ONE YEAR LATER:

"It's a boy!" The doctor said happily, wrapping him in a towel, "Would you like to hold him?"

"Yes..." Fluttershy said as he handed her the baby. I watched as Fluttershy held her, a large smile on her face as she glanced up at me. She was crying.

"He's beautiful..." I said. She handed him to me and I took him carefully... Holding him gently, as if I was going to break him...

"What should we name him?" I said, rocking him back and forth.

"I was thinking about that..." She said, "If it was a girl, I would have chosen Penny... Or Emily."

"But?" I said.

"But it's a boy... So I was thinking..." She started.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Nick..." She said.

I stared down at the baby, who hand was wrapped around my finger as he quietly whimpered. A tear fell from my face and onto his forehead.

"It's perfect..." I said, a smile growing on my face.

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The more things change, the more they stay the same. I'm not sure who the first person was said that was... But at the moment, that sentence best explains my tragic flaw; my inability to change. I don't think I'm alone in this. The more I get to know other people, the more I realize it's kind of everyone's flaw: staying exactly the same for as long as possible, standing perfectly still just feels better somehow. And if you are suffering...at least the pain is familiar. Because if you took that leap of faith, went outside the box, did something unexpected, who knows what other pain might be waiting out there? Chances are it could be worse, so you maintain the status quo, choose the road already traveled, and it doesn't seem that bad.. Not as far as flaws go. You're not a drug addict, you're not killing anyone...except maybe yourself a little. When we finally do change, I don't think it happens like an earthquake or an explosion, where all of a sudden we're another person. I think it's smaller than that. The kind of thing that most people wouldn't even notice unless they looked really really close, which, thank God they never do. But you notice it. Inside of you, that change feels like a world of difference, and you hope that it is, that this is the person you get to be forever...that you'll never have to change again

I miss you little brother... I love you.