Author's Note: Sorry this update has taken a while. I have reached the point in the story where I have very little pre-written, so the chapters are taking slightly longer. I promise I will keep updating when I can. Thank you for bearing with me and for all your lovely reviews, I really appreciate it! xx

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The nurse ushered Caroline into the room and gave her a sympathetic look as the blonde stopped dead with a gasp.

Kate lay motionless in the hospital bed, looking absolutely tiny against the huge white pillows. Her head was bandaged, one of her eyes had swollen shut and her lip was split.

Her chest rose and fell methodically as air was pumped into her lungs and tubes snaked ominously from her body towards a multitude of machines.

Caroline froze, her eyes fixed on the younger woman's face as she tried to find the person she knew beneath the breathing tubes and bruising.

The nurse gently nudged her towards a seat, watching Caroline's pinched face carefully as she spoke, "I know it looks bad, but the doctor says that the surgery went well. She is in a medically induced coma to give the swelling around her brain some time to go down."

Caroline nodded, her eyes wide, and the other woman knew from her expression of shocked disbelief that she was not really listening.

With a small sigh, she gave the clipboard at the foot of the bed a cursory glance before scribbling down some notes. After a few seconds she shot Caroline a sideways look; the blonde was sat rigid and motionless in her chair.

Taking a deep breath the nurse decided to try again, "She may be able to hear you, so it might help to talk to her," she encouraged, clipping the chart back to the bed and heading towards the door.

Caroline nodded again, her eyes never leaving Kate; too shocked by her frailty to process much of anything.

The beautiful brunette looked so broken that Caroline could not conceive of her ever recovering. The idea was devastating and she instinctively reached out to take her hand, desperate to provide comfort so that Kate would somehow sense she was not alone.

But before Caroline could entwine their fingers she paused, her hand outstretched towards the bed. Kate had always seemed delicate and ethereal, but now so much catastrophic damage had been done to her that the blonde was strangely worried even holding her hand might cause her pain.

Forcing herself to move slowly, she gently slid her hand beneath the brunette's. It felt like a strange liberty after weeks resisting every impulse to touch the younger woman. The warmth of her delicate fingers reminded Caroline with a pang of exactly what she had been missing.

Thankfully it also provided a tiny piece of reassurance that life still ran through Kate's beaten and bruised body.

Tears pricked the back of the blonde's eyes as she ran her thumb over Kate's hand, stilling her movements as her thumbnail connected with cool metal.

Glancing down, Caroline's eyes widened in disbelief as she noticed for the first time the silver bangle at Kate's wrist.

She reached out with her free hand and gently turned it to get a better view. It was unmistakably the same gift she had spent all those hours agonising over.

The sudden realisation that Kate had chosen to keep a part of Caroline close caused the last of the blonde's defences to crumble and a wave of devastating grief washed away her protective veil of numbness.

As she looked helplessly at the bruised face of the woman she loved, Caroline cried for everything she had already lost and everything she still stood to lose.

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The headmistress did not know how long she had been sat in the quiet little room; the only indication that time was passing at all came from the regular beeping of Kate's heart monitor and the even puffs of air pumping into her lungs.

Still silenced by the enormity of the situation, Caroline just held Kate's hand, her fingertips resting against the reassuring pulse beating at her wrist.

The passing hours were almost completely irrelevant to the blonde; if she needed to sit with Kate like this until the end of time, then she was absolutely certain that nothing on Earth could drag her away.

Behind her someone cleared their throat and Caroline looked up to see the same nurse fixing her with a no-nonsense expression.

"I was wondering whether you would like to see the baby?"

Caroline swallowed and shook her head, "I can't leave Kate," she croaked, her voice raspy from lack of use.

The nurse nodded, "I thought you might say that, but there really isn't anything more you can do for your partner tonight and there is a baby on the next ward who needs a visitor. It doesn't seem right to leave her with just the midwives."

Despite being drained to the point she was struggling to think coherently, Caroline recognised the other woman's words as sound advice; there was a completely innocent baby in all of this who deserved someone to take care of her.

What was more, Kate would be devastated to think that nobody was taking more than a professional interest in her daughter.

The blonde nodded once in acceptance, gently disentangling her fingers from Kate's and standing on legs that cramped at the sudden change in position after so many hours.

She looked down into a barely recognisable face mottled purple with bruising and almost couldn't bring herself to leave. The fleeting desire to kiss Kate goodbye was overwhelming and Caroline leaned forward to gently place her lips against the younger woman's cheek, closing her eyes at the familiar smell of vanilla body lotion.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," she promised softly.

With that, the blonde reluctantly made her way across the room, turning as she reached the doorway to take one last look at Kate. The sight of such a wonderful person so beaten and alone made her heart break all over again.

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Caroline looked down at the baby cradled in her arms and felt tears begin to trickle down her cheeks.

Kate she thought as she took in her caramel coloured skin, silky soft curls and beautiful dark eyes.

The baby was absolutely tiny – much smaller than either of her boys had been – and as soon as a little hand had wrapped itself around Caroline's pinky finger, she was hit by the same overwhelming rush of love that she had felt the first time she had held her sons.

It shook her to her core, made her feel complete, but at the same time small and insignificant before the importance of the tiny child in her arms.

The enormity of what it meant to be a parent, and the wonder of having something so precious to herself, overawed Caroline in that same way. It hit her like a sledgehammer and she knew instantly that she should have seen it coming.

She loved Kate, so she would love Flora.

It made so much sense that she felt ridiculous for ever considering that it wouldn't.

Kate was the love of her life; she found nearly everything about the woman captivating and intriguing, so she should have known she would instantly feel the same about her daughter.

It doesn't get said enough that you fall head-over-heels in love with your children Caroline thought with a pang of longing.

She had thrown away the chance to be this child's mother, because she was stupid and selfish and short sighted, but she knew that she needed to stay strong - for Kate and for Flora.

This baby was all alone in the world until Kate could care for her and the blonde would be damned if she wouldn't protect her fiercely in the meantime.

"I'm Caroline," she whispered to the little girl, "and I am going to do whatever I can to save your mummy."

Her voice faltered as her thoughts turned to Kate across the corridor, wired up to drips, tubes and monitors.

She forced herself to keep everything together as she rocked Flora in her arms, "Whatever happens today, and for the rest of my life, I promise that if you need me, I'll always be here."