The children of Juniper Hill Children's Home sat around, somewhat obediently, in neat rows of four, waiting for Norma to make her announcement. Norma had a tendency to drag any ten second announcement out into an hour-long lesson. Shoulders were slumping, and eyes lids were drooping before the ageing care worker finally reached the crux of this meeting; a meeting that felt more like a G20 Summit.

"And now to the main announcement, we have a special guest for you here today," Norma droned in her painfully monotoned rumble. The kids perked up to attention once more, not at the promise of a mystery guest, but at the hint that this formal conference was finally over.

"I would like you to welcome Mrs Dawson, who has generously agreed to volunteer during her time away from the army." The children didn't react. "Yes, that's right, the army! Mrs Dawson will be teaching you all about the armed forces as well as taking you for some special physical education. Give her a round of applause!"

A spattering of tired claps drizzled around the room like popcorn at the very end of its cooking time. Norma shifted to the side, her face beaming as if she were hosting the Oscars and Meryl Streep was making the walk down the carpet to accept her award.

The door to the room creaked open anticlimactically, and a short but fit ginger haired young woman stepped through. God knows how long she had been stood out there waiting for Norma's cue.

"Hey guys," Dawson shifted awkwardly, clearly embarrassed to have had such a build up to her arrival. She wasn't one for grand entrances, and she wasn't really one for kids either, but she was here to do her part.

The children were silent for a second or two, before a circular motion from Norma's wrinkled hand prompted them into reply, "Good morning, Mrs Dawson," they hummed as one.

"Why don't you talk amongst yourselves and I'll come around and introduce myself properly one on one," Dawson smiled, suggesting this idea purely for her own comfort. There were so many pairs of eyes on her, she would have preferred the sights of enemy guns.

Just as Dawson finished her final word, one of the older boys giggled, turning to who was clearly his twin brother to share the joke through a muted whisper.

Dawson heard the word 'ginger' before the second boy laughed a little louder. They both glanced up at Dawson and instantly wiped the grins from their cheeky faces as she strode over.

Her face was plastered with the fakest of smiles, enough to fool the likes of Norma, but the twins could tell that punishment was in store.

"Hey, guys!" Dawson cried, glancing up and throwing Norma a theatrical smile. She then lowered her voice, "If I catch you two laughing at my hair again, you will find yourself waking up with beautiful dyed ginger locks," she warned Karl. "And you," she beckoned JJ in a little closer, "You'll be waking up with no hair at all."

The three of them held an intense stare for ten seconds or so, as neither of the boys knew how to proceed, but eventually Dawson cracked, her lips curling into a sincere smirk. "Gotcha."

The boys sigh of relief was palpable, and before long, all three were in fits of laughter.

***

Two eager and excited pairs of legs sprinted across the gravel drive of Juniper Hill, their skinny frames a blur against the green garden. A young woman dressed head to toe in camouflage was busy paying the cabbie for her ride when the tornedo of twin limbs engulfed her into a loving playfight.

Once she managed to hand her cash to the taxi driver with one hand, while fighting off the two young men with her spare, Dawson turned to greet her favourite Juniper residents.

"It's good to see you, you little shits!" she beamed, pulling them into a more conventional greeting of embrace. "My God, you're so much taller," she gasped at JJ. "And you too!" she winked at Karl.

"Taller than you now," Karl jabbed.

Dawson grabbed hold of his forearm, tugging his body towards her while simultaneously sweeping his feet from under him. She shot down to catch him and ease him onto the gravel with a soft crunch.

"Not anymore you're not."

"We hadn't heard from you in so long, you had us worried," JJ said disapprovingly.

"Can't get rid of me that easily," Dawson joked. "But I have to say, I was kind of hoping not to see you today."

"Lovely," Karl responded.

"Nice to see that her manners haven't dampened," JJ added.

"Oh, shut up, you know what I mean. Every time I come back here I just hope and pray that you boys won't be here anymore."

"No one wants to adopt 16-year-old male twins, Daws. Look around, this place is filled with cute little kids with no family in sight. We're the runts at the back of the pound," JJ explained matter-of-factly.

Karl ran a hand through his hair, "Speak for yourself."

JJ jabbed his brother in the ribs, "We're here for the duration I'm afraid, until they finally let us move out."

"Even then bloody Norma will still insist on popping over seven times a day to show us her slides on the various different types of sea snails, or some shit," Karl scoffed.

"How the hell is she still running this place?" Dawson gasped. "She's got to be at least 400 by now, surely!"

The three of them burst into laughter as Norma appeared, as if summoned, through the main doors of Juniper Hill Children's Home.

"We'd better go over to her," Karl suggested.

"Don't want her to do her hip, do we?" JJ giggled.

Norma stopped on the final stone step, still towered over by the boys, and even Dawson to an extent. "Hil-"

Dawson raised a firm hand, "Dawson!" she interrupted. "Dawson is fine."

The twins muttered to each other, but they hadn't appeared to twig. That was one secret that Dawson hoped they would never uncover.

***

"How is she?" Dawson asked, bursting through the door into one of the downstairs bedrooms at Juniper Hill. She had returned from service a month before and hadn't been due to visit again for another week, but news of Norma's illness hadn't sat well with Dawson. It didn't sound like the old lady had long left, and from what the boys had told her over the phone, they were the only ones around to care for her.

"Not good," JJ replied bluntly, removing a thermometer from Norma's mouth. The red liquid was as high as Dawson had ever seen it. "She's burning up."

"Where are the doctors? Where's the staff?" Dawson demanded.

"Fuck knows!" Karl said. "They sent a doctor round, had a quick look at her and gave her some weird orange injection, but that was about it. She said that she had about a thousand other calls to get to."

"That's it?" Dawson huffed.

"That and not to move her."

"And what about the staff. Where's Paul? Where's Dina? Doesn't Darren work weekends?"

JJ shrugged his shoulders, "They all stopped turning up about two days ago, no one's answering their phones, no one has called round here, we don't know anything. All the people on TV are talking about is the illness!"

"What's going on, Dawson?" Karl begged.

Dawson gulped, "I don't know, I don't know. I've never seen anything like this, no one has. Half the country is bed ridden, no one seems to know what's going on. It's just the illness this and the illness that. How are you two feeling?" she frantically slapped her palms against the boys' foreheads, checking for any kind of fever.

JJ laughed worriedly, "Daws...Daws! We're fine! How are you feeling?"

"Fine, nothing I can't handle," Dawson replied. "Haven't been out much in the few days, just to be safe, you know? God, it's all happening so fucking quickly! How are the kids? Are the kids okay?"

JJ turned away, "They're not as bad as Norma... but they're not in a good way, none of them are."

"What the fuck is happening?" Karl whimpered.

Dawson grabbed them each by the arm and tugged them in close, wrapping herself around them. "It's going to be okay, I promise you, everything is going to be okay."

The image blurred. Dawson disappeared. Two twins faded into one.

He opened his eyes and shed a tear upon realising where he was again.

Everything was not okay.