A/N Hello! I'm back having survived Father's day. In a weird twist of life imitating, well, fan-fiction my baby learnt to crawl. What did I find her going for when I realised she could move? Yep, the Barbie shoes her sister had left on the floor. Obviously I could see that one coming!

Disclaimer: Characters still aren't mine, but you never know, if I could predict the crawling for Barbie shoes thing, maybe some of the other stuff will come true for me too!

SPOV

I was kind of glad we'd had a shower before bed when I woke up with my face half in Eric's armpit. He still seemed keen on sleeping on me at night and I was starting to get used to it, although I did shuffle myself sideways and up so I had a bit more breathing space. Then I just lay there, enjoying being entangled with Eric, listening to his breathing and watching his face. It was lovely when it was just the two of us like this, and I was looking forward to having him (almost) to myself for the next three days; I was certainly happy he wasn't working anymore.

Eric's eyelids fluttered, then he made a kind of snorting noise and he murmured something as he pulled me closer to him. "Morning" I whispered to him. Eric said something else that was unintelligible and started stroking my back. It was very nice, until Amelia landed on the bed with a thump and announced it was up time.

"No it's not" said Eric, who still hadn't opened his eyes.

"Yes it is. See it's sunny outside." With that she jumped off the bed and opened the curtains covering the French doors. "And you can hear the birdies" she shouted.

Eric remained unconvinced, so I left him there and took Amelia off to get some breakfast. He emerged about 15 minutes later muttering about too much sunlight and needing coffee.

Amelia turned to look at him. "Eric" she said "You need to build a building", and then she went back to her toast. I burst out laughing and Eric just looked more confused than he had already. "I think" I said, once the giggles stopped, that she means you need to build a bridge, as in 'build a bridge and get over it'."

Amelia nodded. "That's what I said."

Eric looked from me to Amelia then back again, shaking his head. "You people are odd sometimes" he said, going back to his coffee. I just started laughing again while Amelia kept saying "Who's odd, Mummy? Who? Who is Eric talking about?"

"He means us, sweetheart. You and me."

"Why?"

"Just because."

"Well I'm not odd. I'm lovely."

"Yes you are" I agreed.

Just then we heard some cooing from down the hall. "Felicia's awake!" Amelia shouted, and went sprinting off to get in some quality time poking her sister through the bars of the cot with jam covered fingers, and I followed in order to rescue Felicia before she ended up too sticky.

When I arrived back in the kitchen with Felicia in my arms and Amelia trailing along behind trying to tickle her feet, Eric was looking a bit more alive, thanks, I guessed to the coffee. "Oh, look" I said, putting Felicia in the high chair. "There you are. Morning again."

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny. Good morning to you too" he said, kissing me. Then he turned to Felicia and held up a babyfood jar to her, "Banana porridge?" he asked, to which he got a squeal and some clapping, which seemed to be an affirmative. I left them to it and went to get Amelia ready for pre-school.

Eventually I managed to get everyone out the door, which is easier said than done really, and after dropping Amelia off I took Eric and Felicia off for a treat. Well I thought it was a treat. Eric thought that buying food sounded torturous, until we got to our destination which was the fancy 'food market', Nosh, on Dominion Road. Yeah, this place was more Eric than Pak N Save. It was all about 'nice' things. And it had a small café, which was currently doing a coffee happy hour.

Once Eric had his coffee cup in hand, he happily wandered about putting random things in the trolley. It appeared we were getting a lot of coffee. And some fancy bagels. And smoked salmon. I'd just come in to order a ham from the butchery. I wanted to comment on all the wandering that was going on, given that I was always accused of that, but decided I'd better not.

"So, why don't you just shop here? They have specials too." Eric asked me after a while.

"Um, because it doesn't do groceries. See, no nappies or washing powder or shampoo."

"Yeah, but it's nicer."

I patted his arm. "What?" he said "It is nicer."

Just then a woman stopped to admire Felicia, who just stared at her, then looked at me, then started to cry. "Oh, she's having a clingy stage" I said, lifting her out of the seat in the trolley.

The woman left us with the baby who was now snuffling into my shoulder. "So, is that really a thing? The clingy stage?" Eric asked.

"I think so. The books say it happens. Amelia has never had a clingy day in her life though so I think it depends on the child."

