A/N: Hey guys, so sorry about the wait. Uni really has been hectic since the moment I got back so it's difficult to devote time to this and assignments. I will update as regularly as I can though, and thank you to everyone that has followed/favourited/reviewed so far and I hope you're all still enjoying it!

Months pass and everything goes back to normal. Almost. After we got back from the hospital, she was exactly the person I fell in love with. She was funny, smart and most importantly my Alex. She decided to temporarily put off telling Kubra about her illness as the medication appeared to be working wondrously; if you hadn't have know that she was actually ill, you most certainly couldn't have guessed she was. She was thriving, my beautiful butterfly appeared to be exceeding everyone's expectations, even Dr Healy commented on how remarkably well she was doing.

However, all good things must come to an end.

I wake up early as I have a business meeting with Barney's where Polly, my best friend, and I are pitching our company PoPi to. I have never dealt with stress well, so when I discover my phone's dead I am not at all impressed.

"Shit," I groan, I start rifling through everything in the bedroom but I'm still unable to find it. "Al, have you seen my charger?' I shout to her as I look in the living room.

"Charger?" she shouts back sounding confused. I shut my eyes and sigh. Please God, not this morning I silently pray and walk back into the bedroom.

"My phone charger babe, ya know, I need it so my phone can work."

"Oh right, um, I have no idea," she shakes her head and lays back down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I feel my temper flaring, but it quickly disappears and guilt replaces it. What sort of person am I, getting annoyed with her for being ill?

"Forget it" I mumble and resume my hunt in the kitchen.

"Ha, funny," I hear Alex say and once again I feel like the worst fucking person to ever exist.

I scour round, still unable to find it until I check the time. 8.30am, shit, I only have 20 minutes! I abandon my search in favour of getting a glass of orange juice, only when I quickly yank the fridge open I see my charger sitting neatly on the middle shelf. Even though I know that this was going to happen, no amount of preparation could ever prepare me enough for when something like this actually happens. I hear Alex get up and I quickly pull the charger out and throw it on the table. She comes through, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Oh hey, you found it," she smiles and goes to prepare some coffee.

"Uh yeah, I must have charged my phone in here last night. Leave the coffee Al, I'll do it," I quickly tell her. We had discussed what would happen as she started to lose her memory more a few months back.

"I don't want you doing things where you could easily hurt yourself as you get worse," I told Alex firmly as she was trying to unstick the kettle that had melted onto the oven that she had forgot to turn off. Although she was processing with her illness slowly, there were still subtle signs that let us all know it hadn't miraculously disappeared.

"Pipes, calm down, this was a genuine mistake. You're acting as though I've forgotten how to drive a car, or how to put a fire out," she joked half-heartedly.

"I''m serious Alex, what happens if you hurt yourself when I'm not here and have no way of contacting me? We need to set out guidelines and boundaries before you progress anymore with this,"

"You're not my mum, Piper. God, maybe if we had have had kids you wouldn't be so mumsy with me," she groaned.

"Thank god we didn't," I whisper to myself, but I know she heard me from the way she winces and looks in the opposite direction.

"Look, we'll take it as it comes OK? We'll get people in to help if we have to, I just don't want you to unnecessarily put yourself in danger," I walk over to her and gently sit in her lap.

"I don't wanna get to that stage Pipes, I've always taken care of myself and now that I can't… I just struggle to see the point sometimes," her face crumples and tears form in her eyes. I pull her head into my neck and try to blink away my own tears.

"I know babe, but we've still got so much to do. At least we're in it together, right?"

"Right," she tries to sound enthusiastic, but her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes.

I prepare the coffee for Alex, look at my watch and swear, I literally only have 10 minutes left and I could not be less organised. I grab everything, say goodbye to Alex when what she says next completely astounds me.

"Bye mum, have a good shift," she waves cheerily, but then a completely horrified expression crosses her face and she goes beet red. "Fuck, I don't even-"

"It's cool babe, I'll see you later," I mumble. I close the door behind me and quickly signal to a nearby taxi that I need a lift, desperately trying to shake off the wave of nausea that has just come across me and hoping it's not enough to fuck up the meeting.

The meeting goes well, brilliantly in fact, and Polly and I give each other a resounding high five when we leave the room.

"You were fucking awesome Pipe! Well done!' Polly beams, finally relieved that we appear to have received our first official contract.

"So were you, honestly, I can't believe we bagged Barney's!" I squeal, I know they haven't officially given us a contract yet, but with such a good response from the board and a "we'll definitely be in touch soon", it's hard not to believe we got it.

We both decide to go for a celebratory lunch, and I'm having the best laugh I've had with Polly in ages when the topic of Alex comes up.

"So, how's Alex?" Polly asks whilst delicately sipping on a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

"Not… not that good," I say, nervously tucking my hair behind my ear and my leg begins to pump up and down. "She, uh, called me 'mum' this morning."

"Well fuck," Polly says and takes a bigger gulp of her wine. "How do you feel about that?"

"How the hell do you think? She called me mum Pol, I can't just ignore that."

"I know babe, of course not, but isn't there anything else you can do? Is there any other treatment?" she questions, even though she knows that there is absolutely nothing else that can be done.

"Apart from making sure she attends all of her appointments and takes her medication, no," I say quietly. "I just feel so fucking useless, one minute I'm losing my shit with her for putting a charger in the fridge and the next I just want to hold her and tell her everything's going to be OK."

We eat the rest of our meal in silence, pay the bill and leave. It's really unusual for Polly to not be droning on about her WASPy life and I wonder if I've offended her somehow by telling her about Alex.

"Hey, why don't you and Alex get away for a bit? I can hold the fort with the business here while you guys have a break. You could use Pete and I's place in LA if you wanted?" she laughs nervously and looks at the floor, and for the first time since I've known he,r I really think that she's being genuine for a change.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, you both deserve it. I know you and Alex want to do stuff before… well in case she can no longer go places and do things in the future."

"Thanks Pol, that means a lot," I say hugging her tightly.

"Now go tell Super Cunt," she laughs, "Preferably before I change my mind."

"Thank you again, you have no idea how much this'll mean to her."

I head home excitedly, happy that finally something good will happen for a change.

A/N: I know it's a relatively short chapter but I just wanted to get something up, but the next one will hopefully be up soon and will be about their trip to LA. As usual, if you have any ideas or comments, please feel free to PM me and thank you to everyone again :)