He slowly peered into the small room; he had to know it wasn't some wonderful dream…

…it wasn't.

There lay his beautiful angel of a daughter, gurgling and reaching out for him in the night. He brought her up to him, circling and protecting her with his strong arms.

How did he get to this? How did an Irish working class chauffeur get to hold such a delicate being in his arms and call her his?

He whispered to his daughter, softly not to wake her. "We're gonna be alright us three. Your mother and I, we'll take care of you, we'll take care of each other"

His wife in the other room stirred and awoke at these words and demanded, with a soft whisper, that her new family join her in her room. His smile aglow with love as he brought their daughter into the room, tiptoeing softly with each step.

As he placed her in her mother's arms, baby Branson wriggled with her parents touch. "I'll go and get you some milk" he told his wife as he walked out, not tearing his eyes away until the door separated them.

She knew it was time…one last moment with her daughter.

They'd said everything was fine, but she knew…. She'd seen it happen at the hospital, families torn apart too soon. The searing pain in her head only now dimmed by the light in her arms. It was getting harder to breath and being the strong fighter her husband so adored was becoming harder to play.

She stroked the forehead of her baby girl, wondering what she'd be like when she was gone. "You've got to look after him little one, you've got to look after each other. I was meant to be there when we were old and grey but…" at this her voice cracked, she was running out of strength, running out of fight. "There are so many things I wanted us to do, so many places we were going to go. You were going to be one of many" Now she was getting angry, she wasn't ready yet, she wasn't ready to leave it all behind. Her tears rolling down her cheek and caught in her daughters tiny hands.

Tom walked in to see her broken, holding her daughter close to her chest, breathing her in. "Hey, hey…what's the matter…everything's fine" he ran to her, holding his whole life in his arms. He smothered her with kisses which only made her feel worse; she started rocking to ease the pain which she still kept hidden from him, even now in their last moments together.

"Hey, shhh now, everything okay, everything's fine" hoping to soothe her but with a fear of dread also soothe himself. For just a moment he'd allowed himself to feel safe but now the fast beating of his heart returned, the warm shivers of nervousness haunted him, something was wrong…

She grabbed for his hand, regained her last ounce of strength to look him deep in the eyes "I don't regret it, not even one day, I love you with all of my heart, I thought we'd have forever…" halted by the lump forming in her throat.

Tom began to collapse as he felt her break in his arms "you're gonna be fine" he repeated, reassuring her as he went to stand up, taking the baby with him. She couldn't see him fall apart "I'll put her down and you can get some sleep, that's all you need my love, just a bit of sleep…"

He pushed his lips firmly upon hers, tasting her tears whilst pushing them from her eyes with his fingertips. "I love you, now go to sleep" he instructed with a smile.

Sybil gave one last look at her family; this was the image she would take with her. "I love you too so much" she croaked as Tom allowed her to kiss her baby on the forehead.

Tom placed his beautiful daughter back into her new bed; she was fast asleep already…

…but then the screams started.

I apoligise now for the heartbreak of this story, I'm following this up later with a story called 'We'll meet again' which is set in the 70's and sees Tom reflect on his life since Sybil died (it's far more uplifting)