Thank you everyone soo much for the feedback!!

Christine (Lolita Behr) – I recognize you from RF =). I just wanted to tell you that I love your fanart, all your art actually =).

Someone mentioned the movie "Return to Me". This fic is actually semi-based on that movie. If this site would allow me to post links, I would post a link to the challenge, but I can't. And I don't want to write the challenge here in case some of you don't want to know what's going to happen... I haven't seen the movie myself. I hadn't even heard of it before. So this fic is only based on the things I found out from Dee's challenge. Although, I'm definitely planning on renting the movie after I've finished this fic!

And who might Max's wife be... Well, read on to find out.. Just..um..keep an open mind, okay?

Chapter 2

Max Evans pushed the doors open in front of him and ran into the emergency room.

"Where's my wife?"

The woman behind the desk looked up at him with an expression mixed with sympathy and the lack of interest years within the same job had left her with. She looked up into the young man's terrified eyes. It wasn't the first time she had seen that expression in someone's eyes, and she was sure that it wouldn't be the last one either.

"What's your wife's name, sir?" she asked.

Max raked his hand through his hair, emphasizing his ragged appearance. "Tess."

His attention was constantly drawn to the busy hallway to his left. The hallway where doctors in white coats, and nurses in green clothes swam, moving from one emergency bed to the next. In which one was Tess? And where was Josh?

"Last name?" the woman in the reception asked him patiently.

"Evans. Tess Evans." He watched the woman type in the information on the keyboard. "And Josh Evans."

Max waited as the woman finished typing and clicking at the computer, feeling his former life slip further and further away from him with every innocent clicking sound. He shouldn't be standing here. He should be with his wife and his son.

The woman looked up. "They're in surgery, sir. Please take a seat."

Max barely heard the woman's last words. They were buffered by the words that started crying in his head. This was bad. This was really bad. They were in surgery.

The woman watched the color drain from the man's face. "Sir, there's nothing you can do. Just sit down and a doctor will be with you as soon as there is any news."

Max stared at her and then nodded mutely. He started to walk towards the waiting area, casting fugitive glances towards the hallway. There, somewhere among all of the crying children and irritated teenagers, was his family, and he could do nothing but wait. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't. The suffocating beating of his heart and the rushing sound in his ears prevented him from relishing in any such relief.

He sank down on one of the blue-coated plastic chairs and looked at the people around him. An infant was screaming at the top of its lungs, trying to crawl out of its mother's worried arms. An old man with a washcloth against his head, it's whiteness soaked with the dark red color of blood, looked at him with tired eyes. Max quickly continued on to the woman sitting beside him. Her eyes were downcast and she was wringing her hands in her lap, an occasional sobs escaping her lips. With an aching devoid of emotions, Max's head turned in the direction of the entrance as ambulance men rushed inside with a man on a stretcher, his shirt soaked with blood. Medical personnel immediately rushed to the side of the stretcher making names of different medications and declarations of the blood pressure and the oxygen level adding to the noises in the room.

Max turned his head back to the people waiting with him and gradually tuned out the noises around him. The contours of the hurting individuals were erased and eventually all he could see was one bleeding, hurt mass. He didn't belong here. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be with his wife and his son. How could this happen? He didn't even know what had happened yet. This was the first time since the phone call that he had sat down and reality rushed to him with such intensity that he physically gasped. His wife and son had been in a car accident and they were in surgery. His wife and son had been in a car accident and they were in surgery.

Max head feel forward in his hands. "Oh my God," he croaked as everything kept hitting him at once. And it didn't stop.

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Isabel Whitman quickly marched into the emergency room, her eyes frantically scanning the place. At the sight of the reception desk, she quickly made her way up to it without any hesitation.

"Could you tell me where Tess and Josh Evans are?" she demanded.

The woman behind the counter looked up into the flashing eyes of the beautiful woman in front of her. "Evans..." the receptionist repeated slowly. That sounded familiar. "Yes. They are in surgery. Take a-"

"Isabel!" Isabel turned around at her husband's voice and her heart lurched in her chest at the sight of her brother.

"Max..." she whispered. She was at his side within a fraction of a second. His head was buried in his hands, his elbows propped up on his knees. She lowered herself on her knees in front of him and gently threaded her fingers through his dark hair.

"Max?" she asked carefully. She wasn't even sure he had heard her. Her heart broke as she heard a restrained sob escaping the confines of his hands.

"Max, what happened?"

Isabel had received a phone call from her parents saying that someone had called from the hospital and that Tess and Josh had been in an accident. But she didn't know any more than that. It all seemed to have happened so quickly. They had just gotten home and were preparing to go to bed when the phone rang. Since then everything had been chaos. She hadn't been able to think one coherent thought since that phone call. She wouldn't allow herself to think because she knew that if she let herself think about what really had happened she would break down. And then she would be of no use to her brother. She would be there for her brother and put her own feelings to the side.

