I raced through the doors of the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. After a call to Rick, who made a call to Mitchie's manager, I got Caitlyn's cell phone number and called her to ask which hospital Brandon was at. I fricken loved that girl right about now.

"Hi, which room is Brandon Torres in?" I asked the nurse at the desk.

"Are you a family member?"

"Well, no…but…I really need to talk to his sister…" I started. I knew one thing that could probably get me in. "Look, do you know who I am?"

"Yes," she told me.

"Will you tell me what room he's in if I visit all the kids afterwards?" I asked.

She seemed to consider it for a moment before typing something into the computer. "Room 185. But you didn't get that from me."

"Thank you so much."

I hurried down the hall towards Brandon's room. What the hell was I going to say to her? Maybe it was a bad idea just to show up like this. Especially given the circumstances. But maybe she needed someone to be there for her. What if she wasn't even there?

She was. As I got a little closer, Mitchie came out of one of the rooms and leaned against the wall. She looked exhausted.

"Mitchie," I called to her.

She looked towards me, a very surprised look on her face. "Nate? What…"

"She could be you."

Did I really just say that? She probably didn't even know what that even meant. Why would she remember what she had said at the airport, about how lucky my future girlfriend would be? She was probably too worried about her brother to remember even seeing me there. Where the hell did that even come from? I felt like I was having an out-of body experience or something. That was something I would only ever say in my head. Maybe I had. Maybe that was just a hallucination.

"What did you just say?" she asked, but by her tone I could tell she'd heard me perfectly.

Shit. I really did say it. I shoved my hands into my pockets nervously and looked down at the floor. "I mean…if you, you know…nothing. Nevermind. I shouldn't have come here. Sorry."

Mitchie just kind of stared at me for a minute and then smirked a little. "You're cute when you're nervous."

Cute. Great. That was one of those things a girl called you before she said, "but I just don't look at you in that way…" I didn't say anything. I guess there wasn't really anything I could say. It's not like I could just tell her that I wanted…

"You want me to be your real girlfriend?"

I laughed uncomfortably at the way she read my mind. I guess she did remember. "Don't sound so surprised. You've been stringing me along since we met and you know it."

She giggled, which made me feel a little better. At least she wasn't running in the other direction. "Is it because I'm such a babe? I mean, you did say I was a ten…"

She picked the worst times to mess with me. "Mitchie, stop screwing with me, please. I'm not good at this shit, okay? Don't make it harder than it is."

Wow, who was this person? These are things I would never say, but here they were, coming out of my mouth. Maybe some of her forwardness had worn off on me.

"Well, I had to make sure that you were for real. I'm too much for some people to handle, sometimes."

"What the hell else do I have to say to prove myself to you?" I asked, my frustration evident.

Mitchie laughed. "Well, first, you should probably kiss me."

The stupidest grin broke out across my face. I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her passionately. I knew I could make her see that we should be together. But she said 'first'…was she messing with me again?

"What's second?" I asked suspiciously.

She giggled at my caution and kissed me again. "Take me out tonight? I need to forget about this."

She made an absentminded hand motion to indicate she was talking about the hospital. The stress of even being here again was painted on her face. I didn't know how she was even managing to keep it together so well.

"Absolutely," I said immediately.

All of the sudden, everything seemed perfect. I wrapped my arms around her waist, crashed my lips into hers, picked her up and spun her around.

"You really thought I didn't like you?" she smirked when I finally set her down.

"Well…I don't know…you were kind of sending me a lot of mixed signals…why didn't you say anything?"

"Why didn't you say anything?" she answered my question with a question. "Why do you think I came up and talked to you at the MTV Awards in the first place? Why do you think I slept with you?!"

"Because you were drunk out of your mind?" I smirked.

"I was n…" she started defensively, but she couldn't keep a straight face. "Well, yeah, okay, I was, but I still liked you…"

"Hey, I'm not complaining," I replied. I pulled her close to me again. "I mean, if you wanted to do that again sometime…"

Mitchie giggled and kissed me quickly. "There'll be time enough for that later, after I know Brandon's going to be okay…I should probably get back in there, anyways."

"Okay," I said.

"I, um…" she started, looking up at me uncomfortably. "I don't want you to take this the wrong way, okay? But, I don't know if…I mean, Brandon gets attached to people really quickly, and…well, we've only been dating for like fifteen seconds, so I don't know if you should…in case it doesn't work out or whatever…"

"Hey, I completely understand. Don't worry about it," I smiled at her. "I have another visit to make, anyways. Call me when you're ready to go?"

"Yeah," Mitchie nodded and kissed me again. "Thanks."

She disappeared into the room and closed the door behind her. I really did understand why she was uncomfortable with me going in with her, but it bothered me a little that she was already questioning whether or not we were going to work out. I know she didn't mean anything by it, though.

I headed back down the hall to the nurses' station. The nurse I had spoken to before noticed me and smiled. "Ready?"

