A/N- Final part of this fic. I am working on a new longer fic, coming soon.

"Trixie! How nice, what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you." Patsy greeted as she filed out of the hall behind the last of the cubs.

Trixie had a way of looking at Patsy that made her feel sorry, made her regret the pretence. But they had both been so practiced at it for so long, they had understood and respected that in each other. In the past. Yet now Trixie was raising one carefully shaped brow.

"Really Nurse Mount? Can't we be frank with one another? Even now?" The blonde demanded with a pout.

"If you let me change, we could go somewhere." Patsy offered, her hands full of lengths of rope that the cubs had been tying various knots in.

Trixie nodded, reaching out a hand to take Patsy's clipboard from beneath her arm and helpfully escorting her back to Nonnatus.

Xxx

By the time Trixie had been greeted and had a full, well intentioned interrogation from each woman at Nonnatus, nun and nurse alike, Patsy had changed and been fully refreshed and rehydrated and it seemed pointless, going out to find somewhere to talk. The women of Nonnatus had each drifted away and Patsy simply offered to man the phone, leaving she and Trixie alone in the late evening peace of Nonnatus.

Trixie had relaxed somewhat and Patsy thought for a moment she may have been distracted completely from whatever it was she had wanted to speak to Patsy about. They were enjoying a smoke and another pot of tea whilst recounting a particular tale of one of the first births the pair had attended together, when suddenly Trixie stubbed out her cigarette impatiently, her eyes turning serious.

"Delia is at home packing you know? She claims to be going back to Wales tomorrow." The tone was accusatory.

Patsy turned her eyes away from Trixie for a moment. "So soon?"

"I know that you realise, I was the one who sent for her Patsy, aren't you going to ask me why?" Trixie challenged.

"I suppose you thought it would be nice for us all to meet up again." Patsy shrugged innocently.

Trixie sighed and her brows knitted together. "The reason I asked her to come was for you, for the two of you, I wanted to give you another chance to be together." Trixie watched Patsy carefully now and pushed a hand across the table, touching two fingers to Patsy's wrist.

"I know how you feel about Delia, I've known for a long time and I finally felt that I hadn't been a good friend to you before in not letting you know that. I should have told you then that it was alright, that you had my support, that you would always have my friendship. Perhaps that would have made a difference."

Patsy was touched, she stared at Trixie now, but she didn't know what to say.

"I was a little jealous at first, a little worried about losing you to her, silly I know and I didn't want to interfere, but it was wrong, I shouldn't have let you feel alone." Trixie finished, smiling somewhat shyly.

"Oh Trixie. It wasn't your fault, I was so determined that no one should ever know! I would have done anything to keep it secret and one can't really live like that… not forever." Patsy admitted sadly, taking Trixies hand in her own.

"So you're really going to let her leave?" Trixie asked, a hint of disapproval. "After all the trouble I've gone to?" Trixie's mischievous smile appeared.

"I'm soon to be married Trixie, I have given Ed my word and he is awfully good to me..." Patsy explained.

"I know that, Ed is a sweetheart!" Trixie interrupted.

'Then, even if I wanted to…" Patsy began.

"Do you? Do you want to?" Trixie demanded. "That's what it comes down to Patsy. It's not too late, but it very soon will be."

"If it were that simple…" Patsy shook her head helplessly.

Trixie straightened up again and took a breath as if about to say something she found uncomfortable.

"I know that with Ed… you haven't been intimate yet, you said you were waiting until you were married, which sounds incredibly old fashioned to me, it's the sixties after all, but I think I know why you've been putting it off."

Patsy straightened too, pulling away from Trixie somewhat, her expression Trixie stood and put her hand to Patsy's shoulder as she passed her and left.

Xxx

Patsy was seated by herself in a dark corner of the bar, she knew he wouldn't be too long, regular as clockwork, that was Ed. Patsy had smoked her throat sore over the last few days and now she drummed her fingers relentlessly on the wooden table top for want of something to do with her hands, other than light up another one.

Patsy smiled as the landlord gave her another glance, he knew who she was, she had been in here many times before with Ed but never alone, he was friendly with Ed and probably guessed that she was waiting for him.

Patsy drained the rest of her drink and felt its effects already, warming and slightly calming her erratic heart rate. Her eyes scanned the room and back to the door once again. She was probably still on the early side and she took hold of her cigarettes as a song she knew began to play. Dion - Runaround Sue, she smiled wryly to herself, the song didn't fit but the sentiment wasn't completely wide of the mark.

A moment later the door was thrown open and in strode Ed and one of his buddies, Simon. Ed slapped Simon on the back and laughed loudly at something his friend was saying to him as they approached the bar and ordered drinks. The landlord dipped his head and spoke in Ed's ear as he pushed his drink before him, whatever was said caused Ed to abruptly turn his head in Patsy's direction, before picking up his drink and hurrying over to her.