Eventually she calmed down enough to get through the checkout without any further drama, apart from the usual fight between Eric and me over who was paying. I like to think I would have won that one, but I was defeated by the amount of crap in my bag which made finding my wallet difficult. I really needed to clean that out.

EPOV

I didn't hold out a lot of hope when Sookie said we were buying food, but she'd managed to find some place a lot fucking nicer than Pak N Save. It had food that actually looked edible for a start. Sookie seemed to spend most of the time fucking laughing at me, as though watching me shop was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.

The rest of the morning passed pretty quickly and eventually it was Felicia's nap time.

"Come on" I said to Sookie, who was clearing up lunch in the kitchen, "let's go and have a nap as well. I seem to have missed some sleep this morning."

Sookie laughed. "You really think there'll be sleeping?"

I shrugged. "Resting?"

"Eric, I hate to break this to you, but it's not exactly restful when you're trying to remove my clothes so you can have your way with me."

"Yeah, but it's fun though" I said, moving her hair aside and pulling the top of her t-shirt down a bit so I could kiss along the top of her shoulders.

Sookie turned around and put her arms round my neck. "Alright" she said. "Let's go and get you your lie down." And then she started to walk to the bedroom.

"So if I'm lying down, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Pretending to be asleep" she said without looking back.

"I can work around that" I said, as I caught her and threw her onto the bed.

Tonight was apparently the night of the pre-school Christmas party, whatever the hell that was. When we got there it appeared it was like a normal day at pre-school, but with more people. Amelia was pleased to see us when we turned up, she ran over and announced that Santa was coming later on, and then she took off to hang out with her friends.

I followed Sookie into the playground and we found a spot to sit down and have the picnic dinner we'd brought with us. There were family groups all over the place doing the same thing, and a whole bunch of small kids like Amelia ignoring their parent's requests to sit down and eat something.

Sookie and I ate the sandwiches she'd made and attempted to get Felicia to feed herself some of the bread. She just stared wide-eyed at all the bigger kids. At least she wasn't crying I guess. After a while Sookie sent me off to see what Amelia was doing and I ended up getting cornered by one of Amelia's small compatriots. "Meela's daddy, lift me up" she commanded, pointing to the spot on the climbing frame where she wanted to be. I complied, but I did wonder whether all these kids were incapable of being polite.

As she grabbed onto the climbing frame and shuffled over to where Amelia already was, I heard a guy's voice behind me say "Maisie! Did you say thank you?"

"Thank-you" Amelia's friend yelled without looking in my direction. I turned to the guy who'd prompted her. "I'm Nick, Maisie's dad" extending his hand, which I shook.

"Eric" I said, going for simplicity.

"So, you're Amelia's dad?" he asked. Fuck, I thought, we hadn't really covered this in the whole you-are-just-my-partner thing that Sookie had tried to drum into me. "Um, step-dad" I said, because 'mother's partner' didn't sound like a real thing, and who wants to be the creepy guy in the playground without a good reason, right?

"Oh, right. Yeah, I think I've seen you here before in the mornings. Normally at that stage they're trying to rope me into reading them a story though."

I laughed. "I always get stuck in the sandpit when I pick up Amelia."

We chatted for a bit, and helped the girls on and off the climbing frame they were on. After a while someone who was apparently Connor's dad joined us. Then a dark-haired woman came over and started talking to Nick. "Eric, this is my wife, Becs. This is Amelia's step-dad."

"Hi" I said.

"Oh" said Becs, looking at me, then over at Sookie. "So, you're with Sookie?" I realised this was the moment when it could go horribly wrong. "Yeah, but we're not married. Officially. Yet." I rambled in an attempt to prevent any misunderstandings which were going to cause problems for me later on.

Becs looked a bit confused. "OK" she said. "Well it's nice to meet you" and with that she was off again, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank fuck I'd made it through that one. However Nick then turned to me and said "So has she made you set a date yet?" Date for what, I wondered, and then I realised what I'd done. Fuck. Now we weren't married, we were engaged.

"No" I said. "Not yet."

"Well, it will come. Sooner than you bloody expect!" Nick burst out laughing at that, and I joined in while trying to keep an eye on his wife to make sure she wasn't going anywhere near Sookie.

