He shuts the door and sits in his chair looking out the window lost in thought. A little while later Alex knocks.

"Come in." Ethan said coming back to reality.

"Good morning daddy." Ethan said smiling. Alex's face lit up at his statement.

"Good morning. I'm guessing Ashely told you?"

"Yes, she did. Congratulations Alex. Do you also need to take tomorrow off?"

"Thank you. No just a couple hours to be with her, I'll be here afterwards."

"Alright. So, what's on the schedule today? Ashely told me about a meeting in a bit but that was it. I think her mind was on the baby more than work." He laughed.

"Yea it's all we talk about. After the meeting you have some paper work to look over and a few phone meetings to take and at two you have a short phone meeting with the mayor of the town for the school regarding the fax sent yesterday. Here is the paperwork that needs your attention and I will leave you to it."

"Alright and again, congrats. It couldn't have happened for two better people than y'all."

Alex smiles. "Thank you, see you in a bit."

Around quarter till 12 there is a knock and Ryan walks in. Ethan didn't hear the knock or the door opening, he's lost in his work and Ryan sits across him and watches Ethan for a bit, looking over the paper work and back to his laptop typing and he has a pen in his mouth tapping his forehead thinking as he types than he grabs the pen and writes on the paper work and back to typing.

He works for another twenty minutes and without looking up he presses the button on his phone.

"Ashely, has Ryan showed up yet?"

"Um sir, he arrived a bit ago, he should be in your office."

"Well he's..." Ethan looked up and saw Ryan sitting there just watching him and smiling at him.

"Ok never mind." He said to the phone and blushed in embarrassment.

"I am so sorry, I didn't hear you come in. I was so focused on what I was doing that I didn't hear anything."

"That's ok, you are really sexy in your office in your suit in the zone. It's hot actually. I was enjoying watching you, humming and you going back and forth to your paper work to your laptop, I can see the wheels turning when you would tap your forehead trying to figure out what to do. What are you trying to do?"

"Well I am trying to come up with something new, something that will be a great asset to the military hospitals esp over seas as they aren't as equipped as over here."

"Ok what are you trying to do though?"

"Agh I'm not sure, that's the problem. See here, come here and look at this. One moment," he presses the button the phone. "Ashley, can you place an order in at the crab shack please and have it delivered, my usual plus whatever Ryan would like." He looks up at Ryan nodding to tell him to tell her what he would like. "Oh um fried shrimp and fried fish please."

"Ok no problem" she said.

"Ok so you see this, this is an image I got from maps and this hospital is so small, I don't know how they function with something that small over there so I want to extend it, I just can't seem to figure out which way would work best because as you can see, there are not that many options to go. If it's extending in the back, we run into the river, if we extend to either side, we run into other buildings and can't extend the front as you can see it has sheds and hangers not far from it." Ryan looks over the drawings Ethan has done to see what he can come up with.

"May I?" Ryan asked pointing toward the laptop.

"Not at all, here sit." Ethan got up and Ryan sat in his chair. He pulled up maps and typed in the area Ethan is looking at.

"I don't mean to get into your business here I don't but, have you thought about just building a whole new hospital, here?" He asked pointing to an open area with nothing around that isn't off base but it's not that close to the sheds and hangers.

"Isn't the point to have everything close, in case things happen?"

"Not all the time, I have been to a few bases over seas and not all hospitals are close to other buildings and it seems to work. If you can't do it in the area the hospital is at, the extension and you know you have to extend it, maybe go over some ideas to build a new one." Ethan sits on the edge of his desk and thinks over what Ryan is saying.

"That could work, that area is big enough to make an even bigger hospital to provide them with everything they need." Ethan gets his pad and pen and sits at the table in his office and starts drawing out an outline and Ryan searches hospitals for ideas of layouts.

He prints some and hands them to Ethan and sits in the chair on the other side of the table and helps Ethan come up with a design. After they get done with the rough draft Ethan goes to sit at his deck and opens a program to start the design and he didn't even notice that the food was delivered.

Ryan opens the containers and places Ethan's beside him on the desk.

"Thank you." He said without looking up and Ryan smiled.

"You're welcome." Ethan works and eats at the same time and Ryan eats and watches Ethan work his magic on his laptop sitting beside him. He helps Ethan at times by handing him the next page of the design after he finishes up one page of the rough draft. After a few hours Ethan is finished with the design.

He sits back and sighs. "It is going to look great. You are really good."

"Thank you, took time to figure it out but I learned and I help design a lot of the buildings and schools we buy and build from the ground up. This one is important to me though, more than the others."

"Why?"

"Because if you haven't noticed it's the hospital that is on the base you are at over there. I want it to have the best stuff to take care of you if anything should happen to you. I know that may sound selfish on my part but I don't want anything to prevent you from getting the best care possible. Of course I want all of you to have that but they don't mean as much to me as you do Ryan."

