Author's Note: Thank you all so much for coming back to read this chapter!

John opened his eyes when he reached out to wind an arm around his wife and all his hand came into contact with was their mattress. The bedroom was still shrouded in darkness, save for some light creeping in through the crack in the door, which told him that it had been mere hours since he and Anna had gone to sleep. For a moment, he wondered if she had just taken Evelyn downstairs to nurse her so that she didn't have to turn on the lamp and disturb him. After moving to her side of the bed and peering into their little girl's Moses basket, however, he found that that wasn't the case. She was still sound asleep.

He smiled a little at the sight of her and reached in to graze her cheek with the back of his finger before she snuffled gently. Once he had drawn his hand back, he pushed himself up into a sitting position and pulled back the quilt before climbing out of bed. He then took his cane from where it was leaning against his nightstand and left the dark room, making sure to leave the door open a crack before walking down the landing to Adelaide's room. Sometimes, if she woke in the night, Anna went to check on their daughter. Once again, however, after stepping into Adelaide's room he found that his wife wasn't in there.

Noticing that his little girl had dropped her bear and managed to kick her covers off in her sleep, he walked over to the bed before bending down to pick up the bear and lie it next to her. He then laid the quilt over her and ran a hand over her curls once she had snuggled beneath them and pulled her bear close. 'Sweet dreams, beautiful…' He whispered before turning on his heel and leaving the bedroom. The next room he decided to check was the bathroom and, sure enough, when he entered he found his wife sitting on the edge of the bathtub as she looked at the wall and held her dressing gown closed around herself.

He felt his heart sink like a rock in his chest.

She looked terrible.

She was much paler than she had been before the two of them had gone to sleep, her eyes were somewhat glazed, there was sweat beading on her forehead and he could see her shaking. The sound of him closing the door to the bathroom must have brought her out of her thoughts because she turned her head in his direction and stared at him when he started to approach her. 'There's something wrong with me…' Her voice, though no higher than a whisper, trembled as she spoke. 'I've thrown up about three times, I've got a pounding headache and I…I can't seem to warm up no matter what I do. I'm so cold, John.'

He pressed his lips to the crown of her head and felt her snuggle against his chest with a gentle sigh when he lingered for a moment. Once he had returned to his full height and met her gaze again, he lifted his hand and touched the back of it to her forehead to check her temperature. As he had expected, she was burning up. 'Sweetheart, please let me call the hospital and ask for doctor Clarkson. I'm worried about you and I think I would feel a lot calmer if he came here and took a look at you.'

'I…I doubt he would be there at this time of the morning,' She shivered. 'He would have gone h…home hours ago.'

He ran the back of his hand down her cheek and sighed when she let her eyes drift closed. 'I'm still going to call and check.'

'I don't understand what's happened,' She admitted as she looked up at him again. 'I felt fine until last night.'

'I wish I could tell you what's going on, darling, but I can't…' He said. 'Doctor Clarkson will be able to, though, I'm sure of it and then we can start focussing on doing whatever's needed to make you better.' The weakest smile appeared on her lips. 'I think you'd be better off in bed while I go downstairs and telephone the hospital. You'll be warmer and more comfortable there.' He watched her nod in response before she reached for his hand and he aided her in rising from the edge of the bath.

Once she was on her feet, he laced an arm around her waist for added support and let her lean against him before he led her out of the bathroom and down the landing to their room. In just a couple of minutes, he had her tucked up in bed again and after covering her with the quilt he struck a match and lit the oil lamp on her nightstand. He then replaced the cover before walking around their daughter's Moses basket, sitting down on the edge of their bed and taking her face in his large hands.

'You're going to be fine.' He soothed as he could tell that she was worried.

She wasn't so sure. 'What if doctor Clarkson isn't there?'

'Then I'll tell whoever answers to call him and tell him that it's urgent,' He reassured her. 'We're going to get you seen to.'

She nodded. 'I apologise for being so irritable earlier. You were just worried about me and I shouldn't have acted like that.'

