Ryan was beginning to wonder if the seriousness of the situation had sunk in with Kelly. She'd organized a baby shower at work, decorated the baby's room pink (they had learned in fact it was a girl) and basically threw herself into the pregnancy with full on gusto. It was as if the baby's condition didn't exist. As Kelly grew closer to her due date, Ryan was starting to freak out. He knew what this meant...a child with disabilities. Ever used to doubting himself, he began to wonder if he was up to the task that having a child with disabilities required. But someone had to be the responsible one. If anyone would have told him he would be the responsible partner in his and Kelly's relationship, he would have freaked out. But he couldn't now, not with so much at stake.

Every time he tried to bring up the baby's surgery with Kelly she changed the subject in the way only she could. They could be discussing baby names and then she would go off on a tangent about if Beyonce's baby bump was real, and to look at how fat she herself had become. Kelly wasn't fat- she was beautiful. But the more Ryan tried to tell her that the more she compared herself with celebrities who gained like five pounds during their pregnancy, and there was just no reassuring Kelly.

Sometimes, quite often actually, he felt like giving up. It was so hard being the comforter when he was the one who needed comfort. A child at heart, Ryan knew that he'd never really grown up, and this pregnancy and Kelly's suicide scare had forced him to take a deep hard look at himself. Most of the time he didn't like what he'd seen. But he couldn't talk to Kelly about that. She was all about the baby...Bailey, she'd called her, that he couldn't bring up his apprehensions. He didn't want to kill her joy, but someone needed to bring up the obvious.

In a strange way he was beginning to miss Michael Scott. Michael was many things, but Ryan missed his empathy. If anyone could force Kelly to face the hardened truth, it would have been Michael. But he was gone, having moved on with his life. It would be so easy to assign the task of bringing Kelly back down to earth to anyone, really, but this was his job. If he'd learned anything about himself during counseling with Kelly, it was that sometimes he could ground her. Sometimes that was a bad thing. But in this case it needed to be done, and how, he had no clue.

It wasn't as if he didn't love Kelly. They'd worked through that, and every day he tried to take a step towards loving himself so that he could be the partner Kelly wanted, and needed. But it was hard to love someone at times who refused to look at what was right in front of her. That was the most infuriating part about Kelly. Sometimes she lived with her head in the clouds and wasn't really prepared for reality. And pretty soon they both were about to be served with a heavy dose of it.

So instead of playing spider solitaire, Ryan tried to look up birth defects during his spare time. Given that he worked in a closet, that wasn't hard to do. He printed up things, forwarded things to Kelly, but all he got in a response was "K." that was telling. She was obviously not ready for the challenge that this baby would bring, and the thought scared him to pieces. Kelly would be a great mother, but she wasn't preparing herself for all of the challenges that came with parenthood. Decorating a nursery in pink and picking out baby names were the easy part. Not being able to hold your child for a month because she'd just had surgery, well, that was the hard part.

Kelly had it in her mind that she would just bring the baby home and they'd be an instant family. And the more she did that, the more she resisted. It would be hard enough supporting Kelly through this, but Ryan knew that he had to man up and be there for the baby as well. Did he even have it in him? Part of him wanted to run, but he couldn't. He'd made his bed and it was time to lie in it. He would have a family, a family in which Kelly would play a major part.

It was hard to be mad at her for living in denial. She was so happy that Ryan hated to burst her bubble. But it was this kind of head in the sand thinking that got her to the dark place so many months ago, and he was kind of scared that she was headed there again. Living in the moment was nice, it was kind of fun, but they were going to be parents. They kind of had to learn how to plan ahead.

One day a very pregnant Kelly came over to his house, bringing a curry dinner.

He didn't say anything. Instead Ryan walked away, not sure of what he wanted to say to Kelly, but he knew that he had to say something.

"Is something wrong? The doctor said spicy food was fine once in a while," Kelly yelled after him.

"It's not about the food. I don't want the damn food to tell you the truth."

Kelly smiled. "is someone feeling sympathy pains? Isn't that totally cute?"

Ryan stared at her with an intensity she'd never seen in him before. "No. It's not cute. It's kind of a pain to tell you the truth. Someone has to be the grown up and sometimes the truth hurts, but I think you need to hear it."

She stared icily at him. "What are you talking about? Are you dumping me?"

"IS that what you think this is about?"

"I don't know what this is about. You've been acting kind of weird lately and I don't like it."

"You know what I don't like, Kelly?" He pounded the kitchen table with his fist for emphasis. "I don't like how you're acting."

She couldn't believe what she'd heard. "You don't like how I'm acting? You send me all these freaky emails at work and you're the one who doesn't like how I'm acting?"

"Yes. You're acting like you did before, and I have to tell you, I don't find it appealing. Not at all."

"What are you talking about? I've been talking about the baby and you tell me you don't like it? What's wrong with you man?"

"I think people are afraid to tell you the truth, but I won't be that person. You've put all your emphasis on the things that don't matter that you're overlooking one simple fact- OUR KID IS NOT ALL RIGHT!"

"What are you, crazy? Our baby is perfect."

"Didn't you hear the doctor? She has a hole in her heart. She needs surgery. What part of that don't you get?"

Now Kelly started to cry. "Why are you so mean to me, Ryan? All I ever did was love you."

"No, all you ever did was convince yourself you loved me. You tried to kill yourself because of that love. Do you think I want that on my conscience?"

"Typical Ryan. Making it all about you."

"Won't you listen to someone for once in your life? What you're doing is not healthy and you're going to end up where you were seven months ago if you don't wake up and face the facts. Our kid's not healthy, you're not healthy, and I'm going crazy tiptoeing around you so not to upset you. But you know what? I don't care if you get mad. You need to hear the truth. You're not taking care of the baby. If you don't step up, I will."

Now Kelly was furious. "Are you threatening me, Ryan Howard?"

"I'm just saying you're not in a good place. You haven't learned anything from this year, have you?"

"I thought I learned that I loved you but maybe I was wrong."

"Great, withhold your love. That's real mature."

"Like you never did that to me time and time again," Kelly argued. "You were the one who made me do what I did in the first place. If you weren't so selfish..."

"Yeah, okay. Maybe I was selfish. I was looking out for myself. But now I have someone else to live for. I'm looking out for the baby. And you need to too Kel."

She started to cry. "I'm scared."

He pulled her close to him. "I am too. But it's going to be okay. You just have to trust me."

"I don't know if I can."

"For Bailey's sake, can you trust me?"

No one said anything. Instead he just held her, wishing there was some way to make everything go away.