Waiting outside for Dr Clarkson to finish his examination was almost as nerve racking as waiting downstairs had been. He had known Bates and Carson would have persuaded Tom not call the police; it had never been an issue for him, but knowing that Cora lay unconscious a few feet above him had sent him into a frenzy he didn't understand. He loved Cora, he had always known that. Maybe that was why it was so hard to forgive what had happened with Mr Bricker the other night. His frenzy was not caused by a simple love of his wife, it was a need. It was the fact that he needed her and had only just realised it. If she had chosen Mr Bricker over him he would not have been able to cope with anything anymore, if she had died on the stairs that evening, his life would have been over. Yes he needed that woman but still there was something else, the slow painful realisation that even though he would not have been able to cope without her had she left him, he might have actually let her go had she asked him. Cora's happiness mattered more to him than his own, he knew that now but it was painful to think that he had not been making her happy. If she had died from her injuries that night, she would have died after an unhappy last few weeks. It was this thought alone that had struck him cold and sent him into a nervous frenzy of agitation. Knowing that this was not going to happen was like having a cart lifted from your body after it had pushed all the air out of you. He felt light headed, relieved, and able to breathe again. Every second that passed on the landing however sent a wicked thought into his brain that there might be something wrong, some grave haemorrhage that could yet take her away before he could apologise. Finally though, the door swung open and Dr Clarkson stepped aside to let Robert finally reach his wife.

She held out her hand to him gently and he gave suddenly into the emotion he had been fighting for the last hour or so. Cora too let her tears flow as he husband took her hand and kissed it for all it was worth. He gently scooped her up and with sobbing, endless apologies, he buried his face into her shoulder, holding her too him tightly. Cora held him too, muttering her own apologies and telling him over and over that she loved him. The couple revelled in the moment they had been given and let nothing in the world around them interrupt their moment of reconciliation and overreaching, powerful love.