"Anne?" He whispered as he started to wake.

"I'm here love, what do you need?" she asked him.

"Water." He managed. She went and filled a glass with some water from the jug and sat beside him on the bed to administrator the water. She gazed lovingly at him longing for his company, his humour, HIM longing for him again. He finished the few sips he was after and he felt Anne sit beside him again holding his hand. "I don't think I'm going to make it." He said quietly to Anne. "I'm so sorry." He told her.

"Sorry?" she questioned, "Why are you sorry?" she asked him confused. Unseen to Anne Mrs Blythe had came to the door and was watching them silently

"Your nightmares." He said to her simply. "Coming true." He said with clear and big hazel eyes.

Anne almost started to sob at his words! Her nightmares! He was on his death bed and he was apologising with those big hazel eyes for the nightmares SHE had been having! He was dying and all he could think of was to apologise to her for something he had no control over! Anne did remain strong and didn't start to cry. "My nightmares?" She questioned. "Have no place here tonight." She told him softly. "Tonight, if it must be your last on earth..," she told him gently. "It should be filled with dreams, not nightmares." She told him straight. "Do you remember our dream Gilbert? Our little nest? We dreamed of all those years ago" she asked him.

He smiled and nodded his head.

"Well it started with it being a little cottage, but I've been thinking Gilbert if we are to have a large family we'll need a larger house. But I don't know if I could leave our cottage, with the lavender at the windows, flowers in the garden and our vegetable patch. Should we build on it Gilbert?" He hummed in agreement a faint smile appeared on his lips. "And you remember of course the fireplace with the hearth and taking all the cushions and blankets onto the floor in front of it and lying in front of the fireplace reading Tennyson and Keats and whatever else we fancy in our perfect little front room. We could stay there as long as we wanted to, although I suppose you being a doctor it would only be short period of time really, but that's okay. Oh Gilbert you'll be a wonderful doctor! Did I ever tell you how wonderful you would be? I don't suppose I really got the chance…."

Mrs Blythe stood back a little in shock. A little house? With lavender and flowers and a vegetable patch? Had it been that serious before they had broken up? Gilbert had only been 18! They had plans for the future?! They had talked about children! Her grandchildren! They wanted more than one by the sounds of things. That would be nice. To have lots of little Blythe's running around. It had been what she wanted but time and circumstances had only allowed for… Oh she couldn't have loved a thousand children anymore then her one. Eighteen! Anne would only have been sixteen! Had he even decided to be a doctor yet? No that came after they broke up. They wanted a life together, they had been in love! No wonder Gilbert had been so broken afterwards. His whole world was shattered around him. She looked back in the memories of time and finally saw it, a look in Anne's eyes which had always been missing since she and Gilbert had parted. She had a sadness in her eyes, she had been heartbroken too. She went back in to find them still on the bed Anne stroking his curls and whispering to him. "we can still have that life Gil, together, me and you and our babies. I don't think it matters if its in a little cottage or a big house or even about the hearth fire, because we'll have each other. Isn't that all that really matters my love?"

Mrs Blythe knew Anne wasn't expecting an answer because Gilbert was sound asleep snuggled into Anne's side her fingers playing softly through his curls.

"Anne?" She started.

Anne looked to his mother. "I'm sorry I know I shouldn't be on the bed." She said quietly.

His mother chuckled "I don't think I need to worry about that right now Anne, he can barely hold his own head up right now." She sighed. "But Anne its three in the morning, you must be tired. Go to the spare room get some sleep."

Anne smiled "Can you sleep Mrs Blythe? You've been here for the whole time."

Mrs Blythe smiled back. "Whenever he was sick as a baby I could never sleep at night, not unless I was holding him in my arms. John used to come up and find him in my arms in our bed, when he started to walk he'd climb out of his bed and come into ours and hug right in! John used to have to take him back to his own bed once he was asleep!" she took a sigh through her tears "It doesn't get any easier to sleep as they get older when they are sick but you don't get to hold them as a baby anymore either."

Anne smiled. "That must have been nice."

"Did no one hug you when you were sick?" Mrs Blythe asked her.

"I was no one's to hug." Anne admitted. "no one wanted to…" she trailed sadly.

Something dawned on Mrs Blythe "Anne have you had Typhoid?" She asked worried.

Anne nodded. "When I was four. It ran through the town I caught it off one of the babies I was looking after." She looked to Gilbert "it wasn't as bad as this but it was… hard." She said quietly. "My ma and pa a few years earlier…" she trailed. "I'm lucky really."

Mrs Blythe could barely believe her ears, did she say she was four and was looking after babies? She was still a baby herself! "How old were your parents when they…?"

"Nineteen." She said quietly. "But they were in love. They didn't have long together but they were happy. I wish I could remember them, even a little."

"How old were you?" Mrs Blythe asked confused.

"3 months when papa died, even younger when mama…" she trailed

"Anne you said to Gilbert… about your nightmares? What did you mean?" she asked her changing the subject.

"The reason I broke up with Gilbert." She said quietly. "And the biggest mistake I've ever made." She took a sigh. She explained briefly the nightmares she was having. "It seems so stupid now…" she trailed. "I'm going to lose him in reality and…" she started crying again.

Mrs Blythe was speechless. "Anne." She whispered with tears in her eyes. "You've loved him all along haven't you?" she asked her.

Anne nodded. "I can't leave him Mrs Blythe! I can't…"

Mrs Blythe smiled. "Then don't go Anne, don't you worry, you and I can look after him. I have here the one woman in the world who loves my son as much as I do." She said gently. She took Anne by the hand and Anne came off the bed the two women stood in his bedroom and hugged both crying into each other for the soul they both loved.

Mrs Blythe left after a couple of minutes to make them tea. Anne took the cloth again and cooled his head once more.

He opened his eyes and looked at Anne with confusion in his eyes.

"You need to promise me something Gilbert Blythe." She said quietly to him. She wasn't entirely sure of just how conscious he was but needed to say it out loud at least. "Don't give up. Fight, and just for me, don't go."