Stephanie's POV

I twirl the pasta around with my fork as I try to force my appetite to return. I never order pasta when I go out to dinner, but my nerves and insecurities forced me to pick a safe option.

"So tell me the routine." I say as I take a small mouthful, I place my hand in front of my mouth as he looks down at his plate of Risotto.

"Amelia's bed time is around half seven." He starts, but I already know this as I've had to get her back to him before bed time. I nod as I tell him I'm perfectly aware of what he's saying. "Breakfast is at eight." He adds without looking at me.

"Does it have to be at eight?" I ask trying to stop myself finding this ridiculously strict. "Surely if we have it at seven it won't affect her?" I add and Harry shakes his head.

"Of course it will, she has lunch at half twelve. You have to balance it out so she's not too hungry or too full." He answers and his words completely baffles me.

"Well that's insane, honestly Harry." This is going to be so much harder than I had anticipated.
"But it works and you can see yourself how happy and healthy she is." He snaps defensively and I place my fork down on the plate.

"I don't doubt that at all, I know you've brought her up brilliantly. But I just think a routine like yours won't hurt if it's slightly out by a few minutes." I carefully answer as I look at him. He wipes his mouth with his napkin and sits back in his chair.

"You don't exactly have a right to question any of my parenting Steph." He sighs and I look away as his words hit me hard.

"You're never going to let it drop, are you?" I ask as I try not to let any tears creep up on me. He doesn't look at me as I watch him gulp silently. "If I am prepared to accept my mistakes and to learn from them, why can't you? All I ask is a little trust and to be more lenient with me." I sigh as I lean forward. "I'm her Mother, whether or not I deserve that role, nothing can change it. But I'm prepared more than ever to do more and to make sure that she gets everything that she needs from me. No more seeing her for a couple of hours here and there, I'm stepping up and having more time and responsibility with my daughter. No one is going to stop me, not you, not my health, not myself and anyone else who may think I've lost all parenting rights. Because I have been around Harry, it may have not been twenty four hours a day but I was there. Even when I was unable to walk properly, I still put hours in. So stop treating this whole situation as if I deserted you with a new born child and have suddenly returned. I'm not taking it anymore." I take a deep breath as Iook at his shocked face.

It's been a long time since I've spoke to anyone like this. I've held back for so long with Harry, mostly because I worried his power over visiting rights could drop stupidly. The last thing I wanted was to jeopardise my relationship with Amelia. But I'm not allowing him to hover over me a minute longer, I am a Mother and that's exactly what I'll be to Amelia.


"But you left me alone with our daughter without any fight. You didn't even want to try and work things out, you made your mind up and controlled our relationship's future on your own, without my input!" His voice gets a little louder. "I never wanted you to leave, I didn't want to lose you at all. I was prepared to accept your blue days due to what you were going through, but all you did was push me away. I loved you more than you realised, you threw it all back in my face. Even when you did see Amelia, you don't think about the impact it had on me, just seeing you again stabbed me in the heart a little bit deeper. How could I ever move on when you were always there but so far away? Do you know how fucked up that is?" He asks but doesn't let me answer. "The one girl that I've known for most of my life let's me down in one of the worst ways possible. The one girl who actually moulded me into someone that I liked, someone who bettered themselves and actually made people proud. I put so much energy into us for you to just rip it all apart." He runs a hand through his hair as his chest starts to move up and down heavily.

"This really isn't the place." I croak as I sit up straight. "I need to get out of here." I say as I start to feel a little weak.

"Running away isn't going to make all of this go away." Harry snaps as he looks up at me.

"And staying here isn't going to help either. I need to go." I jump up from my seat and grab my bag and coat. I walk out of the restaurant avoiding any curious eyes on me. How could we do this? How could we let our emotions get the better of us? I knew it was a bad idea, deep down in my stomach I felt the churn that was warning me not to come here.

I suddenly start to feel my toes twitching and my body falling extremely weak. My eyes start to lose its concentration as I try to fix them on something. I can already feel the sweat appearing on my forehead, how did I let myself get to this? I need to get home.

