047:

She dropped him at the front doors and he leaped out of the car before it had completely stopped and then she went to park in the same area she'd parked this afternoon. Ryan followed her and got out to open her car door before she could.

"Why are we here, Mia?" He almost yelled at her, his eyes blazing in the California night lights. The rushing sound of the freeway nearby muffled his outrage.

She pulled her wrap around her shoulders and flipped her hair away from him heading inside. He caught her arm. "This is serious Mia. Why are we here?"

"Your friend's wife is dying, Ryan, don't you care about that?" She cried feeling like he was going to try and use some kind of husbandly rights to stop her from doing what she wanted to be doing.

"Yeah, I have feelings about that, what I'm wondering is why you do." He still had her arm and she wrenched it away painfully and began to stomp inside, her feet killing her in her heels. "We had an obligation to your family, to the awards night, to our profession..."

Melia threw up her hands. "Well, maybe Matthew is right, and I should just get out of this profession. Maybe Maille is right, I just need to be a stay at home mother!"

"Maybe they are right, I don't think you know what you want, but you need to stay away from Karen DeMarco's dying bedside. It isn't your place, Melia, his side isn't your place. You don't belong here!"

"He asked me to be here! His family is far away. Her family is here, but he feels alone and separate from them all. He has no one for him. He feels comfort---." Ryan shook her, actually took her shoulders and shook her.

"It's not your place." He yelled.

"Stop shaking me!" She screamed defiantly and her arm rose to slap him.

He grabbed her hand and forced it behind her back, pinching her arm. "You can't run after every guy that comes along, Melia, you can't play with guys hearts like this. He's getting close to you and you're encouraging it. It's wrong. You have to be stopped."

Melia froze. "I what?" She hissed staring into eyes that used to be oh so familiar, that used to reflect love and caring, but now only reflected another emotion--- anger, hostility.... "I have to be stopped? Why, Ryan? Stopped from doing what's right? What terrible thing am I doing now?"

"You just don't need to be with him right now. It's his wife, not---"

Melia shook her head. "Not my husband. I know that, Ryan. I know it." She jerked away from him and turned to walk inside and then veered off to the edge of the parking lot overlooking the freeway where cars zoomed by at breakneck pace.

"I'm your husband, I'm telling you to get in my car and come home with me. It's time, Melia." He opened the car door for her and waved her inside firmly.

Melia's heart was racing, her mind was reeling. He was ordering her? As her husband? He who had ignored her and rejected her for five days? He who didn't sleep in her bed? He called himself her husband? How dare he? He didn't own her; he didn't tell her what to do.

She flung out an arm and pointed to the freeway. "Go home yourself, Ryan. I'll be there when I get there. I'm---."

She turned as Robert staggered out of the hospice front doors, his face was deathly pale even in the street lights, and his eyes were flowing uncontrollably. Melia gave Ryan one last unforgiving stare and ran over to her friend and flung her arms around him, pulling him close, knowing what had happened even without being told. She heard the roar of Ryan's engine as it screeched out of the parking lot and she didn't care, just felt relief.

"She's gone." Robert was sobbing obliviously, and Melia held him, wrapped in her arms, feeling the horrible burden of overload. She slipped out of her heels and stepped to the grassy area just a few steps away. She held him close, pulled his face down to hers and whispered that Karen loved him, that even now she was watching him, concerned for him, praying for him....

He pulled her to a bench on the side of a garden that had little lanterns in the darkness and a pathway through it. He sobbed for a few more minutes, and Melia let him, choked back what tears she could, wanting to cry, and yet not wanting to relive any of her own grief.

She instead thought back over the fight she'd just had with Ryan. He had seemed sincere in not wanting her to comfort Robert, perhaps a little jealous. He had seemed more like the old Ryan, the one who cared what she did, and cared who she did it with. But not the Ryan from the last five days, who had left her alone to cope with his rejection.

Robert sat slumped next to her, pressed closely to hip and side, their arms entwined. "I felt the baby at the theater." He finally said.

She smiled tentatively. "Yeah, that was a pretty big kick or roll or something."

"Does it hurt?"

"Sometimes. It's not very comfortable."

He put a hand on her stomach. "Is this okay?" His palm was big, warm and wet from wiping tears.

She nodded, feeling the pressure against her the way Jared had used to hold her when they slept. She decided to say it, say what was in her mind. "That's the way Jared used to calm Hannah down when she squirmed a lot."

His thumb smoothed the filmy material and he stared at the mound of her belly. Melia placed her hand over his and pushed, so that the baby would move again, and she did. They both smiled at each other. Robert's hand came up to cup her cheek, his eyes starry. He stared into her eyes and she didn't flinch away from the extreme pain she saw there, she kept herself open and honest, willing herself to be here for him in these first few minutes. The door behind them opened and several women came out calling his name. He let his hand drop away from her face and caressed her stomach once again before getting up and moving away from her to give the women hugs and renew the crying.

Melia knew it was time for her to go.

******