A/N Yeah, I know I only posted the last chapter yesterday, but what can I say, I find fluff way easier to write than suspenseful stuff. So here we go, nothing really happens but... I don't have a clue what to write for the next one. I have really run out of steam on this story and if I'm honest I can't wait til I finish it. Once again, I was too ambituous. R and R please lovely people! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

A year later, Temperance was back on her feet with no lasting damage, and her back rarely gave her any trouble now. If she believed in miracles, she would have described the experience of walking away from a car crash with minor injuries as one. Her husband certainly seemed to want to go to church more often afterwards – sometimes he couldn't accept that things just happened, and a lack of empirical evidence didn't mean it was the handiwork of 'God'. For the first few months after the accident, it hurt her to stand up for long periods of time and she would sometimes get random shooting pains, but now the only thing she couldn't do was heavy lifting. The children were too big to be lifted now and she wasn't dealing with boxes of evidence on a daily basis any more, anyway, so that aspect of it was no problem.

The accident reminded her that life was too short, and that she had to make the most of it while she still could, but trouble with her back reminded her daily that she wasn't getting any younger. She was forty-three now, not exactly ancient, but occasionally things would happen that made her feel like an old woman. When Temperance thought back to ten years ago, before she was a wife, before she was a mother, before she was even pregnant, all she could think about was how different her life was. She had very little responsibility except for at work, which was all she really lived for. Now, she was as good as retired from the Jeffersonian and was concentrating purely on her writing. If she had been asked back then where she saw herself in ten years, she would have probably said "exactly where I am now". Children had never been part of the plan, neither had marriage. Sometimes she still felt like a teenager, but more often than not she was brought back to reality with a bump when she remembered that Bea and Brandon were ten years old and Astrid, who was still seen as the baby of the family, was almost six. And she was stepmother to a teenager.

Those children were probably the main cause of most of her wrinkles. Every time one of them fell over or got sick, she was sure she gained another fine line, that would eventually grow into a deep crevice on her face. She tried to turn it into something positive, to remind herself that those laughter lines around her eyes were the total of a lifetime's worth of happy experiences, which usually worked and eased her mind. But sometimes she just felt plain old, and no amount of poetic convincing would make her feel otherwise.

As part of her routine, when she woke up in the morning and had a shower, she would blow dry her hair, all the while searching for new grey hairs. Bea had found the first one a few years ago, and pointed it out in the characteristically ruthless way that children did, but since then they were beginning to be a more regular occurrence. Regular dyeing could only do so much for the outside, but inside she felt like she was inching towards old age.

And it didn't help much that Seeley still had a full head of dark hair, with no sign of any grey strands. She sometimes found herself getting jealous of her husband's good genes – his own father was nearing his mid-seventies and still had dark brown locks.

But although he didn't look the part, that wasn't to say that Seeley didn't feel old. He did, but he wouldn't let anyone know about it. He hadn't quite hit the mid-life crisis 'buy a Porsche' stage yet, but he had the horrible feeling that it wouldn't be long. If he actually got to that stage at all – one of the problems that came with his perpetually ageing self was that he wasn't as active as he used to be, and couldn't run as fast as he could previously. He was just waiting for the day when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, chasing some criminal who was half his age. A desk job would be his worst nightmare, but he knew he couldn't go on out in the field much longer. For the sake of his family, he hoped he would still be around for a while. He still had plenty of fight left in him yet.

"Where are we going?"

"Would you be quiet, I don't want to get caught."

"By who, there's no one here?"

"I'm not taking any chances. I feel like an idiot."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him through a gap in the fence. It was basically a closed off vacant lot now, but a single street light illuminated the swings and the slide still that stood, instantly transporting her back to the long summer evenings she would spend here playing and lying on the grass, looking up at the sky. The grass licked at their knees now as they straightened up and walked further into the almost jungle atmosphere.

"I used to come here when I was a kid. My dad would bring my brother and I if we had been good during the week."

"So you didn't come very often, then?"

"Shut up. I was always very well behaved, Russ just didn't observe boundaries."

"How did you know it was still here?"

"I have to drive past here when I go to the hair salon. I was curious, so I came back when it got dark and looked through the fence." She jogged over to the rickety-looking slide and started to climb the ladder to the top.

"Woah! What are you doing, do you know how long it's been since this place had any maintenance work done on it?"

"I'm a big girl, dear, I'll be fine."

"I don't want any more hospital visits for a while, OK? Be careful." He went to stand by her, ready to catch her if she fell. She just laughed at him, as fearless as ever, and sat at the top ready to slide down. Pushing herself down the slide, she felt the air rush past her face and through her hair as her body glided down the cool metal. It was exhilarating, even if it only lasted for a few seconds, and for that short moment she felt like she was ten years old again. She gestured to him to do the same, and he reluctantly climbed the ladder just as she had done.

"I don't think it will hold my weight, you know."

"Are you scared?"

"Scared? Of a slide? Don't be ridiculous." And to show her just how 'scared' he was, he climbed up and went down head first, on his stomach. "Happy now?"

"Oh, my strong, brave husband..." she said, the sarcasm evident, as she helped him to his feet. He brushed the dirt from his jeans and the front of his shirt, watching Temperance as she went over to the swings and sat down on one of them. "Push me?"

He did as she asked, and she laughed as he pushed her higher and higher until she could see over the fence. He got on one of the swings next to her and they moved through the air together for a little while in silence, taking advantage of the fact that there was no one there wanting something from them for a change.