Here it is. The big one. Every answer I wouldn't give for MONTHS. I've just thrown them all in there and you can bet it's just a pressure cooker for everyone. I wonder who will explode first. Any guesses?

Sean and I were pulling into the parking lot when my phone rang again, "Craig? Is everything okay?"

"With Emma, yes. She's receiving visitors now."

"Are you in the room with her?"

"No. That's actually…um…Manny is—one of her visitors. In there right now."

"Manny's there?"

"I guess Emma called her last night."

"Because of the fight."

"I just wanted to give you a head's up."

"Sean and I are on our way up now. We'll see—hey! HEY! JAY? Sean? Is that—I have to go, Craig."

"Wait, Hogart's—" I cut his question off by shutting my cell phone.

"JASON HOGART…FREEZE," I yelled with all my might.

In the distance, a figure halted and turned slowly, "Christ, Ellie, those are some lungs."

"What are you doing here?"

"Um…my wife's in the hospital."

"What happened to your leg?" Sean asked.

"Apparently, I'm too fragile for field work."

Sean squinted at him, "You? You can bench press your wife."

"In my defense, she's tiny."

"So, how'd you know Emma was in the hospital? Craig said he just found out and there's no way that's enough time for you to hop a flight."

"My station's in Georgia. When you told me about the electrolytes this morning I knew it was going to turn into more. Emma's body doesn't handle pregnancy well. We've had five miscarriages—I just knew."

"She—in one year?" Sean asked quietly.

"No. Two were…before we got married. I—I didn't know about the one. It was. Look, we can talk about this upstairs. She has gestational diabetes. She. I shouldn't have even. She shouldn't be alone any more than—let's go upstairs."

We rode the elevator in silence and when we got to the sixth floor Craig was pacing in front of the elevator. "Craig, hey, is everything alright?"

"No! It's her kidneys…I…I wanted to stay in there but…Manny—"

"Let's get one thing straight, Craig, you can't just walk out on your friends, your friends who have been here for you through EVERYTHING just because Manny shows up," Jay sputtered.

"Wow, thanks, Jay. Jay who showed up with absolutely no warning. Who didn't tell anyone about his leg, or his flight home or—you know what, you're right. Emma is more important than the rest of this shit right now." Craig spun on his heels and headed back towards the room.

We all followed him, talking amongst ourselves. "Emma, I truly believe everything's going to be fine," Manny's voice filtered through our ears. "You're at five months and…oh, Em…shh."

Jay stepped in first. The rest of us were too busy staring at the scene before us. Manny had climbed into the bed with Emma and curled her body around her, smoothing her hair onto the pillows. "Baby, how are you feeling?"

"Jay? Jay! What are you doing here? What happened to your leg? Why didn't you—" her diatribe was cut short as she grabbed her stomach in pain, "Ooh."

"Em," he shouted rushing towards her on his crutches. He pulled himself into the chair beside her, "This is why I didn't call first. I didn't want you to hear I broke my leg and think it was worse than it is. I know you Em, your imagination can run wild. Is it the baby?"

"No. My kidneys. An infection. God, I wish the three of you would just come in instead of blocking the doorway like that."

I bristled at her tone, "We just don't want you to feel crowded."

"Crowded? Ellie…I just feel loved. All of you, in here, caring. Thank you for worrying about me. For—you're always there."

"Just like you're always here for us. It's no different. It's no—we all love you, Emma. And we're going get you through this." I turned towards Craig's voice slowly and smiled at him.

"So, what's the deal, Emma?" Sean asked moving to the far right of the room.

"I have gestational diabetes. I've—we've had trouble conceiving before. Three miscarriages before this pregnancy stuck. I thought. I thought I was in the clear once I got to the third month. But there are still complications and. Craig, I don't know if I'm going to be able to continue the trip."

"The trip? Em? You're worried about the trip? We can postpone the trip, Emma. You honestly think any of us are going anywhere when you need us?"

"Wow Craig, it's kind of endearing the way you care about every woman in your life. Must've just been me you couldn't bring yourself to care about," Manny muttered as she rolled herself off the bed.

"By all means Manny, let's make this about you," Ellie shot narrowing her eyes and the shorter woman. "God knows you don't spend enough time bashing Craig on television every day."

"I tell the truth Ellie. And you of all people should know he deserves to have people know it."

"We both made mistakes, Manny. Our marriage was just that—ours—and you didn't work any harder at it then I did."

I turned abruptly towards Craig, that wasn't fair. She had tried harder. Even I knew that, even after everything. "Craig, c'mon, that's not fair. She tried. You know she—"

"I tried too. Tried to love you, just you. God, you made it so hard, Manny."

"Craig!" Emma said sharply.

Craig nodded his head like a school child being punished, "Right, sorry."

"Emma why didn't you tell me you were in pain," I whispered walking towards her bed. "I know you had trouble conceiving but…ignoring these things doesn't make them go away. We have to take care of eachother, right?"

"I'm sorry, Ellie. I just didn't want you to get overprotective."

"It's not overprotective if the actions are called for Emma," Manny added from her corner of the room.

It burned me up inside to agree with Manny twice within the same five minutes. But what could you do. Sean's voice sounded from across the room, "So gestational diabetes? You get that every time you're pregnant?"

"How would they know what's gonna happen every time, man?" Craig asked settling into a chair.

"Um…" I mumbled looking towards Jay and Emma. My eyebrow arched and I turned to review the smug smile on Manny's face, the regret burning on Sean's eyes.

Emma looked down at her hands, "Well, Craig. You remember that day I trashed your dining room?"

"Yes. You said Snake had called with bad news about your mom."

"I lied. I—I had been pregnant. Until that—I. I lost the baby. I couldn't call Ellie cause she was going through that with Jimmy and…you were so sick. I couldn't—"

"The silences." She nodded and his face filled with blood, "You could have—I would have been there for you. You didn't need to ignore me. Don't forget, I too know what it is like to lose children."

The words dig deeply into everyone in the room. "Fuck you," Manny spits at him.

He laughed, "Funny you should mention it; the sex was about the only part of our relationship that was tolerable."

"I would get so depressed about it. I already thought Jay was out of my life forever and then the baby. And you didn't—I was afraid you would be mad at me."

"What? That's crazy Em."

"You were mad at Manny."

"Manny did it on purpose. Your baby died. Mine were killed."

"Still you were—you were so messed up then Craig. I wasn't sure if you would lash out or not. I was so fragile already and. I couldn't handle your anger. Not about that, about anything. So I avoided you. And I called the only person I knew, without a doubt, would be there for me without—I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"God Em, the secrets you have. How do you—how do you do it?"

"Watch it, Craig," Jay spoke sitting up straight in his chair. So far, he had just been observing but there was a deadly calm taking over his eyes now.

"I just meant that…to go through so much…by herself. Where do you find the strength to keep going? To keep trying? I haven't seen half the stuff you have and look at me."

"You've seen enough, Craig. We all have." The words had come from Manny and we all rested our eyes on her as she finished, "You've done your fair share of rebuilding too."

It's the closest either one of them will ever get to an apology and we all know it. The silence settles in around us and it's almost comfortable. Almost.