"What do you mean it's not covered?" Nate raised his voice frustrated.

After he had left Sophie, spent from all the crying, he had cleaned himself up at the nearest bathroom and then went to the administration's offices of the clinic. He had spent the previous hour reading and signing forms for officially admitting Sam as a patient in the clinic. Since they were divorced, Maggie had to come to sign things before returning to his son. She had left Nate dealing with all the paperwork trouble, while her and Sophie were trying to entertain Sam and explaining how he was going to spent more time at the hospital.

"I'm sorry, but neither yours or your ex-wife's insurance covers the experimental treatment. They cover part of the admission cost, but that's it."

Nate sighed. "Exactly how much will it all cost?"

The young woman typed on the computer and then printed the summary of the costs and handed them to Nate. His eyes widened at the sights of the amount of money they were going to need. He knew he was going to give all the money he had to make sure that Sam got cured so he could live the rest of his life, but where was he going to find the rest?

"Thanks" he nodded and left defeated.

When he walked back into Sam's room both women were looking down onto the now sleeping child. Maggie and Sophie. One represent his past love, the woman who gave him his first child and that will always have an important part of his life. And then there was Sophie. He didn't know what real love was until he had met Sophie. She mesmerized him, she could take his breath away with just one look. She had set fire to a passion in him that he wasn't aware to have. He knew without a doubt that she was his one and only true love, his last love.

"Nate?" Maggie noticed his presents and looked up to him. In just his name there was so many questions hidden in there. Questions that he didn't know how to answer.

"They've officially admitted him here" he told her leaving so many things unsaid.

"The doctor said that we need to wait for the fever to go down before starting treatment. How did that go?"

"I'm working on it"

"What do you mean you're working on it?" she fully turned towards him, her body language telling him that she was ready to strike.

"It means that there are a few things to take care of. I'm working on it." he snapped making her jump. He quickly apologized with his eyes. "I'm not going to do everything that it takes to make sure Sam gets his treatment."

Sophie observed the scene in the corner. The tension in the air was palpable.

"Maggie, do you need something from your house?" she interrupted the silent argument.

Maggie shook her head at Nate and turned her head towards the other woman. "No, thank you. I'm going to spend the night here and Sandra is going to bring me fresh clothes for me and Sam early tomorrow morning"

"I'll stay too" Nate exclaimed.

"No"

"No?" he raised his left eyebrow at his ex-wife in challenge.

"You've stayed up all last night with Sam. You're still wearing yesterday's clothes. You need to go home, take a shower and have a full night's sleep" Maggie told him harshly.

"Maggie is right, Nate. I bet you haven't eaten all day. Let's go home and rest for a bit"

Seeing that he couldn't really win against both women, he nodded sighing. He bent down to kiss his son's forehead making sure not to wake him up.

"See you tomorrow"

Nate and Sophie left the hospital. Once they arrived at the parking lot, Nate took his car keys out of his pocket and Sophie snatched them out from him.

"What…?"

"You're too tired to drive" she simply told him already taking a seat at the driver's side.

Nate opened his mouth to protest, but then he just shook his head and got in the car without arguing, silently admitting to himself that he was exhausted. The car drive was spent in silence. It had been a long and strenuous day. Nate looked out of the passenger's window, the light of L.A. passing him by. In his head he was already trying to form plan after plan on how to get through the situation.

Once inside his apartment, Nate fell down on the couch exhausted with his eyes closed, his head resting on the back of the couch and his feet propped up the coffee table.

Sophie walked behind the couch to stand behind him and she gently started massaging the side of his head.

"Hmm…" He moaned in appreciation. "That feels good."

After she felt his tense muscle relax she moved her hands to his neck where all his tension was settled. After a few minutes enjoying her work, Nate took her hand in his and guided her to come around the couch so she could sit next to him. He then ardently captured her lips with his. Nate's hands ran up Sophie's back and into her hair. He releases her lips when they needed air, and then he places a series of kisses on her lips getting from her all the strength he needed. Then he rested his forehead against hers.

"What's going on Nate? Talk to me!" Sophie pleaded needing for him to let her in, knowing that something was wrong.

He sat back up averting his eyes from hers. "Our medical insurance doesn't cover the treatment…"he paused. "Hell, it just covers part of his stay in the clinic. I don't know where to find the money. If I sell my house and dip in my pension found I could cover the clinic expenses, but the treatment that could save Sam is way out of my league…" he ran a hand over his face.

"Let me help you… I've got the money for it… I could…"

"Sophie" he interrupted her. "I appreciate the offer, but…" he paused.

"You don't want my money" she stated, he could hear the slightly hurt tone in her voice.

