In regards to one reviewer commenting on how the nurse told them they had to leave the hospital; I know they don't do that, that's the entire point. Just go with it and maybe by the end of this chapter you'll be able to make a guess at what was going on there (;

DPOV

I'd been thinking about that nurse from the night before, I think her name was Nadia, and something just seemed off about her. I hadn't really thought about it until this morning when we were on our way back.

In most instances parents were allowed to stay with sick children...right? I didn't know enough about that to be sure, but I was pretty sure that's how it worked.

"Hermione, has Rose ever been sick before?"

She shrugged as we walked down the hallway to where Rose was supposed to be.

"Not bad enough to be admitted here as a patient if that's what you're asking."

Just then the nurse from the day before, Nadia, came up to us, seeming nicer than she had been yesterday.

"Hello, Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger, it's so nice to finally be able to meet you."

"What do you mean? We met you yesterday." I said, looking to Hermione, who seemed to be trying to piece it together in her head as well.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't in yesterday. Had a bit of a family problem. I'm sure you just had me confused with one of the other nurses. Happens all the time when parents are stressed."

I opened my mouth to tell her that I wasn't daft and I knew she'd been the one to take us to Rose, a doctor came out of her room and walked over to us.

"Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger, I'm Dr. Hayes. And although this is quite a shock to us that you two have a child together, we have managed to keep the knowledge of this to a minimum."

Hermione nodded, but wasn't looking at him.

"Right, so how is she then?" I asked.

"I had actually wanted to discuss that with you last night, but I got word that you had gone home." said Dr. Hayes slowly.

I raised an eyebrow, "We were told by Nadia, or whoever the hell the nurse was," I corrected, when I saw Nadia's face, "That we were to go home."

"Well they shouldn't have told you that...regardless," he said, giving Nadia a look that clearly said, 'we-will-speak-about-this-later', before continuing, "It seems that she is stable, her vital functions are normal, everything is absolutely as it should be."

"So why do I feel a 'but' coming along?" asked Hermione.

I squeezed her hand in comfort before turning back to Dr. Hayes.

"Well, she's still not responsive."

"She's in a coma?" asked Hermione.

"In a sense, yes. Although we have no idea how exactly that happened. After you left and we ran a few tests she had woken up, but when one of the nurses checked on her, she said that she wasn't responding." he explained.

I could sense Hermione's panic, or maybe it was my own, so I asked what both of us needed to know.

"Is she going to be okay?"

He seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "I don't see why she wouldn't. Everything is normal."

"If everything was normal she wouldn't be in a bloody coma." snapped Hermione.

"Now Ms. Granger I know this is a tough time-"

Hermione shot Nadia a look that must have said it all, because she stopped dead in her tracks.

"We have our top doctors working to find out what could be the cause of this." assured Dr. Hayes.

I could tell Hermione was done listening, so I said, "Can we see her now?"

"Of course. Go ahead."

~OoOoOoOoOoOoO~

I honestly couldn't tell you what was worse, seeing Rose like this, or seeing Hermione so completely unlike herself.

Both were absolutely terrifying in their own ways.

Seeing Rose hooked up to all the machines was the scariest thing I'd ever had to face in my life. I was her father. I was supposed to insure that bad things did not happen to her. I was supposed to bloody protect her.

Seeing Hermione, her tear stained cheeks and almost vacant eyes was painful, literally painful to watch. She was probably feeling what I was feeling, but more so.

Hermione had been Rose's mother, actively, way longer than I had been her father. Five years longer, but that didn't make me any less terrified of losing her.

"Draco," she caught my attention after we'd been sitting with Rose for over half an hour.

I was sitting in a chair next to hers, one hand entwined with hers and the other resting on Rose's bed. "Yes?"

"I swear that girl, Nadia, is the same nurse who was in here last night."

"Hermione, we were both stressed out, maybe she really wasn't in here." I said, trying to convince myself more than her.

"Draco, that was her. I am not imagining things. You know it too!"

"Hey, hey, calm down." I said, pulling her into a hug. "Everything is going to be okay."

"No, no, no. Draco, what if she had something to do with why Rosie won't wake up?" her voice broke into a sob and I felt her shaking against me.

"Shh, Love, it's going to be okay. Rosie is going to be fine." I said, softly rubbing her back. "I really don't think Nadia was in here yesterday. Her attitude was totally different."

"Well then who the hell was in here?!" she asked, completely freaked out.

I honestly didn't know what to tell her. I didn't know how any of this made any sense, or what was going on with the Nadia thing. All I knew was that Hermione was freaking out and I was supposed to be there to help her through it.

"We'll figure it out, Hermione."

"Maybe I should talk to Harry. He's an Auror."

"And tell him what? That we think our nurse is lying?"

"We don't think, we know Draco!" she said, struggling to keep her voice quiet.

"Okay, we'll talk to Potter. But for right now you need to be calm for Rosie's sake. She needs you more than ever now."

At that she looked up at me and smiled faintly, "No, she needs us."

I smiled and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Well she has us."

HPOV

"Shit!" I muttered, letting go of Rosie's hand and standing up.

"What happened?" asked Draco, looking over at me.

"I forgot to tell Kyle that I wouldn't be in for a few days." I said, already pulling my phone out of my purse and stepping into the hallway.

After a few tries there was no answer and I let out a frustrated sigh. I was going to have to apparate over there and let him know in person.

I walked back into the hospital room and picked up my purse, "Kyle's not answering and his assistant is about as daft as Pansy, so I have to go down there and let him know. I'll be back as soon as I can."

He stood up and hugged me, clearly noticing how frazzled I was at the entire situation. I took a deep breath, just breathing in his smell, and instantly felt calmer.

