Welcome to the sequel to Three is Family. It continues on from a couple of weeks after the last story finished and is the next instalment in Clive, Martha and their three children's lives. The chapters may not be posted as frequently as usual as I'm still writing this one and there is no series to follow, instead I'm using any well publicised recent trials or stories from the legal world as inspiration for storylines.

Life for the newly created Reader family was blissful for only a couple of weeks. It all came to an abrupt end with one of Martha's first cases back after her honeymoon. She was defending an abusive husband who had battered his wife a few times too many. Eventually, she had finally got the courage to go to the police and there had been enough evidence to go to trial.

Unsurprisingly there had also been enough evidence to convict him. When Martha had gone down to the cells to do the 'social work' as Clive had once put it, before being taken to prison, his anger was taken out on his barrister. Before anyone could stop him, he had thrown her very hard against the wall. Her head had collided with the wall with such force that she was unconscious before she fell to the floor. The prison guards had seen everything on a CCTV camera and quickly entered the cell where he was now kicking the unconscious woman for extra measure as well.

Martha was still unconscious when the paramedics arrived. They quickly scooped her up and whisked her off to the nearest hospital having swiftly established she needed to get to a hospital as soon as possible. It was left to a court usher to contact her chambers. Martha was well known in the law courts and the usher knew exactly which number he was going to be ringing.

It was Billy who answered the call and he went ashen as he heard what had happened. "Mr Reader is at the Bailey today right?" He asked out loud to the clerks in the room as he replaced the receiver on the phone which sat on his desk.

"Um yeah," acknowledged John. "Court three. Why?".

"There's been an incident at Southwark with Miss Costello,".

"What sort of incident," asked John.

"She's been taken to hospital unconscious," revealed Billy and those that heard him stopped what they were doing. "Um, I think I better go tell him in person. Not the type of thing he should hear over the phone. If anyone needs me John, you deal with it. I think I'm going to be unavailable for the rest of the day," he finished as he headed out the room.

Court was breaking for lunch as Billy arrived at The Bailey. Clive saw him immediately. "Billy!" He greeted the clerk happily, after all his case was going well, and a win looked certain. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?".

Billy didn't know how to answer. His worried expression and silence was finally recognised by Clive who in turn was suddenly worried himself.

"It's Martha," Was all Billy said before he saw his barristers world come crashing down by the look on his face. It was perhaps only the second time he'd ever called Martha by her first name.

"What's happened?" Clive demanded and Billy told him briefly what he knew.

For the next hour or so, Clive felt totally unattached to real life. It was as if he was watching himself doing things on automatic. He managed to get an audience with the judge and explain what had happened and that his junior would be taking over for the remainder of the trial. He was a very good lawyer and Clive was confident leaving the case in his safe hands.

Billy then drove him to the hospital, not being in a fit state to drive himself. "Shit! The kids," Clive exclaimed halfway into the journey when he was finally able to think about other things. Billy replied that one of the clerks would happily collect them from nursery and school, but Clive wasn't listening. "I'll phone my parents when we get to the hospital," he thought out loud. He was also going to have to phone Martha's mother in Bolton to let her know what was going on with her daughter. He wasn't looking forward to making that phone call.

Clive's parents quickly agreed to look after their grandchildren. With a promise to let them know what was happening as soon as he found out, he hung up before he and Billy headed inside. They were shown to the relatives room on their arrival. Whilst it felt ages to both men, a Consultant came to see them quite quickly.

It appeared Martha had sustained a fractured skull and some bruises to her brain. The neurosurgeons had seen her head scans and didn't think surgery was needed. In the meantime she was going to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit and kept in a medically induced coma overnight to allow her brain time to recover before trying to wake her the following morning.

Billy waited with Clive whilst Martha was settled into the ITU. Before being allowed to see her, a nurse came to explain to Clive what he would find when he saw his wife. She had lots of wires and tubes attached to her to monitor her closely which could be quite alarming for relatives if not warned beforehand.

Seeing his wife look so fragile was the last straw for Clive, and the situation hit him full force. He burst into tears before he could stop himself. "I'm sorry," he apologised as Martha's nurse comforted him.

"No need to apologise," the nurse comforted. "However much we try and prepare you, it's still a big shock isn't it?". She had seen this situation many times before and was able to comfort him a lot. "You can touch her you know. And talk to her,". She informed him when he was a bit more composed, and he did just that for the next hour or so.

It was getting very late now, and the nurse tried to get Clive to go home. "You need to look after yourself as well, Clive. Nothing is going to happen here now until the ward round in the morning, and we are going to be looking after Martha closely all night. You can phone whenever you want to, to see how she is doing until you come back in the morning,". Clive was resistant to leaving his wife alone. "I heard you talking about your children," the nurse continued. "Don't you want to see how they are doing? I'm sure they would want to see their Daddy,".

"Marth would want me to be with them as well," Clive admitted before deciding he would go home. "Be good for the nurses, Marth," he whispered to his wife. "I'll see you in the morning. I love you," he continued before kissing her cheek and leaving her bedside. Billy was still in the waiting room ready to take him home.

The tears started again as soon as he saw his parents. For the first time in about thirty years he needed his mothers comfort. "How has everyone behaved here?" Asked Clive once his tears had dried.

"Will and Lil have been their usual selves. They're still too young to know what's gone on, but Liv has been quiet all evening. I didn't know what to say to her apart from that Martha had had an accident and had to go to hospital," Rosemary told her son.

"I'll have a word with her in the morning," Clive replied.

