"That’s not fair, uncle Johnnie!" the voice of a little girl shouted among giggling at the strong hands that were now lifting her in the air.

"Everything is fair in love and war, sweetie!" a handsome young man replied making the girl twirl in the air and then placing her on earth again.

From the threshold of the door, a very pleased Irish actress observed them. How their lives had changed in the past couple of years. She placed a hand on the biggest of those changes: her nearly 6 month pregnant belly where she was carrying a new baby, John’s baby girl. After long years of silence they had confessed their mutual feelings, they had gotten married and now they were expecting their first child, and she couldn’t believe there could be anything more she may ask for.

Now she was enjoying seeing John playing with Reilly as they had done every single sunny day since she was born. Ruby, their golden retriever, was jumping excitedly around. Roma smiled again and closed her eyes feeling her baby kicking inside as if joining the fun on the backyard. She decided to get inside and prepare Reilly’s favorite pie for dessert, but when she turned to walk to the kitchen, John’s shouting and Reilly’s scream made her turn immediately. Her heart started to beat wildly at seeing John lying on the grass, his hands rubbing his left knee constantly.

"Uncle Johnnie!" Reilly shouted running to his side.

"Johnnie?!" Roma asked worriedly running to his side too. "Oh, my God! What’s happening?!"

"My-my knee," he managed to murmur still rocking himself in pain.

"Your knee?" his wife asked really worried now.

"I tripped and I think I hurt it!"

"Julie! Charley!" Roma shouted calling the two people that worked with them. Julie was Reilly’s nanny and Charley was their driver, especially there to take Reilly to school and back home when they were working. In less than a minute Julie and Charley were by John’s side helping him to seat on a garden bench. Reilly was right by her mother, crying, repeating ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘It’s my fault’ between sobs.

"Hey, it’s not your fault, sweetie!" John said hugging a sobbing Reilly. "It’s me trying to pretend I’m still 15!"

Everyone released a nervous chuckling at his comment. "We need to take you to the hospital, Johnnie," Roma said wiping her tears away.

John reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly. "All right, but you have to stay calm. I’m ok." He tried to stand up but his knee didn’t accept his weight. Charley was quick to stand by him and helped him to walk to the car.

"Mommy, I want to go!" Reilly said taking her mother’s hand.

Roma felt a wave of tenderness and an aching guilt for her daughter’s concern. She knew she had probably overreacted at John’s pain and had worried Reilly more than the necessary. She knelt in front of her daughter and hugged her. "Stay with Julie, Reilly. I’ll go with your uncle Johnnie and I’ll bring him back safe and sound, I promise."

"I don’t want him to be mad at me, mom," she said still crying.

"He’s not mad at you!" the actress said wiping the girl’s tears away. "He’s not mad!"

"He won’t stop loving me?" the girl asked shyly.

"Of course he won’t, silly!" Roma said holding her child tightly. "It was an accident! You didn’t push him or wanted him hurt!" She kissed her cheek and stood up. "Why don’t you and Julie prepare an apple pie for dinner, huh? It’s your uncle’s favorite, isn’t it?"

"And mine too!" the girl exclaimed. "Promise you’ll be back a.s.a.p.?"

"Yes, baby, we will," Roma said hugging her daughter again. "Now go upstairs and get my purse. We have to take Johnnie to the doctor."

****

Almost one hour later, Roma was pacing impatiently along the waiting room at the orthopedics ward of the hospital under the attentive look of another eight year old girl. The actress was so worried that she hadn’t noticed the big blue eyes fixed on her until she took a seat and the girl moved to the chair next to her. "You are Monica, right?" the girl asked placing her small hand on Roma’s arm.

"No, Maggie, come!" the girl’s mother told her child. "Leave her alone, don’t bother her. I’m sorry ma’am!"

Only then Roma forgot her worries and paid attention to the innocent look of the girl. "It’s ok, don’t worry," she told them mother and then added. "Yes, Maggie, I’m Monica."

"And are you worried for Andrew?"

Roma couldn’t help but chuckle remembering the days when she was in fact Monica. "Yes, sweetie, I’m worried for Andrew."

"Why?"