'Come here…' He brushed his thumbs across her cheeks while leaning in to capture her lips with his in a long and soft kiss. The two of them allowed their kiss to linger and revelled in their closeness for several seconds before he began to pull back from her. He sucked on her bottom lip before releasing it and opening his eyes, and even though she was sick he just had to smile as her eyes remained closed for a moment. 'Even when you're ill you're beautiful.' He brushed her hair out of her face.

'Charmer,' She managed to laugh before covering herself further with their quilt. 'I do love you so much, John.'

'I know. I love you too,' He reassured her. 'Now, I'll go down and call the hospital. Try and rest, my darling.'

He leaned in to give her a kiss on the forehead before taking his hands off of her face, standing from the bed and exiting the room. Even though he'd reassured her that she was going to be fine, there was a knot in the pit of his stomach as he walked down the stairs. The two of them had been married for almost seven years and never, in all that time, had he seen her so ill. He could sense that this wasn't something small. Something that he and Anna could ignore and would get better over time.

This was something serious – something that needed to be diagnosed and cured sooner rather than later – and if the doctor wasn't at the hospital he would go to his cottage and pound on the door until he answered it. Then he would tell him about Anna and make him come to the cottage so that he could take a look at her. He just wouldn't be able to wait until first light.

He and his wife needed answers.

And they needed them now.

Less than ten minutes after he had left the hospital, doctor Clarkson was all but running down the lane on which the Bates' cottage stood. He hadn't even made it to the cottage yet, but he was certain that he knew what was wrong with Mrs. Bates. The splitting headaches, the vomiting and the fever were all indicators of postpartum preeclampsia and if it was preeclampsia that she was suffering from, then instant action was required if the violent fits that accompanied the condition were to be prevented.

Once he'd reached the Bates' cottage, he knocked on the front door and waited for a moment-or-so before Mr. Bates opened it. The two of them shared a slight smile before Mr. Bates moved aside and allowed him to enter the warmth of the cottage. 'I'm grateful to you for coming out at such an hour and for getting here so quickly,' Mr. Bates said. 'I…I think she could be getting worse. She seems quite…confused…and keeps panicking because she thinks she needs to go and see to Lady Mary.'

Confusion.

Yet another sign of postpartum preeclampsia.

Another symptom that made doctor Clarkson feel sick to his stomach.

'Mr. Bates…' He took a moment to clear his throat. 'I don't wish to alarm you, but do you think you might remain down here while I go and examine Mrs. Bates? I'm almost certain that I know what this is and, if I'm correct, I'm going to have to ask you to telephone for an ambulance.' He watched as all of the colour drained from the man's face while he stood with him.

'What…what do you think is wrong with her?' Mr. Bates asked.

He sighed and took off his hat. 'I firmly believe that she's suffering from a condition called postpartum preeclampsia or toxaemia. It's a rare condition that some mothers can suffer from before or after birth. The symptoms are minor, to begin with, but begin to increase in severity over time and…and I'm afraid the condition can, on occasion, be fatal if not treated as soon as possible.'

John felt the knot in the pit of his stomach tighten as what doctor Clarkson had just told him began to register in his mind. His wife, if the doctor's diagnosis was correct, had a fatal illness. He could lose her to the condition and be left to raise their beautiful girls alone. Evelyn wouldn't even remember her! He had to swallow the bile that rose in his throat at the thought.

There was nothing but kindness and understanding living in the doctor's eyes when he lifted his tear-filled gaze back to his sometime later. 'If she does have pre-eclampsia and you have her taken to hospital, do you swear that you can save her?' He was aware that there was somewhat of a warning tone to his voice, but in that moment he found that he didn't care one bit.

'I cannot swear it,' Doctor Clarkson admitted. 'But the sooner we get her there, the higher a chance she has of survival.'

John gave him a silent nod in response. 'Please, do whatever is required.'

