Doing the Hokey Cokey.
Part 1
Never again thought Connie as she surveyed the mess her eighteen month old daughter had made of the garden and of themselves – finger painting had seemed like such a good idea two hours ago. Unfortunatly Grace hadn't understood that the paint was supposed go from the paint pot to their fingers to the paper and had managed to get more paint over herself and Connie than on the paper.
"Next time you can do this at Daddy's" Connie sighed as Grace just giggled and pulled at Connie's curls with her sticky blue fingers, "hmm this messy gene is definitely a Strachan one missy, what would Donna Jackson say if she saw me now!" Grace simply ignored her mother and reached for the tray of red paint continuing to create chaos. In the distance Connie could hear the phone ringing and got up to answer thinking better of traipsing through the house in her current state and covering the phone in paint, it was probably just Elliot phoning because he had lost yet another file and it would turn up eventually…. She hoped!
Turning her attention back to Grace preventing her from sucking on her paint covered hands – her daughter was clearly not going to be a great artist (or a make up artist judging by the state of their faces) Oh well she thought at least she won't be able to blame me for not giving her the opportunity – it's not my fault she'd rather eat the paint!
Meanwhile outside Holby City hospital a man was sitting on the bench reading patiently waiting for someone to come out, he had thought that she would be done by now or at least have come for some fresh air after all it was a lovely sunny day and England hadn't seen many of those this summer – maybe she was just very busy, she had to be working as she hadn't answered her home phone or mobile. Just after 4pm he spotted a familiar face emerge from the building and decided to risk being punched and rushed over towards.
"Ric" he shouted getting the other man's attention and catching up to him across the car park "Ric, look I know I'm probably the last person that you probably want to see right now, well apart from any of your ex- wives that is…"
"What exactly do you want?" Ric interrupted.
"Connie…. Do you know what time she finishes? I've been sitting outside the hospital since 9am hoping to catch her" Ric just glared at him "Look I really need to speak to her I don't expect you to understand…" he rambled.
"Ok if I tell you will you leave me alone" sighed Ric hoping that he wasn't going live to regret this, "She wasn't in at all today" This was met with stunned silence so he continued "She had a day off" still no response "Well stay here then if you don't believe me but you'll be waiting an awful long time."
"Oh Ok thanks I guess" he eventually replied. He had two choices now either skulk away and wait for a day when she was in or go to her house and take his chances – he had deliberately chosen to show up at the hospital as there was a smaller chance she would physically hurt him with witnesses around and in the event that she did he was in the right place to get treated (even if most of the staff did hate his guts they still had their hypocratic oaths to uphold).
By the time he had mentally weighed up the pros and cons and still not come to a decision he found himself standing outside the house and ringing the doorbell. It suddenly struck him that she could of course have moved house – it had been over two years since he saw her and the car on the driveway was different, not that was unexpected but in place of her trademark two seater, sporty convertible was a large four by four! He rang the bell again and waited, then he heard the unmistakeable sound of her laughing coming from the back garden – great so she wasn't alone, again that shouldn't really have surprised him, she was a beautiful, attractive, fun and sensual woman why shouldn't she have moved on, but then again he hadn't. Having come this far turning back wasn't an option (nosy Mrs Jones across the street would have seen him by now anyway) so he went over to the side gate and reached over and fiddled with the faulty catch (he really had meant to get it fixed but had somehow always managed to put it off), let himself in and took a deep breath as he walked up the path.
His heart was pounding so hard that as he approached the voices of the people in the garden became less clear although from what he could make out it was only hers and a baby's so maybe, just maybe he was not about to be pummelled to within an inch of his life by a jealous boyfriend just yet. As he reached the top of the passageway he suddenly realised he didn't know what he was going to say, he had spent days, weeks, months, years even wishing to see her but now that was about to happen he seemed to have completely forgotten why. He turned the corner and stepped onto the patio – it was now or never.