"Maggie! I’m really sorry, Mrs. Downey," the woman kept on apologizing. "She never misses one episode of your show... even when she was younger, I couldn’t keep her away of the TV!"

Somehow the little girl’s interest made Roma’s heart feel lighter than the last hour. "You like the show, huh?" she asked and saw the girl nod. "And do you like Andrew?"

The girl blushed deeply and nodded again. Roma couldn’t help but smile.

"She says he’s her boyfriend," the mother added.

"Mom!" the girl protested.

"Oops! I said too much!" the woman teased her daughter.

This time Roma laughed openly at the girl’s embarrassment. "You have good taste, Maggie," she kept on the joke, "Andrew is very handsome indeed!"

"But what happened to him?" Maggie asked.

"He fell down and hurt his knee," Roma explained.

"Oh, my! How did it happen?" Maggie’s mother asked truly concerned.

"He was playing with our daughter and he tripped... I guess when he fell, his knee was bent or something."

"Could he walk or his knee seemed not to resist his weight?"

"No, he couldn’t. He tried but he couldn’t..."

"He must have his ligament broken..." the woman concluded and smiled at Roma’s puzzled face. "I’m Claudia Rivers, and I’m a physical therapist at the County hospital," she explained reaching a hand to introduce herself.

Roma shook hands with her and then asked, "Is it too serious?"

"Hum... very painful, yes, but normally it’s not too serious. It can be fixed with rest or with a simple surgery." Roma shivered slightly at the mention of a surgery. "Nothing too big..." Claudia said trying to ease the apprehension she saw in the actress’ brown eyes. "I’m pretty sure you’ll have him back home soon."

"Thank you," Roma whispered sincerely. "I... I guess I must look silly but..."

"Oh, no!" Claudia said patting Roma’s hand. "Everything seems a lot bigger when it comes to the ones we love." She smiled again at seeing the Irish woman blushing slightly. "You two make a beautiful couple. I always thought so since he got into the show. It was a shame Andrew and Monica couldn’t date!"

Roma laughed in relief once more and then placed a hand on her belly. "Maybe we wouldn’t be together now if they could’ve had!" Claudia joined her laughing and the actress thanked God for sending someone to ease her worry. "And why are you here?"

"Oh... My mother," Claudia answered. "She has arthritis and has to come to be checked once in a while."

"Mrs. Downey?" the doctor that had taken John came to join her. Roma and Claudia stood up immediately. "We’ve finished with your husband. Please, come with me."

"Sure," Roma said taking her purse. "Thanks a lot, Claudia," she said shaking hands with the woman again.

"My pleasure," the therapist offered and handled her a little card. "In case you need it." It was a calling card with her numbers.

"I’ll keep it in mind, thanks," the Irish woman said truly thankful. "Bye, Maggie, I’ll ask Andrew to send you a picture."

"Thanks," Maggie said blushing and hiding behind her mother’s legs.

Roma followed the doctor to a little room where John was already talking to another doctor. When he saw his wife coming, the blond actor reached a hand to her. The doctor stood up and offered his chair to Roma.

"Hello, Mrs. Downey," the doctor said. "I’m Leonard Lewis and I guess you’ve met dr. Laura Sharp. We’ve checked your husband and I was just talking to him now. He has his ligament broken and that’s what is causing the pain. Fortunately he has no bone fractures at all, so the injury is not as serious as it could have been."

"Thanks, God!" Roma exclaimed squeezing John’s hand lovingly.

"You were telling me about the options, doctor," he said.

"Yes," Leonard continued. "And I’m glad Laura is here. There are two options of treatment. One is to immobilize your knee for three months more or less; the other is surgery and a week of continuos therapy. It’s more radical but it’s what I recommend. And you, Laura?"

"Absolutely not!" Roma interrupted the doctor. "No! No surgery if there’s a way to avoid it!"

"But..." Laura and Leonard wanted to say.

"No, no! I don’t want any risk!" Roma affirmed.

"Roma..."

"No, John, no!" she replied clearly upset.

"Mrs. Downey..."

"Roma, listen to me," John told her seriously though he felt his heart clenching at the sight of her eyes bright with tears. "I can’t be in bed for three months!"

"Johnnie," she tried to argue. "Can’t we discuss this alone?"

