Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto.

This next chapter is brought to you by the grace of Thanksgiving break! No school! However I'm screwed because I did have some assignments that I was "assigned" to do haha. But oh well, it's break. No one can tell me what to do! I'm really sorry for making you guys wait so freaking long for this! I had fun writing it and it's like the story all came flowing back to me like never before. I didn't even need to reference previous chapters! CREEPY! Anyway's happy turkey day! And I hope you all are enjoying this wonderful Autumn season as much as I am!

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! ^(^0^)^ *WOOT FACE!*

Kakashi had just let Tsunade's office with the mission details he needed and assured Sasuke that he'd send messenger hawks strait to him and to Tsunade to keep them posted. This ordeal wasn't public yet, and Tsunade hoped to keep it that way for as long as she could.

Sasuke had made his way back to the hospital and found that Sakura had checked herself out. Immediately, he panicked and went running through the halls hoping she hadn't made it out of the hospital yet, but a nurse assured him that she saw the Pinkette walk right through the doors at the front of the hospital and left. Sasuke didn't know where she'd gone, worse, he wasn't sure what she was capable of in her current state. He rushed down the street and ran into Naruto who immediately saw the panic underneath his friend's façade.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm then said, "I found her wandering around the streets. I took her back to your place and made her go to sleep. She's there waiting for you."

Sasuke didn't sigh on the outside, but he was exasperated with relief on the inside. He nodded at Naruto and then took off full speed down the street towards the Uchiha compound. When he got there he found it rather peaceful, a little too peaceful. He was utterly suspicious that something was wrong so he quickly, but quietly made his way into the house to check on Sakura. When he walked in he didn't find anything wrong. Even when he went into the bedroom he found Sakura exactly the way Naruto said he'd left her. Sasuke sat on the bed and let himself relax a little for the first time in several weeks. Sakura was back home safe and sound, his number one priority, but then he though about priority number two, his child. He put his face into the palms of his hands, and for the first time since his parents died, he cried. Silently, he let his tears soak his palms and then seep through his fingers and drip onto the floor.

Sakura violently awoke when she felt an abrupt chakra signature. When she quickly sat up, she saw Sasuke sitting on the other side of the bed facing away from her, and his shoulders were shaking. She crawled across the bed and sat with her legs under her and wrapped her arms around his neck and put her face next to his. Sasuke didn't show any signs of acknowledging her, but Sakura knew that he knew she was there. His tears were making her crumble inside; to see him so torn apart just ripped her to pieces. She let a few tears fall herself, but she'd already been crying practically non-stop since she'd lost her child, so she didn't have many tears left to shed before she was empty. After the two of them had finished shedding what tears they had left, Sakura got up and went to stand in front of Sasuke then leaned down and moved his palms from his face and lifted his chin up to face her. They both had swollen wet eyes and red puffy cheeks. Sakura leaned down further and kissed his cheeks in an attempt to try and stop the tears from falling from his eyes. Sasuke had never been comforted in such a way before, but he wanted more. He pulled Sakura down on him and then up onto the bed underneath him.

"I promise to love you until I die, I will always protect you, even if that means protecting you from yourself" Sasuke said as his face loomed over hers.

"Sasuke-" she tried to say something back.

"Marry me" he interrupted her, "Marry me and we'll always share everything together, we'll never have an excuse to let the other go."

"Sasuke I'm sorry if I scared you, but-"

"You don't want to?" he asked almost in shock as he sat back up and looked at the Pinkette who sat up after him and looked him right in the eye.

"That's not it at all!" she protested unable to look him in the eyes, "I just don't want you to propose out of fear of loosing me, I don't want you to rush into anything you don't truly want, cause it'll wind up hurting me more than you can imagine."

"I can't imagine how much you've already been hurt" Sasuke tried to reassure her, "I'm asking because I want you, and only you, I want you to only be mine. Understand?"

