To say that Liz hadn't been shaken by Michelle was a lie. Jim had seen the panic in her eyes. Not that she was going to admit it.
As they left the bar he dropped a kiss on to her head, reassuring her he was there.
"Come on," he said as he led her in to the back. She needed to sit down he though.
"I can handle a stroppy cow like Michelle Conner." she said but she let him take her in to the back room.
"Why can't they just leave us be?" asked Liz as they got there. "Its Not enough that they ruined our big day is it." she said as she sit down and put her hand on her stomach.
"shhh, just have a rest." he said to her though he was thinking it wasn't just them who had wrecked every thing. It had been her too. She had slept with Vernon when he had been away and no one had forced her in to that.
"I just want us to get a bit of peace for the first time in our lives." she sighed. She wanted to rest. It was all too much.
"We are going to get there if promise you." he said to her.
"But what if I have got it wrong." she said to him looking at his face. "I mean I think this baby is yours. I feel like it is but what if isn't. What then when he wants legal rights and stuff. I might never be free of him." she sighed. That was the worse thing that could happen to them now. "I want it to be our baby." she said to him.
"You think I don't Liz?" he asked her as he held her hand; he wanted nothing more than his name to be on the birth certificate. "If the worse comes to the worse then we are going to have to fight him. But I swear I am going to do every thing I can to keep you and our baby. Promise." he said to her. "Just rest. I am going to make it ok for us some how." he said.
She nodded, but she felt the tears rush to her eyes.
"Why are you so loyal to me?"
"Because I have to be loyal enough for the two of us, so I do." he said as he left the room. Ouch. She guessed she had been asking for that one.
Going out in to the bar he saw Frankie there.
"You ok?" she asked him.
"Ask me when me and Liz get through this." he said to her. If they did. If they didn't he had nothing left. He was too old to start again.
Apart from that he didn't want to. He had his mind set on making it work with Liz.
-
Frankie didn't believe he hadn't left her. She knew it was mean but she had been hoping he would so she could try with him but he was so blinded by his love her.
Looking at him she turned and stormed out the pub. she just wanted hum so much it winded her up. He deserved better than what her granted himself.
"Frankie?!" she hard him call her back. She kept walking, "Frankie stop." Jim said to her as they got to number eleven "have I done some thing wrong," he asked.
"No." She said to him.
"Then why did you just storm off in there." He asked.
"I didn't." she said to him trying to hide her heart.
"You did."
"Its hard, complicated and probably really wrong." She said to him.
"Well you know what they say. A problem shared is a problem half." He said to her.
"You really want to know?"
"Yes."
She looked at him. Well he had been the one who had asked for it. Lowering her eyes she sighed.
"I'm in – in –" she said and he nodded. "Love with you and I don't what to do."
-
Not surprisingly when he got to bed that night Jim was unable to sleep. He hadn't thought any thing of the flirting between him and Frankie. He had guessed it was just part of there friendship.
Clearly she thought it went deeper.
And now he didn't know what he wanted. Maybe there was a chance he was able to start again even at is age. He was fifty plus now. When he had been eighteen that had been an old man! But he didn't feel it. He didn't feel his age.
But he still didn't want to. Yet now he knew another loved him it was harder for him to focus on Liz and the baby.
Which was what he should be doing, if he had any morals. Even if the baby wasn't his.
Getting back up he went down stairs. He wasn't going to sleep tonight.

Frankie didn't believe what she had done putting him in a harder situation than he already had. Jim had not deserved that.
But he had asked her to tell him what was eating her away.
She was so stupid.
As she sat up in the living room she sighed. She had to get some air. Going out in to the alley way behinds the houses, she wished she hadn't.
Jim had had the same idea.
"Can't sleep?" she asked gently.
"No." He sighed.
"I didn't meant to make things harder for you," she said.
"I know you didn't thing is, I know there might be a fresh start for me now, so I do. And I don't know what to do because of it."
He had always, always thought she was beautiful from the day they had met but he had always, always loved Liz. What now? What if the baby was his? Every thing seemed in the baby's DNA these days.
Going up to him she sighed, and he took her hands.
"You did the right thing telling me so you did," he said and he kissed her cheek. He had to get back in.
"So what are we going to do?" she asked.
"If things were different Frankie may be we could tried it, but as it stands I might be a dad again in a view months. I have a family ter think of, Liz needs me. I have to honour the promises I said to her twenty years ago even if I didn't renew them." He said and she nodded understanding.
"You're a good man."
"I try."
-
Liz smiled.
"Oh my god." She said as she put her hand on her womb. She had forgotten how great if felt when a baby kicked for the first time.
It had been hard with the twins though. When they had both been kicking. She and Jim used to joke about how they were already arguing as siblings did.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Come here," she said as the baby kicked again.
Taking his hand he put it where the kicks had been coming from and again it happened. Smiling he bent down and kissed the bump.
"It's gonna love football, I can tell." He said as he came up and kissed her on the lips.
In those moments he forgot what had happened art the wedding. In those moments, he and Liz were going to be fine.