Having imagined this conversation so many times, Caroline could hardly believe it was finally happening.

Yet here they were; Kate's lovely face wearing an expression so apprehensive that the blonde's heart was already breaking.

Caroline reached out and entwined their fingers together, wincing as her girlfriend flinched in response, "Look, Kate, I want to be supportive because I know how important being a mother is to you, but more children was not what I had planned for the next stage of my life, and I am still processing all these changes."

Brown eyes hardened and Kate removed her hand from Caroline's, placing it protectively over her stomach, "Well, I'm sorry we're such an inconvenience."

The headmistress pushed up her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose, "You know that's not what I'm saying! I want you and the baby here with me, but I already have the boys and I'm just worried that -"

"My baby won't matter as much to you?" Kate finished flatly.

"Of course not!"

Caroline frowned; her head was pounding and this was all coming out wrong. She sighed, "I'm just trying to be honest."

Kate let out a hollow laugh, "That's very good of you Caroline, because I'm already terrified about becoming a mother at 42, but to have my partner say she might not care about my baby really lightens the load!"

Caroline's temper flared into life, "That is very clearly not what I said! I said I was struggling with the sudden reality of having a baby in my life again!"

She took a deep breath to regain her composure, "Until a few weeks ago I wasn't planning on having anything to do with children until I became a grandmother, sometime in the very distant future. But now I suddenly have you back, and I am so thrilled, but it means that I am about to be a sort-of-parent again. It's just happening so quickly."

At those words, something inside Kate snapped, "Quickly?! You were there on the day this baby was conceived, if you remember? Doing your best to ruin everything then as well!"

Tears sprung into the younger woman's eyes and stung the back of her nose. It hit her square in the chest that she should have seen this coming; she should have known that Caroline would find a way to hurt her again.

"You have known about my pregnancy for almost five months, Caroline. If you didn't want a baby in your life, you should not have begged me to come back to you at your mother's wedding. I was finally getting my life in some sort of order when you…" Kate's voice broke and a tear tracked its way traitorously down her cheek, "…made me want you all over again!"

The blonde clasped her hands together, fighting the urge to wipe away the solitary tear, "I asked you to come back to me because I wanted you then, and I still want you now!" she argued, "But it was not me that wanted a baby, Kate."

At this, her girlfriend stood up with a determined look, "I should leave."

"No!" Caroline panicked, grabbing the brunette's arm as she pushed past her, "We need to talk about this."

Kate whirled around to face her, "You want to talk? Fine, we'll talk. Let's talk about how I'm angrier with you right now than I have ever been with anyone in my entire life!"

She threw her arms up in exasperation, "You are quite possibly the most selfish person I have ever met! You are cold and distant, and I know that I should just get away, because I'm in far too deep not to get hurt. But then you look at me like a wounded puppy and I want you so badly that I fall for it all over again!"

Another tear rolled down her cheek and Kate wiped at it angrily, "I keep letting you in Caroline, and I keep getting hurt." She placed a hand over her stomach, "and I can't let that happen once the baby is here, so I think I should just leave."

Blind panic rose inside Caroline as the younger woman strode across the room and grabbed her bag.

"Where will you go?"

Kate shrugged and turned away, "My dad's place is empty. I'll stay there for a bit."

Caroline watched her with desperate blue eyes, "I don't want you to leave."

Kate sighed, "It isn't your choice, Caroline. I won't stay where my child isn't wanted."

The headmistress reached out at took Kate's hand to stop her from moving, "If the choice is being with you and the baby, or losing you, then I chose both of you every time."

The brunette gently pulled away from her grasp, "Everyone knows I'm head over heels about you, much good it does me most of the time, but I can't be with someone who thinks of my baby as the downside of a package deal."

"That isn't what I'm saying!" The blonde exclaimed, pointedly ignoring that the words rang inside her head with something uncomfortably close to the truth.

Anger flashed across Kate's normally gentle features, "Really? Because that's exactly what it sounds like."

Quieted by her girlfriend's look of disdain, Caroline dropped her gaze. It would appear to most people that the cool and collected headmistress was the stronger of the two women, but Caroline knew this was not the case.

Kate was always more sure of herself, and found it so simple to stand up and fight for what she wanted; whether that was a baby, or Caroline, or simply for people to accept her for who she was.

The blonde had long ago acknowledged that she was terrified of many things that Kate just dealt with. But if there was a chance that opening up to the lovely brunette would stop her from walking away, then she was willing to face her fears as well.

Striding across the kitchen to block the doorway, Caroline placed her hands on her hips, "Kate, before you leave, just remember that I changed my whole life for you."

Her girlfriend opened her mouth to speak, but Caroline raised a hand to prevent the interruption, "I came out to my family for you. I risked everything I cared about, because it was more important to finally be myself -" a tell-tale crack in her voice threatened Caroline's composure, "to be with you."

Kate watched the older woman carefully, taking in the pain and fear barely concealed under bravado.

She felt her insides twist with traitorous longing at how beautiful the headmistress was despite her disarray. It always tugged at her heart when Caroline looked so lost; her instinct screaming at her to protect the woman everyone else assumed was invulnerable.

The pain of knowing that she could not fix this for her stabbed Kate like a knife in the chest, causing some of her anger to evaporate, an overwhelming emptiness taking its place.

She stood before Caroline looking so utterly betrayed that it nearly undid the blonde, making her long to go to the younger woman, to take it all back and tell her that everything would be alright.

Instead the headmistress stood helplessly in the doorway, watching her partner with pleading eyes, "I love you," she murmured.

It was all she had left to say.

Kate nodded, "I love you too," she admitted softly, "but I need someone who wants this baby rather than tolerates her, and you are not that person, Caroline."

With that, Kate walked out of her girlfriend's perfect house, and away from her perfect life. She just about made it to the car before she fell apart.

Inside, Caroline stood slightly stunned, having watched the best thing to happen to her in years turn on her heel and leave.

The tears fell at last.