A week later and Rita had basically completely moved in to Connie's house.
They had brought over 90% of her clothes, her car now had a space on Connie's drive and they had put Rita's house on the market.
But Rita was now ready to get back to work. Connie urged her to have the next week off, with her and Grace, as it was Grace's last week in England.
But Rita wanted to go back to work, and told Connie to spend some one to one time with Grace, assuring her she would be fine.
"It's going to be weird not having you there with me at work." Rita was stood in the bathroom, pulling a brush through her now longer, knotted hair.
"What, you're sad there's going to be no one there to shout and scream at?" Connie asked, sarcastically, still in bed as Grace wasn't awake yet. "You'll be fine without me." Connie smiled, Rita rolling her eyes and splashing some water over her slightly chubbier face.
"No one will notice, will they?" Rita gestured to her swollen stomach, at only 2 months she was still tiny, but it was noticeable that she had put on some weight.
"No one will notice."
Connie dragged herself out of the bed, walking behind Rita who was still slightly unsure about her figure change, half pushing Connie away as she hugged her from behind.
"You still look beautiful." Connie kissed her neck. "And you should be glad you haven't had bad morning sickness, mine was awful when I had Grace."
"Whatever, soppy cow!" Rita pushed Connie off and slipping on her converse. "I'll see you later…" She put her hand up to Connie who was about to lecture her. "I'll phone you if anything happens." Rita stood up, she then kissed Connie's lips, giving Connie a quick hug before waving goodbye and letting herself out.
When Rita made it work she was bombarded by half of the ED staff, welcoming her back and asking how she was.
Dixie made it to the front of the queue, and hugged her tightly.
"I missed you squirt." Dixie rubbed Rita's arms, before being called away on a shout and telling Rita she had better be at the pub tonight.
"You look different." Robyn said, eyeing Rita up and down. "Your hair got longer!" She exclaimed, Rita laughing a relived laugh, making her way over to Zoe who was smiling at her from a distance.
"How are you?" Zoe asked, smiling as she saw how the younger woman was glowing.
"Great, thank you for… You know… Being there I guess, can you also thank Max, I don't know if I'll see him today." Rita said.
"Of course, I want whatever you had for breakfast, you look great." Zoe told her truthfully as Rita wandered off to get changed into her scrubs.
Rita successfully survived a whole week at work, without Connie to keep her in check.
But now Connie had the hard task of bundling Grace on a plane, and saying goodbye to her, until goodness knows when.
Rita arrived home after her shift to find Grace sat in front of 'Sam and Cat', her stupid, but favourite TV show.
"Hey Gracie, where's mummy?" Rita asked, the little girl shrugging. "You almost ready to go? We'd better get going soon or we're going to miss your plane."
"Mummy is packing my stuff I think." Grace said, not turning her attention away from the TV screen.
Rita made her way upstairs, opening Grace's bedroom door to see a slightly sniffly Constance Beauchamp folding the little girl's clothes.
She looked up as Rita walked into the room, smiling sadly. Rita sat next to her and pulled Connie into her arms.
"I know it's hard." Rita rubbed Connie's back, kissing the side of her face, before pulling back and letting Connie get on the with the job.
"I feel like I'm packing her away to never come back. I know that's crazy…" Connie said, placing the last few items of clothes in Grace's holdall.
"She's going to come back, she has to when the baby is born." Rita smiled, touching her stomach carefully, Connie nodding. "Come on, let's go and get ice cream before we go to the airport?" Rita suggested.
They both then made their way downstairs, Connie carrying the suitcase and Rita dashing ahead to help Grace get her shoes on.
"I don't want to go…" Grace pouted, Connie covering her mouth as she tried not to cry.
"You want me to eat all your ice cream?" Rita asked, grinning at the little girl who shook her head. "Well, you'd better put these shoes on or that's what will happen." Rita gave the shoes to the little girl who put them on.
Rita stood up, linking her hand in Connie's free one.
"I want to take you somewhere tonight." Rita smiled.
"No, I don't feel like…" Rita quietened her with a kiss.
