"Mia..."

"No! I'm going to find Grandma." He moved to the side to allow her to pass, his intention to stop her interrupted by Connie's hand pressing on his shoulder.

"Let her go, Jacob."

He looked up at her, before standing and then sitting where Mia had sat moments earlier.

"Mia's mum..." He turned his head to look at Connie as she spoke.

"She died three years ago now. Cancer." He then lowered his eyes to the floor, and felt Connie then lean against him, her head against his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Jacob..." She could feel the deep rise and fall of his chest, mimicked in his shoulders, before she sat more upright again and looked out over the trees that surrounded the Church. "Mia's a lovely girl. She loves you."

"Con, she hates me."

"That's not true. She's scared."

"I can't... Of course I want to take her. But I can't, what would I do when I'm working? I don't want her growing up being passed from minder to minder..." He realised what he had said after he had said it, and he reached for Connie's hand and squeezed it, murmuring an apology.

"So you think she's better off with your Mum?"

"I don't know. No, probably not, but what else can I do, Connie?"

She saw how the sadness hung over him, and she desperately wished for things to be different between them. It would be so easy, if only it weren't so complicated. Grace and Mia would have got along so well, and they would have been so happy.

After a few moments silence, Jacob gave a sigh. "We should go inside. The service will start soon." Connie nodded, allowing Jacob to take her hand before she walked a step or two behind him into the church.

...

Once inside, though, she hesitated. She didn't want to sit with Joseph's immediately family in the front row that Jacob was leading her towards, yet wen Jacob sat, the family silently made room for her as if she belonged there. Soon, her free hand was taken by Mia as she sat beside her, and for once in her life Connie began to feel accepted and necessary in a role other than as a doctor.

The service was unlike one she'd been to before, involving so much happy celebration and singing, but throughout it all both Mia and Jacob sat in silence, so she did as well. She could feel that ever muscle in Jacob's body was tense, and he almost vibrated with emotion as he stared straight ahead.

Connie kept glancing at Jacob's profile, almost willing him to cry. She knew he wanted to, but he didn't seem to be able to get the tears to begin. It was when she lifted their joined hands to her lips and dropped a gentle kiss to his knuckles that she saw his face crumble.