Natalie leaned against the wall in her room at Rex's. All those thoughts and doubts she'd had finally manage to stop running through her head constantly were back with a vengeance. Was he really back there for this 'case', where was he, who was he with, was he with her, were they together right now….

"Shit!" And here came the tears, at her last doctor's appointment, her doctor here in London had told her she had to keep her stress levels down, her blood pressure was getting a little high and while it was nothing to be alarmed about now, she needed to relax and keep stress to a minimum. In many ways this pregnancy had been easier than with Liam.

She hardly had any morning sickness at all which is why she was three months long before she found out in August. She didn't really have any food aversions or scents that turned her stomach but, she had all of this stress and she seemed to cry all the time.

"What's wrong?" Gigi asked coming into the room and Natalie had been sharing with Liam.

"John's back in Port Charles", she said evenly.

"That doesn't mean he is with that woman, didn't Rex say that this chick and her hit-man hubby got back together?"

"Yup, he did but…" Natalie closed her eyes as the tears, started to fall.

"No, no buts", Gigi said softly, "Natalie, John loves you. You, not anyone else. You need to remember that. You haven't heard his voice on the phone…"

"He never came here to see us. Do you know how ridiculously easy it is to get a passport?" she said, "I mean yeah, the day I left I took his with me but….I don't know why I did that. Part of me thought he would get another one and come and get us you know. But, at the same time, there has always been a bigger part of me that knew he wouldn't."

"Natalie…"

"I can still see them you know, in the picture, and….my mind brings it to life. I just-" getting cut off from her comment was the text alert on her phone.

It was from a number she didn't know. Her heart sped up wondering who it could be she opened up the message. She slumped against the wall and started sobbing, unable to look away from her phone.

"Natalie, what is it?" Gigi asked.

Natalie's head was swimming and the room was spinning. She felt like she might vomit and pass out at the same time.

"REX! REX COME QUICK!" Gigi screamed, trying to pry the phone away from

Natalie as she slumped to the floor unable to keep herself up anymore.

She was seeing spots in front of her eyes and everything was so fuzzy. The last thing she remembered was Rex running into the room and talking to her, she couldn't respond and she fell over hitting her head on the hardwood as she passed out.

It had been one full week that he had been back to work. Bo had told him when he got back that Natalie was supposed to have been back in town this past Monday but, she had wanted a week to get settle back in Llanview except, she hadn't come back.

Bo said all he was told was that she had gotten a bug and couldn't fly just yet. He called Rex's to be told the same thing and all Liam knew was that 'mommy was sick and in bed and couldn't play'. He was worried about her being that ill. He hoped he would get a chance to talk to her tonight when he called. As he made his way to the squad room, he saw a familiar face loitering around Bo's assistant Gail's desk.

"Can I help you with something Manning?" John asked, hoping the jerk would drop off the face of the earth. Todd just smiled at him and said nothing.

"Is someone helping this asshole?" John asked Gail. When she confirmed that yes, in fact someone was taking care of his issue, John turned to leave.

"Have any good coffee lately McBain?"

"What?"

"Coffee, can you get good coffee around here?" When John just stared at him Todd continued with, "you know who has good coffee….Kelly's…you know, in Port Charles."

"Yeah, I've been there", was all John said as he headed back to his office to pack it in for the night. He wondered what all that was about. Nothing Manning ever did made sense. John wondered not for the first time how he and Mrs. Banks could be related. It was a shame a woman like her had to put up with a jerk like that for a brother.

"Natalie", Kelly said softly, "John is on the phone and asking for you. Don't you think you should talk to him?"

"I really don't want to", she replied sadly.

Kelly had actually been really great these last few weeks. After Natalie got out of the hospital, she needed to be supervised, she felt like a child but, the doctors had said if her blood pressure spiked again to the numbers it was when she was first brought in with she could have a stroke. She spent most of her days at the Buchanan mansion being babysat by any family member that was free at the moment.

The only good that came of it was that she got to have some great conversations with her brothers all individually and getting to know Cord better was great. She was on bed rest. Not total and complete bed rest but, she needed to be off her feet with them up as much as possible. So when she wasn't in bed she lazed around on the couch of either the mansion or Rex's house.

"Ok", she said as Kelly brought her the phone. Hating the fact that Kelly and John obviously spoke to each other on the phone. Kelly was with Joey now but, there was a time when Kelly and John were fuck buddies, and that still rubbed Natalie the wrong way.

"Hey", she said softly as if afraid to speak too loudly.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked, "Uhm, Liam's good yeah?"

"Yeah, he's good. He misses you."

"Yeah, well, I miss him too." John said speaking just as softly. "I need him Natalie. I'm so lonely with out you both."

As if flipping a switch, her anger flared back full force. "Really?" she said, "I think you're doing just fine without me."

"What are you-"

"Look John, I've made a decision, I will be staying in London. It's been really great to be with my brothers and Cord and Kevin said they could find something for me at Buchanan Enterprises and dad agrees." She spoke quickly, before he could even respond. "There are some really great preschools here and…."

"What?"

"….I was thinking about getting my own place. You let me know what you decide to do with the house, you're welcome to keep it or you can sell it, it doesn't matter…."

"Wait…"

"….but, there are a few things I want. Pictures of Liam when he was a small baby, some jewelry from my mom. I can send someone over for them so you don't have to be bothered…."

"WAIT, Stop! Natalie...it's been over two months, why will you still not talk to me about this? It's ridiculous, and completely not like you to avoid confrontation like this. I'm not selling the house, I'm not moving out of it, I'm not going away and I am not going to stop asking you to come home. I love you...Do you NOT love me anymore? Is that what this is? Because of one stupid kiss that meant nothing you're going to throw away our future and rip our son away from me without even talking about it? With all the shit we've been through over the years...Lawrence, Haver, Barber all that crap with Vickers and Truman...we've forgiven each other for worse than this...all that crap with Brody and Kelly and Marty's miscarriage..."

"But, it wasn't just one stupid kiss was it John? You've seen her haven't you? You've been with her right? Are you going to tell me that isn't true?" Natalie said, taking a deep breath, the tears were coming quickly and hoping she could keep her voice down otherwise this room would be crawling with Buchanan men the second they heard her.

John's mind was spinning, damn it, Balsom was a private investigator, was she having Rex follow him.

"Are you having me followed?" he asked.

"No", she laughed a laugh completely devoid of humor, "it's funny that you would ask me that though, no, someone is looking out for you or maybe it's me they are looking out for?" She said sadly, hung up and immediately forwarded the texted picture of him and that woman she'd received.

Natalie turned off her phone and laid down on the couch, tears stinging her eyes, she closed them and tried to slow down her breathing, willing herself to take a nap or at least, she prayed for the fact that she could fake it good enough so anyone who came in to check on her would leave her alone. Her baby kicked, and Natalie rubbed a hand over her belly, "It's ok baby, it'll be ok", she whispered then cried herself to sleep.

John sat staring at the picture of himself and Samantha Morgan having coffee a week or so ago at Kelly's. He knew it wasn't Balsom that took it, it was Manning.

"Fuck!" John ground out. He sat back on the couch and got lost in his head, out of ideas. He'd lost his family, he'd lost everything. It took him so long to be able to open up to her, this time around he'd promised to be more open with his feelings and he had, he poured his heart out to her. Begged her to come home and still she would budge. That was that. He never deserved her anyway. He always knew that. Getting up and going into the kitchen and grabbing the bottle of Jack he had stashed in the cabinet above the refrigerator. John sat back down to enjoy his drink and hopefully if he was lucky he'd pass out.