---

Ava was standing in the doorway, her dark-blonde brows knit in an expression of concern. She was dressed as she always was—in somber colors and somber clothes. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun and she wore no make-up. The picture would have made another woman seem severe. But the warm, interested light in her blue-green eyes softened the effect and suddenly Aleksander no longer felt quite so ungrounded and emotionally adrift.

“You should try to sleep,” she said, sitting by his side in the ante-room of Olivia’s hospital suite. “It’s past midnight.”

His gaze strayed down to Olivia’s stuffed rabbit he was clutching in his arms.

“I’m too strung to sleep.” And frightened to death.

“You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t, but you should try to rest, Alek. I know you’re scared—”

He stood up and paced away. “To put it mildly.”

“I’ve looked at this from every angle, Alek,” said Ava. “I am always thorough with my research—and occasionally, I overdo. For Olivia, I overdid twice.”

He turned to her. “Why do you doctors keep trying when the barriers are so high and the odds so low? It would be so, so much easier to pack it all up and go home.”

She rose then, approaching him carefully and taking his hand in hers. “There is no glory in easy, but there is glory in looking death in the eye and defeating it. Life is beautiful, a privilege. And that is why we fight.”

He pulled her against him. “And when you lose?”

“Losses happen. Doctors must always be prepared to lose. We are taught we are going to lose.” I lost. She sighed and craned her head back to look at him. “Hell, Alek, and us, oncologists? We lose those battles half as often as we succeed. The key, though, is to never fail. And the only way to fail is not to fight. So, we fight. Until we win.”

He put his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. “You are superheroes.”

“Some like to think they are and those are the ones who lose the battles.” Like Dr. Follett. She chuckled. “The greater they think they are, the greater their losses, sooner or later. It should be more about doing great things, than being great.”

---

The tension of the last day had left Aleksander completely drained. Still, he sat awake in Olivia’s private suite in the hospital with Ava asleep against his shoulder, doing what anyone else in a normal waiting room did—waiting.

He squeezed Ava tighter, taking in the flowery scent of her blonde hair as he kissed her atop her head. She gave him strength, more than she would ever know, and if not for her, he would have crumbled by now.

“What time is it?” Ava mumbled, stirring awake.

“Almost eleven,” Aleksander said, straightening in his seat. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Yes, please,” Ava said with a yawn. Aleksander stood and stretched, then made his way over to the coffee machine, which, along with other luxuries, was sitting on a counter.

He popped the coffee pod in, placed a clean mug below it, and watched as the hot liquid brewed in a matter of seconds.

Ava gratefully took the coffee in hand. “Any word from the doctor yet?”

“Not after the last nurse stopped by,” Aleksander said, the exhaustion clear in his voice.

Before she could ask if he had slept a bit, a knock sounded at the door.

Ava and Aleksander jumped up simultaneously.

Aleksander said, “Come in.”

Dr. Goldenstein stepped into the suite waiting area, shut the door behind him, and greeted them, “Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Maximilian.”

“Doctor,” Aleksander said. “Please tell me good news.”

He felt Ava squeeze his hand tightly, firmly. Her occupation trained her to have nerves of steel during these conversations, just as Dr. Goldenstein had been trained, but he knew now she wasn’t impartial to the news.

Aleksander squeezed her hand back, allowing her to ground him, to keep him in the moment that was only seconds away from crashing down all around him.

“I’ll give you the facts, Mr. Maximilian,” Dr. Goldenstein said. “And I’ll start with the good ones.”

“Sit, doctor, please,” Ava said. Though she had been on the other end of these conversations many times before, even her own nerves were shattering beneath her controlled outer surface. But she needed to be strong for Aleksander.

Dr. Goldenstein pulled a chair and sat in front of them. “As of right now, little Olivia is one hundred percent cancer free.”

If air could shatter, it just had, into thousands of shards all around them. Aleksander felt the weight of the world roll off his shoulders, a weight he had been carrying for so long he had completely forgotten what it felt like to not have it constantly pressing down on him.

With a sob, he took Ava in his arms and hugged her tightly. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

Then Aleksander turned to the doctor and pumped his hand. “Thank you, doctor. Thank you.”

Hot tears of relief burned down Ava’s eyes, but she held herself together a moment longer to ask for confirmation of what she already knew, hoping it wasn’t anything worse. “And the bad news?”

“The bad news is, as we feared, she’ll probably be blind.” Dr. Goldenstein took off his glasses and rubbed at his tired eyes. “Probably permanently. But medicine is evolving, Mr. Maximilian, and evolving fast. She might one day be able to see, in the near future. Most importantly though, I don’t suspect she’ll ever again face the threat of dying by cancer. Not this one.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Aleksander closed his eyes for a moment and let the relief start to sink into his bones. But it was only a start. It would take some focus to truly appreciate the magnitude of the change his future, and hers. “Can we see her?”

