Hannah waited until Jo and the girls were pulling out of the station before strapping Molly securely into her baby seat and checking Theo was safely in his. Getting into the driver's seat beside her brother, she locked the doors, not willing to take any chances.
"You never lock the doors, Hans." Max pointed out, furrowing his eyebrows. "What's going on?"
"Like I told Ellie, I'll talk to you about it later." His older sister told him seriously, drawing to a halt at the traffic lights.
She parked her work car as close to the seven-seater on the drive as she could, leaving just enough room for Jo's car beside it. Throwing the keys to Max, Hannah got Theo to wait until the front door was unlocked before he got out of the car. She freed Molly from the baby seat, balancing her on her hip and catching the keys that her brother tossed back in her direction so that she could lock the car. As soon as they were inside, she slid the safety chain across and switched on as many lights as possible.
To the children's confusion, she told them to put the telly on and wait in the living room while she checked upstairs, totally unnerved by the events of the day. Hannah had never been paranoid before and neither had she ever been scared of anything. She'd chased down knife-wielding suspects, stood up to gunmen and even been pinned to a wall with a needle at her neck, but the idea of someone being a danger to her family was something new.
"Boys, I need you to go and get all the things off the spare bed and put them in my room." Hannah requested reappearing in the living room once she was satisfied there was no one in the house.
"Why?" Theo demanded, looking up from his train set which, in less than ten minutes, seemed to have spread across the entire living room floor.
"Because Auntie Jo is going to stay here tonight, so she needs to actually be able to get into the bed." She replied, moving through the French doors into the kitchen and opening the fridge.
"Can I sleep in Maxy's room?" The little boy asked, tugging on his mother's sleeve and blinking up at her with big blue eyes.
With a sigh, Hannah shook her head. "No, baby, it's a school night and you need your sleep. Anyway, both of you need to go and change out of your uniforms before you do what I've asked."
Two exaggerated sighs met her ears, followed by two sets of footsteps heading up the staircase. Checking that Molly was suitably occupied by a combination of children's television and a pile of toys, Hannah started on dinner. By the time her phone rang, signalling that Jo and the girls were outside, spaghetti was bubbling in one saucepan and bolognaise was simmering gently in another.
"Girls, can you change the sheets on the spare bed, please." Hannah asked as she let them in. "Dinner won't be long."
"You don't need to change the sheets." Jo assured her friend as the teenagers disappeared upstairs and the women headed into the living room.
Hannah laughed. "Trust me, it's safer… last time I changed the sheets I found half a jammie dodger, hair gel and some play dough. I still don't know who did it, although my money is definitely on Theo. Anyway, welcome back to the madhouse. Make yourself at home and I'll go and open this." She said, taking the bottle of white wine Jo was offering her. Before she made it to the kitchen, a small, blonde hurricane ran straight into her. Grasping Theo's arms gently, she smiled. "Go and get your reading book and you can read to me while I finish making dinner. Mrs Sanderson will tell me off if I forget again."
"Can I read to Auntie Jo?"
"I'm starting to feel left out here, gorgeous!" She laughed softly. "Well you'll have to ask if she minds."
Nodding, he rushed away to fetch his book bag, before almost leaping on top of the older detective and starting to chatter nineteen-to-the-dozen before she could even open her mouth. Smiling, Hannah handed a slightly shell-shocked Jo a glass of wine and turned her attention to the cooker, putting the finishing touches to the meal.
Running on autopilot, the young woman set the table and dished out the meals, barely noticing the extra plate. She put the bottle of wine and a jug of orange squash in the centre of the table and a cup of squash on the tray of Molly's highchair.
"Food!" She shouted, leaning through the kitchen door into the hallway. "Come and get it!"
At once there was a stampede; Freya, Ellie and Max racing down the stairs and Theo barging past her from the living room. Hannah smiled at Jo as she scooped Molly up and settled her in the highchair.
"Can we have wine, Hans?" Freya asked, glancing hopefully at her sister.
"You and Ellie can have one glass." The woman agreed, passing her the bottle once she'd topped up hers and Jo's glasses.
"Can I?" Max asked.
"You are kidding?" Hannah laughed. "Apart from the fact you don't like wine, you're only thirteen, so no; orange squash for you, mate."
"I'm the man of the house and I'm not even allowed wine." He sighed, half-sulkily.
"Man of the house?" Freya laughed, almost spitting bolognaise across the table at her sister.
"You?" Ellie asked, giggling too.
"You couldn't protect us from a moth."
"Leave off him, you two." Hannah commanded calmly, taking a sip from her glass and shooting Max a quick wink. "He's definitely the man of the house. Maxy and Theo are the only men we need around here."
"My Dad's alright." Ellie reminded her, almost defensively.
Hannah nodded, conceding her daughter's point. "Yeah, Jake's OK… he can put flat pack furniture together, anyway."
"When he's not banged up." Freya joked, earning herself a sharp jab in the ribs from her niece.
Jo looked curiously at her friend, but the red-head was clearly not intending to explain the comment. Instead she winked at the girls. "But we don't need any more men in this house."
"No more rubbish boyfriends." Max agreed with a nod.
"I bet you don't even remember Carl." Freya teased, nudging her brother in the ribs. "He was Han's last boyfriend and you were only Theo's age when he walked out on her."
"That's enough." The woman almost snapped, her good mood evaporating immediately. She stabbed viciously at the food in front of her.
"Anyway, we don't need a man of the house, Mum." The younger red-head said with a smirk. "Forget GI Jane, we've got GI Hannah."
Freya nodded. "Yeah, Hans, you're like action woman." She turned to Jo. "Has she told you about the stuff she gets up to? There was this one time when she jumped on the back of this guy who was threatening another copper with a knife. He stabbed her in the leg."
"Freya!" Hannah snapped, shaking her head sharply and glancing at her younger children. "I said, enough. Besides, I bet Jo's got plenty of stories of her own."
At her words, Max's eyes lit up. "Do you, Jo?"
"Enough." The woman repeated. The air of finality in her voice was all that was needed to stop the conversation in its tracks. Looking up from her dinner and seeing the surprise on the three teenagers' faces, she sighed. "I'm sorry. I've just had a tough day and I don't want to talk about work, alright?"
There was silence for a couple of moments, which was soon broken by Theo launching into a story about something that had happened in school that morning. As the teenagers laughed at what the little boy was telling them, Hannah sighed inwardly at the realisation that she would almost definitely be called over for a chat with his class teacher when she dropped him off at school the next morning. Freya and Ellie glanced at Hannah, before looking at each other and giggling. They knew that Mrs Sanderson was one of the only people that scared the older woman.
"Right… Freya, Ellie, Max go and do your homework and then we'll shove a movie on. Theo you've got half an hour before bedtime." Hannah organised her family as she started clearing the table. As Jo started to help, the younger woman smiled. "Don't be silly, you're a guest. Could you keep an eye on Molly for ten minutes though, before I get her ready for bed?"
A/N: Thank you guys for reading this! And special thanks to MissWritingStorysObsessed and A for Antechinus for your reviews :D
Two chapters in 2 days? I know! The reason is that I'm borrowing a social life for a couple of days... don't worry, it'll be returned to its rightful owner by Wednesday and I'll be back in hermit mode with 2 gerbils and 3 goldfish for company once more! :P
Hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
B x