Esperanza

"Zo, can you come here for a sec?" Link calls as the 9 year old nods.

"What's wrong?" She asks, sitting down at their dining table.

"Your mommy is sick." Amelia says, her voice shaking and her eye filling up with fresh tears. Link grabs her hand and they both look at Zola.

"She's going to get better though, right?" Zola says as she looks from Link to Amelia who say nothing.

"She's dying, isn't she.." Zola says as Link sighs.

"We don't know Zola. She's incredibly sick and we just don't know whether she's going to get better." Link admits as the 9 year old stands up, and silently leaves the room.

"I'll go." Amelia says as Link nods, knowing that Zola needs her aunt.

Amelia eventually finds her in her moms room, lying on her moms side of the bed, sobbing into the pillow.

"Hey, why did you run off like that?" Amelia approaches, coming closer to the young girl.

"I don't want Mommy to die!" Zola screams out, her sobs intensifying.

"Listen to me." Amelia says as Zola raises her head slightly.

"She may not die. We just don't know. She's sick but she's still fighting." Amelia says as the 10 year old nods.

"But what if she dies? What about Bailey, Ellis and me? What'll happen to us?" Zola asks, as her tears start to slow.

"If and I mean IF she dies, you'll have all of us. Me and Link, aunt Maggie. Uncle Alex and aunt Christina." Amelia says as she rubs her nieces back.

"Now why have you got yourself so upset?" Amelia asks as Zola visibly tenses up.

"You can tell me. I won't get mad." Amelia says as Zola sighs before nodding.

"It reminds me of when Daddy died..." mumbles as Amelia nods.

Sometimes Amelia forgets that Zola was old enough to remember Derek. She was five nearly six when he died.

It was hard for her when Derek died, but it must've been even harder for Zola.

"I know. It's hard. But he loved you so much. He used to call me everyday and tell me something good that you had done. 'Zola took her first steps today!' Or 'Zola went to pre-school today!' He loved you and would be SO proud of you." Amelia says as Zola nods, her tears drying up.

"Whatever happens, we'll have each other." Amelia finished as Zola smiles softly and nods.

"Now let's go and find your brother and sister and order some pizza, sound good?" Amelia asks as Zola practically launches herself up at the mention of pizza.

"Good girl." Amelia says as the young girl dashed off to find Link.

For now at least, they have hope.

Esperanza.

Fin.

Authors Note: For those of you that don't know, in Spanish Esperanza means hope and once this little idea popped up in my head, I knew I had to write it with that as the title.

I hope you enjoyed this little AU, I enjoyed writing for these three so much, so much so that I'm considering writing them again at some point soon, so possibly look out for something in the next few months!

-Ash