People forget so soon that what they were doing affected all of humanity and was important for its future.

I couldn’t get the news out of my mind, nor that urgent call inside myself to do something to help. Maybe this was the next step for me. The next move beyond where I was. Something important for humanity’s future. A new purpose.

Already in my head, a list formed. A lengthy to-do list that didn’t involve wedding stuff for once. The first thing would be to send Ian Tyler my condolences.

Then I’d get on the phone with my friends at XVenture and start proposing some ideas. If it weren’t on the back of such sad news, I’d feel elated to have a new project to work on.

Instead, there was muted hope. A hope that I could have a hand in helping change the world.

Maggie, my assistant, promptly set up the appointment for me to meet with the CEO of XVenture in the New Year.

***

The next day brought the best, albeit expected, news. I delivered it to Emilia with a wide grin when she got home—late—from her last study session before her winter break.

“Clean bill of health,” I murmured into her ear after I’d grabbed her around the waist in the kitchen and kissed her soundly.

She turned in my arms, pressing her front to mine and throwing her arms around my neck. “Oh, man. I’m so happy. Just in time, too.”

“Yep, just in time for my suave advances.” I winked.

“You and I have a different definition of suave, I think.”

I shrugged. “Hey. It’s been six weeks. I’m off my game. Cut me a break, would ya?”

She went up on tiptoes and kissed me. “I would absolutely love to cut you a break except I, uh, have an issue.”

“Uh oh.” I braced myself to hear it. What could it be? Had she failed a test? Forgotten some important wedding detail? Oh God, had she found a lump? My heart began to race. “What?”

She shot me a tentative glance. “Uh…wrong time of the month?”

Relief and frustration mingled together, making me at once glad and annoyed. I relaxed my arms, dropping them from around her. One hand went to rake through my hair. “Well…fuck.”

She reached over and smoothed my cheek. “I’m sorry. But I think I could make you happy tonight, regardless.”

I stared at her. “Like how bad are we talking here?” Since her chemo treatment, her periods had been light, and except for a day here or there, they’d hardly hampered our sex life before this.

“It just started, but isn’t pretty.” She quirked her mouth. “Let’s say this one is restoring my faith that my fertility might return. It’s like a murder scene. You don’t want to go there.”

I grimaced. “Murder scene? Ugh. Don’t make me nauseated again.”

“Nauseated?” Her jaw dropped, and she faux-punched my arm. “Oh my God. You are green around the gills. Stop being such a boy.”

I held up an arm to fend off her attack. “I am a boy. We don’t come with that equipment.”

She folded her arms across her chest—tightening her shirt over her magnificent chest. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Leaning a hip against the counter, she huffed, “Well, you live with a girl. You’re about to marry a girl. And girls get periods. It’s a natural part of our lives. So get used to it.”

I looked away with a resigned sigh.

“Wait…” She pushed off the counter and walked slowly toward me, arms still folded. “You’re not…afraid of my vagina, are you?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “No, I’m not.”

“You are! You’re afraid of my vagina.”

I held out my hand like a traffic cop trying to halt her advance. “It’s the murder scene thing. I am not CSI Newport Beach. I don’t need to know about the murder scene.” She made a scoffing noise, halting mere inches from me. “I am not afraid of your vagina.”

She swung on me again, and I blocked it easily as she tried gamely to keep from laughing. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I like your vagina. I give it five-plus stars on Yelp. One of my very favorite places to hang out.”

That got me a few more hits on the chest before I wrestled her into submission, pinning her arms to her sides. Then I kissed her deeply. By now, I was feeling exhausted and not caring much that I wasn’t getting laid that night.

Also, I realized how relieved she must be. She’d expressed anxiety before that her periods were not “normal—which, being a guy, I was clueless as to what, exactly that meant nor did I want to know. But given the recent conversation we’d had about babies, I knew that the possible loss of fertility was upsetting to her, and that this was a good sign. She seemed happy about it, too.

And so, instead of pouting that it was hampering my sex life, I was happy for her instead.

“Look at the bright side,” she began.

“There’s a bright side?”

She smiled. “Yeah. At least I won’t be on my period while we’re on our honeymoon.”

I nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly that was a good bright side.

The timing would work out perfectly.

Unless, of course, our crappy luck interfered again, which was definitely a possibility.

***

Days later, I was back to work after my rest break—the last one I’d take before the wedding—when the news hit.

On the eve of the release of our newest expansion of Dragon Epoch, to coincide with the Christmas rush, our data center suffered a distributed denial of service attack from an unknown source. For hours—which threatened to stretch out into days—our servers were completely crippled and unable to run the game. Our website and forums were also down. We were very limited in how we could communicate with our players.

How do you spell disaster for a gaming company? DDoS.

Jordan wanted to call an emergency BOD meeting, but I was too busy for that. We lost millions of dollars for every hour the servers were down. And if we did manage to get them up again, it did not prevent another DDoS hitting quickly thereafter.

Attacks like this usually came in waves, and our IT security firm was inadequately equipped to handle them. And with Alan gone and no IT director to replace him, I had to do the heavy lifting.

Jordan paced my office. “Someone needs to go to the data center.”

I massaged my forehead at my desk. “Yeah, I know. I’ll get Emilia to pack me a case.”