A few sharp, crystal coloured tears dribbled down the Professor's cheek as he closed his heavy eyelids, still clutching the hat like a small child clinging to a stuffed animal. His head slowly drooped to the side and a peaceful, comforting blanket of darkness surrounded him, keeping him safe and warm in the sheltered cocoon of his own mind. Small eruptions of colour began to appear around the spaces in his shadowy world and gentle dreams began to form in each crevice of his brain. A small image was distant but in front of his own closed eyes, slowly becoming closer and clearer until finally a sepia, rose tinted scene was being played in front of him. "Darling, you look exhausted," Hershel could hear Claire's soft voice weave in and out of his ears like the delicate threads of a tapestry. He could vaguely see himself lying back in the same 18th century, antique armchair with a stack of unmarked test papers on his lap and a red fountain pen between his fingertips. "I-I have to get these papers marked by tomorrow, dear, I've no time to be exhausted… it's my own fault really…" "It's your own fault for babysitting your Godson while your best friend's wife is in hospital?" queried Claire, carefully readjusting her glasses and capturing a stray strand of hair, pinning it behind her ear. "I could have marked the papers while you were feeding him or… while he was asleep…" replied the 'almost a professor', while stifling a yawn. "Hershel, you know that's barely enough time to mark hundreds of papers, Luke scarcely got any sleep last night and neither did we! And it wasn't like your average babysitting job, Brenda was in hospital, we were worried about her, it was a long night." "But if we're tired after one night of babysitting, how will we cope when we have a baby?" Hershel asked, only half realising what he had said after seeing Claire's expression. "When we have a baby?" repeated Claire, astonished. Hershel stayed nervously silent before deciding to be truthful, "Of course, don't you think about our future, Claire?" "A-all the time, Hershel!" exclaimed Claire, her tired eyes lighting up with pools of joy. At the mention of their future all the fatigue seemed to fall out of her. Claire slowly approached Hershel and knelt down beside him. "So, what else do you think about?" Claire's voice was almost a whisper now. "Oh, more than you could… imagine…" Hershel's sentence was interrupted with a long, stretched yawn. "Tell me in the morning, dear" Claire smiled. She draped a warm, woollen blanket over him and tenderly kissed the stressed lines on his forehead. "You get some sleep and I will too, those papers will keep one more day" Claire walked over to the door and her eyes met with his. "Thank you, my angel, I-I," Hershel yawned again, "I love you" and with those last, sweet words, Hershel's eyelids delicately closed. "I love you too, Hershel." Claire flicked off the light switch and looked back at him sleeping. "Goodnight, my darling" she whispered and she left the room without another sound.