Dane really had tried to talk to her.

He had in the end - well kind of - by text at least. 

Maybe that was a start.

The way forward.

They were communicating at least and that could only be a good thing. 

It wasn't his fault he had a girlfriend. 

A beautiful one. 

A young one. 

The younger model. 

He'd always been a little emotionally stunted so it made sense that he would identify with a 24-year-old more than someone his own age. And yet Dane and Sarah had always just got each other, understood each other almost instinctively.

And Sarah was emotionally stunted too – she even had the medical documents to prove it.

Poor Bean.

It was 15 weeks today.

And they'd finally be seeing each other.

Of course, Sarah thought, she looked like shit.

Let's face it, she didn't look 24, beautiful or model-like. 

She looked 35, sick, worn out and, finally, pregnant.

Bean must have had a growth spurt after it's first encounter with "Daddy" because when she looked in the mirror this morning suddenly she didn't look twilight-zone pregnant – that moment when you look at a woman and think "should I ask if she's pregnant or will she just get upset because she's eaten a donut and it's sitting a bit heavy?"

No Sarah was obviously pregnant. She'd even thought she'd felt "the quickening" - the tiny bubbly feeling in her stomach that indicated Bean was practicing freestyle.

And she was finally home at Margaret's place in Devon. 

She'd been here two hours. 

Long enough to do some last minute grocery shopping for her stepmother, throw her bag in the room she'd share with Ruby and Thena tonight and now peel the pumpkin while her "mum" rushed off to collect her sister from the train.

They hadn't said much to each other, there hadn't really been any time. 

Margaret had been working all week and was trying to pull this dinner party together in one evening so it was all hands to the pump. 

The main party would be held tomorrow afternoon in the local hall and that was being catered, thank god. This was the family dinner tonight. Neville, Lizzie and Ruby; Jane and her husband Michael and the twins; Thena, Margaret and herself. 

And Dane.

And Bean.

She'd be seeing Dane. 

He'd probably bring his girlfriend. Though he hadn't said that in the texts they'd shared.

The texts.

She'd got the first when she arrived at her flat in Stratford.

"Sorry I missed you, I really wish we'd had time to talk. I'm sorry I was an arse last night. You are my best friend and you deserve my support. I love you and can't wait to be uncle Dane to your new child."

Uncle Dane.

Yes well, that was settled wasn't it – in one text? He was uncle Dane. 

She thought about ignoring it or ringing him and telling him then and there - not uncle Dane – daddy Dane. But his girl had sounded so young, so beautiful and he deserved to be happy. 

He deserved that chance.

But her gut had twisted.

Was she turning Bean into a walking time bomb?

What happened if the baby rushed down the birth canal and bounced out with crazy blonde curls, beautiful blue eyes?

There would be no denying it's parentage then.

Oh god, would she hate the child if it looked like him and cost them their friendship – a constant reminder of what they had and what she'd given up for a child she hadn't even realised she wanted? Oh, shit did she want it?

She felt bubbles in her womb like she was getting her answer and she suddenly guilt washed over her at even questioning her decision.

"Bean!"

She texted back.

"I call it Bean – I'm not going to learn the sex, well I don't want to yet but you know me, I hate surprises!"

"Just don't do what you usually do and open this one early!" came the reply.

Normal Fox and Will banter.

She'd smiled at that. She slowly felt better.

"I'll try not to!"

"Early start tomorrow – nice to talk to you have a nice night."

"Nice to talk to you too – I missed this – night."

"Me too!"

"Will text again – though have a busy few days – meetings and an audition!"

"Talk when we can – break a leg!"

And that was that. The end for the night but the start of the return to normal. Well, the new normal. The normal where she was pregnant with his child and he was cluelessly romancing a beautiful young actress.

And now here she was peeling pumpkins for his mother and trying to avoid being in the same room with the woman who had been her mother more and longer than any other person. Margaret was a smart woman, Margaret was a mother. Sarah wondered if she'd get that six-sense that mothers, real committed mother's, got. If she had the chance Margaret would ask the right question and Sarah would sing like a canary. She knew it and she knew coming here was a bad idea. But Thena was her closest biological relative and Neville would be here too and well she couldn't do that to her little sister – abandon her on her birthday.

"Oh My God look at you!" came a squeal from behind her and there was the girl herself. Thena ran into the room and hugged her big sister furiously before looking down at her stomach.

"Hello Bean I'm aunty Thena," she whispered a huge smile on her face.

"Happy birthday kiddo!!" Sarah laughed. 

"Where's mum?" she asked looking around for Margaret. They'd decided when Athena was born that it would be less confusing for the "baby" if Sarah called her mum too rather than Margaret. Sarah had suggested it and Margaret had tearfully nodded, touched by the gesture.

"She said she had a couple of errands to run, code for I'm just going down to pick up Thena's cake from the bakery!" she laughed.