Once doctor Clarkson had given him a small smile in response, he stepped past him and ascended the staircase with his bag in hand. He then knocked on the bedroom door before opening it, stepping into the dimmed room and feeling his heart sink at the sight of Mrs. Bates. She was sweating profusely while propped up in bed, but the fact that she was wearing one of her husband's sweaters proved to him that she felt the opposite of hot. It was clear that her fever was higher than he'd thought.

'Mrs. Bates, I'd just like to do a couple of quick checks. Is that all right?' He asked after walking over to the bed.

All she could manage was a weak nod as she looked up at him.

Once he had set his bag down on the bed, he rummaged around within it for a time before pulling out his stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff. 'I'm going to check your blood pressure first,' He explained before pushing the sleeve of the sweater up her arm and putting the cuff around her arm. He then laid the diaphragm of the stethoscope on the inside of her elbow, put the ear-tips in his ears and began to carefully squeeze the rubber bulb on the blood pressure cuff in order to inflate the cuff.

He received a reading just moments later.

190/40.

Her blood pressure, as he had expected, was dangerously high.

'I'm afraid you have extremely high blood pressure, Mrs. Bates, which might explain the dizziness you experience when you sit up or walk around,' He informed her after removing the cuff from around her arm and moving to return the cuff and his stethoscope to his bag. The sound of rustling reached his ears after a moment-or-so and when he glanced at Mrs. Bates, he caught her rubbing at her eyes with the heels of her palms. 'Mrs. Bates, are you quite all right?' He raised a brow at her.

'Everything keeps going blurred,' She shook her head while blinking in an attempt to clear her vision. 'It's difficult to see.'

That was when his gut told him what he had known all along and he snapped his bag closed.

He was wasting precious time carrying out these checks when he knew for a fact that she was suffering from the condition. She needed to be in hospital. She needed to be started on the medication that would prevent the seizures that he knew were imminent if he didn't act soon. He couldn't be held responsible for two little girls losing their mother. He'd already seen the devastating effects that the condition had had on Lord Grantham and his family and if he ever saw it again, it'd be too soon.

'Mrs. Bates, I…I have a diagnosis,' He perched himself on the edge of the bed and clasped his hands in his lap while looking at her. 'I'm afraid you're suffering from postpartum preeclampsia and it's at quite a severe stage, which means I'm going to have to go downstairs and ask your husband to telephone for an ambulance so that we can have you moved to the hospital.' Anna's eyes widened and the fear and slight disbelief that he saw living in them caused him to feel a sharp pain in his chest.

'That's what Lady Sybil died of,' She managed to stammer. 'Are you saying that I…I could die?'

The last thing that he wanted was for her to start panicking, but he knew that he couldn't lie to her or sugar-coat anything. 'There's a chance that you could succumb to the condition, yes, but you have my word that I'm going to do all that I can to prevent that from happening. First, the ambulance is going to take you to the hospital and then I'll get you started on some strong medication.' He watched her nod in response before she leaned back against the headboard and he rose from the bed.

'What about the girls?' She gasped a moment later.

'I think someone should come here to take care of Adelaide, but Evelyn should be brought to the hospital so that she can be near you. It's important that she spends a lot of time with you so that she can bond with you, and just lying next to you can help her to do that,' Doctor Clarkson said to her before taking his bag off of the bed and walking over to the bedroom door. 'I'll go and tell Mr. Bates to call for the ambulance and then he can come back upstairs with your coat and help you into it.'

She offered him a soft, tearful smile. 'Thank you, doctor Clarkson.'

He left the bedroom after giving her a nod and, once she was on her own, she shifted closer to her little girl's Moses basket and peered in at her. She was still sound asleep and the thought of disturbing her didn't sit well with her, but she needed to hold her. She needed to feel her in her arms and pepper kisses over her face. In silence, she removed Evelyn from the basket and cradled her in her arms before leaning back against the headboard and sighing as she looked at her. She was so perfect.

She had prayed for her for longer than she could remember and now she might not even be around to help her through life. If she did…die…she would never see her first weak smile. She would never hear her laugh when Adelaide did something to prompt it and she would never hear her say her first word. If she died, she wouldn't be around to see her girls turn into the strong, compassionate, beautiful young women she knew they would. She would be leaving both of them without a mother.

