A/N: Hey guys! Thanks again for the reviews! It was nice to see new people enjoying the story as well...so keep them coming!

"State Of Denial"

Long hours had flown by and Hunter has not yet arrived back at the hospital. Tori looks over at the window and finds the day to soon be over as she watches the sun set over the horizon. She turns her gaze back to Shane, Dustin, Blake, Sensei, Cam, Kapri, and Marah who all came to visit her that evening. She pursed her lips and sighs deeply at the thought of Hunter. "I'm worried, you guys..." Tori puts on the most concern look in her eyes. "What if something bad happened to him?" Both Shane and Dustin exchange looks.

"Ah, don't worry about him. He's probably resting his butt off." Marah thought. The others nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well I hope so." Tori sighs as she blew the strands of hair away from her face. "I hope so…" She repeats as negative thoughts came swarming in her mind.

Moments later, their attention was brought to a shrilling cry that echoed in the distance as it gets nearer and nearer towards them. Everyone's gazes were focused on the door as if they were expecting someone to walk in. Then suddenly, the doorknob turned to one direction and clicked open. "Hunter?" Tori whispers anxiously, but got her hopes up when it was Natalie and the crying baby walking in instead.

"Hey, guys." She greets them all out of breath. "Have you seen Hunter?"

They stared at the model weirdly before nodding their heads in dismay. "No."

"Damn." Natalie mutters frantically as she resumed to keep her son calm. "Nathan has been crying and crying for hours. I think he wants his father."

Blake then steps forward with his arms out. "Well maybe I can help."

"NO!" Natalie pulls Nathan closer to her from out of his reach. "You're not the father of my baby, so stop acting like it."

The others were taken by surprised with her awkward behavior as they continued to watch on. Blake, on the other hand, felt backfired. "Natalie, I'm sorry you feel that way--but I was only trying to help..."

Dustin keeps a watchful eye on the brown head.

"Well thanks, but really I don't need your help. Hunter and I can take care of little Nathan on our own." She retorts and faces Tori to redeem herself. "Hey, sweetie." Natalie forced a smile. "How are you feeling?"

The blonde lifts her brow up suspiciously. "I'm fine, Natalie...but you--" She trails off in concern. "You seem so tense. Are you okay?"

Natalie shrugs. "Yeah well you know...being a mother isn't an easy job." She says as Nathan continues to cry uncontrollably.

Tori smiles and looks down with a sigh. "If only I could experience that..."

Dustin, Shane, Kapri, Marah, Blake, and Cam suddenly felt her pain as they give the blonde their full sympathy. "I know you would make a great mother." Sensei reassured her.

She looks up at him and smiles. "Thank you, Sensei."

30 minutes have passed and all they could hear was disturbing cries hovering over them as they speak. A few of them laid their heads against the window stills to stay away from the sound as far as possible while others tried coping with it anyway.

"God, can someone make him stop...PLEASE!" Marah covers her ears in annoyance. The others, too, were beginning to get irritated with Nathan's relentless cries.

"Natalie, just hand him over to Blake before I go deaf." Kapri groans while glaring at her. "Isn't this bad for Tori's condition anyway? She can't handle more stress than she already is in."

"Kapri, I'm fine."

"Nah uh." Dustin looks at her and nods. "She's right. It won't do any harm, now would it?" He questions with his arms crossed. "Do it for your son's sake."

Natalie couldn't believe what she was hearing. There was no way she could compete with them. "Alright!" She groans angrily. "Fine! God..." She turns to Blake and gracefully hands Nathan over to him. Just a few moments later, Nathan stopped crying and rested peacefully in his arms. Great, she thought while rolling her eyes from behind. Everyone in the room sighed in relief.

"Well, Tori. I should head back to the academy." Sensei says while getting ready to leave. "I hope you love the flowers."

She grins. "Oh yeah. Don't they look so beautiful in your garden as well?" The blonde sticks her tongue out playfully.

"Hey! I planted those flowers too." Cam chuckles as he points a finger at her. "Very rare too."

"Yes, and I thank you for it."

She opens her arms wide and shared a warm hug with the both of them. "Take care, Tori. We'll be coming back before you know it."

"And I'll be waiting."

Dustin moves his way towards Marah who was rising up from the chair as well. "Hey, you're leaving too?" He asks with a frown.

"Yeah." She yawns jadedly. "I have class tomorrow and uncle is gonna freak when I arrive late again. And besides, I can't stand being in the same room with the wicked witch over there." She hisses, referring to Natalie.

He chuckles. "Alright then. I'll call you."

