WARNING: THIS STORY IS NO LONGER BEING EDITED FOR CONTENT. FULL DESCRPTION WILL BE INCLUDED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED…

Disclaimer: You know I don't own the original characters, but I have had fun manipulating them to fit my own imaginings!

Okay, I have to begin with big, huge, massive thanks to Kimpy for basically writing Charlotte's procedure in this chapter! I was SO, SO, SO ,SO blocked for this part that I just couldn't do it justice at all, so finally I begged Kimpy to get me past my block by writing me an example of it and she gave me permission to just copy and paste it and edit it a little to match my needs and style. You can probably tell someone much more knowledgeable than I wrote that section, So big writer's credit goes to Kimpy in this chapter…I want to thank her for keeping this chapter from being stalled indefinitely! It's far more technically detailed than I typically get in my medical chapters for obvious reasons!

Also a big thanks to my beta Sihaya9 for her beta work and Sassenach Wench for her speedy validations!

Surfacing From The Deep

BPOV

I got up and went in extra early Tuesday morning to find out the latest Charlotte update before having to meet the Femmes on the floor for morning rounds. I was so excited and also a bit worried when I discovered that they had begun to reduce Charlotte's sedatives in preparation of removing her from the ventilator later that morning.

I couldn't hide my hopeful smile when I met the girls. Dr. K asked me what was going on. I explained as briefly as possible the general situation and Dr. K nodded with a smile.

"Well, then what are you doing here, Swan? I'm guessing you haven't had the opportunity to be involved in an extubation yet?" I nodded an affirmation that she was correct.

She laughed and shook her head. "Then go! It will definitely be far more informative than rounding with us this morning. You can come back down and join us once the excitement is over if all goes well; if not then we'll see tomorrow."

I smiled brightly at her. "Oh, thank you so much, Dr. K."

She nodded before turning away from me to resume her discussion with Alice. She smiled at me over Dr. K's shoulder, before focusing her attention back on the resident. I turned on my heel and rushed back to the elevators for the Peds ICU where the teams kept trailing in and out of Charlotte's room.

When I entered the room, Charlotte's parents looked up at me and smiled appreciatively. I stepped to the other side of her bed to take some time to help calm both her and her parents before the procedure began. Soon the nurse came in, asking Charlotte's parents to wait in the hallway during the procedure, while assuring them that they could watch from the doorway. I smiled up at them and promised to stay by her side the whole time until they were allowed to come back in.

It had been such good news that Charlotte's respiratory status was stable enough that she could be weaned off her ventilator, get extubated, and start to breathe on her own again. The bad news was that it is a medical challenge to balance the process finely enough to minimize stress and trauma to the patient. The problem everyone wants to avoid is a failed extubation; when that occurs, the patient ends up being reintubated within minutes of having the breathing tube removed. This is stressful for the patient and all those involved. Plus, once the tube has been reinserted, getting the patient back to the point of removing it again becomes much more difficult.

Everyone on Charlotte's care team knew how important it was for us to get the extubation right on the first attempt, because her lungs were more fragile due to her CF. Because of this, we had taken the time to wean her from her vent gradually, giving her lungs time to accommodate the changes. There are so many different breathing modes that can be used on a ventilator, thanks to the level of sophistication of the equipment. The settings include how many breaths per minute will be delivered by the vent; how big, in terms of overall volume each breath given by the vent will be; the percentage of oxygen given in each breath; and even airway pressure, which, when increased, helps keep the lungs open longer, to maximize the amount of oxygen delivered by each breath. As a patient improves, their breathing rate will be turned down gradually, forcing them to initiate more breaths on their own. The amount of oxygen in room air, the stuff that most of us breathe, is 21%. On a vent, the oxygen can be set anywhere from 21% - 100%. When a patient requires a much higher percentage of oxygen, between 80 – 100%, it is one indication that they are in respiratory failure. Likewise, there are some patients who never regain the ability to initiate their own breaths.

For Charlotte, we'd been managing her vent breathing rate, the percentage of oxygen delivered, and her airway pressures closely while she has been intubated. Over the course of the past 36 hours or so, we've been weaning her breathing rate downward. She started out at a rate of 30, and we've gotten it down to 12. While she was breathing at an average rate of 26-30 breaths per minute, the vent was only delivering 12 of those breaths. Likewise, her oxygen when she was first intubated was very high, but we had slowly weaned her down to room air percentages. Along the way with each change in setting, we had taken a VBG, or venous blood gas, to examine the levels of oxygen versus carbon dioxide in her bloodstream.

