This little piggy went to the market,

This little piggy stayed home,

This little piggy had roast beef,

'Patrick what on earth are you doing?'

'I'm doing This Little Piggy. It's a children's nursery rhyme. Have you never heard it before? Did it not reach Scotland?' He frowned. As much as he knew his beloved wife she never spoke in depth about her early childhood and he had no idea how a Scottish infancy differed from an English one.

'Of course it did, of course I know it. It's just that every other time I've seen it being done it's been with a baby, not the speaker's wife's feet at 10 o'clock in the morning.' She laughed.

'Are you not enjoying this lie in? And you have such beautiful toes that I cannot keep my hands off of them.'

'Cute. But why the piggies?'

'Inspiration struck. I need to make sure I have my technique down for when I play with our child. Once we are blessed with one.' Patrick grinned. Soon, hopefully very soon, they would be gifted a child from the children's Society. He had no doubt that the adoption interview that had been scheduled for the next day would be a success. How could it not? Just so long as his stint at Northfield wasn't brought up. He knew he should tell Shelagh but he couldn't bring himself to watch his love become aware of what a deeply troubled and flawed man she had married. He was already unworthy of her, how could anybody ever be worthy of such a beautiful, intelligent, loving woman who had given up so much to be with him? He could not make her even more aware of the fact! What if she came to her senses and found somebody else. No. She wouldn't do that. Not to Timothy. She was too good a woman to leave either of them no matter how much she may come to want to. If she came to want it that is. She seemed happy enough, more than happy, when they were together. He had no doubt Shelagh was going to be an incredible mother-she already was to Timothy, but the thought of getting to raise a child from birth with her thrilled him immensely. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he returned his attention to his beloved.

'Riiiight. Come back up to the sane end of the bed please darling.' Shelagh rolled her eyes.

'No, I shan't. I'll have to start from the beginning

This little piggy went to the market,

This little piggy stayed home,

This little piggy had roast beef,

This little piggy had none,

'Don't even think about it darling.' She arched a challenging eyebrow at her husband who simply grinned up at her

And this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home' Patrick grinned as he tickled his wife's feet. She shrieked as the sensitive portion of her foot was assaulted. Twisting and jerking to get away from attack she lurched suddenly to the side. Next thing she knew she was teetering on the very edge of the bed, noticing her predicament Patrick scooted over and grabbed her. 'Do you surrender Mrs Turner?'

'Never Dr Turner.' She screamed as he stuck his hands up her shirt and began to tickle her stomach. Unfortunately he had forgotten to return them to the middle of the bed and soon both flew off of the side of the bed shrieking.

'Are you alright my love?' Patrick asked concerned as he felt his wife begin to shake under him. He pulled back to look over her and was startled to notice the wide grin that spread across her face. She was laughing!

'Oh I'm fine. You? You are after all far much older than I am. I do hope you haven't broken a hip darling.'

'Very funny.' He rolled his eyes, long past worrying about the significant age gap been his dear wife and him. Early in their courtship it had been a serious concern for him but he soon found his beloved could not care less about it. Now it was just brought up as friendly teasing.

'Sorry.' She leant up and pecked his nose. 'Well now Dr. Turner Are we going to stay on the floor or do something productive with your day off. Timothy will be gone for most of the day with the Monks. We have the whole day to ourselves my love.'

'Floor sounds good to me.'

'Incorrect answer. It was a trick question. The correct answer was returning to bed in a similar position to our current one until our son comes in. Which, by the sounds of if, will be soon.' As if on cue there was a brief knock on the door and Timothy bounced in.

'Dad? Mum?'

'Hello.' The pair chorused.

'Are you two on the floor?'

'Yes.'

'Why can't I have normal parents?' Tim groaned as Patrick stood up and pulled Shelagh up and onto the bed.

'Life is far miss interesting this way. And to answer your unspoken question the reason we were on floor is because...'

KNOCK KNOCK

'That'll be Colin and his Mum!. Tim rushed back out the room and thundered down the stairs.

'Slow down Timothy!' Shelagh rolled her eyes as she wrapped her dressing gown around her.

'At least when he inevitably falls down the stairs he has two fully trained medical professionals for parents.' Patrick smiled as Shelagh snorted her amusement.

'Let me get this straight. You don't care if our son breaks his legs being stupid because we can handle it?'

'Yes.'

'Okay. Remind me not to leave you alone with our baby.'

'Harsh.'

'Necessary. Now come on. I need to speak to Jean.'

'Once more unto the domestic breech birth.'

'That was terrible.'

'I know. Sorry.' He winced as they walked out of their bedroom and on with their day.