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“ Honey where does your tummy hurt?” Nick asked moving forward. AJ watched his young friend and wondered how much time he had really spent with the girl.
“ Right here.” She said pointing to the left side of her stomach. Nick pressed down on that place and watched Gracie’s reaction.
“ I think it’s something bad.” Nick said looking at his friends.
“ Well thank you for pointing out the obvious. How much time did you spend with her?” AJ snapped looking at her.
“ I’ve known Uncle Nick all my life.” Gracie said, her voice soft. AJ’s eyes snapped towards her and then towards Meranda as she entered the room with the doctor. Meranda looked at him seeing anger behind the dark glasses.
“ We need to talk.” AJ said grabbing her arm and pulling her into the hallway.
“ We will wait here.” Kevin said wondering what was wrong with his younger friend. He had seen Gracie a few times over the years. Meranda had asked that they say nothing to AJ about it because she wanted him to live his life as he wanted without children. Kevin felt AJ had brought Meranda leaving him upon himself and he deserved everything he got.


Once in the hall AJ looked at Meranda and about growled at her.
“ What?” Meranda asked, concern in the depths of her eyes.
“ You’ve lied this long to me about my little girl and Nick’s known about her the entire time.”
“ He helped me move. He was there when I gave birth to Gracie. Birthday’s holidays all the time. Who the hell did you think he was sending money to?”
“ I knew he was sending money and gifts but I just assumed they where for his family. Why? Why didn’t you call and ask me or at least tell me about her?”
“ YOU TOLD ME YOU DIDN’T WANT KIDS!” She shouted at him. “ You made it very clear that you where just a kid yourself and didn’t want a kid to have to take care of.”
“ I would have gladly taken care of her, she was mine. You kept her from me for six years and I might lose her before I get to know who she is.” AJ shouted.
“ You where a selfish child when I met you and you wanted to love me but you weren’t sure if you could love me like I really wanted. You where scared plane and simple. And I didn’t want to burdan you with a child. So I chose to leave. I decided what was best for us both because I wasn’t willing to give her up but I wasn’t willing to give you up, it broke my heart to leave you. I wanted to die, but when Gracie was born it changed. She was my world, I saw you in her face, her eyes everything. I wanted and did cry every time I’d look at her. She found me crying in my bed one night the day you announced you where going into rehab. She didn’t understand, she was still to little but she came in and curled up beside me. I had her there and no one else. I called your house so many times, I would get some woman’s voice or yours and I’d just hang up. I couldn’t handle it. All I wanted to do was to blurt out the fact that you where a father and that you had a wonderfully beautiful daughter.” Meranda said looking at him. She could still see the anger in his eyes, nothing she said could change what she had done, keeping their child away from him.
“ That’s bullshit you never tried to call, you didn’t care and didn’t want to tell me that I had a daughter.”
“ Fuck you. I knew telling you about this would have it turn into a big war, fine you want to be with her so be it I’m leaving.” Meranda said turning on her heal and heading towards the elevator. Tears rolling down her cheeks as she nearly ran out of the hospital. She saw a church in the distance and hurried inside. Looking up at the front of the church, the statue of Jesus standing with his arms extended. Sliding into one of the pews she lowered her head and began crying uncontrollably.

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AJ stood there in the hallway after she had left. He wasn’t even sure what to do let alone what he was going to say when he walked into the room. He walked threw the door and everyone looked towards him.
“ Where’s Meranda?” Nick asked looking past him thinking that she was standing in the doorway. AJ looked at him and then lowered his eyes. The doctor walked into the room before he could tell them that Meranda had left.
“ Ok we have to prep her for surgery.”
“ Why?” AJ asked snapping out of his trance.
“ She’s got an enlarged apendex that needs to be removed. It’s going to burst and if it does it could kill her. We need the consent of the family. Where is her mother?”
“ Stepped out for a moment. I am Gracie’s father. Can I sigh the form?” AJ asked moving forward.
“ Yes, we must hurry.” The doctor said handing AJ the paper, AJ quickly signed it and handed it back. AJ turned his eyes towards Gracie’s face, he could see she was worried.
“ Where’s mommy?” She asked looking around the room. AJ smiled a weak smile and walked over and touched her cheek.
“ Mommy will be here when you come back. I promise.”
“ Ok. Tell mommy I love her.” Gracie said.
“ I will, now you be good for these nice nurse and the doctor.” AJ said kissing her cheek. Gracie smiled and let them leave the room with her. Once she was gone Nick stood.
“ What the hell did you do?” Nick asked looking at him. AJ looked up at him.
“ We got into a fight in the hallway.” AJ said simply.
“ We gathered that much, we could hear her yelling all the way in here. Where did she go?”
“ She left alright. She was upset and she said that she was leaving. I made her mad.”
“ Are you still blaming her for what’s going on?”
“ I am blaming her I am blaming you.” AJ said looking at Nick with fire in his eyes.
“ Blaming me for what? Being her friend. Or lying to you about the fact she had a child. She told me that you had told her you didn’t want a kid because you where a kid yourself. This is your own fault.” Nick said stepping up and getting into AJ’s face.
“ My Fault. She’s sick and Meranda never called me, she called you.” AJ fumed.
“ Yes she called me but she told me to bring you along and that she would explain to you what was going on. Instead you blew up and blamed everything you could on her. I saw that you had talked to her civilly at one point but the minuet Gracie said she had seen me a lot you instantly decided it was time to yell at her again. Her daughter is sick, and all you can do is yell at her.” Nick said looking at AJ. AJ didn’t waver as he looked at his friend, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to call him a friend after all that had been happened.
“ I yelled at her because she was being selfish, You called me selfish and yet it was you two that hid Gracie from me. I don’t even know my daughter.” AJ growled. Nick lowered his head and picked up the small package he had set down on the table.
“ This is everything.” Nick said. AJ took the box from him and saw his name across the top.