Meghan answered her door around 6 that evening. Rick stood outside, handsome in a navy suit, holding a bouquet of red roses. “Wow!” he exclaimed, entering her apartment. He spun his finger, and she twirled around for him. “Absolutely beautiful!” He leaned over and placed a kiss on her cheek.

Flustered, Meghan smiled and took the flowers from him. “Let me find a vase and get these in water. Now where did I put that vase?” She set the flowers on the kitchen counter and started rummaging under her sink. “Aha! Found it!” She trimmed the rose stems and got them into the vase, fussing a bit with the ferns and the baby’s breath in the arrangement.

“Thank you for the roses, Rick. They’re beautiful.” She grabbed her purse and a light jacket and met him at the door. She locked the door after they exited, and headed for his car. He held the door for her as she sat down, shut it, and made his way to the driver’s side of the car.

They chatted about Rick’s day while they traveled. He got the door for her after parking at the restaurant, and they were quickly seated in a quiet corner of the restaurant. Rick got them a bottle of wine, they ordered their meals, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

The waiter came around with a dessert menu. “Want to indulge in something?” Rick asked.

Meghan smiled. “Tonight? Absolutely!” She perused the menu. “Ah! They have my favorite! Crème brulee, please.” Rick ordered a piece of tiramisu, and the waiter left to put in their order, promising coffee to go with the sweets.

Rick leaned over and took Meghan’s hand. “Sweetheart, I’m so glad to have you here tonight.”

Meghan smiled and ducked her head. “I’m happy to be here, too.”

“In fact, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” Rick suddenly stood and knelt in front of her, pulling a box out of his coat jacket. “Meghan, I love you. You’ve made this satisfied bachelor realize how much he’s missed out by not having someone by his side, someone to share his life with. I can’t imagine my life without you in it anymore. Meghan, will you marry me?”

Meghan was totally unprepared for Rick’s proposal, but was thrilled by the proposal all the same. She nodded. “Rick, I’m so honored. Yes, I’ll marry you!” She leaned down and kissed him.

They heard clapping behind them as several of the waitstaff and other patrons saw what happened. Rick stood and regained his seat. He handed the open ring box to Meghan. “Want to put it on?”

Meghan nodded, and picked the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger. “Um, Rick?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“We have a problem.” She held out her left hand for him to see. The ring was only halfway on her finger. “It’s too small,” she explained, laughing.

He started laughing as well. “That would be a problem! In my defense, I didn’t know what size you wore. Tell you what – we’ll take it back to the jeweler’s in the morning and get a ring that fits. We can look at wedding bands then, too.”

Meghan worked the ring back off her finger and carefully returned it to the box. “I’ll let you hold onto it for safe keeping.”

Rick nodded, accepted the box, and put it back in his coat pocket. “You did just say yes, right? I didn’t dream it?”

“I just said yes, Rick. I love you, and I look forward to marrying you. We just need a larger ring. That one is beautiful, by the way!”

Rick chuckled, and accepted his dessert and coffee. “Thanks, Nick.”

“You’re welcome, Dr. Brant. And congratulations!”

Meghan thought for a moment. “I feel like we should be calling people and telling them the good news.”

Rick nodded. “Want to go tell Mitch and Kelsey tonight? It’s not too late in the evening.”

Meghan shook her head. “We can do that tomorrow. I want to be able to show off a ring on my finger.”

Rick chuckled. “Fair enough – I want you to show that off, too!”

They finished their desserts, and Rick drove her home. He promised to come pick her up in the morning for breakfast and then they would go ring shopping. He left her at the door with a final kiss goodnight and dreams of a fun morning ahead.

That night did not go as Meghan had expected. She got home and got ready for bed. She fully expected that she would have trouble sleeping, as her mind raced about the proposal and thinking about a wedding.

She had managed a couple hours of sleep before she woke up with a bad coughing spell. It took a little while for it to subside, and for the feeling of being breathless to go away. This happened at least twice more through the night, waking her up and taking longer and longer for the spell to completely ease.

By the time Rick came to get her, Meghan was sure she was sick. She had changed from night clothes into comfy pants and a t-shirt – definitely nothing she intended to wear outside the house. As soon as she opened the door, Rick knew something was wrong.

“Meghan? You don’t look so hot. How are you feeling?” He came into the apartment, shut the door behind him, and led her to her couch.

“I think I’m going to have to postpone ring shopping. I don’t feel well.” Meghan went into another coughing fit.

