Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from As Time Goes By!

Chapter One- The Secret

Jean smiled as she watched the girls walk to work that morning. But they weren't girls anymore. They were grown women; older than she had been at the time Judy was born and much older than when she had met Lionel. As she watched them she thought of when they were little girls. They did not know each other then; but she knew that they should have. She shut the curtain and continued with her day, as if there was anything to be done.

Lionel had gone out earlier that morning, leaving her to an empty house and nothing to do. Lionel would be gone that night too; he had a war reunion to attend. This left her around ten or twelve hours or more on her own to think or act. During that time she thought and she successfully cleaned the house from top to bottom. It was a busy and highly productive day for her. But she still could not figure out what needed to be figured out. And rather soon too, she thought. This would be a sensitive issue to bring up, and she didn't know how to bring it up or who tell first or…anything! Then she suddenly thought of who she needed to talk to. The doorbell rang. Jean abandoned her tea on the table and went to answer the door. As if on cue, Alistair waltzed into the house.

"Hi lovely lady." He said, kissing Jean's hand.

"Hello Alistair. Can I get you anything?"

"No, no thank you. I just came by to ask you if you and Judy and Sandy would like to go to dinner with me tonight. I know that Li isn't here, but…"

"That's alright, Alistair. I'm sure that they'd love to."

"Wonderful, shall I pick you up at seven then?" He asked as he stood up.

"Seven it is then." She said.

"Great," he smiled as he turned to leave.

"Alistair, wait!"

"What is it?" He turned to face her; a tone of seriousness and concern could be detected in his voice.

"Alistair. If you had to tell some thing to someone or a few someones that you loved very much, that was going to be really difficult to say to them how would you do it?"

"I would just go ahead and do it. After all, if it's something that serious, it is something that they obviously need to know." He smiled as he turned and left the room. Jean just stood there. She heard the front door close.

"Yes. They do need to know." She whispered to herself.

…………………………

After dinner that night Alistair dropped them off at the house and by this time they were all quite tired. Lionel was not back yet, and wouldn't be for a while. Judy and Sandy were about to head upstairs; but Jean called after them, they came back down and sat in the living room, eagerly awaiting the 'surprise' she had for them.

"Sandy?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Do you remember when you told me that you were adopted?"

"Yeah." She said.

"Well, this is hard for me to tell you, but I'm…"

"You're my birthmother?" She asked, tears coming to her eyes as it all made sense now, and they hugged.

"Yes. Yes I am."

"How did you know?"

"You just seemed familiar to me somehow, and I just knew the very moment I met you and not only that; but I found out for sure when I hired you."

"Did you hire me just because I was your daughter?"

"If she did," Judy said, "then it's nothing new." She said, the thought that her best friend was really her little sister just now hitting her.

"Mum," Sandy said.

"You don't have to call me Mum, after all I gave you up."

"No, but I want to, and that's just what I was about to ask. Why Mum, why did you give me up?"

"Because I couldn't afford to keep you. I'm so sorry sweetheart. You were born after you father…" Jean stopped, trying desperately not to cry.

"I understand."

"And I kept Judy because she was two and…"

"And that would have been cruel." Sandy said. "That's alright, I had a wonderful childhood, and I wouldn't trade it in for anything. My family loved me and I loved them. They were wonderful people."

"I know, but I'm still so sorry."

……………………

Judy realized that she felt slightly cheated as she shut her bedroom door. Why didn't she know about this? Why had she never been told? Her eighteenth birthday would have been the perfect time for that. She turned off the light, climbed into bed and lye there staring at the ceiling. Her thoughts spun in her mind like a cyclone. What was Alistair going to think? What would Lionel think; did he know already? But more importantly, what exactly did she think? Was this okay with her, how would she adjust. But she was comforted by another thought, how did Sandy feel about all of this? And then, suddenly she felt selfish, and suddenly she began to remember.

………………….

She had always wondered who her real family was and what the circumstances surrounding her adoption were, and now she knew. And she was happy, and she knew that she was taking this better than one would anticipate, but she was genuinely content. She was overjoyed to know that she had a wonderful mother and the best sister anyone could ever hope for, but what about her real father? She had heard a little about him, but she knew that even Judy did not even know that much about him, in fact, Judy had no memory of him what so ever. Maybe one day, one day soon, she would ask her Mum.

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