The past few weeks, Dalton was in smiles, and it didn't go unnoticed by his employees. The words Victoria said to him the night they went out, kept replaying over, and over in his mind, feeling she had changed her mind on wanting children. She was more open talking to him about it, and had caught her googling information about pregnancy, and birth at home.

Knowing he had a patient bringing in her newborn for a checkup, he walked into her office, and the only person he noticed in the room was, Tiara. "Where's Victoria?"

"She stepped out for a moment, I think she had to use the restroom." she says, turning her chair around.

"Okay, thank you."

"I'm sure she hasn't told you, and I feel you should know, but I think she's still having sharp pains... have you checked on her cysts recently?"

"No, not for over a week, she claimed she was feeling better."

"Maybe you should... I heard her groaning before she left the room."

He sighed, "Thanks for telling me."

As he walked into the hallway, Victoria was walking his way, and walked up to her. "How are you feeling today?" he asked with curiosity on his face.

"Fine, why?"

"I'm curious, have you been having any pains lately?"

She shook her head no, and stopped when he tilted his head to the side, giving her the look. "Are you lying to me?"

She didn't want him worrying about her, and was afraid to say anything to him about it. By the look on his face, and the way he asked, she felt she better say something to him, and looked away, sighing "I was having sharp pains earlier, but it could be my menstrual cycle getting ready to start... It's supposed to start tomorrow."

"Victoria..." he groaned, wishing she had told him, and looked at his watch. "After I see this patient, I want to take another look at those cysts... but the reason I was looking for you is, I want you to be in the room with me when I examine this newborn."

"Why?"

"Because, it'll be good for you."

He walked her to the room, and as they walked in, he introduced his patient to Victoria. "This is Victoria, she'll be in with us observing, and learning." he said, smiling. He took the baby boy out of his patient's arms, and began examining him. Victoria stood in awe as she watched how careful he was at first with the newborn, then became shocked when she saw how he checked the baby's reflexes, and walked closer to watch.

After he was done with the exam, she looked at the new mother, and asked if she could hold the baby, shocking herself by asking a woman she never met before, if it would be all right. "Sure, go ahead." she responded with a smile.

"Wash your hands first." Dalton instructed, knowing she wouldn't know that was a must before handling newborns.

She washed her hands, and walked over to the woman, taking the baby from her arms. She looked down at the baby, and smiled "He's a cutie." she said in awe. Dalton looked at the woman, and leaned closer to her. "She has some doubts about having kids, a little scared, and I'm trying my hardest to give her a little inspiration, that it isn't as bad as she may think it is."

"Is she your wife?" she asked.

"Not yet."

Victoria quickly turned her head toward Dalton after overhearing them talk, curious as to what he meant by that, although at this point, she was falling deeper in love with him, and wouldn't mind if she was his wife. "No, we're not married." she says, looking at the woman.

"Engaged?"

"No, not yet..." Dalton says, while looking at Victoria. "But, when the time is right, I'll be asking her, and hopefully she'll say yes."

Victoria handed the baby back to her, and smiled, "Thanks for letting me hold him. I've only held a baby a couple times, but never a newborn."

"You're welcome."

He opened the door for the patient, and smiled at the baby as she walked out. "See you in a couple months."

He placed his hand on the small of Victoria's back, and started walking her towards the next open room. As they walked together, her mind was thinking hard about his words, and felt her insides fluttering like crazy, and excited by what he told his patient. As he shut the door, she turned around, and pinned him up against the door, pressing her lips hard against his.

His hand moved up through the back of her hair, and cupped her head. The way she was using her tongue to explore his mouth, had him kissing her back harder, and spun her around, pressing her up against the door loudly. Shit... he groaned, hoping nobody heard them, and pulled back. He lowered his forehead against hers, and looked into her eyes. "What was that for?" he asked, loving how she took him by surprise.

"I had the urge to kiss you." she whispered out of breath, and gasping for air.

"I enjoyed the kiss, but I do have patients to see, and would like to quickly see what's going on with your ovaries." he whispered. Taking her hand, he walked her over to the table, and had her get ready while he grabbed the ultrasound machine.

"Everything all right in there?" Lindsay asked as he stepped out of the room.

He smiled, and wanted to chuckle about the situation, but knew he better keep it professional. "Yes, everything is just fine, Victoria lost her balance..." he says grabbing the machine.

She widened her eyes as she watched him grab the machine, and wouldn't have thought anything of it, but after he mentioned Victoria lost her balance, and knew she was still in the room, it got her curious. "Is she pregnant?"

