It was a week later Garry and Judy had been unable to baby sit the night that Liz and Jim had been planning to go out and it was two weeks later when they eventually had.

When Michael got to number eleven he found Jim in a bad mood and Liz in the kitchen. She had a face like thunder.

"So the meal didn't go well then?" said Michael to Liz.

"It was going well for a bit, but you know how wound up he can get when he gets one of his cobs on." she said.

"He can be a difficult man." he agreed.

"Another man just looked at me, spoke to me, ask me out. It wasn't as if I had said yes. I told him I was a happily married women." she said to him.

"And are you?" he asked.

"I thought I was. These last few weeks being home with the two of them has been every thing I thought I was missing. All I have ever wanted if for the three of us to be happy together as a family. For a bit yes I was very happy. I don't know maybe the novelty is wearing off. Its sounds awful doesn't it?" she asked.

"I don't think so. You took on a very hard job when you walked back in to your old life. You have had to care for him twenty four hours a day, for the last month! And a child? I think your coping brilliantly." he said, knowing a lot of other people couldn't have done it.

"Maybe I am. I don't know any more." she said to him.

What a difference a day made and the way Jim behaved.

She missed the times when they were young and he had faith in what she had said to him on their wedding day. But was it any wonder he didn't, she thought to herself at times. She had hardly been a loyal wife to him had she?

But she missed held by him. Just a by a man would be good right now. Any man…

-

Katie was over all glad to return to school when the time came to go back. It had been a quiet summer which she had spent mostly at number 11 and she would be glad to return to her friends.

At least she'd get out of the house more.

Katie was going in to her third year of education and her parents found it hard to believe, next new year she was seven.

She was growing too fast for there liking.

A few days after she had return to school though she returned to find a bomb had been dropped on her for a while, happy family life.

It was some sort of new information about the accident, and some thing about it involving her brother. She didn't get it really, no one bothered to explain it to her properly but she knew her brother was not speaking to her dad.

Again.

More fun in the family, she thought to herself sarcastically.

"Mum why is it every time things are going well some thing goes bad?" asked Katie.

"I don't know sweetheart." admitted Liz. She just didn't know and the fact her six year old had to ask that question broke her heart.

-

"We have to start being careful about all this Jim, she is at a age when she is going to start putting things together. She isn't a little girl really any more." said liz.

"She is."

"No Jim. She is old enough to pick up on things when they go wrong. She maturing too quickly. I want her to be young." she said to her.

"Oh and I suppose I want her to be putting on short skirts and wearing make up already."

"Darling I never said that. I just want to keep her out the war zone we get ourselves in to some times"

-

Michael was in the Rovers. Having had trying session with Jim he thought the pint he had brought himself was well deserved.

He had just sat down when he saw Liz come in.

She smiled at him, got herself a drink and then followed the path he had taken to his table.

"Is this seat taken?" she said to him.

"It is now," he grinned back.

"Thanks. I just kind of needed to get out of the house and judgeing by the look on your face, you know the feelings." she said to him as he sighed.

"Yeah well today has not been a good day for Jim." he told her.

"Yeah. I know. Perhaps I should go back. If he has had a rough one then he might need me," she said.

"I think that the best thing to do would to leave him. He seemed to need a bit of space when I was there."

"Maybe your right," she agreed. "You know I used to always knows how to handle him, but after two years apart I find myself helpless at times." she said to him.

"You have never had to care for him like this before. Give yourself some slack Liz. He isn't the only one going through this. Its you too." he told her.

"And our Katie,. I worry about her. She knows a lot more than ever of us give her credit for."

"Well she seems a good kid."

"She is, though gods knows how she has turned out so well. She has hardly had the ideal up bringing. Me and Jim. Well we haven't always been the best mum and dad." she sighed. "You got kids?" she asked.

"No. not yet at least. I want them, but I haven't found the right women yet."

"Your lucky, I some times wonder what I could of done if I hadn't have had the twins so early. Maybe even had a real life. I don't regret it, but I do wonder. What if I had never met Jim. Maybe he'd still have his legs." she sighed, and she released tears had started in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be such a stupid cow." she said to him.

"Why, Liz come on you are not stupid."

"Aren't I? Then why did leave him to begin with. Why did I go back? Why don't I know what I want," she said to him.

"I think you have a lot on your mind, a lot of people would be upset and confused faced with what you have to face." he pondered. "You are one of the strongest people I have met. You work, you look after a husband and a daughter, and you look amazing. Your smiling, and you are wonderful. Just cause you cant see it right now doesn't mean others cant." he said to her.

She suddenly found herself looking right in to his eyes.

"I have to go." she said to him and run out the pub.

But something in his heart he couldn't just let her go, he knew it was wrong but he couldn't .

"Liz stop!" he said to her.

Wiping away the tears she was crying herself, she turned to him.

She missed Jim. She missed the what he had been with her when she had been young.

And the way that Michael held her was like that. Just as Jim had.

In a moment of utter up set and tears she leant in as he offered her his lips,.

And for single glorious second it all went away.

His lips were young, an d soft and so full of tender love. She wasn't a wife, she wasn't a mother, she had now worries.

And then he pulled away.

Realizing what she had done she looked horrified.

What was she doing? She wasn't going to let this happen again she wouldn't tear her family apart.

