The doctor's hands worked nimbly, checking here and there as Timmy's heart monitor tossed around Cosmo and Wanda's nerves.

"He's…his heart is not responding well," the doctor muttered under his breath, as if he were the only one in the room.

Wanda's heart stopped in sync with her godson's. "What's wrong with him?" Her eyes, fixed to the monitor, clouded with crimson over winter pink.

Cosmo trembled at his godson convulsing. "Timmy?"

The heart monitor went up.

Down.

Up.

Up.

Down.

The doctor sucked in a breath, for the monitor did not raise.

"Timmy!" Wanda's heart stopped with Timmy's as she collapsed to his side. "Timmy, WAKE UP!"

The heart monitor did not budge.

Cosmo rushed to his godson's side. "Timmy, wake up! Come on, no, no!"

The doctor grabbed the defibrillator panels and shoved Cosmo and Wanda out of the way. "Clear!" He jolted Timmy's chest, Wanda's sobs racketing in the room. She clutched her husband's tear-stained shirt.

"Clear!"

Down.

Down.

Down.

Up.

The room refused to budge an atom.

No one breathed.

Beep…beep…beep…

The heart monitor rose and fell in a melody reminiscent of piano music, at least in the ears of the group.

Timmy would make it…for the night.

The doctor stared at Timmy, his own breath ragged and choking. "He's ok. Nurse, I want him under close surveillance for the rest of the night."

"Yes, doctor."

Wanda could not speak. Her son, her first son, had almost died. Her petty fights and bickers with Cosmo seemed so small and insignificant compared to the idea, the notion, the thought of losing her child forever. Forever. She would never see him smile, never see him laugh, never ride a roller coaster with him again. They would get a new godchild and be forced to move on, without him.

"Cosmo…we almost lost him."

"I know."

"I'm worried."

"Me too."

They sat for eternity, eyes on their godson, the child they had almost lost.

"Wanda?" Cosmo asked after a few hours of silence. His eyes itched with lack of sleep and his shoulder ached to shift, but the recent crisis moved him to take life more seriously, the fleeting existence hanging in dangerous balance of each moment. "I…I know that we were going to sign the divorce papers tomorrow morning, but, I was thinking…" he gulped hard, his eyes shaking and shuddering as he clamped them down. If he couldn't see her, he could pretend that she wasn't there. "…maybe we could call off the divorce?"

No response.

He looked to his left, where Wanda had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

He smiled, a small tear running down his face.

For one more night, she was his wife.

#

The next morning, when the sun still struggled to heave itself over the horizon, Wanda's weary eyes begrudgingly lifted open. Something was off, she noticed. She felt…happy? She hadn't felt this kind of happy in a long time. As she curled her arms tighter around Cosmo's chest, she wondered why she could be feeling so–

Wait.

Jolting back from him like a cat in water, the memory dawned on her that she had fallen asleep on Cosmo's shoulder last night.

The motion of his frame stirring underneath her woke the rest of her body up, and she jumped up not a second before his eyes wearily opened.

"Oh, hey, Wanda," Cosmo greeted, not yet awake enough for his nerves to run races in her presence.

Wanda nodded across from him. "Hi."

Again, pink eyes on green, they could not look away from each other.

"Well," Wanda gulped. "Today's the day."

"Yeah."

"We should get to the waiting room."

"Yeah."

Raising their wands in sync after one look to their godson, they poofed to the waiting room. Mama Cosma was waiting for them, joined by various other fairies with various reasons.

"The glorious, wonderful, life-saving papers are here!" Mama Cosma announced, her arms clogged with a wad of paper, pen sets, pencils, and office supplies. "Dears, would you like to use Bic or Sharpie? Or perhaps Papermate?"

Wanda could not hear her, her ears frozen to the outside world, eyes on her husband. Her sweet, adorable, kind husband.

"Wanda!" Mama Cosma's tone whipped the fairy before her, eliciting a half-energetic response. "Come along, it's time to sign!"

Her husband.

Her ex.

She couldn't do this! It was going to be over, after 10,000 years, with just a few marks on a lousy piece of paper, it would be over! He would be in the same category as Juandissimo!

She was a coward. A stupid, selfish, inconsiderate coward. Now, only now, did she realize how badly this would affect Timmy and Poof. Could she do that to her children? Could she hurt her children like that, all because she couldn't talk to her husband?

Apparently so.

