The door to the surgery bursts open and Vanessa looks up from where she and Rhona are poring over some paperwork to find Moses standing in the doorway, red-cheeked and breathless. His eyes widen when they land on her.

"Mum!" He darts into the building and grabs her elbow, tugging on it. "You've got to come quick."

"What is it, love?" Vanessa asks, letting him pull her, mild panic making her heart thud in her ears. "What's happened? Is Johnny okay? Where's Ma?"

"They're just comin' but you've got to hurry or it'll be too late."

Just at that, Charity enters through the open door, a tearful Johnny clinging to her hand and rubbing at his eye with his fist.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Vanessa demands, although seeing them all together and in one piece has calmed her down.

"There's a r-rabbit on the road outs-outside," Johnny says, his shoulders jumping. "It's all-" A breath shudders out of him. "It's all s-squished."

Charity rolls her eyes at Vanessa, pulling Johnny in so that his face is hidden against her belly, her hand rubbing his back. "Hey now. Shhhhh. You're okay."

"But it's alive! And you can save it, mum!" Moses says, taking her hand and looking up at her with the absolute certainty that comes with being five and thinking there's nothing that your parents can't do. "I said to Johnny that you would make him better and maybe he can come and live in our garden."

"Oh, Moses...I-" She glances at Charity, quirking an eyebrow in question. Charity gives her a tiny shake of the head. She looks back down at Moses' big hopeful eyes and sighs. "I'll...just get my bag, okay?"

He grins and nods. "Okay, but hurry."

Rhona gives her a sympathetic smile as she grabs her medical bag. "Good luck," she murmurs.

"Yeah, ta very much for that," Vanessa says, knowing fine well she's going to have to tell Moses she can't work miracles. She holds out her hand for him to take and looks at Charity. "You stopping here?"

Johnny's head whips up to look at Charity. "I don't wanna see it again!" he whimpers.

"Yeah, you two go on." Charity takes one of the seats in the waiting area and Johnny clambers onto her lap, even though he's getting far too big for that, laying his head on her shoulder and twisting a curl around his finger. "Me and Johnny'll wait for you and Rhona can make us a brew."

Rhona frowns. "You can make it yourself, madam."

Charity lifts her eyebrows. "Uh, I'm a guest, Rhona."

"You're a pest, more like," Rhona grumbles, but she's moving to fill the kettle as she speaks.

"Behave, you two," Vanessa warns, as she lets Moses pull her out of the building and in the direction of the casualty.

"He's down here." He's squeezing her hand tight, maybe a bit more nervous than he's letting on about seeing the rabbit again. "His back legs is hurt. There was blood and stuff." He scrunches up his face as he looks up at her. "That's why Johnny got upset, I think. 'Cause of the stuff coming out of him. But I said that you would put it back in and he'd be okay."

"Moses, sweetheart, I'll do my best to help him, but I can't always fix everything."

He looks up at her, frowning. "You can." He nods. "You fix horses and cows all the time. This is just a little rabbit. It'll be dead easy."

Vanessa winces at his choice of words. "Well, let me take a look at him first and we'll see, eh?"

"That's him there!" Moses points and tugs on her hand. "See him?"

Even from a distance, Vanessa knows there's no hope in hell of saving the rabbit. Its back end's been practically flattened and most of its intestines are on the road. Its little head keeps twitching, though, showing that it's clinging to life. She sighs. It would have been much easier if it had died in the time it took Moses to come and get her.

"Yeah, I see him," Vanessa says. She crouches down by the animal, its eye flicking back and forth, the only sign of panic its poor paralysed body can give. She shakes her head. "I can't save him, darlin'." She points to the rabbit's crushed back. "See here? All his little bones in his back are broken and that means he's not going to be able to walk or run or jump anymore. And if he can't do that, he can't get away from bigger things that want to eat him."

Moses leans against her shoulder, frowning. "But...can you not fix his back? 'Cause he could come and live with us and we could protect him from the things that want to eat him."

She sighs and tries to smile at him. "I can't always fix animals when they're hurt or sick, sweetheart. He's too hurt. And even if I could fix him up, he couldn't come and stay with us. He's not meant to be kept cooped up. He needs to be out and running around in the wild."

Moses nods slowly before turning to look at her. "So...what will we do with him?"

"I'm gonna do what I do when I know I can't make an animal better, okay?" Vanessa says. "I'm going to make sure he's not in pain anymore." She opens her bag and puts on gloves before taking out a vial and a syringe.

"What's that?" Moses asks as she fills the syringe with liquid.

"This will make him go to sleep," she says, tapping the syringe. "And once he's in a really deep sleep-" She presses her lips together, not knowing how he'll react to her next words. "-his heart will stop beating and he'll stop breathing."

Moses is silent for a moment, looking at the rabbit. His bottom lip trembles just slightly and it's so like his mother's that Vanessa's heart breaks. "So...he'll be dead?"

"Yes, love, he'll be dead." She nods. "But it's the best thing we can do for him. I promise. Else he'd be in a lot of pain and it's not like with a person where you can explain to them what's happening or how you're trying to help them."

