Laura, buried deep in her books, almost didn't hear the home phone ringing. She leapt from her chair and ran into the bedroom, hoping she wouldn't miss it. She grabbed it on one of the last rings.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this this Steven Urkel's residence?"

"Yes, it is. Who am I speaking to?"

"This is St. Mary's hospital in Chicago. Are you a relative of Mr. Urkel?"

Laura's heart nearly stopped. "Yes, I'm Laura Urkel, his wife," she croaked out quickly.

"Mrs. Urkel, I'm afraid there's been an accident."

"Oh, God. What happened? What did that idiot do now? Is he ok?"

"He's in surgery, ma'am. A semi-truck ran a red light and crashed into him. You should get down here right away."

"Of course," Laura replied softly. "I'm on my way," she said, hanging up the phone without saying goodbye. As soon as the phone was in the cradle, Laura ran for her purse and keys. She was out the door in less than a minute, nearly forgetting her shoes. She sprinted down the stairs, refusing to wait for the elevator, and rushed to her car. As she ran, she berated herself for blaming him. She had just assumed it was another silly mistake in the lab. This wasn't the first time she'd gotten a call from the hospital, but it was the first time he hadn't been the one to make it, she realized. When she got into the car, she pulled out her cell phone and called her mother as she drove recklessly through downtown Chicago. She didn't want to have to wait through something like this alone.

———————————————————————

When Laura got to the emergency room, she ran to the desk, elbowing four other concerned family members out of her way. "I'm Steve Urkel's wife," she said to the first person behind the desk to make eye contact with her. "I need to see him."

Slowly, the woman behind the counter typed in his name, incorrectly the first time.

"It's U-R-K-E-L," Laura corrected, leaning uncomfortably to see. "Please hurry. It's an emergency."

The woman glanced up at her. "Well, this is the emergency room, honey."

Laura bit her tongue. She was in no mood for someone this terrible at their job to be this rude to her, but she knew better than to snap at the one person who could help her find her husband.

"He's in surgery," she said flatly. "You can't see him now. Please fill out these forms while you wait."

Laura begrudgingly took the forms. "I know he's in surgery, but I need to see him or see his doctor. I need to know what's wrong with him."

"He got hit by a semi-truck," she informed her dryly.

"I know that," Laura growled through bared teeth, "but I need to know how serious his injuries are. I need to know that he's gonna be ok."

"A doctor will be with you shortly."

"No, that's not good enough," Laura barked as tears began to escape her eyes.

"NEXT," the woman yelled pointedly as she waved Laura away.

Laura turned away and walked to the waiting area. She leaned against a wall for a minute, wiping her tears, until she couldn't take it anymore. She turned to face the wall and kicked it hard. "Damn it!" she cried. She sat down and read over the form, though none of it stuck, so she read it again and again and again. Eventually, she gave up and began to pray. It was the only thing she could think to do.

———————————————————————

Carl sprinted up to her a few minutes later. "Sweetheart," he called as he approached her with his arms open.

Laura looked up at him, ending her prayer for the time being, and stood immediately to embrace him. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and buried her face in his shirt, soaking it with her tears. "Oh, God, Daddy…"

He held her tightly and rubbed her back. "It's ok, sweetheart. He's going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine."

Laura sobbed against him for as long as she could, but she soon found herself out of breath. She pulled away and forced herself to calm down. Steve wouldn't want her to worry like this. He would be optimistic. "Where's Mom?" she asked as she sat again.

"On her way. Grandma and Aunt Rachel, too. Eddie and Max are picking the boys up from school and taking them home so they don't have to sit through this. Eric is gonna bring the kids over to our house when he gets off work so that Myrtle can come up here. Eddie and Max will come up here when he gets there."

Laura nodded. She really didn't care who came. She didn't want to be alone, but she had bigger things on her mind than who would stay with 3J, Richie, and Myrtle's kids, and who would wait with her. "Daddy," she whispered as the weight of the moment became too much to bear again, "what if he's not ok?"

"Laura, you can't think like that. There's nothing you can do now, so you have to stay positive."

"I rejected him for fifteen years," she cried. "I wasted fifteen years of our lives that we could have spent together being a selfish, shallow brat and now I'm gonna lose him? I can't lose him, Daddy. I need him."

