The next morning.
Chris got up to see Clara still deeply asleep.
He would've made her something before he left for work, but there was no telling when she'd wake up or if she felt like anything. He decided to leave her to her own devices, as she seemed happy to lie there. As long as she didn't leave the flat before he got back it'd all work out ok.

He went straight to his room and before long Karen had come in. His eyes sparkled blissfully in the morning light at the unexpected sight of her.
He then frowned when he noticed a more sombre attitude to her. "Everything ok?"

She shook her head dimly, not wanting to look at him directly.

"Has something happened?" Chris stopped what he was doing and went over to her. He didn't care about anything else but her and her feelings.

"You owe me an explanation." She told him frostily.

He wasn't at all put off by her glacial attitude with him. "Sure, but an explanation for what exactly?"

"These." She produced two blown up, photocopied pictures of him and Clara in a very close embrace. A few derogatory words were put at the bottom of both of them, either relating to him or her. "These are up all over the place."

He wasn't that offended by what he saw. He knew that she'd caught the gaze of more than one kid in his sets and he had a pretty huge fan base himself. Of course kids of either sex were going to envy them for one reason or another!

"I-is this true, Chris?"

He shrugged, clearly not getting it. "Is what true?"

"Your relationship with this girl." Karen's eyes glazed over sadly. "A-are you seeing her?"

Chris didn't know what to say. He was going to have to reveal Clara's identity at some stage, but not like that.

"It seems like you two are pretty close in that picture."

He drew in a small sigh, leaning against the side of his desk and placing his hands in his pockets. "That girl is my daughter."

Her eyes widened somewhat, taking in his passive posture.

"She'd been hurt the night before…I agreed to let her come in and help me out for one day as she felt quite bad."

"I'm sorry." She suddenly admitted. "I'm so sorry…I've accused you of seeing underage girls and it wasn't what you were doing at all."

"It's not that that's worried me, Karen," he looked to her softly, "it's the fact that you've accused me of cheating on you."

She cast her gaze down to the floor.

"If I'm in love with someone, I don't cheat on them with someone else." His voice sounded pallid with shock. "How could you think that of me?"

"I know, I just jumped to conclusions…I saw the picture of you two together and I thought…"

"Well, you thought wrong." He retorted, suddenly wanting to go back behind his desk and carry on with what he wanted to get on with. "If that was all you wanted me for, I think you ought to go."

Casting her gaze to the floor, Karen sadly exited the room. She had no intention of hurting Chris the way she did but she wanted answers from him.
She wished she could've apologised right there and then, but with the shaken state he was in, was that really the right thing to do? He probably still would've told her to leave him alone.

Clara was bored.
She hadn't long gotten up from her few extra hours of sleep, but not knowing what to set about doing prompted the tedium to set in even more and exhaust her in the process. Maybe writing about her feelings wasn't a bad idea…If anything, it'd give her an hour or so to keep her mind active.

Trawling through her bag, she fished out a notebook that she absent-mindedly shoved in with the rest of her stuff. She clicked open her pen and pressed its nib against a blank page. Why did she still feel so bad? She thought once she'd told him everything about what had happened between her and her mum's partner, she'd feel better. But she didn't go into every single detail…

"Wow," Chris remarked after his set with Harry and the others, "you've done better this time."

He shrugged. "I don't know what I did."

"Well, things at home have perked up a bit, surely?" He should know; he'd been sleeping with the kid's mother! If that wasn't reason enough, what was?

"I've been focussing more on the paper, I guess." He loosely presumed. "I haven't been spending much time with the rest of my family…"

"Well in this case," he smiled softly, "that's not a bad thing."

He didn't know where to look. He hadn't expected to do so well, but that was the truth.
Karen had been spending an unhealthy amount of time with Jess's little one, and whilst he couldn't deny that his sister was never really there, a babysitter should be in her place – not her mother. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure." He handed his marked paper back to him. "I don't have a set right now, and if you don't have anywhere else you should be going to, talk away."

Harry drew in a small sigh, giving Chris slightly more concern at how jaded he sounded and seemed.

"Things at home still not all that good?"

He paused for a second, before darting his gaze to the older male's bright blue orbs. "If my mum's spending a lot of time with my sister's baby, what does that tell you?"

He shrugged. "I don't really know…I do remember your mum telling me that Jess rarely ever spends any time with her little one. I can only put it down to that." He did not want to let him catch on to the fact that he knew more, so much more, than just simply that.