He nods and blinks, his eyes brighter than usual. "Johnny'll be upset," he whispers.

Vanessa wraps her free arm around his waist and pulls him close. He quite often expresses his own feelings in terms of how Johnny might react. Part of Vanessa wonders if that's healthy. Or if they've cultivated it somehow by telling him to look after Johnny. Or if it's just genetic; if that's the case the kid has no chance.

"I know he will be. And that's okay. It's okay to be a bit upset, because it's sad when anything dies. But at least we know we did the best thing we could for him, yeah?"

Moses nods, rubbing at his nose with his fist. "Yeah. 'Cause he won't be hurting anymore."

"That's right." She smiles and kisses his cheek. "Now, do you want to turn away while I give him this injection?"

"Will it be horrible?" he asks, eyes huge and worried.

"No, it won't be." She squeezes his waist. "It'll just look like he's going to sleep. I just thought you might not want to watch, that's all."

"It's okay. I'll watch."

"Okay darlin'," she says He takes a step away and puts his hands behind his back. She gives him a smile before she turns to the animal, quickly administering the correct dose of the drug so as not to draw it out any further. Once she's safely put the syringe away, she discards her gloves and stands, pulling Moses against her side. They both watch as the rabbit gradually stops twitching, and then stops breathing. Moses sniffs and rubs his nose and Vanessa bends to kiss his hair. "That's him gone now. He's not in pain anymore."

He nods. "That's good, then."

"Aye, aye." They both look up and see Ross approaching. "What's going on here, then?"

Moses quickly rubs his face. Vanessa lifts her eyebrows at Ross. "A rabbit was hit by a car and the boys wanted to see if I could do anything, but..." She trails off, indicating the dead rabbit. "I had to, ummm-"

Ross nods in understanding. He crouches in front of Moses, smiling up at him. "You okay, kiddo?"

Moses nods, quickly, a tear escaping the side of his eye. He rubs at it. "I'm just sad he can't run around no more, that's all."

Ross puts his hands around Moses' waist. "Well, what if I go and get a box and I take him up to Butlers and bury him, eh? Then he's still on the farm with all the other rabbits?"

"That'd be nice, wouldn't it?" Vanessa swiping some of Moses' hair back off his brow. He needs a haircut, she notes.

"Yeah." Moses nods. He sniffs once and wipes his nose on his sleeve. He leans against Ross, accepting the hug he's offered. "Thanks Dad."

"No problem, mate." Ross squeezes him tight.

"Why don't we leave your dad to do that, eh? And we'll go home and have our tea. You can pick what we have."

"Beans on toast," Moses says, immediately. Ross and Vanessa both groan. Moses would eat beans on toast for every single meal if he could get away with it.

"Fine," Vanessa holds out her hand, wiggling her fingers. "C'mon then. We best go and pick up your Ma and Johnny."

He takes her hand and turns back to Ross. "Dad, when you bury him, will you put him under a tree? Then we'll know where he is."

"Course I will." Ross chucks him under the chin and then presses a kiss to his forehead. "I'll pick a right good tree and pop him under it."

They bid Ross goodbye and head back up to the Vets', their joined hands swinging between them. Vanessa knows she should probably talk to him about what happened, but before she can decide on how best to approach it, he pipes up with a question.

"So, do you have to do that a lot at your work?" He mimes squeezing a syringe.

"Not a lot," she says. "But yeah, it's something we have to do from time to time." She smiles at him, sadly. "It's not my favourite bit of the job."

"No," he agrees, solemnly. He squints up at her. "Is your favourite bit getting to play with puppies? I think that would be my favourite bit."

She laughs gently and squeezes his hand. "Yeah, that's definitely up there."

"Can we get a puppy?" he asks, far too innocently, clearly playing on the fact that he's upset and she's feeling sympathetic.

"Uhhh…" Charity's voice is objecting loudly in her head. "If we're going to get a pet, then we'd need to all talk about it as a family."

His face scrunches in disappointment. "You know Ma's gonna say no."

"Well, then we'd need to find out what her reasons are for not wanting one." Charity's definitely going to find a reason for not getting a dog. "And maybe let's start with something a bit smaller than a dog, yeah? A hamster, maybe. That might be nice?"

"Or a rabbit?" Moses asks, grinning up at her.

Vanessa rolls her eyes. "Let's talk about it over our feast of beans on toast tonight, shall we?" She pushes open the door to the surgery. Johnny's kneeling on the floor, running two cars along the row of waiting room seats. Charity must've had them in her handbag. Charity's in the receptionist's chair with her feet up on the desk, reading one of the ancient magazines they keep around for folk that don't just immediately go on their phones. Charity looks up at them and rolls her eyes.

"'Bout time. If I had to read one more Woman's Weekly, I'd have lost the will to live."

Johnny gets up from the floor, his hands tugging at the hem of his t-shirt. "Did you help the rabbit?" His eyes flick from Moses to Vanessa, full of hope.

Moses walks over to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Johnny, Mum killed the rabbit."

