There was a moment of silence, during which Ric tried his best to look anywhere but at Diane, who seemed to be staring straight at him, demanding answers. In actuality, she was staring unseeingly at Jack, wondering in shock how she could have missed out on such an important part of Ric’s life. How could he not have told her that he had another child? How could she have drifted so far away from him in just a few short years?

After a few seconds, Connie came into the room. “Madison!” She took the girl’s hand. “How many times have I told you not to run away from me when we’re in the hospital?” She looked over at Ric apologetically. “I’m sorry, Ric. I think she’s just a little bit over-excited today.”

“It’s understandable,” he replied, quietly, before looking over at Diane. “Connie, you remember Diane Lloyd, don’t you?”

Diane forced herself to look up from Jack, and at Connie. “Hey.”

“Diane, what a surprise!” Connie smiled broadly at her; a smile which faded when she looked down at the child on the bed. “Is that Joanna’s baby?”

“He’s hardly a baby now, Con,” Ric put in.

“She knows what I mean.” Connie contented herself with rolling her eyes and a glance at Diane that said, quite eloquently, “Men!” Diane smiled slightly in spite of herself, but sobered as she looked back down at her nephew.

“Yeah, this is Jack.” She squeezed Jack’s hand gently. “He’s five. And if he could hear me, he’d proudly tell you he was actually five and a half,” she added, looking up at Connie, who smiled sympathetically.

“Kids, hey?” was all she said, however, smoothing her daughter’s curly hair back from her face. “I’ll take Maddy out of your way,” she added, speaking to Ric this time.

He nodded. “Okay… I’ll be round in an hour or so.”

Diane looked back down at Jack to hide her face, her expression, at how easy Ric and Connie were with one another. She knew that it was no more than she had had with Ric, even with Owen, at one time, but it still hurt, to see people interacting so easily, when for the past few years, she had felt so isolated. She supposed that if she had gone back to work after they had moved, she would have made more friends, whereas all her ‘friends’ were people she had met at Jack’s playgroups, nurseries, and eventually his school. And most of them worked. Seeing Jack move his head slightly, she bit her lip. She was not the issue right now. Jack was.

As Ric closed the door behind Connie and Madison, Diane looked up at him. He looked uncomfortable, obviously expecting her to rebuke him for not telling her about Madison. Or Connie. But all she said was, “I need to call Owen, let him know.”

He nodded. “There’s a payphone, in the corridor…”

“I know.” She silenced him with a look. “I did work here, you know.”

“I remember.” His glance told her what exactly he remembered, and she blushed slightly, before letting go of Jack’s hand.

“I need to call him…” she repeated, quietly, and crossed the room to the door.

“I’ll be in my office,” he told her, as he followed her to the door.

She nodded, and forced herself to keep going towards the payphone, and not to turn back towards Jack, inwardly dreading how she was going to have to tell Owen what had happened.

Her hand was on the phone before she stopped, and leant against the wall. Ric, still following her on his way to the stairs, looked at her in some surprised. “What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter?” she repeated, incredulously. “My nephew was hit by a car while I was visiting my sister’s grave, and is now lying there unconscious, someone I thought of as my best friend has a had a child and not even bothered to let me know – or let me know that he was even in a relationship – and now I have to ring my husband and tell him that I’ve failed in looking after one child, for one afternoon…”

He cut her off. “Diane, no one is going to blame you for this.”

“I blame myself for it, isn’t that enough?” She sighed. “If Jack dies… if I lose him…” She bit her lip. “He’s my world, Ric. That little boy is my life. If I lose him… I’ve got nothing else.”

“You’re not going to lose him. And even so, you’ve got Owen to help you through,” he replied, smiling slightly at her. Owen had made her happy, he knew that. And it had been that that had made him put his own feelings aside for her, all those years ago when Joanna had died, and Simon had gone, leaving Diane literally holding the baby. Because he had known that Owen had wanted to take care of Diane and Jack, and, although he too had wanted to, he had thought that Owen would be more suitable – he was younger. Much younger, much more able to care for a baby. Of course, he hadn’t had that choice when Connie had told him that she was pregnant with Madison. But Madison was different – he and Connie, their actions, had created her, they had a responsibility for her.

She just nodded, looking back at the phone. “I should… I should call him…” She knew that she sounded reluctant, and she hated herself for it: she knew that Ric would be drawing all sorts of conclusions from her reluctance… He’d be thinking that she had an unhappy marriage, which wasn’t true. Sure, they had their rough patches, but all marriages do. Right? No, the reason she didn’t want to call him was different. She didn’t want to have to admit that she had failed Jack, that he had been hurt, that she might lose him.

He didn’t say anything, however. Instead he tentatively put an arm around her, and smiled slightly. “Do you want me to call him for you?”

It was as though the years had rolled away and she was his registrar again. She moved slightly closer to him and looked up at him. “Please.”