Once the television programme had ended, Abigail moved away from Ben. She lifted her brother into her arms, and carried Ryan upstairs, taking him to bed. No one questioned her leaving, but she was previously very comfortable in Ben's assuring arms. His arms had always taken away any problem for her; he was even making her parent's death less horrific than it seemed to everyone else. Though, this was perhaps because she was the only one who had someone to turn to. Michael had always travelled alone, and Marcus, well, no one knew what Marcus was doing.

She set her sleeping brother in his bed, and pulled the blanket over him. It was a strange old patterned cover, the sort that aunts usually had in their guest rooms. She had never understood why Elsa had taken a house with so many rooms, but she was thankful for it now. Michael was going to be sleeping in the other spare bed in the room with Ryan, Abigail and Ben were sharing the double room next to it, and Marcus was on the other side, with the other single room - once he showed up, that is.

Where is he? Abigail wondered desperately. Marcus had never been as family orientated as the rest of them growing up. He had left for Canada to work without a second thought, and wouldn't have said goodbye to them if they hadn't followed him to the airport the day he left. When Ryan was born, he even claimed he was 'too busy' to come and see him and their parents, and had finally got the time of work when Ryan was six months old. She had never been that close to Marcus, preferring Michael's company, but now, she needed him more than ever. We're supposed to be family. He should be here with us. Why isn't he here already?

She watched Ryan sleeping with a new fascination. She had always sworn to be the best big sister for him, and she still stood by that. She visited him all the time, and he had taken to Ben and Riley better than he had ever done with Marcus, which annoyed her oldest brother considerably. Of course, after two years of being married, he sometimes reminded her of what she did not yet have and longed for so much. Now, without warning, she had been thrown into motherhood. The four of them were now orphans, but Ryan still needed parents. Her and her older brothers would cope, and eventually the shock and loss would fade, but Ryan was so young; he still needed to be cared for. And I'm going to do it, she thought with determination.

After Abigail had disappeared, Ben had decided to follow suit, and sensed that Abigail would need some comfort away from her brothers, aunt and uncle. When he got upstairs however, she wasn't in the room that he knew they were sleeping in. Looking ahead, he saw the light turned on and the door open in Ryan's current room. He went to the door, and for a moment he waited in the doorway. Seeing Abigail kneeling beside the bed with tears in her eyes made his heart break for her. He heard her whispering to him.

"It's going to be all right, Ryan." She began softly. "I know it's going to be hard. But we'll get there together. We're going to look after you, me and Ben. You can come and live with us, and we'll try to look after you as well as Mom and Dad did, we'll try as hard as we can. I'm sorry that this is happening. No one wanted it to happen, especially not to you." She brushed his curls away from his sleeping face. "But we'll be ok. We have to be. We have each other." She dipped her head and wiped tears away from her cheeks, ashamed of crying again, and then kissed him gently upon the forehead. "You'll always have me, no matter what."

Ben moved from the doorway and into the room, and Abigail noticed his presense. She knew straight away that he had heard most, if not all, of what she just said. He crouched on the floor beside her, and she went to wipe her tears again but he took hand in his as she attempted this. His other arm went around her shoulders, tightening securly and her head rolled onto his shoulder.

"Come on," he whispered, not wanting to wake Ryan. "It's been a long day, you need some sleep." He started to move, but Abigail didn't follow, she stayed still, her tiredness showing. Without a second thought, Ben lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and her arms snaked around his neck, allowing her to bury her face further into his shoulder. He carried her into their room, and sat down on the edge of the bed. She was sitting in his lap now, the way that a crying child would to their parent, but he didn't mind. If it was helping her in any way, he was willing to do it.

"Why is this happening to us?" She asked against his shoulder.

Ben used one hand to rest on her back, and the other stroked her hair softly. "I don't know," he answered. "I honestly don't know."

She sniffed, and he knew that she was trying not to cry. "This is silly," she said, pulling away from Ben's shoulder and looking down at the small space between them. "I can't keep doing this all the time. Ryan needs me to be strong, it'll scare him if he sees me crying all the time."