I nodded as she stood up and led me down a different hallway to a big room. I looked through the windows at the rows of beds and the kids. It kind of scared me – they were all so pale and sick-looking. I mean, they were in the cancer ward, so obviously they were sick, but I didn't expect them to be so small. Most of them didn't have hair. I guess I'd never seen a kid with cancer in real life. It was way sadder than on TV. It must be so hard for Mitchie to have to see her little brother like that every single day. I would want to protect him from the press if I were her, too.

"Mr. Black?" the nurse said. By her tone I could tell that she had said my name more than once, but I'd been too shocked to notice.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm ready."

"This is really special for them," she told me. "It's great that you're doing this."

"Anytime," I replied distractedly.

She pushed open the door and walked into the room in front of me.

"Hi, nurse Stacy!" some of the kids said.

She smiled at all of them. "Hey, guys! Someone special has come to hang out with you today! It's Nate from Connect 3!"

I guess they knew who I was, because a lot of them clapped and shouted. I waved at them and tried to hide how nervous I was. "What's up?"

I spent about half an hour taking pictures and talking to the kids before I noticed Mitchie standing on the other side of the windows. I excused myself and slipped into the hallway to see her.

"Hey, Mitch…what's wrong? Is Brandon okay?"

She was crying, but she smiled when she heard the worry in my voice. "He's fine. It's just…you don't know how much it means to them that you're spending time with them. It means a lot to me, too. You're so sweet, Nate."

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her close to me and kissing her forehead. I guess so far I was doing pretty well as her real boyfriend. She took my hand and started to lead me down the hallway.

"Come on," she said. "I want you to meet Brandon."

"But I thought…"

She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled. "I changed my mind."

This was a big deal. I was a little nervous.

"My dad's here, too."

Great. Now I was really nervous.

"Brandon? There's someone I want you to meet," Mitchie said as we walked into the room.

He was even sicker looking than the other kids, but he had the biggest grin on his face I'd ever seen. I didn't understand how someone could be so happy even when they might be dying.

"Dad, Brandon, this is Nate…Nate, this is…"

"Hi, Nate! I'm Brandon! I'm six years old and I like baseball!" the little boy said happily. "Are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend? That's what the lady on the TV said."

Mitchie looked at me and laughed, amused by her brother's question. She laced her fingers through mine. "Yeah, Brand, we're boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Are you gonna get married? I always wanted a brother!"

"Hey, what's wrong with sisters?" Mitchie asked, pretending to be hurt by his comment.

Brandon threw his arms around her. "You're the best, Mitchie! But I want a big brother to play baseball with me! And basketball and video games too! Are you gonna be my brother, Nate?"

I smirked. I didn't even have as much energy as this kid, and I was totally healthy. "How about I just be your friend for now? Is that okay?"

"Yeah great! Do you like to play Mario Kart? That's my favorite game in the whole wide world! Wanna play it with me sometime?"

"Yeah, definitely," I agreed.

"Just make sure you clear your whole day, first. Once you start playing, he might not let you stop," Mitchie's dad joked. He held his hand out to me and I shook it. "Call me Steve. It's good to meet you, Nate."

"Nice to meet you, too," I replied.

"Promise you'll come over soon to play Wii, Nate?" Brandon asked.

"You better make it really soon," Mitchie told him. "Nate's going on tour soon, all over the world."

"Wow! Even to Canada?!"

"Actually," I started to correct her. "I think we're going on tour soon."

"What?" she asked. She looked at me like I had lost my mind.

"Well, it's not official yet, but our managers are meeting to discuss co-headlining the world tour," I explained.

Her eyes widened and she grinned excitedly. "Are you serious? That would be incredible!"

"I know," I agreed. I'm glad she thought so, too. If she wasn't going on tour with me, I didn't even want to go. "Rick wanted me to convince you to tell your manager that you thought it was a good idea."

"I'm convinced!" she squealed. "I'm going to go call him right now!"

She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and pressed a speed dial button eagerly. As soon as she had, my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and checked the caller ID – I didn't know who's number it was, but it looked familiar.

"Excuse me," I said before I stepped out into the hallway. "Hello?"

"Nate? It's Caitlyn."

"Oh, hey. What's up?"

"I just wanted to see how everything went," she told me. "Did you find her? Did you tell her how you felt?"

I could already tell that Caitlyn and I were going to be good friends. She was like my friends, but better because she didn't make fun of me.

"Yeah, we were just hanging out with Brandon. She feels the same way I do, so…we're not pretending anymore, we're for real," I said.

"That's great! And I just heard about the tour idea! Our manager said nothing was finalized or anything, but our label is really interested, too, so it looks good! Wouldn't that be so much fun?"

"Yeah, it would," I agreed. "Listen, I've gotta go, but thanks for calling. It means a lot."

"Hey, just make my best friend happy, okay?" she replied.

"I'll try my best," I promised. "I'll see you later, Caitlyn."

"See ya, Nate. Say 'hi' to our girl for me!"

"I will. Bye," I said, pressing the 'disconnect' button on my phone. I liked the sound of that -- our girl. My girl. This day just kept getting better and better.

A/N: What do you want to see happen next? PM OR REVIEW WITH IDEAS! I'm totally stuck. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!