“Katelin!” Leighanne called, rushing out of the house after her friend. “Kate!”

Katelin finally stopped running. Her car had been parked on the street and so Leighanne had time to catch up with her. She turned around, slowly, her heart pounding the whole time and looked to see Leigh standing in Nick’s front lawn. Her front lawn. At one time, this used to be her house. Katelin felt a panic attack coming on and just wanted, no, needed, to get out of there. But then she just stopped. She had told Brendan she wouldn’t run anymore. And that included from everyone. Not just Nick.

Leighanne quickly caught up with her at the end of the driveway. “Don’t run away, Kate,” she pleaded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh back there.”

“It’s okay,” Katelin all but whispered. “I just…I really need to go. This is too much.”

“This is your home, Kate,” Leighanne told her.

“Was,” Kate corrected. “Was my home. I don’t belong here anymore. We’ve all moved on.” The bitterness was apparent in her voice but she brought it all on herself. She knew that. Seeing that other woman there had made this totally real. She didn’t even want to know her name. Nick had moved on. Not that she blamed him. It had been so long. But it still hurt like hell.

“What’d you expect him to do?” Leighanne asked, carefully.

“I know,” Katelin sighed. “It’s not like I didn’t expect him to find someone else. But still, it hurts seeing it. Seeing her in my house, with my kids and my husband. I know it’s nothing less than what I deserve but it still hurts…” Her voice trailed off at the end of the sentence, the words getting caught in her throat. Leighanne made a move towards her. Maybe to hug her or something. Katelin didn’t really know and she didn’t really want to know. She held up her hand to stop her. “Don’t Leigh,” she choked out. “I gave her my hotel and room number. Just…tell Nick where I am…if he wants to see me. I really want to do anything I can to help Aaron.” Before Leighanne could say anything else, Kate spun around and ran to the rental car she had parked on the street. Leighanne watched as the engine started and the car sped away before turning around to go back into Nick’s house.

“Hey,” Nick greeted Brynn quietly as he walked in the door carrying Aaron who was fast asleep. “Let me go put him down and then I’ll be back down.” Brynn watched him ascend the stairs, all the while nervously tapping her foot on the ground. Should she tell him? She knew that she had to. Nick deserved that explanation. But Brynn was terrified. Terrified she was going to lose him.

“Sorry about that.” Brynn’s head snapped up at the sound of Nick’s voice as he came back down the stairs. He walked into the living room and collapsed on the couch next to her. “Thank you so much for staying here with the twins today. I’m so sorry I keep making you do this.”

“Don’t apologize,” she told him, her eyes sad. “I’m more than happy to.”

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked, brushing her hair back from her face. “You seem…I don’t know…sad.”

“Just worried, I guess,” she replied. It wasn’t entirely a lie. She was so worried about Aaron. But she was also worried about what was going to happen when she told Nick who came by the house today.

“Aaron’s okay for now,” he told her. “His fever went down. Almost back to normal. He should be okay until they start the chemo.”

“They’re starting it?” she asked. This was news to her. She thought that they needed to find a donor first.

“Yeah,” Nick sighed. “It’s not going to get rid of the leukemia but it may stall for a little while we try and find a donor.”

Brynn took a deep breath, her thoughts returning to Nick’s wife. She may be just the person that they needed. Could Brynn do this? She could potentially be throwing away everything she had built with Nick and his family. She loved him. She loved those kids. But love meant sacrifice and if she had to sacrifice her own happiness for Nick and those kids, then she would do it. “I have to tell you something.”

“Huh?” Nick asked, distractedly, as he played with the bracelet on her wrist.

“You had a visitor today,” Brynn lifted her hips up off of the couch so she could pull the piece of paper out the back pocket of her jeans.

“Really?” Nick questioned, his eyebrows slightly raising. “Who?”

“God this is so hard,” Brynn said, quietly, more to herself than anything. She produced the piece of paper and placed it in Nick’s hand. Nick looked down at it, confused. “What’s this?” he asked, seeing the hotel and room number written on the small paper.

Brynn squeezed her eyes shut, willing the words to come out. “Katelin,” she all but whispered.

