The buzzing of machines had started to lull me to sleep when I heard footsteps enter the room. It was well into the night. We had been in the hospital for hours, both Adriana and I refusing to leave my mom's side. She had been falling in and out of sleep all night, unable to find comfort in the foreign bed.

"Eddie, I didn't know you were still here," I heard my mom say. I slowly opened my eyes, now assured that it wasn't another nurse checking on my mom.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you, Nora. I just wanted to check on Loren and make sure she's okay."

"I'm okay," I replied in a tiny voice from the armchair in the corner of the room. Eddie came towards me, his hand reaching out to take mine. "You should go home, get some sleep. I'm going to stay here tonight."

"Aren't visiting hours over, anyway?" Adriana asked from the cot, her head still on the pillow.

Eddie shrugged and gave a cute and boyish grin, "The nurses on the night staff are fans," of course they were.

"You know what, I think Eddie should take you both home. You don't need to stay here all night." My mom said, causing Adriana to shoot up. We were both about to protest when my mom gave us each a sad smile. "We all need to get some rest and let's face it, that's hard enough with the sleeping arrangements let alone the nursing staff coming in every hour to check on me. You girls should go home."

"I don't think I can," Adriana confessed and I knew exactly what she meant. The memory of my mom's body tumbling down the stairs was constantly playing in the back of my mind. I could hear Adriana's piercing scream in tune with mine and the back of my mom's head whacking against the edge of the bottom step and somewhere in the air, I could smell the faint aroma of mint. I had to live with the memory but I didn't have to return to that house. I couldn't.

Eddie used his thumb to point to over his shoulder to the door. "Phil is still here, too. He refused to leave until he saw Adriana again. I'm sure he can take her back to his place for the night and Loren can come back to my apartment." He offered but then quickly retracted, "If that's alright with you of course, Nora."

My mom nodded, "I think that's a good idea."

"My dad would kill me if he found out I spent the night with Phil." She paused for a minute and then continued. "Then again, he's not here and I haven't seen him since the accident, so screw him." Adriana stood up and began to grab her things.

I got up from the chair and walked to my mom's bedside where she happily reached out her hand to take mine. "Are you sure you'll be okay alone?"

She nodded meekly and I saw tears begin to gleam with light from the lamp in the corner of the room. "I actually think that's what I need right now, honey. I'm okay but it's going to take some time." She reached for Adriana's hand as well when Adriana approached the bed. "I love you girls for being so concerned but I want to make sure you're being taken care of too." I understood what it was like to need to deal with certain things alone and I couldn't very well fault her that.

When we went to leave her room I glanced back over my shoulder and saw that my mom's eyes were closed. I smiled to myself and then proceeded out of the room. Adriana rushed straight into Phil's arms when she saw him. "Nora was wondering if you could take Adriana home with you. The girls don't want to go home to their house tonight." Eddie took my hand and squeezed it gently as he explained the situation to Phil.

"Of course," Phil replied, stroking Adriana's hair. "I take it Loren's going with you?" Eddie nodded. Phil stepped away from Adriana long enough to shake Eddie's hand. "Okay, thanks for letting me stick around with you, man. I appreciate it. Being a rock star certainly has its perks, doesn't it?"

"It at least came in handy tonight," Eddie replied modestly.

Adriana walked around Phil and took me into her arms. It was a little unnerving but given the circumstances, I hugged her back. "Keep me informed about your mom, okay?" I nodded and then felt her begin to pull away. "I mean it, even if it's something small, I want to know," and I could tell that she was being serious.

"I will," I promised before she and Phil walked down the hall to the elevator.

Once we were alone I stepped in front of Eddie and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. "Thank you for tonight."

He answered with a kiss of his own and then lead me down the same hallway Adriana and Phil had disappeared down.

I felt relief when I walked into Eddie's apartment. It hugged me. Over the months, I had become comfortable here. In all honestly, it felt more like home than the Masters' mansion ever did. I dreaded the thought of going back there.

I felt Eddie's hand on the small of my back, "Are you okay?" I hadn't even heard him close the door. I shook my head as tears began to pool in the corners of my eyes and within a second Eddie had me wrapped in his arms, holding me as I sobbed for the loss of someone I never even had the chance to meet.

We stood like that for several minutes. He never loosened his hold on me. He never even spoke. He simply held me. "His name was Ethan," I whispered against Eddie's shoulder. I pulled away slightly, just to look into his eyes. He used his thumbs to wipe away my tears. "I wanted to wait until the baby was born to know if it was a boy or a girl. It was a boy. His name was going to be Ethan."

"That's a good name," he replied.

"I think so. If it was a girl they were going to name her Avery." I don't know why I told him that. I suppose it's hard to know what to say in a situation like that. "I can't believe I didn't want him."

Eddie's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"When my mom first told me, I didn't want him. I didn't want her to have a baby and now she's not and it's…" I trailed off letting tears slip from my eyes and down to my chin.

