Disclaimer: Blue Murder belongs to Cath Staincliffe and ITV. No copyright infringement intended. I'm just borrowing for fun.

A/N: This is pure, unadulterated, fluff. To anyone who was hoping for a plot - sorry.

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"Happy Birthday Mummy!" The excited shriek of the 5 year old girl woke Janine with a start. The bed dipped beside her as her youngest daughter launched herself at Janine and thrust an envelope into her face.

"Thank you, sweetheart." Janine tried to sound happy, even though her pulse was still racing. She pushed herself up to a sitting position and took the card from the little girl, putting her arm around her and kissing her head. As she began to open the card, she glanced at the clock. 7.10am. Could have been worse. Somehow anything after 7am always felt... civilised. Even on a Saturday.

She smiled as she pulled the card from the envelope and saw the hand written digits on the front. Inside, her daughter's shakily scrawled name filled the bottom of the card.

"Did you do this all yourself?" Janine asked, her little girl nodding in response.

Janine smiled to herself as she hugged her youngest daughter, the biggest surprise of all of her children. Just when Janine had thought she was finally past the baby years, the sleepless nights, the potty training; when she'd thought she was too old for it to happen again, suddenly she found that it had. She couldn't quite believe it, her heart sinking at the thought of going through it all again. But she'd soon come round to the idea, started even looking forward to it. And although it had been exhausting, being the mother of a baby again at her age, she'd relished every moment, knowing that it really was the last time, that all too soon they were grown up and gone, like Michael now had.

Not that she would be sorry to see the back of early weekend mornings. No such thing as a lie in with a small child, particularly one as energetic as this one. Over the years, every time her youngest child had just got to the point where they would sleep a little later, Janine would find herself pregnant, and so it began again. She laughed to herself. It would take nothing short of a miracle for it to happen again now, thank God. She'd done more than her share towards raising the next generation.

The little girl was bouncing up and down in excitement next to her. "We've got you a present too," she whispered conspiratorially. "The others say I have to keep it secret. It's pretty."

"Well," Janine whispered back, "How about you don't tell me anything else, then I'll have a lovely surprise when I open it, won't I?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Janine noticed a tall figure appear at the doorway.

"I wondered where you'd gone to, young lady. I told you not to wake Mummy up."

Janine smiled at him. "It's ok. She's so excited."

"Sorry." The man shrugged, entering the room. "I heard her on the landing half an hour ago. Tried to keep her away so you could sleep in a bit."

"But it's Mummy's special birthday," said the child indignantly. "She's 50. That's a really big number, Daddy."

Janine raised an eyebrow as Richard grinned and sat next to her on the bed. "Happy Birthday, love," he murmured, leaning in to kiss her gently.

"Ewwwwww." Their daughter pulled a face. "Kissing."

"I'll give you kissing." Richard laughed as he leapt over Janine to tickle the little girl, who squealed in delight. Janine watched them, wondering for the thousandth time over the last few years why she and Richard had waited so long to do this.

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