Don't know who to blame for what you've become. Everything thing you did and everything you gave up. – "We Can Run"; Jade Valerie

(This whole chapter is a flashback to what happened before the accident)

Gordo closed the notebook on his desk and sighed. He looked around the dorm room for any sign of life, but his roommate was passed out on the bottom bunk, a bottle of beer on the floor next to the bed. Gordo rolled his eyes. He was too young for college, being only nineteen, where everyone else was in their twenties. Or, if it was Delaware; their late thirties. Delaware – which was a nickname – was the oldest person in the classes.

The teenager stared at the photograph taped to the front of the notebook and smiled fondly at the memories. He'd used the same notebook since middle school, when he and Lizzie first started dating; he just never took the picture off after they broke up. He left the notebook on the desk and turned out the light, leaving his roommate there to sleep.

Making his way down to the dorm lounge, he picked a spot in the corner of the café, ordering a chai tea. The teenager crossed his arms and leaned back, looking to the large picture window where two brunettes were talking. One of them looked mysteriously like Kate Sanders, but he didn't go to say hi. He heard a tapping on the table, followed by a shy laugh. "Hey, Dave."

Gordo peered at the woman that sat across from him. He smiled ever so slightly. He'd been seeing Maya for a week or so, but he was afraid to tell her he wasn't interested in a serious relationship. Part of him wanted to date her, but the other part of him still loved Lizzie and he wasn't sure why. He thought moving to the other side of the country would put his feelings into remission.

Maya waved her hand in front of him. "Hello? Earth to David Gordon?"

Gordo shook his head and looked to Maya again, blue eyes catching brown in a moment of confusion. He smiled a little, pushing thoughts of Lizzie to the back of his mind. "Yeah, sorry. What were you talking about?"

"Mrs. Fletcher's class, English 103, do you have to take that one?" She inquired, sitting across from him and tapping her foot impatiently against the leg of the table. The girl watched his gaze, noticing him staring at the table. "I'll bother you again some other time," She announced, standing to her feet. "You're obviously preoccupied."

Gordo grabbed her hand absently, holding her fingertips for a moment. "Listen, Maya, I'm a little caught up in something. Don't be mad at me, I promise it will pass." He stood to his feet and moved closer to her, dropping her hand. Wrapping his arm behind her back, he brought her in for a kiss.

Maya's tanned cheeks turned bright red when he kissed her. It never failed, college life could throw everything at you, but she was still unprepared for a simple kiss. She pulled away and reached into her pocket when she heard a cell phone ringing. Sliding her finger across the screen, she blinked when it wasn't hers.

Gordo looked down, pulling his phone from his pocket and doing the same thing she had. There was a message icon highlighted in the middle of the screen. He pressed the button and stared blankly at the name of the sender. Matthew McGuire.

Maya took a step forward and looked down as Gordo went through the motions of opening the text. The first thing that struck him was the subject; Important. Please read. He scrolled down, hesitantly, noticing the large thick black bar first. The image was slightly blurred. It looked as if it was a photograph of a film slide. The top line on the black image read McGuire, Elizabeth, and the line just below that read Pasadena Mercy Hospital, 4/21/12. His fingers trembled as he moved the image up.

Maya spoke first, staring at the small ball like object in a sea of black and white. "Is that a nephew or something?"

Gordo looked to her, his blue eyes shocked slightly. "I don't have siblings," Evidently she hadn't caught the name on the slide. He wasn't sure if he was grateful or scared. Then, at the bottom of the image, was Lizzie's elegant scrawl. There was a list of different D names, some crossed out. Eventually she seemed to have settled on Daniel Caleb Gordon.

Maya read the name and reread it, her heartbeat nearly stopping when she saw the name. "It's your child?"

He fell backwards into the chair and looked at Maya, blue eyes pleading for mercy. "I didn't know. She never told me."

"If you were any kind of boyfriend, you should have noticed!" She shouted, stomping from the room.

Gordo didn't stop her from leaving. He slid the screen so he could type a response to Matt.

How far along is she?

Matt replied almost instantaneously. He'd written to Gordo and asked him to come onto the face/talk, so he could tell him in person. Gordo went outside into the snow, standing in the back of the building, phone n hand, probably looking rather silly. "Matt, you need to talk to me right now."

"Listen, she hasn't talked to anyone since she moved to Pasadena. When she came to visit, I found this in her book as a bookmark of sorts." Matt held up the photograph that Lizzie left with the book. Apparently she had other copies. "It's from April."

Gordo clenched his teeth, fighting the rage building inside for her not telling him before he left. He'd left in June; she had more than enough time to tell him! He thought back and realized that they were in August, so that would put her somewhere between four and six months. He slammed his fist against the wall. "Why would she do this to me?"

"I don't know," Matt commented quietly. "She wasn't going to tell you, she didn't even tell us until mom asked. Gordo, I don't think she wants you to be a father."

"Too bad," He answered, slamming the phone shut. He frowned and waited for Matt to text him again. The answer came through quicker than he'd thought.

The back of the picture says she was five weeks when this was taken. Ball-parking it, that would put her at roughly 23 weeks as of this week. Give or take a few days, since I'm not sure what day the...uh…child was created.

Gordo's fingers flew across the keyboard. Twenty three weeks, that made her five months and three weeks altogether. He stopped the reply and closed his eyes, wondering when he'd grown so careless with his heart and feelings. He deleted the text message, keeping only the one with the sonogram. Closing the phone, he stuffed it into his pocket and decided not to reply.