He cupped my face. "It's not your fault, Loren. It was an accident."

"I didn't want him," I whispered as my tears fell.

"Yes, you did," he said. "You were surprised at first but I know how much you wanted him. I know how good you would have been with him."

"How?" I asked. "I've never been around children. I know nothing about them. I don't even know if I want them." I barely registered how Eddie's face fell slightly at that confession. "I know it's stupid but I feel like the universe is punishing me for how I felt in the beginning, like it's throwing up the middle finger at me and getting back at me for every horrible thought I had when I first found out about the pregnancy and what's worse is that it's punishing my mom too, and she is such a good mom. She deserved to have a son."

Eddie rubbed his hands up and down my arms. ""Hey, you are not being punished for anything. This is just something that happened. There's no reason for it. It's not logical and you cannot blame yourself for it."

He was right. I knew that cognitively but I couldn't help the fact that my emotions had taken over and were completely irrefutable in the moment. I knew that Eddie couldn't let me think this was my fault but I couldn't accept that it wasn't. It was best to just move forward. What other choice did we have at the end of the day? "Can I use your shower?" I asked out of the blue. I smelled like a hospital and knew that mascara tears had probably stained my cheeks, just like they had Adriana's. I needed to wash the day away.

My question surprised him but he nodded and led me upstairs. He handed me a fresh towel and one of his shirts to change into. It felt good to wash away the makeup and grime. The hot water mixed well with my hot tears and noise from the water hitting the tiles muffled my crying.

I stepped out, dried myself off and glanced in the mirror, realizing that this would be the first time Eddie would see me without any makeup on. That fact shouldn't have made me nervous, but it did. I slipped on Eddie's t-shirt and then walked out into his room. He was sitting up in bed, wearing a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. He was scrolling through his phone but stopped and put it down when he heard me walking towards him.

"Was the shower okay?" I nodded and climbed onto the bed. I was suddenly very happy that I hadn't gotten my hair wet. If I had I wouldn't have wanted to rest my head on his chest. He brought his arms around me. "You can stay here for as long as you need, okay? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to go back there."

"Thank you." I would probably take him up on it. In that moment I felt completely safe, completely warm, completely loved. I was wrapped in the arms of the man that I loved and through everything tonight, he had been my rock. In that moment, I wasn't scared of the words or of his reaction to them. In that moment, I realized that it wasn't a grand gesture or huge proclamation. "Eddie?" It was simply a statement of fact. "I love you."

I lifted my head to look at him. He looked slightly taken aback. I knew it was the absolute last thing he had expected me to say, and I knew that Mel would have lost her shit if she knew I had said it first but it was the truth and right now I needed to hold onto something that was true and good. "I love you, too, " he whispered.

It was out in the open now, hovering between us, absorbing all insecurities and doubts. It changed everything and it changed nothing at all. It was tangible now as his thumb brushed against my cheek and shot sparks through my bloodstream to my heart, squeezing it tightly. His hand traveled down my face, his finger and thumb tipping my chin up so that he could press his lips to mine. Immediately, I shifted so that I was straddling him but we never broke the kiss.

His hands moved to my waist as mine were rested on his shoulders. Part of me was actually disappointed that he wasn't wearing a shirt because it meant that I wouldn't be able to take it off. Eddie however, had the opposite problem. I could feel him hesitating as he played with the hem of the shirt I was draped in. I wasn't sure how far I wanted tonight to go but I trusted him to stop when told. So, I pulled away from him momentarily and pulled the shirt off over my head. I bunched it in my hands in front of me after, suddenly very aware of the fact that I wasn't wearing a bra.

Eddie took the shirt from my hands and threw it onto the ground. His eyes lingered on my chest and I could feel my heart begin to race but before I could start to overthink anything, Eddie pulled me against him so that my bare chest was flush with his and then he rolled us over so that he was on top. His lips found mine in a hurry and gone were the chaste and careful pecks I had grown accustomed to tonight. His tongue was skillful against mine, winning dominance without a fight. My legs unlocked from around his hips and simply fell open to allow him to get closer. For the first time, I realized how small I was in comparison to Eddie. He covered my entire body with his but it was oddly comforting.

His lips began to travel down my face and towards my neck. He sucked at it softly and I couldn't help a small giggle that escaped when his nose brushed behind my ear, tickling me. He grinned against my throat before continuing down and placing gentle kisses against my collarbone. He was so attentive and careful that while my body was on edge and tingling from everything his lips were doing, I was also completely relaxed. He continued down the valley between my breasts while one of his hands moved to my breast and began to play with my nipple. I took a sharp breath, surprised by how sensitive it was and how it could feel the sensation between my legs.

Suddenly, Eddie moved so that his nose was touching mine. "You okay?" he whispered taking note of how I had tensed up slightly.

