November 23rd-24th, 2001

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

This chapter begins during Season 3 of ER.

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

Julianna opened up the door to the house she shared with Ron, to find him sitting on the couch, watching television. She smiled, her face glowing with happiness. She slips out of her coat and walks to him. He smiles up at her and she bends down, kissing him sweetly.

"We need to talk." She said.

"Okay." He said and sat up straighter and turned the television off.

"This is...unexpected, but I think that it's wonderful news." She grinned. He smiled and took her hand.

"What is it?" He asked. She squeezed his hand.

"I'm pregnant!" She exclaimed and then her stomach dropped with dread as his face became nearly transparent with whiteness.

"You're what?" He asked and dropped her hand, as if she was poisoned.

"I'm..pregnant. I.." She watched in amazement as he jumped up and began pacing.

"How could you get yourself pregnant?" He asked and turned to stare at her. She stood.

"Excuse me? I believe that I didn't get pregnant all by myself." She said, staring at him incredulously.

"How did this happen? We always used protection." He said.

"Apparently something didn't work right." She replied, still confused by the way he was acting. Why wasn't he happy like she was?

"God dammit!" He exclaimed so loudly that she jumped slightly. With the realization that he didn't want their baby at all, tears filled her eyes and she nearly bowled over at the emotional pain of that. Her baby's father didn't even want it. The man she loved didn't want their child. Oh God, what was she going to do? Tears blinded her, but Julianna stood strong.

"I can't by here now." She said and began walking to the door. She grabbed her coat and didn't look back. He didn't call her back either.

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

Julianna went to the only person she felt could really help her. She ran quickly to the front door of George's house. Tears streamed down her face as she pounded on the door, sobs ripping through her lips. George opened the door to find her standing there crying and concern immediately swamped him.

"Oh God, Jules, what happened?" He asked and pulled her inside, into his arms, shutting the door behind her and locking it.

"Is Celine..he-here?" She forced the words out.

"No, she's not here." He stroked her hair. "What happened? What's wrong?" He asked. Julianna couldn't answer because the sobs overtook her. George wondered what could make this normally strong woman dissolve into tears in his arms. "Okay, okay, baby. Shhh, settle down." He murmured and picked her up, cradling her against him. He walked to the couch and sat, holding her on his lap as she continued to sob. He stroked her hair and held her close. "Everything will be just fine. Just fine." He murmured.

"No." She moaned. "It will..never be...fine." She sobbed and he drew her closer.

"Alright..Shhh." He sat silently for a few minutes, just holding her. When she finally began to calm down, he began to ask questions again.

"Are you hurt?" He asked softly, wondering if someone had hurt her. She shook her head and relief fell over him. Thank God. "Okay, can you tell me what happened?" He asked. She pushed her face further into his shoulder and shook her head. "Okay. That's okay. We'll just wait. If you want to tell me later, you can. If not, that's okay too." He said and brushed his hand over her hair again.

"I'm pregnant." She finally murmured. Thankfulness washed over her when he didn't even flinch. He just continued to stroke her hair.

"With Ron?" He murmured.

"Oh God." She muttered and went silent. Finally she nodded. "Yes."

"So what's the problem? Do you not want the baby?" He asked. She sat up, wiping her wet face with her hands as he studied her, searching her eyes for answers.

"Yes, yes I want the baby. So much..I.." She stood and walked away from him a bit. Then she buried her face in her hands and sighed loudly.

"But Ron doesn't?" George asked. She shook her head and he saw her shoulders begin to shake with more tears. He got up from the couch and walked to her, turning her around and wrapping his arms around her. She fisted her hands on his back.

"He...He blamed me for getting pregnant, like I..did it by myself or on purpose or something." She paused. "I thought he would be happy..Or, or..at least okay with it. I thought he loved me but he reacted so horribly to the idea of a baby." Julianna muttered, not really talking to George, but more trying to figure it out for herself.

"Maybe it was just a beginning reaction. You need to talk to him. Maybe he will change his mind about it." George said. Julianna sighed.

"I know but how will I ever forget how he reacted?" She pulled away and wiped at her eyes with her fingers. "How will I ever be able to forgive him for acting so awful toward our child?" George didn't answer, not having an answer, as he just stared at her, the wheels in his head turning.

"Talk to him first." George said. "Go home and talk to him. If he still reacts like an ass, you come back here and you can stay the night. Alright?" George asked. Julianna sighed.

"George, I don't think I can talk to him right now."

"Yes, you can. You have to. For your baby's sake." He said. She sighed and covered her face with her hands. After a minute's thinking she dropped her hands.

"Alright. I'll do it."

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

Before Julianna was even out the door, George already had a plan formed in his head. And minutes after Julianna left and Celine came home, he put that plan into action.

