Emily set the wooden box reverently on the table next to Derek's bed. "I think it's time I showed you something," she said quietly, without looking at him.

Derek sat gingerly on the side of the bed, trying to get a look at the top of the box where something was clearly engraved, but her hands were keeping it covered.

She didn't look up as she spoke, staring intensely down at her hands. "I know you think I've forgotten, that I've moved on...but I haven't. I think about it every day. I know you do too. Maybe that's why you don't want to come back – maybe you've found her over there. I wouldn't want to come back either."

She slowly swept her hands across the lid as if wiping off imaginary dust. "I kept all her things, after it happened..." She wrung her hands in her lap, allowing him an unobstructed view of the lid, carved with the name Rosie Winter Morgan and the date December first, 2009.

"Oh, Em..." he breathed, voice catching. He reached out a hand, tracing his finger lovingly over the lettering.

"I got rid of most of her things, but there were some things I just couldn't bear to get rid of." She tenderly lifted the lid of the box and stared at its contents, tears building in her eyes. "I figured if these were your last days, I should finally share it with you."

"I can't believe you've been going through this on your own all this time..." Guilt squeezed in his chest, feeling like he'd let her down somehow.

"If you were here, you'd be upset that I hadn't talked to you about this, but I didn't want to hold you back with my grief – you seemed to be doing so well and I just wasn't and then the whole Doyle thing happened and...there just wasn't time," she rambled. "I know now you were putting on a front to protect me. I wish I'd done better, done more for you, but...well, I don't think either of us knew how to cope."

She lifted the first item out of the box and showed it to his unconscious form, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "The Bears jersey you bought as soon as I told you I was pregnant. You were so excited that day, I don't think I've ever seen you smile more."

"I remember that day – you were so scared... I wanted to show you that I wasn't going anywhere, that I wanted that baby more than anything. I had a jersey just like it as a baby; it was how Mama told Dad he was going to have a boy."

Next was a copy of Sun, Moon, Star by Kurt Vonnegut. "I know you laughed at me when I bought this, called me a geek..."

"Actually, I called you a nerd. But I said it with love," he teased.

"I thought she should share in the thing that brought her parents together. I never told you, but that's when I knew I would love you for the rest of my days." She shook her head sadly, then changed the subject. "I wanted to paint the nursery to match, with glow in the dark constellations."

"I remember that you always loved the stars," he recalled. He'd taken her stargazing for their first date and she'd pointed out the constellations and he'd just watched her face light up as she told him myth and legend and story. She'd never been more beautiful than she had in the moonlight that night.

"When I moved around so much, the stars were my constant companions – I wanted her to have something constant in hers...aside from our love."

Next was a tiny pair of pink satin ballet slippers. "You bought these on impulse when we found out we were having a girl. You couldn't resist the idea of a little ballerina, you big softie."

"Your father showed me a picture of you in a tutu – it was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen. I couldn't resist buying our baby girl her own pair to match her mommy."

"You didn't know it, but I always wanted to be a ballerina growing up. I was secretly thrilled when you brought these home. You would have been the proudest Papa, her biggest cheerleader, in whatever she wanted to do. You would have been the best parent."

"Almost as good as you would have been." He'd always known she'd be a wonderful mother and here she was, without a baby...

"A football shaped soother," she said, producing the next item. "So she wouldn't be too girly."

"She's gotta have a little Morgan in her..."

"The onesie JJ bought." The tiny pink garment read 'My Dad (and Mom) can kick your Dad's ass'.

He laughed. "I think that was payback for you accidentally teaching Henry to swear. Knowing you, her first word would have been fuck." He was kidding...mostly.

She sniffled softly as she produced a Christmas ornament from the box. It read 'Baby's First Christmas', but there was no picture inside. "You bought this planning to put her twenty week sonogram picture in it. But that was..." She choked on a sob, unable to say the words. "Needless to say, it never got hung on the tree," she said around her hitching sobs.

"I think I cursed us...I never should have bought that stupid ornament. I wanted to break it into a thousand pieces so many times, but I thought that maybe one day you'd want to remember..."

The last item she plucked from the box with utmost care: a golden chain with a rose charm. "You bought one for both of us when we picked her name. I always wore mine and we'd give her the other on her sixteenth birthday... I only got to see her wear it once."

He realized suddenly that he'd seen that necklace recently. "She's still wearing it. It looks beautiful on her."

"I'll never forget her. And I'll never forget you. I hope you've found her, on the other side, and that she's happy there. That you'll be happy together and you'll keep her safe until I can join you."

There was a sound from the doorway and Emily whipped around to see who had intruded upon her private moment.

Fran was standing there, tears slowly building in her eyes. "Oh, Emily," she whispered, hand coming up to cover her mouth. "I never knew..."