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The days dragged by. Inside the hurricane-ravaged hospital, nothing really changed. Nick’s health had seemed to stabilize for the time being - he was no better, but no worse either. In the next bed over, Brian’s condition had also stayed the same since his tracheostomy.

It unnerved Nick to see the breathing tube sticking out of Brian’s neck, but he didn’t appear to be in any pain. His face, no longer obscured by the ventilator hose, wore a perpetually blank but peaceful expression. The swelling had gone down, and his bruises were nearly healed. If Nick ignored the tubes, it looked like he was just sleeping. According to both doctors, Brian was still in a deep coma, but his vital signs remained steady.

“He has a nice, strong heartbeat,” Dr. Elizabeth remarked whenever she examined Brian, listening to his chest with her stethoscope. Nick was always encouraged by this, until the time he heard her add under her breath, “I just hope he has some brain activity, too.”

If he only had a brain… Out of nowhere, Nick was reminded of The Wizard of Oz again. Brian was like the Scarecrow, and he was the Tin Man, hoping for a heart. If only there really was a wonderful wizard or a good witch who could wake up Brian’s brain, repair Nick’s heart, and send them both home again.

Instead, there were two dedicated doctors and a pair of hard-working nurses who were doing the best they could just to keep them both alive until they were able to be transferred to a different facility. Dr. Elizabeth, Dr. Rob, Dani, and Patrick continued to work around the clock to take care of Nick and Brian. Rob had arranged for more fuel to be delivered to keep the generators running, so at least they had power and, according to Dani, plenty of food and water. That was a good thing because, until the floodwaters receded, they weren’t going anywhere.

The only thing that kept Nick from going completely stir-crazy was having Dani around to keep him company. He looked forward to the day shifts, when she would sit by his bed, play cards, and talk to him for hours at a time. They had more in common than he had realized. Besides being a horror movie buff, she was also a lifelong Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan like he was, and they commiserated together about not being able to watch games or even check scores while the wi-fi and cell towers were down. He told her stories about performing the halftime show at Bucs games before he was a Backstreet Boy, and she talked about trying out to be a Buccaneers cheerleader while she was studying to become a nurse. “I cheered all through high school and college, but they said I was just too short to make the cut at that level,” she confessed, shrugging.

“I’m glad you became a nurse instead - but if you ever wanna show me some of your moves, I sure wouldn’t mind,” Nick said with a wink.

“Now, now… Dr. Elizabeth said to avoid doing anything that will raise your heart rate too high,” Dani replied, wagging her finger at him.

He smirked at her. “You telling me you know how to make my heart race?”

She raised her eyebrows, smirking back. “You bet I do. But let’s save that for after your transplant, okay? I’ll have a full routine planned for you by then - I promise.”

He laughed. “Be careful what you go around promising. I’m gonna hold you to that, you know.”

Grinning, she nodded. “You better.”

Nick had gotten over the guilt he’d felt about flirting with her. Despite what had happened on Halloween night, he told himself it was harmless fun. Dani was devoted to her husband, and while Nick’s heart may have been weak, the love it held for Lauren was still as strong as ever. His talks with Dani were just a way to pass the time and distract him from missing his family and worrying about his failing health.

But one day, Dani didn’t seem like her usual, bubbly self. She greeted Nick with a simple “Good morning” when she came in and went about her business without another word, barely speaking between checking his vitals and changing his bedsheets. At first, Nick wondered what he might have done to make her mad, but the more he watched her work in silence, the more he realized she wasn’t angry, just upset. Something was obviously bothering her; her eyes were bloodshot, like she’d been crying or had barely slept.

“What’s on your mind this morning?” he asked when he finished with his breakfast and she was done bathing Brian.

Dani hesitated for a few seconds before she turned towards him. “I need to tell you something,” she said finally, biting down on her bottom lip.

“What is it?” Nick wondered, his heart skipping a beat. He assumed it had something to do with Brian’s health or his own. He was totally unprepared for what she was about to tell him.

Dani took a deep breath and let it out slowly. After a long pause, she said, “I'm pregnant.”

Nick raised his eyebrows, not sure how to react. Normally this was happy news for a woman her age, yet Dani didn’t seem happy. “Wow,” he said, deciding to hold off on the congratulations until he knew how she felt about it. He remembered her saying she and Rob wanted to start a family someday, but that was before the hurricane had destroyed their home. She had to be overwhelmed by the thought of bringing a baby into the world when it had just been turned upside down. “Did you just find out?”

She nodded, perching on the edge of his bed. “I was supposed to start my period a few days ago. It’s never been this late before,” she explained, looking down at her lap. “I thought maybe the stress of the hurricane had messed with my cycle, but I took a test anyway - and it was positive.”

He reached for her hand, returning one of the many reassuring squeezes she had given him over the past two weeks. “Hey, I know it probably doesn’t seem like the best time to have a baby, given everything that’s happened, but look on the bright side - you’re having a baby! You and Rob are gonna be great parents!” He grinned, remembering how happy he’d felt when he had first found out he was going to be a father - and also how freaked out he’d been. “You’ve got nine months to get ready, and trust me, those nine months feel like forever. By the time that little nugget gets here, you’ll have a new home, and the hurricane will just be a bad memory.”

He had hoped his words of encouragement would help ease her mind and make her feel better about everything, but Dani didn’t smile back. Instead, when she finally looked up at him, he was dismayed to find that her eyes had filled with tears. “You don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head as she took her hand out of his. “The baby isn’t Rob’s.”

Nick blinked. He didn’t understand at first. When it finally dawned on him what she was really trying to tell him, his mouth dropped open in disbelief. “You don’t mean... it’s mine?”

Dani gave a nod before dropping her gaze again.

