((A/N: Thank you for the great response to my fic ; PS: Morgan's last name is Lancaster too! Just like April. See? I was right... go ahead and check the description for "Reach for Tomorrow" Also, since I"m writing this is in my style more than that of a McDaniel book, there is a little rough language. no F-bombs or anything, but the PG 13 rating should give you an idea...))

When Meg awoke, she was laying in a hospital bed with Katie, Josh, and Lacey watching worriedly over her. She closed her eyes hard and blinked a few times, her head pounding. All at once the events occurring after the wedding came back to her; running to catch up with Morgan, trying to get a straight answer out of him, learning he was dying.

She gasped suddenly and tried to sit up but finding that she was unable to do so. She felt as if she'd been run over by a semi, and wasn't so sure that she hadn't, in reality.

"What happened?" she finally asked, frightened by the sound of her own slurred speech.

"Lacey found you collapsed in the parking lot..." Katie explained, her voice a lot calmer than her tight expression. "We called an ambulance and they said they wanted you admitted for testing." she continued.

"I'm fine..." she said, trying to sit up again. This time Lacey grabbed her shoulder and pushed her slightly against the bed.

"Don't." she said harshly. "There's something wrong with you. If you were fine, you wouldn't have collapsed."

"It's just the heat." she protested, but Lacey didn't buy it.

"What? It never gets hot in DC? Don't try to make a fool of Lacey Duval." she said, taking a seat. Meg sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. She was sure that there was nothing wrong with her. It was just bad combination of the heat and what Morgan had told her, along with nerves. But she couldn't say that to them... Morgan would hate her more than he already did if she told them.

"Please... I'm just over-exhausted. I haven't been sleeping well." She knew this part was true at least. Since she'd received the news of Katie's wedding, and that Morgan would be there from an 'outside source'... She recalled the phone call from Lacey well:

"Meg, you're coming right!?" Lacey had asked as soon as she answered the phone.

"I'm... not so sure." she admitted, "I mean, I barely know Katie or Josh."

"But you're a bridesmaid..."

"I know but..."

"Morgan's gonna be there." Lacey blurted.

"What? Why on earth would that mean anything to me?" she asked, playing innocent.

"Don't play dumb with me, Megan Charnell... And now I know I'll see you there."

At that point Meg had surrendered and agreed she would go. Lacey was too smart about other people. Meg wondered how she could possibly become so insightful about her and Morgan over the few weeks they spent in Jenny house over the previous summer.

"That may be so..." Josh finally spoke up, "but the doctors seem to think it was something more than that, and you're staying here for tests." He had a white-knuckled grip on Katie's small hand, a fierce look in his eyes. Finding Meg mysteriously collapsed in the parking lot had brought back the painful memories of his own brother, Arron's, death.

He'd suddenly collapsed on the football field before his first real college-league game. The doctors told him he had suffered an aneurysm- the breaking of a major blood vessel in the brain, they had explained. He refused to accept it at first, and seeing his brother on life support, as if he were sleeping, made matters no better. He clenched his eyes shut as the memories continued to flood over him.

After the neurologist had spoken to Josh and his grandfather, another doctor came in. Dr. Gillespe, he remembered. A woman from the Michigan Donor Services. When Josh first heard this he was nearly as horrified as Gramps, who was afraid the doctors let Aaron die just for his organs. But as Josh remembered his brother and listened to the woman's speech, he made the decision to donate Aaron's organs- a decision that had changed his life forever. For, if he hadn't made this choice, he'd have never met Katie. She'd have probably died.

Aaron's heart now beat inside Katie, a former victim of Cardiomyopathy- a virus that attacked her heart. And Katie was now Josh's wife.

"It was just a little fainting spell, nothing more..." Meg persisted.

"Or..." Josh spoke with conviction, "It could have been much more. When my brother died, we never knew there was anything wrong with him. He was a star football player, for crying out loud. Then one day he just... collapsed. He was dead... nineteen years old and he was dead, gone forever." Josh's voice was thick with emotion, and Katie gave his hand a quick squeeze. She recalled the first time she'd met Josh. She had been in the ICU at the hospital after receiving his brother's heart. She'd thought he was just her imagination until he returned in the waiting rom, where she'd been lounging and reading some magazines.

She'd fallen for him almost instantly.

"But... that's different, Josh. Do you know what the odds that someone will, at any point in their life, have a fatal aneurysm is?" She sounded accusing, but she actually had no idea on the actual statistics. "And besides, if that were the case... I'd be dead now." she pointed out.

