Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews you guys gave me. More of them please!
So, I reckon there are a couple of things you guys need to know before you read this chapter. Jake's mum has married her boyfriend Liam and they have a son together whom Jake dislikes. Neil has met Grace's parents and Grace has met Neil's mother. It's all rather complicated and messed up in my head but I'm sure in time everything will become much clearer.
This is the first of a few bumps along the road that I have planned but I can promise you now that there will be a happy ending so continue reading!

"Jake?" The sudden appearance of his son in CID at four thirty in the afternoon was enough to worry Neil Manson. He opened the door to his office and ushered him inside, away from the prying eyes and pricked ears of his staff. "What's up mate?" Jake tossed his school bag across the room and flung himself into one of the empty chairs before his dad's desk. Anger burned in his bright green eyes, the only resemblance he bore to his mother, and Neil knew immediately that his day was about to take a turn.

"Liam wants to move back to Spain." He grumbled crossing his arms.

"I'm sure he wants to Jake but your mum said at the weekend when she picked you up that she wasn't going to even consider it until you finished up primary school."

"She's considering it alright. When I got home she was on the phone to Pedro, the guy who's renting the villa we lived in. She wants to know when the earliest he can move out is." Neil's stomach plummeted; he didn't want to lose his son all over again. He'd never seen him if he went back to Spain. "I can't go back dad. I miss you too much and I've got friends here now and I hate having to speak in Spanish all the time!" Aware of how spoilt he sounded Jake just stopped talking and stared resolutely out the window. "I won't go."

Suddenly, the phone on Neil's desk rang causing them both to jump. "Manson." Neil paused and then looked over at Jake. "Yes Phillipa he's with me." Another pause, "He heard you on the phone to the guy in Spain." And again, "He doesn't want to go back – yeah I know that." He slammed the phone down. Talking to his ex-wife didn't normally infuriate him but when she yelled at him he liked nothing better than to put the phone down and wish her away.

"Your mum says that you might be upset but it was no reason to run half way across Sun Hill – and you're grounded because you're nine years old and shouldn't be running around London." Jake groaned angrily as his dad crossed over to the window and lent on the sill. "Look Jake, I know things have been tough for you this past year with your mum having Ollie but she does love you and wants the best for you –"

"And so do you." Jake interjected. "But you don't move me from country to country all the time." He pulled his sleeves over his hand. "Do I have to go back?" He tried, "Can't I stay with you?"

At any other time, on any other day Neil would have danced round the room singing yes but today he had found out that Jake was not the only one to be considered anymore, that there was soon going to be more than Jake to think about. "Jake, I –"

"I know you're with Grace now Dad but I like Grace, she's well nicer than Liam and even if she moves in with you or you guys get some place together I swear I won't cause any trouble." He was pleading now. "Just don't make me go back to Spain."

"It's not as easy as that mate. There's custody to consider and you know your mum has primary custody, she has to sign off on it all." Neil knelt down beside him. "I would take you on in a heartbeat Jakey but there's something else that you should know." He paused uncomfortably. "Jake you will always be my son and I am always going to love you no matter what and I want nothing more than for you to live with me – but things will be just as difficult with me as they are with your mum."

"But I like –"

"Do you like Ollie?" Neil cut across him, turning the conversation to Jake's six month old half-brother.

"No, he's the spawn of Satan." Jake spat. "He's such a pain."

"What if Grace were to have a baby? Would you hate that baby too?"

Jake looked at his dad stunned. "What? No – no. I don't like Ollie because I don't like Liam. You know how to spend time with me and Grace together but mum only gives Liam her attention and Ollie gets what's left now. She forgot to pick me up at school twice last week because Ollie needed fed." Jake paused, considering how much he liked his dad's girlfriend compared to how much he liked Liam (which was substantially more) and then asked, "Is Grace going to have a baby?"

"She forgot to pick you up?" Neil seethed, angry at Jake having been forgotten about. "How long did you wait?"

"Half an hour, the school had to phone her – but you didn't answer my question."

"I can't believe that. Look, I'll have to talk to Grace about all of this, yeah?" Forgetting his question for a second Jake nodded. "She and I have a lot to talk about – and in answer to your question, if I know then you'll know."

"So if she ever does get pregnant you'll tell me?" Jake asked as his dad pulled out a tenner from his wallet.

"Yeah, look take this, buy yourself something to eat in the canteen and I'll take you to mum's when you're done." Jake accepted the money and left the room, neglecting his abandoned school bag that was still lying on the floor. Neil felt guilty at having lied to his son but picked up his mobile and hit speed dial, knowing if he spoke to Grace things might be a little easier to sort through.

