Her eyes went down to her tummy when he spoke of the baby. Normally, she'd smile. Normally, she'd have some comment with some silly thing that they would do when the baby was born. But won't be a we anymore. There'll just be... a me. A Rae. Without an Elliot to make her strong. How am I going to do this without you? She asked herself, but she shook off the thought and brought his hand to her tummy, begging inwardly for the baby to move. Just to give Elliot that one last thing to smile about. Feeling the baby kicking always made him smile. Come on, Little One. Just... once. Quickly. Please... she begged the baby. And smiled bitterly, sadly, when sure enough there was a little thump against her tummy. “He's saying that he loves you, too...” she whispered.
He told her how much he loved her and she couldn't take it. She leaned down and hugged him, trying desperately to give him some of her strength, just so he could hold on a little bit longer. She didn't want him to suffer anymore, no. But she wanted him to be able to record that goodbye message for their Little One. For their baby. “You did that for me, too, Steel. Always. Every time... whenever the world tried to kick me d-down, you always picked me back up. You made me strong...” she told him seriously. “Made me into the person that I... that I always wanted to be.”
Though she was reluctant to break the hug at all, she did so reluctantly, leaning down to press her lips lightly to his instead. There were no cuts on her lips, no way for his blood to make it into her bloodstream, and if she was saying goodbye, she was damn well going to kiss him. “I'm... I do, though,” she told him, when he tried to tell her that she had nothing to be sorry for. “We had... dreams. I'm sorry that we never...” she couldn't finish that sentence. That we never got our happy ending...
She shook her head. “It wasn't you. Steel can do no wrong, remember?” she asked, a sad smile coming to her face when she, too, made a throwback to their first conversations as a couple. “That's a rule. You can't very well break it...” The joke fell flat, because she didn't have any humor in her to share, but... she did her best.
“You too, Steel. You made it feel... less like an apocalypse and more like a second start.” She kissed him again and held her forehead against his, locking eyes with him. “And don't worry. I remember every silly story you ever told me. I'll... I'll make sure that he knows about the donkey woman. And Frances the Happy Dinosaur...” She was still trying. It wasn't easy, though.
At some point, she heard the door creak open again, signifying that Evan had returned.
She turned and glanced at him briefly, then signaled for him to come over for a second. Her attention turned back to Elliot once she'd taken the tape recorder from Evan's hands, and he'd gone back to join David on the other side of the room. “Can you, um...” she looked down at the tape recorder. “Can you do me a favor?” she asked.
“I want Little One to hear your voice...” she said, her own thick with tears. “Can you record him a message? It... doesn't have to be very long or anything. Just... let him know that his daddy loves him?” she asked, glassy eyes closing and then reopening, as she held the tape recorder out.