Ed was such a lively character, he was a world away from the poverty and suffering of many of her patients, he was from the world inhabited by men like her Father and often that gave Patsy a sense of home. She had never thought she would ever hurt him.

"Hello darling, what on earth are you doing here?" Ed asked with a surprised smile, he leant over the table and planted a kiss on her cheek.

"I'm sorry to spring myself on you like this Ed, but I needed to talk." Patsy explained.

"Tonight? Sounds serious." Ed remarked in jest, his expression changing as he saw the look on Patsy's face.

Ed sat quietly opposite her as he continued to watch the ashen features across from him.

"I think you ought to tell me what this is about Patience." He instructed in a tone she had never heard him use before, strictly serious.

It's amazing how much is often communicated without a single word, this was never more the case than when she and Delia had been together, but she couldn't allow herself to think of Delia now.

"I haven't been completely honest with you Ed, I'm sorry. I know how important it is to you, for us to be truthful…"

Ed was calm, as she had expected, merely the raise of one dark brow.

"I let you believe… when we spoke, you said you didn't understand what all the fuss was about, you never wanted a girl who would sit and make eyes at you… remember?" Patsy asked.

"Yes. That was why I chose you, you understand that Patsy." Ed replied, softening some.

"And I let you believe that I felt the same way. That I'd never... been in love." Patsy couldn't risk looking at him.

"So, now you're saying that you have?" Ed asked uncertainly.

Patsy nodded slowly. "Yes. Once, very much so." She hadn't realised what a relief it would be to let him know. How much it had cost her to keep it from him.

Ed took a swig from his glass and shrugged. "The chap obviously isn't around anymore…"

"That isn't really the point, is it?" Patsy interrupted. "What do you think it would be like, to be married to me?"

Ed leant back in his chair. "Much the same as things are now. I don't want anything to change. Neither of us do, we each have our own lives… you'll move into the house of course, but other than that…"

"Then why are we doing it?" Patsy asked suddenly.

"It's what one does, Mother adores you, the boys all agree you're a smasher! And I really do care for you Patsy, you know that." Ed saw things quite simply.

"I think you deserve more." Patsy told him. "A girl you'd be happy to change everything for."

Ed was silent for two or three long minutes. "And you?"

"I deserve that too." Patsy slid the engagement ring from her finger and pushed it across the table as she rose to leave.

Xxx

Patsy had suspected from the moment Trixie had casual informed her of Delia's departure arrangements that she would end up making this last minute mad dash to get to her before she left and now here she was, frantically pedalling around slow moving people and tutting at them impatiently, thank goodness she didn't have her uniform on.

Patsy abandoned the bike at the front of the terminal and hurried inside, glancing up at the huge clock face.

"Delia?!" Patsy called, she almost expected the figure to disappear or to turnaround and be someone else, she couldn't believe she was actually still here.

"Patsy!?" Delia replied even as she turned, dropping her case to the floor. "What are you doing here? I thought we'd said our goodbyes."

Patsy bit at her bottom lip. "I had something else to say."

Delia waited, the bus station was busy, people hurrying around them and paying them no attention.

Patsy moved towards Delia and picked up her bag, moving them out of everyone's way and into the doorway of what used to be a little florist kiosk.

"My bus will be here any minute…" Delia reminded.

"You once told me that I was better at coping with facades than you, do you remember?" Patsy asked.

Delia looked at the ground as she nodded, as if she had forgotten anything that had passed between them, even before her accident, in Delia's mind every memory of Patsy was crystal clear.

"I don't want that anymore. I can't do it…" Patsy admitted.

Patsy witnessed the moment when real hope rose again in Delia, her eyes shone with it and she smiled up at her.

"Do you mean?" Delia checked, her hand reaching for Patsy's and finding it trembling as much as her breath.

"I told Ed I can't marry him." Patsy confessed, placing her free hand over their clasped ones.

Delia squeezed Patsy's hand, but she waited for more.

"I don't know what to say Delia, except…" Patsy smiled at the memory, a Delia of the past helping her even now. "Don't disappear again, write to me, meet me again,

don't break the thread, let's pick up all the pieces, let's pick up where we left off." Patsy reeled off the words that Delia had once said to her. The promises they hadn't kept.

Delia threw her arms around Patsy's neck and buried her head there too. Patsy held them up, her hands wrapped around Delia's waist. She supposed they looked like any number of people who were parting or reuninting, family, friend's, she expected you would have to look rather closley to see the tell tale signs that they were lovers. Patsy found that at this moment in time, she didn't care.

"You could just say come back." Delia murmured, her lips level with Patsy's cheek.

"Come back." Patsy whispered. "Please Come back."

Delia pulled her face away to look Patsy in the eye. "Oh Pats, I'm not going anywhere!" She laughed.

Xxxx