David woke up to the jarring motion of his chair being kicked. He opened his eyes to the blurry vision of Kat standing over him with two cups of coffee in her hand. She held one out to him. He cleared his throat and sat up, finally taking the paper cup out of her hand. She dropped down into the chair next to him, took a sip of her coffee, and said, “You can’t sleep here every night. Go home.”

David took a sip of his own coffee. He almost smiled. She’d remembered just how he liked it. “How’s Dillon?”

She shrugged. “Half dead, I guess. Don’t you have a job?”

“You need me here. Work can wait.”

“I don’t need you.”

“Okay then, I need to be here.”

“You’re being stupid.”

He did smile then. “I can always count on you for a reality check, can’t I?”

She sighed and rolled her shoulders. Her pretty cat eyes were shot through with red and her usually smooth face had lines running down the side of it, like she’d slept against her hand, or a chair. “Please go home,” she said.

“Why does it bother you so badly that I’m here? Why do you always have to pretend that you can do everything yourself and that you don’t need anyone?”

She snorted. “I’m not pretending. That’s the way it’s always been. I’ve done just fine without you all this time. I’ll keep doing fine without you from here on out.”

“I’m not arguing the fact that you can do this alone, I’m just asking, why? Why can’t you accept help? What’s so bad about admitting you need someone else?”

She narrowed her eyes and trained them on his face. “What’s so bad about it? Hmm…let’s see…oh, I remember, the last time I admitted that I needed you, you walked away. And then of course there was the other night…”

“I got called to work, Kat. I didn’t want to leave you. And the other thing was…”

“Unforgivable?”

David shook his head, sat his coffee down on the table next to him, and leaned forward. “No, it wasn’t. I forgave you.”

She snorted again. “Lucky me. I commit the ultimate act of evil and Saint David is willing to bestow his forgiveness on me. Wow, I’m blessed.”

“Why do you always have to be so sarcastic? Tell me something, Kat…did you even think about me when you did it? Did you even care about how much it was going to hurt me? Do you ever look at a child and think…?” Kat jumped out of her chair. Looking at him with fire in her eyes she said:

“Think what, David? Do I ever look at a kid and wonder what it would have been like? Do I even think about what we would have been like…together, raising a kid? No. I don’t. We don’t have a kid and we’re not together, so what’s the point?”

“I know you’re not that heartless.”

“You don’t know shit. You don’t know anything about me at all. You knew me when I was a kid. I’m a grown-ass woman now and you don’t know me anymore, so stop trying to pretend that you do. You walked away and forgot about me until I showed back up and then you had to deal with me. You thought you’d get a piece of ass out of the deal. How dare you act so fucking holier-than-thou all the time? You’re not perfect!”

David chuckled. “Damned if I don’t know that, Kat. I’ve never thought I was perfect. I never expected you to be perfect. But I did think we were perfect together and even if I put aside my religious beliefs and my own values, there’s still the fact left that you made a life-changing decision without even talking to me about it. You went off on your own, as usual, and did something that affected us both. You didn’t give me a chance to…”

“To do what, David? To be a father? To be a husband? Guess what…? You were never going to be either.”

“What are you saying, Kat? It wasn’t my baby? Was Kyle right? Is that why you…?”

“Why I aborted it? You can say the word, David, you won’t burn in hell for that. And fuck Kyle, he didn’t know anything about me or our life. Did I cheat on you? Fuck no. It was your baby and it…I…Shit! This is pointless. I don’t have time for this shit. I have to get down to the lab.”

She started to walk away and David stood up. “Why do you have to go to the lab?”

She kept walking, so David followed her. As she pushed through the door she looked over her shoulder and said, “Stop following me. It’s none of your business why I have to go to the lab.” She kept walking, faster then. Her legs were shorter than his, but she was walking so fast that he nearly had to jog to catch up with her. She stepped into the full elevator and as David pondered if there was room for him or not, the doors slid shut in his face. He growled and found the stairs. Following the signs, he got off on the second floor where the outpatient lab was located. He scanned the room, found Kat, and sat down in the chair next to her. She sighed. “Five years without a word and now he’s a stalker.”