Rick held her as she coughed, concerned. He ran a practiced eye over her. She was pale, almost grey, and he could see she was struggling to regain her breath as the fit subsided. “Meghan, do you have a pulse ox here?”

She nodded. “In. the bathroom with. a blood pressure. Cuff.” She gasped as she struggled to get her breathing back under control.

He retrieved the medical supplies, glad to see that the blood pressure cuff was a manual, with a stethoscope. Returning to her side, he turned the pulse ox on and placed it on her finger. He stuck the stethoscope in his ears and placed the bell on her back, listening to her lungs. He frowned. He looked at the pulse ox. “Oh, no. Let’s get your oxygen bumped up. You’re only around 92% on 2 liters.” He found her concentrator and increased her oxygen flow up to 4 liters per minute.

Once again putting the stethoscope in his ears, he wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm. “Don’t laugh at me – I’m rusty at this!” He took her blood pressure, pleased to see it was within normal range. He did a quick listen to her heart, and set the stethoscope and blood pressure cuff to the side.

He settled Meghan back on the couch as much as was comfortable for her, and stood. He pulled out his phone and called Mitch. “Mitch, where are you today?”

I’m headed in to work in a few minutes. What’s up?

“I’m at Meghan’s, and she’s having breathing issues. She was satting at 92% on 2 liters oxygen. I’ve bumped her up to 4 liters, and she’s doing better, but not great. Her lungs are sounding kinda wet, too. I’m going to bring her to you to get checked out.” Rick paced as he talked, planning.

Yes, please bring her in. Sounds like she may be working on pneumonia again. We’ll get an x-ray, get her back on some antibiotics.

“Sounds like a game plan,” Rick agreed. “We’ll see you soon.” He hung up and returned to Meghan’s side. He was pleased to see that her color and mentation had improved with the increased oxygen flow.

“Hon, I’m going to take you to the ER – Mitch is working today. I think you’re working on another round of pneumonia.”

Meghan sighed, but agreed. “I feel like crap, and breathing’s a bit difficult. Let’s get me diagnosed and treated so I can come home and rest.”

She found shoes, and followed Rick out to his car. They drove in relative quiet, and made good time to the ER. Rick dropped Meghan off and went to park, while Meghan made her way through triage and back to a room.

By the time Rick made it back to her room in the ER, Meghan was already in a gown, hooked up to telemetry, on the hospital’s oxygen, and Bob was working on an IV in her right hand. He quickly gained IV access, drew blood, and hooked her up to IV fluids. “Okay, Meghan. I’ll get these off to the lab, and the doctor should be in soon. Oh, hello, Dr. Brant. Gonna sit with Meghan?”

Rick nodded. “Yep. Mitch knows we were coming in.”

Bob smiled. “I’ll hurry him along for you, then.”

Bob left the room, and Rick took a seat near Meghan’s gurney. He turned an experienced eye to the telemetry monitor and nodded. Her vitals were looking pretty good, and her oxygen was within a normal range on… he strained to look at the oxygen flow meter. Ah, yes. She was still on 4 liters per minute.

Meghan shivered and looked at Rick. “Would you mind seeing about some warm blankets? They’ve got it extra chilly in here today.”

He smiled. “Of course. I’ll be right back.” He exited her room and headed to the nurse’s station. Bob looked up. “Bob, where would I find blankets? Meghan’s cold.”

Bob smiled and pointed towards the blanket warmer. “Over there, Dr. Brant.”

“Thanks.” Rick grabbed a couple of blankets from the warmer and was headed back to Meghan’s room when he saw Mitch round the corner. “Mitch!”

Mitch stopped and waited for his friend. “Hi Rick. Thanks for bringing her in.” He looked at the blankets in Rick’s arms. “She’s cold?”

Rick nodded. “Cold and shivering. I didn’t catch what her temp was, but she’s got a fever. I had to bump her oxygen up from 2 liters per minute to 4 liters to get her pulse ox up above 94%.”

Mitch frowned. “That’s not good. Let’s go see her, and then I’ll get labs and an x-ray ordered. I’m assuming someone’s already got an IV in?”

“Yep. Bob was doing that right as I got in the room.” Mitch followed Rick into the room and helped him spread warm blankets over Meghan before starting his exam.

“Here you go, Meghan. Rick tells me you’re not feeling good, and since you are here voluntarily, I’d say that’s an understatement. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” Mitch perched on the edge of her bed.