"Yeah," I assured him. "We can keep going." My hands reached for his hips and played with the elastic of his sweats. "I want to." I saw realization flash across his face as he took in the meaning of my words.

He took hold of my wrists and brought them above my head, pinning them to the same pillow my head was resting on. "You have no idea how much I want that but before we go that far I want to learn more about your body. This is the first time I've really gotten to see it and I don't want to go too fast."

I smiled at him, teasing him slightly. "You think we're going too fast?"

He smiled and shook his head, ensuring that his nose rubbed with mine as he did, releasing my hands in the process. "No, but I don't want to cross that line. Besides, I don't want your first time to be tied to a night like tonight." For a time, I had actually forgotten about the events of the day. "Tonight, I just want to distract you. Is that okay?"

I nodded gently and lifted my head slightly so that I could kiss his cheek. "I meant what I said though. I'm ready."

He pressed a searing kiss to my lips, gently biting on my bottom lip as he pulled away. "Good to know. What changed?"

"I chose my father over you," I told him, earning myself a confused look. "My father abandoned me and I still tried to give him a chance." I brushed my fingers through the short, dark wisps of his hair, "And you forgave me."

"There was nothing to forgive," he assured me.

I rolled my eyes playfully, "I feel like we've both been haunted by our pasts and we've allowed them to come between us for long enough. I don't want to walk away from love the way my father did." He was smiling down at me, looking completely content in the moment and I realized that I needed to address what I had said earlier. I was already practically physically naked, with the exception of my underwear and I had already gotten little emotionally naked by telling him that I loved him. I figured it wouldn't matter if I were to strip a little further. "I didn't mean what I said about kids earlier, by the way."

"What?" He moved so that he was no longer on top of me but was lying right beside me. He propped his head up with one hand and rested the other on the curve of my waist.

"When I said I didn't know if I wanted kids I saw your expression drop a little." He looked down, seemingly embarrassed. I didn't know why. "I just wanted you to know that I didn't mean that. I just said it in the heat of the moment."

His hand trailed up and down my ribcage. "Does that mean you do want kids one day?" He was serious and I could tell that this was something that was important to him. I realized that my answer might actually be a deal breaker in our relationship.

"I do," I answered honestly. He sighed in relief but tried not to make it completely obvious. The fact that he was concerned about my answer told me that he had thought about that particular future with me. "I want to get married, too, and ideally before having kids."

"Well then, it sounds like we're on the same page."

"Good," it was unspoken but we both knew that in these plans for the future we were still together. "Did you and Chloe ever talk about kids?

His hand trailed down to my hip and the elastic of my underwear, which he played with briefly before trailing his hand back up to my waist. He was getting to know every curve of my body and in his hands, I felt incredibly sexy, no longer an eighteen-year-old girl but a woman in love. "I would mention it and she would usually find a way to laugh it off. She would say that we had our entire lives to think about kids but only a short time in our early twenties. I never thought much of it but now I can't help but think that the idea of putting her body through a pregnancy terrified her."

I brushed my fingertips over the flexed bicep on the arm that was supporting his head. "It never dawned on her that her carrying your child would only make her more beautiful to you."

He smiled sweetly as my words danced through the air and then he quickly pulled me back on top of him so that I was sitting on his hips. "I love you, Loren." In those four words, he said everything. He promised me a future with him and a lifetime of love and happiness. It was strange to know that he was it for me. I would only ever know one love and that was exactly what Eddie was, he was my one.

I leaned down to place a kiss to his neck and brought my hands to his shoulders for stability. I worked my way down, leaving a trail of kisses from his neck to the lower v of his stomach that disappeared underneath his sweats. "Is it wrong that I'm actually happy right now?" I asked, moving back up his body and resting my chin on his chest.

He rubbed my back in comfort. "I think you actually need to hold on to what makes you happy in times like these."

I turned my head so that my cheek was resting on him and wrapped my arm around his waist. "You're stuck with me, then."

He reached for the blanket and draped it over us before wrapping his arms around me. "Same," we both asleep only moments later.

Thank you all for your amazing reviews. They really do inspire me. Some of you have voiced interest in a chapter from Eddie's POV. I would love to do that for you guys but it would probably be uploaded as a one shot. I want to keep these chapters strictly from Loren's POV. So, please let me know which part of Meant To Be you would like to see from Eddie's perspective.

Also, someone requested that I shorten the plotline of this story to ensure that I am able to complete it since my updates are usually very far apart. My original outline was 61 chapters. That included an epilogue. However, I took a look at the outline, worked with it a little and found out that I can shorten this story to 47 chapters and I think that's what I'm going to do. I love this story and I want to ensure that I finish it. Plus, I want to finish Lost For Words, my other Hollywood Heights story, after this is completed. I hope you can all support that decision and can understand where I'm coming from.

Thank you loves, and stay classy,

Tia