Destiny sat on her couch glaring at the phone on the sofa-table next to her. She absolutely did not want to make this phone call. She had promised herself, when coming here, that she would not dial these 10 figures for anything in the world. But now she had to. If not for her, then so for the baby's sake!

She sighed. 2 hours ago her world was perfect. 2 hours ago everything was fine. Now her reality was shattered down to pieces by just a few words spoken.

Destiny reluctantly picked the reciever up and dialed the phone number ever so slowly. Now it was too late to change her mind.

A few ringings. Then finally someone in the other end picked up.

"Hello?" a male voice asked.

Destiny breathed heavily, and she was sure this other someone could hear her, but she didn't dare to speak.

"Hellooo?" The man grew impatient.

Destiny hung up.

She picked up a magazine from the small table and threw it across the room, hitting an old vase that stood on the top of the TV, causing it to fall down and break into thousands of pieces.

"Shit!" she cussed and arose from the couch to get a brush and a dustpan out of the closet. Her back ached terribly, and crawling on the floor, cleaning up glass splinter wasn't going to make her feel better.

When she was done, she felt slightly proud of her self. Destiny walked back to the couch and sat down in exhaustion. This pregnancy really took the toil out of her.

Without even thinking the picked up the reciever yet again and quickly dialed the all too familiar number.

"Hello?" the same male voice asked.

"H-hi..." Destiny stammered.

"Who's this?" the man asked.

"It's... i-it's D-d-destiny" she said uncertain.

The man in the other end of the line gasped.

"Des?" his voice seemed to tremble.

"Nick?" she said her tears threatening to fall.

A long silence fell.

"Where are you?" Nick finally asked.

"Nick I gotta tell you something important, so before you scold me, please hear me out ok?" Destiny said all in one breath.

"Ok" Nick said.

"Look... the day you went to Sweden, I went to the doctor cause I hadn't been feeling too well and I..." she was about to say but Nick cut her off.

"I already know that you got pregnant, Des. Now was that all you had to say after being gone for 6 months? Or do you have any more untold secrets?" Nick was getting pissed off. Who did she think she was? Just disappearing like that, and call him 6 months later expect him to be fine.

Tears fell down Destiny's cheeks. She brought all this upon herself. Ignoring Nick's comment she continued.

"This morning I had my monthly check up, and the doctor discovered something. I have a very rare type of disease, which I've had since birth but no one knew about it. One of us, the baby or me, won't..." her voice faded. She started crying uncontrollably.

Now Nick was terrified. What was Destiny about to tell him?

"What Des? The baby or you, won't what?"

"...Won't survive the delivery" she sobbed.

Nick's face grew pale.

"Oh my God" he whispered. "A-are you s-s-sure?" he asked.

"Yeah. Unfortunately. In the worst case, none of us will. Oh Nick I'm so scared! I don't know what to do." tears fell down her cheeks yet again.

"Where are you?" Nick asked again.

"Manchester, New Hampshire. Home for single mothers."

"I'll be right over!" Nick said.

"But Nick..."

"No buts! I'll be right there!" he said softly.

*****

Brian layed on his bed with his 2 month old son curled up on his stomach. He gently rubbed the tiny creature's back humming softly to himself, thinking back on the dramatic delivery.

~*Delivery Flashback*~

"Ok now Leighane, you have to push!" the mid-wife said.

Brian held Leighanne's hand and kissed her forhead gently.

"You're doing fine baby, just push and we'll have us a baby boy or girl!" he said.

"Easy for you to say! You're not the one with a huge water melon inside of you, that wants to come out through a hole to the size of a pea-aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh..." Leighanne yelled as an other contraction was coming.

"Still at 4 centimeters" the midwife said. "If she's not by 5 centimeters within the next few minutes, we'll have to do a c-section."

Brian looked scared. All he wanted was Leigh and the baby to be fine! Though inside he felt as he wanted to break down, he tried to be strong for his fiancée.

"It's not getting any bigger. Prepare her for surgery" the midwife said.

Brian kissed Leigh's forehead. "You'll do fine baby! I'll be out here waiting for ya" he said, his voice cracking up a bit.

"Oh Brian, I'm so scared. What if there's something wrong with the baby?" Leighanne said tears welling up her eyes.

"No such thinking, honey. The baby is just fine". Brian sounded more certain than he actually was. The truth is he was petrified.

"Mr. Littrell we need to proceed now, please step out of the way!" the midwife said, pushing Leighanne's delivery bed out of the room. "You can wait in the waiting room down the hallway to the left."

Brian left reluctantly. He wanted to share this precious moment with his fiancée. And now he was left behind, all alone. He sat down on one of the empty couches in the waiting room, resting his head in his hands. Brian felt someone patting him lightly on his shoulder. He looked up to see his best friend of 6 years standing before him.

"Hey" Nick said offering a comforting smile.

Brian didn't return it. "Hi" he said motionless.

"Well, how's it going? Am I an uncle yet?" Nick said flashing him one of his famous Carter smiles.