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

Julianna walked into the house, to find everything as she had left it. Except Ron. She knew he was home because his car was there, but he wasn't downstairs. She made her way upstairs to find him packing a suitcase in their bedroom. Her heart fell to her feet.

"What are you doing?" She asked. He whirled around, apparently oblivious to her returning home, until now.

"I'm packing." He said.

"Why?" She asked coldly, although the answer was already in her heart.

"I can't have a child. I never asked to be a father and I don't want a baby." He said. She simply stared at him. "I refuse to take care of a child, or you while with child. And I can't be with you after the baby is here because I'll always know about it." She continued to stare at him until he began to squirm under her icy gaze.

"You're a cold-hearted bastard, Ron. And I hope you enjoy your life in hell." She said and turned, walking down the stairs and out of the house.

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

Julianna pulled up to George's house just to watch Celine pull out of the driveway. The blond wouldn't even look at Julianna. Julianna watched her in the review mirror with puzzlement. She pulled the car to a stop and walked up to George's front door once more. He opened it before she could even knock, as he had been watching.

"Why'd she leave?" Julianna asked.

"We broke up." George said.

"What?" Julianna asked, her eyes widening in surprise.

"I broke up with her." George replied.

"What? Why?" She asked.

"Because. So what happened with Ron?" He asked. Julianna bowed her head, and absently placed her hand on her stomach, over her child. George knew she wasn't aware of it, but he caught the gesture.

"When I got there he was packing. He told me that he didn't want a baby and refused to take care of it. I damned him to hell and left. It's amazing to realize how quickly love for someone can go away." Julianna said.

"Your baby needs a father." George said. Julianna's head whipped up and she looked at him.

"I'm enough for him or her." She said, her voice a bit chilly. He walked to her and took her arms into his hands.

"I want to be there for you and the baby. I want to be the baby's father." Julianna's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. She couldn't even speak. "I want to get married and raise the baby with you." Julianna continued to stare at him before finally she got her vocal cords to work again.

"I...You..What?" She asked incredulously. George chuckled.

"It's very simple, really.."

"I could never ask you to do that!" She exclaimed.

"You didn't. I offered."

"Well, I refuse! You don't want children!" She said. He smiled.

"Maybe I do." He said.

"What?" She asked.

"Just because everybody thinks that I don't, doesn't mean they know that I don't. I really only said that I don't want children because I didn't believe that I would ever want someone to have my children, not that I didn't want those kids. But I can't let your child go without a father. You mean too much to me. I can't let you do it alone. I promise to love that baby and take care of it for the rest of my life. So...Marry me." He said and held out an engagement ring.

"George.." She stared at the ring, pressing her fingers to her mouth. "I..I can't."

"Why not? I promise I'll always take care of you. Both of you."

"I can't get married to someone if I don't love them.." She paused. "I..I do love you, George. But not like that. I could never allow you to marry me for the baby." She said.

"Listen to me for a minute. Just listen." He said when she began to protest. "We could learn to love each other like 'that'. And the baby will have a good, loving home. I..Later, after we're married, if you decide that you just cannot stand to be married to me, we can get a divorce. Then I can pay child support or something. But we get along good, Jules. We could make it work. For the baby." He said.

"That's the problem." She said. "It's all for the baby."

"Isn't that what's important now?" He asked. She closed her eyes and wished for strength. "We're both very busy. It'd be tough on you to be a single mom. But if there are two of us, it'll be easier. I know you think that you need love, but maybe..Maybe we'll find it. And if not, you can leave. Let's just try it." He said. Julianna finally opened her eyes.

"I need time to think. Please..Can I have time?" She asked. He nodded slowly.

"Okay." He tucked the ring into his pocket. "I'll give you some time. For now." He straightened a bit. "I bet your tired." Julianna nodded a bit. "Why don't we get you tucked into a spare room. Tomorrow we can talk some more."

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

Julianna barely slept that night and when she did it was restless. When she woke the next morning, she followed the scent of coffee into the kitchen. George smiled at her, all rumpled up from sleep.

"What some coffee? It's decaf." He said. She nodded and walked to the mug he held out.

"Thanks." She said. He nodded and took a sip from his own mug as he watched her profile, wondering if this is what it would be like to wake up to her every morning.

"I've got a question." He said. She nodded and watched him over the rim of her mug. "How far along are you?" She lowered the mug and eyed him warily.

"One month." She said. He nodded.

"Okay." He said and turned. "Do you want something to eat? I'll fix you some eggs or toast or something."

"Uh..Toast, please." She said.

"Alright. That's easy." He said and turned to get the bread. As he was fixing their breakfast, she spoke of the plans she had formulated last night.

"George?"

"Hm?" He asked, turning to look at her.

"Last night I called the airport. I got myself a flight to New York City to go see my mom. Since today is our day off work, I'm going to go visit her for a few hours."

