Wheeling her daughter onto another ward, Ronnie bit her lip with apprehension. Although these people – these strangers – knew nothing about them or their situation it was still a daunting experience for both of them. The bag on her arm slipped down as she stopped to sort it out; Danielle looked back curiously from her seat in the wheelchair to look at her mother. She felt so useless sat in this chair and she couldn't help but see the resemblance between Ronnie pushing her in this and Lizzie pushing her in a pushchair when she was a child.

"Sorry," Ronnie stumbled as she saw Danielle looking at her rather awkwardly trying to juggle all the things in her hands. She had insisted that she carry everything, another way of proving to herself that she was capable of being a mum to this wonderful girl she was proud to call her daughter.

Danielle smiled shyly before she returned to face forwards. That was her mum, her mum. It felt weird to even think it and she hadn't dared speak it yet.

As they were instructed to Danielle's bed on the new ward, Danielle and Ronnie let out a sigh of relief as they looked around the four bed room. With one bed empty, there was only two other girls in the room alongside Danielle and both looked friendly enough.

Within ten minutes, Danielle had made herself comfortable on the bed and Ronnie had placed all of her daughter's belongings by the side, tucked away in a corner so nobody could see them. She pulled out the box of chocolates she had previously bought for her daughter and placed them on the side of the bed,

"Want one?" she asked softly as Danielle took her pick of one and ate it ever so carefully so as not to spill any of it on the bed. Ronnie smiled as she too ate one of the chocolates, watching ever so intently which chocolate her daughter picked up.

An awkward silence fell between them as the both tucked into the chocolates laid out in front of them, the awkwardness not helped by the fact that there were other patients and visitors in the room. Danielle looked away shyly as she placed another chocolate in her mouth, seeing her mother do the same thing from the corner of her eye.

She drifted her concentration to her arm, wrapped in the tight plaster, and traced her fingers along her forearm. She shuddered slightly as she thought back to when she had the IV drip placed in her arm.

"Is it hurting?" Ronnie questioned as she intently watched her daughter's every move.

"No," Danielle shook her head, as she removed her arm and diverted her attention to stretching out her legs on the bed. It had only been not even an hour since they had gone down to the café but already Danielle's legs felt like they were tightening up and needed a stretch out.

"Are you sure? I could get a doctor…"Ronnie continued before she was cut off by an adamant Danielle.

"I'm fine – really," Danielle stressed. She wasn't sure why things had become so difficult all of a sudden or why things had changed between them. Before, everything had been nice and tranquil and everything had flowed nicely but now the atmosphere had changed and things had become awkward again.

"Ok," Ronnie whispered in reply, not totally convinced. Before she had a chance to say anything else, a doctor came in followed by a policewoman. Danielle turned to them as Ronnie swallowed hard. Ronnie stretched out her hand to Danielle, once she saw the nervousness creep across her beautiful face. Danielle smiled gratefully before slipping her hand into Ronnie's.

"Hi, Miss Jones and Miss Mitchell," The policewoman spoke loudly and confidently as she stood by the side of the hospital bed, "I'm here to take your statements. Miss Jones, I'll take yours first please," she requested to an un-amused looking mother and daughter. "I'm afraid Miss Mitchell; you will have to wait outside,"

Ronnie sighed loudly before standing up from the chair she was sat on and gently squeezing Danielle's hand, "You'll be fine," she mouthed whilst nodding her head at her daughter. Danielle smiled back before removing her hand from her mothers.

As Ronnie left the room, the policewoman, who rudely didn't introduce herself, pulled the curtains around Danielle's bed, blocking her out from everyone. The feeling of emptiness returned as she left the ward and made her way subconsciously outside for a few minutes.

She sighed as she returned to the bench where she had sat with her daughter for a while, smiling as she thought back to the short memory she had. It had been a long day, a wonderful and inspiring day but a long one. She had learnt so much about her daughter but in reality she had learnt so little; so little of a lifetime of memories she wished she could get back.

She felt resentment to the policewoman upstairs who could spend time with her daughter without interruptions; it was unfair but fair at the same time. Ronnie shouldn't have to wait to spend time with her own child, she should have spent years with her, spent happy childhood memories and teenage outbursts with her.

Digging her phone out of her pocket, she began to dial Roxy's number and within seconds she was speaking to her sister, who by the sounds of it was trying to soothe a very rowdy baby Amy.

The first few minutes of their conversation was taken over by normal chatter, how Danielle was doing, when would she be coming home and various apologies from Roxy on how she couldn't attend the hospital that cloudy but unusually warm evening. Ronnie relished in telling Roxy how her daughter was doing, feeling like every other mother who doted on their first born.

"Aunty Peg's planning a family meal for tomorrow, big roast and everything!" Roxy chattered on after explaining the good news to the woman, who had become like a mother to the two sisters.

Ronnie felt her stomach become slightly queasy, unsure about the suggestion and how her precious baby would take it, before saying her goodbyes. Peggy wasn't somebody to argue with, especially over her family meals, and the situation was made a whole lot worse by the fact she wouldn't take no for an answer. Roxy had mentioned Peggy feeling like it was her fault and that Danielle would be in for a great Mitchell welcome when she returned home and Ronnie was sure, that the news wouldn't go down to well with her baby…

Sorry for not updating in a while; I got my results yesterday and I was stressing out all week! I'm so happy with them though!

I'm sorry about how awful this chapter was but I had to post it so I could move the story on! Hopefully another chapter should be posted tomorrow and "Can we make this work" should be updated as well!

Thanks for reading!