Chapter 28

When Liz awoke for a moment she had to think about what had gone on last night when she and Jim had got back to number eleven. Then she remembered and she smiled.

She didn't know where poor Michael had spent the night. But it hadn't been with her. She knew that much.

She had been in her old bed with her old husband. The husband she had come back too.

Smiling up at him for a moment she sighed. She was so coming home. Really home. She was coming back to Coronation Street.

"I should go." She said to Jim. They were back together but there was a lot to do before normal life could resume. Like both of them break up with the people they were meant to be with at that moment. "Before the kids get up."

"Yeah. Your right. God forbid they should know there mum and dad are in love.!" He teased as he tried to pull her back on to the bed playfully.

"Shut up you. You know what I mean." She told him laughing but pulling aewy from him. "We both have a lot to do today and I would rather when we told the kids I would already back and ready to really be their mum again. Jim I am so sorry. I was stupid and should never have left you and Katherine." She said.

She hadn't realised what she had had till she had lost it. She was never leaving them again.

Kissing her he shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Nothing does any more. As long as you are going to be back."

"I am. I am back." She promised.

"Good. And you know what? I am never going to let you go again?"

"Is that a promise?" she giggled.

"Yes…" he smirked.

"Maybe I shouldn't admit this but I quite like the new dominant Jim." She said sarcastically to him as she dressed.

"I understand. Really I do. She is the mother of your kids. And we have only just got to know each other." said Gwen. She and Jim had been a bit of fun.

She knew saw they could be nothing more.

"So…is she coming back today?"

"I think that is the plan." He nodded. Jim felt awful. He and Gwen had got on. But with Elizabeth….it was different. More.

"Katie will be pleased to get her mum back." She said to him. "Yeah I think she is going to be over the moon when we tell her."

"So do I. She needs her mother as much as you need your wife. I think you were always going to be a one man women."

"Well I am never going to find out if I could have loved another as I love her now I am?" he asked.

Part of him regretted that. Truly. Liz was all he had ever known though and she was all he wanted to know. Whether it was because she had been his sweet heart, or the mother of his three children, or as stupid as it sounded just his soul mate he did not know. But she was the one he wanted all over again.

"Good luck then. If she is truly your choice, good luck and I hope your family… I hope you're happy. All of you."

"If I hurt you then I am so sorry." he said to her.

"You didn't. You helped me get over some thing you didn't even know happened. I hope we can remain friends all of us and if I do ever see her again, things will be easier between me and Katie. You know I think she likes being the only girl in your life."

"Yeah, maybe she does."

"I don't think she is going to mind her mother being back though."

"No she won't. Not at all." He told her.

"Good bye Jim." She said to him solemnly. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and left her flat.

It had been good while it had lasted.

"What ever it is that I have done wrong-"

"It isn't you. Really it isn't. Its me." She said to him. Michael had not taken the news she was leaving well. She hadn't expected him too really. Not after the last few weeks. Every other word had been about the big plans he had been making for their future. A future she didn't want. She didn't need any thing big. All she wanted was a normal family life.

And in some respects that was all he had wanted too.

He had been going on and on about them having children together. But that was just not what she wanted. She had done the having children bit. She had to raise them now. She didn't want a new baby. She had no desire to have a new family. She rather liked her old one.

"Oh don't give me that!"

"It is! I want to go home now Michael!"

"This is your home now Liz and it has been for years."

"No it hasn't. This place has never been a home to me. It has been where I have lived but nothing more. There has been no twins, Jim or Katie. It isn't number 11 that is my home. ts them and it always has been."

"So you are just going to give up me and you?"

"For the love of my life and my kids. Yeah I think I am."

"I think I was a bit harsh on Michael but he wasn't getting them message. Jim I just wanted to get out of there." She said to him as her last suit case was brought back in to the room they had always shared.

"Yeah well now of it matters now, you are back." He said to her.

"Good," she said as she crossed the room and embraced him. What she had done in the past had not always shown it but she loved him. She had always loved him and nothing was going to tear them apart again. And he felt a fool for thinking he could ever love another as he did her.

Bending down he kissed her.

"Wait till tonight." She said winking at him as she made for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Where do think? To get our daughter some tea. Can't have the birthday girl going hungry."

"No we cant." He said smiling and following her down the stairs.

When she looked back on that day Katie was sure she was going to count it among the best of her life. She had spent it mostly in the company if her two big brothers and she had been thrilled to do so. Especially as it had been both of them. It had been a long time since she had spent her birthday with Andy. Or it felt it.

After they had got back from the pool she had seen her aunty, her uncle and the two twins. Becky and Billy were so big now.

But when it came to the end of the day she was left alone to be with her four favourite people in the world. She sat between her mother and her father on the sofa she felt as if she was the most precious thing in the world. As if she was a princess on high. She had not been so happy in a long time.

Andy was going to go home soon, and Steve was going to do some thing to upset the harmony that had come over there home. But for that night alone thing was perfect.

The gift of life was an incredible thing. It caused you pain, but gave you love. It made you blind, but when the mist cleared, so did every thing else. Life was and is a strange thing. But at the end of it, you only get one shot.

Katherine was going to make sure she used her to the full. If she had learnt one thing from her first eight years on the earth, it was that if one path was blocked, you took another.

As she got in to bed that night, there was only one thought in her mind.

Roll on the next eight years.

The end!