Danny was looking at the ceiling. Again. He had a feeling that he was likely to go mad staring at that ceiling. The chipped tiles were already annoying him so much so he started understanding why Alice kept moaning at him to paint that spot he'd missed in their bedroom. If you looked at anything to closely it started to irritate you. Speaking of irritating things, there was a small group of them currently congregated at the foot of Danny's bed. Harry and another consultant had entered his room just after Rosie had left followed by a group of 5 obviously, students. Harry had thrown Danny an apologetic look. Instead of complaining he just tried to block out what they were saying. He remembered being a newly qualified vet in Bristol and observing consultation after consultation. That seemed a million miles away from where he was today.

"Danny?"

He looked to see that the room had emptied without him noticing, only Harry was left.

"I'm guessing you chose to ignore all that, sorry."

"It's fine."

"I was discussing the details of your condition and the treatments. I thought you'd like to know the plan."

Danny nodded and pulled himself up to a sitting position, not before waving away Harry's offer of help. "Just tell me everything the whole ugly truth of it."

"As you know with acute myeloid leukaemia the white blood cells have become cancerous specifically the monocytes and granulocytes." Danny simply nodded. "Your chemotherapy starts tomorrow. The chemo goes directly into the bloodstream so you'll have what we call a portacath inserted into your chest."

"A what?" He noticed how weak his voice was.

"You have a tube put into your chest under local anaesthetic. The last 6 inches or so of it hangs out of your chest and we attach that to a drip. Danny this treatment is intensive, there is side effects but they can be controlled."

"What kind of side effects?"

"Well, you'll feel sick, there will be all over hair loss," Danny squeezed his eyes shut. " and there's a chance you may suffer from mouth ulcers, oh and your fertility will be affected..."

At that one Danny zoned out unable to listen to another word.

He hadn't realised he was crying till Harry planted a hand on his shoulder. He quickly composed himself. "Right thanks mate." Allowing him space, Harry simply nodded and left quietly.

Danny lay back jamming his fists into his eyes. He'd been prepared for hair loss and all the rest, the surgery the blood transfusions but he had never thought of long term effects. He was determined to beat this but at what cost. Losing fertility. Since Alice had come back they'd been trying again for a baby. He and Alice had wanted more kids, he remembered them discussing their family just before they'd found out about Robert.

They lay looking up at the stars. Alice's head on his chest.

"Danny?"

"Hmmm?"

"You know how we spoke about having a baby?"

"Alice are you saying-"

"No! Well not yet." She smirked pecking his cheek. "I was just wondering how many more kids you want to have. I know we've got Rosie, Liv and Evan and Charlotte so do you want any more really?"

"Of course I do. You know how much I hated being an only child."

"So how many?"

He laughed, "Why don't you just tell me how many you want and we'll save ourselves the time and the trouble?" She squirmed as he tickled her side.

"Ok, ok!" She said grabbing his hand and entwining their fingers. "Four."

"Four!"

"You asked!"

"You'll break me." She smirked. "Eight kids?" She smiled "Eight." he repeated looking at her in complete shock but then smiled. "Eight kids." he said for a final time and started kissing her passionately. She squealed as he rolled so he was hovering above her.

Danny came crashing back to the hospital bed, and back to reality, with a thud. He'd never be able to give Alice the family she wanted. The family she deserved.

What do you all think? I'm just trying to create a picture of what Danny is going to have to go through and how it's going to affect the whole family.