Charlotte has adapted to each ventilator change with no major issues, so the docs were getting ready to remove the tube this morning. While she was on the vent, she needed to be sedated, because it is very anxiety provoking, and we also needed to make sure she wouldn't be alert enough to try pulling out the tube. The sedation had to be weaned along with the ventilator because we needed her alert enough to be able to breathe on her own, but not so alert that she removed her own tube. Once again, it is a very fine balance to achieve, and we don't always do a good job of it.

The last step before we remove a breathing tube is to turn off the sedation entirely 30-60 minutes before the tube is removed, depending upon the type of sedation we have been using. For Charlotte, we used a medication called Propofol. It is a great sedative, because it keeps children very still, but when we turn it off, its effects are reversed almost immediately. For other medications, like Versed, for example, the effects stay in the body much longer, which is why they are weaned down gradually. Propofol is the drug that Michael Jackson used to request nightly to help him "sleep." It is rarely given to patients who are not intubated, because it can easily cause you to stop breathing. If you are already intubated, not breathing isn't a problem. If you aren't, you can die. Like Michael Jackson.

Charlotte's latest VBGs show that she is ready to be extubated. In talking to her nurse, I learned that she has had all three doses of the steroid Decadron, which we use to help reduce airway swelling for when the tube is removed. The doses are given six hours apart. Charlotte's doses were all in and she was ready to roll. She has been holding her own at a vent rate of 12, and her oxygen level sat at room saturation percentages and consistent satisfactory oxygen saturation stats. She was ready.

The doctors had turned off her sedation when I visited earlier this morning, and planned to give her a good hour to adjust before we take out her tube, so I had returned from the Femmes just in time. I held her hand, explaining to her what we were doing, even though she was so sedated that she couldn't look at me. I knew that underneath the medication she could hear me, though, so I made sure to let her know what we were doing, and when we were going to do it.

Before removing the tube, which is done by the attending physician, the nurse prepared the bedside with all supplies needed to reintubate a patient. This included a few sterile, packaged breathing tubes; a laryngoscope and blades, which is the instrument used to hold down the tongue and open the laryngeal area to see where to place the breathing tube (which ensures the doctor doesn't accidentally put the breathing tube down the esophagus and into the stomach by mistake); emergency medications, like a paralytic, for keeping a patient still while they are being intubated, and other assorted equipment. If you prepare for a worst-case scenario ahead of time, chances are that you won't need it. It's the occasions when you aren't prepared that you usually end up needing those particular supplies; it never fails.

The process of removing the breathing tube itself is actually very simple and straightforward. I understood it all in principle, but had yet to see it in practice while mentally stable enough to appreciate the procedure a bit more objectively. When Edward had been extubated, I was far more focused on him to learn anything.

When the procedure begins, we will turn off the sedation, remove the tape that holds the tube in her mouth, take air out of the cuff that holds the breathing tube in place in the airway, and pull the tube out. The respiratory therapist will be on hand, and he or she will typically place a nasal cannula on immediately following removal of the breathing tube. They follow that up with a special nebulizer treatment, which serves to open up the airway and reduce swelling at once. Most patients can be weaned off of a cannula gradually over the course of a few hours, depending upon how healthy their lungs were before they were intubated. We expect that Charlotte will need to use a nasal cannula for at least a day or so before her lungs will be ready to do it all on their own.

I began to explain all of this to Charlotte in terms she could understand as the nurse turned off her sedation. Even though her eyes weren't open, I knew she could hear me, because she squeezed my hand whenever I talked to her.

I looked up to watch the respiratory therapist use a special tape remover to get the tape holding the breathing tube in place off her cheek. The nurse paged the attending physician, letting her know that everything was set to extubate the patient. The doc arrived, assessed Charlotte's lung sounds with a stethoscope to make sure her lungs sounded relatively clear, gloved up, and told Charlotte that we are going to pull out her tube.

The tube was removed, and instantly the respiratory therapist used a suction catheter to eliminate any secretions from her airway in the back of her throat. Charlotte coughed weakly while a nasal canula was put under her nose and around her ears. The attending physician had her stethoscope on again, listening to how everything sounded now that the tube was out. She asked Charlotte how she was feeling, and she answered in a very small, weak voice. The doctor explained that it will take a few hours for her voice to begin strengthening, as her airway swelling started to decrease. It would gradually improve over the next day or so, until she has completely recovered from the airway trauma.

