046:

Robert's eyes were sad. He couldn't help it. He didn't even want to be here. Karen was so close; he could feel her slipping away. But he'd made commitments to her to keep up with his life, and not show his pain and anguish outside of that hospice room. He thought the only person alive who knew the depth of his pain was Melia, and it gave him a strange sense of peace to see her forging ahead with her life, amidst her own pain and confusion.

He followed them in and stood to one side as first Ryan and then Melia preceded him down the aisle. Their seats were to the right of Richard and Tracy who looked spectacular in their modest apparel; their bright smiles all Hollywood tonight. He glanced down the rest of the aisle counting the other Mann children in attendance. Megan, Maille, the other dark haired girl, what was her name? And of course, a few of the famous septuplets. The youngest daughters and Mongolian adoptees weren't there. The whole clan together would have taken up several rows.

He glanced back at Melia who was leaning over Ryan to talk to her sister and he caught Ryan's eye. Melia's dress was provocative, out of character for her completely. And who came to these things eight months pregnant? At last count, he'd thought he heard her say she wasn't going.

He laid an arm along the top of Melia's seat and leaned closer to Ryan, over her back a bit. "You let her out of the house in this?" He made an "oo-la-la", sizzling sign with his fingers as if she burned him and Ryan jerked his head up, acknowledging Robert's comment and feeling again that Melia's choice of dress was a stab in his direction.

"What's wrong with my dress? You don't like it?" She pouted prettily, shooting a glance at Ryan who grinned at her gamely.

"Love it, Mia, shows every wrinkle and dimple off to perfection." Ryan said snidely, running his fingers down her bare back and snapping the lowest portion against her skin, revealing her slightly rounded sides where the baby protruded. She sat up straight, angry, and covered her facial expression with her hand as she stared back at him.

Wrinkle and dimple? Robert thought. She doesn't have any wrinkles or dimples. She's one sleek hottie, even pregnant, she was sexy.... For newlyweds, they didn't act like they were getting along; the looks passing between them weren't all that friendly. He wondered if his prediction had been right, that they should have waited.

The production started, and award after award began to be passed out and act after talented act began to consume the stage. The Hollywood glitz and glamour set was in complete control tonight. However, right in the middle of the show, after Richard had received not just best actor, but best director for his latest film, Robert's phone text vibration went off and the message that Melia read over his shoulder said that Karen was bad, he needed to come right away.

The next round of applause ended in a three-minute standing ovation and Robert used it as a chance to get out without undue attention being drawn to him. He leaned over to tell Ryan where he was going and that he wouldn't be at the party later when he accidentally brushed against Melia's stomach, and at that precise moment, the baby took the opportunity to roll or kick or leap or something and rather than say what he wanted to Ryan, his eyes met Melia's startled ones and his hand slipped to the protruding mound of its own volition. She gasped, startled, feeling it under her ribs as well, and he couldn't help himself as his hand stayed against her, feeling the final movements as the baby rolled or stretched or whatever little ones did at this stage. He'd just never been that close to a child in the womb before, and the whole sudden movement against his forearm had him mesmerized.

"I- I'm coming with you." Melia gasped again as she gathered her wrap and turned to Ryan. "I'm leaving with Robert, Karen is bad. They've called him back there. I'm not letting him go alone."

"What about your dad? What about the party? Where is his family?" Ryan was grasping at straws in the face of her very real determination to just leave. He knew she would, hadn't he already known that one of the most fundamental things about Melia was her ability to sympathize with those who were having difficulties? His mind flashed to a moment when he'd first met her of an explosion in a church in Chicago or something. She'd cried then, wanting to go be on scene to help people. Whether she knew it or believed it or not, helping people was an innate part of Melia.

Melia put a finger to her ear to indicate that she couldn't hear him and slung her wrap over her arm. Ryan sighed and realized he would have to come along too, or be thought of as a dead-beat. He had to go, so he made his excuses to Tracy and followed Melia out.

"I'm riding with Robert." Melia said. "He shouldn't be alone." This as they waited for Robert's car to be brought.

"You don't have to, Melia." Robert said, tears gathering in his eyes.

"Yes, I do, and I'm driving." She said firmly and when the car was brought she opened the driver's side door with alacrity. "You can follow us, Ryan."

She didn't wait for a reply and as soon as Robert was settled in his seat with his belt almost on she was speeding out of the parking facility amid camera flashes and wildly enthusiastic paparazzi.

"That was bad press." Robert said wiping a hand over his eyes. "Mia, you don't have to be with me. I can handle this on my own."

"I know you can, and I will let you. It's very private, Robert, but, when you come out of that room, I'll be there for you, okay?" She was choked up, remembering Karen's emaciated body that afternoon, her deathlike expression, her spirit already gone.

"You and Ryan are not getting along?" Robert said with a practiced sigh.

"What? Why do you say that? We're fine." She gave him a very critical stare and then concentrated on driving.

"I can just tell. I've seen you guys together recently, and not so recently. I can just tell. Something is wrong." He patted her hand on the gear shift and she jerked it away.

"Nothing is wrong, Robert." She intoned fiercely. "It's just been a hectic day."

"Is it because you stayed with me and Karen this afternoon?"

"No." she replied quickly. "I would have been with you anyway."

"No, you barely know me, and you don't know Karen at all. This is hurting your honeymoon, isn't it? I'm sorry."

Melia couldn't say anything as she pulled off the freeway and onto the side road that led to the hospice facility; Ryan's headlights were directly behind her, keeping up. She held her tongue, thinking about Ryan's odd rejection of her this week, and of her confusion, and of the hints he'd dropped that this was perhaps somehow her fault. That their marriage wasn't a marriage at all, and he had duped her....

She couldn't think about that right now.

Robert was in need. His wife was in there dying and she needed to think about him, and not herself.

******