Josh sighed and he would've spoken if, at that moment, a doctor hadn't burst into the room. His face was worried and he carried a chart and folder in one hand, his knuckles pure white. Josh, Katie, and Lacey all looked up and Meg smiled a little.

"Daddy..."

A knock at his hotel room door broke Morgan's attention away from the televised rodeo he was watching from the king-sized bed. 'Cleaning ladies?' he asked himself, gazing at the clock. '4:30' highly unlikely. They probably brushed through the room while he was at the wedding, though he hadn't taken much notice of whether or not the room looked any different than when he'd first checked in.

He groaned and swung his legs off the bed, slowly standing up and padding over to the door. He opened it to find Eric Lawrence standing in front of the doorway, clothed with only a beach towel around his waist, and he assumed a swimsuit under that.

"Come on bud." he slapped a hand on Morgan's shoulder. "Let's hit the pool." Eric invited himself into the room and jumped down onto the large bed and checked the TV. "Dude...this is some crazy shit, you ever actually see one of these?"

"Sure have. Been in my share too..." he smirked, crossing his arms and leaning against a wall, staring at Eric. For some reason, the look of astonishment on the city boy's face gave Morgan a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

"Damn..." he let out a low whistle. "Anyways... grab some shorts and let's hit the pool before it's too late." Eric and Morgan's planes were both leaving early the next morning, and the pool would only be open to the public until 6:00, at which point weekly cleaning would take place. Normally, social activity with Eric was something Morgan wanted to avoid at all costs, but he needed to get his mind off the events of this afternoon.

"Alright, give me a minute." he hoisted his suitcase onto the bed, grabbed an old pair of cut-off jean shorts and changed, while Eric was entranced by the rodeo. "Alright, let's go..." he declared, grabbing the remote control and clicking off the small television, made to look even smaller nestled into the large oak entertainment center. And with that, they were off.

Eric and Morgan were dashing at full speed through the crowded lobby and down the first hall they could find, several angry staffers chasing after them. Both young men were laughing as they ran, slowing them considerably. They turned the next corner and ducked into the first stairwell they could find, dashing up the stairs now. Perhaps it would've been a better escape if they hadn't left trials of water from their soaking bodies behind them wherever they ran. When they reached the top floor- where both of their rooms were located- they dashed to Eric's room and slammed, then locked, the door behind them.

Eric slid down against the door into a sitting position where Morgan remained standing against it, both laughing and panting, over-chlorinated pool water and hot sweat dripping off both of them.

After breaking basically every one of the posted 'pool rules', the two were chased angrily out of the pool and threatened to be banned from the hotel. Morgan smirked,

"Never woulda thought someone like you woulda had that in ya..." he said, thoughtfully. Eric smirked,

"What's that supposed to mean?" he challenged, looking up at Morgan.

"It means I never thought you were good for anythin' but flirting." he said, pushing off the door.

"What about you and Meg?" Eric returned, also standing.

"Meg's just a girl who was there. I didn't care about anyone there..." Eric lifted a brow. From what he'd seen, Morgan and Meg had been a lot more than just friendly acquaintances. He'd noticed her sneaking off on more than one occasion in order to be with him. Eric wondered if she was just a game, maybe something of a sport to Morgan. Maybe not as risky as a rodeo back with him, but surely still with its perks. And now he wondered just what all he HAD done with Megan.

"Don't look at me that way." he continued, glaring at him and now standing in front of him. "I didn't do anything to make her thing any different. I told her from the start I cared about someone else, and that she's not around any more." his gaze softened a little as he thought of her.

Anne Wingate.

When he'd first met her on the ranch were he lived and worked with his aunt and uncle, he'd assumed she was just another spoiled rich girl getting a birthday gift from daddy or something similar. But he was 100% wrong. Anne was the most kind, caring, all-around amazing person he'd ever met. And she was sick. Dying. Dead now.

Anne had HIV when she was on the ranch, which and developed into full-blown AIDS virus by the time she returned to her home in New York. Morgan had jetted to New York and spent her last days with her. It was the most excruciating thing he had ever experienced. The pain far superior to even the worst bronco's kick. His face twisted just thinking about this and Eric looked down.

Maybe he'd been a little too quick to judge, but he wasn't going to let Morgan off the hook so quickly. He recalled Morgan telling him the girl he loved had died of pneumonia, like his own once-girlfriend Kara Fischer. But Kara was also a victim of Cystic Fibrosis. He'd wondered many times what else ailed the girl Morgan was obviously very much in love with at one time, and now seemed the perfect time to ask.

