Thank you lovely people for reading and reviewing! There will be more. There will even be more Robbie at some point, sorry he got left out of this chapter rather but I will, eventually, get to the actual date. Promise.

'I'll tell you what,' Alan grumbles, good-naturedly as he shuffles into the kitchen, tying his tie. 'There i'n't half some queue for the bathroom, what with us lot all going gallivanting.' He winks at Raff who is still damp-haired and pink about the ears. Gillian can be heard, rather than seen, as she clatters from room to room upstairs, testing out various pairs of heels.

'There's someone coming up the lane,' she yells. 'See who it is. I'm just...'

'Are you not ready yet Mother?'

'I'll be down in a minute.'

Alan and Raff both head for the door, peering expectantly out into the dusky light as a pair of headlights draw nearer and steadily nearer and eventually sweep into the yard.

'It's Celia.' Alan's voice is warm with delight. He hurries forward towards the car.

'Steady now Grandad.' Raff hovers at his arm until they have navigated the steps. Alan opens the passenger door with a cry of joy and, within seconds, he and his fiancée are wrapped in a hug as tight as they can get.

'Oh Alan.' They lean back from each other slightly to share a fond little kiss. Raff looks away, then back again, secretly revelling in seeing his Grandad like this, but shy of showing it. The driver's door opens and Caroline steps down from the big Jeep.

'All right you two, you'd think you hadn't seen each other in two months, not two days.' She chuckles though and goes forward to give Alan a kiss on the cheek when her mother lets him go.

'Hello Raff. How are you?'

'All right ta, Miss... err... Caroline.' Raff shuffles his feet and sticks his hands in his jeans' pockets. Somehow, she always feels like a teacher to him, even though he knows and likes her by now. In his awkwardness, he misses Caroline's slightly knowing amusement at his reaction.

'Well.' She claps her hands on her jeans. 'Where's Gillian?'

'Oh.' Raff's head shoots up, remembering his manners. 'She's just getting ready. Come on inside. She said she'll be down in a minute. I'll put kettle on if you like.'

'No love.' Celia comes over, her arm linked in Alan's, to pat him on the arm. 'We'll not stop for tea, but we're coming in, aren't we Caroline?'

'Of course.'

Just as they all make it through the door, Gillian comes padding down the stairs, a pair of high heels dangling from each hand. She drops them on the press in the corner and comes forward with open arms, hugging and kissing Celia and Caroline as she tries to apologise for taking so long.

'Ooh yes,' Celia exclaims. 'It's your big night out tonight, isn't it? With Robbie?'

'Well it's not... that big...' Gillian fiddles with the hem of her top.

'Why d'you take so long getting ready then?' Raff joins in teasingly.

'Oi you. If you had to try'n get changed, brush your hair, put make up on, and God knows when was the last time I did that, and try'n get near the bathroom and tidy up round the pair of you at the same time, I'd like to see how long it'd take you. Oh!' She spins round and pounces on the shoes she has brought down. She turns back, holding up one pair in each hand.

'Pink or silver?' Raff groans. Everyone ignores him. Alan looks perplexed.

'They're both nice love.'

'I know but... which ones?' She is suddenly uncertain, her nerves showing through her excitement. After all, it's been long enough since she went out properly like and, a very long time since she went out with someone she shared so much history with, an awful long while since she so badly wanted something like this to go right.

'I'd go with the silver.' Celia looks thoughtful. 'But then, I used to have a pair of silver dancing shoes that I loved to bits. Quite literally.'

'Did you?' Alan's face has taken on a look of astonished wonder as he stares at her, picturing her in silver dancing shoes, somehow managing to see her sixteen-year-old and seventy-six-year-old self merged into one.

'I bet you looked lovely.'

Caroline alone notices that Gillian is getting increasingly jittery. She looks the other woman's outfit up and down with a critical eye, glances from one pair of shoes to the other and pronounces.

'Which pair are more comfortable?'

'What?' Gillian looks taken aback.

'They're both nice and they both go with what you're wearing but you've got to wear them for at least a couple of hours, and you don't want sore feet causing a distraction.'

'Err... yeah. Good thinking.' Gillian gives Caroline a nod of respect and the two women share a grin.

The two of them move quietly into the kitchen as Alan and Celia foregather to discuss the latest wedding plans and Raff earwigs merrily.

'So...' Caroline raises her eyebrows.

'I can't believe I'm doing this.' Gillian looks down at the shoes that are still dangling from her hands.

