Paris, France

"Katherine?"

Walking down the hallway from the bedroom into the living room of their hotel suite, following the light she'd awoken to find streaming through the crack of the half open door, Rebecca spotted her daughter sitting on the couch, staring off into space it seemed as the magnificent view of the city was through the window behind her.

"Katherine, is something wrong?"

Approaching her, she took a seat in the armchair opposite.

"Why do you ask?"

"We've been in Paris a couple of days and you've barely said a word, now you're awake in the middle of the night and I'm starting to think it isn't jetlag."

She didn't know what it was, just that something was on her daughter's mind. It could be nervousness about college but she wasn't sure, the semester wasn't due to start for a few months and they had an entire summer ahead of them before she even had to start to think about the year ahead.

"I have something to tell you."

"I suspected."

"You're not going to like it but I need you to listen and accept what I have to say, because it can't be changed."

Looking at her, Katherine didn't hold eye contact for very long, staring at her hands as she spoke.

"You're worrying me now. What is it?"

"Think back to when you were my age, you made some questionable choices, ones you asked for forgiveness for later on."

Hearing the words, she tried to understand, but she didn't understand. When she had been Katherine's age she'd been nothing like Katherine, she'd made questionable choices not because she lacked good judgement but because she'd been backed into a corner by her circumstances and needed to survive. Katherine had every opportunity in the world available to her, she could do or be anything she wanted to, there was no comparison between them, but she seemed to think there was.

"Katherine."

"You need to keep an open mind; I can't have the stress of your judgement at this time in my life."

Continuing to talk about stress and judgement, Katherine made little sense. If she was having second thoughts about her college choice she could still change her mind, a phone call was easy enough to make and previously declined offers could always be accepted, no one would judge her for changing her mind.

"What time in your life?"

"I'm pregnant."

Needing no clarification, knowing from the look on her daughter's face that she'd said exactly what she thought she had, her stomach flipped and didn't stop. She knew the words well, she'd said them herself before, at times in the same terrified, regretful tone her daughter used.

"You stupid girl! You're ruining your life. You had everything ahead of you and now you're going to have to give it all up for so much less than you should have had."

Angry, disappointed, and frankly, embarrassed, she didn't even attempt to control her reaction. Her youngest daughter was as judgemental as they came when they were discussing her past mistakes so it was rich to ask for calm and forgiveness where her own errors in judgement were concerned.

"No I won't."

Pushing back, Katherine's voice shook as she spoke, but she didn't cry.

"You're naïve if you think that. Everything is going to change. You won't be able to start college in the fall as planned, I doubt they allow unwed mothers in the dorms and even if they do it's impractical for you to be off in New York when your father and I are in Texas. You can forget leaving after the birth and starting in the spring too, this is your doing and it's going to be your responsibility."

Laying out the reality of her new life, she didn't even touch on the social consequences of her actions. They were different to each other, where she'd been nobody socially or economically and been lucky to have Digger take her in after she found herself expecting, Katherine wanted for nothing but she was a Wentworth and that meant her secret wouldn't be a secret for very long. She and Herbert had attended social functions for months pretending nothing was wrong with their marriage however nobody had known to be looking for problems, a pregnancy couldn't stay hidden for long and eventually people would talk, something she wasn't prepared for and she didn't think Katherine was either.

"You think I don't know that?"

"I don't know what you know anymore. I thought you were smarter than to throw your future away like this."

Honest, she saw no reason not to be; comfort wasn't going to get her very far, in fact it appeared comfort was the last thing Katherine needed, her comfortable life had led her to where they were now.

"I am which is why I've already figured everything out. I'm only telling you because I need your cooperation, not your sympathy. I'm actually due in September and if I time it right I can still start college as usual, maybe a few weeks late but that's nothing in the grand scheme of the four years I intend to spend at college. I'm not giving up my future, just my baby."

Laying out a plan, Katherine sounded every bit as naïve as she'd accused her of being. A baby wasn't last season's dress and adoption wasn't a charitable donation, there was an attachment that came with birth and life was nowhere near as simple as she made it sound. Pregnancy wasn't a few days of food poisoning or a winter cold either, it was months of various ailments and changes that weren't so easy to ignore or recover from. In a few months, when the news went from a positive test to kicks, rolls, back pain and weight that kept increasing rather than decreasing, then she might realise that giving birth, signing adoption paperwork and starting college all within the same month was optimistic and unrealistic.

"Katherine…"

Taking a deep breath, trying to think of what to address first, it suddenly occurred to her that her math had been wrong, Katherine had said it herself.

"September? You're due in September?"

A September due date meant the time for the joys and hardships of the second and third trimesters weren't something to look ahead to in coming months but weeks, it meant that she'd been in her current state for a long time now, and it meant that what she'd assumed earlier but not addressed couldn't be correct.

"Yes."

"Who else is responsible for this mess?"

She hadn't asked at first, laying blame on Katherine herself for the consequences of her actions, actions she'd assumed must have happened recently, likely with Mark, but she remembered when she'd met Mark, when Katherine had gone on her first date with him and it wasn't until March, at which point she must have already been in her current state.

"That's not important."

Avoiding the question, Katherine's answer simply wasn't good enough. She hadn't gotten into the situation she was in now alone and she shouldn't have to face the future alone, she'd implied that that was her stance months ago, criticising Digger for much less.

"It's very important. Whoever he is he'll need to face up to his responsibilities just as you will."

"I don't think you heard me. I'm not keeping this baby, I'm giving it up for adoption, there is no responsibility beyond the next few months."

Raising her voice, Katherine came across as defensive, which could be cause for further concern.

"Katherine, is there something else?"

Aware of the circumstances in which she'd found herself at times in her life, she couldn't imagine her own daughter had ever experienced anything even remotely similar, however anything was possible and if that was the case then she did need her mother.

"No, I just know what I want and you trying to change my mind isn't helping anything."

Shaking her head, her daughter shrugged off any suggestion that there was something more going on.

"You're being unrealistic if you think anything is going to be simple."

"I never said it was going to be simple, just that I've made my decision, alone."

Exhausted by the news, the late hour and the constant feeling that she needed to be prepared for an argument, she didn't question any further, just saying, "fine."

"I will need your help with a few things."

"Oh, you will?"

Surprised by Katherine's admission, she found herself welcoming the news that her daughter still needed her. Katherine had done her best to appear mature, and technically she was an adult, she could make her own decisions, but finally she'd admitted that she didn't know everything.

"Yes. Firstly, Doctor Davis was very insistent that I find a doctor, so I'm asking, please help me."

"You've seen Doctor Davis?"

"Yes. We're healthy, both of us. He was concerned to hear of our family history with complications, but everything with me checks out as normal."

Realising that Pam's maternal mortality and her own history of losses counted as a family history, one that wasn't positive for Katherine's wellbeing, suddenly she felt fearful.

"What was the second thing?"

"I don't know the first thing about adoption, just what I've read in the brochures. I'll need help with that."

"I will try my best."

She wasn't sure about the future, it was all very new, but she could do what she said she would, she could try her best, be the mother Katherine needed her to be, the mother she'd never been to her other children.

To be continued…