Sarah's head was still spinning, she was clean and pjed up, sitting on her bed eating a little of the roast lamb from dinner.

It had been delivered by her little sister who sat on the other side of the big double bed watching her eat. She'd been sent by Matahari herself – the master spy and all-seeing oracle – better-known as Margaret Hilditch.

She still couldn't believe her "mother" had guessed. Well, she was a mum, they knew these things didn't they? Would she get a sixth sense, would she be able to tell when Bean was hiding something? God knows but probably not. Margaret was a natural mother, Sarah was a natural fuck-up, only someone like her would end up pregnant with her best friend's baby, her half-sister's brother's baby. It was a headspin. And when you said it like that, it almost sounded obscene. The fact that Margaret had worked it out was even more of a shocker.

And yet downstairs, Margaret had hugged her stepdaughter and told her she was so glad that her hunch was right and that she was having her son's baby and not the offspring of some faceless stranger. Sarah had expected to be ostracised well maybe not but a little more resistance, a little tut-tutting but no, hugging, tears and excitement about her latest grandchild.

And Sarah thought she was weird because Dane was bound to produce a child at some point. It wasn't like he was pig dog ugly, with four toes and bucked teeth, living in his mother's attic.

He was Dane Hilditch, international movie star, with the looks to match and brains to boot. He owned at least one multi-million dollar property of his own, outright and had beautiful manners and attracted beautiful women like rain to Wimbledon.

Hell, he even had the beautiful, talented actress girlfriend now.

But Margaret seemed over-joyed that she and her son had accidentally created a new life. She was sure most mothers would have been appalled that their son had a one-night stand that ended in a pregnancy.

Though she supposed this was hardly your usual one-nighter was it?

Mind you she wasn't exactly happy with Margaret, she had dropped her in it. Sarah had quizzed her, how the hell she'd known. So much for keeping it to herself.

Had Dehlia rung? Had Neville? He swore he hadn't.

Margaret had just touched a finger to her nose. "Mother's know!" she'd said mysteriously but apparently the fact that Dane kept asking how her how Sarah was, both had told her they were spending her birthday together and then Sarah's reluctance to announce her pregnancy face to face had been telling. Of course, the fact, that unlike her son, Margaret was good at maths might have been the clincher. Sarah had shaken her head.

"You've always been family," Margaret had told her hugging her. "This just makes it even more official."

But did it?

This was truly the weirdest thing that had ever happened to her.

She looked across the bed at her little sister. The only one who hadn't come up and hugged her touched her tummy, talked to the little "Hilditch".

Thena had hung back.

Watched from across the room.

She was still doing it.

Still looking at Sarah like she was a science experiment.

It must be weird for her, her big sister was pregnant and she'd never expected that and now the bomb had dropped – her big brother was the father. Sarah remembered when she'd discovered that Thena was on her way – even at 19-20 it was kind of off-putting to find out that your father still, well did "it" – the fact that he had done it with her best friend's mum, her mother substitute, had felt stranger, even though they were engaged by then.

This was worse though.

She and Dane weren't even a couple. This must have come out of the blue for her, more than anyone. One little act had changed and affected so many bloody lives. One broken condom.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell, it's just, I know I always promised to be totally honest with you but well it's just a weird thing to tell your sister and Dane didn't know either and I didn't want to put you in the position of having to lie to your big brother," Sarah said looking at the young girl who had become so important to her, a big part of her world. Her closest family, the little piece of her father he'd left behind for her to love.

"But I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth."

"It's okay, I understand," she said quietly, still looking at her intently.

"Do you have any questions?"

Thena looked at her thoughtfully.

"Had you, you know, done it before, you know slept with Dane?"

Sarah looked at her sister a little surprised, she'd expected something more like "do you love him?" "do you want to marry him" but this was, well, unpredictable, but then Thena was her sister.

How do you answer that?

The only way Sarah Huntington could.

With brutal honesty.

"When we were 19, Dane and I were both still virgins so we made a pact to do it together, we did it a couple of times after that but, not since then. We decided we liked being friends and we weren't ready for serious boyfriends and girlfriends back then," she said watching her sister. Something was going on with her younger sister, something more than this, frankly, mindblowing little bomb that had been dropped in her lap and that would keep a psychologist in work for a couple of years.