"Stephanie?" Harry's voice sounds softer than a few minutes ago. I can't see him very well but I can feel his arms around me as I lose control of my legs. "What's going on?' I'm completely trapped. I can't move my lips to speak, I can't swallow the saliva that is building in my mouth. I can't stand at all. I can only hear his muffled voice from a distance.

---

Harry's POV

I keep my eyes on Stephanie as her body shocks in my arms. It's like she's having a fit, but it's not like the ones you see on TV, she's not shaking violently. It's nothing like her seizures she used to have either, her medication helped calm them down and narrowed them down to nearly none. I've never witnessed this before, I'm completely out of my depth and full of worry. This is all my fault, I caused this.

"Is this Stephanie May?" I look up as two paramedics rush over and kneel beside us. I nod as I can't find any words. They start to talk to her as they look over her body, I gently lay her down flat letting go of her as I leave them to it. Standing from a distance, I run my hand through my hair.

It feels like a lifetime of waiting as I watch over the horrific scene. People walking by glance over and fuel my anger, why do they have to watch? Is a little bit of privacy too much too ask? I glare at few more people who slow down as they approach us, I can tell they're wondering what's happened, but they have no right to find out.

"Sir, we are taking her in. Your friend needs a glucagon injection, She's diabetic." His words echo in my head as I had no idea that Stephanie was diabetic. Why didn't she tell me? I miss his further words of explanation as they fall upon deaf ears, all I know is I need to go with her and make sure she's going to be okay.

The wait is a little longer than I had expected, I watched several people entering and leaving her room without any more information on her progress.

"Harry.." I look up as Jed quickly marches towards me.

"Jed!" I stand up as he starts to ask questions. I tell him everything from our little argument to me paying the bill and then finding her outside the way I did. He lets his head fall into his hand and sighs.

"She should have been more careful." He says as he looks back at me and sighs.

"I had no idea she was diabetic." I say as I slowly sit back down, Jed nods and turns to me.

"She's been diabetic for two years, after the seizures stopped they discovered her diabetes. She already had one hypo because we had no idea she needed insulin. We finally thought she was on the road to full recovery and getting back to her old self. It was impressive she beat the condition with her medication, she was so strong. But then we were hit with this and this time she will never get rid of diabetes. She needs her medication." Jed's voice cracks causing me to look away as I think about what he had just said.

"So she had a hypo?" I ask unsure to what that Means. I look at him as he turns to me again.
"I'm not sure." As he answers and a doctor walks towards us and smile softly. Jed immediately questions him asking what's going on but I wait patiently for our answer.

"Miss.May has experienced a Hypoglycaemia, otherwise known as a hypo.
It happens when the blood glucose level falls too low, it can cause the body several side effects." I stare at him as Jed does too, he flicks between us both and continues, "We've gave her a glucagon injection that shall improve the levels to a satisfactory amount. Are you aware if Miss May takes her insulin regularly?" He looks at us both as his words linger. I turn to Jed.

"She is pretty good with them." He says as the doctor nods. I suddenly realise why she had to go, it wasn't just because of our argument. I feel like an idiot, she warned me she couldn't stay long. Was it because she had to take her medication? Did I cause this as I originally thought? Right now, I know I'm too blame. I sit back down.

"Well she's okay but he needs to keep on track of her medication and diet. Once we're happy with her glucose level, she can go." I turn away as Jed thanks him and asks a couple more questions. I try to stop mentally thinking about what has happened, but all I can see is Stephanie and the state she was in. If I had any idea that she is diabetic I could have told them when I called for an ambulance. I could have prevented her condition from worsening.

"Do you want to come and see her?" Jed awakens me from my thoughts. I slowly shake my head and stand up.

"No, I think I should go." I say as the doctor glances over to me.


"She has asked to see Harry.." He says as his eyes flick between us again. Jed looks at me in approval by nodding his head. I shove my hands in my pockets, take a deep breath and head towards her room.

Notes

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