The thought of missing out on their lives made tears spring to her eyes and she didn't even try to keep them from scrolling down her cheeks. She knew that John would take wonderful care of their daughters if the worst happened, but that was just another thing that broke her heart. She would be leaving him as well as them. He would go to sleep alone each evening and he would be the one who would have to tell Evelyn about what happened to her when she was old enough to understand it.

She loved him so much.

She had had a boyfriend or two in her youth whom she had thought she had loved with all her heart, but when she thought back to them she realised that she hadn't loved them at all. Not like she loved John. She hadn't truly known the meaning of love until he had entered her life and the thought of leaving him so broken crushed her. 'I'm going to get better, sweet-pea, I promise…' She reassured herself as well as her slumbering little girl. 'I'll never leave you, Addie and daddy on your own.'

Her tears fell faster when Evelyn snuggled further into her in her sleep and, once she'd settled down again with the faintest huff, she lowered her head and feathered a kiss against her forehead before leaning against her pillow and beginning to sob.

Once John had laid his little girl down in the cot at the foot of his wife's hospital bed, he limped back to the chair at the side of the bed and sighed as he sat down. For the next couple of seconds, he just looked at Anna while she slept in front of him. Even though he could see that she was breathing fine and her condition didn't seem to have worsened, he still couldn't stop brooding. She had had something along the lines of a panic attack sometime after arriving at the hospital, and so the doctor had given her a sedative to calm her down and help her to get some sleep once she had managed to compose herself a little.

It had been hours since the sedative had been administered and she was displaying no signs of coming round anytime soon. She sighed in her sleep a short time later and when she shifted into a more comfortable position, he took his hand out of his lap and smoothed it over her hair. 'Don't you dare leave me,' He whispered while shuffling forward to the edge of his chair so that he was closer to her. 'I was a mess before I moved here and met you, and I can't go back to being that man again. If you were awake, you'd probably tell me that I wouldn't because I'd have our girls. That isn't the point though, my darling.'

He felt tears start to burn in the back of his eyes and stared up at the ceiling to keep them from streaming down his cheeks.

After a couple of seconds, he calmed himself down and looked at her again before using his fingers to ease a blonde curl out of her face. 'I can't imagine raising our girls alone and I don't want to. Ever since I found out that you were expecting Evie, all I could think about was how much I was going to love watching you spend time with her and Addie. Adelaide loves you more than anything else in the world, Anna, and I don't doubt for one minute that Evelyn will, too. You need to be here for that to happen though, sweetheart, so the girls and I need you to continue getting better and we need you to come home to us.'

He traced the outline of her face with the tips of his fingers before leaning in to brush his lips against her temple in a gentle kiss. Just as he started to pull back, he heard a grizzle from the cot at the foot of the bed and smiled as he turned his head in the direction of the sound. He remained where he was for a little while, waiting to see if Evelyn would quieten and drift off, but when she began to wail, he got up from the chair and walked around to the side of the cot before shushing her lovingly. 'Are you not tired, princess?' He crooned at her while leaning down to lift her out of the cot and into the cradle of his arms.

Once he had a secure hold of her and he was certain that she was comfortable in his arms, he carried her around to his chair and sat down again. He gazed down at her after settling back into the chair and felt his heart swell in his chest. He was still finding it hard to believe that she was here. For longer than he could remember, he had longed to hold her and drink in her delicate features and now he was able to do that. 'I'll never understand how something as beautiful as you came from me…' He sighed before moving an arm out from underneath her so that he could stroke her dark wisps of hair with his fingertips.

It seemed as though having her hair stroked was one of the things that calmed her because her eyes slid closed after a time and she settled in his arms. For a moment, after she had fallen asleep in his arms, he considered returning her to her Moses basket. Then, however, he looked at his wife and had a better idea. He rose from the chair with Evelyn in his arms, moved a little closer to the bed and laid her right next to her mother. He then took one of Anna's arms and draped it over their little girl, positioning her hand so that it was resting on Evelyn's back. That was when she stirred and tightened her hold of her.