“Well, I’ve been coughing a bit the last few days, but last night it woke me up several times – long coughing fits that took my breath away. I puked once from coughing. My chest feels kinda tight and heavy, and it’s a bit more difficult to breathe. I felt more out of it, lightheaded, until after Rick bumped up my oxygen. I’m also feeling really cold, like when I had the flu, and the triage nurse said I had a fever.” She sighed. “I felt like this the last time I had pneumonia, so my guess is that I have it again.”

Mitch chuckled. “Trying to do my job for me? You’re right, though, it does sound like pneumonia. Let me listen to your lungs, do an x-ray and some labs.” He stood and put his stethoscope in his ears. Meghan leaned forward so he could listen to her breathe. After a minute, he listened to her heart and her belly, and put his stethoscope away. He felt her lymph nodes and did a quick palpation of her abdomen.

“Anything else hurt? When is the last time you ate?”

She pulled the covers back up. “No, nothing else hurts, and the last time I ate anything was dinner last night.” She sighed. “I wasn’t hungry this morning, and don’t really have much of an appetite now, but I can try to eat something if you want me to.”

Mitch nodded sympathetically. “I might get Bob to bring you a tray. Easy stuff. Your lungs are sounding unhappy. I’m hearing some wheezes and some scattered rhonchi. I’m going to go put in orders for that chest x-ray and bloodwork, and I think I’ll reach out to Pulmonology, as well. When were you supposed to see them again in clinic?”

“Wednesday. The Burn clinic then, as well.”

Mitch smiled kindly at his sister-in-law, patted her on the shoulder, and left to put in orders. Rick took her hand and helped pull the covers up over her shoulders to keep her warm.

“I’m so tired of being sick,” Meghan murmured.

“I know, sweetheart. But we’re going to get you back on the mend and feeling better soon.” Rick smoothed back her hair and gently kissed her forehead. “Rest. Want me to turn the lights down?” Meghan nodded. “I’ll be back soon.” Rick turned off the extra lights in the room, just leaving one on, and went to find Mitch.

Mitch was sitting at the doctor’s end of the nursing station. Rick pulled up a chair and sat down. “Pneumonia?”

Mitch nodded. “At this point, the bloodwork and x-ray are just confirmations. Pneumonia isn’t unexpected, considering how much her lungs have been through recently with the smoke inhalation.”

Rick made a face. “She’s bummed by the setback, I can tell. She seemed fine at dinner last night, though.”

Mitch finished typing in orders and turned to his friend. “So how did last night go?”

Rick smiled. “It was a very good dinner.”

“Oh? Do tell. And when are you going to give her that ring you bought last week? I’d have thought you’d have popped the question by now, as jittery as you’ve been the past week.” Mitch leaned back in his chair.

Rick grinned. “I asked her last night.”

Mitch sat back up, concerned. “She said no? Oh, buddy, I’m sorry. I would’ve thought…”

“Oh! No, no, no. She said yes!” Rick laughed. “She said yes. You’re going to laugh at this. See, I bought the ring with no clue as to what size she wears. She never wanted to go visit a jewelry store, so there was no way to figure that out. When she went to put the ring on last night, it only fit halfway on her finger!”

By this time, Mitch was also chuckling. “Oh, no!”

Rick calmed down. “We were going to go return the ring for the right size this morning, but… She wanted to wait until she had a ring to show off before she told you and Kelsey, so mum’s the word, pal.”

Mitch made a zipper motion across his lips. “Not a word. But congratulations! I’m happy for both of you.”

A couple of hours passed. Bob came in and drew blood cultures for the lab, and the x-ray technician came and took a chest x-ray. Bob brought in a liquid diet tray, and Meghan gamely picked at the food in an attempt to eat.

Rick was cajoling her to eat more of the (thankfully) red Jello when Mitch came in. “Not very hungry, huh?”

Meghan shook her head. “Blame it on poor appetite and an unappealing tray.” She set down her spoon.

“I’ve gotten some of the labwork back, and looked at your x-rays. You’ve definitely got a case of pneumonia. Thankfully, I think we’ve caught it pretty early. I’m going to have Bob hang some IV antibiotics. Once those are done, as long as everything is stable, I’ll send you home. Of course, I’d feel much better if you came over to our place so I can keep a better eye on you.” Mitch looked at her.

Meghan met his gaze, thought for a moment, and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll let you and Kelsey nurse me yet again. I’ll need to pack some clothes and wrestle that oxygen concentrator into the car.” She reached for her water glass, took a sip, choked, and started coughing… and coughing. It took her a couple of minutes for the fit to calm down. Mitch was on the ball, watching her sats go down and listening to her lungs as she coughed.

