Adam could hear the whispering, it was cute as they were obviously trying not to wake him. He didn't wake up next to Kim nearly as often as he liked and this was a bonus so he was willing to lie still and make the most of it. He loved watching and listening to Kim with her children; it was the purest of love and when she was at her most beautiful.

He felt Kim roll over and slide her hand low over his stomach when Daisy got out of bed, that he didn't need right now and she damn well knew it but it was hard to stop her. Kim had told Daisy to go to the bathroom and "then you can wake him and ask." He let her go for a minute and then grabbed her wrist. "Stop it."

"Ah, you are awake."

"Yes I am awake, but Baby please don't do that. It's not fair." Kim chuckled and rolled away a little as Daisy came back into the room. It was the first time they had spent the night together and just slept and they were both feeling it.

She crawled back onto the bed and knelt between them. "Adam." He smiled but didn't open his eyes. "Adam." She shook his arm lightly.

"Yes, Tickety Boo." She let out the cutest of giggles, she always giggled when he called her that. She had waggled her finger at Jay when he tried. 'That's just for Adam.'

"Can we have pancakes for breakfast?" He prised one eye open to find the cutest pair of brown eyes staring at him. "Please?"

"You want me to make pancakes?"

"Yes please." She crawled even closer to him. "For Mommy too."

"Okay, one condition though." He beckoned her and Adam kissed her cheek before he whispered in her ear. "You need to stay here and give Mom lots of cuddles, okay?"

She nodded enthusiastically. He really didn't want to get up but how could he resist? The look on Kim's face was pure perfection, so much better than the tortured look she had last night. And Daisy, well after her day yesterday he was going to do anything to make her happy because if Kim saw that she was happy that would make her relax.

He made a coffee, taking one up for Kim and warm milk for Daisy. "Here you go my two lovely ladies." It was one of the most beautiful things he'd seen in a long while, Kim and Daisy propped up in bed together sipping their drinks. They shooed him out, demanding to know where their pancakes were.

When he reappeared with a tray laden with pancakes, bacon, maple syrup and chocolate chips he was welcomed like a returning hero. Also hidden on one side of the tray were a couple of gummy bears. That had come to mean a lot to them and Kim's face lit up when she saw them. It had almost become a way of saying 'I love you' although that was interchangeable with 'I want to have sex.' This morning she took it as both. Looks like he would need to stay another night, now there was no reason not too and that was a great feeling.

Adam had slept through the moment when Daisy first woke up. "Mommy?" she whispered, shaking her lightly. When Kim opened her eyes Daisy was beaming at her. "Adam's here." She sounded so excited.

"Yes he is." Kim loved that she looked so damn happy about it. "Is that okay?"

"Yes." Her daughter beamed at her while she was peering over her shoulder at Adam. "He's sleeping." She whispered.

"He is, so let's be really quiet so we don't wake him up just yet." Daisy snuggled down into Kim's arms again.

"I love Adam." Daisy let out the sweetest of laughs as Kim let her wriggle into her arms.

"So do I Baby."

Stacking the dishwasher and cleaning up the mess he had made Adam was surprised to hear the doorbell ring. "Hi." He opened the door to Daisy's Grandparents. He had seen enough photos of them to know who they were.

"You must be Oliver's Dad, Adam." George stuck out his hand for Adam to shake. Things just got a little awkward.

"Yes Sir. Nice to met you." He also shook Mary's hand. "Come in."

"We came to see how Daisy is? Is she okay?"

"She is. They are just upstairs, I'll let them know you are here." He ushered them through to the lounge room before bolting up the stairs to get Kim. Adam tried not to panic but he guessed the cat wasn't just half out of the bag now; it was full on running around the house.

"Kim will be down in a second." Heading back down with Daisy she was happily telling them about her ride in the Patrol car within seconds. "Can I make you a tea or coffee? Get you a drink?" Adam was hopping from foot to foot hoping that Kim would bloody well hurry up but at least Daisy was a bit of a buffer.

This was a completely new experience. Meeting your girlfriend's In-laws. Awkward didn't even come close to explaining it and he had no idea what to say so he said nothing and disappeared into the kitchen.

"You know that we love both those kids." George had followed him and Adam jumped a little at the sound of his voice.

"I do, and I know that they both adore you. Oliver talks about you a lot."

"He's a great kid."

"Yeah he is." Adam agreed.

"This is all surreal isn't it? The last year has been pretty rough."

"It was never my intention to stay. I just wanted to apologise to Kim for all the pain I'd caused and explain why I had to leave. I didn't know about Oliver. I always wanted her to be happy, all those years I was away I hoped that she was happy." Adam stopped what he was doing and faced Kim's Father-in-Law. "Once I knew about Oliver though I couldn't leave."

"I don't blame you. I imagine that finding out about Oliver was a shock."

"It was." He nodded as he leant against the bench. "Never in a million years did I expect to find out that I had a son."

"My father hit me as a child, a lot." George suddenly announced. "I never raised a hand to my children. Never. What my son did to Oliver was wrong. I'm sorry and when he raised his hand to him, my blood ran cold." Adam was pretty sure that nobody knew that it wasn't the first time Steve had hurt Oliver and it wasn't his place to tell George. Kim would be furious with him. He wasn't that concerned with people knowing what an asshole he was but they had to deal with this guy going forward because of Daisy and for that reason he did his best to accept Kim's wishes.

"It's not your fault. "

"No it's not, doesn't make it hurt less." George pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. Adam felt sorry for him. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to face up to the fact that your son could do something like this. "I am disappointed in my son."