"Alright, I've got to go. I should be back within the hour." I said, forcing myself to look up at him.

His beautiful gray eyes were troubled, but he smiled and said, "Hurry back."

He pressed a chaste kiss to my lips before letting me go. I forced a smile and kissed Rose before leaving the hospital and apparating to Buxom and Brant.

When I got there it didn't take long to find Kyle. He was buried to his elbows in paperwork, a sour look on his face that only increased when he saw me.

"Hermione, where the hell have you been?" he snapped.

"I'm sorry Kyle. Rose is in the hospital and I've been beside myself."

His face instantly softened, "Is she okay?"

"We don't know, really, but she's a tough girl." I mumbled.

"Well then you'd better get your arse back to that child of yours." he said with a crooked smile.

"I'm not sure how long I'm going to be gone..."

He waved a hand in the air, as if he was physically brushing the words away, "Not to worry. Your job will still be here when you return. After your daughter is alright again. Family comes first. It's all we really have." he said with a slow smile.

I returned it and thanked him profusely, and apologized, before he shooed me out of his office.

I took a deep breath and walked outside, almost running over Blaise in the process.

"Oh Merlin, I'm sorry."

He smiled, "No problem. No harm done."

That's when I noticed he wasn't alone. In fact he was in the company of beautiful young woman who looked eerily like-

"Oh my goodness, Luna!"

I pulled her into a hug, and she hugged back, smiling ear to ear. "I haven't seen you in ages! How've you been?"

I smiled, "I've been...fairly preoccupied I suppose you could say."

Blaise tugged on Luna's arm and said, "Her daughter's in the hospital. We should let her go."

Luna's eyes widened, "Merlin, I'm sorry. Maybe when she gets better we can all spend some time together."

"I'd like that." I said, hugging her one last time, before giving Blaise a smile and apparating in front of St. Mungo's.

I walked down the hallway and pushed my way into Rose's hospital room, and what I saw most likely made me the happiest woman in the world.

~OoOoOoOoOoOoO~

"Mummy!"

I crossed the floor and was at her side in seconds.

"Hi Angel, how are you feeling?" I asked, giving Draco a questioning glance.

"Fine," she said, her gaze was a bit confused as she looked at Draco's hair.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing her gaze as well.

She scrunched up her face and tilted her head to the side slightly, before reaching out and tugging on the ends of Draco's hair.

"Rosie," I said pulling her hand out of his hair, "I told you before it's not polite to pull people's hair."

Draco was studying her intently before he opened his mouth, "Rosie, what happened at the park?"

She seemed to think it over before answering, "I was playing with Roxie and then James came over with this blonde boy..." she scrunched up her face again and I could tell she couldn't remember any more.

"Well what about when you woke up here in the hospital? Do you remember anything about that?" I asked softly.

She nodded slowly, biting her lip like I always did when I was deep in thought.

"A lady left and then this man came in...he...he was tall."

"Is that all you remember about how he looked?" asked Draco. I could tell the wheels in his head were already spinning to try and figure out who had hurt Rose-and more importantly why.

"He had on a big jacket thingy that covered his face." she said, squinting and tilting her head to the side to look at Draco's hair again.

"Well did he say anything Angel?" I asked, drawing her attention to me.

"Um...he said I was too pretty to be...to be a..." she trailed off, most likely not remembering what else the man said to her.

I sighed and looked over at Draco, who looked just as frustrated as I felt.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Talk to Potter." he said. I could tell he was trying to keep his voice worry free, but he wasn't fooling me.

"Did Dr. Hayes tell you when she could go home?"

He nodded, "We just have to wait a few more hours and then he said that if everything stays normal," he looked to Rose and pressed a kiss to her forehead, "which it will, we'll be able to take her home."

I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and smiled. Regardless of what was going on, Rose was okay and coming home. For now, that's all I could ask for.

"Daddy, will you tell me a story?"

My eyes immediately snapped to Draco's face and I could tell that he was thinking back to the many times I'd asked him that same thing back in Hogwarts.

One night in particular stood out in my mind.

I had just woken up from a particularly bad nightmare, and couldn't fall back asleep due to the storm that was raging outside, rattling the window panes. I sat up in Draco's bed and attempted to get up without waking him. But before I could set both feet on the ground, his arm shot out and grabbed my wrist.

"Where are you going?" he asked, his voice still groggy with sleep.

"I just had a bad dream. Go back to sleep."

At the mention of bad dreams his eyes opened and he pulled me down so my head rested on his chest and his fingers were leisurely combing through my hair.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's nothing you'd want to listen to. Just me being stupid."

"Don't say that." he said, his hand in my hair stilling, "Don't ever say that."

I sighed and closed my eyes, listening to his steady heartbeat.

"How about you tell me a story?" I asked instead.

I could feel his breath hitch for a moment before he replied, "Why?"

"Because it'll make me feel better."

"This is some stupid muggle thing isn't it?" he asked with a sigh, his hand picking up where it had left off in my hair.

"Just forget it." I said, feeling stupid that I'd think he'd ever do something like that for me. He was Draco bloody Malfoy for Merlin's sake.

"No, wait." he said, catching me off guard. "I'll do it. Just give me a second."

I leaned up on one elbow so that I could look at him and asked, "Are you serious?"

"Just lay back down and shut up Granger." he said with a smile that was so much softer than the smirk he usually wore.

He paused for a few moments before he began. "Once upon a time there was a beautiful bookworm..."

I was brought back to the present by Draco clearing his throat, his eyes on me. Part of me wanted to ask if he remembered that night. If he thought of it just then as well.

I banished the thought quickly and smiled, nodding my encouragement.

"Alright," he said, giving me a look that I couldn't quite read, before looking at a smiling Rosie.

"Once upon a time..."