Beth's first thought was to call Julie and tell her that Luke couldn't play with Jake anymore. Then she just called Rosie.

"Beth?"

"Hey, Rosie. Do you have a minute?"

Rosie picked up on the tone of Beth's voice and heard her sniffle. "What's wrong?"

Beth unloaded her feelings and included everything that had happened in her and Lucas' conversation and then took a breath. "Am I wrong, Rosie? Did I overreact?"

"Well…"

"I know I did. He's probably just nervous. But why didn't he tell me this before we planned a wedding? Why even propose?"

"Sweetie, those are questions for him."

"I know."

"But I will say, he could have maybe been gentler in the way he told you his feelings. And doesn't he know your hormones are raging?"

"I want to marry him, Rosie but I can see this wedding disappearing."

"Beth, you need to take a few minutes and relax and then talk to him."

"Dude, hormones!" Lee told Lucas. "Rosie is a basket case and don't tell her I said that or I decline being your best man. Yes, she has two babies inside her so its probably worse hormones than Beth but, bro, you can't tell her stuff like that without sugarcoating it a bit. Or don't tell her at all."

"She promised she wouldn't get mad, Lee."

"That is beside the point. In fact its so far beside the point that it doesn't even matter what she said. What matters is making it up to her."

"How do I do that?"

"I have some ideas."

……

Elizabeth walked out of the house toward the car. Lucas saw her and hung up on Lee.

"Babe?" he said, opening his arms.

She walked right in and hugged him tight, making him feel hopeful. "I'm so sorry, Beth."

"Honey, I need some time. Can I have the keys please?"

He looked down at her, her eyes red and cheeks with traces of tears. "Babe, I hate this. Please talk to me."

"Keys? We can talk later. I just need time."

She stepped back and held out her hand, not looking up at him anymore.

"I love you," he told her, drying her cheeks. "So so much."

"I love you too." He put the keys in her hands and watched as she got in and backed out of the driveway and turned left.

He used the time she was away from the house to plan his making up. He had been making a playlist with songs he heard that reminded him of her or their time together or their trip to Oahu where they met. He had quite the list and he planned on using those in helping to get her to forgive him. In the meantime, he would give her time to think and whatever she needed.

After a few hours though, he began to get worried. He knew that she wouldn't just leave him but he also expected that she would have been back by now.

He picked up his phone. No texts or missed calls. He sent her a text. "Babe, please call me to let me know you are safe."

After about thirty minutes, he hadn't heard from her. He normally would think that her phone might have run down but they kept a charger in her car for this reason. They didn't want anyone, especially her, to get stranded.

He tried calling her but it rang and then went to voicemail. So he paced the house for a bit before deciding to contact Julie.

"Lucas?"

"Julie, has Beth called you?"

"Yeah and she was mad at Jake and by extension me. Any thoughts on that?"

"I'll explain later but…I'm worried. She's been gone for 3 hours and 18 minutes. She hasn't called or texted."

"I can try to call her. Hang on."

After a long moment, Julie came back. "She didn't answer me either."

"Crap. I'm calling Rosie and Lee. Can you please call Vi and your parents and see if they've heard from her?"

"On it."

…..

Mackinaw City-ten miles from Lucas

"Ma'am, I really must insist that we go to the hospital to get you checked out," the EMT told her. "For your baby's sake."

"Boo. Please tell me Boo is okay," she sniffled.

"Boo?"

"My baby. Yes, take me to the hospital." She really felt fine besides an aching arm. It had been a very mild fender bender, not even enough to set the airbags off, but Boo was the most important thing.

"Does anyone have my phone? I need to call someone."

"I have your purse, ma'am."

"Beth."

"Beth. I can call someone for you. I'd like you to relax so we can keep you calm."

She wasn't calm. She was on the verge of tears. She was scared and she just wanted Lucas.

Once they backed her stretcher into the ambulance and closed the door, she told the EMT to call the number under emergency.

"Its going to voicemail," he told her. "I'll leave a message."