Bob hurried in and switched her oxygen from a nasal cannula to a nonrebreather mask, bumping up her oxygen to 12 liters per minute. “Do I need to page Respiratory?” he asked, but Mitch shook his head.

“Give her a minute. I think she’s calming down.”

Meghan continued to have some residual coughs, but the fit was passing. She wiped at the tears streaming from her eyes. “Water,” she gasped, struggling to regain her breath.

Rick handed her the glass of water, and she carefully took a sip, swallowed, sipped again, and set it back on the tray. She leaned back and shifted to get comfortable.

“Better?” Mitch asked. Meghan nodded, eyes closed. “Was it like this last night?”

“Yeah.” Meghan cleared her throat. “Pretty much just like this. But I wasn’t choking on water, though. Just would wake up coughing.” She opened her eyes and looked at Mitch. “Please tell me my going home wasn’t just revoked.”

He shook his head. “I’ve got Pulmonology coming for a consult, and it’ll be their call, but I’m still leaning towards bringing you home with me.”

“Good.” She yawned. “So tired.”

Mitch patted her arm. “Get some rest.”

Bob pulled off his gloves. “I’ll be right back with those antibiotics, Meghan.” He left the room, Mitch behind him. He soon returned and hooked a smaller bag of IV fluids to Meghan’s IV. “Dr. Branston ordered a dose of levofloxacin for you – it’s an antibiotic. It’ll probably take an hour to run in. I’ll lower the lights and you try to rest, okay? Need anything before I go? Another warm blanket, perhaps?” Meghan nodded, and Bob left to retrieve blankets. He spread a couple more over her, replacing the original ones. “Get some rest. I’ll check on you in a bit.”

A few more hours had passed. The antibiotics had run in, and Dr. Wolfe from Pulmonology had been by to see her. He agreed that it was pneumonia, but that a course of levofloxacin should be sufficient to take care of the infection, and that she could go home.

Meghan had been switched back to her nasal cannula at 3 liters per minute, the high-flow oxygen no longer needed. She had fallen asleep again not long after Dr. Wolfe left. Rick sat by her side, watching her sleep, and allowed himself to dream about their future. He smiled.

Mitch knocked on the door and stepped into the room. He smiled at his friend, and then at his sister-in-law. He gently shook her shoulder. “Meghan.”

She stirred, and rolled over. “Hmmm? Oh, hi Mitch.”

“How would you like to go home?”

She nodded sleepily. “Sounds good to me. You have a much nicer guest bed than this gurney.”

Mitch chuckled. “That we do. I’ve already talked with Kelsey, so she knows we’re expecting you. She’ll be home around 6.”

Rick stood and stretched. “I’ll take Meghan home, get her packed, and take her someplace for dinner. I’ll bring her by afterward.”

Mitch nodded. “Sounds good. Bob will be in shortly with discharge papers. I’ll have him heplock the IV just in case.”

Mitch left, and Bob soon came in. He unhooked her IV, leaving the heplock in place, and went through discharge papers, having her sign where needed. He helped her unhook herself from the telemetry, and then he and Rick left the room to give her privacy to change back into her own clothes. Meghan soon emerged from the room, dressed and back on her own oxygen. She took Rick’s arm, and he escorted her to his car in the parking lot.

They tried to go to Rosie’s Diner for a late lunch, but found that the restaurant had been closed for the day due to a family emergency, per a sign on the door. Rick sighed and looked at Meghan. “Well, drat. Any suggestions?”

Meghan thought for a moment. “How about the Mill Creek Café? I think they offer soup and sandwiches. I know they also offer plate dinners, so they should still be open.”

“Sounds good.” Rick drove to the restaurant, and they were indeed open. He and Meghan had a nice meal. Meghan opted for a chicken and rice soup, while Rick enjoyed a Reuben sandwich and chips.

Finishing their meal, Rick looked at Meghan with a critical eye. “How are you holding up?”

She smiled. “Tired and not feeling the greatest, but I don’t need to rush home to my bed. Why? What’re you thinking about?”

“Want to go look at rings?”

She chuckled. “Sure. That was on our agenda for today originally.”

They cleared their dishes, made their way to the car, and drove to the jeweler’s. “You start looking around,” Rick instructed. “I’m going to talk to the sales staff about exchanging this ring.”

