"Unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense."

― E.E Cummings

JJ stared at Derek as ran down the hallway and she slowly turned back to the team. Only Taala seemed to understand what was going on. Her dark eyes met JJ's blue ones and she shook her head slowly.

"There…were complications." JJ whispered. "The babies were born but Emily…she…she started to bleed out. There was so much blood."

Taala stared up at the ceiling and shook her head, she had done enough in obstetrics that she knew what could go wrong and what the outcome could be.

They were met by silence by the group and finally Taala swallowed hard. "You need new shoes, or at least you need to wash those." She told JJ. "I'm going to grab you some clean shoes and some for Derek."

Mackenzie hiked her son up higher on her hip and kissed his head softly. "How do you know where he is?"

"We've met there before." Her wife called as she jogged down the hallway and returned a few moments later with two pairs of shoes, passing one to JJ. The silence surrounded them. Rossi had his arms wrapped around Fran, the woman's face buried in the collar of his shirt. Matt held his wife tightly, his lips pressed to her temple. Penelope wept openly in Luke's arms, while Spencer tried to calm her and Tara frowned, her features darkening significantly at the news.

His shoes stuck as he ran down the hall, the coppery smell of blood sticking on him, the smell of his wife's blood. He ran until he found himself in front of the chapel, or the multi-faith prayer room as it was labelled. He stared at it until he felt a soft gentle hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw Taala standing behind him with a pair of shoes in her hand and a bag in the other. Her eyes flicked towards his feet and he silently toed them off and accepted the other shoes. She bagged the others and gently squeezed his shoulder as the rest of the team silently walked in behind them.

Rossi opened the door to the chapel and the team filed in, along with his mom, Taala, Mackenzie, and Noah. They were an odd mix. Rossi and Luke the staunch Catholics. Tara who grew up in the Baptist church. Matt, the Lutheran from Michigan. JJ who grew up Anglican, but even in her own words was far lapsed. Spencer, who believed in the Universe but no deity. Penelope, who claimed to be spiritual, not religious. His mother, a Catholic by birth, but ever since his father's death had moved further and further away from the church. And then Taala and Mackenzie, one adjusting her hijab and the other pulling her hair up and covering it with her hood. Everyone sat in pews, minus Mackenzie, Taala, and Noah who all grabbed mats from the far corner and laid them out together, with Noah's slightly ahead of his mothers'.

Derek sat down in the pew and rested his elbows on his knees. "I…I don't know what to do." He whispered, the pain heavy in his voice as tears ran down his cheeks.

"Let us." Fran replied, taking his hand. "You've been so strong, Derek. So strong." Reaching over, Fran took Rossi's hand and nodded. The older man closed his eyes and started to pray, the rest of the team following suit.

They sat in silence, only the soft shuffling of clothes as Taala, Mackenzie, and Noah prayed. Then a little voice popped up as Noah sat back on his heels, his eyes closed. Allahuma rabbi-nas adhhabal ba'sa, ashfi wa entashafi, la shifa' illa shifa'uka shifa' la yughadiru saqama.

No one, besides his mothers understood what he was saying, but they all could feel the desperation he said it with. He looked at his moms and raised his hands, palms up. "I gonna pray 'gain." He said seriously. "I wanna make sure that Allah, he hears me good."

Derek swallowed a sob as he watched the little boy get to his feet and pray. When he stopped, he looked over at Derek and gave him a toothy smile. "I fink Allah heard me good, Dek."

Mackenzie wrapped her son in her arms and pressed a kiss to his head. "I think he did too, Noah."

They walked out of the chapel, Fran with her arms around her son, and Rossi with an arm draped over her shoulders. Derek stayed silent as they walked towards the delivery room. The blood had dried by now, but his footprints were still visible. Shrugging off his mother's embrace, Derek leaned against the wall while everyone else found a place to sit or stand.

Taala had finished a 16-hour shift, she had been at the hospital for about as long as Derek and Emily had, with four major trauma cases coming in back to back to back to back. The door opened and Addison gave them a tight-lipped look before nodding at Taala. She passed her son off and walked over to the redhead and they spoke in hushed tones before Addison turned back to the group.