“What?” Nick’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “That’s not funny, Brynn.”

She released a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. “I’m not joking, Nick.” She glanced up at him and his expression hadn’t changed. “She was here today, standing in this room. She wanted to talk to you but then Leighanne came over and she freaked. She gave this to me just before she ran out the door.”

“Were the twins here?” God, he hoped they weren’t. If they had seen her…they would’ve been so confused. Nick wasn’t even sure if they would remember anything about her.

Brynn shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “No. It was just me. I’m sorry, Nicky. I wanted to call you and tell you but there was nothing you could have done about it at the hospital. I just wanted you to get through everything with Aaron before I dropped this bombshell on you.”

Nick’s whole body was numb. He wasn’t mad at her for not telling him. He was just…he didn’t know what to think about the whole situation. She was here. In his house. “Don’t apologize, honey. You did the right thing.” He glanced down at the paper in his hand. “She’s here?”

Brynn nodded. “Do you want me to stay here with them? And you can go over there?”

Nick stood up and rubbed his neck. “I don’t know what I want to do.” He glanced at his cell phone sitting on the table and picked it up. “I need to call Brian or something. I’ll be right back.”

Brian heard the phone ring while as he walked out of Anna’s dark room and ran into his bedroom to get it. Leighanne was still in the shower so he knew she probably didn’t hear it. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Nick’s voice filtered through.

“Hi,” Brian greeted. “What’s up? How’s Aaron doing?”

“He’s better,” Nick replied, softly. “His fever’s down and I put him in bed.”

“That’s good,” Brian sighed, out of relief. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” Nick answered, collapsing in to a chair on his back deck. He stared at the tiny little piece of paper in his hand. It was definitely her handwriting. He was surprised he didn’t recognize it when Brynn first gave it to him. Had he been expecting it, then maybe he would have. “She’s here.”

“Who?” Brian asked, confused.

“Kate,” Nick responded, softly. “She’s in Tampa. She came by the house today.”

“What?!” Brian exclaimed. AJ never told him that he had found her. “Did you see her?”

“No,” Nick told him. “Brynn was here by herself when she showed up.”

“Shit,” Brian breathed. “Brynn was there? That had to have been rough. Did she recognize her?”

“Yeah, I think so. Leigh came over when she was here, apparently.”

“What?” Brian asked. “She didn’t tell me she saw her. Of course, she has been acting kind of weird since she’s been home.” He looked up as the bathroom door opened and his wife walked out in her robe. “What’d she say?” Leighanne glanced up at Brian who locked eyes with her. She knew what this was about and she knew that Brian was going to be less than thrilled that she didn’t say anything. She smiled at him, apologetically. He rolled his eyes and went back to his conversation with Nick.

“I don’t know,” Nick sighed. “When Leighanne showed up, she apparently freaked and ran out of the house.”

“There’s a surprise,” Brian mumbled.

Nick squeezed his eyes shut, the memories of that day all flooding back to him. The empty house. The cell phone laying on the bed. The note on the bathroom counter that explained nothing but told him that life, as he knew it, was over. “Brian please…Don’t do this now. I just…she left me a note with where she’s staying. I don’t know what to do.”

“Go over there, Nick.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Nick admitted, quietly. “With everything that’s going on, I don’t know if I can handle seeing her right now.”

“You have to,” Brian practically ordered. “You deserve an explanation, Nick. Go over there and make her give you one. And who knows? Maybe she may be the one that you’re looking for with Aaron. Someone in your family has to match.”

“I know. I should go. It’s not too late to go now, is it?”

Brian glanced at the clock next to the bed. It was only eight thirty. “Go now, Nick. Don’t give her a chance to get away again.” He said goodbye to his friend and hung up the phone, turning around and looking at his wife.

“Don’t look at me like that, Bri,” Leighanne warned, not even turning towards him. “You know full well why I didn’t tell you.”

“Enlighten me,” Brian sneered. “How long have you been home today? And you still haven’t said anything.”

“It’s not my place to say anything,” Leighanne told him, turning away from the mirror and towards him. “Don’t sit there and tell me that, had I told you, you wouldn’t have marched right over to that hotel and gotten to her first.”

