Alice lay awake that evening, unable to sleep. Danny had dropped off into a deep sleep almost immediately; the exhaustion from his flight had caught up with him around tea time but Danny being Danny had refused to go to bed early, insisting he'd stay up to talk to Charlie. She could feel his breath washing over her neck each and every time he exhaled, his arm was also tightly wrapped around her, holding her close as he rested peacefully. Alice closed her eyes savouring this moment. The serenity of it all. She felt safe; all her many worries and woes floating away as she felt his arm readjust slightly as he moved.

It wasn't that she didn't trust him. It wasn't even that she didn't want him to know about her health as to why she felt she couldn't tell him. It was fear. Not of Danny himself but of his reaction. She couldn't bear to see his panic, his worry or his pained expression; but most of all, she couldn't bear to see him cry; the time tested proof of suffering. Of course, she'd seen him cry many times; in both joy and sadness. He'd cried a lot actually in front of her and indeed she did love him for that... The fact he wasn't afraid to show his emotions, his sensitivity. It's what made her love him but tears over her? No. She couldn't handle being the cause of that beautiful man's pain. He'd already lost one wife to cancer... And now here he was again, unbeknownst to him, with a second wife who unless she acted fast would also be facing the same uphill battle.

Suddenly, a cry pierced the air, disrupting her thoughts. She smiled softly before slowly untangling herself from Danny and getting up. He grumbled, slowly opening his eyes before realising what was going on.

"You want me to?" Danny's sleep laden voice asked, his words slurred together through exhaustion.

"No, it's ok." Alice smiled, "You need your rest."

Danny simply nodded before sleep once more took hold of him. Alice chuckled slightly before picking Robert up; he was hungry. She yawned tiredly as she took him downstairs to prepare a bottle in the kitchen. She'd got him on the bottle pretty early; after all Danny couldn't exactly breastfeed could he whilst she was in hospital. This whole thing had come as a complete and utter shock to her. She thought everything was ok, going smoothly, especially considering she'd just given birth. It was the last thing she expected to hear; cancerous cells. There was no danger in terms of Robert; he was completely fine, not it was her; she was the one in trouble. Nothing even seemed different; not really; but that was just because she was pregnant and didn't have the chance to tell if anything was different. The only tell-tale she might have had was pain during sex but with Danny in South Africa how on god's earth could she have known? The doctor had hoped it hadn't developed too much but it had. A cone biopsy was out of the question. She had to go the full hog and have the hysterectomy; it was her only option.

"Sssh Robert." Alice whispered as she fed him, "I'll tell your Daddy... it's just hard." She murmured gazing over to the fridge where she'd stuck an abundance of pictures. Happy photos at Leopards Den; with the family, at their wedding, with the animals. Other photos were in the UK; some of their honeymoon and some from when Robert was born. Danny was grinning on them all... in most of them they were sharing some form of contact. Love radiated in every photo. She sighed... those days would return one day.

Half an hour later and Alice was climbing back into bed beside Danny. She swallowed as she wrapped her arms tightly around him, smiling as she felt him spin and pull her close.

"Love you..." Danny slurred through his sleep, "my Alice."

Alice simply giggled as she closed her eyes; she was home.

A/N – Short chapter but I didn't want to blag it out :') I'm loving writing this!