Sakura nodded as tears fell down her face and she leaned into Sasuke's chest and cried mixed tears of joy for one of life's milestones and sadness for the one lost twice along the way. She still wasn't sure that if Sasuke was doing the right thing or not, but she was so caught up in the moment that she didn't care. No number of times they'd shared together could compare to the moment they were sharing right now. It was as if they both had the same mind and body and they were only holding each other. Sakura couldn't describe the sensation, but she knew she wanted more of it.

Sunlight seeped through the blinds into Sasuke's room right onto the pinkette's face which made her slowly look over at the clock on the nightstand, which made her eyes almost pop out of her hea

"It's 9:30!" she shouted, "It's 9:30! Tsunade's going to kill me!"

Sasuke rubbed his head as he sat up only to catch a glint of pink hair flying out of the door. He slowly slid himself sideways and stood up out of the bed heading towards the kitchen.

"What are you doing? Running around like a chicken with its head cut off?" Sasuke grumbled as he attempted to rub the sleep from his eyes.

Sakura didn't mean to wake him up, but she just sheepishly grinned as she said, "I forgot to set an alarm last night, and I'm supposed to work tomorrow, my shift started thirty minutes ago and I'm not even ready to leave the house!"

Sasuke shrugged and arrogantly said, "You're already late, what's the rush?"

Sakura's face turned red as she seethed, "It matters because there's a difference between an accident, and intentionally not caring. Tsunade can tell the difference you nonchalant fool. Not every has to luxury of choosing what work they do."

Sasuke shrugged again as he walked back into the bedroom.

Sakura shook her head as she said, "I have a whole life ahead of me of this…"

Heading for the door the pinkette took one last glance over her shoulder to see the raven-haired man standing in the doorway of the bedroom in his pajama robe staring at her. She flashed him a big smile before going outside and closing the door behind her. She then walked down the sidewalk towards the hospital. Sasuke was right she guessed, there was no need to roof jump to work if she was already late she might as well enjoy a nice walk getting there. Although as soon as she walked inside the slider doors of the hospital up to the employee sign in she regretted taking her time. There was a note next to her name on the clipboard that said, "See me in my office immediately." She mentally scolded herself for the attitude she took on, on the whim of Sasuke's suggestion. However when she went into Tsunade's office she was rather surprised, pleasant or not Sakura wasn't sure, but Tsunade didn't have a nasty expression of distain on her face.

"I have a mission for you" Tsunade said as Sakura sat down in the seat in front of Tsunade's desk.

Tsunade put a bottle of pills on the counter in front of the girl saying, "You can't let the last two times get you down. The first one was nature and the second one was unfortunate. If I hadn't been so careless with assigning your location then you'd have a healthy child by now. Please forgive me."

Sakura couldn't believe the sincerity in the blond's voice. Tsunade had never been so empathetic towards her before. Sakura was simply baffled. She thought that she was in for for being so late to work that morning, but infact all she received was understanding and compassion. Sakura wasn't exactly sure hot to take it all in, but she picked up the bottle of pills off of Tsunade's desk and read the label. Sakura's eyes went wide.

Fertility Supplement. Take one daily at the same time of day.

"I want you to keep trying Sakura, don't give up. You're not a failure, and I know you're not a quitter" came Tsunade's reassuring voice.

Sakura nodded and smiled trying not to let her tears fall. Except unlike the tears cried the night before, these were tears of gratitude and joy. Sakura stood up and bowed at a ninety-degree angle in front of Tsunade's desk and stayed that was for several seconds.

"Stand up already, take those pills before I change my mind and give you a horrible mission that'll send you out of the land of fire. Go." Tsunade grumbled trying to look authoritative, but couldn't help but let a smirk creep onto her face.

Sakura nodded still smiling with tears flowing from her eyes and quickly rushed out of the office and stashed the bottle of pills into her pocket. Her shishou did understand after all. Sakura hurried with her shift doing daily rounds to clean bed sheets and check on patients throughout the hospital. She even saw Megumi helping out in the filing room when she asked, "Would you like to help me?" The little girl's face lit up and she scurried over towards Sakura but froze when she looked at Sakura's abdomen and noticed it was flat as a cutting board.