Once all the excitement died down and Charlotte was stable, I went back to her bedside to hold her hand and see how she was doing. She continued to cough every couple of minutes, which I assured her was completely normal. The nurse returned to suction her airway frequently, because her CF caused her to have such thick secretions. We wanted to make sure none of that interfered with her ability to maintain her airway – no one wanted her to be reintubated.

As she talked to me, I watched her breathing pattern for signs that she might be laboring too hard. While she was using some of her stomach muscles to help move her diaphragm to get more air into her lungs, she wasn't gasping for air, she wasn't struggling to breathe, and she didn't have any retractions. Any of these would be indications that she needed to have her tube reinserted; so all signs were good that she would remain extubated.

I made sure to let her know how well she was doing. She gave me a weak smile. It was a lot of work physically to get extubated, and she looked tired. I encouraged her to rest, promising her that her parents would be allowed back into the room to be with her soon. She complained that she felt a little hungry, but I explained to her that we needed to hold off on eating or drinking anything for a few more hours. We wanted to make sure she didn't accidentally swallow incorrectly or cough up anything into her lungs. Once she was breathing more easily and awake, we'd start her diet out gradually with sips of ice water, clear fluids (like broth, jell-o, and popsicles), and then get her back to a regular diet.

A few minutes later, Charlotte's parents were ushered back into the room. Her teary eyed mother ran to her side, leaning gingerly over the edge of the bed to hug her daughter close, placing kisses on her head through the mask covering her mouth. Charlotte smiled weakly at her parents as she tried feebly to return their signs of affection, but her body was so exhausted by the ordeal it had endured over the past week and a half that she didn't have much strength to utilize.

I watched her parents lavish her with love and promises of a mountain of Christmas presents waiting for her to open. Charlotte was extremely disappointed that she had missed Christmas, but her parents promised to come up later that week to visit with her siblings and she could open all of her presents once she was feeling stronger. It was then that she glanced around the room and her eyes fell on the figurine I had brought in for her a couple of days before Christmas.

"Where did that come from? It's pretty," she rasped quietly from her bed nodding toward the small gift.

"Dr. Swan brought that in for you just before Christmas, sweetheart. She said that the girl reminded her of you and she thought it would be good for a guardian angel to watch over you while you got better."

Charlotte looked over at me slowly with a small smile on her pale lips. "Thank you, Dr. Swan. Can I see it better?"

I nodded and walked over to the shelf, picking it up and bringing it to her side. I held it as her finger trailed over the small girl reading with the beautiful angel that reminded me of my mother watching over her shoulder with a gentle smile.

"It's beautiful, Dr. Swan. Thank you."

"You're welcome, sweetheart. I'm going to go put this back on the shelf and get back to my rounds. You need to rest, sweetheart. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Next time you wake up, you'll feel a little better."

I squeezed her hand before walking to the shelf and sitting the figurine back on the edge. I glanced back once more to notice that her parents had taken places on either side of her head, each taking a hand and her mother ran one tenderly through Charlotte's hair. I was so relieved my littlest patient was doing so much better. The scene still caused my chest to clench slightly though at the bittersweet memories of my mother who I missed more than usual when I saw tender mother-daughter moments such as this.

With a sigh, I stepped out of the room to disrobe from the protective clothing I was wearing and use some sanitizer on my hands before checking in at the nurse's station to make sure her O2 sats were still good. I had every faith in the nurses and doctors, but I just wanted to see it for my own peace of mind before I finally left to go join the Femmes for the rest of the morning.

EPOV

Bella had been so excited when she got up this morning. She said that Charlotte was probably going to finally be taken off of the ventilator sometime today as she floated around the room rushing to get to work and check up on her progress. I lay in bed, smiling at my beautiful fiancée while she dressed and braided her hair in front of the mirror attached to the back of the long low dresser against the far wall. She was always beautiful, but somehow she seemed to grow more and more beautiful every day.

After she rushed off to the hospital, I stayed in bed for a while thinking about the wedding and how much I was looking forward to making her my wife. I had wondered what kind of wedding she would want, worried just a bit that she would want the big cathedral with hundreds of guests with me stuffed into a hot penguin suit and an uncomfortable bow tie threatening to choke me the whole day. But to my most pleasant surprise, she started going on and on about her plans for the wedding of her dreams that just so happened to sound ideal to me as well. I couldn't imagine anything more perfect than getting married in the beach house over the summer. It would definitely provide the perfect picture to put in the last space on the collage frame.

