Here it is - chapter two. I'm sorry it took me so long, but you know how it is... if I had nothing to do I would have written fanfiction all day long, but I do have some other occupations:)

Big thanks to my hero - Ethelfreda who puts a lot of time and efford to make this readable and to teach me proper English!

Last BUT NOT LEAST thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and asking me when chapter 2 will be up - you all give me energy to continue this!

A splitting headache was the first thing she become aware of after she woke up. It got even worse when Julia reminded herself of the events of the previous evening. She didn't even know if the Inspector was still alive! ...Well, he had to be. William would be one of the first to know if something happened and he would have surely telephoned her. She decided to call the hospital anyway.

The nurse told Julia that the inspector was still unconscious. "Neither better nor worse, Doctor" were her exact words. Putting the receiver down, Julia noticed the ring on her left hand. So it wasn't a dream? She was really engaged to William now? Though she was still terribly worried about the Inspector, Julia felt that her headache was gone.

'How can I be so happy and so sad at the same time?' she asked herself. 'My father died, then I finally got engaged to the man I've loved for so long, and now one of my closest colleagues is fighting for his life. What a mixture of different feelings life given me...'

William Murdoch did not fall asleep even for a second. After watching Julia and Margaret getting into her carriage he went home, washed up and laid on a bed. Two hours of tossing and turning convinced him that he wouldn't be able to sleep. He dressed himself and tried to read, pray or think of a new invention, but nothing worked, he just wasn't able to concentrate on anything knowing that his friend was fighting for his life.

At six in the morning Murdoch arrived at the hospital wanting to to check on his friend before going to the Station. Entering he saw the inspector's wife asleep in an armchair.

"Margaret" he said gently touching her arm "Margaret, you should rest, please go home."

"William" she was surprised "I cannot, I can't leave him now, he needs me, he..."

"He will need you to take care of him once he's better. I'm sure Thomas wouldn't want you to exhaust yourself like this. Please Margaret, go home, I'm going to stay with him for a few hours."

"If you insist, William. But if something happens..."

"You shall be called directly."

"All right then, thank you detective."

"You have nothing to thank me for."

Margaret got up from the armchair and walked towards the door. She stopped for a while looking at her unconscious husband once more. Her eyes welled with tears and after saying good bye to the Detective, she quickly exited the room.

William was lost in his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door and turned to see doctor entering the room.

"Detective Murdoch, a nurse told me I could find you here. My name is Dr. Greenwood and I'm taking care of our friend" said the young man.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Doctor, how can I help you?"

"I just thought you might want to know that we didn't find anything that could lead us to the offender. Inspector Brackenreid was beaten and kicked severely, but it's possible that the attacker used some kind of weapon, a piece of wood or a metal pipe perhaps."

"Thank you Doctor, I appreciate your help."

"If it weren't for Dr. Ogden and Dr. Grace, I would have been helping you in a murder investigation now. Their expertise as well as quick transport to the hospital saved your superior's life."

"So he will live then?" William's voice was full of hope

"I can't promise you that. The only thing I know is that without the help from his friends, he would have already died. On occasions like this, I only wish we had more and better organized ambulances."

"Yes Doctor, so do I... Well, I have to go to work now, but thank you for your help."

"Good bye, detective."

"Good bye, doctor."

William was at the Station a few minutes before 8 o'clock and most of the constables were already there.

George launched himself at Murdoch as soon as he saw him. "Have you been at the hospital, sir?"

"Yes I have, George" he answered with a sigh

"And..?"

"They still don't know if he will survive, but it appears that Dr. Ogden and Dr. Grace saved his life."

"I must say I've hoped for better news, sir."

"I know, George, but we must be grateful that he's still alive and concentrate our efforts on catching the attacker."

"Of course. But it is so sad. When he was leaving the station, he told me he wanted to change, be less violent, become more of a intellectual. He was going to surprise Mrs. Brackenreid by taking her to dinner, and now... Anyway, is there anything you want me to do, sir?"

"Yes. You will go to the hospital and call the Station every hour to report on the Inspector's condition. After 4 hours I'll send another constable to replace you."

"Right away, detective."

An hour passed and George telephoned to say that there had been no improvements in the inspector's health. Murdoch took this message calmly, but with resignation. Looking around the Station House, he noticed that it was overcrowded. A lot of constables showed up just to see if they could be of any help. The problem was that all of them were too shocked to do anything. Everyone was disorientated and worried and William couldn't blame them, because he didn't know what to do himself. It all seemed like a terrible nightmare it was just too cruel to be real!

"May I come in, Julia?" asked Murdoch knocking to Dr. Ogden's door.

"William! Is the inspector... has he..." she was scared

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. He is still unconscious, but alive."

"Thank Goodness! So what brings you here William, shouldn't you be at work?"

"Chief Constable Giles appeared at the Station about 10 o'clock and told us to go home. We have only a few constables left on duty, but for today, the Station is technically closed. No one was able to work properly after what happened. Tomorrow the new Inspector will arrive and we will begin to search for Inspector Brackenreid's attacker."

"I can only imagine how that must have affected you even I can't concentrate on my duties today."

"You saved his life, you know? You and Dr. Grace. Your treatments at the scene made him survive the carriage ride to the hospital."

"That was the least we could have done..." she sighed.

"You are such a wonderful woman, Julia" he took her hand and felt a metal object on her finger. They both looked down at the engagement ring and smiled.

"Is that why you came, William? To check if I had changed my mind about marrying you?" she allowed herself to forget about the inspector for a while

"Interesting idea, Doctor, but apparently, I came to do this" and with that Murdoch kissed his fiancée tenderly yet not without passion.

"Mhm... Was that the only reason for your visit, detective? To share one kiss with your fiancée?"