"Laura," Carl said as he wrapped his arm around her, "Steve fell in love with that selfish, shallow brat. He loves you, sweetheart. He's going to be fine. He's going to pull through for you."

"Mrs. Urkel?" a young man said to the woman three chairs away from Laura.

Laura looked up and wiped her eyes. "I'm Mrs. Urkel," she said quickly as she and Carl stood to face the doctor.

"Oh," the doctor said, stepping closer to them with a look of surprise on his face. "I'm sorry. A nurse pointed in this direction, and I just didn't think a woman like you could possibly be married to—" He stopped himself as he saw the fury pouring out of her eyes. "Right, so, anyway… My name is Dr. Brown. I am one of the surgeons working on your husband."

"You're like 12," she said.

"I'm 27, but I'm just a first-year resident. There are much more experienced attendings still in the OR with Mr. Urkel. They sent me out to update you because they could spare me."

Laura nodded. That was probably a good thing. She didn't want an experienced surgeon to waste time talking to her when they could be helping Steve. She really didn't want anyone talking to her when they could be helping Steve.

Dr. Brown broke into a long and jargon-filled spiel listing Steve's many, many injuries and what they were doing to fix them. While Laura wasn't a scientist, she knew that his speech would have been simple enough to follow if she could have concentrated. Unfortunately, she only took away a few words. Severe head injury. Brain trauma. Internal bleeding. Punctured lung. Diaphragmatic rupture. As Laura realized he was about to walk away, she stopped him. "Wait! Is he gonna be ok?" she asked in desperation.

"He was very lucky, Mrs. Urkel. His physical injuries, though severe, are repairing easily with no complications as of yet. That's a miracle. However, it's too soon to tell what the effect will be like on his brain. He could be completely fine, but he may have suffered some permanent damage. It's too soon to tell."

Laura nodded and sank back into her chair.

"Thank you," Carl said as he sat back down next to his daughter.

Dr. Brown nodded and walked away. "We'll come get you when he's out of surgery."

———————————————————————

The rest of the family arrived slowly but surely. Carl updated them as they did. Harriette called home to update the boys. They were very attentive to Laura's needs, but she was nearly catatonic, so she didn't have very many. Mostly, they just sat with her, watched the clock, and waited.

Nine hours after Laura had first arrived, a nurse called her name. "Mrs. Urkel? He was just moved to the Intensive Care Unit, and he's still unconscious, but you can see him if you'd like."

"Yes," she said as she stood. "Please."

"Do you want us to go with you?" Harriette offered, standing beside her.

"Actually," the nurse interrupted, "we try to limit the ICU to immediate family only, so if you could come this way, Mrs. Urkel..."

Laura nodded and followed, barely turning back to shrug at her mother's offer. She followed the nurse down the hall and through clearly labeled doors limiting entry to only the closest relatives of the injured. She glanced around at the other patients, some of whom had left their curtained spaces open. Some of them appeared to be very badly injured. Some were clearly unconscious. The nurse approached one of the few private rooms in the section. Why did he have a private room? Was that a bad sign?

The nurse opened the door and led Laura inside. "The doctor will be with you shortly," the nurse said, stepping out of the room.

That's when Laura's eyes landed on Steve. The blanket and hospital gown covered most of him, but the parts of him that were exposed were badly bruised and bandaged. Laura reminded herself that a bandage wasn't necessarily a bad thing. That just meant it was a cut instead of a break. Laura looked at his face. He had two black eyes. His lip was deeply cut and stitched. His nose was broken and covered by a cast. Most frighteningly, his head was shaved and bandaged from surgery.

Laura took all this in still standing a foot away from the door. She couldn't convince herself to step closer. Tearing her eyes away from his bandaged head, if only to stop herself from thinking about the possibility of brain damage, she looked at the rest of the room. It was more or less empty, save for medical equipment, as it should have been. The room in the ICU wasn't the room that your co-worker sends flowers to or where your wife feeds you Jell-O or where your nephew comes to visit and tries to destroy all the medical equipment. This was the room where you were if a nurse needed to check your vitals every few minutes, where you wouldn't laugh with your wife because there could be someone dying one room over, where your wife slept uncomfortably in a chair because she couldn't bear to leave your side. This was the room where you might not wake up at all.