I sighed and stretched before slowly dragging myself out of bed and in to the shower. I smiled when I remembered the night before as I pulled Bella in the shower with me to celebrate her victory over her fears. Of course, it was quite a bit tamer than what I really wanted to do, but that would definitely come later, once I was fully healed from my injuries. I can't wait to pick her up again and shove her against the wall as I piston inside of her, making her scream and arch against the tile.

I moaned at the fantasies that I fully intended to act out once it was safe again. Finding that I needed to relieve myself from my now prominent hard on, I continued my fantasies of taking my beautiful fiancée in our shower as she screeched my name while pumping my soap slicked hand over myself furiously.

I stepped out a half an hour later, once again relieved and clean. I dressed quickly before heading out to the station for the meeting I had with the chief. He had called me on Friday, asking me to come in today for a meeting at ten. I called down to Jensen and had him call me a cab before leaving the apartment to make my way down to wait in the lobby.

I exited the elevator just in time to see a flustered looking Emmett rush through the door and straight toward me once he spotted me.

"Thank God I caught you before the meeting. There are some things you should probably know before you walk in there. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I didn't want to bother you while you were recovering, and then the engagement and everything, ugh. I just wanted the two of you to finally have some peace and happiness before the rest of this shit got in the way, but it seems like it's time to burst the bubble."

I furrowed my brow at Emmett as he rambled on, and then I realized, this meeting with the chief was not going to be good news.

"Emmett, what the hell is going on? What have you been keeping from me?"

Emmett shook his head solemnly, "A hell of a fucking lot, bro. I'm sorry. Maybe I made the wrong choice but you two have been through so fucking much that I thought you deserved a break to be happy without all the damn drama."

I sighed and grabbed the bridge of my nose roughly. I was annoyed, but I appreciated the general concept. After a moment, I looked up and nodded, slapping Emmett on the back a few times.

"I appreciate the effort, man, but the vacation from the real world is over. I think it's time you tell me everything. Come on, you can tell me in the cab on the way to the station."

We settled in the cab and I looked over at my best friend intently. "Okay, just tell me…no cushioning the blow…just lay it all out there."

I watched as the normally collected Emmett looked distraught, running his hand through his hair and clutching at his neck roughly.

"Fuck, man, I'm not sure where to start. I guess I should start with what you're about to walk into at the station. The shit hit the fan after the whole ER mess went down. The whole team is on probation for sneaking by with the chief gone and walking into a mission where we had emotional attachments to the hostages. We were about a hair's breadth from being suspended completely and a few of the admins were wanting us fired, but chief fought for us and we got by with only a six month probation, but one wrong move and we're gone."

I groaned and ran my hands over my face. "Fuck, man, I'm sorry."

"That's not the worst of it, Edward," Emmett continued quietly. "I've been trying to fight it, but, Chief wants to replace you on the team. He says that you will take too long to recover. There are too many guys waiting in the wings for your spot and he can't have a team one man short for three to six months when there is a long line of people who have been patiently waiting for a spot on a team. I have a feeling he's going to tell you today that he's giving your spot away."

I yelled a few random obscenities as I felt my hand reflexively hit the door beside me. "Motherfucking Trager! That fucking jackass just about ruined everything! Holy fucking hell, Emmett! This is so not fucking fair!" I was whining like a thirteen-year-old girl and really didn't give a fuck.

I felt Emmett's hand on my shoulder, "I know, man, I know. We can still resist, but you know as well as I do that they're right. They have a list a mile long of guys fighting to get on SWAT. It's shit, but I think it might be inevitable."

I leaned forward and let my face fall in my hands. I was so thankful in that moment that Emmett had given me some time to be happy with Bella before facing all of this shit. It felt like that carefree moment this morning of watching Bella get ready and looking forward to our wedding without a care in the world was already a lifetime away. I was grateful I still had my beautiful fiancée and we were still going to have our dream wedding come summer, but now the beautiful dream was shrouded in clouds.

After a while, I raised my head again, knowing we were close to the station. "Anything else?"

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Feds say Sellers is back in the states. He slipped through their fingers in New York and they've lost track of him again. They think he's living under an alias, but they haven't gotten any leads yet. They don't think he had anything to do with the whole Bella mess, that she was collateral damage in Trager's fucked up quest to gain his respect or something, but there's no way to know for sure."