"Hi, this is Michael Hickam from Port Emergency. Please call this number back regarding Elizabeth Thatcher," he read off her ID. "Thank you."

"Crap, he's going to worry," she mumbled, suddenly feeling nauseated. "I need to throw up," she told him and he grabbed a basin from nearby.

After throwing up she was freezing so he covered her with a warm blanket and patted her shoulder. "We will be at the hospital soon."

"I'm scared."

Lucas paced. Rosie hadn't heard from her after their initial conversation. Apparently, Beth had been calling her while he was on the phone with Lee.

Lucas' phone rang. "Beth?"

"Its Williiam, Lucas."

"William, please tell me you've heard from Beth."

"No but an EMT used her phone to call us."

"An EMT? What? Is she okay? God, I'll never forgive myself if she's not. Or Boo. Please…"

"Luke!"

"What?"

"She's okay. It was a mild fender bender. She's at Port Hospital getting checked out. We are flying into Detroit tomorrow, unless you'd like us to come quicker than that."

"No. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much." Lucas had to get there and she had the car so he'd have to get an uber. "An hour?!"

It was going to take an hour to get an uber to the house. He texted her, hoping she had access to her phone right then. "Babe, I'm coming! Its going to take an hour to get a car here so I can get to the hospital. Please tell me you are okay."

"A Lucas wants to know if you are okay," her nurse said, reading the text that was on her phone about three feet away.

"Thank you. Can I please have my phone?"

Once she had it in her hands, she texted him back. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt."

Lucas called her and because she wanted to hear his voice, she answered, even though her feelings about their disagreement or whatever it was hadn't changed.

"Hi."

"Babe, I'm so sorry. Please talk to me."

"We can talk later. The nurses want me to stay calm and I'm waiting for an ultrasound and an x-ray on my arm."

"You hurt your arm?"

"Sweetie, the ultrasound machine is here. You can't be on your phone right now."

"I'll see you in a while, Luke."

"Beth…"

She hung up and handed the phone to the nurse, feeling slightly guilty for not wanting to talk with Lucas.

Lucas wanted to throw his phone across the room but that wouldn't help anything. He needed it for so many reasons.

He unpacked their things and figured out where they could order delivery from and finally, the Uber showed up.

"Port Hospital please," he told the driver.

"You got it. How you doin', man?" the guy asked. He was friendly and normally Lucas would just carry on a conversation but he was distracted.

"Not good. I had an argument with my fiance and she's pregnant with our first child and she had a car accident and we are supposed to get married in three days. So get me to the hospital, dude. I don't want to talk."

"Rough times. Okay, I'll get you there."

"Thank you."

The fifteen miles to the hospital felt like one hundred and fifteen to Lucas. Finally they arrived. He paid the guy an extra tip on the app and ran inside. He needed to get to Beth and Boo.

"My fiance," he huffed as he got to the nurses' desk. "Car accident. Beth Thatcher."

The person at the desk looked at her computer and told him where to find her.

"Thank you."

He hurried down the long hall to curtain number 8. "Beth?"

"Here, Luke."

He walked around the curtain and gasped. It hurt to see her lying there looking so fragile.

"Honey, oh my goodness. I was so worried."

He walked over and bent down to kiss her, pressing his lips to her forehead and cheeks and then her lips. "Please forgive me."

"Lucas."

"Beth, we need to talk about this. Yes, we will later, but we need to work this out. I was stupid. So very stupid."

"Shhh." She moved over in the bed and opened her arms. "Come lay here, please. I'm exhausted and I need you to hold me."

"Whatever you want."

Once he was snuggled in with her, she whispered, "Boo is fine. No contractions and she is kicking me all over the place."

"She?"

"Or he."

"Babe, did you find out the gender?"

"No, just a feeling."

"I want her to look just like you. I had a dream that Boo was a girl and I was holding her and rocking her and feeding her just like Peter and it was perfect. She was gorgeous and soft and feminine just like you. And I decided I would always call her Boo, even when she is twenty five, she'll always be Boo to me."

