Naima, who worked as an OR and ICU nurse, came into the waiting room where Eric and the others had been waiting for twenty minutes. They all stood upon seeing her.

"Dr Freedman will come speak to you, but he asked me to already explain the situation."

Eric nodded silently.

She spoke softly and slowly. "Emily is having what we call an ischemic stroke. That means that a blood clot has formed in her brain due to a bleed. The clot is putting pressure on the surrounding brain tissue."

The doctor walked in and introduced himself to Eric.

"Dr. Freedman, neurosurgeon. We ran an MRI on Emily and as Nurse Perry just informed you, she is suffering from a blood clot which is inducing an ischemic stroke. The stroke is currently early in the onset of symptoms. The earlier we can act, the less damage and risks there are for the patient. You were lucky to find her when you did."

Eric looked at Sonny and nodded in his direction in recognition.

"We're stabilizing her so that we can operate. We are going to perform a Thrombectomy. The procedure consists of us using a catheter to reach the brain clot and inject medication to clear it."

"What are the risks?"

"There could be a pulmonary embolism, damage to the blood vessel where the clot is located, infection, excessive bleeding that can be severe enough to cause death," replied the doctor.

"But if she doesn't get the surgery, she'll die anyway." Said Sonny.

"Yes."

"I need you to sign a consent from for the surgery and also ask you a few questions."

"Yes of course," answered Eric.

"Does she have any known allergies?"

"No."

"Has she had any recent changes in health, such as a fever?"

"No, but she was released from here earlier today for a minor concussion."

"Yes, I saw that in her file. Has she ever had any problems with previous anesthesia?"

"No."

"Is there any chance that she is or could be pregnant?"

"No," replied Eric, "she doesn't have anyone in her life for the moment."

Sonny ticked. "You don't know that. Maybe she does. Wouldn't it be safer to just run a test?" Ever since Emily's surgery in Landstuhl, she hadn't been authorized to take oral birth control. They had been extremely careful over the months, but nothing was a 100% efficient.

As he thought of that, it dawned on him that they had never talked about the eventuality of a pregnancy. He had in the past thought about kids and a family, but it had never been a certainty for him, but with Emily, it was somehow obvious that it was what he wanted! She had come along and changed everything he had imagined his life to be and he couldn't imagine life without her love.

The doctor looked at Eric. "I need an answer."

"I know Emily, if she did have someone in her life, she would have told me. The answer is no."

"Alright, we're going to prep her for surgery. It should take a couple of hours. She'll then remain in recovery for another couple of hours so that we can monitor her and her vitals. Once the surgery is complete, I'll come and let you know."

Eric shook the doctor's hand. "Thank you Doctor."

"Of course. We'll do everything we can."

As the guys regrouped and talked with Eric, Sonny left the waiting room discreetly and met up with Naima at the nurse's station.

"Naima?"

She turned and looked at him. "Now is not a good time Sonny, I need to go help them slowly prep Emily for surgery."

"I know. Can you add a pregnancy test in her prep?"

She looked at him.

"Eric said it wasn't necessary."

"Just do it, OK," he answered a bit abruptly.

"Sonny? What's going on? Is Emily with someone?"

"Please, just do it, OK. That's all I ask," he said as he looked at her intensely. She noticed that he was shaking, which had nothing to do with the Sonny she knew.

She tilted her head to the side and searched his eyes. That's when she saw it, the fear. It was the fear you had when you were afraid to lose someone you loved, someone who meant the world to you.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "OK. I'll do it."

He nodded. "Thanks. Take good care of her, please."

"I will."

She watched as he walked away. She exhaled and headed for Emily's room.

Emily was coming in and out of consciousness as they had already given her the pre-anesthetic to relax her. She handed the nurse a plastic cup and pregnancy test.

"Can you run the test?"

"Sure," replied Naima's colleague as she proceeded to take some urine out of the urine bag.

Naima walked up to Emily's bed and took her hand. As she did so, Emily opened her eyes lightly, trying to fight off the medication.

"You are going to fight like hell in there do you hear me? A lot of people are counting on you. If you die, he'll never recover from it." She looked Emily in the eyes and smiled. "And I don't just mean Eric. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Emily opened her mouth and only managed to pronounce the S, before she could no longer fight off the medication and surrendered, leaving her life in the hands of the surgeon and as Sonny had once mentioned, fate.

"Don't worry sweetie, I won't tell anyone. I have both your six. I promise. You deserve to be happy."