“I’ve been stalking you all along.”

She turned toward him with fire in her eyes. “What?”

“I checked in on you from time to time to make sure you were okay.”

“So, you didn’t want me, but you wanted to…what? You were like some creepy voyeur?”

“I just followed your progress at work so I knew you were doing okay. I’m sorry…about what happened to your partner on that last shoot.”

“Oh my god! Are you insane? Who does that?”

“A person who does still want you,” he said. “I never stopped loving you, Kat.” Finally, something that seemed to render her speechless. As she was looking for her words, a nurse stepped out of the door and called her name. When she stood up he said, “Why are you having labs done? Are you okay?” She ignored him and followed the nurse. He groaned and leaned back in his seat. He’d never met such an exasperating woman in his life.

* * *

“So what are you drawing on me?” Kat asked the nurse as she eyed the tubes the woman seemed to just keep pulling out.

“We’ll be running a type and cross-match for your blood type, doing a liver panel, testing for certain viruses that can affect liver function, and also just doing normal panels like a complete blood count and chemistry.”

“Damn. Will I be able to walk around after you take all that blood?”

The nurse smiled. “Yes, just drink plenty of fluids and get some rest. You’ll be fine.” Kat took a deep breath as the nurse inserted the needle, and thought about all the other tests that were in the literature the doctor had given her. Beyond the written history she’d already done, they were going to do a complete physical on her. Then a chest x-ray and an EKG. The paperwork also said something about an ultrasound to make sure she didn’t have any blood flow problems. They were going to check her lungs, her upper and lower GI, and even do a mammogram to make sure she didn’t have any cancer. By the time they finished with her, despite the surgical incision and the missing piece of her liver, she’d have a sterling bill of health…she hoped, anyways. Unfortunately, she wasn’t even able to focus solely on all that. She was still waiting to hear from Tucci, and she knew Gavin was right…the old gangster wasn’t going to loan her a dime unless she met with him face to face. She didn’t know him, but he had quite the reputation in L.A. and he even financed a few of the films that she’d worked on. He rubbed elbows with Hollywood’s finest, but his money had come from his ability to smell desperation and use it to his advantage. Kat couldn’t help but wonder how much, if anything, her desperation would be worth to him.

“Okay, all finished,” the nurse said, putting a piece of tape over the cotton ball she’d covered the needle prick with. She looked at the lab slip in front of her and said, “It looks like they’re expecting you in the heart lab for the EKG next. The upper and lower GI will be scheduled in the next few days and there’s an ultrasound here for this afternoon. Just make sure not to overdo it. If you feel like it’s taking too much out of you, you can reschedule any of it that you need to.”

Kat stood up and instantly had a head rush. She didn’t tell the nurse that she hadn’t had anything other than two cups of coffee for the past twenty-six or maybe even thirty hours. She just thanked the nurse and left. As she walked toward the waiting room door, things began to spin, slightly. She reached out for the door and held onto it for a few seconds to steady herself before pushing through it. The first thing she saw was David’s gorgeous face. He said he still loved her. She didn’t know if it had taken her all that time to process it…or if she just didn’t believe it. But…why would he say something like that if he didn’t mean it? What would his angle be? She cursed her traitorous body for the feelings that gave her, and then telling herself she didn’t have the time or energy to deal with it right then, she walked right past him without saying a word. She heard and felt him get up and follow her. She didn’t look back until she got to the elevator and pushed the up button. The cardiac lab was on the third floor. He was standing so closely behind her that she could hear him breathing. When the elevator slid open and there was no one else inside, she stepped on and waited for him to get in too before unleashing on him once again.

“Am I going to have to call security?” She was looking up at him, but he was fuzzy and gray fog framed his face.

“Kat? Are you okay?”

The elevator was spinning and David’s face was getting blurrier. “I’m fine,” she gasped out, just before everything went black. She had a vague memory of hitting the floor and thinking, “Great, the asshole can follow me around, he can mess with my heart by telling me he still loves me, but he can’t catch me before I hit the floor.”