Author's Note: This is purely a work of fiction. I do not own any of these characters; those all belong to the amazing John Green. Please leave a review; positive or negative! Thanks so much! -Amber

Hazel Lancaster stands at her bathroom counter, her green eyes staring back at her from the mirror. The door is locked in case her parents come looking for her. In front of her there is a white plastic bag reading ''THANK YOU'' in big, red block letters. Kaitlyn had slipped in her bag at the mall earlier, finishing the task Hazel had requested. Despite the oxygen cart behind her and the nubs in her nose, Hazel had a hard time catching her breath, although that had nothing to do with the colony of tumors in her lungs.

The bag that came from the SafeWay on the other side of town, just down the road from the Literal Heart of Jesus contained a little pink cardboard box. It was approximately 6 inches long and had blue writing on it: DIGITAL HOME PREGNANCY TEST. She knew what to do.

As Hazel peed on the stick, she thought back to that day in Amsterdam. 6 weeks ago, she had met Peter Van Houten, cussed him out, and thrown his Scotch on the floor. Lidewij had apologized profusely and taken them to the Anne Frank House, where she climbed what seemed like an endless number stairs. It's also where she kissed her star-crossed love, Augustus Waters, for the first time. She also lost her virginity to Augustus that day, the last day she hadn't known that he too, was dying.

The box said to wait 3 minutes for accurate results. Three minutes! Hazel quietly left the bathroom and closed the test safely in her desk drawer. Three minutes was a long time to wait.

Minute one: She flipped her stereo onto the Hectic Glow CD Augustus had burned for her; her mind was too preoccupied to notice which song came on. She stared at the picture of Gus and Isaac she had taken on the day of the egging incident, when he was still some-what healthy. His blue eyes twinkled and there was a cigarette dangling from his lips.

Minute two: She flipped through her copy of An Imperial Affliction, re-reading all the parts she had dog-eared and highlighted over the years.She sat down on the edge of her bed and ran her fingers over the soft fabric of Gus's shirt that she kept close to her at all times. She picked it up and inhaled; it still smelled like him.

Minute three: She went to her closet, where the wilted orange tulips Augustus had given her all those months ago sat on a shelf by the door. They were black and wilted and in no way resembled tulips; they were dead as Gus soon would be, too. Nonetheless, she couldn't bring herself to throw them away. She ran her fingers over the silk of the black dress she got for her 15th birthday, her death dress as she called it, and briefly wondered if she should wear it to Augustus's funeral. Somewhere in the distance, she heard a beeping. The timer on her phone was going off.

''Oh, God,'' she mumbled to herself. She slowly walked over the drawer and pulled it open. She took a deep breath – as deep as she was capable of – and read the little screen. It flashed her fate at her. PREGNANT.

Hazel blinked and looked again to make sure she had read it right. Sure enough, she had.

The first thought that crossed her mind was: "I'm pregnant with a dying guy's baby. Augustus's baby, my beautiful, yet so sick, Gus. "

The second thought? ''I need to tell him.''