Another lil' creation that I had in mind after Series 7 started up again :) Michael Byrne is a difficult man to live with, but why? And why is he a man so on edge? Set after episode 1.

Enjoy!

One: Perfection

Louisa Byrne stood in the middle of her creation. It had taken her a good few weeks, but it was virtually finished.

The walls had been painted a light cream colour, and with the sunlight streaming through the window beside Louisa, the cream rug on the wooden carpet glistened white. Along the walls, there were little outlines of animals, and hanging from the ceiling was a little wooden mobile with tiny giraffes and lions and elephants suspended in midair by small threads.

Along the wall with the window was a dark mahogany crib, and the cream and sand coloured bedding was arranged neatly, and was fresh and clean.

Behind Louisa, there was a dresser, made from the same dark mahogany wood, with lots of teddies and cuddly animals on the top. Every animal that you could think of was on the dresser, and their little chocolate brown eyes each glinted up at Louisa.

The room was perfect.

All it needed now was the finishing touch.

A soft little kick from inside her tummy reminded her of that finishing touch. Glancing down, Louisa laughed and whispered "Just wait until you see it, sweetie," she smiled and ran her hand across her swollen belly, delighting as she felt her unborn child flutter inside her.

Turning to the doorway she glanced back once more to admire her work. It had been virtually her work; she'd planned the colour scheme, the toys, the furniture, all she'd made her husband do was find someone to put the furniture together. That was her prerogative; getting everything just right.

Making her way back down the landing towards the stairs, Louisa twisted her wedding ring round and round her finger; she'd been married to her husband for four years, and would've known him for eleven by Christmas. It hadn't been love at first sight, for her anyway, when they'd met at a mutual friends party. Michael Byrne was what you would call difficult; he was precise and obsessed over things that didn't go the way he wanted them to, whether that be in his job or in his private life, two things which he often made cross, even when he didn't intend for them to. Just that day he'd taken up his new post as head master at failing comprehensive school Waterloo Road and had already been home late two nights running trying to get the school ready for the new term. Beforehand it wouldn't have concerned Louisa; she knew he'd be sitting in his office pouring over some spreadsheets or trying to work out why some wayward pupil was behaving in a negative way. But it was only now that she was uneasy about it.

And she couldn't work out why.

Settling down to read her week-by-week pregnancy book, Louisa tried to forget the reasons why they'd left their friends in London for an unfamiliar life in Manchester. Yes, Michael had been stabbed, nearly to death, by a pupil at his old school back in London, but he hadn't expressed any wish to move anywhere until he'd been offered the place at Waterloo Road, saying that their life in the leafy Surrey suburb of Egham was perfectly fine.

For all Michael's faults, Louisa thought as she read over the Your Baby at Week 34 section in the book, he had his strengths. He was a, for the most part, faithful husband, brilliant listener and was turning out to be an overprotective father-to-be. Louisa knew that most other women would be irked by Michael's constant obsessions with appointments and scans and birth plans, but she wasn't.

She knew he just wanted to be there this time.

The clock ticked on to half past four and Louisa heard the sound of the front door clicking and the slow, deliberate footsteps of her husband echoed through the hallway. Louisa listened to the normal sounds of Michael returning home; the jangle of keys as he threw them into the purple glass bowl on the table, the quiet thud as he threw his briefcase on the floor and the slam of the cloak room door as he replaced his coat in there with his shoes.

There was about a minute before Michael himself came ambling through into the living room, a sheepish grin spread across his face. His nutmeg colour hair was swept across the left side of his face and his grey eyes looked tired as he came and sat beside Louisa, beckoning her to lean back onto him.

There was a deep growl from Michael as he kissed Louisa's forehead and wrapped a hand over hers. "So the baby tends to move round less after this week, hmm?" Michael asked playfully, reading the same section of text that Louisa was.

"He's supposed to," Louisa pouted up at him, masculinising the unknown gender of their unborn baby "But he obviously doesn't play by the rules."

"Well then," Michael blinked down at her and smiled softly "Maybe she's like her father in that respect."

Louisa's face fell as Michael leaned down to kiss her. She stared up at him when he pulled his face away and said "Why do you think it's going to be another girl?"

"I've just got a feeling," Michael whispered softly, running his fingers over Louisa's swollen stomach "It's just a feeling."

"But this pregnancy's been totally different to...," Louisa found the name she was trying to say was stuck in her throat "...to...to..," she sighed bitterly as she finally said "..to Holly."

Michael breathed through his nose and kissed the side of Louisa's head "Oh well, we've got six weeks. We can still find out beforehand."

"No," Louisa shook her head and pushed herself off of him "No, I'm perfectly fine not knowing the sex until it's born. We done that with Holly and look what it bought us."

"Lou," Michael breathed, obviously frustrated "Lou, listen, try to be rational, you know that finding out that Holly was Holly before she was born had nothing to do with what happened after!"

"I just want everything to be perfect this time!" Louisa cried emotionally "I don't want anything to go wrong! I just want to be able to bring him," she paused and glanced up at Michael "Or her, home from the hospital and get on with our lives! Be that perfect little family!"

"Are we not perfect now?" Michael asked softly.

Sniffing, Louisa looked at him and nodded slowly "Of course, of course we are. Well," she leaned back into him, clutching at his shirt "We're perfect when compared with your new teachers and pupils."

"That was out of line," Michael told her sharply "You knew I took this post on to get away from London."

"Getting away from London didn't mean going all the way to bloody Manchester!" Louisa hissed "I noticed that Sian Diamond is working there with you, that's convenient I'm sure!"

"If you're going to be like this then I'm going upstairs to work," Michael went to move, exasperated.

"No, Michael," Louisa held onto him, pulling him down "No, don't go," she kissed his hand "I'm sorry I'm just a fat, tired bag of hormones at the minute. I'm sorry, I know the real reason you decided to relocate us up here was to get away from all the memories," she felt him wince as she brushed the three inch scar on his back. There was a long pause before Louisa questioned him "What was the verdict today?"

"How did you know?" Michael whispered slowly, glancing down at the wife he held against his chest.

"I do read the papers," Louise looked up at him and asked gently "Well?"

"He's not guilty apparently," Michael said through gritted teeth "The jury found the little bastard not guilty!"

Louisa fell silent as she heard Michael stifle a sob and then he rose swiftly out of the sofa and catapulted towards the stairs, leaving his heavily pregnant wife alone to ponder her husband and the world which he lived in.

Hope you enjoyed! As you can see, tis not a one shot, so if you like, I'll update!