"Alright." George said.

"I just...I need to talk to her about things before I make any decisions."

"I understand." George said and smiled.

"Thank you." Julianna said and took another drink of her coffee.

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

Julianna drove around the round driveway to park her car in front of her mother and step-father's fairly big house in the suburbs. Julianna walked to the front door, pocketing her keys before she knocked. Only moments later her mother opened the door and smiled widely.

"Julianna! Come in!" Julianna smiled and hugged her mother as she walked into the house. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Mom." Julianna replied.

"What are you doing here?" Francesca asked, walking into the kitchen. Julianna followed and pulled out a stool and took a seat.

"I need to talk to you. Is Gary home?" Julianna asked.

"No, he's out golfing at the country club with some of the other men." Julianna smiled and nearly rolled her eyes. Her mother smiled at her.

"Go ahead, roll your eyes. I know you think it's amusing." Julianna grinned.

"Sorry, Mom. I just can't imagine my former-hippie mother out at the country club." Julianna said.

"Gary and I go there for entertainment. In our old age we have to have something to do."

"You're not old, Mom." Julianna said. Her mother grinned.

"I'm glad you think so. So, what are you here for?" Francesca asked and watched the light in Julianna's eyes die. Francesca immediately stopped with the making of lemonade and stared down at her youngest daughter.

"What's wrong, baby?" Julianna sighed.

"I have something important to tell you. It's big." Julianna said.

"Alright." Her mother said. Julianna hesitated.

"I'm pregnant." Julianna finally said softly. Her mother didn't do a single thing except nod.

"And that upsets you?" Her mother asked. Tears filled Julianna's eyes.

"No, Mom, it makes me so happy." Julianna grinned, even as she tried to blink the tears away. "But the problem is..Ron left me. He doesn't want the baby, so he left."

"Oh, baby." Sympathy filled Francesca's eyes and she reached out for her daughter's hand. They lay linked on the countertop.

"And..Uh.." Julianna cleared her throat. "There's something else. Sort of." She paused and met her mother's gaze. "When I told George that Ron wasn't going to stay..George asked me to marry him."

"He..He asked you to marry him? George?" Julianna nodded. "Clooney?" Julianna smiled a bit at the bewildered look on Francesca's face.

"Yeah. That one." Julianna said. "He said that he didn't want me to raise the baby alone and that he would take care of us for the rest of his life."

"What did you say?" Francesca asked.

"I told him that I don't think I could get married without their being some love in the equation."

"Well, I think you should marry him anyway!" Francesca said.

"But Mom..You and Dad got a divorce. You should understand how I feel about not entering a loveless marriage." Julianna argued.

"Well, that's where I think you are wrong. I believe that the two of you really do love each other but that you just have to find it."

"Mom..You're insane!" Julianna exclaimed. Francesca smiled.

"I'm sure that's how you see it now. So tell me, what else did George say?"

"Well...He said that if I really couldn't stand to be married to him we could get a divorce and that way he'd have to pay child payments. He promised to love the baby and take care of it always."

"Then why are you even hesitating to marry him? He's a good man, Julianna. You are one of the closest people to him anyway. Why shouldn't you get married?"

"He doesn't love me!" Julianna exclaimed.

"Have you asked him if he doesn't?" Francesca asked. Julianna stopped.

"No, but there's no way he loves me like that, Mom. He would have told me." Julianna said.

"Now why would he do that? If you were dating Ron for so long, why would George ever speak up about how he felt for you? And besides, when some men love a woman, all they want is the what makes that woman happy. Did you ever think George wanted that for you? You should ask him how he feels about you. Maybe he loves you and he asked you to marry him because he loves you, but he's afraid to say so." Francesca stated. Had George heard what she had said, he probably would have been frightened at how right Francesca was.

"Mom...We're just good friends. George doesn't want kids and he doesn't want to get married."

"If that's so, why did he ask you to marry him and promise to always love and take care of your child, a child that wouldn't be his by blood? I believe you are wrong about that. I also think you should make sure George doesn't love you. If he does, I think you'd be surprised at how easy it would be to love him back."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Julianna murmured after a short moment of silence. Francesca just watched and listened. "I thought I loved Ron. But how could I have ever loved a man who acted this way about his own child? Do you understand how long it took me to fall out of love with him?" When Francesca didn't reply, Julianna answered her own question. "Seconds. The seconds that it took me to realize he wanted nothing to do with our baby. I'm scared that if I fall in love with George that I could fall back out of love with him just as quickly. There's too much pain involved, Mom. I can raise this baby alone." Julianna said.

"I believe that you could. But you shouldn't. Especially when there is a man ready and willing to be there for you and that child of yours." Francesca said. Julianna sighed.

"I don't know what I'm going to do." She said and dropped her head into her hands.

