Every day brought the birth of the expected child close. Every day there was more excitement.
Jim in time moved back in to the room he shared with his ex wife and though to begin with it was hard cos he knew another had been there with her. he got used to it though. He had too.
In the mean time though he had to focus on getting the spare room in to a nursery.
But Jim some times got the feeling he and Liz were bring over confident. What if it wasn't his?
Not that he confided this in her. She had to think he believed her feelings. And he did it was just hard trying to regain the confidence he had had in her before he had learnt of the affair. But the last thing he wanted to do was lose her.
But some times his thoughts were lost to Frankie and what would have happened if he had kissed her that night when they had met in the alley. He was sure she would have let him. But things had changed between them since he had said ro her he had to stay with his Liz. She avoided him. And god did he miss the friendship they had had together.
So often he thought of her. But in was he shouldn't. what if he had agreed to go with her. To start some thin,. To try and start again. Then he brushed these thoughts asid,. He loved his women.
"Do you have any idea what it is going to be?" Jim asked Liz as she laid on her bed.
"What sex wise?"
"Yes. I am getting a baby girl or boy?" personally he was dying for a little lass. He had had sons. He wanted a girl.
"I honestly don't know." She sighed. Some mums said they just knew but she didn't. She had no idea.
"Well we could ask. " he suggested.
"You really want to know?" she asked.
She knew she did not wish to. She liked not knowing till it came out. To her it had always been one of the bits she had liked the best about pregnancy. That magic moment you hold the child for the first time and then the mid wife tells you.
"I don't know." He said. He guessed he sis. But if she didn't then they were just going to gave to wait he guessed.
It was seven months in to the pregnancy know. He didn't believe it.
It had gone so fast.
Liz wanted it to go even faster though. She wanted to hold the child in her arms. It was so exciting.
There was knock on the door then. It was Deirdre.
"Can I come in?" she asked and Jim nodded.

"I have a shift to get on with so yer can keep me good lady company," he said as he kissed the top of his ex-wife's head.
It had been a while since they had been so close. The wedding had been disastrous but it hadn't split them up.
As he shut the door, Deirdre smiled at her friend.
"I see you two are getting back to the way you were." she said.
"Up, I think we are going to be just fine." she smiled as she got up slowly, the weight of the child now having a affect on her moving about.
"Can I get yer a cuppa tea." She asked.
"Oh don't be silly I can get that my self!" Deirdre said but Liz shook her head.
"I have to do some thing while Jim is in the bar. If it was up to him I would do nothing till I have given birth now. It's sweet really. He just wants to protect Me."
"Well you seem happy with him this time." She commented as they went in to the kitchen.
"I am. He really has changed since he has been home you know." She said, as she opened the door to allow some of the cool august wind in to then pub. "He can be a gent and he has shown me it."
She smiled. This was all she had ever wanted. The two of them happily running there own pub together. It was how it should have been when they had Queens all those years ago.
But what was the point of the two of them looking back. No the only way she was going to make it was if her and Jim kept there eyes forward this time. For get what was, and focus on what will be.
"I think he has too."
Deirdre remembered all those times when Jim had made it so his wife had needed a shoulder to cry on and she had thought no, he was never going to change. He was incapable. But he had proved her wrong. He had, He was a family man this time or he was a really good actor any way.
"He has hit any one, though I must say I don't think I'd object if it was Vernon." She laughed. That man had nearly lost her everything. Every thing she and Jim had worked so hard for.
If she had she didn't know what she would have done. It was weird she had been independent of him for the past six years and now he had returned she was so dependent on him, and his love. That might not be a good thing.
"So are you two getting every thing ready for the baby now?"
"yup Jim is going to start doing up the spare room this weekend." She said to her.
"Aww I think its so sweet."
"Yeah it is. He is taking such an interest considering every thing." She said to her. They knew what that meant. Considering the child might not even be his.
"Do you know what names yet you might want to call it?" she asked.
"No its been mentioned a few times but I don't think we are going to name it till we see the child. Give it one that suits it. Though me and Jim were useless with the twins. We had been arguing for two weeks before we settled on Steven James and Andrew Richard." She said. "And that was after he had got there."
The first week of the twin's life had been hard on her as he had been away posted with the army in Hong Kong. He had done all he had been able to get home but he had missed the birth and then he had found father hood the hardest task he had ever had to face up to. Fighting for him was easy. Peace in those days had confused him. To Jim peace said that a storm was brewing. And that frightened him she thought.
Not knowing how to cope scared him.
-
Vernon was going mad. How could he just not see her when she was giving birth to his child in two months.
He had to see her. He knew she was going to want to see him. When he had been thinking he had realised just hat was going on and he knew it was more important he was there for Liz than ever.
She was being coached. That was what was going on. Nothing more. She didn't really want to be with that bully.
It was he she was really going to be waiting. She had always wanted him before she had gone to black pool.
That was where every thing had gone wrong for them. They had been happy before that day when she had gone to the prison.
He was going to get her back. Some how.