I groaned, feeling my stomach churn uncomfortably. The burn of bile was rising steadily in the back of my throat. Would we ever get a chance to really live in peace and safety? Maybe I should just resign if the chief wants to replace me. The only thing I really want to do with the CPD is be SWAT anyway. Now with Bella in my life, seeing all the danger that being tied to my job as put her in, maybe I should just let it go and get involved with something less dangerous.

I sat in silence next to Emmett for the short remainder of the drive, trying to imagine what else I could possibly do. Besides SWAT, and my once grandiose dreams of being an FBI agent, which is equally as dangerous, I've never really wanted to be anything else. I mean yeah, my trust meant I didn't have to work, but what the fuck would I do with my life if I didn't work? I couldn't see myself being the happy house husband and Mr. Mom while my wife went off to save lives in at the hospital every day. Truth of the matter is, I simply couldn't imagine life without my work.

I sighed, swallowing hard when the cab came to a stop in front of the station. I paid the cabbie, basically on autopilot, before staring up at the large brick building that meant so much to me only months ago but now looked ominous.

Emmett clapped his hand on my back roughly. I thanked him for the heads up as we went up the steps to the front door.

Emmett turned and made his way down to join the team for training exercises while I headed up the stairway to the chief's office on the second floor. I knocked on the door right as the clock ticked to ten.

I heard the gruff voice of the chief call me in."Come in, Masen, have a seat."

I entered and sat woodenly in the seat across from him as he folded his hands in front of him on the desk. He eyed me carefully before speaking.

"I'm assuming Swan informed you of the situation we've found ourselves in. We have the mayor pitching a fit because we're paying millions of dollars a year to have SWAT in Chicago. Meanwhile, during a major hostage situation, we have well trained officers going into a mission that they have no business being in due to their personal connections, a hostage taking down our perp as he takes down one of our own officers, and an empty spot in a crucial team that needs filling sooner rather than later. The rest of your team is on probation for the next six months, and you are out of commission for a minimum of two more months. I hate to do this, Masen, because you are one of the best we have, but I have no choice but to replace you on the team."

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, trying to keep my temper in check, but already beginning to fail miserably. "There's no fighting this? I'm just simply out?"

"Of your original team, yes, but you are a damn good cop with a nearly spotless record, with the exception of the events of the day in question. In time, you can reapply for SWAT and take a place on another team, or what I would much rather see you do is apply yourself to furthering yourself within the department. You would make a fine detective, maybe even some day you could be chief. I see you as being a highly skilled leader. Take some time to think about what you might want to do. You won't be able to return to duty for at least two to five more months anyway, and I would love to see you advance here. I understand you are getting married soon, congratulations by the way, and you probably want to go discuss this with your fiancée. I'll be waiting for your call."

And just like that, my life shifted on axis in ways I hadn't even considered when I woke up this morning. I wasn't sure what would happen next, but suddenly, I knew that there was only one person I needed to see.

I stood up and shook the chief's hand solemnly before walking out to the street to try to hail a cab. I asked to be taken to the hospital. I needed to see Bella. Hopefully she would be available to talk for just a little bit. I wasn't going to tell her all of this yet, I just needed to see her face and hear her voice because right now she was pretty much the only thing in my life besides my parents that I could count on.

I was so lost in thought that I was at the hospital before I knew it. I walked in the front doors to make my way to the pediatric ward to hopefully find Bella, but before I reached the elevators I bumped into my very distracted looking father who was leading a group of three suited men who looked suspiciously like lawyers toward his office. I followed along, catching his eye before he entered the conference room just past his office. He told the men to go ahead, get settled, and help themselves to some coffee before closing the door, crossing over to me with a concerned look on his face.

"Everything okay, Dad?" His expression darkened as he pulled me into his office.

"Not exactly, son. I should have told you sooner, but the hospital is suffering some legal backlash from the events in the ER. Several people that were involved that day have filed suits against the hospital for not providing better security. It's a bit of a mess. All I can say is thank the good Lord for your Bella or we'd be in far worse shape than we already are."

"Oh jeez, Dad, is it really that bad?"