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

"I've decided I'll marry you." Julianna said, the next night as she sat in George's kitchen after work.

"Don't sound so excited." He said and grinned. She sighed.

"George...I want what is best for my baby. Having two parents will be what is best. But I'm not happy about marrying you for that reason only."

"What other reason would you like?" He asked, pouring some iced tea into two glasses.

"Love." Julianna said, watching him. His heart started to pound and he nearly told her but he wasn't sure if a profession of love would scare her off or bring her closer and he desperately wanted to marry her. Julianna waited, having given him the appropriate opening, but he didn't take it.

"Maybe we'll get to that point." He said and finally looked up to meet her gaze. She sighed and then waited a moment or two.

"We need to make arrangements." She said.

"Alright. Big or small?" He asked.

"George, I just want to remind you that you have about three times as many friends as I do." Julianna said. He chuckled.

"That doesn't mean I have to invite them. So, big or small?" He asked.

"How about family and good friends. We don't need to invite your best friend from third grade or anything." Julianna said. He chuckled.

"Okay, how about family, the ER staff - so no one feels left out - and other close friends." He said.

"Sounds good. When?" She asked.

"As soon as we can get something together. We don't want to wait until your...well.." He trailed off.

"Too large to fit into a wedding dress comfortably?" She suggested slyly. He chuckled.

"Something like that."

"Okay, so how soon do you think we can pull this off?" She asked.

"If we don't let our mother's get involved, I'd say a month." He said. Her eyes widened.

"You're stretching it, George."

"I know. Okay. I have an idea. Well, unless you want to get married in a church. If so I don't have an idea." He said. She smiled.

"What is your plan?" She asked.

"Well...I think we should buy a new house." Julianna's eyes widened.

"George, why? We've got two perfectly good houses here that we can use."

"Yes, but I bought mine with Celine and you bought yours with Ron. Both of those relationships are over. We are getting married so we need to start fresh." George said.

"Okay, okay." Julianna said. "Your plan?"

"Alright." He rubbed his hands together and she couldn't help but grin.

"We buy the house. We can get everything settled in downstairs, you know, appropriate things for the people at the wedding, bathrooms, living room, etcetera, etcetera. We hold the wedding out in the back yard and all that. Then after the wedding..and the honeymoon.." He laughed when her eyes widened, "we can come back and move the rest of our stuff into the house. What do you think?"

"I think you've already got this house picked out." She said. He chuckled.

"Does it sound like it?" He asked. She nodded. He shrugged. "Okay, so I do." He said.

"Where is this house?" She asked.

"Only about five minutes from here. If you want to go see it, we can. My friend is the realtor and he gave me a spare key so that I could show you if you agreed." George said. Julianna laughed.

"You're a very confident person, George." He smiled.

"I know. Do you want to see it?" He asked.

"Yes."

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

"Wow." Julianna said as they opened the front door of the house and stepped inside. She looked up at the high ceiling, immediately adoring it. She began to walk through the house, looking at various things.

"Ooh, I love this." Julianna said and stepped onto the big back deck. As she did she spotted the pool. "It has a pool. That's good." Julianna said, knowing how she liked to take swims for leisure or exercise. She could already picture herself taking the baby for a swim. She smiled at the thought.

"I figured you would like that." He said. She nodded and walked back inside. She looked at the kitchen, approval shining in her eyes. They walked upstairs and into the master bedroom. Julianna walked into the bathroom and sighed with pleasure.

"I could live in this room alone." She murmured and ran her hands over the dark blue marble of the counter. The bathroom was huge, with an overly-large shower that had four different nozzles for water. The bathtub was large and went down into the floor. The bathtub, the shower, and the countertop was done in dark blue, while the floor and walls were done in white.

"Me too." George murmured and watched her, knowing she was won over. "Here," He said, taking her hand, "I want to show you something else." He led her into the adjoining room and she grinned as she walked quickly over to the window seat, letting go of his hand.

"I figure that we could make this the baby's room since it's right beside the master bedroom. And I thought when he or she got older, they'd like to sit here and read or just look out." George said. Julianna nodded and looked out the window, into the back yard where she could imagine the wedding taking place.

"I love this house, George." Julianna said and turned to look up at him. He smiled.

"Me too." He replied. She stood, afraid to ask him for anything so big.

"I.."

"Do you want it?" He asked. She studied him for a moment before she nodded slightly. "Then it's ours." He said and smiled. She threw her arms around his neck and laughed. He chuckled and held her close to him, breathing in her scent.

"I love it even more than the house Ron and I picked out. And I thought it couldn't get any better than that." Julianna said. He smiled.

"Well, I hope you like it for the wedding." He said. She smiled.

"I'm sure I will. The back yard is so big." She said and walked back to the window. He chuckled.

"More room." He said. She glanced over her shoulder and grinned.

<xxxx-o-xxxx>

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