"Hey babe. How was Leona doing today?" Chase asked once Talia had finally returned home that evening. She chucked her keys into the little hallway bowl and looked up at him with a beaming face, which certainly took him aback.

"She's actually doing good! And guess what? She finally agreed to go on the trial drug!" she announced to her husband proudly, as Elijah bounded over to her and hugged her leg to welcome home as he usually did.

"Wait, she's really going through with it? Woah! That's awesome!" Chase chuckled in surprise. "How the hell did manage you pull that off?"

"I have no idea? Honestly, I was absolutely over the moon when she told me," Talia admitted, finally hoisting Elijah up into her arms and sweetly kissing his soft cheek. "I thought that she seriously hated me to an extent after her little outburst but it turns out that no, she didn't."

"Well of course she didn't! I could've told you that," Chase grinned at her amusedly. "You up for some soup tonight? It's your favourite - butternut squash!"

"Ohhh wow, did you make it by hand Chef Ramsay?" Talia cooed as she placed Elijah back down onto the floor again.

"I did, indeed! Managed to find the recipe online and thought I'd give it a go and surprise you for once," Chase smiled proudly, his cheeks flushed pink.

"Bless you baby," Talia giggled, playfully poking his nose with her fingertip. "But today I was really craving pizza drenched in mustard and a whole heap Turkish garlic sauce."

Chase's face fell from one of pride into one of pure horror.

"Huh?!"

"Yup," Talia grimaced with a shrug. "Don't look at me like that, it's your baby that wants it."

"Right. This must be what comes out of naming our daughter 'Effie'," Chase grumbled to himself as he pulled out the takeout pizza menu and glanced back up at her. "What kind of- oh, babe…is that your letter that Elijah is ripping up like the world depends on it?"

Sure enough, Talia spun round to see her son going to town on the pink envelope that Leona had given her, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Lij! No baby!" she groaned loudly, rushing up to him and gently but firmly prising the torn letter from his chubby little grip. "This is Mummy's letter, not yours!" Elijah let out a small grumble of protest and went to get something else to rip up for fun instead, giving Talia the chance to pick all the pieces up with a long tired sigh. "Your little sister's first ever gift and you've already ruined it, kiddo - she's not gonna thank you for that when she's older," she tutted to herself - before looking at one of the pieces of paper a little closer.

All she saw were the words,

'…know you are probably hating me…'

"Hating you for what…?" she blinked, quickly unfolding the main crumpled paper and smoothing it out so that she could read it properly. She slipped the chunk of paper back where it belonged like the final piece to the puzzle and quickly darted her eyes over the words that stood in front of her - before she clamped a quivering hand onto her mouth and tears sprung to her eyes.

"Robert…" she whispered, unable to get any louder.

Luckily, he heard her, although she has no idea how - and looked up with a yawn.

"Yup?"

"C-can you take me down to the hospital p-please?" Talia murmured shakily, locking eyes with her husband as the tears continued to fall hastily down her cheeks.

"Yeah, of course…are you okay?! Is it the baby?" Chase blurted out nervously, rushing over to her.

"N-no. It's Leona," Talia breathed as steadily as she could. She handed him the paper with trembling hands, unable to regulate her breathing or her levels of calmness although she was desperately trying to remember that she was pregnant.

Chase took it from her and read through it with a frown.

'Dearest Talia,

I know you have no idea what to expect in this letter…or perhaps you do. I don't know anymore. If you've gathered what's going on, then…my deepest apologies for not telling you earlier. I didn't know how to…I still don't TBH. I just don't want you to be here worrying about me, or worrying about my death or how I choose to die. I'm sorry, but I just really really cannot do this anymore. And this world is too cruel for me now. I don't feel like I can handle such pain on top of my never-ending physical one.

I do love you, so much. And I'm so glad that you're getting the love that you deserve, and that your life is coming together. I will be looking down on you forevermore. Please stay strong and don't resent me for lying to you about the trial. I just wanted you to be happy for once. Always put those beautiful babies first, and know that you can handle anything because you have before.

I know you are probably hating me by now, but please don't for too long. Don't grieve, please don't cry and just remember me for the positives that I've done, not for me being weak. That's all I ask.

This wasn't your fault. You've done nothing but shine real positivity onto my life, and I know I'll miss you forever.

Goodbye, Dr. Talia. I'm sorry.

I love you so much.

Leona xx'

…

Talia burst through the hospital grounds with Chase hot on her heels as her nerves and sheer anxiety took over her body completely.

