Sora spent much of her board meeting the next afternoon with her mind in a Rodeo Drive doctor's office. It adjourned without her remembering a single subject they'd discussed. I should have sat this one out. Cristina would have told me the details. She smiled painfully through handshakes and delayed returning to her office to visit Tommy at the Himura daycare center.

He was preoccupied with his playthings and his playmates. He was a social butterfly, flittering back and forth between stations. He dragged a duck behind him that had his name sewn on the tail feathers.

He wouldn't remember Ravi. Dhiren would have more years without his father than they had together.

Sora waved at Tommy when he caught sight of her. It was the first time today her smile felt real. I'll tell him that he was loved, that they both were.

When Sora couldn't bear one more concerned look from the attendants, she fled the center to go back to her office. There wasn't a chance of her being able to concentrate, she knew that, but there was a Board to pacify and her own worries to soothe. She eventually found a ledger to balance and put her nose to the grindstone. Numbers made sense; her heart wasn't in numbers. The hours slipped away from her while she made sure each department reporting its expenditures to the Office of the CEO was in the black. Sam's was, as expected, the best off, despite the fact that he considered deadlines something akin to polite suggestions rather than rules. I'll have to talk to him about that.

By the time early evening had rolled around Sora had talked herself and her heart rate into an uneasy truce. She would be fine, terrified or not. That all went out the window with a text from Ravi.

Done @ doctor. Coming to Himura.

Sora had been standing to refill her coffee. She couldn't keep it up. She was still staring at Ravi's message when she heard his knock at her office door.

"Come in." Please be okay.

She forced her legs to support her.

Ravi didn't say anything when he stepped into her office. He tried—she saw him try but there were no words. Sora had expected the worse and here it was.

Part of her had foreseen this and planned accordingly. She began packing her things for the night. She wouldn't be getting anything else done. There was nothing else she wanted to do here. She needed to be at home, with him and Tommy, and time.

"I'll take a leave of absence. I'll make the Board understand. We'll go to Rome. They knew how to make you better there; they'll figure out it out again."

He approached her desk. "Sora."

She went on. "It'll be good for Tommy to learn Italian. Dhiren and Enzo can teach him. Is he still there?"

"Yeah, he's there." Ravi wet his lips as if ready to speak, but Sora wasn't ready to hear this, not yet.

"We can take the Himura jet."

Ravi shook his head. "Better take mine. We don't want Anthony complaining to the board about inappropriate allocation of resources. But that doesn't matter, we're not going to Rome—not for that."

"Don't tell me it's too late. I can't hear that. I won't hear that. It's not acceptable."

Sora couldn't have finally found the man she was meant to love only to lose him. Hadn't she faced enough catastrophe?

"You're right, it isn't. I'm not going anywhere. Not now."

Sora gathered her wherewithal. I have to face the music. He needs me. I can't be a coward about this.

"How bad is it?"

"It's not." Ravi came to her side of her desk to take her hands in his. "It's not bad. I'm anemic because I haven't been eating right. I haven't been sleeping enough because work politics keep me awake. I'm bruising because I've got my head in the clouds over you and I keep bumping into stuff left and right. I haven't got one condition that a little TLC can't take care of. I'm healthy as I was yesterday."

He rubbed her shoulders where they slowly began to quake. As it worsened, Ravi pulled her into his arms where she went gladly. Sora was hot and cold all over. She couldn't control these chills wracking her body. She was too dry-eyed to cry in relief.

"You're okay. It's not the..." Look at me, I can't even call it what it is. "You don't have it anymore?"

"Still in remission." He rubbed his hands up and down her back. "I could stay that way."

"You could slip out of it."

"And you could experience transplant rejection at any time."

Sora flinched. He kissed her forehead in apology.

"I don't like to think about it either, but this is the way it is. This what we live with every day. You and I are a couple of time bombs. Maybe we'll never go off; maybe we're not even set to go off, but we could. The question is whether we want to live waiting for the explosion or just live like it doesn't matter. We have to choose."

"I choose whichever gives me the most time with you."

"That could be anything. You can't live in denial about this. It could break you if you do. I almost broke in Rome at first. I wanted to run home, but I got sick too fast from the treatment." Ravi swallowed, blinking back moisture in his eyes. "I couldn't come home for mom. Didn't want her to see me like that. She wanted to hear that I was fine, wanted to know I'd survive her. What would it have done for her to know I might not?"