"Good then stow your gear, grab an apron and come and help Bean and I peel these potatoes!" Sarah laughed as her little sister rolled her eyes dramatically suddenly looking a bit more like Dane than usual, with brown hair and dimples from her dad and her major facial features from Margaret, she didn't look that much like any of her siblings, maybe Jayne, but then she'd get a look and suddenly she'd see Dane or Lizzie or herself. Right now it was Dane.

"Yes mam!" her sister saluted running off to drop things before coming back to help.

When Margaret arrived home, Jayne and her family were on-deck and the vegetables and roast were in the oven. By the time Dane arrived, fashionably late thanks to a series of meetings about a new production of Shakespeare's Othello on the West End next year, it was half cooked, Neville was there and making everyone, not pregnant, cocktails, Thena was playing with her nieces, Margaret and Jane were up getting dressed, Michael was out getting more ice and Lizzie and Sarah were making the cheesecake (a staple when Dane was home) and comparing baby bumps. Lizzie was two weeks behind but as this was her second child, she'd popped early so their bumps looked similar sizes. Sarah wondered if Neville had told his wife who the father was, she really wanted to tell her cousin's wife that their bumps were cousins – was tempted, in fact was close to caving and doing it when they heard a sharp intake of breath in the doorway behind them as they bared their stomachs to each other.

"Wow!"

Sarah flushed red and dropped her long top down over her leggings and pushed some of her wild hair back out of her face (with a flour streaked hand) and turned to see Dane standing there in the doorway. 

He looked breathtaking. 

Tired but handsome in his tight dark trousers, favourite brown boots and a tight blue jumper under a long blue military style coat, his eyes sparkled blue as he looked at Sarah and Lizzie – she was sure he was looking at both of them and not just her. 

He wouldn't just be looking at her.

Lizzie giggled.

"Anybody would think you'd never seen a pregnant woman before big brother," she teased walking over to hug him.

"Well I don't usually see two beautiful glowing women in my mother's kitchen," he laughed kissing her cheek. 

"Congratulations Lizzie!" 

He looked from his sister to his best friend, from one beautiful woman to another because Sarah was beautiful - she always was in her own Sarah way but pregnancy seemed to agree with her. Sure she had lost a bit of weight and her zygoma stuck out a bit more but it suited her. And he found himself staring at her, not able to look away. Maybe it was just that he'd missed her or maybe............he didn't know.

Sarah looked down shyly, avoiding his eyes which were taking her in, checking her out and over- oh great she was playing nervous school girl – well isn't that just peachy, she thought to herself.

"Hi, Fox! You look amazing too!" he said his eyes smiling as much as his lips. Her stomach did loops or was that Bean? 

She may have watched a few of his movies while he was gone, maybe Bean recognised the voice. It could hear now, couldn't it?? She'd have to look that up but yeah that was it right? It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was seeing him properly again for the first night since her birthday, the first night since she'd seen more of him than she'd seen in years. She blushed red again as he walked towards her and grabbed her into a hug.

"I've missed you Foxy," he whispered in her ear.

"I've missed you too Will," she hissed back against her better judgment. She couldn't lie to him, never had been able to – well other than the soon to be elephant in the room.

She felt the bubbles again. Bean was definitely moving.

"Oh wow," she said as he finally let her go.

"What? Are you okay?" he asked suddenly concerned he'd hugged her too hard and broken something. He wasn't really use to pregnant women and he certainly wasn't use to a pregnant Fox, yes she really did look stunning, thinner in the face but also more womanly, curvy and now bumpy. He was sure her baby bump wasn't that pronounced when he'd last seen her six days ago or maybe it was just that she was in the light now and he had actually managed to have some sleep? No she hadn't been that big he was sure of it.

She smiled widely when she answered him, the baby had moved. His eyes widened too, his hand twitched to touch her. Inappropriate right? But he'd done inappropriate things to her before.

"May I?" he started to ask but she'd grabbed his hand instinctively before he could say anything, it was the most blatant baby movement she'd felt, she was finally in no doubt that this is what it was and not wind! She wanted to share it with someone, with her best friend, with the man who had made this happen. Even if he was oblivious.

He felt nothing. Lizzie laughed usually her brother and sister were the smartest people in the room but they had absolutely no idea when it came to babies (though she was sure they would both soon be reading up a storm on the subject) or emotions. She watched them and could see so much on their faces, they were all over the shop.

"A bit early yet," she said giggling. "But I'm sure Bean will be kicking up a storm soon."

She looked at her brother and his best friend and tried not to shake her head. She had to tell him soon, he'd miss so much if she didn't, though maybe not if this display was any indication. Lizzie had promised Neville she'd stay out of it and let it unfold but it broke her heart. 

Her brother would love that baby, as much as he loved its mother – well she hoped that was the case. They were unpredictable – always had been. 

All this baby and the sperm donor rubbish was doing her head in if she was honest. 