"No one else will be there, I promise." Rita looked up at Connie who finally nodded.
"I'm going to eat YOUR ice cream Rita!" Grace squealed, patting the back of Rita's leg and dashing out the front door. The two older women laughing and dashing after her.
The ice cream trip went a lot quicker than expected, and it was soon time to take Grace to the airport.
They were stood at the check in desk, neither Rita nor Connie were allowed to go any further than this. A kind stewardess had been assigned to look after Grace on her journey.
"Gracie, be good for the nice lady, ok? Daddy will be waiting for you when you land back home." Connie kissed Grace's forehead.
"I want to stay with you mummy, Rita I want to stay." Grace started to cry, her eyes filling with tears as Rita knelt down next to Connie to hug the little girl.
"We'll still be here when you get back, it's time to go now." Rita gave the girl a bear hug, before letting go and standing up, motioning for Connie to do the same. "Bye."
"Bye…" Connie waved, Grace walking away sadly with the stewardess.
Rita linked her hand with Connie's kissing the woman's shoulder.
Connie had her flat converse on, so her and Rita were basically the same size.
"Come on, let's get out here." Rita pulled Connie away, Connie looking over her shoulder one more time before following Rita.
Rita drove the car, neither of them speaking as Connie nibbled on her fingernails.
Rita finally stopped the car, just in front of a sheltered beach.
"It's really warm when you get down there." Rita smiled, climbing out of the car, Connie following in suit.
Connie took hold of Rita's hand, telling her to be careful as they climbed down a set of steep stairs.
They eventually made it down there, Rita pulling Connie along to her favourite spot.
"This is where I used to come and scream, seriously, no one can here you, because no one is ever here. I found it relaxing to just lie and listen to the water…" Rita smiled, shrugging off her coat, as the large rocks that surrounded the cove blocked out the wind and allowed the cove to be several degrees warmer than outside the cove.
"Let's sit down." Rita smiled, pulling Connie down and putting her coat on the floor for them to lie on.
Rita rested her head on top of Connie's chest, snuggling down. "You're not cold are you?" Rita asked, Connie shaking her head. Rita moved her head so she could look at Connie. "I want to ask you something." Rita said.
"Anything my darling." Connie stroked her hand through Rita's hair.
"I don't really know how to say this…" Rita fumbled for her words. "This will probably sound weird. Will you be my baby's other mummy?" Rita asked, her cheeks and nose bright red. "I feel so stupid."
"You're not stupid, I would love to, but are you sure?" Connie asked, Rita nodding enthusiastically before settling back down on Connie's chest.
The two women sat in silence for over an hour, eventually Connie looked down to see Rita was fast asleep.
Connie just lay in the warm sun, the young Nurse was probably exhausted from her full week back at work.
Rita had assured Connie she was fine, but Connie could see the exhaustion in her eyes, like rain in a storm, it was obvious.
Rita eventually disturbed, another hour later, rubbing her nose as she looked up at the darkened sky.
"Told you it was peaceful." Rita smiled, Connie kissing the top of her head. "I think we need to tell people about us." Rita said, looking up at Connie who bit her lip. "We're going somewhere Connie, if we're going to have this baby together, we need to start telling people before rumours start flying around the place.
"Aren't you worried people will start whispering behind our back? I've never really, told anyone… That I… Well that I bat for both teams." Connie admitted her fear of being ridiculed.
"Of course there will be people who have their problems, but there's Dixie and there was Jamie… No one ever takes the micky of them. I think I'm more afraid of people not believing us, I mean we did used to hate each other." Rita smiled, pulling herself up Connie, so their noses were touching.
"I never hated you." Connie giggled as she felt Rita's small pregnant belly pressing up against her own.
"Oh you did, anyway, I'm starved." Rita laughed as Connie kissed her, rubbing her hands up and down Rita's back.
"You're always hungry!" Connie joked.
"Well I am feeding 2 now!" Rita smiled, rolling off Connie and allowing Connie to help her up, joining hands as they made their way back up to the car.