There was a metal tray resting near Steve's head with a bag labeled "Personal Effects: Urkel, Steven". Laura approached it slowly, stepping nearer and nearer to this alien Steve resting in bed. She opened it and saw his clothes, his glasses, his wallet. She paused when she saw his wedding ring. She looked down at his left-hand. He looked weird without it now. She took it out and slipped it on her own hand, but it slipped right off. She unhooked the necklace that Steve bought her for Valentine's Day one year and slipped his ring on the chain, along with the heart-shaped locket that was already there. They rested awkwardly together, but if his ring couldn't be with him, she thought it ought to be with her. Then she noticed the bag resting behind his clothes. It contained only one thing. This bag, too, was labeled "Personal Effects: Urkel, Steven", but the bag itself was different. Printed on the bag was a bright red warning, "Bio-Contaminate. DO NOT OPEN." She imagined that bags like this were usually used to store things stained with bodily fluids. His clothes, though they were stored together in one large bag, were separated into these foreboding bags, but this bag was larger. This bag contained only one item, a bouquet of roses. Laura picked up the roses and brought them closer to her face. She couldn't open it, but she had to read the card. She turned them and fiddled with them until the card was visible through the outside.

"I'm sorry for pushing you, Laura Lee. You were right. I don't want you to do this before you're ready. I waited fifteen years for you. I will wait as long as you need me to for you to give me the greatest gift in the world. Thank you for even considering it.

All my love,

Steve"

Laura dropped the flowers to the ground and nearly collapsed with them. He stopped to buy her flowers. What if he hadn't done that? If he had gone straight home, he would have been fine. If he had gone straight home, he would have been in their bed instead of this hospital bed. If she had just agreed to start trying, they would have been home right now, making love, making a baby. That was where they were supposed to be. That was what she was supposed to do. That was the plan. Why did she have to be so selfish? "Oh, God," she sobbed, "he doesn't deserve this. It should be me. It should be me." She collapsed to the floor at the edge of his bed and knelt beside him. She rested her head beside him and cried. She took his unresponsive hand in hers and squeezed it, begging him to react to her.

———————————————————————

She stayed like that, silent and sobbing, until the doctor came in. As the door opened, Laura sat up, embarrassed to be caught falling apart like that. She stood immediately and wiped her eyes.

"Mrs. Urkel?" the doctor said as she approached.

"Yes, Laura's fine," she answered softly.

"Ok, Laura. I'm Dr. Eleanor Brandt. I'm the lead surgeon on Mr. Urkel's case."

"It's nice to meet you," Laura said out of habit, folding her arms protectively over her chest.

"No, it's not, dear."

Laura sighed, relaxing slightly. "No, it's not," she admitted.

Dr. Brandt nodded and approached Steve's bedside. "This one's a fighter," she said. "I can tell."

Laura glanced at Steve. He didn't even look like her Steve like this, but her Steve was a fighter. Her Steve was the strongest, most resilient person she knew. "He certainly is."

"His surgeries went well."

Surgeries. Plural.

"His diaphragm and his lung are completely repaired, and the bleeding has stopped, both there and in his brain. He does have a broken nose and a few broken ribs, but neither is very concerning at the moment. The head injury was significant. It's under control now, and it looks like it's going to remain that way, but until he wakes up, we're not going to know what kind of damage it caused."

"When will he wake up?" Laura asked quickly.

"Well, the anesthesia should wear off in just a few hours, but even then, considering his injuries, he won't wake up until he's ready. Comas are not uncommon with this type of injury."

"Oh, God."

"That's not always a bad thing. That gives the brain and the body time to heal. I'm very optimistic, Laura."

Laura wiped the tears that she couldn't stop from escaping her eyes. "So, what happens now?"

"Well, he's gonna stay in the ICU tonight, just to be safe. Tomorrow morning, he'll be moved into Recovery. If he's awake, we'll start talking about any therapy he may need, painkillers. We'll be looking at how to get him home. If he's not awake, we'll just have to wait. It's all on him, now."

Laura nodded.