Elizabeth's eyes let go of the tears she'd been holding. Oh, how she wanted to be his wife but he was right in one way. They were a team. They would stay together forever even without their last names being the same.

"Tell me," he whispered, drying her tears.

"If you don't want to get married, I'll be okay with that."

"I do want to. I want you to be my wife more than anything in the world."

"But you said…."

"Are you wanting to talk about this now? Because I have this whole thing planned back at the house to get you to forgive me."

"You planned something?"

"Yes, you were gone for three hours before I called everyone to find out if you had been in contact with them."

"I went and found a park and sat there and watched the ducks and geese and kids playing with their parents."

"Sounds like a good place to think."

"Yeah but I missed you and I wanted to talk to you so I started coming back and then the accident happened. My back bumper is damaged."

"I don't care. As long as you and Boo are okay."

"I still need an x-ray on my arm. I think its sprained."

He softly ran his fingers up and down the skin of her arm and placed kisses on her wrist. He loved her more than anything. He was beyond grateful she was okay.

"Babe?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did I have to hear about your accident through your Dad?"

"I forgot to change my emergency contacts in my phone when I moved. I always just call you. I fixed it today though."

He nodded and kissed her cheek, holding her close and hoping she could sleep. Maybe he would too.

…..

They returned back to their rental house a few hours later, a splint on her arm but everything else just fine. Their car would wait at the tow truck place until the next day when William and Grace flew in and could take them.

"I'm starving," Beth mentioned.

"There's a good family diner place that delivers. If you look on my phone, it was the last thing that I looked up online."

Beth sat down on the sectional in the living room and sighed. He handed her his phone and kissed her head. "I'll be right back. Decide what you want and we can order."

When he came back, he sat down and pulled her legs up on his so he could rub her feet.

"Did you find the menu?"

"Mm. That feels really good."

"Good."

"What's this Beth playlist?"

"You saw that?"

"Yep."

"I'll show you. Let's order food first."

Five minutes later, he insisted she put her feet up so she moved over to the recliner portion of the couch, put her feet up and covered with a blanket. He turned the TV on and mirrored his phone to the screen so she could see his presentation.

"Ready, love?"

"Yep."

"Okay. So after I had my moment of stupidity earlier, I came up with an idea on how to show you how much you mean to me."

"Alright. I know you love me, Luke."

"Good but I need you to see this."

He pressed play on his phone and she gasped. "That was the day we went to the beach for the showing of Elf."

"Yep. You saved me from getting hit on by that woman. You had a hot dog and french fries and you laughed at all the same things I did during the movie."

"I'm surprised you noticed that."

"I noticed so many things about you, Beth. You caught my eye from the beginning."

"I did not. You had just broken up with Janette."

"Right but there was, or is, something about you."

"Not enough to want to get married though," she mumbled. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It just bothers me, Lucas," she said, turning to look at him. "You should have told me way before we planned a wedding. Heck, why even propose?"

He scrolled through his pictures to one of her holding her tummy as she cooked at their house. She had a soft smile on her face as she looked down. He figured she must have felt Boo move.

"I proposed because you mean everything to me. You and Boo are my world. My heart. I want to marry you. I shouldn't have said what I said. I am very sorry that I upset you."

"You want to marry me but you don't see the point in saying vows? I'm sorry. That doesn't make sense."

"Do you remember the night we made our promises to each other?"

"It was morning, but yes. Of course I do."

"Oh it was morning. The morning after we were first together."

"Yeah and I promised to be your support and hold your hand through anything and everything."

"I promised you that I would never leave you and always tell you and show you what you mean to me."

"I promised you forever," she said quietly.

"I promised you forever."

She leaned against his shoulder and intertwined their fingers. "Those are vows, Lucas. I know that."

"It doesn't matter how I feel about saying public vows. What matters is making you happy. I do want you to be my wife."

"It matters to me how you feel, Lucas. I'm not the only one in this partnership. Its you and me together."

"So what are we going to do?"

"We are going to make the decision that is best for you, me, and Boo."