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"It's a shame that Pamela wasn't able to join us," Elizabeth said, handing the menus back to the waiter.

"I'm not so sure it is really," I replied. "Her attitude would have probably spoilt brunch."

"Really? Why, what's going on?"

"I don't know. Teenage angst? Everybody is out to get her, none of us understand her and she can't possibly be expected to live under such draconian rules."

Mike snorted into his water glass, "Draconian? She actually used that word?"

"She did."

"What are you doing, locking her in the laundry room?"

"You'd think so the way she's behaving," I sighed. "People think that the toddler stage is the worst but I can personally vouch for the teenage years beating it hands down." I looked over to where Kate was sat in her highchair playing with slices of banana. "And we get to do it all over again in another fifteen years."

Evelyn looked over at me and grinned, "And you wouldn't have it any other way, darling, would you?"

"No, I guess not." The waiter reappeared with our drinks and, as the conversation switched smoothly to a discussion of the recent weather, I sat back for a moment and took in the scene around us. The restaurant was busy with other families, couples and friends all taking advantage of the winter sunshine, a welcome break from the torrential rain that had deluged the city the previous day and determined a Saturday spent indoors.

It had been more than three weeks since we had last brunched with Elizabeth and Mike, such a hiatus caused by the holidays and competing work schedules, so it was nice to finally have a chance to catch up and for Kate to see her de facto godparents. Given the church's position on divorce and second marriages, Evelyn and I had elected not to run the gauntlet of trying to persuade someone to officially christen Kate and had instead held a small civil blessing for her at the Dene Summerhouse in Central Park, attended by only close friends and family. When it had come to deciding who should stand as godparents, Evelyn had had little hesitation in her suggestion and I had been happy to agree. Despite their relationship beginning as doctor and patient, I was glad that Evelyn had become good friends with Elizabeth and though I couldn't assert to being as close with Mike as our wives were, the four of us often socialised together.

"You know, maybe Pamela's missing Peter," Elizabeth said, bringing the conversation back full circle and drawing me back into the present moment. "It must be strange for her being left behind as it were."

"That's what I said," Evelyn nodded. "They've been a little twosome for so many years and now, all of a sudden, she's kind of on her own. Not to mention the fact that she's the only one still technically subject to the court order and needing to travel to Hartford when she would prefer to stay in the city."

"Of course," Elizabeth nodded.

"And she has a boyfriend."

"Ah..."

"Who's nineteen," I added, a shudder going through me again. "I'm sure he's very nice and all but..."

"You haven't met him?" Mike asked.

"Nope."

"Well I don't blame you for being concerned. We were nineteen once, right?"

"Right," I agreed, though I couldn't help but harbour a sneaking suspicion that my experience of being nineteen probably differed quite a bit from his.

"I'd be just the same," Mike shook his head sympathetically. "In fact, I probably will be just the same."

The comment was lost on me, but Evelyn took a sharp intake of breath and I looked quickly over to see her eyes flitting between them both, her mouth open in surprise. "You're not...you are, aren't you? Aren't you?" I saw Elizabeth redden slightly and then nod. "Oh my God, that's great!" Evelyn leapt out of her seat and hurried around the table to hug her friend before kissing Mike on the cheek. "Oh my God, I'm so happy for you both!"

"What have I missed?" I asked dumbly and they all laughed.

"Liz is pregnant!" Evelyn exclaimed.

"Really?"

Mike nodded, "Yep."

"That's great, congratulations!" I shook his hand and leaned over to kiss Elizabeth. "I must be losing my touch in my old age."

"Tell me everything," Evelyn said, dropping back into her seat. "When are you due? Do you know what you're having? How long have you known? What did your parents say?"

Elizabeth and Mike both laughed. "I'm due in July, we don't know what we're having, we've known since just before New Year and my parents are thrilled!" she replied with a flourish.

"Liz is desperate for a girl," Mike added. "I'm leaning more towards a boy."

"Well as a father to both I can say without fear of contradiction that girls are much more difficult to handle than boys," I said, thinking back to the defiant look on Pamela's face that morning when she had said that she wasn't going to join us.

"Don't say that," Evelyn said, placing her hands jokingly over Kate's ears. "You'll give her a complex."

The waiter returned to the table with our orders and conversation was momentarily lost in a quest for condiments, cutlery and a second order of drinks. Once we all had what we needed, I looked to Elizabeth again. "You'll need to make sure you take proper precautions from now on if you're interviewing defendants." The moment the words had left my mouth, I felt a slight tension descend over the table and saw her glance quickly at Mike.

"Yes, I suppose so," she said after a moment's silence.

I looked at Evelyn and she looked at me, clearly none the wiser as to why my comment had elicited such a reaction, only for her to suddenly wrinkle her nose. "Oh dear..." putting down her fork, she lifted Kate out of the highchair and pressed her nose to her bottom. "I think someone needs changing."

"I'll come with you," Elizabeth said, practically leaping from her seat. "I could use the practice."

"Big changes coming for you," I said conversationally once Mike and I were alone at the table.

"Yeah, you could say that."

I frowned at his slightly downcast expression. "Are you worried about it?"

He looked up and met my gaze. "I don't know...it's a big thing having a kid and...it's what she wants, what we both want, but..." he sighed, "I don't know if I'm really and truly ready for it."

"I don't think you're ever ready until the moment they put that baby in your arms," I replied honestly. "Somehow, it's almost unreal for us men until we actually physically see the baby. We can't really know what it's like to carry it, not the way our wives do."

"It's not even just that," he said. "Like Liz said, her parents were thrilled when we told them and the entire conversation then started to revolve around the most prestigious daycares, the best schools, what stroller to buy..." he shook his head. "I can't help but think that everything this kid is going to have is going to come from her and her family and the only thing he or she is going to get from me is my last name."