"It's not that…" he tried to explain himself "… I'm his dad, I need to do it on my own… also if someone finds out.."

"If someone finds out where the money came from, it would mean trouble" she finished for him nodding in understanding.

" Tomorrow I'll go to IYS and try to get the money there."

"Ok" she patted his hand. "Go and have a shower while I'll make us something"

He gave her a small smile and brought her in his arms "Thanks" he whispered in her ear.

The following afternoon Nate was sitting at his desk in his office. He had spent the morning with Sam trying to distracted the little boy who was bored in the hospital and probably scared. Before she had gone home to wash and change, Maggie had cornered him into talking and he reluctantly had to confess that they didn't have the money to pay the treatment, but he was going to file an insurance claim at IYS and hopefully the company wasn't going to refuse it.

He had planned to ask for the claim directly to his boss Ian, but the man's secretary had stopped him before he could enter telling him that Blackpoole was busy and he was going to have a full day ahead of him. So Nate had gone to his office, knowing that he needed to work some hours and hoping that it would distracted him a bit.

Later that afternoon he was studying some footage photos from a theft in Tokyo when his office phone rang. It was the claim office telling him to come over. He slowly walked in the office were a man was waiting for him.

"Mr. Ford, please have a seat"

Nate looked around assessing the situation. "I prefer staying up" he told him inflexible.

The employer just nodded. "I'm sorry Mr. Ford but your request was denied, the situation…" he didn't have time to finish that Nate stormed off the office. With the strong pace he walked to the lifts and pressed furiously on the call button. When any of the lifts arrived, he impatiently walked off to the stairs and flew down them. He has only one mission, and no one was going to stop him.

The secretary was working on her computer when she was a black figure rushing pass her. She quickly got up her chair and chased it.

"You can't go in…" but the door slammed in front of her.

"Nate" Ian Blackpoole had a smug smile has he was laying back on his chair talking on the phone. "I'll call you back" he said to person on the other side and hang up. "Look Nate…" he got up from the chair.

"You denied my claim" Nate glared at him angrily.

"Nothing personal, really, you know how business works. It's just…"

"After nearly twenty years of working for this company you deny the claim to pay for the treatment that could save my son…"

"I've looked at it. The treatment is experimental, the chances that he'll recover…"

Nate didn't want to hear it. With all the anger he had built up, he punched him hard on the face and Blackpoole fell backwards on the floor.

"Consider that my two weeks' notice" he walked out.

Back at the hospital, Sophie was reading a story to Sam. She was sitting on a chair by the window while the boy laid on his bed, sleep slowly taking over. She knew that Nate was at the office and that he needed a bit of time for himself and Maggie had gone to her workplace too as she needed to discuss her options with her boss. So she had volunteered to look after Sam, until Maggie got back.

She noticed that the little boy had finally fallen asleep and she quietly closed the book. She took a moment to observe him. It was hard to believe that something as bad and ruthless as cancer was slowly growing inside that little angel, taking his life away. She wished she could do a lot more than just wait for Nate to finally agree to accept her money for the cure, but you couldn't con a disease.

She hears the door open.

"Oh Sophie," Maggie got it gently seeing her son asleep. "Thanks for watching him"

"No problem" she smiled at her. "I'm always happy to help."

"Have you heard from Nate yet?" she asked anxiously. They were all waiting for news.

"No yet" She sadly shook her head. Nate taking so long to come back could only mean one thing. "I'm sure he will be back soon" she lied but the art expert believed her.

"Okay"

"I need to go now. I've got something to take care of before Nate shows up"

"Of course" Maggie nodded "Thanks again" she watched the brunette walk away.

Sophie opened the door and bumped into someone "Sorry" she said mindlessly without paying attention to the person in front of her.

"No problem" the man replied back as he entered the hospital room she was leaving.

Maggie looked up at the figure who had just come in. "Sterling? What are you doing here?" she asked surprised.

"I'm looking for you husband, sorry ex-husband" he corrected himself, but his mistake had been intentional.

Maggie rolled her eyes. "He's at the office, haven't you seeing him?"

"Nope" he looked up and the sleeping boy and he felt guilty for acting a bit like a jerk. "How is he?" he nodded towards the bed.

Maggie sighed. "We still have to wait for the fever to go down before starting treatment, but if Nate doesn't find the money in time…"

He suddenly frowned. "Who was the woman I just saw walk out?"

"Oh, that was Sophie, Nate's girlfriend" she chuckled. "She's been so helpful… I actually like her…."

But Sterling wasn't listening to her, he turned his head towards the closed door. "Interesting…"

A/N What's going to happen next? Does Sterling know something? Thanks for reading and I hope you still like the story. More to come and reviews are always appreciated :D