"She's been keeping herself occupied by making lots of 'Get Well Soon' cards," continued his mother as she handed him several pieces of paper. "She didn't want to leave anyone out," she explained as Clive looked through the cards his daughter had made. There was one from herself, another from Will and Lil, one from Bailey, one from Bob and even one from all her toys. "I kept her company and did one from myself and Richard," Rosemary finished as she handed Clive the card she had made as well.

"I'll show them to Marth in the morning," Clive replied. "They're waking her up tomorrow," he told his parents, trying to sound positive.

The adults decided to head to bed. Clive gave a quick call to the hospital to find that Martha was just the same as when he had left her, before heading upstairs. Despite being overwhelmingly tired he could not get to sleep. He was conscious of the fact that he was alone in their bed which he wasn't used to. Tossing and turning, he was still awake when he heard the bedroom door open. Turning around he saw that the visitor was Olivia.

"I can't sleep, Daddy. I want Mummy to be here," she said tearfully to her father.

"Me too," Clive replied as he held his arms open and Olivia climbed onto the bed and into his embrace very willingly.

"Mummy's going to be 'Kay isn't she?" She asked.

"Of course she is," Clive replied, trying to comfort his daughter. "She'll be home before we know it, keeping us all in order," he continued as he kissed the top of her head. "I saw all your cards that you did Liv. They'll really cheer Mummy up when she sees them," he told the little girl.

"When will she be coming home?".

"I don't know Liv. When the doctors say she can. Knowing Mummy, I bet she'll make them discharge her as soon as possible," Clive answered. He would be making sure that Martha was not pressurising the doctors into discharging her too soon. He knew what she was like. He could still remember her self-discharging herself the day after she had been punched in the stomach when she was pregnant with Liv. Whilst he wanted her home, he needed her to be completely better.

It was 6 am when Clive awoke and he knew he wouldn't get to sleep again despite only getting about three hours sleep. Beside him, fast asleep on her mother's pillow was Liv. She had finally succumbed to the sandman in the early hours of the morning and Clive was pleased to note it looked like she would remain that way for a little longer at least. Whilst Martha said she could see lots of Clive in her eldest daughter, right then Clive could only see Martha in his daughter's face as she lay there sleeping. Leaning over to give her a little kiss on her cheek, he got out of bed and headed to the shower, hoping to wash the sleep cobwebs away.

A little later in the kitchen whilst the coffee machine spurted into action, Clive phoned the hospital to see how his wife was doing. He was very encouraged after speaking to the nurse who had looked after Martha over night who had told him she had had a stable night. The plan was still to try and wake her later that day after the ward round. Clive thanked the nurse and told her he would be in shortly.

His parents materialised in the kitchen soon afterwards. Worried about her son, his mother tried to get Clive to eat some breakfast before heading to the hospital, but his stomach couldn't face it. He had been surviving on caffeine alone for the last twenty four hours and it was going to have to do for the next couple as well. Hopefully once he knew that his wife was going to be ok his appetite would remain. With a quick promise to his parents that he would phone later as soon as he had some news, and that they would find Liv in his and Martha's bed instead of her own, Clive was once more heading to the hospital.

"Morning, Marth" said Clive as he arrived at his wife's bedside. She was still asleep. The whir and hiss of the ventilator the only sound coming from her direction. Her chest moving up and down with each noise. "I hear you behaved yourself overnight," he continued in an upbeat fashion as he leant down to kiss her. He was in a slightly more positive mood this morning, and he was sure everything would be better once Martha woke up. "Liv was busy yesterday making a load of cards for you to see later," he continued as he took the chair by her side and deposited the cards on the cabinet to his side.

"Can I have a look?" Asked the nurse and Clive nodded. "You have a big family," she noted as she flicked through all the cards.

"Not all from our children. There's some from the pets and even the toys have one ," explained Clive and the nurse smiled. "She didn't want to leave anyone out,".

"She's very good at drawing," she complimented as she put them down. "We can put them around the bed so Martha can see them when she wakes up,".

The sedation was turned off when the doctors had seen her. Martha was finally awake enough to remove the tube from her mouth that connected her to the ventilator about two hours later. Clive didn't really know what to expect when she woke up, but he was expecting a little more than Martha simply rolling over and trying to go back to sleep. Some sort of acknowledgement to his presence would have been nice.

"Is this usual?" He asked the nurse who was now putting an oxygen mask over Martha's face until she was a bit more awake.

"She's still not fully with it, Clive" explained the nurse. "Give her a bit more time for all the sedation to wear off,".

The oxygen mask was obviously not to Martha's satisfaction and she removed it so it was over her forehead. The nurse popped it back over her nose and mouth but Martha removed it again fairly swiftly. "Can you keep the mask on until you are a little more awake, Martha," the nurse said to her patient as she replaced the mask over her nose and mouth again for the third time. It didn't stay there long before it was back on her forehead.

Clive decided to step in. Going round to the side of the bed Martha was facing he replaced the mask himself. "Marth will you keep the mask on!" He said sternly. "This lovely lady is only trying to look after you and you are not helping,".

Martha opened her eyes when she heard her husband. She gave him an annoyed look before rolling away from him so her back was to him before trying to get back to sleep, but the mask remained on. Her nurse was watching her patient and husband from the end of the bed, and gave a small smile at their interaction.

"In the doghouse already," Clive said to the nurse in a joking way. "I'm just going to phone home and work. There's lots of people wanting to know how she is doing," he continued before directing his last comment to Martha. "And when I come back that mask better still be on!". Martha didn't show any sign she was listening to him. "You've just got to be firm with her," he advised the nurse before walking out the room.