"Is that all you wanted to know?" she asked carefully.

Her sister looked down at her hands which she was folding and unfolding nervously.

She looked up at her, biting her lip like she wanted to say something but didn't know how. Sarah nodded to her, trying to encourage Thena to open up.

"Why am I a Hilditch?" she asked.

Okay, again this was out of left field.

"Because it's Margaret's last name and all of her other children are too," Sarah said quietly trying to see where this was leading.

"But shouldn't it be Huntington like you?"

"On your birth certificate it's Huntington-Hilditch, Malcolm was sympathetic and let your mother call you Hiddleston so it wasn't weird for you growing up with a different name to her other children. But you are a Huntington – totally a Huntington and when you're old enough you can change it."

Sarah focussed totally on her little sister trying to work out what was going on in that head of hers.

"Where is this coming from? What's wrong Thee?"

Her sister squirmed again.

"Come on sweetie – spit it out!" Sarah urged her gently.

Thena sighed.

"There aren't any pictures of Mum when she was pregnant with me, and and you and Dane took time off from University when I was born," she said not daring to look Sarah in the eye.

"Jo at school said it was weird for me to have a brother and sisters so much older and that it had happened in her mother's family and it turned out that her mother's sister was really her mother and well, I thought maybe."

Tears were falling and Sarah's heart broke.

"Oh, sweetie!"

She smiled gently, putting her plate on the side table by the bed and reaching over to bring her sister closer and hug her.

"I'm definitely your sister and Dane's your brother but we love you very much and so did my dad even though he died before he could see you. And your mum – Margaret she loves you sooo much, you're her little bonus price, she'd hate to hear you doubted that."

She hugged her close. It must be so confusing to be the youngest by so much and to never meet your father. She felt a twinge of guilt that she almost deprived Bean of a dad. Well at least knowing who it's family really was. She was sure Dane would still have been a big part of the baby's life, well she had hoped. Family was important and Sarah was reminded now just how important.

"All your other sisters were still at home and they were told in person but your mum and dad sent Dane and I letters at uni – in the one envelope so we'd open them together, that's how we found out about you. I still have both those letters in a box – with lots of other things I've kept for you – little memories.

"There might even be a picture of your mum carrying you in there," she soothed and her little sister finally looked up. There were tears in her eyes and she held her tighter, squeezed her gently.

"You know," Sarah said thoughtfully.

"I hadn't really thought about it but there were no real pictures of my mum carrying me either and I use to think I was adopted."

"Really?"

"Really!" she smiled.

"I was an only child and so different to my Greek cousins when I was growing up. We 're going to have to take lots of pictures for Bean!"

Thena smiled a watery half-smile affair but a smile none-the-less.

"We could start now!" she laughed grabbing her phone from the side table and waving it at her reluctant sister.

"Really?" Sarah moaned.

"Come on big sister!" she laughed.

"But there's hardly a bump yet."

"Come onnnnn!" Thena pleaded dragging her by the hand. Sarah sighed, thankful that she'd left a sports bra on under her top, nothing like a bit of extra support for her expanding and aching boobs.

She jumped out of bed and pulled her t-shirt down so it was over her small but now quite prominent bump while Thena happily posed her like a recalcitrant Barbie doll, moving her this way and that.

"You need to take the T-shirt off so we can see the bump in the flesh," she said, earning a groan from her sister.

"This is really undignified," she sighed as her sister chanted off, off, off.

She pulled her shirt over her head and began to pose like some sort of supermodel just in time for Dane to come into the room.

"Well, well every time I come into a room tonight you seem to be showing off your body to one of my sisters!" he laughed. Sarah moved to grab her T-shirt to cover herself but Thena had grabbed it and tossed it to Dane.

"I think he might have seen your body before," she laughed as they tossed the T-shirt back and forth.

"Yeah yeah very funny, tease the pregnant woman!"

She smiled and shook her head at Dane.

"Well it's better to show them – I mean look what happened last time I let you near my body." She patted her stomach. Dane giggled but it was hard for him to take his eyes off the small bump in her abdomen. It was one thing to feel it against him but there it was, a soft swell to her stomach. Evidence that there was something, someone growing inside her. It was becoming more real and a lot more scary by the second.

While he was staring, she walked up and took the shirt from his hand but he grabbed her by the hand and swung her round.

