"Are you sure I can't get you some more ice-water, sir?" the waiter asked.
"No. No, I'm fine, I just-- I started to black out, but I'm okay now." Tad persisted.
"If you'd like to have a doctor--"
"No! I was just surprised by something, but I'm fine now. The best thing you can do for me is get away from the table, please."
"Alright, sir, but if you need anything--"
"Thanks," Tad interrupted. The waiter left the scene of the surprise.
"That's some souvenir mom brought back from Paris, huh Tad?" JR joked, now back at the table with Dixie, Tad, and Jenny.
"Yeah," said Tad, for lack of anything better to say. "Yeah."
"I'm so sorry, Tad," Dixie said awkwardly. "JR, why don't you take Jenny, I'm going to drive Tad home."
"No!" Tad cried. "Look, if you want to take me home that's fine, but..."
"But what?" Dixie asked caringly.
"But could Jenny ride with us?"
Dixie smiled with relief. "Of course. Of course she can."
"Well in that case," JR cut in, "I'm going to go home. I told Jamie I'd call him and tell him what happened."
"Jamie knows about this?" Tad screeched.
"Yeah. He's my brother," JR said firmly. "He had a right to know about our little sister."
"Oh, boy," Tad sighed. "Lucy, you've got some 'splainin' to do."
"Don't I know it," Dixie heaved. "Let's go."
Tad was holding Jenny in his arms when they got to the house. The little girl was fast asleep. Dixie unlocked the door, she still had her key, and found the house just as she had left it.
"Here, Tad," Dixie hushed, taking Jenny and unloading her into her carrier. Picking it up, she took it to the spare bedroom, and returned to Tad, who stood in the doorway just as he had been before. He said nothing.
"I can't believe this is happening," Dixie initiated the conversation. No response. "Look, Tad, this isn't easy for me, and obviously, it isn't easy for you either. But I don't know what to say. You hardly said a word in the car. Please, tell me what you're thinking." She waited, until Tad finally responded.
"I still keep thinking this isn't real, Dixie. You left me. You were my life and in one precious second you were gone."
Dixie's head bowed with guilt.
"Then all of the sudden, you're back from the other side of the world with a baby. A baby girl, a beautiful baby girl... In a few hours my life went from borderline mediocre to ecstatically perfect. And I'm still asking myself how the hell it happened. Even more, wondering why you had to leave me in order for all this to happen."
"Tad," Dixie divulged in a voice that was unsteady, so unsure, "leaving you was the hardest thing I have ever done. But you and I both know I couldn't have carried a baby to term if I had stayed in Pine Valley."
"Oh my god," Tad muttered, closing his eyes, and rubbing their lids lightly. His brain conjured the last evening he'd seen Dixie in Pine Valley, and the words he had spoken to her that had sealed his fate. "I told you," he swallowed painfully, "I told you if I ever had to choose between you and a baby that I would always choose you. That was all you needed to hear, wasn't it?" Tad clawed at his temples and crashed onto the couch. Dixie stood beside him, overwrought with feelings.
"What do we do now, Tad?"
"Well, I can tell you what I'd like to do," Tad started, looking up. "I'd like to tell you exactly how it broke my heart when you left me. I'd like to tell you how ashamed I am that you felt you had to keep your pregnancy a secret, and how disappointed I am that I couldn't be there with you through it all, that you didn't think you could have me there, and that you had to do it alone."
Dixie turned her back to Tad dejectedly. Trying to hide the tears that were spilling down her cheeks, she bit her trembling lip and mustered up as much composure as she could spare. She nodded with a heavy, "I understand."
"But," Tad resumed as he placed a tender hand on Dixie's shaking shoulder, "I'd also like to do the right thing. Without a doubt, I know what that is. I've got to tell you how much I love you."
Turning around slowly, Dixie sniffled, and faced Tad.
"Dixie, I love you more than anything. Words can't do justice. You know, sometimes you'd have to look high and low to find a man with less sense than I have. If you found one right now though, I can tell you what he'd do. He'd walk away. Away from this, this living drama. But I'm smarter than him. I know that right now I have to be the luckiest man on the face of God's green earth. I could start an argument and let my pride keep us apart, but I won't. Because that would be one less moment I could spend in the arms of the woman I love. One less moment I could spend with JR, and Jamie and--" he choked on his words. "--and our daughter, Jenny. Our family."
More tears began a steady flow down Dixie's cheeks. Tad brushed them away and ran his fingers through her silky hair. She threw herself into his arms. "Thank you Tad," she sobbed. "Don't ever think I stopped loving you. Ever for one minute."
"If I ever doubted it before, I'll never doubt it again," he whispered in a tight embrace.
Finally they kissed, their lips meeting and igniting with passion. Tasting each other, breathing each other in as their very souls reunited. At last. Together again. Together forever.