"Let's get this over with," she muttered, only amazed that her voice hadn't broken. Jorgen and Cupid were present for legal reasons, and Mama Cosma and Juandissimo were there for enjoyment. Melody was there, but few really knew what her reasons were.

"Poof poof?" Poof tugged at his mother's shirt gently, soft tears of hopelessness collecting in his eyes.

Wanda sighed, scooping up her son. "I'm sorry, Poof, but this is what we're doing."

"Poof poof?"

She really couldn't refuse, there was no sense in making him watch such a ritual. "Alright, you can see Timmy, but be careful."

Without another word, he poofed off to Timmy's hospital room, where he could cry in solitude.

"Excited, Cosmo?" Melody asked, elation sparking all over her face.

No. No, Cosmo was not excited, by a long shot.

He had really done it this time, hadn't he? One too many jokes, one too many slip-ups, one too many bad wishes, one too many mistakes, and now he was here. He had never really deserved her, she just took a really long time to figure it out.

"Uh, not really," he replied.

Melody had expected as much. "Well, don't forget, you're about to be a free man."

The way she said 'free' was like she was talking about escaping from prison. "Heh, yeah."

She traced her finger down the side of his face, a sick grin slipping on her face. "Yeah, and who knows what will happen when you're divorced right?"

His cheeks flushed so bad he thought someone had lit his face on fire. "Uh, I…have to go check on Timmy!" He poofed away before the last words was uttered, every part of his body shaking like he was in the arctic.

Poof, there's nothing I can do! I'm still out of it, and judging by how close I came last night, I don't know when I'll wake up!

"Timmy!" Cosmo poofed by his godson's side in a panic. "We're getting the divorce, I don't know how to stop it, and Melody…" he gulped, the very notion making him sick. "…touched me. She touched my face."

I…I don't know what to do! I can't even talk to you, much less walk in there and stop everything!

"Come on, Timmy, just wake up! We can play all the video games you want, you'll get to stay home from school, we'll eat ice cream, watch movies, it'll be great!" If he just offered Timmy enough incentive to wake up, he would do so, right? Couldn't he just choose to wake up?

No. Deep in the trenches of Cosmo's mind, he knew that Timmy had no choice in the matter.

Cosmo, it's not that simple!

"COSMO!" Mama Cosma shouted, opening to door wide, like ushering a group of children outside on the first day of summer. "Come along, it's time to sign!"

No, no, I need more time!

"Mama, do I have to?" Cosmo was back to when he was eighteen, begging to go out with Wanda, when she wanted him to meet other girls, mainly women he later found out were robots.

Her tone had not changed. "Yes, you do. Come along." She grabbed his ear and led him out.

"POOF POOF!" Poof shouted, flying through the air to his father. He was a moment too late, and the door shut. Grabbing the handle and tugging it down, he was met with unrelenting, frozen metal that would not budge. "Poof!"

They were locked in.

"Poof poof!"

No! Get your rattle, poof yourself out of here and stop them!

Poof had the same idea, and pulled it out in a frenzy, only to find it was a plastic rattle from a drug store. They should've expected as much; Mama Cosma was so close, and she wasn't going to take any chances. "Poof poof!"

Aw, come on! Wait, Poof, you have to cry. That'll break down the whole hospital, or at least the door!

Poof started to cry, but through the window of the hospital room, he saw a mother being wheeled out of her room, the nurse telling her that she could see her baby in a moment. Even at a young, irresponsible age, Poof knew that if he cried, he might stop the divorce, but he would hurt everyone in the hospital. "Poof poof!"

Dang it, you're right. Well, there's gotta be some way out of here! I can't let them get divorce, I can't!

"Fine, I'll use the Papermate, alright?" Wanda screeched at her soon-to-be-ex mother in-law.

Cosmo floated across from her, holding a blue, shiny, brand new pen. The pen cap was the same type as the one he had proposed to Wanda with. "Uh, Mama, I want a different one."

Mama Cosma shrugged, handing him a red pen. "That's fine. Jorgen, are we ready?"

Jorgen eyed the clock. He could last no longer. "Yes. Here are the papers. There are five for you each to sign, then the divorce is final." He could already see the heartbroken look on Timmy's face when he woke up. There was nothing he could do; Da Rules were da rules.

Cupid, throwing another coffee down his throat, asked Jorgen with a jittery voice, "Isn't there anything we can do?"

Jorgen shook his head, handing the papers to Mama Cosma, letting the train pass him by on its way to crash into Cosmo and Wanda's marriage. "Not a thing."

Staring at Cupid gulp down another coffee in one breath, he asked, "How many of those have you had?"