"I don't know what good or ill it might have done, but I know that wherever she is, she's happy to know you're still living, no matter how much she misses you."

"I want to believe you."

Sora laughed despite the throbbing hurt inside that wasn't quite her heart. "That's my line."

"Yeah, that was a hint."

Sora guided Ravi's head down to rest on her shoulder. "Believe me. I'll believe enough for both of us until you can. This is our life and Jivika would be very proud of you for living it well. We're going to keep living it well."

She exhaled as if every anxiety that had plagued her since last night was leaving her all at once.

"Here's my side. Don't withhold vital information from me. This life we're living is a shared life and the only way we can go forward is with the understanding that what happens to one of us happens to all of us."

"I won't lie to you again."

"You can't. I won't tolerate it, I won't make excuses for it. Remember your rules about only making promises you keep? This is where I put your word to the test."

...

...

Sora spent days worrying before she let her anger go. Sure, she was furious—how dare he make her love him, knowing—but she lived on the same borrowed hours. Who was she to disparage his wanting to go on like normal?

"Time for your interstate man trip."

Ravi was loading up the car with soccer balls and hockey sticks. He was wearing a horrible Red Wings cap she was determined to 'accidentally' lose the next time it came up for a washing.

He slid his arms around her to kiss the side of her neck. "Could be a family trip if you come along."

Sora relaxed against his chest, taking a mental snapshot of this moment. This was the man she loved and the love he felt in return was living thing between them.

"I can't. There's too much work to make up at Himura and I'm convinced Hana has voodoo dolls of both of us in her hearts chest. I've got enough against me, but I want you to be careful and have fun enough for all of us."

Ravi kissed her softly. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you."

Dhiren came barreling out of Ravi's place with the bag of snacks Sora had helped him pack for their trip. He hadn't stopped chattering about the fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches for an hour. Ravi's long-suffering glare was worth her nephew's smiles.

"Do I get a hug, Aunt Sora?"

"Of course you do, sugar. Get over here."

Sora hugged her nephew close and kissed his hair. "Look at you, growing like a weed. Be good for your dad out there. I want you both to come home safe and soon."

"But not too soon," Ravi interjected.

"Soon enough," Sora replied.

"Come on, Dhiren, we gotta get going."

Her nephew whispered goodbye to his cousin and ran off to join his dad in the car.

Sora blew them both a kiss. "Take care of each other."

"Always," Ravi called back. "Tommy, take care of your mom. I know I don't have to tell her to look after you."

She lifted Tommy up from the gangway of Ravi's beach house where he'd been perusing his latest Dhiren-gifted toy in delight.

"Say bye-bye, Tommy."

"Baii-baii." Tommy waved, his prized duck clutched to his side.

Sora and Tommy walked to the end of the driveway to watch until Ravi and Dhiren disappeared around a bend in the road.

"Come on, Tommy, let's go visit Imogen and see if she and that baby of hers want to go out for lunch."

...

...

The dark-haired couple were undisturbed by her entry.

Sora wavered on the threshold, determined to beat a hasty retreat, yet too fascinated to go.

Diana Parrilla dragged her nails down Anthony's back. He yowled in obvious satisfaction.

"Crazy bitch."

"You love it."

"Damned if I don't."

Nope. Sora backed out of the office until she hit the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

Nyna, who was walking down the hall, paused in front of her.

"Honey, you okay?"

Anthony's whinnying spoke volumes, at volume.

Nyna hurried to Diana's office door and slammed it shut. The stallion whickered to a halt. "That's enough of that."

"I wanted to take Imogen to lunch and then...this."

Nyna winced in sympathy.

"That could put a dent anyone's appetite. Imogen's in with Narsi and Yelena. Come on, I'll show you where you can wait." Sora lingered, dumbfounded, yet unable to go. "Don't you worry about those two, hon. They'll get theirs."

"Yeah." Sora tightened her hold on her handbag and followed Nyna in the opposite direction of the world' most loaded silence.

She might need to drop Tommy off with the sitter and have margaritas for lunch instead. It'll take more than carbs to forget this one.