Aftermath

Nina let the door shut softly, hoping nobody was around. After a particularly harrowing day, she just wanted a few minutes to herself before the house became busy again. She leant against the door and wiped the silent tears away from her cheeks, cursing herself for getting involved in a patient. It had always been one rule she kept to while working, but Liam's case was different.

Since she had picked him up, coaxed him out from under the work bench, she had felt a certain attachment to him, an attachment that was nothing less than the feelings she felt she would experience for her own child.

If she would ever have her own child.

She wandered through to the front room, cautiously checking for occupants before walking in to sit down on the sofa. Sighing she rubbed her forehead and kicked off her shoes. It seemed like her and Abs hardly spent any time together anymore. They were either working different shifts or too tired to even talk properly let alone do other things. Going public went flying out of the window as soon as she saw Ellen standing in the department.

She felt, gutted, to be quite frank. She loved him with all of her heart and could never imagine herself with somebody else, ever. Because she knew she could never forget Abs.

She felt the tears trail down her cheeks yet again but brushed them back angrily when she heard the front door slam again.

"Nina?" Just the sound of his voice sent shivers down her spine, making her heart flutter. It was the same voice that could distract her as she was informing Harry or Maggie on her patient's detail and the same voice that made her heart stop and beat a thousand beats a second.

"In here," she sniffed, trying to remove all traces of her tears.

"You'll never believe the day I've had, there's a new nurse in, and it turns out I was working in the same department as her when she was doing her nursing training. I don't think I like her much, she managed to make a complete fool of me as I…."

He trailed off as he saw Nina sat on the sofa, faint tear marks still staining her cheeks. He knelt down in front of her, taking both of her hands into his.

"Nina?" He asked softly.

She shook her head before prising one of her hands from his and shakily wiping her tears. "I'm sorry; I've had a bit of a bad day." She sniffed.

"Liam?" He asked simply.

She nodded, not wanting to open her mouth again for fear of crying aloud. But she didn't need to speak, he got up off the floor and sat next to her on the sofa, wrapping an arm protectively around her shoulders and pulling her into his body, as if to shield her from everything that could hurt her.

"I got attached, I don't usually. But Liam was so sweet; he'd been through a lot and it made me think about how I would treat my child….if I ever had one!"

"Aww, Neen. I don't think there was anyone in the department that wasn't affected by this…he was a sweet boy!"

"But having my own is never going to happen, is it?" She took a deep breath as she said this.

"Why not?"

"Because….because we're not going anywhere! Ellen's back now, we didn't go public. We hardly see each other…"

"Nina, we've been busy. But," he sighs. "I booked us a day off work, tomorrow. So we could spend it together. We've hardly seen each other and I've missed you."

"A day off?" Nina smiled slightly, taking his hand in hers and kissing him softly on the lips.

"Yeah, and another thing." He smiled, returning the kiss. "I'll never rule out babies in our future!"

Taking her hand, he led her out of the living room and upstairs to their own room, making sure to close the door behind him.