A!N: Yay! More! Throw your reviews at my feet! .. Uh, please?

"The placenta partially tore away from the wall of your womb. You really should not be on your feet as much as a nurse is. You bled much more than what we normally see in these situations." The doctor had explained.

"Is he okay, though?" Nadia asked.

"He will be..." The doctor, one she'd never met previously, adjusted his glasses. "As long as you remain on bed rest. I want to keep you here until we're sure the baby is stabilized."

She could hear his heartbeat, the fetal monitor wrapped around her stomach. It was noon, the day after. Nadia had almost blacked out everything that happened, but she remembered Ivy forcing her to sit, and someone running for a doctor. She'd been gotten into a bed fast, the monitor strapped to her belly. Gaberiel's heart beat had been erratic, which explained why he was moving so much. Gaberiels heart beat was still too sporadic for the doctor's liking, and things were looking like Nadia was going to be there until the next day. The bleeding had stopped, which was one of the great things to come out of the situation. She took a deep breath, reaching for her phone. There were no missed calls, so he hadn't tried to call her. Maybe she got lucky and he fell asleep and was still asleep.

Nadia was terrified to call the house, to try to explain to Michael why she wasn't there. Trying to tell him what had happened, terrified of what he would do in response. Would he show up at the hospital? If he did, would he be in a rage, or silent, not drawing attention so he could find her. Would he attack nurses left and right, trying to blame someone for what was ultimately Nadia's own fault? If she could explain to him that the baby was okay, that Gaberiel was fine, then maybe he would stay still long enough for her to get back home.

Clicking the speed dial button, she inhaled sharply. One ring, then a second, then a third. Somehow, she was even more scared of no answer. Finally, on the fifth ring, there was a click, and a loud exhale in her ear that made her shutter a bit. It was hard to tell how he was feeling, with no visual ques and very few vocal ones. "Uh.. Michael?"

There was a noise on the other end, what Nadia equated to an irritated 'Hm?'. She bit her lower lip. "Something small happened. The babies fine, but I.. I might have to stay in the hospital overnight... and... you'll be home alone until tomorrow, okay? I'll.. I'll keep you updated. Just stay there, please." Nadia was a bit taken back when she heard a loud slam and the phone abruptly hung up. "That's... not good." She closed her phone and set it aside, hoping he was only angry about her not being there, and that he would stay put.

"Fancy seeing you here..." Nadia looked up, seeing Annie at the door. "Funny how hospitals work, huh?"

"Hilarious." Nadia sat up a bit. "I can't stand being on the patient side of things."

"I just wanted to pop in and let you know Laurie's being released now. We're heading home."

"That's great." Nadia smiled. If Michael did show up in a rage, it was probably best they were gone. Annie smiled back and pulled her hands from behind her back, plopping down a can of Coke and a vending machine candy bar.

"Just a little peace offering. I'll see you.. when I see you." Annie slipped out, and Nadia snagged the candy bar. Underneath was a little note with a phone number. 'If you ever need to talk.' Was written next to the number, and Annie's name scribbled in messy penmanship. It was a strange, but good feeling, having someone to reach out to.

The full weight of exhaustion was hitting her now, laying in the bed in the cool, dark room. She'd been awake for much longer than she should have been, and it was just so easy to huddle up and let herself drift off.

At one point she was woken up by a nurse coming in to check her vitals, and look at the babies heart beat. "It looks like he's doing a lot better. The ultrasound tech won't be in until tonight, so you'll just have to hang out with us." The man had said. Nadia nodded along, mostly understanding, before she let herself fall back into sleep. It was strange, she didn't want to fall into too deep of a sleep, still worrying about Michael alone, but the longer she tried to fight it, the more exhausted she felt. Eventually, her body gave in to a full sleep, her phone clutched in her hand, and the other hand pressed on her belly.

There was a flash of light that woke her up just a bit, and she heard the door close. Her tired brain equated it to another nurse coming in. "How's the baby?" A woman's calm, quiet voice echoed. It sounded familiar to Nadia, motherly in nature. Her eyes were still closed and her mind still mostly asleep.

"He's.. great." Nadia murmured, rolling her head in the direction of the voice, not strong enough to open her eyes yet. She felt a hand on her belly, and the kicks began.

"He's so strong. Just like his father." The woman spoke. This seemed to wake Nadia up more, and she felt the air growing colder around her. An icy hand pressed against her cheek, and her eyes opened enough to see a pale face surrounded by snowy hair, and the darkest eyes she could imagine. The image was blurry, but still shocking, nevertheless. "Our beautiful girl."

Nadia's body jolted up completely, and she looked around the hospital room.

No one was there.

