"Delia!" My hand lunched forwards and snatched the bottle from her hand. "What on earth do you think you're doing! Your pregnant, and you're a nurse, you know you can't do anything but harm that baby now!"

She glared back at me, her eyes narrowed and cold as steal.

"Don't you think I know that! Don't you think I understand what that means!" She threw the top she was holding at me with force, standing and throwing herself forward. She instantly went sheet-White and I grabbed for her waist, preparing to take her weight if she fainted.

"Get off!" She yelled at me, pulling away from my hold hard, scratching me with the edge of her fingernail.

"This, this mess, the horrible world I've now got to live in, it's due to you Patsy! You did this!"

I froze, losing all feelings to my body. The words replayed in my head. 'You did this, you did this; you.'

"Delia, I-," the words came out of my mouth in a squeak as I tried my best to show my empathy, my true feelings. "I didn't ever expect something like this, I never could have imagined,"

"But it happened, and look at me now. I've got a baby inside me, a baby belonging to some awful man who attacked me and left me for dead. I've got nothing Patsy, I can't work anymore, I'll be shunned by everyone."

"No-," I began but she cut in once more.

"That is, unless I get married."

My heart froze to solid ice inside my chest, scraping it's sharp point down my rib cage and taking my lungs with it. I couldn't think, couldn't feel, couldn't breath. That was a hard blow- the worst thing ever said to me in anger. This was the reason I didn't love, the reason I didn't trust. The second my heart healed it was torn or crumbled or burst once more.

Marriage. One of the two things I could never give her. Now that one had been implanted in her body, the second thing had to happen too. She couldn't take the pain, the agony of being a slapped who deserved what she got. Delia was too special, too beautiful from the surface to the core. She deserved a better life.

"You know," I began at a whisper, "you know I can't give you that. You know," my voice began to increase in volume as passion took over my mind. "I'd do anything to take you to the church and have us married. You know I'd sell my god forsaken soul, Delia, in order to keep you."

Her voice suddenly came down to a gentler tone, one still brimming with anger but just at the lip of the glass sat a millimetre of love.

"I know you would, but you can't. You can't provide for us, you can't marry me, or sire our babies. You are not a man, and that's why I can't afford these feelings."

Silence instantly filled the air. The tension began to dissolve like salt in to saline, I could see Delia's shoulders relax although her eyes never left mine and never lost their question.

My heart leapt when the idea crossed my mind. It was more than an idea, it was a great decision, one that made me feel queasy with nervous energy.

I got to my knees beside my bed, pulling out the cardboard shoebox which contained almost all my greatest treasures. I knew it was near the bottom, wrapped in a silk handkerchief. It was all I could do for Delia, all we could ever have hoped for. I knew it was a thing of delicate beauty, a thing filled and overspilling in love. That was why I walked to Delia, crouched, pressing one knee to the ground and took her hand in mine.

"Delia Busby. You once said there must be a place somewhere that we could dance together, a place where we could be as we are. One day, maybe. Maybe we will find that place, and I can do this properly, without having to be a man. When we find this, this sanctuary. Delia, would you marry me?"

The feeling I was about to vomit had returned and my heart pounded in time with the seconds hand on my watch. Delia stared at me, her expression giving no expression of emotion. Then slowly, as if it were a stop-motion cartoon,

A single tear came running down from Delia's eyes.

"I never thought I would feel for anyone the way I do for you. I never had a brother to take on the tradition. So I will step up to the plate, Delia, will you be my wife?"

Slowly her lips began to tremble, a soft whimper escaping her mouth.

She didn't speak, neatly dropping to her knees and pushing her arms around me, tangling her fingers into my hair.

"Yes," she whispered.

I smiled softly.

"I know I can't fix everything, but I'll always try. For you."

(A/N) hello everyone, hope you enjoy this chapter. I just wanted to pop on and say that I am also working on a ficlet called what is love? Involving these two, incase you're interested. I also made my first padelia fanvid- search for 'patsy and Delia - photograph' on YouTube. I also want to say I am sorry if my 'voice' for patsy is a little off and if this is a little short, tonight's episode didn't inspire me as previous have. But I hope you guys can inspire me! Thanks for reading