"You sound like you know a lot."

"It's just…common sense, isn't it?" He inattentively made to get another unmarked paper ready for his imminent, undivided attention. "And besides, your mum does talk to me at times about things at home, Harry."

"Really?" He cocked his head in interest.

"Sure she does," he put his pen back down, "we are both friends."

Harry still seemed sad.

"You don't seem convinced that it's pretty much normal behaviour that you're seeing from her."

"It isn't that, but…"

"But what?"

He shyly cast his gaze away. "I think there's something wrong with my mum."

"Harry," he shifted about a little in his chair, "you've got nothing to worry about your mum, absolutely nothing. You'll see that for yourself when you get home after school, and everything will be fine. And she's fine. She'll let you know when something's wrong."

"I just…I don't know."

"Well I do." Chris leant further forward over his desk. "I know your mum almost as well as you do, and things at home will be fine when you go back."

Karen waited nervously for her name to be called at the surgery later that afternoon.
When she was called through, she shakily took a seat in front of her doctor's desk.

"How can I help you, Karen?" The friendly female doctor leant forward over her desk.

She felt another hot flush develop, and it was terrible to suddenly feel so hot and flustered. "I'm finding it hard to separate myself from Jess's baby when she isn't there."

"Well, that's completely normal." She reassured her. "If the baby's natural mother isn't there for them, a more experienced female is likely to want to look after them."

"But it's happening all the time." She admitted, prompting a frown to form at the doctor's face. "And I've been coming over really hot and flushed over the past few days."

"Does your husband know about how you're feeling and behaving?"

She sadly shook her head. "We separated. But I'm seeing someone else…"

"Does he know?"

"I just…don't want him to worry."

"I think what I should do is to refer you to the hospital for some tests," she explained softly, "just to rule out any infections or particular problems with things down there."

Karen didn't like where the conversation was going. She felt a stab in her chest. She hoped it wasn't coming to that time…that time where motherhood would well and truly stop. She swallowed hard at the thought.

"Once the tests are done, they should know there and then what's going on and they'll relay that information onto you."

She sat in the cold, clinically sterile room in the hospital, feeling even colder with the crisp white sheet over her. She waited for the doctor to come back and put her out of her misery with what was making her feel so odd.

"I'm sorry to have kept you." The doctor came back into the room. "We've got the test results back."

She felt a chill slide down her back. She wished that they didn't.

"You're going through menopause, Karen."

She felt a lump grow in her throat and she swallowed it down, only for another one to form and grow even bigger than the first. "F-for how long have I been going through this?"

"Not that long." She explained.

"But long enough to make me…not be able to be pregnant."

"It's a long shot to consider being able to get pregnant any time soon." She stated. "That doesn't mean to say that it won't ever happen, as in some cases it does, but the baby might not be able to survive through each trimester."

She shakily drew in a deep breath. It was quite heavy information to be told after a whole day's work. "So that's it for me then."

"Go home." The doctor compassionately suggested. "Go home, get some sleep and try to talk this all through with your partner when you feel ready to. Being told you're going through menopause is a life-altering situation, and it will sink in."

She thanked her and set about getting dressed in the small room after the talk was over. There came a light rap at the door and Chris slowly emerged.

"Harry told me you were here." He dimly explained. "Is everything ok?"

She nodded dimly, holding off wanting to tell him what she'd just been told. It was a huge shock, and she still couldn't believe it.

"Things can't be ok if you were taken up here." He replied.

"Just a check-up," she fibbed, "that was all."

"But you usually get so many weeks' notice for one of those." He frowned. "Unless…something cropped up for them to refer you."

"I can't have kids with you, Chris." Karen sharply stated, prompting him to jolt a little. "I just…can't produce something both of us would've made together."

"Karen…I don't understand." He noted blankly.

She closed her eyes sadly. She thought that he meant he was just as disillusioned as her about the revelation.
"I'm going through the menopause." She opened her eyes to be met with his still confused expression. "I can't have a baby with you."

"That doesn't matter," Chris sat down beside her on the bed, "what we have is good enough."

"I-it doesn't bother you?"

He shook his head. "That was what you were worried about?"

"Y-yes." She finished getting dressed. "Very much so. I hadn't been wanting to tell you in case I got you worried…"

"I love you," he boldly admitted, "and as long as I love you, that's all that matters."