Will stood in the garden park where he was due to meet Grace, leaning against a tree and twiddling his thumbs. He looked out at the beautiful green scenery in front of him: thick, luscious grass, tall trees of all trunk widths, flowers managing to bloom even in November, a duck pond visible not far from him… And a girl and boy walking straight towards him. The boy had a grey beanie on and the girl had a bobble hat and mittens on; they were holding hands, and the girl's large baby bump was wrapped up warm in a white woolly coat. Xavier and Delilah.

When they approached him, Will straightened up and snapped, "what are you doing here? I told you that she doesn't feel ready to meet the family yet."

"Relax," Xav rolled his eyes. "We had an appointment with our midwife this morning and she said Delilah could give birth any time between now and her due date next month, so she instructed us to go on long walks and stuff. We didn't even know you'd be here, you didn't tell any of us."

"You could have followed me," Will narrowed his eyes.

"I wouldn't even be sorry if we did if it meant I got to meet Grace Tiler," Delilah laughed. "But we didn't follow you, so there you go."

"Okay, I believe you," he laughed. He looked over their shoulders and saw Grace walking towards them. She was wearing a red beanie on top of her brunette waves, a red woolly coat that went to her knees, skinny jeans and converse, a black handbag and black gloves. Will was glad that she was wrapped up warmly, he didn't want his Soulfinder getting poorly from the cold.

Delilah looked at where Will was looking, and squealed. "Oh my god, she's there! Please can we meet her, Will? Please?"

"Fine," he sighed. "Just… Act normal, not like a crazy hormonal pregnant girl."

Grace reached them then and smiled nervously at the two strangers, her brown eyes looking at Will as if for help. "Grace, this is my brother, Xav, and his Soulfinder, Delilah. They were just taking a walk and just happened to bump into me."

"Oh, right. Well it's nice to meet you both," Grace smiled kindly at them.

"I love you," Delilah blurted out. "Well, you know, I'm a big fan… We were just leaving actually." She took a step forward and tripped over her own feet, stumbling and nearly falling. Thankfully, Xav was used to her clumsiness and quickly steadied her before she fell. "I'm okay, I'm fine."

"It's a shame you were just leaving," Grace said. "Will and I were going to go bowling, it would have been lovely if you could have joined us."

"We'd love to! All we were going to do is walk around for a bit," Xav said, "so we'd love to go bowling with you."

"Brilliant," Grace grinned. "Let's go, then. You'll have to show me the way, of course. I don't know my way around at all."

"I thought you didn't want to meet my family?" Will asked Grace telepathically as they set off walking, Xav and Delilah in the lead.

"I guess it won't kill me to hang out with two of them," she replied with a shrug. "What's the matter, William? Did you want me all to yourself?"

"Well, basically… Yeah."

Grace laughed out loud and linked her arm through his, walking with a skip in her step.

-#-

Grace felt like a completely new person, and she knew it was all because of Will. She hadn't felt so genuinely happy in years, nor had she ever felt as close to somebody as she did to her Soulfinder. She'd meant what she said to him when she said she didn't feel ready to meet his family, but Xav and Delilah had seemed so nice, what was the harm in inviting them along?

As they played a game of bowling, Grace and Delilah talked and she found herself strangely thinking about how she could see herself becoming good friends with Delilah. She didn't really have any friends - sometimes she stayed in touch with her co-stars, but that was it - so it felt weird to have a friend. But it was a good weird, and she wondered if the other two girls whom Will had mentioned - Sky and Phee - were this nice too and could be her friends as well. Perhaps meeting Will's family before she left at the end of this week wouldn't be so terrible, after all?

The bowling place had a café section, so they went there after a few games and each ordered some dinner. Grace ordered chips and a bottle of cola, while Will ordered practically half of the menu. When she stared at him with wide eyes, he shrugged innocently and said, "what? I like food."

"He eats tons," Xav laughed. "He should be the size of an elephant by now, it's freaky how he never puts weight on."

"Huh. Well I have a feeling that little habit is going to annoy me," she mumbled, causing the other three to laugh.

When their food and drinks arrived, Xav and Delilah immersed themselves in a conversation about their baby. Will turned to Grace. "Where are you going when you leave at the end of the week? Back to New York?"

"No," she shook her head. "London. But just for a week while I do some promotion work for my new movie. Then I plan on going to Yorkshire to visit my grandparents for a short while. I think I have a few days off again after that… So I can come back here if you want me to?" Her cheeks blushed as she imagined him rejecting her. What would she do if he didn't want to see her again?

"I'd love that," he reassured her. "But well, the thing is… You've only just come into my life, I don't want to be apart from you again. If that means going wherever you go, then so be it. I mean, I don't want to be one of them guys who just follow their girlfriend and live off her money, and I won't be; I'll still do my university course online and I'll have to travel places if the Net want me to do a job for them, but nothing's stopping me from spending the rest of my time with you. But obviously if you don't want me to come to London with you, that's fine. And although I'd love to meet your grandparents, I won't if you don't want me to."

"You're rambling," Grace laughed. "I guess you could come with me, it'll be nice to have company for once. But when I'm working, you'll be on your own."

"I'm fine with that," he grinned happily. "I can do some sight-seeing or something."

"Ok… And, I've been thinking… I know that we haven't known each other long and I wanted to take things slow, but I can already feel myself changing in good ways." A part of Grace hated herself for letting Will in and trusting him so easily and so quickly, but then she reminded herself that he was her Soulfinder; they were made for each other, they were there to make each other happy and to look after each other. She deserved some happiness in her life, so why shouldn't she let him into her life easily? "So I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I met your family in a few days or something," she continued nervously.

Will grinned widely and linked his fingers through hers under the table, squeezing her hand. "I'm sure they'd love to hear that."