In light of the reaction to my earlier comment, it wasn't what I had been expecting him to say and I wasn't sure how to respond. I had been lucky with both Laura and Evelyn in that we had all come from similar middling financial backgrounds but Mike and Elizabeth's worlds were so different that it was sometimes hard to fathom how they had come as far as they had. Not that there was anything wrong with Mike. He was strong, supportive and it was clear to everyone that he adored Elizabeth, but at their wedding, I had wondered what Nick and Isobel had really thought about their new son-in-law and his family. Had they really been as thrilled with the match as they had proclaimed, or had they secretly wished that their only daughter had married someone of her own ilk?

"This child is going to be yours, Mike," I said finally. "You will have as much say in how he or she is raised as Liz will and certainly more than her family should. I guess you need to try and learn to pick your battles. Maybe you'll decide that riding around in a three thousand dollar stroller isn't as much of an issue as, say, sending him or her to a three thousand dollar a term kindergarten."

"Jesus..." his face whitened. "Three thousand dollars a term...?"

"There we go!" Elizabeth declared as she arrived back at the table with Kate on her hip and Mike instantly smiled broadly. "All clean now!" She sat down next to him again and the two of them cooed over Kate while she laughed and lapped up their attention.

"Where's Evelyn?"

"Oh, she ran into somebody who claimed to know her just as we were coming back in. I think it was someone from the conference she spoke at last week," Elizabeth replied, gesturing over her shoulder.

Following where she had pointed, I could see Evelyn standing talking to a small, blonde woman a few feet away from the entrance to the conservatory. She was nodding and smiling, but I could tell, even with the distance, that she was wearing her 'polite yet disinterested' expression, clearly hoping that the conversation would finish quickly so that she could return to the table. Knowing her as I did, I was aware that it wasn't because she didn't want to talk to the person, but rather because she felt somehow self-conscious about the fact that anyone would consider her opinion worthy of comment.

As the conversation finally came to an end, and the woman turned to afford me a look at her face, I thought for a moment that I recognised her, but found myself unable to accurately place her. "A fan?" I asked as Evelyn took her place back at the table.

"Hardly," she laughed, "she was at the conference and she wanted to pick up on a few points that I had made, that's all."

"What was her name?"

"Michelle...something," she replied, taking Kate back from Elizabeth. "Why?"

"No reason," I shook my head. "I thought she looked familiar, that's all."

The rest of our meal passed in good humour, though the tension I had observed between Mike and Elizabeth lingered until the point when we were all outside on the street bidding each other goodbye.

"I'll call you," Elizabeth said to Evelyn, kissing her on the cheek. "We'll organise dinner one night."

"Sounds great," Evelyn replied. "And I'll look out some of those clothes for you."

"What clothes are these?" I asked, as we started the walk back to our apartment, Kate fussing in the stroller, clearly desperate for her nap.

"I said I'd look out some of my old maternity wear," she replied. "And I've still got some of Kate's early baby things that I can pass on."

"It's a girl?"

"No...well they don't know, but a lot of the smaller outfits I have could do a girl or a boy." She wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck. "Liz told me when we went to change Kate that Mike isn't happy about her continuing to work for the police department."

"Really? Why not?"

"He's worried that something might happen to her when she's in with a defendant, you know, in case she gets attacked or something."

"Well that's what I was meaning when I mentioned about taking proper precautions," I replied. "As long as she conducts evaluations behind glass, for example, it shouldn't prevent her from working."

"That's what she's trying to convince him of but he's being pretty stubborn about it." She looked over at me. "Remember how you felt."

"Well I was obviously concerned about you generally but there wasn't anything about your work at Women In Need that made me worry for your safety."

"I wasn't meaning when I was carrying Kate," she replied softly. "I meant before."

"Oh...yes, of course. Sorry." Our first child was something I thought about rarely, or at least tried to think about rarely. I felt as though I hadn't known of its existence for long enough to play the concerned expectant father and yet...it had been newly conceived the night Edward had attacked her at the mayoral dinner and I could well remember how I had felt when that fact had been presented to me. Even now, it made my innards contract. "Perhaps Mike does have a point."

"Well it's something they're going to need to talk about."

"That and a few other things," I replied, filling her in briefly on what Mike had said at the table. "They'll need to be on the same page with how they're going to raise this child."

"You can't blame Liz for wanting to give her child every material advantage that she had," Evelyn said.

"Of course not, but she could find a way to compromise, surely? I mean, it's going to be pretty awkward at times if her side of the family are showering the baby with expensive gifts or paying deposits on expensive daycares when Mike knows that neither he nor his family can compete with that."

"I guess we're lucky in that we don't have those kinds of problems," she said, linking her arm through mine.

"No," I agreed, "but I think we've had plenty of our own to contend with, don't you?"

"And we're stronger for it."

"Exactly." I stooped and kissed the top of her nose. "I hope Pam left the heating on before she went out." When we arrived back at the apartment, Evelyn lifted Kate out of the stroller and we walked upstairs together, the sound of loud music greeting us before we had even reached the door. "Great," I muttered, putting the key in the lock. "Another complaint from the neighbours." Opening the door we were met with a wall of sound and Kate immediately woke and started to cry. "I thought she was going out?!"

"Well she's clearly home!" Evelyn replied, her voice barely carrying above the din of whatever it was my teeenage daughter considered to be music.

"Pamela!" I shouted, to no avail. The living room was empty, despite the blaring of the CD player in the corner, and I saw that her bedroom door was tightly closed. I switched off the noise and strode over to the door, not caring about the rule we had agreed of knocking first, and pushed it open.

Immediately, I wished I hadn't.

Pamela was in bed...and she wasn't alone.