He supposed that he must have had a thought in the back of his mind that Jenny would want children. He must have. She loved children and she was a mother hen to everyone, including him. It's just they had never discussed it until suddenly everyone was telling them they were next, and Jenny was smiling hopefully his way.

He had always thought he would be childless. He liked children well enough, but he didn't want to repeat his father's mistakes, and he was quite sure he would no matter how hard he tried on the contrary.

They still never discussed it out loud, of course. Jenny just looked at him with a smile every time anyone brought it up, and he would always drop his eyes.

Burying his head in the sand.

Until one day he met a little boy on a case, abandoned or so it seemed at the time. Jenny had cared for the boy while he worked day and night to find out what had happened. On the rare occasions he came home during those couple of weeks, he found he loved walking through the front door, loved the rapt attention he got when he spoke. In fact, it was probably his ego that made him tell Jenny yes.

Then came the girl with the blue eyes who had him entranced from the moment she appeared. The girl who grew little blonde ringlets and called him Daddy. The girl who laughed easily like her mother, but was strong and eager to stand up and make a difference like her father.

His daughter Sarah.

…..

"Mr Blaketon?"

Oscar looked up, and then down. "Sarah? What are you doing here?"

The 5 year old shrugged and looked at the floor, then lifted her face to look straight into his with an air of Scottish defiance. 'I've run away from school. I'm going to go and work with daddy instead."

"…Right. Okay. And does your daddy know about this, young lady?"

"No, but I will have a sandwich and an orange juice while you call and tell him." She climbed up onto a stool and looked at him expectantly.

There weren't many people who could order Oscar Blaketon around, but this young lady was one of them. The amount of times she'd accompanied him and Alf on a jaunt with a thermos of tea, a weary sigh from her father and a smile from her mother were innumerable.

…

Fifteen minutes later the front door opened and the doorway was darkened by a tall man in a long coat. Oscar looked up and gave a nod of acknowledgment before tilting his head towards the end of the bar.

Dennis walked over and sat silently beside the girl who looked out of place in her school uniform.

She kept her head down, munching on her sandwich.

"…So. Oscar tells me you've run away from school?"

blonde ringlets bobbed as she nodded.

"Because you want to work with me?"

"Yes." She abandoned her crusts and pulled her orange juice towards her instead.

"I see. Well. Just in time, I suppose. I've got a farmer up on the moors who needs help with his pigs who've all escaped."

This made her head fly up. "But it's all muddy up there, and smelly."

"It's part of police work, I'm afraid." Oscar chimed in. "You don't get to choose what you do, you just get told."

"Aye. I'm heading up there now, but we can pass home to get your gumboots." Dennis nodded, standing.

Sarah looked aghast, eyes moving between the two men. She had thought a day working with her father would just mean a day off school. She had seen him leave for work every morning, but he was never at her school, so she was quite sure he didn't have to do reading and writing all day like she did. When neither smiled, her eyes rested on her father. "…Maybe I should go back to school instead. I don't like pigs."

"Right, well, I'll drop you off." Dennis helped he jump down from her stool, suppressing a smile as he walked hand in hand with his daughter from the pub. They should make it back before the end of the lunch break. Again.

..

Dennis hadn't been sure about having a child.

Oh, but how he loved her.