"Did you have your baby already Haruno-san?" Megumi asked innocently, unknowingly causing a sharp pain to shoot through Sakura's chest.

"No sweetheart. That's a long story…" Sakura answered the girl as she turned around gesturing for Megumi to follow her.

Sakura was surprised when the little girl sprang forward and wrapped her arms around Sakura from behind and whispered, "I'm sorry Haruno-san… please don't be sad… I'm sure Sasuke-sensei wouldn't want to see you so sad…"

Sakura was touched by the little girl's plea and did her best to smile as she turned around and asked, "So have you practiced your chakra scalpel the way I showed you?"

"Yes I have!" She shouted smiling.

Megumi had been practicing since Sakura had left the village, and to say Sakura was impressed was an understatement. The girl wasn't as good as Sakura was given the amount of time, but the girl was still so young, and she showed promise. The girl was just like Naruto. She wasn't exactly talented, but she had tenacity, and in the field of medicine that's even more important than natural raw talent. Sakura took Megumi into her first run of the ER. Sakura knew that if anything happened it would be on her head, but she wanted to see how Megumi would do under pressure. When the situation wasn't suturing a topical scrape, but someone's health and possibly their life.

"Are you ready for this?" Sakura asked before she opened the double doors.

It wasn't her shift for ER duty today, but she knew that no one would mind. They never had enough helping hands in there anyway as it was.

Megumi was full of doubt but she knew that if Sakura was ready to take her in there, than she was ready, and she couldn't doubt herself. She had to have more faith in her abilities than Sakura did. She took one deep breath before she nodded. Both girls were donned in scrubs and facial masks with their hair tied in buns. They immediately walked into a world of chaos. Ninjas were constantly being brought in from all kinds of ranked missions with different injuries. The first one Sakura started Megumi off on was one that included a deep laceration to the arm and a broken bone protruding from the leg. Sakura ushered Megumi up to the moaning ninja. And the girl cringed but she immediately activated her chakra scalpel to cut an opening in the leg to reset the bone, and Sakura was impressed that Megumi thought of that. It was actually less painful for the person than resetting the bone with only a minimal puncture wound and pushing it back in. Megumi then followed up by sealing the wound and reinforcing the bone.

"Give me some calcium supplements! Please!" she shouted.

Sakura was confused but ran over to a cabinet and pulled a few out of a bottle and handed them to Megumi who proceeded to infuse them with chakra causing them to take the form of chakra, and she inserted it into the patient's leg making the bone that was reset almost completely healed. Then she proceeded to the laceration on the man's arm.

"You have to move your hand sir! I can't treat your wound when you're trying to cover it up!" The man who was disoriented with pain didn't mean to, but impulsively pushed Megumi as hard as he could. Sakura caught her pupil and then proceeded to restrain the man.

"This is your treatment Megumi, but you can always ask for help" Sakura said smiling underneath her mask.

The girl returned the smile before turning her concentrated gaze back to the cut. It was infected, so Megumi looked around for a sterile waster basin and withdrew some of the water into an orb using her chakra. She sent the water into the man's arm swishing the water around and looking for all the contents of the infection, and when she had found it all she withdrew the water gracefully and sent it into a container of other infectious wastes and turned her attention to suturing the wound. From the looks of it, Megumi concluded that he's sliced his artery. She couldn't stitch it shut by hand, and she was completely out of chakra from healing his leg.