"Izzy?"

Her heart broke at his voice. She had never seen him like this and it scared her. He was the calm, composed and stable one. He came out of every situation levelheaded and it wasn't often that he lost his cool. Seeing him this beaten terrified her to the core.

"Yes, it's me, Max. I'm here. I'm here."

"They're in surgery," Max whispered and looked up. Isabel swallowed down her own tears as she was met with his red and watery eyes. He looked so utterly lost that Isabel didn't know what to do other than throw her arms around his neck and pull him into a tight hug.

"They're going to be okay," she whispered as she felt his arms tighten around her waist,

"We'll get through this. They're gonna be okay."

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Max felt utterly numb inside. Empty. Like the living dead. He felt like the only thing that kept him sane was the small hand he clasped in his. The small and fragile hand of his beautiful wife, the other half of his soul. He swallowed back the tears as his eyes fell on the wedding band on her ring finger.

She laughed as he pulled her down in the green grass.

"Stop that! You're gonna ruin my dress."

He wrapped his arms around her waist as she tried to get up and pulled her down flush against him. "I don't really care about your dress," he mumbled as he started to nip her earlobe.

"Hey! This dress cost me ten dollars!"

"Exactly," Max grinned, stopping as he caught her eyes which automatically wandered to his lips as he leaned in to seal their feelings.

"I love you," he said quietly before his lips melted with hers.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. "I...love...you..." she said between heated kisses. He grumbled as he reluctantly pulled away from her.

"Aww," she moaned disappointedly, "Why are you stopping?"

"I need to talk to you about something."

She caught the serious tone in his voice and propped herself up on her elbows, looking at him as he moved his body to rest his weight on his heels.

"What is it?" she asked, a soft smile adorning her beautiful features.

"I need to ask you something," Max repeated, feeling his heart pump wildly in his chest. He had never been more nervous in his entire life. He could feel a cold sweat breaking out all over his body. The only thing that could calm him was the reassuring look in his girlfriend's eyes. A look that once more convinced his heart that this was the most important decision he had made in his whole life.

"Tess. I love you so much-"

He could see her relax and she cradled his cheek against her hand. "I love you too."

He slowly shook his head and gently removed her hand from his cheek without letting go of it. "Did you know that when we first started dating everyone warned me about you?" She grinned at him, still somewhat unsure about how to react to his sudden seriousness. "They said you would break my heart and leave me without a second look over your shoulder. Isabel always said that if I fell for you everything would change. Everything did change, but not as they anticipated." His left hand started to dig in his pocket after the valuable token while his right hand held onto the physical link between them. "They never saw you as you deserve to be seen. They never saw you. But ever since you let me see you, Tess, I was hooked."
Tess smiled at his choice of words. "I realized that you are what makes me whole, Tess. You are what makes my life worth living and all the hardships worth enduring. You are what keeps me alive. Tess..." he brought forward the small black velvet box and watched her eyes widen as her free hand moved to cover her mouth, "Will you marry me?"

Her expression of astonished shock turned into a sobbing smile, tears spilling down her cheeks. Wordlessly, she nodded.

"Yes?" Max asked, the loud pounding of his heart almost drowning out his own voice.

"Yes...Yes!" she cried and threw herself into his arms. With laughter, their lips and hands caressed each other, trying to convey their immense happiness.

Max returned to cold reality. To the sounds of the machines that he now had to entrust his wife's life to. His vision blurred as his eyes traveled over her torn body. As his eyes landed on her stomach his breath left him and a pain deeper than he ever thought bearable consumed him.


"Honey? Come here for a sec, would ya?"

Max closed the oven door and moved out into the living room. "What is it?" he asked, drying his hands on a towel. He froze as he saw her sitting on the sofa. Their sofa. Would he ever stop being amazed by the fact that he was married to the girl of his dreams and that they were about to share their future together? She was just so beautiful. The setting sun shone in through the window, illuminating her blond hair and making her glow like an angel. His angel.

"God, you're beautiful," he murmured.

Her smile widened. "You said something?" she asked innocently. But Max knew she had heard him.

"You wanted something?" he retorted.

She nodded, and patted the place beside her on the sofa. "Come here. I've got the pictures developed from our honeymoon."

"Now?" Max asked, grimacing. "Can't it wait a few minutes? Dinner's all about ready."

"No, it can't wait," Tess said sternly, but her smile gave her away. Max narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her huge grin. What had she done? Had she taken pictures of him naked or something? She seemed utterly pleased with herself.