Leonard and Laura were about to leave them but John stopped them. "No, please, doctors, stay. There are medical reasons here and you will agree with me." He turned to see his wife who had now her head lowered and was crying silently. "Roma, I can’t be in bed for three months and leave you alone during the hardest part of the pregnancy. You can’t be taking care of Reilly and me besides you and the baby! No, that’s not possible!"

"But Charley and Julie are in the house too..."

"Baby, we both know your pregnancy is risky and you can’t push yourself. We know there’s a risk for you to go into early labor. What are we going to do if that happens in the middle of the night and I can’t drive you to the hospital?" He was trying to be gentle with her but she knew she was losing and she couldn’t stop crying.

Laura felt sorry for her. "Mrs. Downey, your husband is right. You can’t put yourself and your baby in danger..."

"I can’t put my husband in danger either!" she murmured between sobs. "A surgery is always risky!"

"Oh, but we could reduce the risks of the anesthesia if that’s what you are afraid of!" Leonard told them. "It’s possible to use local anesthesia. It will make you a little uncomfortable, Mr. Dye, but you wouldn’t have to go under general sedatives."

"Really?" the blond actor asked.

"Yes, it’s true," Laura said. "But the first hours after the surgery will be a little more painful."

"It’s ok," John said determinedly. He turned to see Roma and her helpless expression broke his heart. "I’ll be alright, sweetheart," he added kissing her hand, "and by tomorrow I’ll be home."

"Yes, and you’ll be ready for the time when your child is born," Laura intervened trying to ease Roma’s mind. The young actress smiled through her tears when she felt John releasing her hand and stroking her belly. She finally looked at her husband and nodded her consent.

"Ok, then," Leonard said opening John’s file and writing something. "If we agree, I’ll go book an OR and we’ll be fixing that knee in about an hour. I’ll see you to be prepared, Mr. Dye," the doctor added before leaving.

"Please, Mrs. Downey, can you join me at my office," Laura asked. "I need you to sign some papers before I get ready too. It’s office 306."

"Ok," the actress responded weakly. "I’ll be there in a minute."

John and Roma saw them going out and then she turned to see her husband again. His hand was still over her belly and her smaller hands were over his. The blond actor felt her heart break in pieces at the deep pain in her dark eyes. "Roma..."

She covered her face with her hands and started to cry. "I’m sorry, Johnnie."

"Baby, come on!" he said sitting on the bed and making room for her. He grab her arm and made her sit at his side. He held her tightly to make her tears stop. "Come on, Roma, you have to be calm," he said stroking her back up and down lovingly. "It’s not good for you to be like this, and it’s not good for the baby either."

"I know, it’s just that... everything looked so perfect until now... I don’t want to lose all this!" she sobbed.

"Roma, what nonsense are you saying?" John gently admonished her. "We’re not losing anything! What can we lose?"

"I don’t want any risks, Johnny. I want you walking as soon as possible! I want to see you playing with Reilly and holding our baby and holding me forever!"

John smiled and started to rock her gently, just as their friend Della used to do. He knew she had always had a tender heart but she was much more sensitive since she had become pregnant, and if she was telling him what her fears were, it was because she had been dealing with them long before. "Roma, I’ll be walking in less than a week. I’ll be able to bring you to the hospital when the time comes and I’ll be the first to hold our baby, and I’ll be here holding you for the rest of eternity, baby, you know that!" he said kissing the top of her head and pulling her closer to him.

"P-promise?" she asked with a trembling voice some minutes later.

"I cross my heart, Rose Marie!"

She chuckled at hearing him calling her by her complete name, something he only did when he wanted to be really serious. Many times they used to joke about how even her brothers and her closer friends seemed to have forgotten her real name and how she was just Roma. After getting married another source of joke was her "new" official name and how it didn’t resemble much to her "artistic" name. "You better do, Carroll," she teased back suddenly feeling her heart much lighter. She raised her head and John leaned down to kiss her.

***

Almost twenty minutes later, Roma knocked at the door of Laura’s office. "I’m sorry, doctor," she apologized when she got in, "I had to call John’s parents and also to call home..."