"What?" Johnny shrieks, his eyes immediately filling with tears. He looks at Vanessa, aghast. "You killed the rabbit?"

"But it's okay, because it was the best thing for him," Moses tries to explain.

"Oh, Moses, love," Vanessa says, quickly crossing the room to crouch by the boys, rubbing Johnny's back.. "It's-" She turns to Moses. "We don't say 'killed' when it's a that vet does it. We say that we 'put him to sleep'."

Moses frowns. Johnny turns to her with large, watery eyes. "So he's just sleepin'?"

"No, he's dead," Moses tells him, still frowning at Vanessa. "You said so."

Charity seems quite happy to remain in her seat, clearly enjoying the predicament Vanessa's got herself into. She narrows her eyes at her wife over Moses' head.

"Yes...yes, he's dead," she agrees, tilting her head sympathetically at Johnny. "But it's just a bit nicer to say we put him to sleep isn't it? Because that's what we did. He went to sleep and…"

"And he won't wake up again," Moses finishes, nodding. Johnny lets out a wail, collapsing against Vanessa's shoulder.

"Poor little rabbit!"

Moses reaches over and pats Johnny's head. "He was too hurt, Johnny. Mum couldn't help him so she stopped him hurting."

Johnny doesn't lift his head from her shoulder; he's always been a bit dramatic with his emotions.

Charity saunters over, a smirk threatening to emerge on her face. "Well, if we're done traumatising the kids for today, maybe we should head off home, eh?"

"Yeah, definitely," Vanessa agrees, struggling to stand up with Johnny still clinging to her neck. Charity grabs her elbows to help and she smiles in gratitude before turning it into a scowl as she remembers Charity hasn't exactly been helpful in this situation. Sighing, Charity leans in and kisses Vanessa's cheek, then Johnny's. She pokes him in the side

"Oi, what were we talking about when Mum and Moz were gone, eh?" she asks, her voice taking on that gentle quality that only Vanessa and the kids get to hear. Johnny lifts his head, rubbing at his eyes.

"About how sometimes things don't get better," Johnny mumbles. Vanessa's eyes flick to meet Charity's, surprised that she broached this topic with Johnny. Charity lifts one eyebrow in that infuriatingly smug way of hers. As if to say 'see, i can parent'. As if Vanessa doesn't already know that.

"And what happens when they don't get better?" Charity asks.

"They die," Johnny answers, dutifully.

"Right." Charity nods, licking her thumb and wiping at the tear tracks on his face. He squirms away from her hand, pressing his face against Vanessa's shoulder. "So this little rabbit wasn't going to get better. Mummy made sure he wasn't going to hurt anymore. So that was nice of her, wasn't it?"

He looks at Vanessa again and she can almost feel him weighing up whether he needs to think of her as some horrible murderer, or a merciful animal lover. Finally he nods. "It was nice."

"Good." Vanessa rubs her nose against his. "Now, let's get home, eh?" She sets him back on his feet and Moses runs over to take his hand as they head out., chattering away about Ross and burial sites.

"I'm guessing I'm not locking Rhona in here?" Vanessa asks, as she turns the heavy lock on the old door.

"Nah, she had to go off and get Leo," Charity says, watching the boys scarper off in the direction of home. "Hey! You two! Wait for us before you cross that road!"

They come to a halt at the kerb, their heads close together as they whisper to one another. That'll be Moses relaying the fact that they're going to have a discussion about a pet rabbit over dinner. A vision of Moses' little face when she told him what the syringe was for comes into her head. She bumps Charity's shoulder.

"D'you think they're a bit young for all this death talk? I mean...I killed an animal in front of Moses today." She scrunches up her nose and looks at Charity. "Is that bad?"

Charity shrugs. "No idea, babe. S'pose we'll see how he turns out, eh?"

"Well, thanks for that reassurance," Vanessa grumbles. Charity laughs as they reach the kids, each taking one of their free hands to cross the road, looking in both directions in an exaggerated fashion. Once safely on the pavement, they let them loose to run down to the pub. Charity reaches out and takes her hand, threading their fingers together.

"You do, ummm-" She swallows. "-lock the really bad drugs away these days, don't you babe?"

"Eh? Of course I do!" Vanessa frowns. "What are you getting at?"

"No, it's nothing." Vanessa watches Charity's face closely and can tell she's trying not to smile as she continues to speak. "I just, you know, don't want to cut my finger peeling spuds or something and have him hovering over me with a syringe, telling me it's for the best and I won't feel a thing."

Vanessa barks out a laugh at the image. "That's ridiculous."

Charity turns to look at her, eyes wide. "Well, I'm glad you're so sure all of a sudden."

"Course I am." Vanessa leans in closer to whisper. "You never peel spuds."

"Oh yeah, go on and laugh," Charity says, still hiding her smile. "It's absolutely hilarious that our kid might turn out to be a serial killer, isn't it?"

They've reached the steps of the pub and Vanessa pulls Charity to a halt, letting go of her hand and wrapping her arms around Charity's waist. She smiles up at her before leaning in to press a soft kiss against her lips. She pulls back and nods.

"Our kid will turn out just fine."