As Connie threw a panicked glance at Jacob, he replied for her. "I guess we both have good taste. We bumped into each other at that new pizza place on the main road."

"...I'm glad you were there." Grace told him softly, her head still resting against her mother's chest.

Jacob and Connie's eyes met over her head and they shared an uneasy smile. "Me too, Grace. How about I go and pick up your pizza for you, and that way your mum can stay here."

Grace nodded, lifting her head only a little to say, "You can have yours here too, if you like."

"I'd like that very much." Jacob replied as he pushed himself to his feet. Though Grace had calmed, the thought of being left alone made Connie herself look panicked. "I won't be long." Jacob added, more for Connie than Grace, his fingers brushing Connie's arm as he walked past.

While he was gone, Connie and Grace sat in complete, calm silence, Connie rocking her daughter gently as she used to when she was a baby. Grace's eyes soon grew heavy and she let out a sigh as she drifted into a nap.

Lifting a hand, Connie brushed tears from her cheeks. She was a big shot doctor who couldn't even deal with her daughter hyperventilating. She was so unused to panicking, and now she'd done it several times in the last two days. Perhaps she wasn't setting the best example for her anxious daughter.

"Right! I've got the pizza and the ice-cream, so I think that means it's movie time. Right, Mrs Beauchamp?" Jacob questioned as he entered, putting the food on the table before he sat beside them on the couch.

"What do you say, Gracie?" Connie asked, her fingers brushing the hem of Jacob's shirt before he fingers gripped it tightly.

"As long as I can pick." Grace pushed herself up.

Relatively quickly, and unsurprisingly, Grace soon fell asleep. Neither Connie nor Jacob were particularly interested in her film of choice, but continued to let it run just in case she did wake, and in case the noise was something that would soothe her.

"I'm just going to go and get a cup of tea. Do you want one?" She whispered across her daughter's head to Jacob, and he smiled, whispering a "please" in reply, and she gently moved from the sofa, taking care to not knock Grace's arm. Jacob looked next to see him to watch Grace as she slept, her hair falling similarly to Connie's did as she slept, and he took a moment to find the same dash of freckles, and the same long eyelashes as her mother had.

"Oh, Grace..." He whispered, and sighed as he shook his head. Now was not the time. He eased himself gently away from her, unaware of how she began to stir and lifted her head slightly to watch him as he made to close the curtains.

"Don't go." He turned around quickly when he heard her, his expression softening as she looked at him, and he moved quickly over to crouch down in front of her, much like Connie had done earlier.

"I'm not going, Grace."

"I don't... I don't want you to go." Her eyes drifted shut and then opened again, and he reached forward to help untangle her from the blanket he and Connie had put over her when she had first drifted off.

"I don't want to go either, firecracker. But I think you know that already, right?"

"You love Mum."

He looked at her, at how her eyes looked down and then back up to him, her tone non-accusatory, softened by sleep and exhaustion. But there was something else too, he wouldn't say acceptance as such, more of an understanding. He heard Connie come through, and quickly place the cups down on the table and crouch down next to Jacob, her hands cupping Grace's cheeks.

"Grace? Are you-"

"I'm fine, Mum." She smiled, and watched as her mother's face visibly relaxed. "I was just talking to Jacob." Connie's head turned to look at him, and he sucked in his cheeks, trying to hide his smile at her confused expression.

"Why don't you have a nice warm cup of tea and then head to bed, firecracker?" Jacob asked with a gentle smile.

She nodded, sitting herself up properly. "But you won't go? You'll be here if it happens again."

"Right here. I'll sleep on the couch, and if you need me, you can come right in and wake me up." Jacob promised, aware that she may still be wary of him staying in the same room as her mother.

"Thanks, Jacob." Grace gave a smile, taking a cup from the table to hold it between her hands. "You're okay. For a nurse."

"Well! I will take that as a compliment and say thank you, Miss Beauchamp!" Jacob pushed himself up and picked up his own cup of tea, a smile still playing on his lips at the expression of shock Connie wore.

The three of them sat together in silence, each thinking their own thoughts, trying to work through their own worries as they nursed the warm tea. Connie kept glancing over at Jacob, wondering what he was thinking after the last few days full of emotions.

"Who's that?" Grace suddenly asked, drawing both adults from their thoughts as she pointed to Jacob's phone, on silent but signalling Mia was calling him.