"You said when we first met... that that girl had died of pneumonia. But you also said she'd received some money from that One Last Wish foundation that Holloway runs." he paused, as if to emphasize this next part, "What else was wrong with her, if you don't mind me asking? I mean... pneumonia isn't chronic, and often times it isn't terminal, so..."

Morgan's expression darkened and turned angry. If he told Eric the truth, he'd get the wrong idea about everything. He'd think the Anne a tramp or a slut, and maybe even that he'd slept with her, causing his coldness toward Meg. He gritted his teeth and let out a low growl.

"That's none of your business, Eric, and you should keep your nose out of places it doesn't belong." he said in a low, menacing voice, before he stormed out of the room, slamming the door hard behind him.

Chelsea James sat back on the bed in the room she was sharing with Lacey and rubbed her eyes. The wedding day commotion had taking it out of her. From the wedding itself, to having to deal with DJ Longado, to Meg Charnell being found unconscious in the parking lot. It drained her far worse than it did anyone else, and this worried her. She hadn't been drained nearly this easy since before she'd received her heart transplant.

Could she be rejecting? She knew she'd never missed a single anti-rejection pill, but she hadn't been in for a check-up in several months. Not to mention that she was beginning to feel like she was coming down with a flu. She knew she should be seen by a doctor, and possibly be in the hospital right now, but that would've meant missing Katie O'Roark... no, it was Katie Martel now... either way Katie's wedding. Her best friend's wedding.

Her face felt warm and she was sure she was coming down with a fever, the life-long fear she'd had before her transplant finally gripping her completely. She was rejecting. Soon a rash would probably break out and she would become violently ill... deathly ill. And if they were unable to fight the rejection of this heart, she would die. She'd waited her entire life for one transplant. What were the odds two would come within three short years.

She'd considered herself lucky as far as the transplant had gone thus far. She'd experienced not even the slightest bought of rejection- something that was actually expected when first receiving the organ. The pain had been excruciating, but her recovery had been quick, and soon she'd been healthy.

Healthy. For the first time in her life she had been healthy. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Fifteen years being sick, three being healthy, then death. Eighteen years old, and she was rejecting. She knew it without a shadow of a doubt. She was sick and she needed to go to the hospital. She'd spend her last days in the same hospital Amanda did, here in South Carolina. She went to pick up the phone when Lacey Duval burst into the room, throwing her designer handbag onto the bed with an exasperated sigh. She stopped her small act when she noticed the large tears running down Chelsea's face.

"Chels...what's wrong?" she asked, panic quickly grabbing up on her. She did her best as she always did to push it aside and deal with the situation at hand. That's what she always seemed able to do, especially when it mattered most.

"I'm sick, Lacey... I need to go to the hospital.... my heart's rejecting." Chelsea James sobbed.

Lacey almost lost it.

"Tests are showing signs of mild rejection." The elderly doctor informed, looking down at his charts as he took a seat next to Chelsea's bed. She nodded, not in the least bit surprised, but still just as hurt. Her heart was rejecting. This was it. She was going to die.

"So... is that it?" she asked meekly.

"We will start treatment immediately. You may become very sick during this, and I must be honest, there's no 100% that this will work." the doctor leveled, gazing at her over his thick-rimmed glasses. But Chelsea already new all this. She'd read countless books, pamphlets, magazines, articles, websites, anything she could find. Rejection was often fatal.

"I want to wait for treatment until after I get to talk to my friends. In case this is my last chance... can we wait until day after tomorrow?" she knew she didn't have to ask. She was 18... an adult. She could simply refuse any treatment until then.

"Frankly, I believe we should start today, but if we must wait, there's nothing I can do to stop that. But I'll tell you- every day you put this off is a huge chunk of time as far as rejection goes. Because the longer you leave it, the worse it will become. I want to start as soon as we can, so please, call your friends who can't be here, summon those who can. I want to start by tomorrow at the latest, Miss James." His tone was firm and commanding, and Chelsea couldn't seem to find the courage to try and change his mind. He'd left the room before she would have been able to speak had she wanted to.

All she wanted right now was to talk to Katie and Lacey. To see them and tell them the things she felt they needed to know. In case this was her last chance. In case she wouldn't have a tomorrow to wait for.

((A/N: Due to the fact that I'm pulling back a little and making this about more than just Meg and Morgan, I am planning on changing the title. The rating will have to stick, since most of the people reading this are probably a little young for everything I'd like to do with this fic. Everything between those two and another twist I was planning on -- I really wanted Morgan to give in and for Meg to become pregnant, but I changed that since I have to remember this is a much younger audience and you wouldn't approve of racy stuff. Still enjoy, please.))