It was dark, and she was perfectly alone. She could still feel the cold hand on her face, and it made her shutter. Grabbing her phone, Nadia could hardly believe it was midnight already. No calls, no texts, nothing. She couldn't get the image of that woman out of her head, though. So incredibly familiar. Nadia sighed slowly, and pushed the speed dial button on her phone for the house. She pressed it to her ear and waited, and waited, and waited.

There was no answer, and even more strange, the voicemail didn't pick up. She hung up and sighed. She knew she wouldn't get a pass to go home until they did an ultrasound to make sure everything was okay, and she wasn't sure when that would be. There had to be someone on staff or on call who could take care of this. She pulled herself up more and pushed the nurse call button. It didn't take long for a woman to pop in. "Whatcha need hun?"

"When is the Ultrasound tech going to be in?" Nadia asked, stretching. "And do I need this monitor on me anymore?"

"She's on her way here from the hospital in the county over, but when she gets here you'll be the first one she see's." The nurse came over and removed the monitor, which gave Nadia a bit more comfort. "We didn't want to wake you, but are you hungry? I can grab you something from the cafeteria."

"That would be great, actually." Nadia smiled as the woman left. It didn't hit her until now with how hungry she was. Stretching and trying to get herself more warmed up, she slipped out of the bed and pulled on the hoodie she had worn to work. Her pants and underwear had been soaked in blood, and weren't useful. If she'd thought to ask Ivy to grab her some spare clothes, but then, how would Michael react to Ivy? He seemed fine before, and he clearly wasn't stupid, but if something riled up his temper, or if he saw Ivy as an invader...

The door opened and shut behind her, Nadia turning the TV up a little. "That was fast." She said, turning around. The remote dropped from her hand as she saw the grown man standing there, staring at her through a mess of hair. "What're you doing here?" Nadia asked in what could equate to a loud whisper. Michael walked around the bed, wearing the dark pair of overalls and his heavy boots. "I told you to stay home!" She tried to sound firm, but her voice was merely a squeak. Michael grabbed her jaw, looking at her, then his hands moved to her stomach. She was still reeling at the fact he was here, likely having walked the entire way, and then to have gotten into the hospital and past everyone...

The door opened again, and it was the nurse with a small tray of food. Michael turned, staring at the woman as she placed the tray on the table. Nadia instinctively grabbed his hand and yanked him back, managing to nudge him backwards enough to where he sat down in the chair beside the bed. The nurse looked up, Nadia partially blocking Michael's face with her body, but he was still very visible. She looked prepared to say something, but seemed to afraid to do so.

"He's the father." Nadia managed to say. "He just got off work."

The nurse gave a nod, her face and body language showing a bit of unease, and she seemed to hurry out of the room without much argument. Nadia exhaled hard, turning and looking at Michael. He sat up and grabbed her belly again. "He's fine! I told you to stay home! How, how did you even get in here?" He looked up at her and exhaled sharply, leaning back in the chair. Nadia walked back to the bed and sat on the edge. "Well, if I knew you were coming, I would've asked you to bring pants." She grabbed the pudding cup off the tray and dug into it, looking up just as Michael pulled a pair of gray sweatpants out of his overalls.

Nadia tilted her head and couldn't help but smile. "You're a smart one, you know that? A rabid dog, but loyal." She snorted when he threw the pants directly at her face, but pulled them on. "We have to wait until they take one last look at the baby before we can leave." Nadia sighed. "Then I have to just be careful and not do a whole lot. Fun." She looked at Michael, who seemed comfortable enough in the chair, his hands lax in his lap and his eyes stuck to her through the strands of hair in his face. He hadn't bothered wearing a mask, even though she was sure he had wanted to. It would draw attention, and attention wasn't the best in this situation.

A thought of Laurie struck her, but Nadia decided against telling Michael that she had been there. She wasn't sure if he was quite over his sister yet, but he certainly seemed more interested in the baby at the moment. Family did always seem incredibly important to him, at least, those he was willing to consider his family.

Eating her food, the room was relatively calm, the two waiting on the woman. Michael seemed to sit and wait so easily, his eyes never really leaving Nadia. She, however, was trying to focus on the TV, whatever late night show happened to be on at the moment. Her thoughts kept running back to the woman she had seen earlier. It had to have been a dream, for sure. The more she thought about it, the more she began to think the woman looked and sounded very similar to Deborah Myers. Nadia looked over at Michael, catching his gaze.

"You have your mothers eyes..." She said suddenly, not sure where the words came from. It certainly caught Michael off guard, one eyebrow raising. Nadia turned quickly when the door opened and a computer was wheeled in, accompanied by a woman in floral scrubs.

"Oh, good! I was hoping you were still awake. I suppose we get this over with, huh?" The woman seemed to speak with an upbeat tone, but Nadia knew she had to be exhausted.