"Sixty-nine. What's it to ya?"

"Good thing we're in a hospital."

Juandissimo was possibly the happiest fairy there, competing with Mama Cosma for widest smile. "This is the best day of my life!" He exclaimed, the noise fire in Cosmo and Wanda's ears.

Wanda looked at Cosmo in a brief moment when their witnesses were distracted enough with each other. She stared straight into his green eyes, unafraid of the horror that await her. In just a few minutes she would be divorced, and there as simply nothing she could do. "Cosmo, I-I hope we can still be friends." The very sentence left her head a thousand times lighter.

He smiled softly. "Uh, yeah, I'd like that. Maybe we can take Timmy and Poof out for lunch together sometimes?" The offer was too good to hope for a response, wasn't it?

Wanda had to bite back a smile. "That would be great."

Who knows where they would have gone with a few minutes more, perhaps Cosmo would've asked her out on a date once he was again single. We'll never know, Mama Cosma wasn't going to leave that up to chance. "Alright! Let's do this thing, I'm having a celebratory party at my place afterwards!"

"Of course she is," Wanda muttered under hot and angry breath. That woman didn't even have enough respect to let the divorce go on in a quiet manner, it had to be a spectacle.

Jorgen spoke as Mama Cosma placed the papers in a neat pile on the floating, purple table between them, in signing order. "The first is the custody arrangement, which you both have previously agreed to."

Wanda signed in swirly, tight cursive, contrasting Cosmo's kindergarten writing. She still found it adorable to this day.

Poof, there has to be a way out of here! Don't you know Martial Arts? Bust yourself out of here!

"Poof poof!" Poof got the same idea at the same time, a smile on his face at the idea that would surely work. He put very once of action-movie knowledge and strength into the kick, but bounced right off the glass and into Timmy's lap. "POOF!"

DANG IT! We have to get out of here, I can't let this happen! What paper are they at?

Poof flew to the window, where, if he pressed his face tightly up against it, he could just see the events going down. "Poof poof!"

"This is the second paper, saying that you two both consent to letting the other grant Timmy's wishes, and won't meddle in the other's doings." Jorgen bit his lip. If any complication of the divorce would make his job a thousand times more difficult, this was it.

Wanda signed without a word of protest, and, only following her lead, Cosmo did the same.

Mama Cosma could hardly contain herself, shaking with pure delight as she removed the second paper from the pile, revealing the third. "This is the third paper," Jorgen announced in a glum tone, only from one who has lost all hope for a case. He waved Cupid's silent protests off from beside him. There was nothing more to be done. "It concerns the divorce, stating that you two both agree to never get remarried."

"WHAT!?"

"I didn't know about that!" Wanda screamed, her heart on strike and refusing to beat.

"Yeah!" Cosmo echoed his wife's concern. "Why do we have to sign this one?"

Jorgen raised his hands. "It's standard in Fairy World, it's to prevent couples from getting divorced over silly things."

Cupid shot Jorgen a bitter look. "It's not working."

"Next meeting's Tuesday, tell the Fairy Council, not me."

Mama Cosma saw her case slipping through her fingers as tears welled up in her son's eyes. "Oh, don't worry about it, Cosmo, it's just a formality."

Wanda locked eyes with Cosmo. "Cosmo, let's just do it." Her tone, low enough to frighten off a gang, brought a whimper out of her husband. She signed the paper in one short stroke.

He followed.

"Poof POOF!" Poof grabbed Timmy's limp hand.

Poof, think of something! I won't let my them get a divorce, it won't happen!

Mama Cosmo swiftly pulled the third paper off the pile. "This states you two no longer want to be married. This is the official divorce paper."

Wanda had to shut her eyes as she signed it.

Cosmo cried as he signed.

"POOF!" Poof screamed so loud his lungs ached, but no one heard him. "Poof poof!"

I'm trying! I can't wake up! I CAN'T!

"The fifth paper," Jorgen announced with a nail going through his stomach. This was it, the final chance. "It's the last paper, finalizing all the previous agreements." He looked from Cosmo to Wanda and back again. Could he stop them? Should he? Should he voice Timmy's obvious concerns?

They all knew, down in their hearts, that the young boy in the hospital room could get the divorce called off within ten minutes, without magic.

Jorgen sighed. There was nothing he could do, and it was too late for Timmy. "Mama Cosma, lift up the fourth paper."

Everyone took in a breath.

"POOF POOF!"

NO, STOP THEM!