She hoped there was still time, she was praying that it wasn't too late.

As she rushed through reception as quickly as her pregnant stomach would allow her, she noticed a stoic but upset looking Thirteen making her way to the exit, avoiding all eye contact. She didn't even have time to question what she was there for, knowing that she was intending to sort some stuff out with Foreman anyway - more to the point, Leona was the main concern for her right now.

But as soon as Talia made it to Leona's ward, she spotted two nurses through the glass, pulling the covers over a ghostly looking corpse.

It was Leona, and she looked like she was sleeping.

Peacefully, but eternally.

Talia shook her head as she lay eyes on the body and placed both hands at the back of her head before bursting into tears, her loud sobs fully audible and ringing against the walls. "No. No, not Leona, NO!" she wailed as her head began to hurt. She held onto her swollen stomach and slowly sunk to the ground. "Ohhhh GOD no, no no, Leona!" One of the nurses frowned and poked her head from around the door.

"Talia?" it was Mandy from the surgeons team, and Talia knew her well from back when they were friends with each other in the hospital.

"Baby! Babe ?" Chase gasped as he crouched down to grab her, having not even glanced into the room yet from where he had skidded in behind her. "What…is she…?"

"Talia, did you know her?" Mandy asked sadly as she knelt down beside her too.

"I…" Talia attempted to gasp.

And then the pain started.

"Noooo, no no no," she wailed, grabbing onto her stomach as the tears started . "R-Robert, get me to a room please-"

"What's happening?" Chase blurted out in a panic. He immediately felt her pulse and started to panic. "Mandy, her pulse is running low, we need to get her on oxygen!" He couldn't do this again - he knew their baby was far too early and it was stress that got Talia to this state before.

"R-R-Robert," Talia cried as the pain intensified, hearing Mandy in the distance call for back up. "It f*cking hurts!"

"I know T, just stay with-"

…

When Talia's eyes flew open again, the first thing she did was gasp at the brightness of the hospital lights above her. Nobody appeared to be in the room with her, but she could definitely hear the beeping of the BP machine from somewhere around her. She raised a hand to her face and immediately noticed the wires feeding in and out of her hand. The next thing she noticed was how strange her belly felt - and then she noticed how sore she was.

"No," she breathed, feeling her hands start to shake.

She swung her legs off the bed and attempted to ignore the shooting pains and inevitable weight that was suddenly pulling down on her stomach. Her bare feet made contact with the cold floor - but the rest of her body was too weak to stay upright as she collapsed onto the polished ground again with a pained grunt. "F*ck," she cried as the salty tears of anguish ran into her mouth. "Hello? HELP!" she called out croakily. "ANYONE-"

Before long, the door opened and in rushed a panicked looking Chase. He looked absolutely shattered, his eyes were rimmed red, and seeing her on the floor just worried him even more as if it was possible.

"Bub, what the bloody hell are you doing? You're gonna tear your stitches!" he whispered as he gently but firmly heaved her back up by her armpits. "C'mon, let's get you back to bed-"

That's when Talia registered his actual words whilst clinging onto him like a baby.

"S-stitches?" she grumbled groggily. Chase took her into the bed and pulled the covers back over her again, before busying himself by staring at the stat monitor to check her vitals.

But he wasn't answering her question.

"Robert. What stitches?" Talia asked him again, now a little louder.

"Pre-term labour. They had to take her out," Chase sniffed as he finally turned to look at her horrified face head on. "They delivered her via C-Section. She was…pretty stressed in there."

Talia bit down on both her lips and the tears welled up into her eyes.

That was all too familiar.

"I…s-s-so she-"

"She's fine, Talia," Chase hummed, smiling for the first time since she opened her eyes, although his eyes were still tearful. "She's tiny and we'll have to keep her here for a while cos she's a bit weak and she's…blonde, and she's…beautiful."

"Oh god," Talia cried, the tears of solid relief now replacing the ones of confusion and pain. "Oh, m-my god. She's okay? She'll be okay?"

"She, much like Lij, popped out a few weeks early. Like I said, she's pretty small - but she's doing pretty well considering how preterm she is. Obviously we'll have to keep her in the NICU until she's strong enough to come off the tubes but for now…" Chase smiled, grabbing Talia's hand and kissing the backs of it sweetly. "You did it again, Superwoman. You managed to incubate both our kids for as long as they wanted to be incubated."