"Yeah, I imagine you're pretty tired." Nadia said as she laid back, rolling the gown up to just under her chest, and fixing the waistband of the sweatpants so her whole belly was visible. Michael sat forward, intrigued by the process. The strange jelly that was squirted onto her stomach, then he stood up and moved closer the second the little wand touched Nadia's belly. He was staring at the screen, the sound of the babies heartbeat echoing in the room. He leaned over the bed to see, and Nadia grabbed his hand to try and keep him from moving any closer, afraid he might scare the woman. The tech seemed too distracted by the screen to notice, or care about the large man oohing and awwing at the wriggling baby on the screen.

"Well, the heartbeat sounds good, babies in position. The only issue I'm seeing is there isn't enough fluid in the sac, but that should build up naturally as long as you remain on bedrest." Nadia nodded, still holding tightly to Michael's hand.

"So, we can go?" Nadia sat up the minute she was able, using a cloth to wipe away the goo.

"Just turn in the paperwork at the desk and you're free." There was some shuffling and the woman was out just as quickly as she had entered, and Nadia did her best to get her shoes and socks back on, and replace the gown with her proper shirt. She dropped the candy bar and soda from earlier in her purse, stopping only to look at the note Annie had given her. She pocketed it and threw her purse over her shoulder, looking at Michael. "Just follow me, okay?" As an extra precaution, she took his hand, and grabbed the little folder of papers, and exited the room. Dropping the folder at the closest nurses station, Nadia walked hand in hand with Michael, slipping into the stair well to try and remain as hidden as possible until they got to the main floor and managed to get out the back door and into the parking lot.

Finding the car, Nadia sighed with relief as she let go of Michael. "Hop in the passenger seat, okay?" She clicked the unlock button on the little key fob, letting him get in. As soon as he was in, he grabbed the lever and pushed the seat back as far as it would go, which made Nadia giggle. She opened the driver side door, tossing her purse in, before hearing her name called. She turned, seeing Ethan the night guard jogging over to her. "E-ethan... I was just.. heading home. Look, I'm really tired and I just..."

"Don't worry, don't worry, I'm not going to keep you long." The boy smiled at her. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay." Nadia could see that he was looking behind her into the car.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Babies fine. Just lots of rest, you know?" She put on her best smile.

"You sure? Everything's okay?" Nadia could tell by his tone he wasn't just talking about the baby. It caused a sharp pang in her chest, and she could hear Michael impatiently shuffling in the car. Her thumb hit the lock button, making sure he couldn't get out of the car without some hassle.

"Everything is fine, we're just tired. I'll talk to Ivy later and she'll keep you up to date."

"I mean, you could give me your number." Ethan smiled sweetly. Nadia's eyes widened a bit, not sure if she'd heard correctly. She wasn't given a chance to respond, however. Michael reached over, and grabbed her tightly by the back of her pants, yanking incredibly hard. He pulled her into the driver side with a yelp, before reaching over her and grabbing the door, slamming it shut, all the while staring Ethan down. Nadia took a deep breath and quickly started the car, trying her best not to look at either men until she quickly pulled out and began to drive away. At least he didn't kill him, but it was pretty apparent that Michael wasn't a man who handled jealousy well.

It didn't take long to get back home, with no traffic on the road. Michael was, as always, silent in the passenger seat, though the entire drive, she had his hand latched on to her leg. They pulled into the driveway quietly, and Nadia shut the car off. She grabbed her purse and crawled out, shutting the door and leaning her back against the car, sighing slowly. The passenger door slammed, and she heard his footsteps as he walked around the car and then up to her. Nadia looked up, staring into his face. The moon hung in the sky right beside his head, and the stars seemed to twinkle all around him. Just looking at him, she felt weak. It was incredibly stupid, likely the hormones in her body, completely out of wack thanks to him.

"Have you eaten?" It was such a motherly thing to ask. A simple question that implied so much irrational care and infatuation. He'd worked his way in, and she found that each second that passed made it harder and harder for her to fight the insane, swirling feelings in her chest. It wasn't love, it couldn't be love. There was no way a word so pure and intense could be used to describe the way she looked at him.

There was certainly no way it could be used to describe the way he looked at her. Possession, obsession, ownership, infatuation, compulsion, desire, passion. Those were the words that seemed to best fit the look that awashed his face when his gaze followed her. Perhaps, in some way, these words could be twisted and bent and broken to fit the box for love, but that was certainly a stretch of the imagination.

Then, Michael placed his hands on her cheeks, and bent down, kissing her firmly and blissfully. Any last bit of resistance Nadia felt was shattered under the weight of his lips. All she wanted to do was fix him, protect him, and nurture him the best she could, despite knowing just how pointless it truly would be. However, in that kiss, in the cold night air, under the twinkling stars, she let herself lie and believe there might be some hope for this strange thing called 'love'.