Van walked down the street by himself. He headed into a grungy looking bar and sat alone on a stool. A petite, redheaded woman wandered over to him and sat, rubbing a little too much of her leg on his. He glanced out of the corner of his eye. True, she was attractive enough, in a fake, glitzy way.

"Hi," she breathed, letting him smell the cherries she had been eating. She held out a hand. "Veronica."

"Van," he replied.

"Nice to meet you, Van."

He mumbled an assent and ordered some hard liquor from the bartender.

Several shots and a couple beers later, Van and Veronica were exiting the bar together and hopping into the woman's sleek, red car. It started to rain as they drove and by the time they Van stumbled from the car and towards the door of Veronica's apartment, the drops were heavy and falling quickly around them. Before stepping inside, he opened his mouth and let several drops find their way down his throat.

Almost as soon and Van had stepped into the well furnished apartment, Veronica was right in front of him, coming closer every moment. He tripped backwards onto her bed and within seconds she was on him, crushing her mouth onto his. Through all the liquor and haze that was filling his mind, something vaguely told Van that this wasn't what he should be doing. But with her body and his own urging him on, he didn't stop it.

Only when things had progressed farther and both were heaving for breath, did Van look down for a moment and notice for the first time that Veronica had blue eyes. Something hit him hard in the stomach then. The same something that was telling him that this wasn't right. Then he realized what exactly had made him sit up and stop.

Her eyes weren't green.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"I - I can't do this."

"Why not? Van?" Veronica's voice called after him as he grabbed his things and ran from her home out into the rain.

As he stood there, the rain soaking his white shirt, his brain froze and he saw some things he knew weren't really there. Like on fast forward, he was thrown into his past. Van saw green eyes then Hitomi crawling through his window, covered in bruises and cuts. Then he felt a note in his hands. Looking down, he saw nothing. But he could still remember what it said. I'm in love with you.

He remembered the feeling he had the first time he kissed her. How he held her. They had depended on each other for every little thing. And they liked it that way. He remember how she had traced the scar on his chest and what had followed, the night before his accident. His hands on her skin, her lips on his face and hands.

Taking in a huge, shuddering breath, Van came back to himself and realized he was standing in the middle of a road, soaked to the bone, and completely alone. But he could remember. He remembered her. The one he had spent almost every night lying awake wondering about. He could remember everything about her.

His Hitomi.

- - -

In the next couple months, Gabriel was always with Hitomi, making sure she ate the right things, got enough sleep, always made her doctor's appointments on time, and didn't strain herself or the little person growing inside her. He seemed to be trying quite hard to help her pick up the pieces of her formerly shattered life. Little by little, she opened up to him and let him know exactly what had happened to make her run so far from home.

She got a new, better job sorting through papers and taking down notes for other secretaries in a huge company. The pay wasn't that good, but with the baby starting to show, she was thankful she didn't have to be on her feet all day long.

Even though Hitomi was content a lot of the time, there were times when she knew this wasn't how her life was supposed to be. When Gabriel would take her out shopping and suggest certain foods or clothes or shoes for her to buy, she would see people smile at them, supposing they were a happy couple with a new baby on the way. This made her long for the father of the baby even more.

She tried to stay happy for Gabriel's sake. If he saw her moping around, she knew he would watch her like a hawk and shower her with attention and gifts she did not want. This is why, one night as Gabriel slept on her couch, she lay in her bed, clutching her growing stomach tightly and choking on her own tears. She was sobbing so hard, she didn't hear her friend enter the room and come up behind her.

"Hitomi?" he questioned, tentatively, as he lay a cool hand on her back. "Wanna talk?"

When she said nothing, he moved around the other side of the bed and lifted the sheets nervously. He slid in beside her and she moved to be closer to him. Gabriel wrapped an arm around her and made soothing noises as she cried.

"It's so unfair!" she cried suddenly.

He pushed her off of him for a moment and looked at her face. "When has life ever been fair? You told me about how you were treated at home Hitomi, was that any fairer than this? Was it fair that my mother died before I was even old enough to remember her? Is disease fair? Do you think the hundreds of victims of floods and earthquakes don't sit there and think about how unfair it is that they just lost everything? Life isn't fair, Hitomi. You may not like that, but you have to accept it."

She lie on her side staring at him. Her fair hair was messed and her protruding stomach looked out of place on her small body. She wasn't sobbing any longer; the tears were running down her face silently now. With a gasp, she threw herself onto Gabriel in a hug and he smiled.

After a few moments of rubbing her back and hair comfortingly, he moved to get up and go back to the couch. Hitomi made a noise of discontent and he stopped moving and lay with her. They fell asleep like that and neither moved until the next morning.

- - -

"Careful Hitomi!" Gabriel called to her as she carried a lamp into his apartment.

She giggled as she realized how odd she must look. A seven-month pregnant woman carrying a lamp balanced on her belly. Gabriel came and relieved her of her load. He was extremely protective of his friend, if making her move into his apartment was any indication of this.

Hitomi waddled into the room that was to be hers and saw, along with her small bed, a large box sitting on the floor. She moved towards it and saw it enclosed a crib. Letting out a shriek of excitement, she moved as quickly as was possible for her out to Gabriel. He set down her box of things as she enveloped him in a hug.

"What were you thinking?" she asked.

"I thought maybe your baby could use a place to sleep."

When he said that, Hitomi realized how unprepared she was to have a child. She didn't know anything about raising a baby! Suddenly overwhelmed, she sunk down onto a box sitting behind her.

"Hitomi?"

She blinked. "Sorry. I just realized that I have no clue what I'm going to do when the baby's born."

Gabriel laughed. "Well, you and the baby will stay here with me still. Speaking of which, what're you going to name the little man?"

"How do you know it's a boy?"

"I can feel it," he said, tapping his temple. "He's going to be strong and manly like his mother."

She smacked him on the shoulder and he laughed at her. "I don't know what to name him," she admitted.

With another grin, Gabriel brought his hand out from behind his back. In it was a book full of baby names. Hitomi's eyes widened and a smile crossed her face.

"You should really stop buying me things," she told him.

"Maybe you should stop complaining when I buy you things," he replied.

She took the book gently from his hands as he picked up the box with her things again. He moved into her room as she started to look up meanings and names. When he popped his head out of her room to check on her, he found her completely absorbed, the light behind her making her look like she was glowing and casting shadows across her high cheekbones.

(A/N: Well, here we are, another chapter. I almost made Gabriel gay but decided against it. I just couldn't picture him like that. He seems like the suave, sexy man that plays very hard to get to me. But next chapter, or the one after, I will probably introduce a gay character just because I've always wanted to do that. I hope you guys like him a little more than you seem to like Gabriel. Eep. Anywho, please Review this mon amies! I am in need of some ego boosting! P.S: Fanfiction is being stupid and not letting me do asterixes ANYWHERE anymore... Waaaaah!)