“Come in,” Eve yelled from the other side.

Julian entered and closed the door behind him.

“Eve, we need to talk.”

“Hmm, why don’t we talk and make love at the same time?” she smiled as she walked over to him and kissed him softly on the lips.

“Eve, please,” Julian grabbed her hands, “What happened between us was a mistake, and it can’t happen again.”

“A mistake?” she scoffed, “Oh really? A mistake you say?” she smiled as she placed her hands on his chest and began unbuttoning his shirt, “Why don’t you tell me why it was a mistake,” she began kissing his neck as she slipped his shirt off his shoulders.

“Eve,” he groaned as he shook his head.

“Julian,” Eve moaned back, “Don’t deny me Julian…don’t deny me,” she whispered as her lips captured his.

Julian did as Eve asked and brought her body close to his. Eve wrapped her arms around him and backed him up against the couch. Julian sat and brought Eve down onto him. He soon shed her of her clothes and Eve did the same with Julian. The two made love once more. Eve was on top the whole time and now she was lying atop him, listening to his heart beat. They were still intimately joined, and were enjoying the feeling of being one.

Julian couldn’t believe he had betrayed Judy once more. He betrayed the mother of his unborn child. Julian soon pushed Eve to the side and sat up as he swung his feet to the floor. He had his head in his hands as Eve knelt beside him on the sofa cushions and placed kisses upon his bare shoulders.

“Eve, stop.”

She didn’t listen and continued to kiss and touch him; turning him on at the same time.

“Judy is pregnant, Eve,” he blurted out, “She’s pregnant with my child and we’re getting married.” He said as he stared straight in front of him off into space.

Eve immediately stopped what she was doing. She was speechless. She couldn’t feel anything, except for the single tear that had slid down her cheek.

“What did you just say?”

“I said my wife and I are going to have a baby.”

“She is not your wife,” Eve cried, “I am, and you are my husband,” she held out her left hand to him, “Don’t you remember this? Do you remember that day when we made love here; you said I had always been your wife...in your heart, I was your wife,” she cried.

Julian saw the engagement ring he had given her long ago at the Blue Note. He couldn’t believe she still had it.

He smiled sadly and stared straight again.

“Julian you can’t turn your back on me and our…”

“Eve! I can’t and I won’t turn my back on my child, and that’s final,” he stood and began dressing.

She just sat there and watched as Julian got dressed.

“I’m sorry, Eve,” he looked to her, “I’m sorry that I allowed us to get carried away…”

Eve stood and ran to Julian.

“You did it because you love me, and only me,” her hands brought his face to hers.

But Julian put his foot down and pushed Eve away from him.

“NO, Eve, no,” he turned and left her office.
---

A month had passed and Eve and Julian hadn’t spoken to one another. He and Judy were doing quite fine, and were planning away for the birth of their baby. Julian had also made it known to the town of Harmony, and to the world that he had not died in that plane crash. Most of his children were excited to see him again, but then there were those people who weren’t too happy to see him alive again, such as Rebecca and Alistair. He had shaved his beard off, but Judy begged him to let it grow again, since she loved the way he looked with it, and so he did.

Julian was now at the hospital waiting for Judy. There had been a blood drive and Julian volunteered to give some blood, and while he was waiting in the lab, he saw a folder with Eve’s name on it. He stared at it in wonder. Julian then looked around when he saw no one was around, he picked up the folder and opened it up. He had no idea what he was reading. There were all kinds of abbreviations and numbers and percentages. Just then a lab technician came and caught Julian.

“Mr. Crane!” he gasped, “That information is private.”

“Yes, but since I am a ‘Crane’ and we do own the hospital, there shouldn’t be any trouble, right?” he raised a brow.

Jeremy didn’t say anything.

“Now, tell me,” Julian looked at his name tag, “Jeremy? What is Dr. Russell having blood tests for? She isn’t sick, is she?”

Jeremy looked around and then back at Julian.

“No, she’s not sick. She took a pregnancy test,” he read the file, “And from the what I can see…she is pregnant; four weeks to be exact.” He turned the other page and read it.

Julian counted back, and realized that that was when he and Eve had made love those two times. Was this child his? He had to confront Eve about this!

When he finished, he encountered Eve outside her office about to enter. He stopped her.

“Eve, we need to talk.”

She stared back at him and waited for him to finish.

“Are you pregnant with my child? I need to know.”

She nodded towards her office and they both entered. Julian shut the door behind him and then walked up behind Eve. He placed his hands on her shoulders and she closed her eyes at feeling his hands upon her. Julian then brought her back against his chest and whispered into her ear.

“Are you having my baby, Eve?”

She simply nodded.

He held her tight against him and kissed her neck.

“God, Eve…how did things get so complicated for us?”

“I don’t know.” She placed her hands on his, which were resting on her lower abdomen, “Where do we go from here?”