The girl looked desperately up at Sakura and asked, "Please, help me…"

Sakura gave the girl a sympathetic look and called over to another nurse to restrain the man in her place. Sakura walked around to the other side of the hospital bed and told Megumi it was ok for her to not use all her chakra and that she would eventually gain more. She took care of the artery only and let Megumi suture the stitches on the topical wound. She also left the man with two calcium pills to take just to make sure his bone healed correctly. Sakura would have taken Megumi to more patients, but the girl was out of chakra, and there was nothing Sakura could do about that. She decided to call it a day and told Megumi she would find someone to use her chakra scalpel on next time. Sakura was tired as well because after she told Megumi to go home and rest she got sucked into more ER work than she wanted to. Someone was constantly calling out for some kind of help, and Sakura couldn't just ignore them. She was one of the head doctors in the entire facility after all. She and Shizune ran the hospital in Tsunade's place, which took a lot of effort on both their parts. Sakura decided that she was worn out as well, but she didn't want to go home yet. She couldn't help but feel happy about the proposal Sasuke gave last night. She wanted to accept with all her heart, but she had her doubts. She didn't know if Sasuke had simply proposed out of the moment of sorrow together. She didn't know if he really did want to marry her, and who's to say which reason to marry is right or wrong? Sakura didn't know. She just hoped that the peaceful night or sorting paper work away from Sasuke would last a bit longer.

It was almost midnight and Sakura hadn't returned home. Sasuke wasn't one to worry but he couldn't help but wonder where Sakura had gone off to. Why was she so late? She was usually drowning herself in her work, but she never stayed out too late, she'd just bring a lot of it home to work on. That was the sum total of the living room coffee table, it was completely covered in medical documents and files. He took a seat in a chair by the window that was open in the living room and stared up at a street light that was in the Uchiha compound and let his mind wander. He eventually just went blank and thought of nothing. Then he realized that he'd forgotten an important part of an engagement. He needed a ring. He desperately look around for anything, and then he remembered something important, his mother's ring. He kept it in a separate house in the compound along with any other memmerobelia that belonged to members of his family. He always admired his mother's ring. His father had the diamonds arranged in the shape of the Uchiha crest. Though it was not the colors of the crest since it was diamonds. He found it in a small black box hidden inside a book on a bookshelf, right where he left it. He hadn't touched it in several years, so the box was covered in dust, but when he opened it the ring looked just as shiny and magnificent as it did when his mother wore it. He wouldn't want any other ring for Sakura to wear on her finger. By the time he got home he found Sakura gathering papers on the table in the living room and packing them into a box.

"What are you doing?" he asked hiding the box behind his back.

Sakura was so absent minded that she didn't even realize he was hiding anything behind his back. She was almost zoned out but she answered him.

"I'm taking these back to the office since I finally got around to filing the other million papers on my desk. After I finish these I might actually knock a dent in my paper work."

"Why can't you just leave it and do it here?" he asked.

"Cause I have to file them once I finish them, and I did finish them all, except for two or three."

"Oh. Well… when are you coming back?" he asked with a slight tone of hopefulness underneath his usual uninterested voice.

"Not till much later Sasuke, please. I have to go. Just go to bed, and I'll be home before you wake up I promise."

Sasuke almost felt his heart drop to his feet as he watched her walk out the door and clutched the box he held in his hand and looked over at the dinner he'd been cooking on the stove. He wasn't one to wallow in his own misery, but he didn't want to be alone after what he wanted to do. He was going to butter Sakura up with a homemade dinner and go over plans with her. Plans she wanted for the future, not necessarily marriage, but just to try and figure out what she just wanted, her dreams and hopes. Sasuke was sure she did have enough on her plate and he knew he was being selfish, but he wanted more of her time than she was willing to give.

"That's it." He said as he set all of the food on the table and pictures of renovations for the house to accommodate a family of four, and went to bed.

As he walked towards the bedroom he said, "She can just admire my effort whenever she decides to come home, I'm done."

And he went to take a hot shower to wash away his bad attitude. It didn't work. He plodded over to the bed and fell back onto it with a huff. He stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours but when he looked at the clock it'd only been two minutes. There's no way he would have the attention span to stay up and wait for Sakura. He wasn't even sure when the pinkette was going to come home. For the first time he was pouting like a child thinking that it wasn't fair.

"Why is it that she makes me feel like I did when I was a child? Crying, pouting, hoping…"

Sasuke gave up on giving up and sat up with his hands covering his face. He just stared at the clock and hoped that she'd be home soon before his weariness won over and put him to sleep.