"No. She has something else going on." he says, pushing the machine over to the room.

"Lindsay heard you bang into the door." he chuckled as he walked in.

"At least it was her, and not Danielle."

He pushed the machine over beside her, and sat. "You're still holding a grudge against her, aren't you?"

"Of course... she's got something up her sleeve, I just know it. I don't trust her one bit. She's was onto us from the beginning, and I know she has been trying to set me up for months. She's been bad news since the first day she started this job." she growled. "I don't know how you don't see it."

"I noticed with you she's different, and normal with everyone else. Must be only you, what did you ever do to her?" he asked, as he squirted the gel onto her lower abdomen.

"Nothing... absolutely nothing. She's been this way since day one."

While she was talking, he kept distracting her, not wanting her to look at the screen. Out of curiosity he wanted to see if she was pregnant. As he looked, he felt saddened to see she wasn't pregnant, but also felt relieved she wasn't, knowing she was on a stronger dosed birth control pill, and that it wouldn't have been good, had she gotten pregnant. He looked at her right ovary, and saw the cysts were gone, and pointed at the screen. "The right ovary looks really good; the cysts are completely gone."

"What about the other one, the larger one you were concerned about?" she asked worried, being that's where she was feeling the pain earlier.

"I haven't gotten there yet, I knew that was the bad one, and wanted to check that one last." He moved the wand to the other side, examining the other ovary, and sighed while lowering his head. "The cyst grew... which means, I'll have to schedule you in for surgery."

"How? Two weeks ago, it shrunk a little." She looked at the screen, and saw what he was seeing. "Are you sure it grew?"

"Yes, it didn't grow much, but it definitely grew."

She closed her eyes, and covered her face. She didn't want to have surgery, but also didn't want to be feeling the pain she had been having either. "How long will I need to be in the hospital for?" she asked, removing her hands from her face.

"It all depends, usually twenty-four hours, but it can vary up to seven or more days. It all depends on how you recover.

"Great."

He turned the machine off, pushed it over to the door, then walked over to her, helping her sit up. He felt bad for her, and didn't want her to having surgery either, but knew she needed it done before it burst. He leaned forward, and kissed her lips "Don't worry, it's not so bad, and I'll be there for you..."

******

A week later, Victoria was in the recovery room, lying in bed, recovering from surgery. Dalton looked at her paperwork before heading into the room, and liked what he saw. He partially opened the door, and peeked his head through the crack of the door. Seeing she was awake, and watching TV, he smiled. "How's that beautiful angel of mine doing?"

She rolled her head to the side, and waved him to come in. "Why are you just peeking your head through the door, aren't you going to come in?"

"I was making sure you weren't sleeping, I didn't want to wake you." he says, walking over to her. "I looked at your paperwork, looks really good. From what I saw, you'll be out tomorrow... unless you have a set back with your last, and final checkup."

She looked away from him, and stared at the TV. "I was told they have to have send in the cyst, and make sure it's not cancerous." she said in monotone, scared on what they'll find.

He pulled up a chair, and sat down while taking her hand, raising it to his lips, and kissing the top of her hand. "That's normal for that size, and for anything that has to be removed. I wouldn't let it worry you."

"But it does." she said quietly. "You want to have kids, and if I can't give you that, it'll kill me, and you..."

He scrunched his eyebrows together, and bit the inside of his cheek, hearing her talk about giving him kids again. "Kids... you brought it up again. Does that mean you've completely changed your mind?" he asked, and sighed after she shrugged her shoulders.

"One day I tell myself yes I will, then the next day I change my mind. But I do want to give you what you want, and I keep telling myself to face my fears. But now this, scares me again."

"I'm telling you; you're going to be just fine. Cysts happen all the time, and is usually nothing, most of the time they're non-cancerous."

"If you say so." she said, sounding bummed.

"Believe me..." He leaned forward, and stared her in the eyes. "If you don't knock it off, and believe what I'm telling you, I'll have to tell the staff that they have to keep you in here for another week."

She gulped, and felt her stomach drop. She knew he wouldn't lie to her, and needed to quit being stubborn. She touched the side of his face, and smirked, "Fine... I believe you."

"That's what I thought." he chuckled.

The next day, Dalton was sitting next to Victoria when the doctor came in for one last checkup. He looked at Dalton, then over to Victoria after examining her "I'm sorry, we can't release you today."

She looked at Dalton with widened eyes, and felt herself becoming angry after she believed everything, he told her the previous day, then looked at the doctor, "Why?"