Meghan nodded. Rick moved away from her side, and she cautiously approached the first glass case she came to. So many to choose from! Meghan had never been much for wearing jewelry, aside from a necklace, so she was awed by all the different choices in the shop. She slowly made her way around the showroom, looking in case after case.

Rick caught up with her after a little bit. “See anything you like?” he asked, smiling.

“So many beautiful items,” she agreed. “There’s a few that caught my eye.”

“Have you looked at the engagement ring section yet?” He indicated an area to her right.

“No, I haven’t made it that far yet.” She allowed him to lead her to the rings and sat down on a bench conveniently placed there, gratefully. A sales lady stood behind the case and smiled.

“Meghan, this is Hannah. Hannah, this is my fiancée, Meghan.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Meghan. So, Dr. Brant said that he bought the wrong ring size.” Hannah chuckled, as did Meghan.

“Yeah, it only went partially on my finger,” Meghan agreed.

“Do you know what your ring size is?” Hannah asked.

Meghan shook her head. “No,” she confessed. “I’ve never worn much jewelry aside from necklaces, so I have no idea.”

Hannah pulled out a giant ring with a bunch of sized rings sliding around it. “Here. Let’s use this to figure out your ring size.” She shuffled the sized rings around until she found the one she was after. “Let’s start with a size 7, and go from there.”

Meghan tried on the ring, but found it a little big. Hannah then switched to a size 6. This fit really well. Meghan tried the size 5 as well, but couldn’t get it all the way on. “Looks like you’re a size 6, Meghan. So let’s see what we have in a size 6. If there’s a ring that you like but we don’t have your size in stock, we can always order it. Do you have a particular metal color or stone cut you like?”

“Hmm. Well, I am partial to white gold. Stone cut… I like the round. Not much for the pointy oval shape, or the heart shaped ones. Otherwise I’m pretty open.” She glanced at Rick, who smiled encouragingly.

Hannah showed Meghan several rings, and Meghan gamely tried them on, trying to ignore the price tags. She finally narrowed it down to two: an emerald cut diamond solitaire, and a round cut diamond solitaire. She looked at Rick.

“Which one do you really want, Meghan?” he asked, seeing the doubt on her face.

“The emerald cut,” she finally replied.

He smiled widely. “We’ll take the emerald cut,” he declared. Hannah nodded and started to write up the transaction on her pad.

“Are you sure?” she asked Rick.

He nodded. “I want you to have the ring you want – you’ll be wearing it for many years,” he answered. She blushed. “Now that you have that decision out of the way, what do you think you might be interested for a wedding band?”

Hannah helped her try on several wedding bands. Meghan finally settled on a plain white gold band with a beaded edging on both sides. “Are you sure?” Rick asked.

“Yes,” Meghan replied. “I like how this accents the diamond. I don’t need a ton of stones. I like simple.”

Hannah spoke up. “You do have options with a simpler design like this. And you can always bring it back in to have stones set in to the ring in the future. Also, if you desire to just wear one ring instead of two separate ones, these can be soldered at the bottom of the rings to join them together.”

Meghan nodded. “Options are good. I like the idea of having them joined together in the future.”

Rick smiled. “We will plan on doing that, then.”

Meghan looked at him. “Have you looked at rings for yourself?”

Rick laughed. “Actually, I have. Want me to show you what I would like?”

“Please. Then you can resuscitate me when I see how much men’s rings cost.”

Rick led her a few jewelry cases down. “In my line of work, plain bands are best. I don’t really have a preference as far as color, although if you’re going with white gold, I would suggest that. We can match.” He pointed out a medium width, plain band. “There. I like that one.”

Hannah pulled out the ring he indicated, in his size. He slipped it onto his finger and held his hand out so Meghan could see. “What do you think?”

Meghan studied the ring on his finger and smiled. “It looks good on you.”

Rick removed the ring from his finger and handed it back to Hannah. “If we could price this one, as well, please.”

Hannah nodded, and wrote down the particulars of the ring for them. Meghan yawned, and Rick wisely took this to mean that they needed to wrap things up. He followed Hannah to the cash register, and paid the small difference he owed for the engagement ring.

Returning to Meghan’s side, he opened the ring box and held it out to her. “Do you want me to kneel again?”

Chuckling, she shook her head. “Nah. I’m good.” She removed the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger.

“Beautiful!” Rick declared, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. He helped her to her feet. “I think it’s time we headed back to your place so you can pack for a few days.”