Liz had been up all night thinking about that kiss. She just… she was so weak, and stupid to boot with it. She should never have kissed him back. She and Jim were getting on. She was putting her family back together at last! They were happy.

"Mum have you seen my reading book?" asked Katie as she came in to the room.

"On the side love." she said to her distractedly.

"You ok darling?" said Jim to her. She had been so off right now, only since she had got up, though it was a bit yesterday when she had got back from the pub.

"Yeah." she said as she watched the daughter they had had together get her book and put it in her bag.

"If this was about what I said a few nights ago when we were out on the meal then I am so sorry, I - you know me Elizabeth. I get insecure so I do." he told her.

She nodded. If he had said this to her on any other day she could have fought back and defended her self and told him he had been out of order, but after what she had done last night she had no right. She had kissed another man…again. And she knew they hadn't actually said to one another that they were back together. It hadn't needed to be said.

"I know you do. Especially right now. Ignore me; I am just a bit tired." she said to him.

Giving Katherine a soft look, Jim sent the hint to his daughter to go up stairs for a second. It was clear Liz had to talk about something even though she was so quiet. He waited till she was out the room, and then Jim turned to Liz.

"I'm stressing you out aren't I?" he asked, angry he hadn't seen it before, "Between me and our lass yer don't get a wee minute to yourself. I promise as soon as I am better I will start helping more. It isn't going to be like before Liz. I am going to be the man you deserve."

Every word he had just said to her cut her like a bland on her heart. He was so innocent of the fact she had already committed adultery. With his physio therapist! A man that he trusted as a friend.

And worse was she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to resist temptation if it happened again.

"It isn't you darling I swear. It isn't you!" she said as she begun to cry.

What if he found out? He'd be furious.

Wheeling himself round to her, lovingly and gently Jim took his ex wife in his arms. He begun comforting he softly as she had seen him do so with there children n so many times.

"Oh god I am so sorry. You don't need this." she said as she pulled back.

But he had to say he disagreed in that moment when she had let him be strong for her, he had felt good. Like they were rebonding. She trusted him.

"You don't have to be. How many times have seen you cry? You never used to hide it from me." he mused.

"We never used to have two years separating us." she said.

"Well we can put that all behind us," he added.

"Can we? Tell me you trust me with all your heart." she said to him.

He looked straight in to her eyes as he did it. And what she had done seemed even worse.

"I have to get Katie to school." she said as she got up and went to find her daughter. She was such a fool.

Why had she let last night happen?

-

Michael went in to the café for lunch.

That day the kiss he had shared with his patients ex wife had never been far from his mind as Jim had told him how upset she had got that day.

Damn. She regretted it then.

Ordering a sandwich he had been so thoughtful that it took a minute before he even realized Liz was there and the minute she saw him she made for the door.

"No Liz don't," he said to her.

He had to talk to her, she owed him that. Well no she didn't but…

"Just leave me alone." she said but he didn't let the arm he had grabbed go.

"Do you even know what we did." she said so quietly only he could hear her over the lunch time rush.

"Yes. We shared a kiss." he told her,.

"And that digested me." she admitted to him "I have a husband and a daughter to care for."

"No you have a daughter. He has not been your husband for a long time," he reminder her.

"Well for the way we have been living for the last few weeks he may well as be." she said to him. "He needs me and so does she. Ann till now we have been happy together."

"And what about me? What if I said to you I needed you." he told her. In the time in which he had known her Michael had indeed come to love her he felt. Even if it was not returned.

"You don't need me." she said to him.

"W ell that is where you're wrong isn't it?"

"No I am not wrong."

"Tell me you didn't enjoy that kiss." he challenged her. She said nothing but turned and left.

-

The more she thought on it Liz realized as wrong as it was she had found comfort in that one moment.

It hadn't just been the way his lips had been so gentle against her. It had been the way he had held her. If he was not married and had no children then he had had many women any way she was sure. He was a master of his art.

Letting her eyes fall to the floor of the living room, she sighed. Her heart was heavy alright. She just had it forget it and move on if she wanted her family to work, and that she did.

"Katie, you ready for your bath yet sweet?" he asked her daughter.

It was seven. She had to start thinking about getting her ready for bed.

"No."
"Well your having it any way, come stinky!" said her mum.

Looking to Jim for help, she quickly figured out she was going to get none.

"Go with you mother."

"But dad." said Katie going over to him, trying to get a hug and sweet talk him in to letting her stay down. The longer she put off the bath, the longer bed was put off.

"I am not hugging you when you're all smelly." he teased her.

"But dad."

"Bath, now wee lass."

Realizing there was no way out of it, Katie went upstairs with Liz and did as she was told.

"Mum?" she said to her.

"Yeah." asked Liz,.

"Me, you and daddy are going to be ok now aren't we?" she asked.

"Course we are Katherine. Course we are." she said.

But she had never felt as if they weren't so strongly. And it was so unfair, because she wanted it to work out for the three of them. She just wasn't sure it was ever going too.

She wanted it be like in the early days when it had just been her and the boys in the army. Most of the time when they had been there, she had been so loyal. And she had been young and naive so she hadn't had so many worries.

Jim had been so much happier there too. He had never got insecure. She would never go back to that way of living. She had hated the long periods of time when he had been away. It had upset her. But they had just been so happy there at times. And now some times she forgot what happiness was.