"Leigh's in surgery. They had to do a c-section" he said looking down.

"Oh..." was all Nick could say. He sat down next to Brian, and put his arm around him.

"She'll do fine. Soon you'll be a daddy. Ain't that awesome?" Nick said, suddenly looking sad. A picture of Destiny lying in a hospital bed watching Nick rocking a small child in his arms, popped up in his mind. He sighed heavily. That wasn't going to happen, and he knew it.

"Yeah" Brian said blankly.

"What's up with the attitude?" Nick said looking confused.

"Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts. I'm just worried there might be something wrong with the baby, that's all." A saddened look fell over his already concerned and confused face.

"Nah, don't worry buddy! So what do you think it'll be?" Nick said grinning.

"I have a feeling it's a boy. Though I wouldn't mind a girl. A little girl that I could spoil rotten" he said laughing.

"If it's a boy you'd better teach him to play basketball! He's going to kick your ass, dear old friend!" Nick said.

"I'm planning on it, even though it's a girl" Brian said soon lost in his own little world of happiness.

Nick chuckled, and shook his head. "You thought of any names yet?"

"Yeah, we’ve been bouncing around some ideas, but decided early this morning."

"So... let’s hear them already! I ain't got all day" Nick said getting impatient.

"Cooper Thomas for a boy, and Skylar Anne for a girl. Leigh wanted my middle name for the boy, and I wanted part of her name for the girl." Brian said proudly.

"Those are really cool names!" Nick said.

"Thanks. Leigh thought..." he was about to say but someone interrupted him.

"Mr. Littrell?" a male doctor called his name.

Brian looked up. "Yeah?"

"I'm Dr. Evans. I was working on Ms Wallace. Would you like to follow me?"

Brian got up from his seat, and pointed to Nick. "Can he come too? He's a very good friend of me and Leighanne."

"Alright. I can't see why not." Dr Evans smiled at them and motioned for them to follow him.

They walked down the hallway and followed Dr Evans into his office. He invited them to sit down in two black leather armchairs in front of his desk.

"Now, we've got both good and bad news" the doctor said looking uneasy. He hated bringing bad news.

When Brian said nothing Dr Evans continued.

"The good news is that the surgery went well, and Ms Wallace is now resting in Recovery." Dr Evans took a deep breath. "The bad news is, unfortunately about the baby."

Tears sprung to Brian's eyes. He knew it! It was all just too good to be true. Him and Leighanne weren't meant to be happy together, and start a family of their own.

"When we got the baby out, it wasn't breathing. The umbilical cord had got twisted around its neck, but after a few minutes we managed to get the little heart pumping again. Unfortunately the lack of oxygen damaged parts of its brain." Dr Evans said with a sorry look in his eyes.

"Wh-what... are you saying the baby... is brain-dead?" Brian said tears trickling down his cheeks.

"No not brain-dead. Mr. Littrell I'm going to be straight forward with you. He has a rare type brain-damage. He probably won't be able to walk or talk at all. We're not sure of how long he will live. But I wouldn't have the hopes up too high, if I were you. You have to be prepared for the worst at any time."

"He? I have a son?" Brian said sniffing.

"Yes. Would you like to see him?"

"Yeah" Brian said motionless. Him and Nick arose from their armchairs and the doctor did the same. They followed Dr Evans to a room with cribs lined up against the walls. "He's in the last crib, to the right down there" Dr Evans said pointing. "You can hold him if you want". Brian nodded and slowly walked to the crib holding his son. Nick tagged along.

Brian peered in, and saw the most beautiful little baby he had ever seen in his whole life. New tears sprung to his eyes as he gently touched the boy's small face. He bent down to his knees so that he was in the right level with the crib. Suddenly the little boy opened his eyes and looked right at Brian.

"Hi there big boy. I'm your daddy" Brian said smiling. "And this corny looking fellow right behind me is your uncle Nick. But call him Nicky, 'cause then he gets really pissed." He said chuckling.

Nick bent down too and gently pushed Brian in the side.

"Hey!" he said looking amused. "Don't teach the kid to be mean already! Don't listen to your daddy, bud. You and me are going to pull the best pranks on daddy, aren't we?"

Brian carefully reached out to lift the small infant. He stood up as he began rocking his little boy in his arms.

"I can’t believe your mine" Brian said all amazed. He looked at Nick. "Do you want to hold him?" he said.

"Yeah sure" Nick said grinning. Brian placed little Cooper Thomas in the arms of his best friend.

"Hey, you're one heavy dude" Nick said chuckling to the baby. He held out his finger and the little boy soon grabbed it. "Aww, man check this out!" Nick said to Brian. "Isn't this just the coolest thing?!".

Brian could tell Nick was in heaven. He knew Nick loved kids, and was really upset about Destiny leaving him, because despite the things he had said to her, he would love to have a kid right away with Destiny. He was just really scared, that's all.

Nick put the baby back in the crib. "Now what?" he asked.

"Let's go and see how Leigh is doing!"

~*End of Flashback*~