'I can't believe this is happening in a way.' She tilts her head to look obliquely at Caroline and quirks her mouth.

'It's weird, after all this time, getting worked up like this.' She almost goes to laugh at herself, like she would normally shrug it off, mock her own feelings, but Caroline is not laughing. Her face is soft with sympathy and she is nodding seriously.

'You... know, what I mean...?' Gillian says.

'Ohh God yes.' Caroline looks to the heavens briefly. There is a little smile about her lips when she lowers her head again though, which allows Gillian to pry a bit further.

'Kate?'

'Mmm.' Caroline's eyes go far away and her smile deepens.

'It is weird, you're right. To suddenly feel all these things you haven't felt for ages... years. And to do these things – going out, getting to know a person, opening up to them. You know, I never thought I'd have to do all that again, after John. I never thought I'd get that chance.' Caroline goes quiet, rather surprised by what she has said.

Gillian watches her. She is amazed, at times, by how well she and Caroline get on nowadays. It's not just because of their rocky start but because they are such very different people with different backgrounds and manners and expectations and outlooks on life. But with some stuff, Gillian thinks, they get each other.

'I never thought... after Eddie, I... I never thought about it. I suppose I thought I'd never bother.' They look at each other.

'It can be worth it thought,' Caroline says.

'Yeah?' There is something needing in Gillian's eyes.

'Yes.' Caroline nods very definitely.

'You're really happy, aren't you?' Gillian ducks her head, slightly ashamed of her own nosiness. 'I mean, you're a lot happier than... y'know.'

Caroline takes a moment, but her smile is already saying everything before she speaks. Everything in her life feels as if it has changed in the last few months, although in reality a lot of it is still the same – children, job, mother, house. But now she has Kate to turn to and laugh with and love, Kate to care for her and ask how she's feeling, to surprise her and tease her and teach her how to be a real person and how to do real relationships. And her boys are happier, her Mother is happier. Everything feels more precious and alive than it did those few short months ago when she and Gillian first got to know each other.

'Yes' she says, 'I am.'

'Pink' Gillian says abruptly.

'Excuse me?' Caroline looks baffled. Gillian waves one pair of shoes.

'The pink ones. They're comfier.' She drops her eyes briefly and when she raises them again there's a glint in them. 'You're right. I'll want to be paying attention.'

The moment is broken by Raff's shout from the living room.

'That's him now.' And indeed, there is a crunch of tyres in the yard. Gillian's hand s fly to her hair, dropping both pairs of shoes. She bends to scrabble them together, starts hopping to try and get one on, drops a silver one, then a pink, tries to grab them both and staggers. She catches herself against a cupboard, just as Caroline reaches to save her and Celia, Alan and Raff appear.

'What on earth you doing Mum?' Raff's face is a picture.

'Nothing.' She desperately scrapes her hair out of her face again. Stupid idea, wearing it down. 'I'm just... nothing.'

The old couple exchange glances and try to hide their smiles. Caroline kneels to help pick up the shoes. There is a knock at the door. Gillian ducks her head lower.

'Will you get that Raff?' Alan asks. 'I'll just check I've got everything, right Celia.' With a sympathetic glance at his daughter, Alan guides his fiancée back out of the kitchen.

'I'm being ridiculous.' Gillian's head snaps up and she widens her eyes at Caroline, kneeling beside her. 'I have been out with... tons of blokes, before. I am being ridiculous.'

'Yes,' says Caroline with bland hard-heartedness.

'Why am I being this... ridiculous?' Gillian hisses.

'It doesn't matter,' Caroline tells her, taking her elbow and snatching up the shocking pink shoes that are causing so much trouble. She pulls Gillian to her feet and kneels again, offering her one shoe. Gillian thinks this evening cannot get any stranger and it's hardly begun. She can hear Raff's 'hiya' at the door and Robbie's 'all right', their muttered conversation, probably about her.

'It doesn't matter,' Caroline repeats rapidly as she fastens the buckle, 'because right now you are going to pull yourself together and act like a strong, confident woman who knows exactly what she wants and is totally in control of herself.'

'But I'm not. I'm a...'

'Mess, I know. But you're going to pretend. Now,' Caroline pushes herself to her feet, and brushes her knees.

'Stand up straight.' Gillian automatically responds to Caroline's headteacher voice.

'That's it.' Caroline pats her on the shoulder. Gillian takes a deep breath and raises her head at the very moment that Robbbie walks in and stops in the doorway.