"The babies are stable and up in the NICU. Baby A, the boy, is 4 pounds, 3 ounces. Baby B, the girl, is 2 pounds, 10 ounces." She ran her hand over her face before looking over at Derek. "Derek, can we talk? Privately?"

The colour in his face drained and he glanced at his mother before walking over with the doctor. His heart was racing, his palms sweating as he looked at the redhead, panic written all over his face.

"Emily is stable." She said quietly. "She lost a lot of blood and if I'm being honest with you, we have a blood shortage due to the major traumas we had in the hospital. She would be better off if we could give her more, but we'll keep a close eye on her. We have her up in the ICU right now."

Running a hand over his face, Derek exhaled loudly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "But she's…okay?"

"She's stable." Addison repeated. "Things can go either way, but right now she's stable and I hope that she's a fighter, because she's going to need to be. It would be better with more blood, but right now we'll do what we can."

For the first time in two days Derek gave a gentle smile. "If there's one thing that Emily is, she's a fighter." He said honestly. Returning to the team he started to explain the situation when everyone stopped glancing over at Taala and Mackenzie who were having an argument, in what Derek assumed was Arabic.

Sighing, Taala looked at Mackenzie who walked over to the doctor and motioned for Taala and Derek to come. Taala passed Noah to Fran before walking over with Derek.

"I'm O negative, so is Emily." Mackenzie said quickly. "I have antibodies due to the pregnancy that Emily has – I can donate blood."

Both Taala and Addison shook their heads. "It's against regulations, the blood needs to be tested first – "

"I'm clean. I'm active military, I get tested once a month." Mackenzie said quickly, looking between the three other people. "I can show you my latest test. I'm clean."

Derek bit down on his lower lip and then at the two doctors. "Please? Can we try?"

Addison nodded and looked over her shoulder. "Alright." She said quickly, pulling Mackenzie into one of the treatment rooms. Mackenzie glanced over her shoulder and met Derek's gaze and he silently mouthed thank you as the younger woman was pulled into a room with the door closed.

Walking back to his mom, Derek shoved his hands deep in his pockets. "I'm going to go sit with Emily." He said quietly, heading for the elevator.

"What about the babies?" Penelope asked quietly.

Derek shrugged and pressed the button to the elevator. "I need Emily. She's the other half of my soul." He replied simply.

Disappearing into the elevator, he let the door close and he leaned against the wall. He needed Emily to be okay, there was no way he could do this without her. No way that he could go on without her. No way that he could be a parent to two babies without her. No way that he could survive without her. Once the elevator dinged, Derek walked out and found Emily's room. She was pale and hooked up to machines. His chest tightened and Derek pulled the chair up next to her, interlacing their fingers. Pressing their hands to his forehead, Derek closed his eyes.

"Please Emily, get better." He whispered, tears running down his cheeks. "I need you to get better, Emily. I love you. I need you."

The team watched as Derek disappeared and Fran leaned against Rossi, exhaling loudly. "We should go see the babies." She said quietly. "They can't be all alone."

Penelope nodded in agreement. "They won't be alone. We can go in shifts and see them, and then someone can go see Derek and Emily."

"We're going to have to take care of him as much as we take care of the babies or Emily." Rossi said honestly. "Penelope, you're the queen of schedules, why don't you make us one?" He suggested softly. "Fran and I will go see them now and we can have the schedule start tomorrow."

Nodding, the team split off with Fran and Rossi going to the NICU with the rest going home. Rossi gave Fran a weak smile. "They'll be okay, you know." He said wrapping his arm around her waist. "Emily is a fighter and so is Derek. You know those babies are both gonna be fighters."

Fran sighed and leaned against him. "Yeah." She whispered, unsure whatever words she could say. Rossi was right that her son and daughter-in-law were fighters, but it didn't make the situation any easier.

Walking out onto the NICU floor, Rossi and Fran entered the nursery and stared down at the incubator that held the two infants.

"They're so tiny." Fran whispered, tears in her voice.

Rossi just stared at them, the memories of his own son washing over him.

Mackenzie sipped the juice box as Addison pressed the cotton ball to the inside of her arm.

"How're you feeling?" Taala asked, adjusting Noah who was sleeping soundly on her shoulder.

The younger woman shrugged and finished the juice. "Okay. A bit shaky." She admitted. "And cold."

"We took more than we usually do," Addison said gently. "So take it easy."

