He greets Vanya in the same way he's always done, and he takes the same elevator, the second one on the left, as he's done for as long as he's known her; everything seems like a routine that he's done on so many occasions before, and yet, to him, this time it's different.

He enters her apartment with dread, not anticipation, and his heart hurts as much as he expected it to at the sight of a very pregnant Serena. The woman who he thought could overcome anything; the woman he saw as invincible, powerful, independent. He took all of that away. He left her broken. And as much as he is angry with himself, there is a very small part of him that is angry with her, too. For letting him break her. That's the part he wishes he could change.

'You don't have to come here every day, Dan. I understand if it's too hard for you.' He tone is not understanding, and he wishes he could remind her who she was trying to fool. But it dawns on him that he has no right to expect her to know who he was anymore.

'You don't give up on the people you love just because things get hard,' he mutters, knowing she's hearing him. 'I learnt that from the best.' He glances in her direction, and even though her eyes are so obviously trying to avoid his, he hopes they would meet even for a brief second.

But it doesn't happen, and sooner than he'd want, he needs to move on.

'I brought you some prenatal vitamins. The doctor from LA avidly recommended them for the last week of pregnancy.' He pops one in the palm of his hand, and, together with a glass of water, hands them to her. 'How's your head?'

'Fine.'

'Breathing? Pulse? You're not having any contractions?'

'Dan, I'm fine...' she assures him, and, without realising or wanting to, she smiles gently under his careful watch.

'What?' he asks, in a way that she used to love, she still did, and sat by her feet on the sofa.

'Nothing... I'm just... grateful... that you're here. As much as I said I could, I wouldn't have wanted to do this alone.'

He gaze is still just that bit astray from his, enough to avoid them from fully joining, and Dan knew it was something she did when trying to escape, avoid, believe a mistaken version of a truth.

'I know. That's why I wouldn't leave even when you begged me to.'

There is an awkward silence around them, and Dan wishes he could find that powerful, life and mind changing sentence to start... something... off. And there is just nothing good enough.

Her voice interrupts him. 'Sometimes...' she starts, but finds herself too out in the open, too vulnerable, so she hides back in her shell and doesn't continue.

Dan knows her too well to not notice that, so he edges forward towards her, and rests his hand on the calf closest to him. 'Tell me, Serena. Talk to me,' he encourages. And it's more comforting than she'd ever let him know.

'I don't want to make things harder for either of us than they already are...'

'They can't get any harder than this, trust me,' he jokes, and laughs gently at the end, placing a smile on her tired lips. A smile that soon catches on; he wanted her to always smile. That's when she was the most beautiful he'd ever seen her.

'It's just that sometimes...' she starts, and he just waits, knowing that when she feels comfortable enough around him, the words will come out. 'I wish things were different.' She pins a strand of dry, blonde hair around her ear, and fixates her eyes on the piece of art behind his head.

'I don't know... I... This was not how I wanted this to happen. I know for you it must have been different, and I don't blame you, even if it hurt me, no matter how much I tried to convince people it didn't. But I just wanted us to work first. I used to want to have a baby with you out of... love, I wanted you to feel for me what I felt for you. And all you felt for me when and after this baby was conceived was pity, and hatred, and disgust. And I wish I could have found it in myself to settle for just that. Because I can tell you, Dan, I know you think I am cold and a terrible person, but giving up this child is the hardest thing I'll ever have to do.'

It feels like a vicious cycle. To the both of them. He knows she is slightly hormonal, and she knows it too, but there still is an aura of truth and sadness around this topic every time it would be brought up out of the blue.

He looks at her as she sits before him, silent and slightly shaking as she tries to suppress tears, and he places a palm flat against her cheek. He wants to take all her pain and sorrow away with that one touch, heal her, love her, show her how much he cared with that single moment, but he is aware that a single gesture is clearly not enough to make up for it all.

Tears flow silently down her cheeks, and he runs his thumbs over the surface of her skin, wiping them away, watching her as she tries to compose herself before him. Wishing she didn't have to.

'I know I don't need to remind you that the only thing keeping you from keeping our child is yourself,' he mutters in the softest tone he can manage, and she lets out a tiny sob.

'Don't say that,' she whispers in between short, wet breaths. 'Don't call it 'ours'.'

'It is, Serena. It is ours. It is until we sign those adoption papers, and it can be ours for a lot longer than that. It's completely up to you.'

'Don't make me look like a heartless person who doesn't care! I care, Dan, and I'm doing this because I care! A child needs more than I could give it, more than we could give it! The one that raises a baby is its parent, not the one that helped make it. And I wouldn't want to raise my baby like my mother raised Eric and I.'

'Then give me the chance to be a parent.'

'A parent means a family. And a family means love. And this is where we fail.'

The only response he has to her words, the only thing he can say without showing her just how much they hurt him, just how deep they cut, is 'If there is one thing I can swear by, Serena, it's that I love you. I wish you believed that before it was too late. I love you so much, and this is the most honest, pure and real thing I have ever said to and will ever say to anyone.'

She's close to crumbling before him, so he circles his arms around her, and holds her as she cries gently against him, ignoring the way his own tears disappeared as they fell off his cheeks and in between strands of her hair.

-xoxo-

Gentle impulses of pressure are applied to his shoulder, and he experiences the most surreal feeling of his life. Her forehead is glittery with sweat, and her palms shake slightly as they rest on his forearm, waiting for his eyes to fully open and his consciousness to be completely regained.

'Serena,' he mutters and sits up. He catches the wall clock with the corner of his eye; 2:54am. They managed to fall asleep, and he is slightly angry with himself for not moving her in her bedroom so she could have put her feet up, but then worry catches up with him, and he completely forgets about her feet.

He touches her forehead frantically, checking for signs of fever, and takes her hands in one of his, trying to still them.

'Serena, are you okay?'

Her voice is calmer and stronger than he expected it to be, and that is oddly comforting for him.

'I need you to take me to the hospital. It's time.'

A/N: Okay, here we go. Another chapter. I know some people won't like where this is going (wink wink Chia), but sometimes things just don't go the way they're meant to. I just hope you'll keep reading... I have I think maybe a chapter or two left... REVIEW Thanks