"I understand and it's real sweet Ethan."

"Now when you and I skype, I want updates on how its going, yea I'll get them from my people here but at times they hold back and don't tell me everything, so I want the updates from you."

"Sure no problem. I gotta say I didn't imagine spending my day here but I had agood time."

"Oh shit I'm so sorry, I just wanted to get this done and surprise you. Are you mad?"

"Not at all. It is almost eight though, do you want to getout of here?"

"Holy hell it is! Wow I had no idea it was so late, I'm sorry to keep you here, you didn't have to stay."

"I know, I wanted to. We only have two days before I leave so I wanted to spend today with you, even if it was in your office." Ethan felt his heart break a little.

"Two days." Ethan whispers but Ryan heard him. Ryan looks deeply into Ethan's eyes.

"Let's make them count. You passed out last night before we were able to finish so how about we go, get some food and go to your place this time?"

"Sounds good to me." Ethan saves the design and shuts his laptop down and turns the lights out and they go to the lobby. They walk out and it's quiet and they walk outside and go to Ethan's truck and leave. As Ethan is driving he is singing along to the radio and pulls into a fast food place. Ryan tells him what he wants and he orders their food and pull up to the window pays gets the food and leaves.
"Tonight we are eating, last night we kinda didn't. This morning I saw the food from last night still in the back, I really wanted that stake to." Ethan chuckled.

"Well we can have stake tomorrow night. My unit is having a bbq and I would like you to come and meet everyone."

"Really?"

"Yes. Are you ok with that?"

"Of course, I would love to." Ethan smiles and Ryan looks relived. He drives them to his house.

Ryan gets out and just looks at the house. "Wow this place is beautiful."

"Thank you. I designed it myself."

"That doesn't surprise me." Ryan said still looking at the beautiful modern home.

It was a two story house with brick walls outside. It had a long drive way that curved making it to where you can't see the main road from the house. There were trees and bushes all along the drive and in front of the house. There was a huge porch with a wrap around deck on the first level and a balcony on the second floor which is to Ethan's bedroom.

Ethan goes to open the door and they walk in. Ryan walks in and just looks at the entrance way and into the living room and kitchen, it's an open wide space, only thing separating it was the island.

Ethan places the food on the island and gets plates out and places the food on the plates and grabs two beers and puts Ryan's food and a beer in front of a stool and Ryan sits down and Ethan does the same.

Ryan looks around the open area and noticed a wall, it had a lot of pictures of Ethan and Marcus and on the mantel was an American flag in a box frame with glass and above it was a Marcus graduation picture from bootcamp. A little above that to the right was apicture of Ethan and Marcus at the graduation and kissing. On the other side was one of them at a send off for Marcus for a deployment. There is another picture above that one of Marcus with his unit while in Iraq and few others in a row of them and him in Iraq. Above those was pictures of Ethan and Marcus and family. Above those is the most touching one of all, it was of Ethan kneeling against a coffin with his hands on it like he is praying, you can see a stand with Marcus's picture with a flora arrangement of the flag next to it. The day was a sunny day and all you see is pain and sorrow in the picture. Ryan has tears in his eyes as he is drawn into the photo.

"I have seen my share of people at funerals kneeling like that but I have to say, that one is the most heart breaking one I have ever seen." He says almost in a whisper.

"Yea it was hard, I know I should take it down but I can't. it's not because I don't want to it's just I can't take it down because that day I lost a major part of me and it reminds me of how life is precious and don't take it for granted. Yes he is alive and well but I'm not, you know that I'm not so that is still there, that one picture is and will always hang on my wall to remind me of that hard time in my life and I pray to God I don't have to have another one on my wall kneeling in front of a coffin for you." He said looking at the photo as if remembering that painful day had just happened.

"You know I can't promise that, I wish with everything I am that I could, but I can't. No one knows what will happen, we just have to take it one day at a time."

"I know, it's still a very real fear for me."

"And it always will be as long as you are with someone in the military, that's never going to go away. It doesn't for anyone who is with someone in the military, it's a fear we all know, to well it seems anymore." They sit and eat the rest of their food in silence. Ethan gets up to clear the plates. He's at the sink and rolls up the sleeves and puts his tie over his shoulder and starts to wash the plates and Ryan wipes the island. As Ethan is washing up the past few days dishes that's in the sink Ryan explores the house.

He walks around the living room looking at the paintings on the wall and looks at the DVD and CD collection and then he makes his way down the hall and just looks into the den and guest room. He walks up the stairs and looks into each room and when he opens the door to one of the rooms, he stops in his tracks and gasps at the sight in front of him.