“Rebecca is doing fine,” Joey said.

Katie smiled. She had just been through 11 hours of labor, to deliver their first child. A sweet bundle of joy weighing in at 7 pounds 4 ounces. And they had named her Rebecca Jane Fatone.

The next day, Joey and Katie took their newborn daughter home to a full house. Both sets of proud grandparents were there along with the guys from *Nsync. They had stopped performing a few years before this to settle down and start families.

Joey had fallen in love with Katie shortly after the group had stopped performing. She had the lead in a movie that he happened to be in, yet he had only a small role. By the time filming was finished, he had finally gotten the nerves to ask her out on a date. For some odd reason he found that he couldn’t talk to her, and he was surprised that she said yes.

For their date, he took her out to dinner and then they went walking around a park near to where they had been filming and staying the past few weeks. There they sat and talked for a few hours. Joey found her so interesting. That was when he fell in love with her.

A few months later, he proposed to her. He had taken her back to the park that they went to on their first date, sat her down on the same bench that they sat on, and asked her to marry him Amazingly she managed to say yes through her tears.

Then about four months later they were married. It was such a beautiful wedding. Everyone was actually in shock that Joey was now married. But Katie was the kind of type to keep him in check. And that was good.

It wasn’t for two more years until they decided to have a family. And within a few weeks, Katie was pregnant. They would of have a family earlier, but Katie’s acting career was at its peak at the time. Joey didn’t mind. Just as long as his wife was happy, he was happy. And when she told him that she was pregnant, he broke down and cried. And so did she.

And now, now Rebecca was here. “She looks like you,” Katie whispered. She and Joey were standing over Rebecca’s crib, watching their daughter sleep. Joey turned his head and kissed Katie’s lips softly.

They stood there for a few more minutes, before going to bed themselves. The past few days had been tiring for both of them, especially Katie. This was only the beginning of something special.

Katie lay against Joey’s shoulder and clenched his sleeve tightly. She had been like this for the past few hours. A long few hours.

“She’ll be ok. Don’t worry, baby. It’s not your fault,” Joey whispered. Katie lifted her head and looked him in the eyes. She managed to smile a little.

Rebecca, now four, had gotten an ear infection and her doctor had given her a prescription for penicillin. And a few days later, she still wasn’t feeling any better. No -- actually she had gotten worse. So bad that Joey and Katie took her to the emergency room. That was where they were now. Waiting to find out what was wrong.

This wasn’t what Katie needed. She was already too worn out. She was 7 months pregnant with their second child.

“Mr., Mrs. Fatone?”

Joey and Katie looked up at the doctor that stood before them. “Your daughter is now fine. But we did have to give her a blood transfusion, though.”

“Why?” Katie asked.

“Your daughter is allergic to penicillin. And it poisoned her blood. That’s why.”

The doctor went on to say a few other things, but Katie wasn’t listening. All she wanted was to hold her daughter in her arms.

“Come on Katie. Let’s get Rebecca and go home.” Joey said to his wife. Katie nodded yes in reply.

Katie and Joey sat in the doctor’s office. Dr. Johnson, Rebecca and Ryan’s doctor, had called earlier that morning and said that he needed to talk to them right away. The longer they waited the tighter the grasp that Katie held on Joey’s hand tightened. And if he thought that her grasp was tight when she gave birth, well he had to rethink that.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” Dr. Johnson said sitting down at his desk in front of Joey and Katie. “But I needed to tell you this in person instead of on the phone.”

“What is it? Is there something wrong with Ryan?” Katie asked.

“No he is a healthy boy. But it’s Rebecca…”

Joey looked into the hospital room. Katie sat next to the bed holding Rebecca’s frail hand. it had been five years since they had discovered that she was HIV positive. She had gotten the virus from the blood transfusion she had gotten when she was four. And now she was 11.

And since they had found out, their lives hadn’t been the same. Rebecca was constantly in and out of the hospital. The doctor’s tired all that they could, but it was too late. There was nothing that could help her.

By the age of 9, she had full blown AIDS. And when Katie found out, she almost completely lost it. Every night, she cried into Joey’s shoulder. She didn’t want to loose her little girl.

“Daddy?”

Joey looked down at Ryan, who was now 7. “Yes?”

“Is Katie going to die?”

Joey knelt in front of his son and sadly nodded yes. He watched as tears weld up in the corners of his son’s brown eyes. Joey hugged his son as he cried into his shoulder.

“Why daddy?”

“Because she’s very sick and there isn’t any medicine that can help her.”

“What about love?” Ryan asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Granny told me that love cures everything.”

Joey smiled a little. If that was only true. If that was how it could be.

“Daddy I’m going to go and make Katie feel better,”

Joey watched as Ryan went into the room and gently kissed Katie’s cheek. And a smile spread across her face. It was faint but it was a smile.

The autumn leaves had fallen, the winter breezes had come, and now it was spring. Everything was in bloom, even Katie was. But there was something missing. Something big. Everyone knew it and felt it in one way or another.

For Katie, it was going back to acting. It was the only thing that could take the pain away. But that was at first. Soon she and Joey decided to have another child. Not as a replacement, but as a healing method. Also there were the seminars that she spoke at. She needed to tell her story. Have her be heard. To know that this could happen to anyone’s child.

For Ryan, he learned to believe in angels. And he named all his angels after his very own.

As for Joey. He was the glue that held the family together. But sometimes, he needed to be alone in his thoughts. He would disappear for hours upon end some afternoons. And that began to worry Katie. So she finally asked him where he went.

“Where else, but to visit my baby girl. She still needs her daddy,” he said.

Author’s Note #2: Everyday 1800 children are infected with the HIV virus. Sure I didn’t go into a lot of detail on it. But it came from my heart.