“I would not!” Brian defended.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes you would, Bri. I’m not stupid. And that’s not fair for anyone. Nick deserves the explanation. Not you. Not me. Not anyone else. Nick and his children.”

“Fine,” Brian grumbled, defeated. He was quiet for a second, a zillion questions running through his mind. Where had she been? Why had she left? Why did she finally decide to come back? “How’d she look?” he finally asked.

Leighanne shrugged, joining him on the bed and leaning into his arms. “Honestly? She looked pretty awful. I mean, she still looked like Kate but…I don’t know…she just looked completely, emotionally drained. I’ve never seen her look like that.”

“Why?” Brian whispered. “After all these years, why did she show up now? Just to turn their lives upside down again?”

Leighanne entwined her fingers with his. “She said she wanted to do anything to help Aaron.”

“Well at least she’s doing something right in her life,” he commented. “I wonder what Nick is going to do.”

“I hope he goes over there,” Leighanne said, wistfully. “You’re right. He deserves an explanation. And those kids deserve to know where their mother is.”

Nick walked back inside his house to see that Brynn hadn’t even moved from the spot that he had left her in. She glanced up at him as he walked back inside. “Did you talk to Brian?” Nick nodded, sitting down next to her on the couch and placing his head in his hands. She reached up and rubbed his back softly, knowing that he would talk when he was ready.

“I don’t know what to do,” he finally admitted, quietly. “I mean, I know that I have to go over there. It’s just…God, it’s been so damn long.” Brynn didn’t say anything. It wasn’t her place to tell him to go there. Or to tell him not to go over there. As much as she wanted to just forget this day ever happened, she was going to have to face the truth. Nick’s wife was back and Brynn, herself, may very well be out of the picture soon. “What are you thinking?” he asked her, lifting his head up and looking at her in the eyes.

Brynn shrugged. “Nothing, Nicky. I know this must be so hard for you.”

He noticed the fear in her eyes and pulled her close. “God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think of how this may be affecting you.”

Brynn offered a small smile. “Don’t apologize to me, baby. I’m fine, alright? You just do what you need to do."

He sighed, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “I think I want to go over there. I mean, I have to.”

Brynn’s shoulders sagged. She knew that he would have to but it was still going to be so difficult to watch him walk out that door in search of the woman he had been so in love with for so long. “I know you do,” she told him, softly. “Go. I’ll stay here and watch them. Just go do what you need to do.”

He leaned in and placed a kiss on her lips. “You’re so good to me, you know that? You deserve much better than this.”

“I love you, Nick,” she told him, honestly. “I’m just doing what’s right.”

“I love you, too,” he whispered, before standing up and walking out the door, the piece of paper clutched tightly in his fist. And he did love her. Not in the same way he had ever loved Katelin. He would never feel like that about anyone again. But he had been honest with Brynn from the beginning and she knew where she stood. He did love her.

“Hey,” Kate greeted Brendan when she walked in the door to their hotel room.

He glanced up from the television. “Hey. Where have you been?”

“I went to the beach,” she replied, kicking off her flip flops next to her bag and sitting down on the bed next to him. “Did he call?”

Brendan shook his head. “Nope. I’m sorry, babe.”

“Maybe this was a mistake,” she told him.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “This wasn’t a mistake, Kate. He probably just got home late and hadn’t gotten the message all day. There’s no way he wouldn’t come here, knowing you were here.”

She shrugged. “I guess you’re right. I’m just so nervous, Bren.”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “I know you are, babe. I know. But you can’t turn back now. You’ve already made it this far.” They were interrupted by a knock at the door. Brendan sighed, inwardly. He had a feeling he knew who this was. Apparently Katelin did too, because she started shaking like a leaf. “Oh god,” she whispered, looking at him with fear in her eyes. “Please tell me you ordered room service or something.”

Brendan shook his head, apologetically, as he stood up to go answer the door. He glanced out the peephole. He could barely make out the blond hair on the person standing outside the door. He glanced back at Katelin, who was just staring at the door, looking terrified. He took a deep breath and then opened the door.

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