James wished Mary would go see a doctor. Maybe they could help her. She always got so tired so easy. He almost wondered if she did it on purpose, just to avoid him. The DOCTOR didn't tell him she couldn't have children, SHE did. She thought she was too weak to handle it. He would've been happy if they arranged a surrogate mother but Mary didn't want that. He didn't understand why though. It wouldn't be a big deal.

Work was a pain in the ass. He was trapped in an office all day, trying to figure out whatever they threw at him. Sometimes the weekend wasn't enough of a rest for his mind. Things seemed to be going downhill since Mary developed that bad cough when they went to Silent Hill. They spent three or four days there. It started up on their last night there. Everything was slowly going to hell. First it was her physical strength that suffered, then their sex life, now their relationship was beginning to diminish. What would happen next? James'd lose his job? If only he could get her to see a doctor. One day, at the suggestion of a coworker, James contacted a doctor and described Mary's condition. The doctor said he'd have to check up on that. James hadn't heard from him since.

During dinner a week later, Mary had another one of her fits. When she was calm, James said, "Mary, I think it's time you had this thing checked out."

"I'm fine, honey," she told him. He tried to surpress his anger. Why was she making this so difficult? It'd be a simple trip to the hospital. Plus, if anything was wrong they might catch it in it's early stages and stop it. Then maybe they could have children. She must've seen the look on his face. "Don't worry, it'll be okay." Okay? He loved her to death but how could she possibly know that? He wanted a professional opinion.

"Mary, please-"

"James, you're making a big deal out of nothing."

"How do YOU know it's nothing?" His voice came out harsher than he intended it to but damn it, he wanted to get his point across. "What if it ISN'T nothing?"

"I'm fine but if it makes you happy I'll make an appointment." That made him feel better 'til he found out she never got around to even calling the place. She didn't have anything important to do to make her forget. Did she think he didn't know that? He thought he was going to kill someone. She said, "I just forgot about it. I'll do it later." He knew she was avoiding the situation but kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to fight with her. That wouldn't do any good.

Eventually James got her to go. They fought about it but she went. The drive there was awful, full of silence and spiteful feelings. As he drove down the road, he thought 'so this is what it had to come to... Just to get her to go to the fucking doctor...' He sat in the waiting room while she was checked out. A mother sat waiting to be seen with a child who had a cold. A few kids that looked about four or five sat in the corner playing with blocks. He tried to imagine what his son would look like if they had one. Maybe he'd look like James did when he was younger.

Within twenty minutes, Mary was back. The doctor said he'd call when he got the test results. No words were spoken between James and Mary. It was silent again like before. It was quiet at home until Mary said, "I think I did okay."

"You don't know that for sure," he told her. She stared at the table.

"Why do you have to be so negative about it?"

"I'm not. I just said we don't know for sure because we don't."

"You want there to be something wrong with me, don't you?"

"I didn't say that."

"You don't have to. I can tell." He got up and left her sitting there. He wasn't in the mood to deal with this. The day had been bad enough. Things were just going to get worse too, he could feel it. Mary was crying at the table. He sighed, knowing he couldn't leave her like that. But when he put his hand on her shoulder, she said, "Don't touch me, James." So he went to bed.