Grace had by now lost all interest in the pieces of paper and had instead concentrated all of the paint on hers and her mother's clothes and faces. With all the paint used up Connie had balanced the child on her hip and was trying to figure out the best way to get them both in the house and into the bath avoiding the least number of precious things that Grace could grab with her paint stained hands. Before she had made up her mind she heard the click of the sidegate, nothing unusual really it had been broken for years, but then she heard footsteps and not the hurried padding of Mrs Jones but soft slow mans footsteps – but Sam wasn't due to be picking Grace up until tomorrow – but then again he had developed an annoying habit of just dropping in on his way home from work with some cover story or another as an excuse to see Grace He can not see me like this she panicked – it will be all round the hospital before I've got the paint of my hair!
As her brain was coming up with at least three ways she could bribe Sam not to mention this to anyone he stepped into view, and it wasn't Sam…. No this was far, far worse!
"What are you doing here?" she hissed trying to sound more in control than she felt.
"I…"
"No I don't want to hear it" she cut him off.
"We need to talk" he pause "is there something you want to tell me?" he added uneasily, nodding towards Grace who was shifting uneasily in her mothers arms – not happy about the current level of hostility that was emitting from her mother.
"Don't worry she's not yours. I might be many things Michael but I would have told if she was!"
"So the father is he … around?" possibly not the best thing to say but he needed to know if some hansom stranger was about to ride to Connie's safety and slay the evil dragon (ie him).
"That is none of your business – we're divorced. How I live my life is nothing to do with you!" she shouted. Grace took exception to this and promptly started balling her eyes out and pulling away from her mother. "Shh shh baby mummy wasn't shouting at you" she soothed but to no avail. "See what you've done now" she hissed at Michael, who looked completely panic stricken.
"What! You were the one who shouted and frightened her" he replied unhelpfully.
"Well that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't broken into my house"
"Your house? I seem to remember we bought it together and you were supposed to sell it when the divorce came through!"
"Yes well I've been a bit busy"
"Look I just want to talk why don't I cook us some dinner while you get yourself and the little one cleaned up and perhaps calm down then we can have a nice civilised conversation."
"Fine" she sighed at least this bought her some time to get Grace clean and calm and make herself a bit more presentable. "Oh and Michael"
"What?"
"I'm not with her father" she added and turned heel and headed off upstairs with a sexy elegance that only she could have pulled off whilst holding a sobbing child and covered in paint!
Well this is good she let me in the house now perhaps if I put some valium in her dinner she may stay calm enough to actually talk to me for five minutes mused Michael as he surveyed the bare contents of the fridge. Closing the fridge dejectedly so much for winning her heart through one of his signature dishes he pulled a takeaway menu out of the letter rack on the side and ordered a large pizza. He then pulled a bottle of red wine off of the wine rack and poured two generous glasses – if he could not drive then she would have to let him stay the night, even if it was only in the spare room.
Meanwhile Connie had successfully managed to get all the paint off of her and Grace, had dressed Grace in some cute Tigger pyjamas and found some clean clothes for herself, and made her way downstairs determined to let Michael say what he had to say and then get rid of him as quickly as possible.
"I ordered pizza" Michael said handing her a glass of wine.
"Right" Connie murmered setting Grace down in her play pen.
"That is ok? It's just you didn't really have any food in the fridge"
"It's fine – I was going to go shopping earlier but sort of got distracted…"
As they waited for the pizza to arrive Michael effortlessly opened a bottle of the finest Chablis and poured them both a glass, while tried in vain to think of reason to send Michael away – after all he did own half of the house! By the time the pizza had arrived Connie had completely forgotten why she had wanted to get rid of Michael in the first place; surprisingly he was fantastic with Grace, he had sorted dinner, tidied the kitchen, and most importantly he was someone she could have a grown up conversation with! Before she knew it the pizza had arrived, fortunately she had already had enough wine to have put last years food poisoning out of her mind, Grace had been put to bed and two more bottles of wine were consumed.
For Michael things could not be going better; she had not thrown him out, allowed him to stay for dinner and wine, there was no other man on the scene (true there must have been at some point to produce a baby, but she hadn't mentioned anyone so it could not have been much), and best of all they were talking and laughing just like they did when they were first married. Talking wasn't the only thing they did that night, half way down the fifth bottle of wine the wedding video had come out and before they had got to the 'I do's' they were already re-enacting the honeymoon – the evening had definitely gone better than he could have hoped for.
