The next day, they flew back to New York with the boys. They were supposed to spend one more night with Donnie and then go back to their mother’s house. Elijah had fallen asleep on the plane and Donnie was carrying him through the airport. He was trying to blend into the crowd when he heard Marina talking.
“Xavier, are you okay?” he heard her saying. He looked over.
“I feel kinda dizzy or something.” Xavier answered. She stopped all of them and moved them out of the walkway and got a closer look at him. Donnie laid Elijah on a set of chairs and turned to see what was going on with Xavier.
“You’re a little sweaty. Your pulse is so high I can’t count it.” She looked at his eyes closely. “I think you should sit down.” He went to sit and collapsed to the floor. Marina immediately resumed her nurse role. She asked Donnie to get the AED she had seen on the wall they had just passed and she started CPR. One of the desk agents came over and called for an ambulance. She attached the AED and ended up shocking him with it twice before he came out of the tachycardia that he was in. When the medics got there, she updated them and Donnie asked her to ride with Xavier. She assured him it would be better for him to go in case they needed a parent for permission for anything. He traded off and gave her Elijah, who was now awake and a little freaked out by all the drama. He tried to call Kim from the ambulance but didn’t get an answer. He called Marina to let her know to be trying to reach Kim as well. Marina told Donnie she would and that she would meet him at the hospital.
When she got there, she talked with the doctors who were seeing Xavier. She had an idea of what was happening to him. And the doctors agreed that it might be the problem. They wanted to do a test and a procedure on Xavier that might tell them for certain what was wrong and then they could fix it at the same time. Donnie had heard back from Kim, and she was trying to get a flight to New York. She was in the middle of nowhere with friends and had no real way to get back any earlier than she had planned to the following night. The doctors were wanting to move ahead with the procedure and everyone was okay with it, but Xavier was really scared and wanted Kim there.

“Give me a minute.” Marina said and excused herself from the room. Donnie followed her, but she didn’t know it. “This is Marina Royce. I need to talk to Peter. Now.” He knew that tone. That was her all business tone. He couldn’t help but think it was hot. “Peter, this is Marina. I need a favor.” And she laid it out. Peter would go get Kim and she’d be in New York by dinnertime. When she turned around and saw Donnie standing there she was startled. “How much of that did you hear?”
“Enough to know that you love my son enough to resort to throwing around your name to help him get what he needs. Thank you. It’s one of the many reasons I love you.”
“I love you too Donnie.”
Everyone planned to have Xavier have his test done that evening after his mother arrived. Marina explained what they thought might be the problem. They suspected that Xavier had a abnormal electrical pathway in his heart that was causing it to beat too fast sometimes. When it got too fast, he’d get dizzy and fall. If it went on too long, the electrical activity could go haywire or the heart muscle could tire and just stop altogether, like it had done before. If they could find where the problem was, they could cauterize that area and prevent it from happening again. Kim showed up about half an hour earlier than they expected. She hugged Xavier and then Marina & thanked her for getting her there so fast. Xavier went in for his procedure and did great. They found the problem and fixed it with no complications. They planned to let him go home the next day. Donnie couldn’t help but tweet “I’m so thankful for @marinaroyce. She saved me again. #myhero #everyoneshouldlearnCPR.” Kim and Donnie both asked Marina about where they could learn CPR in case they needed it again. She offered to teach them unofficially and also gave them some hints about where they could sign up to take a CPR class and be certified. Once Xavier was home the next day, Marina showed all 4 of them (including Elijah) how to perform CPR on adults and children.
Donnie drove Marina to the airport when it was time for her to head back to Memphis. He hugged her goodbye and kissed her. “We’re going to have to do something about this soon?” he said next to her ear.
She pulled back from him enough to see his face. “Something about what exactly?”
He moved his right hand to her left cheek and smiled. “I love you Marina. Thank you for . . . being you and doing all the amazing things you do. I just really hate you having to go back to Memphis and us being apart.”
“I know. I hate us being apart too.” She kissed him. “And I love you . . . beyond what is reasonable. I’m pretty sure you have some sort of superpower that makes me feel like this,” she teased.
He pulled her closer to him and lowered his voice. “I’m pretty sure you know what my superpower is Mari. I used it with you this morning.” She blushed and looked away. “I love that you blush like that. Being with you makes me feel like I’m the best man in the whole world. And the luckiest.”
“Donnie, deciding to be with you gave me back my life. But it’s better than it used to be. You let me be me and you don’t resent the things in my life that take me away from you some of the time because you know they are part of what makes who I am. You love me in spite of how complicated my life is and you don’t give a shit about my money.”

“Yeah…that money thing…it is nice knowing that you don’t care about how much money I have or how much I pay in alimony and child support. I figure we both have a pretty short list of people in our lives who like us for who we are. But then there’s you. You love me for who I am right now. You don’t hold who I used to be against me.”
“I love who you are. And I love your boys. I’ve never wanted children Donnie. I’ve never liked being around them. But your boys are so amazing! I know it’s because they remind me of you, but still… thank you for letting me know them. I never thought I’d ever feel anything like this in my life.”
Donnie’s heart was racing. “Do you …. have you thought about having children? with me?” he asked softly.
Marina looked down. “A long time ago, they told me to never get pregnant because of my health problems. They even did surgery to be certain that I didn’t get pregnant. I had never wanted children and so it never phased me. It just meant I didn’t have to worry about birth control while I was married.” She looked up at him trying to read his reaction. “If I were ever going to want a child of my own, I’d want you to be the father. But not right now.”
He hugged her really tight. “Thank God. I love that you love my boys so much, but the idea of raising another child stresses me out.” He pulled back a bit and kissed her. “So you wouldn’t get pregnant if I forgot to wear condom?” he asked suggestively.
She laughed at him. “No. No worries there.”
He pulled out his wallet and pulled out 3 condoms and walked over and put them in the trash can nearby. “Don’t need those anymore. Ever. You are the only woman in my life.” She laughed at him.
“Men just hate condoms….”
“Pretty much.”
“You know I have to go, right?”
“Yeah. Your flight leaves in less than an hour.”

“One more kiss until I see you again,” she said & she kissed him goodbye again before heading inside the airport.  They texted back and forth until she got on the plane to plan their next meeting.