Mackenzie nodded and pulled on her hoodie. "Got it." She tucked her hands in the front pocket and gave her wife a gentle smile. "Why don't we go see how Derek is doing and then we go home?"

Derek was at Emily's bedside, his hands still intertwined with hers. He watched as Addison hung the bag of blood, glancing at Taala and Mackenzie as they entered the room.

"Thank you, Mackenzie." He whispered softly as he watched the blood start to drip. "Dr. Montgomery said that it makes her chances much better."

Mackenzie wrapped her arms around Derek, resting her head on his shoulder. "Anything for you guys." She said honestly. "Derek, remember that Emily is a fighter. You guys fought so fucking hard to get here, and she's going to keep fighting and so will your babies."

He didn't move and Mackenzie moved and sat beside him. "Do you guys have names picked out?"

"We do." He whispered softly. "We're going to tell everyone together."

Mackenzie and Taala exchanged silent glances before the older of the two women walked over and squeezed his shoulder. "We'll bring you some food and a change of clothes for tomorrow." She whispered softly. "Don't give up faith."

"I prayed hard." Noah whispered sleepily. "I know Emmy gonna be okay."

Derek's breath hitched as Mackenzie and Taala got up to leave.

"Emmy gonna be okay."

The nurses rolled a cot into Emily's room, though Derek didn't sleep. He watched as one bag, then two, of blood dripped into his wife and listened to the beeping of the machine. The beeping reassured him that Emily was still alive, the reassurance that he didn't have after Doyle. The nurses kept coming in throughout the night to find him sitting motionless at her bedside. Sometime, either very early or very late, he fell asleep, his face on the mattress she laid on. The beeping continued, a hard and steady cadence, to remind him that they were both alive.

Taala left his clothes on the unslept cot with a bottle of water, an apple, and a few granola bars. He slept on; his hand still intertwined with Emily's.

When he finally awoke, she had more colour in her cheeks, but besides that nothing had changed.

"You gonna go see your babies?" A nurse asked as she took Emily's vitals.

He shrugged, watching as she wrote the numbers down carefully. "My wife. She needs me." He replied softly, his hand returning to hers.

Tara and Matt sat in the NICU, staring at the incubator that housed Baby Boy Morgan and Baby Girl Morgan.

"They're so tiny." Tara whispered, watching as the babies' chests rose and fell rapidly. They were attached to so many tubes and wires, it was hard to see their little bodies.

"You can talk to them. They respond better when they're spoken to and they'll bond better with Mommy and Daddy…" The older nurse, short with hair streaked with grey, gave them a smile.

Tara exchanged glances with Matt, who just gave a good-natured shrug. "We aren't their parents." She said gently. "We're just…part of the family. The mom is in the ICU and her husband hasn't left her bedside. We figured that the babies needed people in their corners too." She said with a small shrug.

The nurse smiled and adjusted a wire before staring into the incubator. "They're lucky their girl is the tiny one." She said sagely. "And that she's black. Little black girls, they're resilient. They're tough. You can drop them on the ground and they'll pop back up, it's the little white boys you have to worry about." She walked over to the other side of the incubator and reached in and gently brushed her finger over Baby Boy Morgan's tiny hand. "You look at a little white boy wrong they'll up and die on you, but these babies, I can tell they're strong."

Matt bit back a laugh and straightened up. "They are tough, Ma'am. Their mom and dad are the toughest people I know." He unfolded himself from the chair and got to his feet, extending his hand to Tara. She gave him a smile and allowed herself to be pulled to a standing position. "My twins were never this small." He mused softly.

"Most babies aren't." The nurse said with a tiny smirk. "Even multiples." She pulled her hand out and nodded towards the incubator. "Go sanitize your hands and you can touch them. Hopefully Mommy and Daddy can come and these two are stable enough to be held."

Her skin was like tissue, it was so soft. Tara ran her finger over her tiny little fingers, and her tiny little hand, just watching the infant carefully. "We're all rooting for you guys. Your mommy and daddy tried so hard to have you guys and they love you so much." She whispered. "So you guys just get better."

Pulling her hand out, Tara quickly left the NICU and walked down the hallway to an alcove that overlooked the parking lot. She felt Matt's hand on her shoulder, and he squeezed it gently. "I know."