"Please. Our baby 'doing well on tubes' isn't because of me or anything amazing that I did - it's because we made some strong ass babies together," Talia scoffed back tearfully.

"True. One slight problem, though," Chase winced. Talia quickly wiped her eyes and blinked at him worriedly.

"What?"

"I didn't know how you intended to spell Effie. So I kinda put an 'ie' on the birth certificate before being corrected by Google that it is indeed a 'y'." Despite the pain and discomfort she was in, Talia couldn't help herself - she burst out laughing.

"Robert. If you want her name to be spelt with an 'ie' then that's how it'll be spelt. That was how it was meant to be done in my head regardless- you know what, it doesn't even matter! As long as she's with us-" Talia cut herself off and gulped as she remembered something, something that hadn't even passed through her mind. "Leona…"

"T, not now," Chase told her abruptly. "No. You're still in a vulnerable place and you need to take it easy. Do you want me to take you to see Effie to get your mind off it at least?" Talia ran her tongue over her teeth but nodded, unable to take the heartbreak as she remembered the image of her good friend's corpse fresh from just a few hours ago.

…

As Chase rolled Talia through to the NICU in her wheelchair, she felt her heart hitch up in her throat. She was nervous, she was overemotional, but she was excited at the same time. "You ready to meet the little madam, babe?" Chase murmured down to her, before wheeling her into the right room.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Talia sniffed. Chase nodded and wheeled her straight through the doors and over towards the incubator in the centre of the room. Talia's hands flew to her mouth as Chase pushed her right up to the screen so that she could see her lying there.

Their baby daughter was considerably small, but not as small as she thought she'd be. She wore her little preemie hat and had all those wires draping in and out of her, and her legs were slowly twitching away. But the most prominent feature on her dainty little face were her rosy little lips, which appeared to be in a permanent pout as she slept. In fact, the rest of her facial features were considerably smaller, which made her lips look even poutier than they originally would.

"There she is. Our little princess Eff," Chase hummed, snapping Talia out of her little lost daze.

"She's…beautiful," she whispered through the tears.

"She's you," Chase chuckled quietly. "As soon as I lay eyes on her, you were the very first person I thought of. Despite the fact that she literally came outta you, of course."

"Shut up, Rob," Talia giggled, swiftly wiping her eyes. "I just wanna hold her. C-can I? Am I allowed?"

"Of course you can, weirdo," Chase tutted. He disinfected his hands before carefully reaching into the incubator and gently eased Effie out, obviously handling her like a pro, of course. "Hiii, angel. Look who's finally here to see you?" he whispered as he slowly lowered her into Talia's anxiously awaiting arms. She let out a long sigh of relief as soon as Effie was in her hold, feeling the connection form between them almost immediately.

"Ohh my god," she murmured as the tears started again. "Hi princess! You're the one that's been running havoc all up in my womb, huh?"

"Yup! She's been your 'bestie' from the very beginning, and now she's finally out to annoy you in person," Chase grinned, taking a seat down beside her. "You two are gonna be thick as thieves, I already know that much."

"Mhmmm, I don't know if Lij is gonna allow that - he can be kinda possessive over me at times," Talia giggled back quietly. "God. I can't believe how sweet she is. Like, I know we make gorgeous babies but-"

"I kinda thought she looked like Ezra," Chase spoke suddenly, whilst also dropping his gaze into his lap uncomfortably.

Talia's eyes flew up to him in surprise.

"You do?" she whispered.

"Yeah. Same kinda facial structure…y-you don't think? Or is that, like, totally inappropriate and you know, overstepping boundaries?" Chase winced awkwardly.

"No of course not - it's stupidly sweet," Talia assured him with a small sniff. "I just…I didn't know you remembered what Ezra looked like. I mean you never actually got to meet him, after all."

"True," Chase sighed back. "But I still feel as if I kinda knew him, you know? Maybe it's all the looking at his pictures for all that time."

"Maybe," Talia hummed. She stroked Effie's soft cheek with her index feature and bit back a little laugh. "She does resemble him quite a bit. Which means that really, all my kids look like me. Which also means…I win." Chase simply rolled his eyes with a smirk.

"Elijah could still grow into his looks," he reminded her cheekily. "I mean, them looking like you is a great thing, but still!"

"'But still' indeed, Rob," Talia laughed before leaning in and kissing him softly. "Ugh. I love you so much."

"I love you more, bub. Thank you for somehow safely delivering our baby - again. You…you really are Superwoman."