And just as Julian was about to answer her, there was a knock at the door. He pulled away from her and sat down on one of the chairs. Eve answered the door and it was Judy. She was delivering some files from a patient of Eve’s. Judy looked into the office and saw Julian sitting.

“Julian?”

“Hello, honey,” he stood and walked over towards her, “I was chatting with Eve about our son, Chad,” he lied.

“Oh,” was all she said.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ll wait for you by the nurse’s station when you are through,” she said as she turned, but Julian stopped her.

“Honey, I am ready…” he joined his wife, “Eve, I’ll see you later…” he said and took Judy’s hand in his.

Judy looked at Eve and remembered that night she found Julian with her. She understood the connection he and Eve had, but knew that Julian was dedicated to her and their baby. Eve looked at Judy with disgust. Why did Julian have to meet this woman? Why did he have to fall in love with her and why did she have to get pregnant by him? The question she pondered the most was…why didn’t Julian wait for her?

Eve watched the couple walk away, hand in hand.
---

A few days passed and Julian was at home awaiting Judy. She had just pulled up when she noticed that the front door to the Russell home was open. Judy thought something was up, but when she noticed that the hatchback on Eve’s SUV was open and groceries were in the back, she just figured that Eve was going back and forth carrying groceries. She shrugged it off and began walking up the walkway when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. Little J.B. was running out the front door and towards the street. She expected Eve to run out after him, but when she didn’t, and when Judy saw the car coming down the street at a fast speed, she ran from her front door to where J.B. was, which was in the middle of the street. She pushed him out of the way and he fell backwards and landed on the driveway and began wailing. Eve heard her son’s cries and ran outside and found him with scrapes on his little hands, but that’s not what made her scream. Judy was lying on her side a few feet in front of the car that had just stopped. Julian heard the noise from the screeching tires and came running out only to find his wife’s motionless body out in the middle of the street.

“JUDY!” Julian screamed as he rushed to her body, “Honey, honey, are you okay?” he looked into Judy’s pale face.

She didn’t respond. Eve ran over to her and figured that Judy had sustained internal injuries and so she pulled out her cell phone and called 911 for an ambulance. Eve took her vitals and could feel that her pulse was weak, and getting weaker. All of a sudden, Julian began crying.

“No, no…not the baby!” he noticed the blood on her scrubs, spreading between her legs, “Judy, please wake up,” he bent down and kissed her.

Julian then looked up and glared at Eve.

“GET AWAY FROM HER!”

“What?”

“This is all your fault! If you had been watching your damn son, then none of this would’ve happened!” Julian heard the sirens coming closer, “NOW GET AWAY FROM US!”

Eve stared back at him, hurt by what he said. If only Julian knew that her damn son was their son. Eve wanted to shout to him that J.B. was his, but she knew that this wasn’t the right time. No time ever seemed to be the right time. She backed away from Julian in that instant. The ambulance arrived and they picked up Judy and placed her on the stretcher and Julian hopped in right behind them and rode with her to the hospital.

Eve decided to take J.B. to the hospital just incase he had suffered from any broken bones. When she arrived there, she saw Julian sobbing as he exited the ambulance. Eve then saw the paramedics pull out the stretcher with Judy, but her body was covered with a white sheet. She had died along the way to the hospital. Her injuries were just too severe and she was just too weak to fight for her life. The strenuous hours she’d been putting in at the hospital while she was pregnant was taking a toll on her body.

Judy’s body was rushed to the morgue and Julian was going to spend some time with her, for just a minute.

He walked in and they uncovered her face for him. He began crying at just the sight of her lifeless body. Julian could remember her beautiful smile, her laugh; he could remember her face when she was sad. He wiped the tears from his face and pinched his nose as he felt it begin to run. Julian ran a hand through her black straight hair and then smoothed his hand from her bangs backwards to the rest of her hair. He closed his eyes and a smiled appeared on his face as he imagined their kid running to them. What he saw was a little Asian girl with pig tails, who looked just like Judy, running to him with her arms opened wide ready to jump into her father’s arms.
---

Julian was at home looking at pictures of Judy when there was a knock at the door. He stood and walked over to the door and answered it. Eve was standing there with J.B. in her arms. Julian didn’t want to see either one of them, especially Eve and Tc’s son. It was all his fault that Judy and their child was dead.

“What do you want, Eve?”

“I wanted to say that I’m sorry about Judy, and what she did meant a lot; not only to me, but to you too.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he glared at her.

“She saved our son’s life…”

“Eve, I don’t have time for this…” he paused as he registered what Eve had just said, “Our son? Eve how did Judy save our unborn child?”

“I’m not talking about our baby that I’m carrying; I’m talking about J.B…Julian Blake Crane.”

Julian looked from Eve to her son…their son.