"You're awful, you know that?" came a slurred voice from the door way.

Sakura looked up to see Tsunade leaning against the doorframe with her cheeks nice and red from her drunkenness.

Sakura ran a frustrated hand over her face as she grumbled, "My god… I don't need this right now…"

"Let me tell you something" Tsunade said as she pulled up a chair in front of Sakura's desk and plopped into it trying to assume an authoritative face but failing due to her drunken state, "You're lucky to have not only a man that's in love with you, but one who's not afraid to tell you, and even show you. He's also alive, unlike the man who didn't say anything until it was too late. Take it while it's there, you'll be sorry young lady…" and then Tsunade passed out and feel out of the chair.

Sakura sighed and shook her head and called Shizune on the intercom to come get their drunken Hokage off the floor of her office and take her back to her office to drool on her own papers and not Sakura's. Sakura tried not to let Sakura's words affect her, but when she thought back to how she almost died, she could almost put herself in Sasuke's shoes. It's scary when you think you're loosing the person who means the most to you. It makes you realize you can't take what you have for granted. Sakura looked at the clock, and she didn't realize that it was already 3am. She groaned as she put away the last file and grabbed her tote bag and keys and headed to the front of her office and went out the door after turning off the lights. As she locked the door she didn't pull the key out of the deadbolt. Instead she just looked at the door knob started to drown inside her own world.

"Damn it…" she seethed, "That drunkard is right…"

Sakura just scowled as she crossed her arms and very slowly walked home. She was sure that Sasuke was up waiting if he hadn't called the Anbu forces for her search and rescue already. Sakura was surprised that nothing had really happened. There was always that voice in the back of her head saying, "How is he going to over react and search for you this time?..." Sakura wasn't sure why she didn't feel like no one was looking for her. She even felt like no one was missing her. She even considered crashing at her old apartment, but then she realized that by then the lease was probably over and someone else was living there now. She even thought about crashing in on Ino, but dealing with an 8 month pregnant woman was rather outside her tolerance range. She didn't even know how Shikamaru did it. She thought of Kakashi's, wait no, pervert. She even thought about Naruto, he'd cleaned his place up a bit, but when she thought about it, she realized that not if but when Sasuke found out about it he wasn't going to be happy. With all options exhausted she decided that she would try and creep into the house without anyone hearing her. She wasn't good at hiding her chakra signature, because that's what would wake the Uchiha up more than anything else, is if he sensed an oncoming chakra signature, familiar or not. Sakura was not just surprised by what she saw when she walked into the house, but hurt. She didn't even realize what he was doing, she was too damn caught up in her work. Tsunade was right, she should enjoy Sasuke everyday while he's alive. He's an Anbu after all, they always get sent on S ranked missions that always put their life on the line. Sakura ran her fingers around the rim of each home made dish. He really outdid himself. He made a giant pot of fried rice, he made orange chicken, hong-kong lomein, cashew chicken, egg-fu-yung, and Mongolian beef. Sakura's eyes softened a little as she also looked over to the living room to see a small lamp lit near a desk. She saw that there were pictures of floor plans of a house and two rooms caught her attention. The rooms labeled, 'kid 1' and 'kid 2'. She neatly placed the floor plans back onto the table and then made her way into the kitchen and proceeded to put away all the food that Sasuke had made for the two of them. She felt sad guilty with each scoop she put into the Tupperware. The worst of it was that she had an early shift that started in three hours that she needed to go to which meant no sleep for her, she had to go strait back to the hospital, worst of all it was the ER shift. Sakura figured that lots of water and protein would get her through the day. If she tried to wake up with caffeine or carbohydrates then she'd crash miserably later in the day. But she left a sticky note on the counter for Sasuke after she'd put all the food away. She quickly took a shower and then she read a few medical books and left for work.

Thanks for reading! Sorry that this took so long! The actually content (not the added notes) came to about 4,100 words! So I hope I supplied you with enough to read for the long wait! I only got to write this because I'm on Thanksgiving break this week!