"May I?" he asked with wide eyes. She nodded, her eyes matching his. She shouldn't but she couldn't refuse him could she? That part of her body – the little person in there was as much his as hers. It was weird as fuck to think about it but in quiet moments she'd imagined this, imagined him touching her stomach, in awe of their growing baby. But that was only in quiet moments and she'd never admit it to anyone, hardly even to herself.

He was tentative at first, reaching out fingertips towards her tummy, inadvertently tickling her.

"Sorry," he said softly. His touch was gentle, reverent as he ghosted his hands over the slight roundness of her stomach.

"Hello Bean," he said quietly leaning down to her tummy, he didn't know anything about babies well not much. He'd have to learn, he didn't know if it could hear him or not but it was still weird and magical. He was talking to his child.

HIS CHILD.

He had an overwhelming urge to kiss her bump to kiss her, she stared at him like she was having the same thought –and she was. At that moment it felt like the most intimate thing either of them had ever done, even been part of. It was easy to forget that they weren't a couple, that this had the potential to nicely stuff up both of their lives. It was just them, the three of them. And for that moment it felt magical not like it was something that billions of people went through. It was just them, they did this, below the skin something new and unique and just their's was growing, no one else had made this person. A little person.

Behind them, Thena groaned.

"Oh get a room you two!"

The spell was broken.

Dane sighed.

"Oh yeah bugger, that's why I'm here actually."

His hand went involuntarily through his short but still wavy hair. He wasn't looking forward to this, his mother was being a full on pain. First, she'd dropped the bomb on him and now.

He sighed again.

"So apparently Jane and Michael are too crowded with the twins in there and mum wants to move them in here," he said quickly waiting for the barrage.

"But there's no room."

Dane was good at sighing, he did it again.

Rip the band-aid off, rip the band-aid off. Say it first.

"Yes that's why mum wants you to move into my room," he said as quickly as he could. Sarah looked like someone had slapped her, or that she might slap him. Thea giggled behind her hand. Dane shot her dangers, she stopped. Her eyes were still full of mirth.

"What the hell?"

"Did she not hear the WE ARE NOT A COUPLE speech," she said it loudly in case walls, or doors, had ears.

"Gee Will I wonder what your GIRLFRIEND would think of that? What your fans and casting agents will think of you getting your stepsister pregnant while you're seeing someone else."

Dane sighed AGAIN.

But that was situation normal around Sarah. He had to wait out the rant.

She stilled, looking for more to say. A second wind. It wasn't coming – she was tired.

"Are you finished?" he asked cocking one eyebrow.

She nodded.

"I'm here for a week and then I'm off to Europe for a month to film and I'm sure your schedule next week is it's usual insane," he said calmly. He'd had the same argument with his mother downstairs. She'd won, of course, she made sense. And, well, he wanted to be near Sarah, he wanted answers, he was still trying to work out what the hell had happened.

"We need to talk – this way we can."

"I can't leave the birthday girl with two crazy seven-year-olds and Ruby," she was lame, her logical brain was processing, she knew it made sense.

"I'll be fine," Thea said for totally not logical, and much more Cinderella Disney princess, happily ever after reasons. Though she wasn't going to say that to either of her siblings. The rest of her family was staid and predictable but these two, well these two made life interesting. They were also the two people she turned to the most, more parents to her than her mother, though she dared not say that to either of them, certainly not now. Sometimes, despite being 15, she felt like the older one.

Dane smiled at his baby sister.

"See she'll be fine!"

"And I'll rebuild you Hadrian's wall!" he finished adding puppy dog eyes.

Sarah laughed. At 21 they'd gone with his dad to Scotland to watch a rugby match and catch up with family. By then they both had partners but his aunt hadn't got the memo and put them in the same room, just assuming, as most people did, that they were a couple. Being so close to the border, he'd joked that she could build a wall to keep out the Scottish raiders and they had, they'd put up a wall of pillows between them for the whole four days they were there. Not that she hadn't peeked at him getting changed. He had and still has, an incredible arse.

"Only if you don't snore this time Will," she muttered wryly.

"I don't snore," he said with mock indignation earning himself a Fox eye-roll.

"Keep telling yourself that Hilditch but you know there's got to be a reason you're not married yet!"