Many years passed since John's birth. In just the blink of an eye, Whitney's three children were teenagers, with the twins being 19 and their younger brother being 16. Before long, however, Whitney would go from having three to four children. She'd recently gotten herself inseminated. Just like last time, she'd used egg and sperm donors to have her fourth and final child. Around the same time, however, John had knocked up his fifteen-year-old girlfriend Yoko with twins. Much to Whitney's annoyance, both she and Yoko were due to have their respective babies on the same day: September 8th.

Maya wasn't sure how she could handle simultaneously getting a younger sister and becoming an aunt to two little girls. She was almost certain that Goldie felt the same way. Thankfully, Maya had kept in touch with Sorcha years after the latter resigned work as her nanny. Even after all that time, Maya knew that she could trust one of the oldest friends her family had. Maya always felt like she could rely on Sorcha to get her through even some of the most difficult times when she couldn't rely on anyone else. Some days, that couldn't have been more apparent...

One day, on June 5th, 1986, Maya got a call from Goldie that their mother had gone into premature labor. Maya was in shock and had no idea how to respond to that kind of news. Whitney was only six months pregnant, three months too early for their sister to be born. The twin sisters talked for close to an hour, expressing to the best of their abilities how much this was affecting them. After Maya and Goldie had stopped talking, they headed out for the hospital, eager to be by their mother's side. When they arrived at the hospital, they signed in as visitors for their mother and then made their way towards the waiting room. As it just so happened, their brother and his girlfriend were there, having already beaten them to it by about thirty minutes. Coincidentially enough, Sorcha was also there in the waiting room, but as a patient waiting for her doctor.

"Hello, John," Goldie said coldly. "What brings you and your skanky girlfriend here?"

"We're here because Whitney is in labor," Yoko answered for her boyfriend.

"I wasn't asking you."

Yoko just narrowed her eyes at her future sister-in-law. "I know."

"Guys, can we stop fighting for a second?" John suddenly asked. "Mom's more important right now. For God's sake, I don't even know if she's going to make it or if our sister's going to make it or whatever. Just knock it off."

"He's right," Maya agreed. "I'm really scared about what might happen. I don't know if I even want to think about it. So much could go wrong: our mother could die, our sister could die, they could both die..." She had to restrain herself from crying. "I just don't want to lose them..."

"Me neither, Maya," Goldie said. "I don't think we could bear to lose either of them."

"I don't think I could bear it, either," Sorcha suddenly spoke up. "Still, I'm fairly certain they'll be alright."

"Are you sure about that?" Maya asked her former nanny.

Sorcha nodded. "I'm positive."

Hours upon hours went by while the Diamond siblings and their loved ones waited for any signs of progress. They really wanted their mother and their sister to pull through. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, a nurse finally came out and walked over to them.

"Are you the Diamonds?" the nurse asked the three siblings.

Goldie urgently stood up out of her seat. "Yes. So what happened? Are they alright?"

"Well, your mother is," the nurse replied. "But your sister..."

"What about her?" Maya asked worriedly.

"Your sister is in the NICU. I can't be certain how much longer she has, especially when she was born so early..."

"What are you saying? That you think she might die?"

"That, I don't know. Like I said, I have no idea how long she'll live for after she was born so early."

"Surely, there's hope, isn't there?"

The nurse was trying her best not to tear up in front of the anxious family members and friends. "I'd love to believe that there's hope for your sister, but who knows?"

Goldie tried to keep her composure together. "Do you know when we might see our mom?"

The nurse nodded at her. "We might let you see her tomorrow. For now, we're going to let her rest up. She just had major surgery."

"Okay, thank you." Goldie waited until the nurse left before throwing herself back down into her seat. "Goddamn it! Why did Mom have to give birth now?"

"I... I wish I knew," Maya replied uncertainly. "I don't even understand what could've happened."

"Me neither, Maya. Me neither. Still, at least they're okay. I can't imagine how Mom must feel, though."

Maya just looked down at the ground, forlorn. "I don't think I could imagine how scared Mom is right now. I mean, going into labor this early and then not even knowing if our sister is going to make it? I don't think I could ever handle going through something like that."

"Ditto."

As sad as they were that it'd happened to their mother, deep down, they were glad that it hadn't happened to them. In fact, this was the event that led to Maya's decision to never have kids. Goldie, on the other hand, had already decided that motherhood wasn't for her, but hearing about what had happened to her mother cemented that decision for her. Still, showing their emotional support for their mother took top priority over everything else.

The next day, Goldie, Maya, John, and Yoko all paid Whitney a visit at the hospital while she was recovering from her emergency Cesarean section. They were to curious to find out how the Diamond matriarch was handling her new reality. They were pleasantly surprised when they saw that Whitney had only now started waking up.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Maya said with a smile. "You gave us a terrible scare yesterday."

"Oh, hello, starlight," Whitney just mumbled.

"Mom, how are you feeling?" Goldie asked gingerly.

"Fine, fine," Whitney mumbled again. "Couldn't have been better, actually."

"Are you sure? What about our sister? Aren't you worried about her?"

Whitney just slowly nodded her head. "I still can't believe I just had her. I wasn't supposed to give birth for another three months."

"We know, Mom. We know. Do you feel like visiting her at the NICU today?"

"Not right now, sweetie. I've been so tired... I can't stop thinking about what happened. I barely even slept last night."

"I can't say I really blame you," Yoko chimed in, trying to empathize with her future mother-in-law. "I'd be scared if something happened to one of my babies."

Whitney just ignored her and started trying to go back to sleep.

"So... I guess we'll come back later, then?" Yoko asked, again with no response. "Okay..."

With that, the foursome headed off to the cafeteria to eat. It was there that Maya spotted Sorcha eating alone at a nearby table. She didn't notice at first, but she soon realized that her former nanny was looking a little pale and sick. Maya proceeded to carry her tray over to the table where Sorcha was eating and sit down next to her.

"Oh, hi, Maya," Sorcha just said. "I didn't realize you and your family were here. How are you?"

"Not good," Maya replied. "I'm worried about what might happen to my sister. Mom's fine for the most part, but she hasn't been too lucid since the surgery. What about you?"

"I'm alright..." Sorcha's thoughts trailed off for a second. "Actually, I'm not. The reason I came here yesterday was for a doctor's appointment. I haven't felt like myself lately. I thought it was just the flu at first, but I'm starting to think that it might be something else."

Now Maya was curious. "What do you think it is?"

Sorcha looked around as if to make sure no one else could hear her. "The C-word..."

"Cancer?"

Sorcha sadly nodded her head. "The very same. I'll be checking myself in in a few days to get it looked at. I'm hoping for my sake that it's just a health scare."

"I hope so, too. I've already gone through enough sadness as is."

"No worries, Maya. I don't plan to leave for a long, long time."

"Good, because I don't want you to leave." Maya wrapped her arms around her former nanny. "The last thing I want is for my second mother to die on me. I'm also fairly certain that the world will be much sadder without you in it."

Sorcha smiled softly at this. "Thank you, Maya. You're a sweet girl."