to him, stern and determined. "I'm going with you, and I'm going to try to help out, and to be there as support. This is childbirth, Brian. You're a man, you don't know. I'm going with you and that's that."

Brainy opened his mouth to argue, but he knew better. When Helga made up her mind, she was going to stick it through to the end. "All right Helga, get dressed and we'll get going."

They got dressed as quick as they could, and Helga brushed out her hair, but didn't have much time to put any makeup on, not that it mattered by now. Brainy quickly put his shoes on, Helga followed suit, and he grabbed his car keys and bag, while Helga threw her coat on. Brainy led them to the elevator, so they could descend to the underground garage.

"Helga, do you think this might have been the bad feeling you had?" Brainy asked, wondering if maybe that could be it.

Helga was silent for a moment, probably gathering her thoughts, before she answered him. "I don't know...it could be. Especially since I woke up just moments before the phone rang. Like I said, I can't explain what it was or where it even stemmed from."

His hypothesis was a good guess, but even he wasn't so sure about that. Nothing was coming to mind at all, as to what she seemed to have a bad feeling about. But he hoped it had nothing to do with the situation at hand,

Otherwise, that would end up becoming a terrible fate he would never wish upon anyone.

This was going to be a very long night.

XXX

Brainy had witnessed one or two deliveries via Caesarian surgery, and even though he was near completion of the program, and was supposed to be a trained professional in handling mostly any kind of procedure and its protocols, he did come to find it hard to sit through. There was blood, so much blood, even the sight of the rat tails of the small intestines.

Stella, along with Dr. Hobson, a doctor named Ray Fields, and Brainy's own supervisor Dr. Maxwell, were all operating on Ruth, who was put to sleep for the procedure.

It turned out, that she had gone into labour at around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, having fairly strong contractions, as well as her water breaking. Her due date was around February 26th, which was the day they had planned to induce labour if needed. It was a couple of days early right now, February 22nd. The baby was indeed stuck, they found out, because of the fact that her head was too big (quite obviously), and that she was also on a strange angle. The umbilical cord had also gotten wrapped around her neck, and combined with the birthing complications, it didn't look like the baby was going to make it. Ruth had been in labour for nearly twelve hours, but when there was no success, and the suspicion the baby was stuck, that was when they decided to operate on her.

It was now 3:21, and while Brainy simply helped with the simple things, almost acting as a nurse, he still got to witness the rather graphical image of birth via a C-section. Something you normally didn't witness except in hospital-themed movies and TV shows. The surgery procedures that the patients didn't see. It was fascinating, and yet at the same time made Brainy want to double over and throw up.

But he didn't dare. They needed his help, and he was going to do just that. He was an adult, he was training more and more to become a doctor, he had to live through this and not wimp out. It was not the time for that. The baby was possibly dying, and they had to do all they could to help get it out safely, so that both she and Ruth would not die.

Brainy sincerely with all his heart hoped that this would work and the baby would be all right. He was maybe dismayed at the fact that he was yet again in competition, whether Helga knew it or not, for her love, but he would never let his personal feelings get in the way of his job. And it wasn't that he hated Arnold for it either, it wasn't his fault. It was the way things were. A major bummer, not to mention a punch between the eyes in how selfish he was, and nothing more.

Even so, now was not the time for that. He had a job to do. They all did.

Helga was in a room that Stella had reserved, to keep Arnold and his father company and offer her support. Brainy had been hesitant, but had no choice. Ruth and her family were also old-fashioned, not having the man there to witness the birth. That seemed odd to Brainy. Wouldn't Ruth, in her most painful and vulnerable state, want her husband by her side? Sure, some women chose not to let their husbands witness, but often enough, both partners were usually present during the birth, be it through natural birth or C-section.

Come to think of it, where were her parents? Why weren't they here to witness their daughter giving birth to their grandchild? Okay, in all fairness there was probably some kind of a scheduling issue or delay, maybe they were out of town, who knew. He certainly didn't know. What was going on? Didn't that seem to be a big kick in the face? Why? Were there really problems involving delays, or was Ruth in bad blood with her family? If she was, then why?

Brainy shook his head, as he quickly handed Stella surgical instrument after surgical instrument from the pack, his eyes, now with prescription goggles to protect his eyes, drifted from the surgical scene before him, to the doctors, and to the tray holding the surgical pack. They had now finally broke through, and made it to the womb, where Stella and Dr. Maxwell were now removing the baby, very slowly and carefully. Neither of them spoke, except to give instruction, as they went along with the procedure. From what he could see, the baby was motionless, and although the umbilical cord had been removed from around her neck, there was no movement whatsoever. This worried him.

Finally, at long last, the baby was safely removed from the womb, and Stella carefully took the baby girl aside to check her over and clean her up, while the other doctors began to proceed cleaning up their mess and to sew Ruth back up. Brainy helped along, and then was called over by Stella.

Brainy looked at the motionless baby laying on the table to cleaned, and as he saw before, there was no movement. Her eyes were closed, with no sign of life at all. He looked at Stella, feeling his heart wrench as the truth settled to him. "...She's dead, isn't she."

Stella gave a nod, tears in her eyes. "I think she was dead before we even made it to her. ...She didn't make it, Brian. She's a stillborn."

At that, Brainy just wanted to cry. For the loss of an innocent, beautiful child who didn't even have one second to live. For Miles and Stella's loss of their first grandchild. For the loss of Arnold and Ruth, for their first child. Especially Arnold...this was going to destroy him. Ruth, she was definitely human, there was no way she would simply brush it off as nothing.

There was nothing worse than losing your child. Especially like this.

"I'm so sorry, Dr. Shortman." Brainy said sincerely. "I...I did what I could to help, we all did. I'm very sorry we couldn't save her."

"It was not your fault, Brian. We all did our best. What happened was not our fault. It was just...just...complications..." Stella had tears going down her eyes. "Oh Brian, this will break Arnold's heart...he was so excited to be a father, he wanted so much to see his baby girl... I...I don't know how to tell him..."

"...I'll tell him." Brainy said. He knew he couldn't do this, he couldn't tell Arnold or Ruth. But he had to. Stella just couldn't do it now. "...I feel it should come from an unbiased third party."

Holding back a sob, Stella nodded. "All right. Thank you, Brian. We will clean up and get her ready, so that they can see her...if they want to. ...By the way, her name was going to be Francesca. Francesca Marie."

Brainy gave a small smile behind his mask. "...That's a lovely name." He said honestly.

"It is." Stella agreed, and seemed to be smiling too.

With a quick nod, Brainy took off his gloves, tossing them into the trash, left the room, and took off his mask. This was not going to be easy. Breaking such bad news was never easy. No doctor enjoyed doing it. They hated looking like the bad guy giving the bad news. Sure, they were trained professionals and did it all the time, but they were only human. They didn't like making the patients or their families feel sad. But lying was not an option either.

He had to tell them the truth. It wasn't going to be easy, but he had to.

After all, it's all my fault things turned out this way. Brainy thought, heading to the private room.