Chapter 16:

"Destiny I can't believe you just asked me that... You know Dani and I are ancient history. I want to be with you because I love you, only you." He sat on her bed and tried to grab her hand but she moved it away.

"If I didn't love you, I wouldn't have been here visiting every day for the past 6 months." Matthew spread his arms out gesturing to her hospital room "Even when you didn't remember me, I still came. I would never cheat on you!"

"I can't do this anymore... First it's Becca, then me, then Dani, me again and now back to Dani?" Destiny balled her sheet up in her hand.

"You were right, we are better off as friends. All of this tragedy and heartbreak just proves it... I want you to go." Destiny wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Matthew's heart was breaking...He grabbed Destiny's face between his palms and sat beside her. "No I was a blind, immature, fool back then that couldn't see how perfect we could be! I'll always regret hurting you & making you fear losing yourself to love. I will never let you down again. I want to prove it to you but you have to let me."

Destiny shut her eyes and sighed, she was afraid to look at him, she didn't want to be his fool anymore. "I'm done being your doormat Matthew, just let me go." she whispered.

"You're not my doormat. You're the best thing that ever happened to me!" Matthew cried before capturing her lips with his own.

Matthew put all of his longing and hope into their kiss, refusing to stop until she responded back.

Destiny was taken by surprise and found herself kissing him back before she even realized it. All of her most poignant moments with Matthew flashed in her mind: meeting in the gym, his paralysis, her marriage proposal, almost kissing at his parents wedding, his parents shipping him to boarding school in England, her flying to England to get him back, his escape with Dani to Seattle for spinal surgery, him walking again in the sneakers she bought him, his rejection for Dani, her getting over it enough so they could remain friends, her dating Darren, Dani dumping Matthew for Nate, Darren dumping her, her first kiss with Matthew, the night they spent together and finally officially being a couple before the accident.

Panting, Matthew broke the kiss, remaining nose to nose with Destiny. "The last time we were in your room you told me that I never give up and I shouldn't start now. Do you remember that?"

Destiny's eyes remained closed as she nodded her head "Mmm hmm."

Matthew smiled "that especially applies to you Destiny Evans. Whether you were carrying my child or not, don't ever doubt that, ok?"

Destiny threw her arms around Matthew crying wholeheartedly. She had so much to purge from her heart. All of her residual doubt of Matthew, the sight of her ex-friend Dani kissing her man and her fear of being pregnant at seventeen. Matthew let go of all his fear of Destiny and the baby not recovering and his guilt for emotionally and physically hurting her.

After drying each other's tears they began to kiss anew. Softly and slowly leading to passionately needy.

"Oh" Destiny remarked breaking the kiss and placing her hand on her belly "our baby wants us to keep this PG." She giggled as she placed Matthew's hand under hers so they could both feel the baby's kick.

"Uh, no kidding. We have a black belt on our hands, huh?" Matthew laughed.

" I love you so much Destiny," Matthew declared staring into her eyes "you're going to be an amazing mom."

Destiny's smile fell, "Actually we need to talk about that. If we give the baby up for adoption it would always wonder why we didn't want her, just like I felt. I don't want that for our child.

If we decide to keep the baby, we're gonna need a LOT of help from both of our families. Do you think your parents, Shaun and my grandparents would be willing to do that?" she wondered.

"I'd like to think they would but I honestly can't say for sure. We should invite them all over and ask them. So, we're onboard for raising our child together?" Matthew inquired.

"I want to, do you? If you don't just tell me now..." Destiny asked to be 110% sure she wasn't implanting the idea in his mind like Inception.

"Since I found out you were pregnant all I could think about was the three of us being a family, there was never an alternative in my mind." Matthew confessed.

"What is the meaning of this? You can't just barge in here, she is a recovering patient!"

Destiny and Matthew turned to the three people entering Destiny's hospital room. "What's happening?" Destiny yelled seeing her nurse and two Llanview police officers.

"Just calm down miss. We're here for him." the first officer pointed at Matthew while the other recited Matthew's Miranda rights.

He ordered Matthew to stand up and turn around while he placed cuffs on him, "Destiny don't worry just stay calm ok. Call my parents let them know what's happening."

Destiny tried to get out of bed swinging her legs over the side and pushing her arm against the headrest trying to manage all without seeing her feet over her belly "What are you doing? Why are you arresting him?" Destiny began to cry.

The nurse ran over to Destiny to help her remain on her feet, she was weak from being on bedrest for months. "Here I've got you honey" she reassured.

The arresting officer turned around "We received a tip tonight. Your boyfriend is wanted for the murder of Eddie Ford."

"No! Matthew! Matthew!" Destiny reached out struggling against the nurse as Matthew was led out of her room.