She'd kind of guessed straight away that there was no donor and she was about to be an aunt - it was the only thing that made sense. And when Neville came to bed that night looking wistful like he had a secret and he didn't know if he should share it, she'd called him out. They didn't know the details but they knew Dane was the oblivious sperm donor.

It took his mother's voice calling from the sitting room for Dane to drag his hand reluctantly from his pregnant friend's abdomen. He called to her that he was here and left smiling at both pregnant women. 

And then, if she hadn't been dead certain already, Lizzie got all the proof she needed that Bean was her biological niece or nephew when Sarah wistfully touched where his hand had been. The Huntington's were good at wistful, Neville and Ruby did it a lot and so did Thena – and here was Sarah. She wondered if Bean would be a master of the look too or would it be more like Dane?

As they finished the cheesecake and put it into the oven Lizzie was secretly hoping Sarah would give birth to a tiny version of her brother, so there was no point in hiding the truth.

Sarah stayed in the kitchen preparing the food and getting things ready –she wasn't good with people and was often found here. She'd become very good at catering for dinner parties because of it, so no-one thought anything was amiss, no one thought she was avoiding Dane. And Neville was doing a good job of distracting him. Chatting about the past three months, filling his wine glass and of course Dane was making a fuss of Thena, he'd brought her things from New Zealand – a pure woollen scarf and beanie, things made out of shell, Lord of the Rings figures. He had presents for the others, for Fox particularly, though if he'd known he'd have bought things for Bean too. But there was plenty of time to do that. He hadn't had much time to think about Fox and the baby this week but he would. He would stand by his friend, be one of the male role models for this new unexpected young life.

He was still fussing over and talking to Thena and Neville when Sarah, his mother and Lizzie started bringing the food out and serving up. Roast lamb, mint sauce, lashings of vegetables and gravy, a favourite at the Huntington/Hilditch table. 

Dane, sitting in his usual spot across from Michael between Sarah and Athena, was starving, he'd missed this, family, home cooked meals, domestic life. This may be a strange new world where Fox was going to be a mother but this never changed, this was home to him. His family all around him chattering about this and that – Thena showing everyone her new shell necklace and Sarah asking what she was hoping to get for her birthday.

"Anything at all," Thena answered.

"Well as long as you don't get what your sister got we'll all be happy," Margaret laughed addressing her youngest daughter. Dane looked at his mother curiously, beside him Sarah stiffened, this was what she was afraid of.

He was missing something.

Margaret laughed.

"Well I can count Sarah, if you're 15 weeks pregnant then you had to have gone to that bank on or around your birthday?" Margaret continued nonchalantly putting a fork full of lamb into her mouth.

Neville's eyes bugged out, he looked across the table at his cousin who was slowly going the colour of the white damask table-cloth in front of her.

"No mum, 15 weeks is two weeks before Sarah's birthday," Tom answered continuing to eat.

Saved by the captain oblivious thought Sarah but she wasn't, not by a long shot and her world was about to crash down around her thanks to none other than her own sister.

"That's not how it works Dane," Thena said innocently. "They taught us at school, they take a pregnancy from your last period so Bean has probably only been around about um 13 weeks. Did you Sarah? Did you decide to get pregnant on your birthday, that's so cool?"

"Excuse me," the now ghost-white Sarah squeezed out as she anxiously pushed back her chair to make her escape.

"I'm sorry morning sickness, it just won't go away." She looked suitably bilious and wanting to be somewhere else, anywhere else. 

The colour drained from Dane's face and his fork clattered to the table. 

Sarah could see the lightbulb over his head, knew at any moment it was going to go off, yes she wanted to be anywhere but here - fast.

She was running through the kitchen when she heard him call. The rest of the family sitting stock-still in their seats – most goggle-eyed, though Lizzie and Neville exchanged knowing looks as Thena stared worriedly towards the door, preparing to get up and follow her sister wondering what the heck was going on. 

Neville put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"She'll be okay," he said quietly.

In the meantime, Dane had jumped up beside her and was running after Sarah.

"Wait Fox, please!"

But she didn't stop, she couldn't, she flew out the back door and was heaving into one of Margaret's pot plants with all her might when he caught up.

Ashen-faced, he knew he wasn't going to get any sense out of her now, though this was probably all the confirmation he was going to get or need. He was going to be a father, Bean was his. His own stomach swirled as he pulled back the wild vomit spattered hair from her face– he hated the sound of puking at the best of times but now...........now in total shock.............

"You should have told me Fox," he whispered quickly, his face still beyond pale.

Thea ran to the kitchen and looked out the window just in time to see her brother and sister both vomiting into the garden.

"What's happening?" the bewildered teen asked as her mother and cousin Neville came into the room behind her.

"I think we all just found out that Bean isn't from a test tube Thea," Neville said to his shocked young cousin. 

"Brother and sister, indeed we are not," Margaret sighed shaking her head.