"Okay." Marah smiles as she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him sweetly on the lips. She pulls away as the couple touched noses. "Bye."

Dustin lets go of her hand and waves to the four of them. "Later."

He then turns around and finds that Natalie was no longer in the room.

Intercom: Nurse Riley, come to the front desk lobby. Nurse Riley, come to the front desk lobby. Thank you.

"What are you doing out here?"

Natalie immediately turns around and faces Dustin. The two stood in front of the door of Tori's room in mere silence. "Leave me alone." She sighs while turning away from him.

He wrinkles his forehead and closes the door behind. "Something is obviously wrong and you're not saying it." Dustin observes as he crosses his arms and searches her eyes carefully. "Why won't you tell me?"

"Because nothing is wrong!" Natalie strikes back in outrage. "God..."

He stuffs his hands into his yellow jacket and shrugs. "Alright, but just so you know..." The goofball leans forward and whispers in her ear, "the truth will eventually come out sooner or later."

Natalie slowly turns to him when suddenly she was saved by the sound of her ring tone playing "Confessions Part 2" by Usher. She groans while taking it out from her back pocket. "Hello?" She answers once she flips her cell phone open. Dustin pursed his lips and headed back inside the room to give her alone time. As soon as Natalie recognized the voice, she moved farther away from the door to prevent anyone from listening. "You just arrived? That's great!" She smiles excitedly. "You're daughter is doing just fine, Mr. Hanson. And don't worry..." Natalie pauses with an evil smirk. "Before you know it...your wishes will come true..."

It was now the original three in the room once Blake left to get some air with baby Nathan. Shane and Dustin sat down on both sides of the bed next to Tori—talking and laughing like old times.

"Hey, do you remember the time when you were oh so jealous of me?" Shane smirks exaggeratedly while nudging on the goofball's shoulder.

"What?!" He laughs in disbelief. "When was I ever jealous of you?"

The skaterboy chuckles, "You wanted to beat the crap out of me when I started hanging out with Tori. Don't you remember? 6th grade? Junior high?"

Dustin wrinkles his forehead. "That was a long time ago…"

"So you admit it!"

"Yeah, but I wasn't jealous!"

"Oh come on. You had a huge crush on her since kindergarten!"

"Yeah, but I stopped liking her ever since the beginning of middle school."

"Yeah?" Shane smirks. "Then why were you crying when you found out that I was going to the Valentine's Day dance with Tori?"

The blonde gasps and turns to look at Dustin. "Oh my God! You were crying?!" She shrieks.

He blushed. "Well…I was planning to ask you to the dance…but unfortunately, Shane got to you first." The goofball adds, glaring at him.

Tori opens her mouth in surprised. "Wow…I didn't know…I mean—yeah…" She pauses at a loss for words.

They shrugged. "It's no biggie. That was a long time ago." Dustin smiles with a wink. "But anyway…we're all happy now right? No hard feelings."

Shane nods. "Psh. Of course not, we're cool."

They look over at Tori who was suddenly at the verge of tears. She felt overwhelmed to listen to childhood stories that haven't been spoken about for so long, and finally they had a chance to talk about it, which brought tears of joy to her eyes. Tori was aware of how truly blessed she is to have Shane and Dustin taking part in her life and it was the best gift anyone could ever have.

The guys looked at her awed. They, too, begin to cry.

"Group hug!" Dustin exclaims as he and Shane cuddled around Tori with their arms around each other.

She could feel the warmth of hope within their hugs as she shuts her eyes and spare the lovely moment with two of her best friends.

Without knowing how far she could go or make it for that matter…this could be her last time with just the three of them together…

Meanwhile, Hunter remained staring at the ceiling with his hands tucked behind his head. He's been in this position for an awfully long time now and hasn't moved his body as much. The thought of Tori living for the remainder of 6 months and possibly a year was all he could think of as he rolls over to the other side of the bed and opens up a drawer nearby. He sticks his hand in and pulls out a small, squared white box. Hunter carefully lifts the lid up and takes out another small box, but black and slightly smaller than the other. He stares at it carefully before flipping it open to reveal an undulating wave shaped, 14-karat white gold ring that holds an oval blue topaz gemstone and two elegant prong-set diamonds. The stunning 14-k blue topaz diamond wave ring sparkled beautifully in his eyes as he flips the lid back on and stuff it in his pockets. Hunter then rises up from the bed and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

"You can do this." He breathes nervously. "You can do this…" Hunter takes one good look at himself in the mirror as he fixes his collar and wipes the sweat on his forehead. "Whew. It's time."

And with that, he leaves the room and heads back to the hospital.