A/N: see ch1 for all disclaimers and please review. (you know you want to)

Evan walked through the sliding doors of the infirmary, realizing that this was the first time in over six hours that he hadn't run through them, and looked around for Kevin. He had radioed a few minutes ago to let Lorne know that Max was awake and if he wanted to see her.

"She's at the end of the row on the left." a nurse said, walking past Evan and smiling as she did.

"Uh…thanks." Rounding the cloth partition, Evan made his way to the side of the bed. "Hey."

Max gave Evan a sleepy smile, "Hey yourself."

"How you feeling?"

"Groggy. What happened?"

Evan had no idea how much she remembered, if she remember anything at all, since the first explosion had happened so suddenly. Taking her un-injured hand he held it in his, "What's the last thing you remember?"

Max stared at Evan and noticed that something was different about him, like he had aged overnight. "I dunno…we were going to go to the mainland but you wanted an extra half-hour to finish you painting. I decided to take a walk, and then next thing I know I'm waking up here. What happened?"

Evan wasn't sure how to tell her, not knowing how she'd handle it. "Max…there was an explosion yesterday, two of them actually. You were near the first one when it happened and…you took a lot of shrapnel…Pierce had to go in twice to stop the bleeding."

Max's eyes went wide as Evan explained everything. "Oh god, Evan," she gasped. "the baby. Is it…"

Evan swallowed thickly, knowing that she had to be told. "We don't know. Pierce-"

"No…" Max's eyes filling with tears.

"Max listen to me." Evan placed his hand on top of hers and looked her in the eyes. "There's no way of telling yet, but Pierce doesn't think so this early."

"But there's a chance-"

"Yes there is, but I know one thing; we can always have more." He brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "And I know that I will love you no matter if we have ten or none at all."

"Ten?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're kidding right?"

Evan smiled and lightly kissed her on the lips. "I'm just glad you're ok." He whispered into her ear.

"Me too. Although I might have to talk to Doctor Beckett about contraceptives if you want ten kids 'cause there's no way that's going to happen."

Evan closed his eyes at the mention of Carson; that wound was still too fresh. But he didn't tell Max about what happened to Beckett…he'd wait until later for that. Right now he just wanted to be near Max and not think about what had gone wrong. He heard a throat clearing and looked to see that it was Pierce.

Kevin stepped past the partition and said, "I hate to break you two up but Max needs her rest if she wants to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Can't he stay?" Max asked, not wanting to be alone quite yet. "Please?"

"I'd love to, but I can't; I need to talk to Colonel Sheppard about…the, uh, arrangements for, uh, clean up." Evan gave Max's hand a squeeze before letting go. "I'll stop by later."

"'K." Max replied as Evan walked past the divider.

As he walked down the hallway Evan couldn't help but feel relieved; Max was going to be fine and it was a new day. Catching a glimpse of the rising sun, he couldn't help but think how even though everyone here had to deal with the aftermath of yesterday they were getting a fresh start and all they could do was move forwards.

Making his way to the other side of the city, Evan walked out onto the balcony and again stared at his painting. The paint had long since dried on the canvas as well as on the palette and he stepped closer to it, looking at it as he did.

After a moment's hesitation Evan gathered everything up and headed back inside.