He watched her eyes flit open ever-so-slightly before she smiled at the sight of their baby girl beside her and brushed a kiss against her forehead. 'Hello, little one…' Her voice was soft and a little hoarse while she spoke to their daughter, the pad of her thumb tracing circles into her back through the blanket that she was swaddled in. It was a couple of seconds later when she sensed his presence and he ran the back of his hand down her cheek when she lifted her gaze to him. 'You're here…' He could hear the relief in her voice as she spoke to him and he frowned a little as he sat back down in the chair at her side.

'Of course, I'm here,' He replied. 'Where else would I be?'

She shrugged. 'I feel like I've been asleep for hours. I thought you might have gone home to get some rest yourself.'

'Sweetheart, I wouldn't have left your side regardless of how long it took for you to wake up.' He told her.

She gave him a tired smile before bringing Evelyn closer. 'I want Addie to come and see me.'

'I think it might be a little too soon, darling, you've just opened your eyes.' He reminded her.

'John, I…' She paused for a second. 'I could start deteriorating again and...and if that's the case, then I want to have spent some time with Addie.'

He looked at her. 'You're not going to die.'

'You don't know that!' Her voice broke. 'I'm not too bad at the moment, but neither of us can foresee the future.'

He dropped her gaze for a moment. 'I don't want to talk about this.'

'Ignoring the problem isn't going to make it vanish, darling…' She whispered before sighing when he glanced at her again.

'I'm not ignoring the problem, Anna, but…' He reached out to rest a trembling hand on her cheek and stroke the pad of his thumb against her skin. 'But I don't want to think about the negatives. Can we cross that bridge when and if we come to it?'

She thought about his words. 'I suppose you're right. Mum always said to look at the glass half-full instead of half-empty.'

'More words of wisdom.' He chuckled.

She giggled before looking into his eyes. 'I would still like Addie to come and see me though.'

'I'll ask doctor Clarkson if she can come and visit you for an hour tonight,' He relented. 'Only if you get some rest, mind.'

His words made her smile for a moment before she sighed. 'I'm so scared.'

'I know you are, but you're having the medication and you're in the safest place possible.' He reminded her.

She hummed in response, but he could tell that his words weren't too much of a comfort for her.

'Listen to me,' He left the chair and moved to sit on the edge of the bed before she turned her head a little to look up at him. 'I understand that you're frightened, darling, and I don't blame you for that because this is an illness that no woman should ever have to suffer from. You're going to get through this, though, I swear. Your temperature has come down over the last couple of hours and when doctor Clarkson came and checked your blood pressure while you were asleep, he said that it was stabilising. You're on the road to recovery already, Anna, and I can just tell that things are going to start looking up soon.'

The smile that she gave him made his heart flutter and he couldn't resist leaning down to press a delicate kiss onto her lips. Their kiss lingered for a second before he pulled back from her and when her eyes fluttered open again, he stroked her face. 'What on earth would I do without you?' She asked with tears in her eyes before he smiled and ran his hand along her side.

'You never have to be worried about that, sweetheart,' He reassured her. 'Never…'

Even though she had been impatient to come to the hospital and give her mother the flowers that she'd bought for her that afternoon, John was able to tell that his little girl was feeling rather anxious as he held her hand and stood with her outside Anna's room that evening. 'Addie…' He kept his voice soft before giving her back a stroke when she laced both of her arms around his good leg and looked up at him with an uncertain expression on her face. 'You have nothing to be anxious about.'

'Mummy's poorly, daddy,' Her bottom lip trembled. 'She needs to come home so we can look after her.'