"You don't think that to be sufficient?"

"Not really."

"All right, then" William smiled and pulling Julia into a very tight grip, kissed her once more, this time with much more passion.

"Well that's what I call a good reason for a visit!" said Julia playfully when she finally caught her breath.

"Yes... but to be honest, I didn't come here only to kiss you, Julia."

"That is what I thought, William" she was serious again "What brings you here, then?"

"I was hoping to talk about our wedding."

"Oh, of course" she gave Murdoch a sad smile. She knew that in the current situation, an immediate wedding is out of question. It would be months before William will be ready to prepare for their nuptials.

"I don't want to postpone it longer than necessary" his words struck her.

"You don't?"

"We have waited long enough, Julia. As soon as the inspector's better I want to marry you. We can have our wedding reception later, but we've wasted too much time to wait any longer."

"William..."

"That is not all. I want us to make the best of our time before the wedding. Last year we were... we had a few terrible arguments, do you remember?"

"Of course I do" Julia dropped her eyes in embarrassment.

"I don't want us to argue like that when we're married. Of course we will have arguments... but they shouldn't be about the past. I think there are some things that need to be explained before they become the subject of an argument. Do you agree, Julia?"

"Yes, William, you're right. You probably want to know why did I..."

"I want to start, Julia" cut Murdoch. "Can we go to the park and talk?"

Once seated on the bench beside a tree William looked at Julia and began.

"Last year you told me I could have stopped you from marrying Darcy."

"William, I really understand why you didn't, you don't have to..." she said putting her hand on his.

"Please let me speak, Julia. It was not the first time I decided against acting. I let you leave to Buffalo and didn't try to bring you back."

"Well, I must say I was sad you didn't even come to say goodbye."

"I did."

"You did?!"

"Look at your left hand, Julia. On the day go went to Buffalo I went to the jeweler."

Julia gasped.

"I was waiting for him to open, he was a bit late. I purchased the ring and hurried to the morgue to propose to you, but you were already gone."

"And you gave up?"

"No, I didn't, I rushed to the station. I don't think I ever cycled faster than I did then. When I entered the station the only thing I could see was the train disappearing on the horizon. That's when I broke down."

"Oh William, I should have known you wouldn't let me go without saying goodbye. I had hoped to see you at the station I secretly hoped you would stop me from leaving."

"And that was what I intended to do."

"But why didn't you catch the next train, why didn't you even write to me?! Why did you write 'best regards' instead of 'love' when you answered my letter?!"

"I wanted to do all of that, Julia. I wanted to go to Buffalo, to write to you, to say you how much I love you..."

"But...?"

"I thought that... maybe you didn't really want to be with me, that you didn't love me as much as I loved you."

"You doubted in my love?! William, had I loved you less, I would have stayed in Toronto."

"I know that now, Julia, but then I just thought you might be happier without me."

"We've lost so much time because we did not speak about our feelings openly."

"That's why I wanted to talk with you, to make it clear once and for all, and to finally stop hiding our emotions... I was too shy from the start. It took me ages to eventually ask you to dinner."

"I could have encouraged you more too. After all, I've always found you very attractive."

"Mmm... I've always thought that it was my infuriating logic and impressive detective skills that made you fall in love with me, Doctor."

"I told you once that some women are attracted to men who are both intelligent and physically attractive."

"Yes, I can remember. The 'intelligent thugs'."

"I've never found it to be very good description of you."

Both William and Julia laughed and smiled to each other. Their minds drifted to the times when they were still no more than colleagues, but already felt attracted to one another. After a while Murdoch asked, "Why did you leave?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"Why did you go to Buffalo, Julia? Why didn't you just tell me about the consequences of your abortion earlier, and give me some time to acknowledge the situation? It seemed as if you wanted to leave me without giving me a reason."

The young woman looked into the teary eyes of her betrothed and tried to blink away her own.

"It's complicated, William. It was breaking my heart that I couldn't give you the only thing you wanted. It was something you deserved and I couldn't stand taking it away from you..."

"Detective, Doctor!" constable Crabtree appeared out of nowhere "I'm sorry to interrupt you, I have some news about the inspector and I thought you might want to know them too."

"It's good that you've come, I told you where you would be able to find me for a reason, what have you, George?" the couple instantly forgot about their conversation, fearing that the news they're going to hear will not be the good ones.

"He is in kind of a crisis now" Julia subconsciously took Murdoch's hand "but the doctor said that the next 24 hours will bring the answer – if he survives, he will live."

"Thank you George for bringing the news personally. Let's hope the inspector will not give up easily..." said William with a sigh.

"He is strong, he will be fighting" Julia was trying to comfort both the policemen and herself.

"Thank you, Doctor..." the usually cheerful George Crabtree was now looking as if he wanted to cry "Well, I should be going. Good bye detective, doctor."

"It's time for me to go too, Julia" said Murdoch after the constable walked away. "I should visit the inspector in the hospital. I won't have time for that when the investigation begins."

"Of course. I'm going to check on Margaret after I finish work."

"Thank you."

"I'm doing it for her. We became friends after the kidnapping of young Bobby and I can't imagine not supporting her now."

"She's lucky to have you, we both are. Good bye, Julia"

"Good bye, William." Murdoch was already walking away, when she stopped him and said:

"Thank you for coming here today, for being with me, and talking to me. It might be painful at times, but we should have explained each other some things long time ago. This was a very good idea to talk about it before we're married and I hope we shall continue this conversation. I too have some things I want to tell you."

"Of course, Julia... I love you so dearly. You know that, don't you?"

"I do. And I love you too William."

The couple kissed very softly on the lips and then Murdoch walked away to the hospital and Julia returned to her office to finish her work.

TBC

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