“Not yet. But as soon as she is in the ICU, I’ll come back to take you to see her. If you’ll excuse me until then…” Dr. Goldenstein said, as he quietly exited the room.

Then there was that feeling again. In his throat. And along with the feeling came thoughts of Rachel, his sister, Olivia’s cancer, Ava’s long-lost daughter, then Olivia again.

And then he let it go. Let it all flood out of himself in great gulps and sobs. A cry, unlike anything he’d done before; a weakness he never dared show before—not even to himself.

“Oh, God, oh, God, thank you,” he whispered brokenly against Ava’s shoulder, his voice muffled by her skin.

She wrapped her arms about his quaking shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of his head and embracing him as tightly she could. “Everything is going to be all right.”

Finally. Finally. Finally. It flooded out of him in relief such as he had never known. And it helped that Ava was there, rubbing his back, hugging him, and crying silently while she let him have a good, healthy, cleansing cry.

They sat that way, even after he had calmed down, wrapped in each other’s arms, both happy and sad. It was sad, a girl as bright and joyful as Olivia forced to live a life without her sight, but she would get to live that life now. She would be there for many holidays to come. She would get to go to school, college. She would laugh and fill their hearts with joy and every single Christmas they would return to Lake Tahoe and she would be able to place the star atop the tree as she always did.

It was the greatest gift any of them could have ever hoped for; a true Christmas miracle.

Whatever tomorrow brought, he’d be happy.

---

They had called the hotel and told Whitney the good news, informing her they had cleared her stay with the hospital so Olivia would have a familiar face with her in the ICU.

As soon as Whitney arrived at the hospital, Ava took Aleksander back to the hotel so he could finally eat something and get some sleep.

After Aleksander fell into a heavy sleep, she took a shower and moved to the living room of their suite to relax a bit without waking him.

It was then that she saw a red light blinking on the telephone. It was an urgent message for her to call a number which she instantly recognized as being from Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center.

Thinking that it was Sydney wishing for news, Ava immediately placed the call, but it was Dr. Follett’s gruff voice that come over the line. “What are you doing in Heidelberg, Dr. Larsen?”

Darn. Who told him? She swallowed, but answered in an even tone, “I’m here with Olivia.”

“What you’re doing is going behind my back with a patient under this hospital’s treatment,” he snapped. “You did not clear consulting Dr. Goldenstein with me and it is not okay. Don’t proceed with this treatment, you’ll turn her into a vegetable. A radioactive vegetable with cancer at that.”

“I’m doing what’s in the best interest of the patient,” she skirted, avoiding telling him Olivia had already been operated on.

“That may be so. But if you continue to facilitate this, doctor,” he said, his words biting, “you’re going to have to answer to me. And I promise, the results will not please you.”

Well, the result that matters is that Olivia is free of cancer. Before Ava could say anything, the line went dead.

She heaved in a breath. And then another. But it took a few more yoga breaths for her trembling to stop. She was not only angry, but guilty.

They still had to go through recovering. It could prove to be the turning point for Olivia. For them.

The point where they could begin to leave the pain of the past in the past and shoo away the death hovering over the present, and start working toward a future.

She visualized lifting the heavy baggage she still carried, then flinging it into the River Nekhar. Now, isn’t the time for dreaming. Now is the time for doing.

It was a time for science—and, perhaps, miracles.

And if there was some life and love mixed in, so much the better.

---

Ava finished the call with Donna, Aleksander’s housekeeper, satisfied that everything in Olivia’s rooms in Manhattan and in Lake Tahoe would be ready to bring her back to the States. She opened her computer and scanned the photos sent to her, making sure it was perfect and safe.

All furniture with hard corners had already been replaced and a few more adjustments needed to be made. Everything would need to be easily accessible for her when she finally came home. She opened her notebook and checked the items which were already done and started a new list with some other things that still needed doing, chuckling as she noticed she had picked Olivia’s habit of doing the lists.

A joyful smile opened on her face.

Her phone rang, distracting her from her thoughts, and she frowned when she saw Dr. James Cullen’s name on the screen. Kristus. Today is the day! “Hello?”

“Hello, Dr. Larsen. How are you this morning?”

It’s evening here. “I’m doing well,” Ava said, a bit hesitant. It wasn’t often that she got a direct phone call from the hospital administrator and given Dr. Follett’s call and the several things she’d done lately to break god knows how many ethical codes, she knew it wasn’t a just saying hello kind of phone call.

“Dr. Larsen, I really wish I didn’t have to be the bearer of bad news, especially knowing the unique circumstances you’ve unfortunately been through.”

So he knows.

“But it has come to our attention that you are in a relationship with Mr. Maximilian, the father of a patient under your direct care. Also you have gone against hospital regulations in seeking out and suggesting high-risk clinical trials for said patient, both actions being extreme violations of not only the medical code of ethics but also our policies.”