"He needs help George." As much as Adam hated him he wasn't about to make this harder than it already was because being a dick about it wouldn't help Kim or Daisy and protecting them, along with Oliver was his only priority.

"I can't believe he left Daisy."

"Daisy is safe, she was smart and asked for the Police. She's okay and Kim is looking after her."

"And you? You'll look out for her, for all of them please?"

"I am, I will." He pushed himself off the bench with his hip and patted George on the shoulder.

Kim had made it downstairs having hastily gotten dressed. "Hi Mary." She greeted her with a kiss. Daisy was still happily chatting away although she had now moved onto the pancake breakfast in bed and Kim cringed a little at the pinched look on Mary's face.

"Daisy Sweetie, why don't you go and see where Pappy is?" Mary barely gave Daisy the chance to leave the room. "So you and Adam?"

"Yes, Adam and I." Kim nodded.

"I thought you said nothing was going on?"

"When you asked, at Christmas nothing was going on. It's only been the last two months. He usually doesn't stay overnight when Daisy is here and we only told Oliver recently."

Mary still looked pained. "Why the big secret?"

"We are just finding our feet, Adam and I are conscious of the fact that it doesn't just affect us, it affects Oliver and Daisy too." Mary seemed okay with that as far as Kim could tell. She didn't want to have a long and in-depth conversation about her boyfriend with her ex's mother. Neither did she want to tell them that Adam still had some rough days and issues and she didn't want to worry them about that. It was well controlled and they managed, despite his bouts of anxiety he fought hard to make sure it never affected the kids.

"I guess you are angry at Steve?"

"Furious."

"So am I. I can't believe he left her like that. I have no idea what happened. When he left the house he seemed happy but something obviously changed. Have you asked Daisy what happened?"

"No, I asked her this morning and she wouldn't say anything. She was so upset yesterday and all she said was that he went to the bathroom and didn't come back. As far as I know she was left for at least half an hour, maybe more. We haven't really talked about it yet, hopefully today we can talk about it a bit more."

While they were waiting for Adam to come back with breakfast Kim tried to talk to Daisy about what happened but she didn't really say anything. She started talking about the basket of fries and how she tried not to eat them but she was hungry, how she had eggs for breakfast and that Officer Bell was nice. "He sat in the back seat with me. I told him I was a big girl."

"Pappy." Daisy bounced into the kitchen. "Adam made me pancakes for breakfast. We had breakfast in bed."

"Well aren't you a lucky girl."

"Where's Daddy?" She climbed up into her Pappy's lap while Adam took the tea through to Mary and Kim. As soon as he walked through the door and saw Mary's eyes dart in his direction he figured it wasn't going so well in here. He popped the drinks on the table and beat a hasty exit. It was a little less frosty in the kitchen.

"You're Daddy is not very well right now sweetie."

"It made me sad and I was scared."

"I know sweetie, but I bet you were very brave?"

"Adam." She looked around as he came back into the kitchen. "I was brave wasn't I? Mommy and Adam came and got me. Adam bought me ice-cream." George was trying not to look upset for her sake.

"Yes you were." He touched her lightly on the cheek and George liked how happy Daisy looked with Adam. Lately she hadn't seemed all that happy around her father and as a Grandfather that was painful to see. He didn't give her a lot of attention or time and would often admonish her for the smallest of things and he hated seeing this beautiful girl retreat into her shell, that wasn't Daisy. Daisy was such a bright light in their lives. They'd seen it with Oliver and it was heartbreaking to see it happening again. His Granddaughter was the absolute apple of his eye and what his son was doing was so disappointing.

"Did Daddy leave me because he didn't love me anymore? Like he doesn't love Oliver." Adam saw the pained expression on Pappy's face. While this was hard for Daisy to understand it must have been torture for his parents. Watching your child fall apart had to hurt.

"Daisy your Daddy loves you so much, he will always love you." Adam crouched down so he was at Daisy's eye level. He could feel George watching him, waiting for him to throw his son under the bus but he never did. "You are lucky to have a Daddy that loves you so much."

"Like you love Ollie?" She cocked her head to the side and looked completely adorable. She was so much like Kim, her smile was more like her father but the eyes were all Kim, big and brown and beautiful.

"Absolutely."

"You love me too?"

"I do, very much. Pappy does too." He ruffled her hair lightly and then stood up and let her Grandfather hug the stuffing out of her.

George looked up at Adam and smiled and mouthed the words 'Thank you."

It took a lot of convincing for Kim to let Mary and George take the kids out for the afternoon. They were heading to their Sailing Club and often took both of the kids with them and they loved it. Adam convinced her that they would be okay and that perhaps it was better that they weren't here if Steve turned up.

Adam had picked up Ollie from Joey's house and he was happy to see his Grandparents at his house. It was hard to keep him away from them, it was unfair to punish them for their son's behaviour and Kim didn't want to rip more people from Ollie's life. He'd had enough instability and right now he was doing well.

"They are good people. I like them." He slipped his arms around her waist as she stood staring out the kitchen window as they pulled out of the driveway. "They love Oliver and Daisy."

"They do. They've always been good to them. Even Oliver, nothing changed with Oliver when Daisy came along. They loved him and treated him like he was their own flesh and blood." Kim was feeling comforted by Adam's strong arms. Pity her husband didn't have the same kind of heart that his parents did. "I always appreciated that."

'Kim, answer your fucking phone. I want to see Daisy.'