Smiling when Lucy called her 'Mama' Stephanie immediately went and sat opposite her on the floor, "hello baby girl. Did you miss me?"

Crawling over to her Lucy sat herself in Stephanie's lap which got a chuckle out of a few people.

Once Kara had put her present on the table she went and sat down near Stephanie, "so how long are we going to give Paul before we go and rescue him?"

Shawn pressed his lips together in a tight line, "not long, I don't tru . . . think it's fair that he should miss out on the party so I'm not giving him long at all."

Wanting to avert attention away from his near slip up he reached forward and tickled Lucy's side gently causing her to laugh and fall back against Stephanie's chest.

Rolling her eyes Stephanie gently slapped at Shawn's hand, "leave my baby girl alone or we'll get you."

Pretending to be frightened he put his hands up, "oh no, please don't get me."

Rebecca laughed, "hey Cam, get your Dad."

Not needing another invitation Cameron grabbed Alex's hand and pulled him over to where Shawn was and they both piled on top of him as he fell back to the floor.

Walking back into the lounge Paul smiled softly seeing Shawn with Cameron and Alex laying on top of him and then he saw the back of Stephanie as she sat on the floor with what looked like Lucy in her lap. Sighing softly he walked into the room and sat down on the floor behind Stephanie stretching his legs out either side of her before he shuffled closer and wrapped his arms around her waist pressing his chest to her back before he kissed her cheek.

Jumping slightly when she felt a presence behind her she relaxed when she realised it was just Paul as he cuddled up to her. Turning her head to the side she smiled softly at him, "so who was at the door?"

At the reminder of the visitor he immediately started scowling but he wasn't going to let her ruin his day so he wiped the scowl from his face, "I don't want to talk about it."

"But I do. What's going on Paul?"

Sighing he shook his head, "not here, not now. I will tell you about it later so let's forget about it and just enjoy the day and our baby girl's party."

Feeling slightly apprehensive about who was at the door and what he was going to tell her she slowly nodded her head, "on one condition."

Without needing to even contemplate it he nodded his head, "name it."

Chuckling she bit down on her lip nervously, "I get a kiss right now."

"Now that I am happy to oblige with."

Leaning forward a bit he pressed a soft kiss to Stephanie's lips that lingered briefly and was only broken when Lucy started squealing and clapping her hands. Reluctantly pulling away Paul pouted at his daughter, "can you not let Daddy kiss Mommy in peace?"

Quickly elbowing him in the ribs Stephanie shook her head, "leave it off, it's her party and she can have all of the attention if she wants it."

Leaning closer to her he whispered in her ear, "then when the kids are in bed I will give you all of the attention you could ever possibly want or need."

Blushing a deep shade of red she looked down at the floor embarrassed by what he had just whispered in her ear, "so um . . . when are we starting this party?"

Standing up Paul scooped Lucy up into his arms, "whenever the boys decide that sitting on Shawn is not nearly as much fun as eating cake."

Within seconds both Alex and Cameron were on their feet and stood in front of him, "we want cake."

Laughing at the speed at which they moved Paul nodded his head, "I guess you do."

With Paul's announcement that the party would be starting everybody got up from their seats and started milling around as things got under way.

Later in the day and the kids were both fast asleep in Paul's old room whilst his parents packaged up the leftover food and Stephanie and Paul sat on the couch together.

Cuddling closer to Paul Stephanie sighed, "I wish your parents would let us help tidy up, they've done so much."

Wrapping his arms around her he pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head, "believe me I know but I know my parents and I'd rather we avoided the argument. They'd never let us help them finish cleaning up, they'd just say 'but blah blah did most of the work so you two need to sit down' so it's a waste of our breath."

Remembering the visitor from earlier she suddenly pushed herself to a proper sitting position and looked at him, "so who was at the door and why was she such a pain in the ass?"

"It's okay, you can call her a bitch because she is one."

Smirking she shook her head at him, "now that is not a very nice thing to say. Who was she and what did she want?"

Rubbing his suddenly sweaty palms on his jeans he felt his stomach tying itself in knots at the simple memory of her visit. Taking a deep breath he blurted it out, "it was Sarah and she wanted to see Lucy."

Her eyes widened and things all started to make sense now but she wasn't sure she liked this new development, "oh." Quickly standing up she made her way towards the door, "I need to . . . uh . . . check on the kids, I'll be back in a minute."

Paul could only sit there dumbfounded as he watched her leave, was it something he said? He didn't understand why she had to check on the kids right that second, why could it not just wait until he had finished telling her about Sarah? Rubbing his face wearily he just sat and waited for her to return from checking on the kids so they could talk properly.

Quickly making her way up the stairs Stephanie headed straight for Paul's old bedroom and quietly pushed the bedroom door open and slipped inside shutting it behind her again. Walking over to the crib she gently leant on the bars as she stared down at Lucy who was fast asleep. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut she tried to control her emotions but it was useless and tears started to escape her eyelids falling freely down her cheeks. Sinking to her knees Stephanie felt like her world was falling apart because Paul would obviously want to go back to Sarah now and be a family with her and Lucy and she would be left all alone all over again.