A/N: My dad spent a grand total of 5 weeks in the hospital, ended up with a DVT and had to take Warfarin - but he is ok now. My brother has been out and seems to be doing alright this time - still has his ups and down, but there have been fewer incidents :D

I must apologise about my extended leave - I have recently been diagnosed with depression myself and have dealing with it (I'm fine) I am trying to get back into writing, but it will be slow going. I also have tendonitis in 3 tendons of my right hand which can't be treated as it might aggravate the others, which makes doing most things painful!

AND - yes - my gorgeous 3 year old nephew picked my pocket and then blamed it on his absent mother! He has also taken to repeating every single word I say when we are baking or gardening or watching TV or when he's following me around the house ignoring his father!

Gail and Andy poured over the map as they walked down the street. They got to an intersection and stopped.

"Which way is it?" Andy asked, looking to her right and back to the map.

"I don't know. This map doesn't make any sense!" Gail replied, exasperated.

Andy noticed a man stood behind them chuckling. As he took a step closer to them, Andy instinctively gripped her bag tighter and hit Gail's arm. Gail looked up from the map to see what Andy wanted.

"HEY!" she shouted as the man leaned forward and took the map out of her hands.

"Only trying to help miss" he replied, turning the map around and handing it back to her.

"Oh, thanks!"

"Any time, just next time, don't scream down my ear hole." The man said, before crossing the intersection and scratching the inside of his ear with his finger nail.

Andy and Gail returned their attention to the map and found they had been walking in the wrong direction for the best part of twenty minutes.

"TAXI!" Gail and Andy shouted at the same time, raising their hands in the air.

A yellow cab screeched to a halt in front of them and they climbed into the back of it, giggling.

"Where to Ladies?"

"Central Park!" Andy cried at the same time Gail shouted "Statue of Liberty!"

"Tourists?"

"Are we that obvious?"

"Katie, what did you do with the money in Uncle Sam's pocket?"

"Mommy took it."

"I know, but where did mommy put it?"

"Mommy did it."

Sam was about to ask Katie about the money again when a shrill ring came from the kitchen.

Realising that he was never going to get a straight answer out of Katie, Sam got to his feet and went to the kitchen to remove the cookies from the oven with Katie on his heels.

"Uncle Sam take cookies out of the oven. Burney hot!" she said, watching as Sam put gloves on his hands, opened the oven door and pulled the tray of browned cookies out of the oven and placed them on the top of the counter.

"Now what do we do with them?"

"I-thing."

"Not yet. They need to cool or the icing will melt."

"Cool or the i-thing will melt." Katie repeated.

"That's right, but e can get everything together can't we?" Sam asked her.

"Yes!"

Sam rummaged through his drawers until he found the piping tube and nozzle set he had bought when he and Katie first started baking together. he found it and gave it to her and Katie reached on her tiptoes to put it on the table.

Then Sam got the bowl they had used to make the cookies in, got the scales back out and weighed the icing before pouring the water in and mixing it. He poured some flavour into the icing.

"Do you want to pick some colours?"he asked her.

"Blue."

"And?"

"Pink"

"Any more?"

"Lellow!"

Sam picked the blue, pink and yellow food colours out of the cupboard and separated the icing into three bowls.

"I want to mix it!" Katie said, reaching for the bowl.

Sam gave her the spoon and watched as she attempted to mix the colouring in.

"Finished!" Katie announced, proud of herself.

Sam chuckled as the icing was still a marble effect. He felt something wet hit his elbow. When he looked down, he saw a smudge of icing.

He lifted his elbow and tried to lick the icing off, but couldn't quite reach.

"I can't reach it Katie, do you want to get it off?"

Katie climbed on the chair so she could reach Sam's elbow. He laughed as she brought her mouth to the icing and licked. He laughed harder when he realised she had completely missed the icing.

"Cookies cool yet?"

"Not yet."

"OH MY GOD! THIS IS SO HIGH UP!" Gail shouted over the wind as she and Andy stood at the top of the Statue of Liberty. The height was making her a little nervous.

"Yeah, but the view is amazing!"

"So take a picture and let's get out of here!"

Andy shot Gail a dirty look. It was her idea to climb up.

"Wimp!" Andy shot at Gail, but moved away from the railing and towards the steps, Gail not far behind her.

Andy smiled as she heard the dull twang of shoes hitting the metal steps.

"I am not a wimp, I just didn't like the height." Gail protested.

"Don't worry, what happens in New York, stays in New York."

Andy jumped and slipped down a step as she felt the buzz of her phone in her pocket. regaining her balance, she decided it would be safer to look at the incoming message when she was back on solid ground.

"You ok?" Gail asked, trying to catch Andy before she fell any further.

"I'm fine."

Andy rubbed her arm where she had hit it against the cold, metal handrail. She took a deep breath in and continued down the steps.

Once She and Gail were at the bottom of the steps, Andy remembered the message that had caused her to lose her footing. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened the message.

It was from Sam.

She was looking at the words 'Happy Birthday', each letter its own cookie and iced in ridiculous shades of blue, pink and yellow.

Was amused Andy most was, in the top of the picture, a small arm slyly reaching for one of the 'p' cookies in Happy.

She showed Gail the photograph.

"That man is a God. You better keep hold of him! Come on. Let's go check out Central Park!"

"Do you know how big Central Park is?"

"I just want to see the lake where they Ice Skate."

"Gail, It's summer. There won't be any Ice Skating going on."

"Just shut it and find a cab."

Sam saw Katie trying to sneak a cookie as he took the picture. Once he had pressed send, he reached for the cookie Katie wanted, and handed it to her.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked, glancing at the clock and noticing it was late afternoon.

"Jungle Book!"

"Jungle Book?"

"Please."

"You go get comfy and I'll go find it for you."

Sam went to the secret stash and looked through it for the movie. He found it and returned to the front room to find Katie fast asleep curled up on the blankets on the floor.

Taking the opportunity of peace and quiet, Sam headed to the kitchen and cleaned up the mess of their baking escapade.

He let Katie sleep for an hour before waking her up and putting the movie on.

"Hot Dogs for tea?" he asked when Katie was fully awake.

He went to the kitchen to start cooking and felt his phone ping.

He opened it to see a picture of Andy and Gail sat in the back of a taxi. She had captioned it.

'Save one of those for me.'

Smiling, Sam continued to cook, happy to know Andy was enjoying herself even if he couldn't be there.