He sighed, running his hand through his hair disconcertingly. "We are up to seventeen cases filed against us. Ironically, only two of those are from actual hostages, the rest are from people who got out of the waiting room when Trager entered." He shook his head sadly. "The world has most certainly changed, son. It's disheartening to say the least. I haven't told any of the family yet, but I'm pretty certain that before it is over, Bella will have to testify. I wouldn't be surprised if the SWAT team wasn't subpoenaed as well."

I took a deep breath and shook my head. All of these burdens around us and we were clueless. Our family shouldered the burden alone, giving us a chance to enjoy our engagement before we had to face the reality of the world around us. I couldn't help but feel guilty and also grateful for the brief utopia we got to enjoy together. It had been marred with worries for Charlotte and Bella's other patients, but that was nothing compared to all of this.

"Do you want me to tell her about it tonight?"

He sighed. "Preparing her might not be a bad idea, but I'd really like to sit her down with the lawyers soon and give her a full overview of what we are facing."

"Any idea when this is going to go to trial?"

He shook his head slowly. "They anticipate late spring or early summer, but there are no guarantees. I will do my best to make sure that it doesn't interfere with your wedding plans." He smiled at me through the tension, his eyes twinkling softly. "I'm glad you are proceeding and not getting bogged down in the details and delaying things. Part of me worried you would stay engaged for a decade before making the big final commitment. I'm glad you aren't doing that. Bella's an amazing woman; you are a very lucky man, son."

I smiled and nodded, "That I know for sure, Dad, no lectures needed there. I'm going to run up and see if she's got a free minute. I'll talk to you later. I love you."

"Love you too, son." He gave me a tight hug before opening the door. He waved as he disappeared behind the large oak door that led to the lavish boardroom.

I sighed, feeling even heavier than before, while riding the elevator to the pediatric floor where Bella typically worked. I rounded the corner to find her working at a computer station in the nurse's area behind Angela. Angela looked up and smiled brightly before clearing her throat.

"Um, Dr. Swan? I believe you are needed."

Bella turned around looking confused until her eyes fell on my face. A radiant smile broke out on her pink pouty lips. She jumped up and ran over to me, throwing her arms around my neck and glancing down the hall in both directions. Seeing it was empty, she dragged me into a supply closet behind the nurse's station.

"I'm so happy to see you, baby! It has been the best day! Charlotte is doing great and the rest of my kids are all showing signs of improvement!"

I smiled down at her, making the instant decision that all of this gloom didn't have to touch her today. I refused to ruin her perfect day with things that would still be waiting for us to deal with tomorrow and all the days that followed. I leaned down, kissing her lips gently, my hands rising to cup her face.

"I'm so glad to hear that, baby. I just wanted to see your face and say hi. I was missing you today."

I tucked an escaped strand of hair behind her ear and tipped forward to kiss her forehead carefully as she curled herself against me, cuddling up with a sigh.

"I love you, Edward. August can't get here fast enough!"

I chuckled and kissed the top of her head before resting my cheek against her soft braid. "I love you, too, and I agree whole heartedly. You are the most important thing in my life, sweetheart. I can't wait until we're married."

We hugged a bit longer as I soaked in the calming that her presence provided my overtaxed system before I sighed. "I need to let you get back to work, don't I?"

She breathed her own sweet sigh before nodding reluctantly. "I'll see you at home after work?"

She smiled brightly and nodded as she tipped up on her toes and stretched up to my mouth, kissing me gently, drawing her fingers through the back of my hair tenderly.

"I'll be home around six. Wanna get pizza tonight?"

"Sure thing, beautiful," I replied, smiling down at her and trying to keep my face free from the stresses of the morning.

We left the closet as covertly as possible. She returned to her station after one more hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. I headed toward home. I knew she was probably going to kick my ass for it later, but I wanted her to have one more blissful day of ignorance before I let the rest of the world crowd down on her. She deserved it and I refused to allow her joy at Charlotte's recovery get shadowed by things neither of us could control.

I went home and placed an advance order for pizza to be delivered in time for her to get home from work. Tonight I was going to treat her with a relaxing night of movies and pizza, and then tomorrow night, I would sit her down again to catch her up with all the things we were about to face in the coming months.

Hey guys, I got some exciting news yesterday. I have been invited to do a live author's chat on The Writer's Coffee Shop forum at the end of the month. I don't have full details yet, but it looks to be about an hour of me answering everyone's questions (gulp) on either Tuesday, December 29th or Wednesday, December 30th between 6 and 8 pm EST. I'll be sure to share full details when I know more!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for the reviews!