Feeling his heartbeat accelerate, he swallowed hard. “So we didn’t use any sort of protection?” That didn’t sound like him at all. He’d done plenty of dumb stuff back in the day, but he had always been careful when it came to sex, always taken the necessary precautions to make sure he didn’t accidentally get some groupie pregnant.

She shook her head. “We were drunk… and stupid.”

He frowned, still full of skepticism. “But how do you know it’s not his?” he persisted. “You telling me you two haven’t-?”

“It can’t be Rob’s because he’s sterile!” Dani blurted, her brown eyes flashing back at Nick’s as the tears overflowed. She wiped them away with her fingertips as she went on to explain, “He had cancer as a child, and the chemo made him infertile. We didn’t know for sure until we went to a fertility specialist, after we’d been trying awhile and couldn’t seem to conceive. We were told we’d never be able to have children the natural way. So when he finds out I’m knocked up, he’ll know it’s not his.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Nick, nervously licking his lips. “I hate to have to ask, but are you sure it’s mine?”

She glared at him. “How many guys do you think I would cheat on my husband with?! You think I go around having one-night stands every night?? I’m not a slut! I made a mistake. We made a mistake.”

Wincing, Nick nodded, finally accepting what she’d told him as the truth. “I know. I’m sorry. And I don’t think you’re a slut.”

“I’m sorry, too.” Dani sighed. “Sorry for dumping this on you. I didn’t mean to add one more thing to the pile of shit you’re going through already. I just thought you deserved to know.”

He took a deep breath before he responded, trying to stay calm and keep his racing heart under control. “I understand. I’m glad you told me,” he replied in a measured tone.

He was having a hard time figuring out how he felt about Dani being pregnant with his child. First and foremost, there was guilt. As if having a one-night stand with another woman wasn’t bad enough, now there was a baby on the way. He couldn’t go back to Lauren and pretend like it had never happened; from that point on, he and Dani would be forever linked.

There was also worry. What would his wife do when she found out? File for divorce? Try to take Odin away from him? The cracks that had appeared in what he’d once thought was a strong marriage now looked more like deep crevasses. Despite the love he still felt for Lauren, Nick knew their relationship might be broken beyond repair. He was afraid of losing his little family forever, but he had to face the facts. The beautiful life he and Lauren had built together was about to fall apart, and it was all his fault.

But hidden beneath the heavy weight of his shame and fear, there was another part of Nick that was almost… pleased? Ever since Arya had passed away, Nick had felt as if he was missing a piece of himself, like there was a hole in his life he desperately needed to fill. He still wasn’t sure what had possessed him to hook up with Dani that night, but whether it was a drunken mistake or divine intervention, he believed in the notion that everything happened for a reason. The mere possibility of her bringing a new baby - his baby - into the world made him think maybe it was meant to be.

He wondered if Dani was feeling the same way. She had to be just as conflicted as he was. On one hand, she had betrayed her husband, but on the other, she’d conceived the child they had desperately wanted. “What are you going to do?” he asked her.

She shook her head, as fresh tears fell from her eyes. “I don’t know. What do you want me to do?”

Nick swallowed hard. “Hey, your body, your decision,” he said, holding up his hands. He knew he could neither tell her what to do, nor make the decision for her. Dani would have to be the one to choose between her husband and her unborn child. She could sacrifice her chance at becoming a mother in order to save her marriage, or she could keep the baby but risk losing Rob. Either way, it wasn’t up to Nick.

“I know… but it’s your baby, too. It shouldn’t just be me making this decision on my own,” replied Dani, looking imploringly at him. “We need to decide together.”

He nodded. “But we don’t have to decide today. Let’s take some time to think about it, okay? Then we’ll talk.”

“Okay,” Dani agreed, and they left it at that. Neither of them brought up the fact that Nick was on borrowed time, though they both knew it. There was no guarantee he would last long enough to have another conversation about the baby, let alone live to see it born. Nine months into the future had never felt further away to Nick than they did on that day, as he lay dying in his hospital bed.

When Dani went to dry her eyes, he held his right hand up in front of his face and looked at his nail beds, which were still tinged blue from bad circulation. He bent and flexed his fingers, trying to get more blood flowing into their tips, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. After a few seconds, he lowered his hand and lay it across the left side of his chest, pressing lightly until he felt the faint flutter of his heart pulsing against his palm. As he listened to the blip of the monitor that measured its rhythm (beep… beep… beep… beep...) and counted the beats in his head (one… two… three… four...), he was reminded of an old-fashioned clock with a pendulum that constantly swung back and forth (tick… tock... tick… tock…).

But the monitor felt more like a doomsday clock, counting down to the moment when Nick’s weakened heart would finally give out for good. When that happened, the monitor would sound an alarm as the ICD detonated inside his chest, delivering a series of shocks that would ultimately fail to restore his heart rhythm. Dani and the others would come running to resuscitate him, as they had so many times before, but this time, their frantic efforts would be futile.

Nick had come to accept that, without a new heart, this was the way he would inevitably go. It was not a question of if, but when, and though no one could give him an exact answer, Nick knew he would likely be faced with this unfortunate fate sometime in the near future. There was no denying it. Death could be lurking around the next corner, lying in wait for him like a lioness stalking a sickly wildebeest.

The thought disturbed him, yet there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn’t ready to die, but he felt helpless to stop it from happening. Dr. Elizabeth had done everything in her power to improve his condition, but it was out of her hands now. The only way anyone could reset the clock was to cut out his ruined heart and replace it with a healthy one, but that would require both a donor and a team of doctors capable of performing such a complex procedure. Nick had neither.

And so the clock continued to count down as time ticked on... but still, his heart kept beating.

***