As Kate looked into her daughter's serious little face she got the strange feeling that the world had been moving on without her.
Flora was propped upright against her knees, watching her curiously with big dark eyes and a spit bubble trapped between her lips. Mother and daughter found themselves alone for the first time, and it seemed as though each of them was using those first few minutes to study the other.
As Kate memorised each of Flora's tiny fingers and toes, she was reminded of Sleeping Beauty or Snow White; those princesses had woken up from a long sleep to find that the people around them had been busily living life, while they had been frozen in place.
She knew the feeling.
Her baby had been growing, her father had been getting weaker, Caroline had been moving on…and she had been oblivious to everything.
The brunette was still trying to take it all in. She studied every perfect part of Flora, scarcely able to believe the little girl was really hers.
She had a daughter, and not just a new-born baby a few hours old, but an alert little person already craning her head to look around the room and cooing to herself as Kate gently stroked the downy curls at her temples.
It was stranger than being told she had been in an accident, and that she had been unconscious for weeks; because Flora was tangible proof that time had been moving forwards.
To have missed the first few months of her daughter's life was devastating, but as the brunette considered the tiny person before her, she felt as though she already knew her.
Kate had been waiting for this child for nine months, and longing for her for so many years before. As they stared back at each other, Kate recognised her father in the shape of Flora's eyes, her mother in the way she carefully watched her surroundings, and (something she made a mental note to never mention to Caroline), she saw Greg in the way her baby scrunched up her nose in disapproval.
Kate sighed and tried to let go of the sadness at what she had missed. She leaned forward to place a kiss on her daughter's forehead, closing her eyes and breathing in the scent of her. The smell of talc and baby lotion was vaguely reassuring. There was nothing she could do about the past, but she was alive, and she would just have to make sure that she didn't miss any of the future.
XXXXX
Caroline stopped at the threshold of the bright little hospital room, two plastic cups of tea clasped in her hands. The curtains billowed gently in the breeze, and sunlight streamed across the bed, illuminating what might be the loveliest scene the headmistress had ever laid eyes on.
Kate was propped up against her pillows, knees folded so that her daughter could rest against them, and Flora was reaching towards her mother with an excited squeal.
Kate's eyes crinkled happily at the sound, and although she was still painfully thin, the delighted smile lighting up her face made her more beautiful than ever.
Caroline's insides clenched with longing at the sight of her; and yet the blonde was relieved to note that she was genuinely pleased Kate was happy, even if she was no longer the cause of that happiness.
Not that it stopped her heart from aching as she was forced to watch the perfect moment from the outside.
Unwilling to intrude, the headmistress backed out of the room to sit alone in the corridor, hating herself yet again for the life she had turned down.