"I am sure our parents have questions," Yize coaxed.

  "I am not in the position to answer them. I don't have the answers they want."

  Yize gulped. "I under—"

  "No, you don't understand. Do you want to talk about this right now? Don't you think this can wait until after she wakes up? Can I just get through that time?" his voice was raised.

  "No. You are right. Absolutely. I am sorry." She patted her brother on the back.

  Qingchen sighed deeply and pressed his face into his free hand. "Look. I am sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you…"

  "You don't have to explain anything." Yize squeezed his shoulder. Mo Qingchen started to cry. "You don't have to explain anything at all."

  He didn't have the energy to explain. But he cried.

  Yize watched her brother break apart. She saw him cry for the first time and though she should have been worried, she felt a weight lift off her shoulder.

  It felt like a good thing. That Mo Qingchen was crying.

  It was a good thing that he was crying——

  There was nothing lonelier than the sound of footsteps in empty hospital hallways. The sound of the expensive shoes Qian Meng had bought for him only made it worse. The clicking of the heel echoed too loudly, reverberating through despair.

  It was a walk he was unfamiliar with, but he would never forget these doors. Each one he passed brought him closer to his Qian Meng. He finally reached his destination.

  He opened the door and found Yize sitting inside, as he had expected her to be. It was the only way he could leave for the meeting, to at least know that someone Qian Meng trusted and wanted would be there at her side when he wasn't.

  "You're here," she whispered as Qingchen walked in.

  "Hi, Yize," he muttered as he dropped his bag on the vacant chair. He simply didn't have the time or patience for any further pleasantries than that.

  "How is everything there?" He vaguely registered Yize asking from behind him as he pulled the chair over to the bed.

  "As good as expected," Qingchen said calmly. "Mom will be here soon. Qing Yuan wanted to come too but he was a mess just hearing his sister was in the hospital. He won't be much use here. I told him to come after she wakes up."

  While some part of his mind aided the automatic responses coming from his mouth, the bulk of his attention was focused on his other half.

  "Hi, baby…" he whispered, just for her as her hand pushed across the too-rough linen. His eyes lowered to her stomach. "Hi, little ones."

  His eyes shifted back to her pale lips. He ached to touch those lips with his own, to feel their softness again. Something about not knowing when she was waking up made less than a single day feel like longer than an eternity.

  "Mom just went home to rest a few hours ago. She needed to eat something. A real meal and not the crap from the hospital vending machine," Yize droned on to fill the silence.

  "I know," he answered with a sigh. "Dad called her home."

  "You should do the same." She stopped, knowing that it was an impossible argument. "Brother, I can stay here. Why don't you go home?"

  He considered telling her that it was pointless. Not to waste her words on him. He sighed, knowing he needed to respond, but not to Yize.

  "I am sorry I wasn't here earlier." He leaned over to kiss the back of the hand he held. "But I had to attend the meeting." He turned her misleadingly warm hand over to nuzzle his cheek against the palm. "I know you would insist that I go."

  He pressed a light kiss on her palm.

  He pulled back.

  "Did anything new happen while I was gone?" he asked. This was one of the only questions he was interested in hearing the answers to.

  "Not really," Yize answered as he had expected. "She has been kind of twitchy, though."

  Qingchen's head snapped so hard to look over at Yize that he gave himself whiplash. "What?" he demanded.

  "I said… she has been twitchy."

  His eyes widened. "Why didn't you call me?"

  "I was going to but the nurse said that it was nothing and that we shouldn't be so alert to simple bodily movement."

  Qingchen turned away from her in an effort not to yell. He knew that Yize's intentions were good, but this was his life they were talking about. It was not only imperative for him to know but critical.

  "Brother," Yize came forward, wondering if he was angry or not. "How about I go out and get you something to eat? Give you a little time alone with Qian Meng?"

  "Fine," Qingchen responded quickly. He honestly didn't care what anyone else did.

  "I can run to your house and get you some clothes to change into. Should I do that?"

  "Sure."

  He didn't give Yize a second glance as she gathered her stuff and left. He barely even heard the door close behind her as she lay his face against Qian Meng's palm again. He closed his eyes and willed his love to move something.

  He just wanted some hope——

  He was quickly getting used to the sound of the beeping. It didn't bother him as he dozed off. What woke him was the noise that interrupted the steady sounds. The sound of rolling wheels.

  "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Mo," someone spoke as he lifted his head, rubbing at his sleepy eyes with his free hand. "I didn't mean to wake you."

  He looked up to see one of the night shift nurses smiling at him apologetically.

  "It's okay. I must have dozed off for a minute." Qian Meng's hand, warm but limp, was still in his. "Is everything okay?"

  "Everything is fine. I was just checking Mrs. Mo and the babies' vitals. I'm all finished."

  Qingchen nodded. "Thank you."