It had taken all of Jack's strength to get himself dressed that morning, even with Karen's assistance. She had brought him into the sitting room via his wheelchair, where he was now patiently awaiting the arrival of Ben, Laila, and their son, his namesake.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Jack asked suddenly, causing Karen to look up from the magazine she was flipping through.

"What is?" she replied, looking at him over the top of her reading glasses.

"Well, I mean…this baby - Jack," Jack began, only hesitating slightly to use his own name in reference to this new child, "he's like…like the kid Will and Grace would've had, in a way."

Karen uncrossed her legs on the royal purple loveseat and smoothed her skirt before re-crossing them, this time switching which leg was on top.

"Yeah, honey, I guess you're right," she agreed. She looked back down at her magazine. "I guess things that are meant to happen will always find a way of working out."

Jack nodded slowly in agreement, considering the significance of this statement in their own lives. Clearly he and Karen were not meant to have a child as their friendly counterparts were, but apparently they were destined to be together, 'til death do them part. As he thought this a dark cloud settled over him, however fleetingly, as he had once again drudged up the whole wedding thing. Due to his failing health, he and Karen had decided to call off their nuptials, or at least postpone them until he was feeling better. Unfortunately, this happening was seeming less and less likely as each day went by.

"Karen?"

She peered over her glasses again.

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you want me to know about your first miscarriage?"

A gaping silence filled the air between them as Karen froze, closed her eyes slowly, then sighed. When she opened her eyes again, she didn't look at him, but focused all of her attention on the magazine in her hands, which she closed and set on the cushion next to her.

"How did you know about that?"

"I was there."

"No you weren't," she swept her glasses off of her face and leaned forward as she uncrossed her legs, her eyebrows pulled tight. "Did Will tell you?" She wouldn't have been surprised if he had let her secret slip to Jack, after all, he had had three decades for it to slip.

"No, he didn't have to," Jack answered. Karen cocked her head in confusion. "I was coming in to Grace's office and when I heard what was going on, I hid in the custodian's closet." Karen bit her lip and looked down at her hands. "I heard you tell Will not to tell me, and I want to know why."

"I don't know, Jack."

"That's like, the only secret you've ever kept from me. Why?"

"I don't know." Karen stood now, hurrying over to the window to fuss with the curtains as she became more and more uncomfortable with the conversation they were having.

"I kind of understand why you didn't want to tell me then," Jack continued, as he ruefully watched Karen avoid his gaze and his question. "But why, after thirty years is it still a secret?" He paused as she untied and re-tied the golden cord of the window dressing.

"Jack…"

"Why didn't you even tell me after the second time?"

At this, she turned sharply, flashing him a look of ice. They hadn't really spoken of the loss of their baby since the fight they had over it that had driven them apart for months had been resolved, all of those years ago. Karen hardly felt that now, minutes before their guests were supposed to arrive, was the time to bring it up.

"I don't understand why you want to talk about this now," she dodged, crossing back towards him to turn on the lamp that was sitting on the little table next to where he sat in his wheelchair.

"Because, Karen," he answered, his voice rising steadily. She paused next to him, looking down on him like a school teacher might regard an ill-behaved student sitting in their desk.

"Oh, good answer," she responded sarcastically. She turned to leave the room.

"Karen!" He grabbed her arm tightly, and she writhed beneath his grip in attempt to break free.

"It's ancient history," she explained, her heart beating loudly in her chest as her voice rose to match his irritated volume. "Can't we talk about it later?" she ventured, seeing the look in his eyes, still unsatisfied. She turned away from him again, wanting desperately to make it to the door before he asked another question she didn't want to answer.

"No," he grunted through his teeth, as he desperately clutched at her with both of his hands now, the force of her striding away pulling him up out of his wheelchair. He struggled to gain his footing as she continued to move away from him, unaware that he was now teetering on his weak legs behind her, grasping for the edge of the table. "Karen!"

She turned abruptly, angry now at his relentlessness, just in time to see his knees buckle beneath him, a look of shock and helplessness flashing across his face as he reached for her.

Karen cried out in surprise as she dove towards him, hoping to stop his inevitable course towards the hard floor. She threw herself beneath him and fell to one knee and he hit her hard, knocking her the rest of the way to the ground. A sharp grunt escaped her as the weight of his body on hers knocked the wind out of her, but she was relieved that it was she who had taken the brunt of his fall.

"Look what you did now," Jack muttered bitterly. She took a moment to let the air come back into her lungs before she spoke.

"How is this my fault?" she asked, giving in to their situation and letting her muscles relax against the cold floor as she stared at the ceiling. She felt Jack pull himself across her and roll onto his back next to her. He sighed.

"If you would've just answered my question…"

"Why are you suddenly so interested in something that happened so long ago? God, I haven't even thought about that in years."

Jack knew this was a lie, supremely aware that Karen's failure to become a mother was something that haunted her everyday of her life.

"Because I don't want us to have any more secrets."

"Well that was the only one I had, honey, and apparently it wasn't as secret as I thought. But do we have to talk about it now?"

"Yes, we do," his voice was indignant, as though this was an obvious truth that he couldn't believe Karen was denying.

"Why?"

He found her hand next to his, resting on the rug beneath them, and squeezed it tightly.

"Because we don't have that much time left."

Karen licked her lips and squeezed his hand back in response, but didn't look at him. He had seen enough tears of hers lately, and he didn't need to see her eyes sparkling with them now, so easily conjured up at even the slightest mention of the fact that his time on this earth was ending.

"Jack…"

"No, Karen, I mean it. I know we like to pretend that I'm going to be fine, but we both know I'm not. You're like a wife to me, Karen - you're my absolute best friend and I don't want anything between us to be unresolved before I die."

"Ok," Karen consented, using the edge of the side table next to her to pull herself to a seated position. She extended a hand to Jack. "As soon as Ben and Laila leave, I'll tell you everything." He took her hand and smiled at her as she pulled him up next to her.

Jack looked around, for the first time taking stock of the fact that they just had their first argument in 20 years, and that it had taken place on the floor, because both of them were too old and tired to keep themselves upright. Karen looked around too, as if knowing exactly what he was thinking, and almost in unison, they both burst out laughing.

They continued giggling as Karen struggled to help Jack up and back into his wheelchair; it was like a senior citizen slapstick routine.

"Everything OK in here?" Ben asked, poking his head inside the doorway and rapping his fist a few times on the wood framing. Karen and Jack giggled some more and waved him inside, Laila trailing behind him with a little blue bundle in her arms.

"Everything's great," Jack answered him, smiling broadly as he reached for the baby.