In the end, the disease degraded her faster than either of them could have guessed. It wasn't long after their daughter's twelfth birthday that Remy Hadley took her last breath, lying with her daughter and girlfriend by her side in their home with the soft summer light filtering in through curtains that moved in the breeze.

….

"I have to know." Remy told her, lying in their bed one night. Ally slept with her until the end, not caring whether Remy's movements kept her awake, but rather wanting to spend every moment possible in her company.

"I know." Ally sighed. They'd agreed not to test Robyn through her childhood, but with Remy degrading so quickly, Ally understood that it was now time.

….

It had been a mutual decision to lie.

"I don't want her to know." Robyn looked up at Ally desperately as she clutched at the paper containing her results. "I want to fake it."

Ally sighed and closed her eyes. She wanted Remy to leave the world without the burden of guilt. Opening them again, she sat down across from her dark-eyed, dark-haired daughter. "Are you sure?"

Robyn nodded. "It isn't her fault." The twelve-year-old whispered. Ally ran a hand through her daughter's hair gently. She'd been raised around the hospital, understanding the gravity of the world. Understanding that one of her mothers was dying. She knew what death meant. She had seen it. Watched it happen. First to others, then to her mother as her symptoms began to show, get worse, and finally, to kill her. Now she knew that one day, she would experience that slow, painful, infinitely frustrating death herself.

Ally took her hand gently. "Alright."

…

Mother and daughter collapsed into one another sobbing.

She was gone.

…

It was Robyn who kept her alive after Remy was gone. It was Robyn who insisted that they both keep living. It was Robyn who refused to let her circle into self-destructive grief, telling her over and over that Remy wanted her to live. To experience life for her since she couldn't be there herself.

Lisa was amazing.

Robyn and Rachael went to the same school, so Lisa would pick both Ally and Robyn up at first, to make sure they got out of bed each morning. To make sure they ate. To make sure they kept on existing. She would come over at three in the morning when Ally couldn't stop sobbing and hold her until she fell asleep, setting Rachael up in the spare bed in Robyn's room.

At first they went through the motions of life, everything seeming hollow and dark. Eventually though, they began to see colour in the world. They helped one another find it each day in whatever they could.

Robyn found it in her voracious will to live each and every moment.

Ally found it in her ability to help others, just as she always had, working among her friends at PPTH.

They kept Remy alive in memories. In the photos scattered around the house. In their stories. In their jokes.

Ally saw her in her dreams each night, happy and whole, just as she'd always remember her.

In the end, they'd had sixteen infinitely happy years together. Even at the end, they'd still been just as in love as the first time they'd realised it. They were still so happy, despite Remy's endlessly degrading condition.

Remy's fears were never realised. Robyn never hated her as she had her own mother. On the contrary, she'd insisted on helping Ally with everything.

It was all those things that they chose to remember. All the happiness. The life they'd lived together, each and every day, to its fullest.

Fin.