He sighed in response and moved his hand from her back to her hair so that he could smooth his hand over her soft curls in a soothing fashion. 'No, darling, she needs to be here in hospital because she needs special medicine. The doctor and nurses need to be the ones taking care of her at the moment, but we can take care of her ourselves when she's well enough to come home,' His little girl nodded at him and attempted to force a smile, but she couldn't keep her tears from him. 'Come here…'

She laced her arms around his neck, being mindful of the flowers, and let him lift her onto his hip when he took her waist in his hands. Once she had made herself comfortable, she buried her face in his neck for a time and sighed before he gave her a kiss on the forehead and she pulled back to meet his gaze. 'Would you like to go and surprise your mummy with the daisies you bought for her? I think she'll love them, Addie, and it might cheer you up a bit.' He suggested before she smiled at him.

'Can I give her a kiss, too, and tell her that I love her?' She asked.

He chuckled. 'Of course you can, princess!'

The happiness she felt was clear in her eyes and once he had set her down on the floor again, he opened the door to Anna's room and let her enter ahead of him. After he had stepped inside the room, he closed the door behind them and smiled as he saw that his wife was snoozing while propped up with pillows. 'You can go and get into bed with her if you like,' He said to his little girl when she glanced up at him again. 'Just take your shoes off before you get into bed and give her a nice cuddle.'

Rather than respond to him, she simply slipped her feet out of her shoes and walked over to the bed before pulling back the blanket and climbing onto the mattress next to her mother. She then shuffled closer to her beneath the blanket and slid one of her arms over her middle before resting her head on her chest. For the next couple of minutes, she sat beside her mother in silence before she felt her stir and tilted her head back against her chest when she felt her nuzzle a soft kiss into her hair.

'Mummy, you're awake!' She beamed as she looked into her eyes.

'I am awake, sweetness…' Anna replied, her voice still heavy with sleep. 'And I couldn't think of a lovelier way to wake up.'

The two of them shared a smile before she eased an arm around her little girl's waist and pressed her forehead against hers. 'I don't like it when you're poorly,' Adelaide whispered as she snuggled further into her embrace. 'I want you to feel better.'

Anna forbade herself to appear worried in front of her daughter. 'I'll be better soon, I promise.'

'Will these make you feel better?' Adelaide held up the bouquet of daisies in her hand. 'Mrs. Tripp let me get them for you!'

Anna felt her heart flutter as she took the flowers. 'Oh, Addie, they're the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen! Thank you!'

Once she had set the daisies down on the little table beside the bed, she turned back to her daughter and pressed a kiss onto her hairline. 'You wouldn't want to have a cuddle with Evie while you're here, darling, would you?' She offered her a smile.

'I would, mummy, I would!' Adelaide gasped. 'Please, can I have a cuddle with Evie?'

'Ask your daddy.' She gestured with her head to her husband who had moved to sit in the chair beside the bed.

Adelaide turned her head in her father's direction before giggling when he raised a brow at her and waited for her question. 'Daddy, please can I have a cuddle with Evie? I haven't had a cuddle off of her today and I'll be careful with her, I promise.'

John reached out to graze her cheek with the backs of his fingers. 'I know you will, Addie, you're such a brilliant big sister.'

He then rose from the chair and walked over to the cot in which Evelyn was dozing before bending down to lift her into his arms. She grizzled at the movement before he cradled her close and hushed her for a moment, and once he had succeeded in soothing her, he carried her back over to the bed. 'Do you remember how to hold your arms?' He asked Adelaide before she showed him how her mother had taught her to position her arms. 'You, Adelaide Bates, are an absolute natural.' He smiled.

Once he had lowered Evelyn into the cradle of Adelaide's arms and she'd brought her close to her chest like her mother had taught her, he leaned over the two of them and pressed a kiss onto Anna's lips before kissing the top of Adelaide's head and sitting down again. For quite some time after that, the room was silent as the three of them made the most of the time they had together before he had to take Adelaide home. She was going to have a meltdown when it was time to go, he could tell.

He couldn't blame her though.

It was the first time she had ever been kept from the two of them all night long and it was a massive step for her.

The time for thinking about that, however, was when half-past six came around and it was time for her to leave her mother. Until then, he would sit with the three girls who made his life worth living and make the most of every moment with them.

