An emotional teenage girl made her way to ITU. Her heart beat wildly in her chest. The visit from the police to her home that evening had dropped news that left a nauseating sense of dread coasting through her veins. Her mother, the only family she had, was in a coma after an accident. She'd been struck by a van and left to die. A driver making his way home had spotted her lying crumpled in the road and called for an ambulance. Intubated at the scene, brain damage, cardiac arrest...all the words were spinning in her head.

Her anxiety was only compounded by the lingering eyes and whispers as she stepped out of the lift, and she felt that she might collapse right there and then. Perhaps join her mother in ITU. She'd always loved the fact she resembled her mother so closely, taking pride in the fact she looked just like the person she loved most in the world. Yet now, as she pressed the intercom and waited, the gossip flying past her ears, she cursed the fact she was unmistakably her mother's daughter.

"AJ, I'm so sorry." Joseph places a hand on the girl's shoulder snapping her out of her trance.

She looks up at him tears welling in her eyes and just shakes her head, "She's gonna be okay, right? I mean she has to be alright, she's my Mummy."

"I don't have anyone to else, not family at least. And what if she dies? We had a massive argument this morning and I was horrible to her. I didn't even tell her I loved her, I always say it but I was so mad and it was so so stupid...and now she's gonna die thinking I hate her."

She breaks down, sitting at her mother's bedside, stroking her hand. The rhythmic beeping of the monitors mixes with the blaring of the sirens, creating a mocking symphony that makes her feel like this is all a dream. A sickening nightmare, and when she awakens, her mother will be there to comfort her and tell her it's all right. She tells herself it's all a dream, but the harsh white lights reveal the truth as she takes in the pale, lifeless form of her mother. Her mother, whose lies hidden behind a sea of tubes and wires, bruises beginning to form on her face.

"It's not fair. Why do bad things always happen to her?" Artemis laments, tears spilling over.

Joseph reaches over and places a comforting hand on her shoulder, "It's just one of those things. Life doesn't go the way we want it to."

AJ shakes her head, sighing.

"Look, I know she hasn't been the greatest person and that she really hurt you. In fact, what she did to you was cruel, but she doesn't deserve this Joseph."

"Is there someone I can call?" Joseph asked, feeling a wave of compassion towards the young girl who reminded him so much of the ex he just couldn't seem to get over.

AJ shook her head, "No, I'm fine. Seriously."

"She never got to be a kid, even before she got pregnant with me. Her whole childhood was awful and I just want her to be happy. She's a good mum you know, a great one." She says, feeling the need to defend her mother.

Joseph nodded, trying to imagine Jac being maternal and his mind immediately flying to the day he'd first met Artemis. He'd turned up to Jac's flat to surprise her and was met by a confused pre-teen who swiftly interrogated him, refusing to let him pass and instead threatening him with a frying pan. Jac had soon emerged from the kitchen flustered, introducing her daughter Artemis Jade or AJ as the child has professed herself to be.

AJ had quickly disappeared and left the pair to talk, letting Joseph see a different side to Jac as she spoke about AJ, her eyes lighting up and a small smile breaking across her face. He'd noticed how she'd cuddled the girl as she introduced her, arm wrapped around her protectively as if she was still a tiny child unaware of her own existence. He'd heard the lifted tones of her voice, as she'd granted AJ's request to have the freshly baked cookies Joseph could smell. She'd even held back a laugh as the twelve year old ran to the door offering Joseph a cookie, whilst staring at him intensely as she told him she didn't like him but she'd tolerate him.

The final memory left Joseph with pangs as he remembered how one day Artemis had asked him not to break her mother's heart, when she bumped into him in Tesco on her way back from school. A week after this conversation Jac had slept with his father and thrown away any chance of a makeshift family Joseph had considered building with her.

"I'm sorry about what she did to you. You didn't deserve that. ." AJ pipes up interrupting Joseph's thoughts.

He smiles at her, saying, "You don't need to apologize; you're not the one who hurt me."

She sighs, "I know but I'm her kid and right now she can't say it so I wanted to. She is sorry you know. She just can't say it."

He raises an eyebrow.

"I overheard her talking to my Godmother last week. Mum feels super guilty, it's been on her mind for a while."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't need to tell you that she finds it hard to show her emotions. She's not like that with me, but I'm her kid so it's different. Apologising means showing emotions and Mum ignores those. It's her way of dealing with everything. I think it makes her feel safe." AJ says eyes widening as she realises she's said so much more than she meant to.

"Dealing with what?" He asks intrigued.

AJ brushes him off, saying, "Nothing, forget I said that."

He watches as she turns from him and takes her mother's hand, rubbing circles on her palm as she whispers to her willing her to wake up. The sadness in her voice pulls at his heartstrings and he wonders how it must have been for Jac, to be so young and alone in the world. Sure, he'd never seen eye to eye with his own parents or his mother seemed more concern with keeping face than loving her children, but he knew that they cared for him in their own ways. To be a child and know your parents didn't care for you, to be disposable taken on until a miracle child is conceived, then sent back to all the other unwanted children is a pain Joseph doesn't dare to imagine.

"Who's going to look after you? You're fourteen AJ, you can't be on your own. " He says approaching the subject carefully. If no one could take care of the teenager, she'd be placed in an emergency foster placement something he knew would horrify the child. He couldn't blame her from what he'd figured out it seemed like Jac's time in foster care had done nothing but scar her.

AJ doesn't take her gaze off her mother mumbling a quick answer as she traces the bruises on her arms, "My Godmother is coming down from London. She'll be here by eight. She'll stay with me until Mum's better."

Joseph nods in acknowledgment making his way to the door his mind. He quietly puts Jac's notes away, checking the monitors before slipping out silently. His shift comes to a close and he soon finds himself driving home thoughts of his ex and her daughter swirling in his mind.

For the past year he'd hated her. He was so sure he still hated her. She didn't have feelings or a heart, all she did was hurt people. Yet now, after seeing AJ again he felt different. Maybe he didn't hate her. Maybe he hated who she could be. Maybe he still loved her. Maybe when she woke up things would be different between them. If not lovers they could be friends because who was Joseph lying to. He missed what they used to be. Right now all he could do was wait. Life always had its funny way of working out.