"Okay..." he said slowly and sank down beside her.

Tess happily put the stack of photos in his lap and Max gave her one last suspicious glance before picking up the photos and starting to slowly sift through them. He could feel Tess' eyes on him the whole time and his body unconsciously tensed in excited anticipation of whatever she was up to. His hand froze in the already familiar movement of putting the uppermost photo at the bottom of the stack when a black and white photo stared back at him. He could not see the contours of the photo and it wasn't clear what it was supposed to be, and yet he knew.

"Tess?" he breathed tentatively, "What's this?"

"That, daddy," Tess said softly, "is your child."

"What?" he whispered, his voice breaking. His eyes were fixed on the photo in front of him.

"You're gonna be a daddy, Max. I'm pregnant."


His hand hovered over the blanket that hid her stomach. How was he going to tell her? How was he going to tell her that their child was dead?

"Maxwell Evans. Meet Joshua Christopher Evans."

Max looked down at the little baby in his wife's arms.

"Is he supposed to be so small?" he asked.

His glowing wife smiled. "Yes."

"Oh my God," Max whispered. He timidly stretched out his hand to touch the tiny fingers and his heart swelled with love when the fingers curled around his own so tightly.

"Mr. Evans?"

He was torn from his memories and found a dark-haired man standing beside him. Dr. Young.

"Yes," he answered. His voice sounded strange, foreign to his ears.

"I'm really sorry about your loss," Dr. Young said sympathetically.

"Thank you," Max whispered. He hadn't dared to think about the fact that his two-year-old was dead. Not yet. He couldn't deal with it yet. His eyes returned to his wife's battered face. She was all he had left to cling to now.

"I'm really sorry to have to bring this up now, Mr. Evans, but I need to speak to you about something."

Max looked up at the doctor and nodded, squeezing his wife's hand more tightly as his body tensed in anticipation of what was to come.

"Did you know that your wife has signed papers stating that she didn't want to be kept on life support?

Max felt sick to his stomach. He wasn't sure what that meant, but he was sure that it couldn't be good.

"No…we never really discussed...those things." Every word was a struggle. He didn't want to talk about this now. He wanted to grieve with his wife. He wanted to feel her hand return his squeeze.

"Your wife is...brain dead," the doctor said slowly.

Max felt like someone had just pushed him hard in the chest and all of the air rushed out of his lungs.

"What...what does that mean?" he asked. But he knew. He knew. Brain dead. Her brain was dead. Dead. Her beautiful thoughts didn't exist any longer.

"She will not be able to live without these machines. She can't breathe on her own, but her heart is still beating. During operation she suffered cardiac arrest and she was...dead for eleven minutes. Her brain wasn't receiving enough oxygen and...."

Why was he giving him all this scientific mumble? He could feel the anger inside of him ignite, being fueled with the helplessness and unfairness of the situation. Why was this happening to him? What had he done? What had she done? Nothing. Nothing!!

"What are you saying, doctor?" Max cut him off.

The doctor took a deep breath. "She will never wake up, Max."

Max turned his eyes on his wife as the words began to sink in. She would never wake up. She would never wake up. She would never smile at him. She would never laugh again. She would never giggle as he tickled that special spot under her armpit. She would never twirl their child around in the air. She would never cry in front of the TV. She would never tease him about his over-excessive care of his teeth. She would never kiss his lips. She would never fall asleep in his arms after they've made love. She would never think again. She would never wake up. She would never wake up ever again.

"She's dead?" Max whispered, his voice cold, yet emotional.

"Her heart is still beating, but she isn't there anymore," the doctor answered, "Max, her heart is still perfectly fine."

So? What did that matter? She was dead. What did it matter to them that her heart was still intact?

"I can't do this right now."

"Max, I'm very sorry to have to weigh you down with this right now, but time is an important factor right now."

Under other circumstances Max would have snorted at the absurdity of the doctor's statement. Time didn't mean anything. Time hadn't meant anything to them when his wife had lain dying on her operation table. But he didn't have the strength to argue. He just wanted to be alone with Tess. Why couldn't anyone understand that?

"There are many people waiting for heart transplants..."

Max head shot up at his statement. "Wait? Are you going to cut my wife open and take her heart?"

"Max, please. Just listen to me. Your wife has a rare blood type that matches a person who will die without a transplant. If she survives the transplant she will be able to lead a normal life. Think about this, Max. You will give another person a chance to live. Think about it."

Max stared at the doctor for a few seconds before he nodded and turned his eyes back to his wife. "I'll think about it."

"Thank you, Max."

Max slowly pushed away one blonde strand of hair from Tess's forehead before leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on her forehead, one of his hot tears dripping down onto her cool, lifeless skin.

TBC...