"How is he," Kimberly asked as she came in from her long day at the gym.

"No change, Ms. Hart," answered the nurse beside Tommy's bed. This was a routine for her every day for the last five years. She came home, through the front door, up the stairs, down the hall and into the bedroom where Tommy lay in a hospital bed, comatose and unresponsive. The doctor's said that the longer he stayed this way the less likely it was that he would ever wake up. She made it a point to sit with him for long periods of time and tell him about her day or reading to him. She refused to give up hope that he would wake up one day. After everything they had ever been through, she would not give up on him now.

"Honestly, I don't think he's ever going to wake up," the nurse spoke up, "Why do you torture yourself like this?"

"Because he never gave up on me," she answered, taking off her jacket, "So I'm not going to give up on him. That's not what you do when you love someone. You stay by their side no matter what. He will wake up. I just know it."

She laid her jacket across the foot of the bed and sat on the edge. She picked up Tommy's hand and held it flat against her cheek. She breathed in his scent and closed her eyes.

"Hey there, Handsome," she said, "How was your day?" She sat and talked to him until the sun went down. Then she went down stairs and made dinner. It was 6:15pm, in October in Lake Worth, Florida. She slowly cooked dinner and waited. Noah would be home any minute and she couldn't wait to see him.


Five Years Ago

Kimberly sat in the doctor's office waiting for her test results. It had been three months since her house had been shot up by that psycho and She had suffered some major wounds but Tommy, who had only been shot in the arm and suffered from a few cracked ribs but they found a bleed in his brain and they were fairly certain that the cause was from an aneurysm that burst due to the stress of the situation. It wasn't enough to kill him but it was enough to leave him comatose. She prayed everyday that he would wake up.

Now she sat in the doctor's office waiting to see her OB/GYN. After the shooting, she had so much going in her life that she didn't even pay attention to the fact that she hadn't gotten her period. She was so nervous. She couldn't even figure out how it was possible for a baby to survive the entire trauma she had suffered. Especially the surgery.

"Well, Ms. Hart," said Dr. Wells as she came in the door, "You are definitely pregnant."

"How is it even possible," Kim asked, alittle shocked.

"Well, I estimate that you conceived probably a day or two before the shooting," Dr. Wells began to explain, "The fertilized egg wouldn't have made it out of the fallopian tube for at least a week and by then your body was already recovering. It is a bit of a miracle to say the least but lets get an ultrasound just to be sure."


Present

"Mommy, guess what," Noah exclaimed as he ran in the door, home from his after school karate class.

"What, baby," she asked, putting her hands on her knees and smiling.

"I got an A on my spelling test and Sensei Crew says I can take the test for my yellow belt next week," he said, jumping up and down. She smiled and hugged her son. He was the spitting image of Tommy.

"That is fantastic, baby," she exclaimed, "Why don't you go tell your dad and then get washed up for dinner. I made enchiladas."

"Okay," he said and ran upstairs, dropping his backpack on the landing. He knew who Tommy was and she had told him everything about his father and what happened to him. At five years old, he was such a trooper and so smart. She saw so much of Tommy in him.

"Please God, please," she silently prayed, "Please just wake him up. Send him back to us. Please."

It just wasn't fair that she had to watch him just lay there everyday. He should be here. He should see his son. They should be practicing karate in the back yard and throwing a football around. Her son should not have to sit next to a bed and talk to a man that he really didn't know. It just wasn't fair that she was here, experiencing this and watching their son get older without him.

"He should be there. It's just not fair," she thought.

"I'm ready for dinner, Mom," Noah said as he came downstairs.

"Okay," she said smiling, "Let's go eat!"