“Yes, sir. I’m aware,” Ava whispered into the phone.

“Needless to say, Dr. Larsen, there is an administrative investigation on you here at the hospital, and it has already reached the hospital’s board of directors. It doesn’t look good. I would highly recommend you get a lawyer. Consider this a strong suggestion from someone who doesn’t have any ill wishes towards you.”

“Yes, thank you, Dr. Cullen,” Ava said, almost mechanically. “I’ll be sure to find a lawyer.”

“Very good. I’ll be in touch.”

Ava sank onto the sofa, completely at a loss for words.

She thought of asking Aleksander for help, but she couldn’t do that to him, not after all he’d gone through. He’d just feel guilty, as if it were his fault. She didn’t blame him one bit and she knew that she would do it all again if needed.

Still, she had to think of something. If the board of directors was already discussing her case, she was not only in danger of losing her job, but she could very well lose her license to practice in general. She could lose her entire career.

Everything she had lived for, fought for.

Ava opened her laptop once again and immediately Skype-dialed her grandmother.

“Ava?” Hildegard answered. Eirik leaned over her shoulder peering groggily into the camera. The room was dark and they had obviously been asleep.

“I’m so sorry to disturb your nap, Mormor,” Ava said.

“What happened? Is Olivia alright?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you two sooner to tell you,” Ava said. “The surgery was successful in removing the cancer, but as expected, she lost her sight as a result.”

“That’s overall really good news, no?” Eirik asked.

“Pretty much.” Ava smiled at the camera. “She’s going to live, and who knows what the future brings?”

“Yes, but for a child to lose her sight so suddenly, it must be hard.” Hildegard sighed and added, “By the way, darling, we want to visit you and spend a day getting to know this husband and stepdaughter of yours better. Do you think we can drop by in two or three days? Just for a hug and a kiss.”

“Yes, yes! I would love to see you again. In five days, it’ll be fine. In fact, she will be discharged from the hospital in five days,” Ava agreed. “But I have another issue at hand. With marrying Aleksander and then finding this experimental procedure for Olivia, I violated a lot of medical ethical rules and hospital policies and I might lose my job over it. Maybe even my career.”

“Really? Who would be so stupid to judge you for saving Olivia’s life?” Hildegard asked. “If not for the surgery, Olivia might not be with us right now.”

“I know, Mormor, but still…I’m going to need a lawyer to get me out of this one. Is there anyone you can recommend?”

Eirik said, “I’ll give my lawyer a call today and let you know. He knows only the best and he’ll recommend someone who will handle it for you. ”

“Thank you, Morfar,” Ava said, holding back the tears that welled in her eyes. If anyone could help her from this mess, it was one of her grandfather’s lawyers. Despite his gentle and frail appearance, Eirik was a cunning businessman and had the best lawyers at his ship-building company’s disposition all around the world. “I need all the help I can get.”

He sat on the bed, put his glasses on, and picked up his pad and pen from the bedside table. Sleep forgotten, all business mode now, Eirik requested, “Tell me all the details.”

In spite of the fact that he’d been well and truly sated, he had not slept well. His arms felt incredibly empty without Ava. He was chilled lying in his bed without the press of her skin against his. The silence was so disturbing when not filled with her soft breathing. She’d given him so much more than her body. She’d given him a taste of something he’d never before savored: being with a woman who had the ability to touch his soul.

But now, lying awake by himself, he wondered if she truly felt the same.

He overheard her talking to Donna and he noticed that although she was speaking of the changes she requested for Olivia’s bedroom, there was an edgy tone in her voice.

When he had gone to bed this evening, Ava made excuses about needing to work, and he let her be.

Bone tired, warmed by a hot chocolate and stuffed with cookies Ava had made him eat, he dropped into a dreamless slumber to wake up with Ava’s soft voice coming from their suite living room.

He rolled over again on the bed, attempting to put her out of his mind, and go back to sleep, but he couldn’t. She was ever present in his thoughts and he needed her presently in his arms.

It was then that he heard her talking to her grandparents. He still had a good enough grasp of Swedish to understand the word lawyer.

What does she want with a lawyer? He knew there was something going on that had made her edgy, but he had thought it was the burden of the responsibility for recommending Dr. Goldenstein and the surgery. Or the fact that Olivia was now blind, not that any of them blamed her for that. They knew the risks. She and Dr. Goldenstein had been more than clear about it. He had even signed a waiver. So, what’s the problem?

She wants a divorce. His heart slammed in his chest so hard it hurt. She married me to grant a dying child’s wish. And now the child is no longer dying.

A cold hand gripped his heart.

No. It’s not possible.

But it was the only thing that came to his mind.

He jumped out of bed and walked to the living room of the presidential suite fully intending to eavesdrop.