Dalton quickly turned his head away from her, and lowered it, trying not to laugh. She didn't know it, but had talked with the doctor prior to him coming in, asking him to mess with her. The doctor looked at her, and couldn't do it any longer after seeing the disappointment on her face. "I'm sorry..." he says, looking at his clipboard. He looked at Dalton, then her, and smiled "You can thank him for that, he put me up to it... the truth is, you can go home."

Dalton tightened his lips back, afraid to look at her, and was waiting for the punch knowing he was in trouble. "Dalton Nathanial Jones." she said sternly, while glaring at him. He slowly turned his head, and saw the evilness in her eyes, and started chuckling.

"Surprise, honey..." he said slowly, still waiting to be punched by her.

"I'll go get the discharge papers ready." The doctor said, wanting to quickly get out of there before he witnessed something he didn't want to see.

"I can't believe you did that, putting that poor doctor up to your clowning ways... that was fucking mean."

He laughed, and flinched when he saw a hand coming his way, thinking he was about to get smacked. "Now, now... no need to get physical. I do remember what Rhett said about you going after him with a bat, and I don't want you doing that to me." he says, blocking her hand.

She giggled, and shook her head, after he flinched. "That was different. Besides, I wasn't going to hit you... I was only reaching for your hand, wanting you to come closer to me. I just wanted to kiss you, so quit your flinching."

He leaned forward slowly, and stopped before getting to her. "Why do I get the feeling you're not going to kiss me. I didn't do anything that earned a kiss, only earned a punch to the face."

"You got that all wrong... if I didn't have you in my life, I never would have known about the cysts, and would have ignored it thinking it was just a bad month of menstrual cramps. So, come here you big goon." She reached her hand out, grabbed his shirt, and quickly pulled him to her, giving him a kiss, until they were interrupted when the doctor came in, handing Dalton her discharge papers. "She can leave any time she's ready."

******

A week after Victoria was released from the hospital, she was becoming more nervous when she hadn't heard the results from her cyst testing. She paced back and forth at home, and kept looking at her phone thinking she missed a call from the hospital. Dalton walked into the house after getting the mail, and stood in the entry way watching her, debating on telling her to knock it off, and to have a drink to calm her nerves. Knowing she wouldn't listen anyway, he walked into the kitchen and looked through the mail.

As he sorted their mail, he came across an envelope from the hospital that had Victoria's name on it, and smirked here it is. he muttered. He grabbed the envelope, and held it behind his back as he walked toward her. "Rough day I see?"

"I can't take it anymore... I figured they would have called me by now." she sighed.

"Didn't I tell you to relax, and that everything will be just fine?"

"Yes, but it's not for sure until I hear from them." She noticed he had his hand behind his back, and gave him a curious look. "What are you hiding behind your back?"

"Oh, nothing..." he said nonchalantly.

"Liar... I can tell you're holding something behind your back, what is it?"

He turned around, facing his back at her, and looked down at the envelope in his hand. "I don't know what I have here... but what I do know is, that there's an envelope addressed to you, and it's from the hospital." he says, smirking.

She sprinted over to him, and reached around him, trying to grab the envelope. He laughed, and held it up high as he turned around. With his other arm, he wrapped it around her waist, and pulled her to him when she begged for him to give it to her. "I'll give it to you, but you need to relax first... and I need you to think positive."

"Dammit Dalton, just give it to me."

He held her tighter, and smiled. "Only if you promise to relax, and to think positive before opening it."

"Fine, I will..." she said quickly. "Can I have it now, please?"

He smiled, and lowered his arm, handing it to her, with her quickly grabbing it out of his hand. She tore open the letter, and breathed in deep before looking at it. He then watched her expression while she read the letter, and couldn't wait to say, I told you so.

She turned around, lowering her head, and her hand with the letter, not saying a word. "Well?" he asked.

"I need to go back in."

He furrowed his eyebrows, and twitched his head, not knowing if he heard her right. "What?" he asked, reaching for the letter, and taking it out of her hand. He started reading it, and looked up at her, "Now who's the liar?"

She shrugged her shoulders, and smiled. "Well, after the stunt you pulled when I was in the hospital, I figured I would get you back."

"That's not funny."

"I know... but what you did to me there, wasn't funny either."

He held his hand out, and grinned. "Truce?"

"Truce... and I guess I owe you an apology for my behavior... but I want you to understand my point of view on the matter... imagine you had something removed from your body, and they told you that they needed to send it in for testing, to make sure it wasn't cancer. You, yourself would be going nuts too."

"I do have to agree with you there."

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!♥️♥️♥️