"Don’t worry, it’s ok. Are you getting help after the surgery? He can’t walk for a couple of days and you certainly cannot carry him!" the young woman asked genuinely concerned and offering the actress a seat.

"John’s parents are coming tomorrow and staying for the week. I... I’d like to apologize with you..." Roma started.

"Oh, no, please! And call me, Laura."

"Ok, Laura. Yes I want to apologize... I think I must look silly..."

Laura moved to take a seat on the chair beside the one Roma was using. "You don’t look silly!"

"Since I got pregnant... I’ve gotten a chicken heart!"

Laura chuckled with her and felt thankful to see her much more relaxed. "How far are you?" the doctor asked.

"Twenty two weeks," the actress answered smiling tenderly and stroking her belly lovingly.

"Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?"

"A girl."

"A little Monica!" Laura exclaimed.

"That’s the name we chose!" Roma told her. "When we found out I was expecting, we said we’d call the baby either Andrew or Monica. Those names mean so much for us."

"Yes, I can imagine!" the young doctor replied. "Do you want to know something? If I’m a doctor is thanks to you both, and specially thanks to Andrew."

"Really?" Roma said wiping her last tears away.

"First time I took a night shift still as a student, I got a little girl in the ICU. She had Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura or ITP, an illness that make people bleed uncontrollably under their skin until it gets a purple color for bruises. Her disease wasn’t controlled and her veins collapsed. The internal bleeding was so severe that she lost too much blood and as much as we transfused her, she still lost it through her broken veins. She didn’t make it through the night and died right in front of me at 6.00 am in a Saturday, one hour before my shift ended. I cried the whole day and I didn’t want to go back to the hospital. I felt I had failed. I felt so helpless and so useless. So far I think I had pictured death as an enemy I had to beat, and with the girl, I felt I had been beaten by death. I don’t remember how I make it through the rest of the day, I just remember I arrived home, changed my clothes into pajamas and turned on the TV. I had never paid much attention to your show, but that night I stopped on it and watched it. It was this episode where Andrew takes Home a little girl that had been kidnapped..."

"Lost and found," Roma interrupted her, her memories momentarily going back to those early days. "It was the first episode John filmed as a cast member... and I was as pregnant then as I’m now I think!" she chuckled.

"Yes," Laura agreed. "When I saw Andrew taking the girl to Heaven, I realized that’s what I had always believed death was like when I was a child, before I started to pay more attention to the suffering before death as a doctor. The girl with ITP would’ve died anyway, she didn’t have much time left. I know it was horrible that her time on Earth was so short but somehow I felt relieved when I thought an angel should have been by her side and that after that she wasn’t in pain anymore. I cried all night long... but I got up the following day, a Sunday, and went back to the hospital, my decision to become a doctor stronger than ever."

"It is a wonderful story, Laura. I’m sure John will love it," Roma said softly, swiping a tear that had fallen while she listened to it.

"After that, I always like to tell my patients there’s an angel taking care of them, a special angel sent by God to be with them while they heal..." she reached to take one of the actress’ house, "and the same goes for you, Ms. Downey. God is watching over your family now, He sent you your daughter and your husband and that new baby you’re carrying inside. I’m sure He will not put you apart so soon. I’m not an angel, but I promise I’ll do everything in my hands to give you your husband back, safe and sound... You can even get into the OR if you want to..."

Roma smiled and sighed in relief with the doctor’s offer, knowing she had no courage to be there and witness an operation on the man she loved the most in the world. "No! Thank you, but I would faint immediately!"

Laura chuckled and smiled back at her. "All right then... In any case, it won’t take us more than two hours to fix his knee... and that is thinking about the worst case. In your husband’s case, after the X-rays, I’d say about an hour or so... I need you to sign some papers, please."

Roma got the papers Laura was handling her, read them and signed them. She paused a little before writing her name on them, smiling at the fact of what she was going to write. Laura took them and looked at her with a little surprise after reading the name on them.

"I signed for my husband, right?" the actress said standing up and winking at her. "I’m going to see him now if you don’t mind..."

"No... I’ll meet you both in a little while."

"Ok."

Laura saw the Irish woman leaving her office and looked back to the papers in her hands. In a neat elegant handwriting, there was "Monica, the angel’s" name...

Rose Marie Dye.