Gordo sat on the porch outside the dormitory, watching an old video of Lizzie that he'd loaded onto his iPod. He never really watched it, or paid close attention to it. She was dancing around in the courtyard, laughing as she went. He was following her every move with a video camera, clearly asking her questions about her future.

(Italics are his memories)

"Where do you see yourself in four years?" Gordo asked, laughing as he tugged her down off of a step. He kissed her softly on the forehead and let go of her hand as she moved to the other side of him, walking backwards. "Come on, Lizzie, you promised to answer the questions."

She pouted playfully and held up a finger. She put one down. "Year one, I plan to graduate from high school."

He chuckled. "Well, you can cross that off of your list."

She blushed as she moved onto the next question, sidestepping the fact that they had been together for three years now. "I plan to be married by year two."

"And if you're not?" He asked, moving in closer.

She pouted again. "Well, that's not up to me, now is it?" Sticking her tongue out, she ran down the courtyard, climbing onto a fountain. "Gordo, did I ever tell you what I wished for at the Trevi fountain?"

He looked at her curiously. "No, what did you wish for?"

"A future for us," She smiled. "And since we're together, we'll have that future, right?"

"Of course," He replied, sitting beside her. She moved out of view of the camera for a moment, and then held a flower up to the lens, blocking it out so she could kiss him passionately. "I love you, Elizabeth Brooke McGuire,"

She smiled and dropped the flower. "I love you, too, David Zephyr Gordon." She put emphasis on the "Zephyr".

"So, Mr. Hot-shot movie director, what do you have in mind for your future?" Lizzie asked, taking the camera from him and filming him for a change.

He grabbed at her. "Give it back, Lizzie, you don't know how to work it!"

The now-older and wiser Gordo smiled softly at the memory and looked away. Now that he'd paid better attention to it, he noticed that she was a little heavier, she smiled a little brighter, and her eyes were livelier. He wasn't sure if that could be attributed to the pregnancy, but she seemed to have a 'glow' about her.

The video was recorded the day before he left.

He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, breathing a deep breath of cold winter air. Memories washed over him as he tried to bring back that last conversation.

The blonde wiped her tear-streaked face and watched him moving carefully through their shared apartment, tossing things carelessly into his bag. "I've been accepted to go to New York Film School, Lizzie! Isn't that amazing?" He asked, looking down at the blonde that was now sitting on the floor crying.

She stared up at him, her green eyes dull and lifeless. He couldn't find a breath in his body to keep his heart beating when he saw the heartbreak in her expression. "This is your dream, isn't it?"

He nodded and knelt beside her, pulling her close. "Lizzie, I wouldn't go if I knew it wouldn't help us. This will be what changes our future for the better. And when I come back, Lizzie, I promise I'll marry you."

She smiled a little brighter. "Really?"

"Elizabeth," He brushed her hair to the side tenderly, cupping her cheek as he leaned in to kiss her tears away. "I want you to be the mother of my children. I've loved you since the day I met you. I will never stop loving you. And I will say that I tip my hat to the keeper of the stars."

She smiled again, leaning into his touch. "Promise you won't forget me?"

He smiled that usual smile, closing his suitcase. "How could I ever forget you? You put your pictures all over everything I own. Your videos are in my portfolio…it would be impossible for me to forget you." He picked up his suitcase and stepped to the door. "I'll be back again, you can count on that. Give me a few years to make you proud."

Tears began to prickle the corner of his eyes as he remembered the night. They'd been together in the bed when he got the call from his mother that his acceptance letter came in. He didn't realize it then that she was giving up her own dreams to be with him. He thought back to Rome and wondered if she knew how much he sacrificed for their relationship to succeed. "If you only knew," He whispered. "I'd sacrifice my beating heart before I lose you."

The plane touched down at five in the morning. Gordo got his bags from luggage claim and made his way through the terminal. He didn't want to tell his parents about the discovery. He was too ashamed to face them. They had been so damn careful, and it all went to hell in a hand basket in a matter of months. He spied his dad first, moving over to hug him. "Hi, dad."

Howard took his son's hand and smiled. "Shalom, David."

Roberta smiled at her son when she spotted him, running over to give him a hug. "Oh, David, it's such a surprise to have you home so soon! It seems like you just left yesterday!"

He took out his cell phone and went to his dialed numbers, calling that number he'd memorized so many years ago. There was no answer. He turned to his mother. "Mom, I need to go see Lizzie, did you guys bring my car like I asked?"

She nodded and blinked several times. "You guys broke up when you left, what do you need to see Elizabeth for?"

"I can't tell you yet. I just know it's important, and she knows why." He looked away, hugging both of his parents. "I love you guys. I've missed both of your wisdom in my life."

Howard watched his son leave, wondering what had just happened.

If only Howard knew it was the last time he'd see his son as he knew him.

I want to address a review that I got from someone by the name of 90skiddd. You had mentioned in your review that my story was very similar to another story called "Star of David". There's a very simple explanation for that. I am the author of both stories. When I saw that I couldn't pursue the storyline from Star of David, I decided to re-write it. This was the result. I had decided since it was so drastically different from the original version, I would just post it as a different story. Rest assured, there was no plagiarism. Both are my work. :)

To everyone else, thanks for hanging in there this long. I'll see if I can finish Star of David, but no promises. I'm also putting "Overcoming Insanity" on hiatus for the time being. I'll be updating "Don't Call Me Daddy" tomorrow sometime, if everything goes well. My dad let me move back in with him so I should have a bit more time to update now. I go for training tomorrow at 4, so no promises, since I won't be home until 9-ish.

Read and review, as always.

-River