"Hey," Grace answered.

"Hi," Neil replied a smile on his face at the sound of her voice. "We have a problem already."

"What?" Grace asked panicked. "What's wrong?"

"Phillipa is moving back to Spain after Christmas and Jake has thrown the rattle out of the pram." Neil sighed. "He wants to move in with me."

"Well that's good isn't it?" She asked, her voice seemingly calm again.

"Grace, you're pregnant and Jake has had major issues adjusting to the idea of his mother's new baby."

Grace curled her legs beneath her on her sofa, determined she would not stress out until there was definitely something to panic about. She knew that if she panicked then Neil would panic even more. "Well, maybe Phillipa didn't handle it all that well."

"I don't think she did." Neil considered.

"How about this, if Jake is dead set on not going back to Spain then he can move in with you, we give him time to get settled at yours before we even think about me and the baby and I get the pleasure of telling him the news so that you're not the panto villain for a change." Grace was acutely aware of the fact that her heart was racing at the thought of Neil having to choose between her and his son.

"Sounds better than my idea."

"Which was?"

"Pretend that everything's normal until we can't ignore the fact that you're pregnant."

Grace laughed. "Yeah because with Jake it would really be that simple."

"Y'know, you really are a genius." He smirked. "Do you have an appointment at the hospital yet?"

"The doctor reckons I'm about nine weeks so I should get an appointment card in for three weeks time." Unconsciously she traced her fingers over her flat stomach, realising suddenly that inside, there was another life. "I've just realised something –"

"What?"

"I'm actually pregnant." Neil doubled over laughing.

"And you call me Captain Obvious." Looking out the window he saw Jake returning with a bottle of coke and a bag of crisps. "Look, I have to go but I'll come around later yeah?"

"Yeah, see you later." Grace smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too, bye." He put the phone down just as Jake came back in.

"Was that Grace?" He teased sitting back in his chair.

"When I said something to eat I envisioned something a bit more substantial."

"Well," Jake said a smirk on his face. "Smithy and I decided in the canteen that with the extra seven odd quid you can by me a McDonalds on the way back to mums."

In reality Grace Dasari was not as calm as she had appeared during the phone call with Neil. Her mind was racing and she was considering all the things that could go wrong in the situation she found herself in – pregnant, unmarried and the father of her child going through a major crisis with his son. Jake seemed to like her at the moment but what if Jake started to see her as someone who got between him and his dad? What if he resented the baby as much as Grace knew he disliked Ollie? What if she and Neil ended up falling out over the whole situation and another child ended up having to live between two parents before they'd even been born? Grace sighed and glanced at the picture of her family that had been taken three months before.

Her brother had her arm around her, their parents on either side of them – would her child ever have that kind of relationship with Jake? She could hear Hareem's voice in her head as she thought of telling him she was pregnant.
"Aria Grace! You never liked doing things by the book did you? I can't wait until dad finds out!"
Yes, her perfect brother who had married the girl that their father had handpicked and who chose to live with the name their parents had given him rather than with an "English" name that Grace had opted for to blend in, who had given him two grandsons already. Grace shuddered when she thought of Hareem slaving away in court all day as a lawyer. She'd much rather be at Sun Hill. Grace loved winding her brother up, calling him Harry as he'd been called all through school and then refusing to answer to her own "Indian" name as they used to call it. She cringed when she remembered having to explain that she was "Aria" to her family rather than Grace to Neil. He'd found it rather amusing and had taken to calling her Aria whenever the chance arose – which pleased her father no end.

It was funny to think that despite everything about Neil that made him so unlike Sunil, the boy her father would have had her marry, Saleem Dasari still approved of the man who Grace had introduced him too. It was something that annoyed Harry, Grace supposed, that no matter what she did to rebel her father rarely batted an eyelid. You want to be a police officer? Fine. You dumped Sunny? That's okay. She wondered silently if the banter she had enjoyed – and still did – with her brother would be anything like the way her child and Jake got on.

She'd watched Neil and his sister bicker amiably over cups of tea when she had met his mother Paula and that made her think again of what kind of relationship Jake and the baby would have. The old woman had taken to Grace the way her own family had taken to Neil – very well. Even Neil's nephew Drew loved "Auntie" Grace and had been demanding to see her again ever since she left according to the phone call Neil had had with his sister.

Deciding that worrying about it was getting her nowhere Grace picked up the phone from the table beside her and dialled a familiar number.

"Jo – you free to talk?"

And the unburdening began.

Okay, so I managed to squeeze in writing a chapter between revising for exams that seem a long way away just now but have slowly begun creeping up on me. Just like last time – review, review, review!