"You're welcome to stay here with him. I'll have a nurse bring in a cot."

"Yes, thank you," Laura said. She hadn't even considered the possibility they might not let her sleep at his side.

"If you need anything or have any questions, there are tons of staff members just outside the door."

"Ok, thank you," Laura said, sincerely grateful.

"Good night, Laura," Dr. Brandt said on her way out of the door.

Laura pulled a chair up next to Steve's bed. She took his hand again. She looked at his face and focused on it. She had to say something to him. He was still in there, right? "Steve," she said softly, "I don't know if you can hear me, but if I don't say these things now, I may never get the chance. I'm so sorry about this, baby." Tears began flowing freely again. "I know if you could talk right now, you'd try to tell me that it's not my fault, but it is, Steve. Some of it anyway. I should have told you how I was feeling about the baby thing as soon as I started getting nervous. We should have been talking about it. It never should have blown-up like that. It never should have been a fight. You never should have had to stop for flowers." Laura paused there and rolled her eyes, laughing to herself softly. "Oh, but you didn't have to stop for flowers. I've told you a hundred times you don't need to buy me things all the time. You didn't have to buy me flowers. If you had just come home and said what you wrote in that card, I would have forgiven you in a heartbeat. God, Steve, you have nothing to be sorry about. I wasn't even mad at you. I just wanted you to give me the time that I needed." Laura looked at his heart monitor, beating rhythmically. "Looks like you're giving me some time now, huh?" She looked back at him. "You have to wake up for me, baby. I promised I would spend the rest of my life with you. I owe you at least that much, so you need to wake up, so I can repay you for everything you've ever done for me. I know we'll never be even, because I just try to be a decent wife to make up for sweet things you did in second grade, while you continue to be an incredible husband every single day. I am never going to be able to repay my debt to you. I know that, but you still have to wake up. Ok? You have to wake up. God, I'm so self-centered that I can only think of myself even now. You have to wake up because I still owe you so much, because I can't live without you, because I need you. That's all true. I promise that's true. When I think about losing you, I can't breathe. I don't know how to live without your constant love and support because I haven't had to since the day we met. You are the biggest and best part of me, and losing you would kill me." She squeezed his hand. "But more than that, baby. You have to wake up for you. You have so much ahead of you. There's so much ahead of us. You are going to do unbelievably wonderful things in your life. You are going to invent and discover and change the world. You're going to get to spend more time with me. I wasted so much of our lives pushing you away. You can't give up now. You finally reached the finish line. You won me over. You have to be around to enjoy that for a long, long time. And…" Laura swallowed hard. "And I can't believe I'm saying this after everything I just put us through, but I wanna have a baby. I wanna have your baby. Now. I'm ready, Steve. I promise I am. I can't believe we almost missed our chance. Our baby… No, our babies are going to be the most amazing people in the world. They are going to love you so much, and we're going to love them to the ends of the Earth. We always tell each other that we're going to do all these wonderful things. You tell me I'm going to be the Attorney General. I tell you you're going to cure cancer. I don't know what you and I will end up doing with our lives, but I already know it's going to pale in comparison to whatever our kids accomplish. They are going to be our gift to the world, Steve. You are going to be the best father. The world needs more of you, honey. You need to wake up. Please. I love you," she finished in a whisper. She hated not hearing him say it immediately back to her. The silence that came after was eerie.

Laura turned as the door opened. Harriette was standing in the doorway along with a nurse. Harriette stepped inside and walked up behind Laura. She put her hands on her shoulders. The nurse set up the cot and slipped out quietly.

"How'd you get them to let you back here?" Laura asked.

"I'd like to say I did what you would have done, persuaded them with brilliant arguments."

Laura smirked.

"But I did what your father would have done."

"You yelled?"

"Oh, yeah. I made an intern pee his pants."

Laura laughed. "You did not."

"No, but he looked like he was about to," Harriette smiled. She squeezed Laura's shoulders. "He's gonna be fine, honey."

Laura nodded, holding back tears. "I know."

"You do?"

"No," Laura admitted.

Harriette sat on the arm of the chair and wrapped her arm around her. "You should get some sleep."

"Not yet," Laura answered, staring at Steve.