Ben put his finger under her chin and lifted her face gently so she was level with him. She kept her eyes away from his. "Look at me, Abi." She swallowed, and after a few faltering seconds, she locked his gaze. "Don't lock yourself away like this." He begged her. "Don't shut off your emotions. Yes, he needs you to be strong, and you are being strong, just by being there for him, by being the one he turns to. You're taking him in, Abigail, you're making sure he has a home still, what can you do that is stronger than that?" Her eyes wandered again and Ben kissed her cheek. "I can't imagine what it's like to lose both your parents at the same time, and believe me, seeing you in so much pain and knowing that there's only so much I can do to help you is the worst feeling I've ever had; but even if you hide your pain from everybody else, please don't think you have to hide it from me." He pushed the strands of hair which were plastered to her wet cheek away, tucking them safely behind her ear.

Abigail looked into his eyes again. She was thankful that he was there with her, that he had come with her to California. She needed him to keep herself going at the moment, to remind her that life was still good underneath the loss. "Thank you." She muttered, even though she didn't have to keep her voice so low any more.

"You don't need to thank me for anything." Ben replied, running his hand over her golden hair again, smoothing it down unecessarily. "I'd do anything for you."

She gave him a small smile, one that finally reached her eyes. He gave her a smile back, and kissed her again. After pulling away, she rested her head on his shoulder again, this time not in shame, but in tiredness. She sighed heavily, the telltale sign that she had found somewhere comfortable and was ready to sleep, a sign that Ben recognised instantly now. He pulled back the blanket on the bed and laid her down, covering her up again afterwards. Then he removed his jeans, leaving his t-shirt and underwear on, and climbed into bed beside his wife. She rolled onto her side as he wrapped his arms around her, puling her close to him.

"I love you." She said softly, as her eyes closed.

"I love you too." He replied, and within a few minutes at the most, she was asleep, and, like her brother, away from the pain.

The following morning, Abigail awoke to find Ben playing with the ends of her hair, curling them around his fingers before releasing it and doing the same again. He sat for hours doing it sometimes. "Morning." She greeted, her voice thick with sleep, also cracked with the torrents of tears she had shed yesterday. He kissed her in reply.

"Good morning to you too." He replied.

Her stomach groaned, not out of hunger, but it caused an odd stirring, which brought a ill expression over her face.

"Abi?" Ben asked, "What's the matter?"

She felt the strange sensation in her stomach intensify, and rushed out of the bed. Her head span from standing up to quickly, but she managed to reach the bathroom across the hall before she collapsed to the floor and vomited into the toilet. Ben pulled on his jeans from the previous day and gathered her robe from their suitcase, and followed her. When he found her vomitting, knelt on the floor behind her, and threaded his fingers through her hair, keeping it out of the way as she leaned forward against the toilet bowl.

After throwing up the contents of what little food she had in her stomach, she sat back against Ben's chest, and Ben let her slightly ruffled hair fall upon her shoulders. He turned to the sink beside them and filled a perfectly placed cup with water from the tap and handed it to her. "You all right?" He asked as she sipped from the cup, putting the robe around her shoulders as she began to shake from the sudden cold.

She shrugged. "I think so." She answered, slightly confused. "I didn't feel ill until a few minutes ago."

"It might be the stress." Ben reminded her, unable to think of any other reason. She hadn't eaten much, so it was unlikely to be bad food, and she hadn't been drinking, so it was obviously the stress and shock of losing her parents.

"Maybe." She partially agreed. "Unless..no. No."

"What?" Ben asked.

She shook her head, almost nervously. "Nothing. It's nothing." She took a longer drink and then looked at the floor.

"Abigail." Ben said, "Don't try the 'nothing' trick with me. I can see right through it now."

She smirked at him, "You know me too well."

He nodded. "That's what comes from being married." He reached out and took her hand, running his thumb over the wedding ring upon her finger. "So?"

"So what?"

"What was this 'unless..' all about?"

She looked around the room uncertainly. "I'm not certain, so don't get your hopes up again." She told him first.

"Again? Abi-"

"My period was due two weeks ago. I haven't had it yet, and the month before completely skipped, so I'm about six weeks late now." Ben's eyebrows almost shot through the ceiling, had she not been feeling quite the same, she would probably have laughed at his expression. "I was under a lot of stress at work, and then when that stopped we got called out here, so it could be down to stress. But now I've been ill a couple of times, and there's definately something different in my mind right now, I'm starting to think that, maybe, well, I might be pregnant."