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Annie sniffled and started to laugh. “You must think I’m crazy.”

“No, Annie. You know I don’t think you’re crazy. I just....” He paused and stood up from his kneeling position on the floor, groaning as his knees popped. Nick fought not to laugh and call him an old man. Of course, he couldn’t say much. His knees popped, too. It was a consequence of dancing almost every day for years on end. “I just couldn’t help but wonder about Drew’s dad is all,” Brian continued.

“Andrew is his father,” she said point-blank.

He placed his hands on his hips and looked down at her questioningly. “But....how?”

“Before Andrew and I got married, we had a little scare. You see, ovarian cancer runs in my family. I’d just lost my aunt to it, and I decided to get checked out. They found something suspicious on one of my ovaries and decided to do exploratory surgery, with the possibility that depending on what they found, I could end up having a total hysterectomy. I was only twenty years old, and knew I wanted children someday, but I also didn’t want to risk dying from cancer before I got the opportunity to do so. My doctors said they could harvest some eggs for me, and if they were able to spare my uterus, I could potentially still have children someday, or maybe even use a surrogate if needed. They said I had a better chance of a successful pregnancy if the eggs were fertilized, though. Andrew and I were engaged, so naturally, he was the sperm donor.” She paused and gave a slight giggle. “We made babies before we even, well...you know.” Nick and Brian both nodded uncomfortably.

“So, uh, I’m sorry that I keep getting so personal, but what did they find?” Brian asked quietly.

“In my surgery?” He nodded. “They only had to take one ovary and the biopsy came back clean. I was very blessed, and I can still have children in the case that one of these days....” She trailed off and looked down at her wedding band for a few moments. “So anyway, after I finished my residency and started working at my current job, I decided I wanted a baby. I needed something worth living for, you know? Maybe it was selfish to intentionally bring a child into the world without a father, but after the embryos were thawed, only one was viable. My chances of actually maintaining a pregnancy with only one implanted embryo weren’t great, but well, that little embryo-- turned out to be Andrew David Morgan, Jr. My little Drew. My little miracle. Now, I’ll always have a piece of Andrew with me.”

“I think that’s beautiful,” Nick said quietly with a smile.

Annie nodded and stood up. “You know, Brian, I think I’ll take you up on that offer for a nap. It is Sunday after all. We shouldn’t really be working anyway, right?”

Brian smiled. “Right, and you’re still planning on staying until Friday, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll have plenty of time to get the recording done.” He walked over to where she was standing at the bottom of the stairs and pulled her into a hug. “Thank you, Annie, for sharing that with us. It helps to know more about you, and I hope it helped for you to talk about it.”

Annie hugged him back and returned the smile. “You know, I think it did.” She trudged up the stairs and passed Leighanne, Baylee, and Drew wordlessly as she went on up to the second floor to the bedroom she’d taken back from Nick that afternoon. She collapsed onto the bed and fell into the most restful sleep she’d had in quite some time. Brian and Nick followed her out of the basement soon after, and were met by a puzzled Leighanne.

“What was that all about?” she asked Brian quizzically.

He looked at Nick. “You think I should tell her?”

Nick shrugged. “I dunno, man. You know her better than I do. Well, both ‘hers’-, actually-- Annie and your wife.”

Leighanne looked across the living room at Baylee and Drew. Baylee was stacking blocks into tall towers so that Drew could knock them over, causing both boys to laugh hysterically. She put her hands on her hips. “What is going on?”

Brian cleared his throat and stepped closer to her so he could speak more quietly. “I said some things that triggered Annie to end up telling us a lot about her husband. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, I think, so she went upstairs to take a nap.

“Well, what did she tell you? Is she okay?”

Nick shifted back and forth on his feet uncomfortably and wondered whether Brian was going to give her an answer. Brian turned to him with anguish in his eyes. “I tell her everything, Nick.”

Nick shrugged. “So tell her, I guess.”

Brian took in a deep breath and ushered Leighanne over to a couch. “He died in a plane crash,” he told her gently.

“A plane crash?”

“Flight 5191.”

Leighanne clamped her hand over her mouth in shock. “Oh my God. Flight 5191? Really? We took that same flight from Lexington to Atlanta all the time, Brian.”

“I know.”

“You sang at the memorial service.”

“I know. Apparently, Annie and I met there....just briefly. She, of course, wasn’t in any shape to think anything of it.” Leighanne stared at the wall behind Brian’s head as tears welled up in her eyes. Brian knew exactly what she was thinking about-- the flight she was supposed to have been on, on September 11th, just over ten years ago. It was a connection that she really struggled with after 9/11 and again after the crash of flight 5191. “Baby...”

“That’s so terrible....” Leighanne whimpered. “So, what about Drew’s father?” Brian and Nick quickly explained how Annie’s husband, Andrew, was in fact Drew’s father. “So, do you think she’s been alone all this time? For five years?” Leighanne finally asked. “I mean, I understand it, I do.” She turned to Brian and placed a hand on his arm. “If something happened to you, I don’t know how I would ever be able to move on, but she’s just so young. To be widowed at what, 24? So tragic.” Leighanne wiped a stray tear from her face and composed herself, then got up and started heading towards the kitchen. “Watch the boys while I get started on dinner?”

“Absolutely,” Brian answered.

Two hours later, Annie awoke to the sound to the sound of laughter outside her bedroom window. She stretched and yawned, then padded across the lush carpet to sneak a peek through the curtain. What she saw in the yard below her was priceless. Baylee wore a plastic grocery bag tied around his cast and wielded a large water gun in his other hand, which he was squirting merciless in his father’s face. Brian wore a red bandana tied around his forehead and war paint underneath both his eyes. Nick jumped out from behind a tree and started pelting both Brian and Baylee with water balloons, which he was carrying around in what she could only describe as a super-sized fanny pack. It was what he carried on his back that melted her heart, though. Drew, strapped into a baby carrier backpack, bounced up and down as Nick ran, and cackled happily.