Patrick lay in bed staring up at the glowing stars on the ceiling and smiled. He could feel Holly’s warm body next to him and wanted more than anything to hug her at this moment.

‘She would probably kill me’ he thought and shook his head. They were both exhausted. That’s what having a baby would usually do to you. ‘Who in their right minds would want to do this on purpose?’ He thought again then shook that thought out of his head. They didn’t mean to get pregnant so soon, but now that it had happened, he wouldn’t change it for the world.

This was fantastic. He was the happiest he had been in a long time. He couldn’t believe that he had ever let Holly go. He had fun with Lara, ok, but the moment he proposed and she was unsure, he knew he was unsure too. Lara wasn’t the one he wanted to be with, Holly was. He remembered breaking the news to Lara and it killed him, but staying with her and living a lie would’ve been worse.

But none of that mattered now. He had a beautiful girlfriend and a beautiful baby daughter and life couldn’t get any better. The warm summer breeze wafted gently through the window and it came as a refreshing change to the hot, humidity that had been hanging around for weeks.

Not that he was complaining, life was perfect. These had been the best 2 years of his life.

Holly stirred beside him and he couldn’t resist touching her. He leant over and stroked her hair. She seemed to smile in her blissful sleep but she wasn’t disturbed. Patrick rolled over and calmly drifted back off to sleep.

* * *

Holly slowly opened her eyes and rolled over to look at the clock. It was 4:20 am. She was confused for a second until she realised there were worried whimpers coming from the nursery down the hall. She sighed. She couldn’t believe that something so quiet had woken her but she didn’t mind. Mother’s intuition she thought and sat up.

She stole a glance sideways to Patrick, who was sprawled out on the bed with half the covers on the floor. She rolled her eyes at him and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

She slipped her feet into her slippers and started to walk towards the wardrobe where their dressing gowns were hanging on the back of the door. She stopped. Nah, it was too hot.

She slowly walked towards the door and pushed it open. She made her way down the hallway, being careful not to tread on and creaky floorboards. She had walked along the landing enough times in the dark to know where the creaky ones were and had become and expert in avoiding them.

She opened the door to her baby’s room and found her standing up in her cot. She immediately quietened down when she saw her mummy approach and even let out a small giggle. Holly smiled. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. After 8 months, she was still having a hard time believing this was all real.

When she had left Holby all those years ago, she truly believed she had lost Patrick for good. It was her own fault, she wouldn’t have blamed him if he never wanted to see her again. But he came looking for her. She was so surprised and unbelievably happy when he turned up on her doorstep that she just flew at him and the two embraced in a hug that lasted for hours. She guessed she underestimated just how much he cared.

"Shhhhhhh, Sophie. It’s ok" she soothed to her daughter and lifted her out of her cot and into her arms. The baby wriggled slightly and Holly sighed. ‘Can’t sit still’ she laughed to herself, ‘just like her father.’

She sat down on the chair on the other side of the room by the window and gently rocked he daughter back to sleep. It was completely dark, save for the soft moonlight shining through the thin curtains which seemed to illuminated and bathed the whole room in a calming silver glow.

She rested her head backwards in exhaustion and stared lovingly at the little girl cradled on her lap. She was already beginning to drift back to sleep. Nothing was wrong, she just needed a bit of comfort.

Holly closed her eyes and felt the tiredness wash over her. She was so relaxed and calm now that she didn’t hear the footsteps entering the room.

She was woken again by a gentle kiss on her forehead by the man she loved, and had loved for as long a she could remember of her adult life. He was her prince charming. Every little girl dreams of a handsome man coming along and sweeping her off her feet and that was exactly what Patrick had dome to her. Albeit a bit unconventional. But that was Patrick, special and unique in his own way.

"Hey gorgeous" he said and Holly smiled and kissed him back on the lips.

"Oh, I wasn’t talking to you" he said, trying to sound serious but failing miserably with a dopey grin on his face, "I was talking to Sophie."

"Very funny" she said, but she was too tired to really say much else. If she was fully awake she would have probably hit him playfully on the arm by now and it would’ve escalated into a full on play fight but she was just too warn out.

Patrick kissed their daughter on the top of her head and settled down on the arm of the chair. They smiled at each other.

"Can you believe we made her?" Holly asked, smiling. Not that she ever stopped smiling. She’d had a permanent grin on her face ever since Sophie’s birth and it wasn’t hard to see why.

"Yup, she’s beautiful" Patrick replied, "just like her mother."

Holly shook her head. "What, even with messy hair and huge bags under my eyes?"

"Yeah" Patrick said, winking, "even better!"

Holly didn’t say anything, just laughed. Then they were silent, just enjoying being in each other’s arms like any other loving family.

"Marry me" Patrick said suddenly out of nowhere after a few minutes.

Holly look startled and turned her head to look at him. She couldn’t believe this, it was all too good to be true wasn’t it? Things like this never happened in real life. She tried to search his eyes for any hint of doubt or uncertainly but found none, only love and compassion in his deep brown eyes.

"What?" she said, sounding a bit more blunt than she intended to.

"Marry me" he said again, with the same, sure tone.

Holly just looked at him with disbelief. She must’ve stayed that way for a bit too long because Patrick spoke up.

"Come one" he said, in his usual cheeky way, “I’d like to get some sleep before work tomorrow!”

"Ok" Holly said, snapping back to reality. Only this reality was better than it was before. They were going to be together for the rest of their lives, she could feel it. “Ok” she said again, fixing her glance on Patrick again.

Patrick looked confused. "Is that Ok, get some sleep or Ok, you’ll marry me?"

"The second one" she replied definitely. "I mean yes. I’ll marry you."