Chapter 1
Terri Sullivan felt the wind go through her hair. She smiled as she saw her 4 year old daughter, Anna, play happily amongst the other children on the playground. Other mothers were also gathering, as preschool was due to finish soon. Terri felt someone sit next to her and turned to see one of her old colleague friends from All Saints, Charlotte. Their had been tension previously between the pair over Charlotte's child's father being Terri's ex, but all that was gone now. Charlotte was obviously delighted to see her.
"Terri! How are you? I suppose you're here to pick up Anna?" "It's lovely to see you Charlotte. I'm fine, and yes I'm picking up Anna. How are Patrick and Felicity?" The pair chatted for a while. The whole thing over Terri's ex had cleared away a long time ago. At the time Terri had just broken up with the young Dr. Jack Quade, and so had Charlotte with her girlfriend. The pair had set put to comfort each other at the pub, and had ended up having a drunken one-night stand. Charlotte had ended up pregnant, to her dismay. She had wanted a baby very much, but not in that way. The first to find out had been Charlotte's ex-husband but still close friend, Vincent. It had been kept like that for a time before it came obvious for everyone else. Charlotte told Jack, but he could not accept it, desperately trying to get back with Terri, which he did eventually. But it hadn't lasted long. When Terri first found out, she was rather shocked and hurt, but those wounds had healed over now. It had all been a long time ago.
The children of the preschool were now filing out of the gates, and rushing to their various parents. Heading in Charlotte and Terri's direction were three gorgeous children: a pair of blonde twins and a little girl with brown plaits. The boy of the group tugged at Charlotte's arm impatiently. "Mum..." he said. "Can we go to Uncle Vincent's house tonight? Please?" Terri smiled at this. "Uncle Vincent?" she questioned to Charlotte. "Yep, Uncle Vincent's it is." Charlotte laughed, before whispering into Terri's ear: "The so-called Uncle Vincent is really cool and funny. The twins adore him. It's good for them to have such a positive male role model. Specially for Patrick." Terri smiled but also sighed at the same time. Anna didn't have many responsible males in her life, which was a shame. She grew more like Mitch every day. He would of loved to see her born, and grow up. A small tear went down Terri's cheek. Nothing would make her forget Mitch.
Charlotte cleared her throat to speak, so Terri quickly wiped over her face. "It would be great to catch up with you, Terri, properly I mean. Maybe we can meet sometime... I think I've got a picnic coming up soon, with Vincent and the twins and me. You'd be most welcome to come." Terri turned to see a sweet little face beside her, gently tugging on her sleeve. "It would be great if we could go, Mummy. I would like to play with Felicity, and meet Uncle Vincent. Patrick said he's really cool." How could Terri possibly put down that innocent little face? "Alright," she said. "Should be great. I'm sure Anna would really enjoy herself, and it would be great to catch up with you and Vincent. Thanks for the offer. What sort of time?" "Oh, I'll call you closer to the date," Charlotte replied. "You been doing much casual work lately?" "Oh, only every odd month or so. I'll be taking up more when Anna starts school." "C'mon Mum," Patrick moaned. "Let's go to Uncle Vinnie's!" "Well, it looks like I'm going," said Charlotte, laughing. "Anyway, it'll be good to see you soon, Terri. Oh, and bye Anna!" The petite little figure waved a small hand as Charlotte was pulled towards the carpark. Terri stood up also. "We better go, Anna. We're having something special for dinner tonight."
It was late at night when Terri was laying it bed, listening to the soft breathing of her daughter. Anna was fast asleep, her dreams full of fairytales and fantasies. Terri took a deep breath, trying to stop the silent tears from trickling down her face. Clear in view, on the bedside table, showed a photo of Mitch and Terri on their wedding day. Another showed Mitch and his daughter, Lucy. She would be a lot older now. Terri knew Mitch would have loved both his daughters very much, if he were still alive. Another photo on the dresser showed a happy day, on which Anna was born. Surrounding Terri were her closest friends and colleagues. Most the staff had visited that day. Terri smiled as she went onto the next photo frame, a portrait of her and Anna, at two years of age. She was such a delightful little girl.
When Terri awoke the next morning it was to Anna jumping on the bed, excited. "You said we'd had pancakes for breakfast today! Remember?" "How could I forget," murmured Terri sleepily, putting on her slippers. "We better start making them." She must have got a bit of sleep, anyway. It was while they were preparing the batter that Anna piped up: "Mummy, who come every else has a Mummy and Daddy? How come I only have a Mummy?" Terri tried not to cry. She took a deep breath, and bit her lip. She knew in the future only more of these questions would come, and she would have to be able to handle them. She tried to make it something Anna would understand. "Well, you see, darling, you had a Daddy too. He would of... I mean, he loved you very much. Him and me were married, and happy." "What happened?" asked Anna, in her little innocent little voice. Terri took yet another deep breath. "Well Daddy suddenly got very sick. He had to have an operation, and... well..." She couldn't finish it. To her utter surprise, Anna was the one who did. "Didn't he make it?" she asked. Terri nodded, confused. Anna seemed to understand. "Regina taught me that, when you had to drop into work and was busy. I got to visit some of the patients. I was her special helper." Anna grinned with pride, but then suddenly turned downcast. "I suppose I don't have a Daddy then, do I? Like everyone else?" She looked rather sad, and it was breaking Terri's heart. "Anna... Anna..." "Wait a moment! Felicity and Patrick don't have a Daddy either!" This relieved Terri, as Anna looked a whole lot happier. But she had touched a tender point. Anna would grow up without a father, a challenge she would face her entire life.
That afternoon as Anna was having a nap, Terri sorted through the different photo albums for something to do. There were two main sections: the first involving before Mitch's death and the other after Anna's birth. There were few in between. Terri was flipping quickly through that section, when she discovered a photo stuck in between two pages. She finally managed to pull it out, and to her shock it was none other than one of her and Jack! She gulped. What was that doing there? In all places? And after all this time?
Terri seized the photo and lifted the bin lid. She hesitated. Why? It was all over ages ago! Jack had run off to New Zealand, for goodness sakes, with that doll face young nurse Kayla! He had nothing to do with her anymore! Terri let it drop, but felt torn. Why was she feeling like this?