But it was off to the hospital.

They sat in the emergency room together.

"What is the emergency, anyway?" Evan just wouldn't let up with the question.

"I dunno."

"What, what in the hell are we doing here?" He was a bit cross.

"That's why we're here, to find out if there is a problem." She looked away as if she didn't even want to look at him.

"A problem?" Evan looked at her. "What kind of problem?"

"I told you-"

"Just give me a guess?" Evan kept staring as if he'd guess.

Ellie sighed and got up to go look for a nurse. It would take forever to be seen around here and not a soul in sight. Or so it seemed.

"I need to go to the bathroom." Ellie was thinking they should have just found a Wal-Mart or something. Get the pregnancy test. No. No. There was a reason she was here. Maybe it had nothing to do with being pregnant.

"Wait?" Evan called after her. She didn't wait.

She walked down the long thin white corridor. There was hardly anything homey about the place. Just a picture of a baby and its mother to turn to the maternity ward. She kept going, following the signs to intensive care.

What if she found herself already there, and this was just an out of body experience? She guessed she wouldn't have brought Evan along for the ride, perhaps. She made so many turns she had not idea where she ended up. But the halls just got darker. And there was no one. No one at the ward to guard it.

She went in. Looking through charts. Hoping she might get lucky. But it looked to be a dead end. No one with the name Kale. Maybe she'd looked wrong. Maybe his first name was actually his last. Maybe.

"John....John..." So many Johns, she thought with a scowl. Why couldn't he be here? Why couldn't she find him? It was this gut feeling he was here. He had to be.

She started walking toward the sheeted walls. There was an old woman under and oxygen tank. A kid, hooked up to monitors and the like. A girl who's wrists were bandaged, and she looked at peace.

Ellie was about to give up. But at the very end. There he was. Kale looked asleep. The heart monitor going. The IV in its place.

Ellie staggered back. Almost fell on the bed behind her. She choked for air. It was real, she had to believe, but didn't want to. But he smelled of death, already. The air was a thick poison around him, but she took his hand, anyway.

"Open your eyes," she whispered. "Open your eyes." But he didn't.