It wasn't terribly surprising to discover that there was no good way to apologize to one of your best friends for unwittingly breaking her heart. Flack had tried several times to talk to Jess in the week since the day of the bombshells and there just wasn't any decent opening. Still, he knew he couldn't let it be left the way it was now. He still hated that he hadn't seen the way she felt, and he couldn't stand that he was responsible for the hurt she was experiencing.

The day Stella was due to come home from the hospital, Don decided that he would have to corner Angell that day to get anything resolved. So when he spotted her heading into the station ahead of him he decided to take his chances.

Much to his surprise, Jess stopped at the door and turned to face him. "You want to talk," she sighed, and it wasn't a question.

"Yeah," he told her, tucking his hands into his pockets so he wouldn't do that busy playing with his hands thing Messer had laughingly mentioned years before. "Look Jess, if I had known…"

She shook her head. "You didn't, Don, and I didn't tell you for a reason; and don't tell me something would have happened if you had because we both know that would be a lie."

"Yeah, I know. But if I had some idea I wouldn't have confided in you so much about Stella; I can't even imagine how that felt for you."

"No, you probably can't," she told him with a frown, crossing her arms defensively. "But it was my choice not to tell you. I just kept hoping that if I was there, if you and Stella never happened, that maybe one day you would finally see me that way; but a part of me knew it would never happen."

Don shook his head. "I wish you would have said something."

She sighed. "Why? So you could have let me down easier? It was going to hurt either way, Don. So maybe it's better that it went this way, like ripping off a Band Aid, I guess."

"You're a good friend, Jess. I don't want to lose that."

"You won't," Angell told him with a sad smile. "You'll always be my friend, Don, but it's going to take some time for me to get to a place where we can deal with each other normally again."

He didn't really like it, but he knew it was what she needed. "I can respect that."

"Thank you."

She turned to head into the station and Flack found he had to add just one more thing. "Jess," he called out, and she turned. "Ross is a good guy. I'm glad you have him right now."

This time he got a real smile, subdued though it may have been. "Me too."

Though he didn't feel entirely thrilled about the way their discussion turned out, Flack hadn't really expected it to go smoothly; and mostly he was happy that they had at least spoken. Yet the longer he sat at his desk, filling out paperwork and making phone calls, the more his mind turned to Stella. As usual his impatience started to get the best of him, and he found himself counting the minutes until he could leave the station.

He was picking her up from the hospital at the end of his shift, and he had this insuppressible feeling that her coming home was one more step in the right direction for them. So when it was time for him to knock off, he all but bolted to the car, and when he got to the hospital he had to force himself to calm a bit. The last thing he wanted was to overwhelm her.

Stella was subdued all through the release process, and she barely said a word in the car. It worried him a bit, but Flack had learned that pushing her was the last thing he wanted to do. So he endured the silence, and when they pulled up to her apartment building he couldn't suppress a smile; and that smile only grew as he carried her bag upstairs.

When she slipped her key into the lock, Stella let out a contented sigh, but that turned into a surprised gasp when she walked in. There was a bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table, a stack of books and movies next to it, and a list of take out menus fanned out next to those.

"What…?" she questioned, turning to Flack.

"Linds knew that you would get bored being away from work. She wanted to welcome you home and make sure you would have plenty of distractions. Mac had your spare key so he helped too."

She ran a hand over the flowers, worrying a petal with her fingers. "It's so sweet."

There were tears in her eyes, and he set her bag down to go to her. "Stell what's wrong? Did something happen before we left the hospital?"

"Dr. Carr came to talk to me," she said quietly, sitting down in on of the chairs at the table. "He told me that I needed to know that if I ever get pregnant again, with the genetic abnormality, there's a very good chance this could happen again."

He sat in the chair next to her. "Stell…"

"Let me finish?" she questioned, and he nodded. "I never knew I wanted a baby until I was told that I wasn't going to have one. I didn't even know I was pregnant bit when I found out that I was, and that there wasn't going to be anything they could do it was like a little piece of my heart was ripped out. I didn't realize how much I wanted children, but I do Don; and I love you and I want to be with you, but what if I can never have a baby because of this accident of genetics? What if I can never give us a family?"

The raw pain in her voice and the way one hand unconsciously strayed to her stomach tore him apart, but he shook his head. "A family is what you make of it Stell. We'll do whatever it takes. If you want kids, we'll find a way to have them. I'm going to quote a movie I was forced to watch a million times. We'll adopt ten of them; we'll buy them if we have to. Anything."

She couldn't help but laugh, even through the tears. "I can't believe you've seen Steel Magnolias."

"That's the magic of sisters," he said wryly. He reached out to brush a piece of hair from her face. "I'm with you for the long haul; you're not getting rid of me. So if we decide we want kids, if you can't get pregnant again or if this happens again, we'll punt."

"How on earth did I get lucky enough to find you?" Stella whispered.

Don shook his head. "See that's the funny thing; from my way of thinking, I'm the one who's gotten ridiculously lucky enough to find someone like you."

"I suppose that's the way of the world," she said with a little smile. "You never realize what you've got until it's gone, and you never see things from another person's point of view."

"Exactly." He leaned forward to cup the back of her neck, gently pulling her towards him. "We're going to do this, Stell. It isn't going to be easy, but we're going to do it; and when we come to the big decisions we'll make them, but not before."

Stella nodded. "I'm slowly discovering that it doesn't do any good to wonder about the what ifs. Doing that almost lost you."

He grinned at her. "Nah, eventually I would have decided to pester you until you gave in."

It felt good to laugh again, and especially with him. Even so, she was still completely exhausted. "Stay the night?" she questioned.

"Of course," he told her, hiding the fact that his heart turned a couple of flips in his chest when she asked admirably well. "Anything you want."

It took a while to get settled. Stella was still healing, and it was a bit of a struggle to go through what many would consider the most basic of motions. But eventually they managed to make it to bed, and Stella found herself breathing a contented sigh as he wrapped his arms gently around her. "Thank you, Don, for everything."

"Here comes that conversation again," he told her. "Because I feel like I should thank you for letting me back in your life. We're just a backwards pair I guess."

She was starting to drift off, but she slipped one more comment in. "Forward is overrated anyway."

Note From The Author—So I'm sure some of you are noting the length of this chapter, and what you're thinking is coming really is coming. This is the last main chapter, but stay tuned for an epilogue. You know I can never leave things unresolved, and there will be a nice fluffy ending to satisfy us all.