Something that he intended to do with pleasure for the rest of his days.

The feeling of her husband running his hand over her hair made Anna sigh and curl further into him as she laid in his arms later that night. Doctor Clarkson had come in and woken her up to give her another round of injections some time ago, and now she was finding it nigh-on impossible to fall back to sleep. She had been a tad frustrated with him for disturbing her in the beginning, but then he had told her that he was pleased with her progress and she had felt nothing but thankful to him. He had followed through on his promise to her. He had done everything he could in order to cure her of her pre-eclampsia.

She wasn't going to die.

She was going to be around to see her girls grow up.

She was going to be able to make more memories with her husband.

Most importantly, she wasn't going to be leaving her little family.

She tilted her head back on her husband's chest after cuddling him in silence for several long minutes and, after curling her fingers into his shirt, she stretched up and brushed his lips with hers. She let the kiss linger for a time and smiled when she felt him cradle the back of her head in his hand. Soon enough, the urge to breathe reared its head and she brought their kiss to an end after sucking on his bottom lip. 'Goodness me…' He caressed her waist through the blanket. 'What was that for?'

'Complaining?' She smirked.

'Never…' He pecked at her lips.

She draped her arm over his stomach and settled down in his embrace before closing her eyes when he tucked a blonde curl back behind her ear. 'I just couldn't ask for a more perfect husband,' She admitted. 'You sensed that something wasn't right with me from the start. I've never said this before, but I'm so glad that you didn't listen to me,' The two of them laughed as she moved her head from his chest to his shoulder. 'If you hadn't had called doctor Clarkson this morning, I…I wouldn't…'

He must have heard the tearfulness in her voice because he shushed her and placed a kiss on her temple before stroking her hair. 'No more thinking about what could have been,' He brought her closer. 'I understand that we're not completely out of the woods at the moment, but the main thing is that you're not going to be taken from me and the girls. You're going to be tutting at me and Addie for forgetting to put our shoes on the rack for years to come, trust me.' Her laugh made him smile.

'Something tells me that neither of you are ever going to remember to do that,' She replied before kissing him on the cheek and making herself more comfortable in his arms as a sudden feeling of tiredness came over her. 'But I don't mind it much.'

He chuckled and laid his hand on the small of her back to hold her in place against him. 'Sleep, darling.'

'You don't mind?' She asked.

He shook his head. 'The more sleep you get, the faster you'll recover and the sooner you'll be out of here and back at home.'

She hummed in agreement. 'You won't leave me, will you?'

'I'll never leave you.' He reassured her.

The two of them shared a smile before he kissed her lips and she moved her head back to his chest while he reached to turn off the lamp on the table next to the bed. 'I love you…' He heard her whisper into the darkness of the room sometime later.

'I love you too,' He rested his chin atop her head. 'My beautiful, incredible wife.'

The next couple of minutes passed in silence, but her snores soon started to fill the air and it pleased John to know that she had managed to find peace after the chaotic day she had had. For the first time since arriving at the hospital, nurses weren't coming in and out of the room and she wasn't being monitored or given injection after injection. She had finally been left to get the rest that she deserved and he was going to see to it that she wasn't bothered again for the remainder of the evening.

Like doctor Clarkson had said, she wasn't out of the woods at the moment and it was going to take time for her strength to return, but he wasn't focusing on that. All that he was focusing on was the fact that her condition had stabilised. She wasn't at risk of seizures anymore and her headaches and nausea had worn off almost completely. She was on the mend and he had a feeling that – knowing her – it wouldn't be too long until she regained her strength and was sent home from the hospital.

She meant the world to him.

He had the strongest wife in all the world and he was positive that he would never tire of reminding her of such.

Never.

Author's Note: Thank you all for taking the time to read this chapter and I apologise for it being so long! I'm not sure what I think of this one - I've never written a chapter like this before or covered a subject like this, but I hope that it was all right. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter and I'll see you all next time! :)