I seemed to be in the clear though. I took Amelia to get her face painted with flowers, which she announced to Sookie she wasn't going to wash off before bed, while Sookie muttered about having to clean pillowcases.

Then we had to wait for Santa to appear and the lolly scramble, which actually turned out to be Santa just giving candy to the kids. Sookie said that when she was little the scramble was a scramble and they just used to throw handfuls of candy into groups of small children and let them fight it out themselves. Apparently her brother was particularly good at getting a lot of the loot, but 'no bloody use' at sharing any of it with his sister.

We got home and put two very tired kids to bed, Amelia still in her face paint. Sookie said I should make us some coffee so we could try out some of the 'fancy' stuff I'd bought that morning.

When we were sitting in the living room with our cups she turned to me and said "Well that wasn't so bad was it?"

"Nope."

"Only one person thought we were married this time." I froze, waiting for the yelling to start. "One of the teachers."

"I swear, I didn't say anything to anyone. Or let them think anything. And I don't think I even talked to any of the teachers."

"No, I know" Sookie said, giving me a funny look. "She's pretty new so she wouldn't have known otherwise."

I relaxed again, figuring I was in the clear. "Would it really be that bad though?" I asked "actually being married to me?"

"No, of course it wouldn't. But it's just not true, so I don't want people to think things about me that aren't true. God knows, they probably have enough weird ideas about me as it is, given the whole Bill drama."

"But that's separate to us."

"Well it is, but its part of my history I guess. And I can't escape from it that easily."

I was trying to think of something else to say to make Sookie see that it really didn't fucking matter what anyone else thought of her, because I, well I thought she was wonderful. And possibly I loved her. But then the phone rang and Sookie went to answer it.

SPOV

We had a nice time at the pre-school Christmas party. I guess it's one of the benefits of Christmas in summer is that you can make the most of the evenings being warmer and lighter. Amelia was pretty hyped up by the end of it, and Felicia enjoyed watching the bigger kids. For some reason they didn't scare her in the same way strange adults did.

Eric I noticed spent some of his time chatting to some of the other dads. He actually seems to fit in most places you take him which is nice. Bill was a bit clingier. God, I thought, I hope Felicia's clingy stage doesn't last into her thirties.

When we got back I got a phone call from Judith informing me there was a barbecue at their place on Saturday night to do the Christmas present handover with the Comptons. Oh joy I thought. But I didn't have the luxury of a big family of my own so I was reluctant to cut Amelia and Felicia off from their aunts. And Judith and Calvin were fine; it was just the rest of them that weren't. Mostly it was Lorena.

"How's your mum?" I asked Judith.

Judith sighed. "She's OK. She's talking to Portia again, but they're both upset with Sarah because she and Matt are thinking about moving to Whangarei to live on some land that Matt's family owns because it will be cheaper. Mum thinks it will upset the kids too much, but it's not really her decision. I doubt that Sarah will ever get herself organised to actually go though, so it's probably not worth them all stressing about."

I agreed that she was probably right, and then finished up the call after finding out what she wanted me to bring on Saturday night.

I went back into the living room to where Eric was flipping through the TV channels. "So, still nothing on even with Sky?" I asked.

"Nope" he said and switched it off. "Want a shower before bed? I think I brought home some of the sandpit with me."

"Yeah, go on then. I read something in somewhere that a warm shower before bed helps you sleep better." I switched off the Christmas tree lights and followed Eric out of the room.

"Well, far be it from me to argue with anything reported in 'Somewhere'. It's a very well-respected publication from all accounts" Eric said, raising his eyebrows at me and making me giggle.

We managed to get ourselves arranged in the shower without knocking anything off the shelves and Eric seemed to forget about any sand he might have and spent a long time washing me. After a while I said "Eric, they're just boobs."

"They're not just boobs" he said. "They're fucking fantastic boobs. We're very lucky to have them." With that he carried on with what he was doing.

"We're very lucky to have them?"

"Yup, we're sharing them. It only seems fair."

"Were you going to tell me about this?"

He shrugged. "I figured you knew by now." Then he looked up and smiled at me, and I laughed. We kissed and I said "OK, I get to wash you now."

The warm water was threatening to run out when I finally managed to persuade Eric it was time to get out. He sighed, and looked me up and down. "You know" he said, "if you were taller we could try having sex in here."

I laughed. "I love the way you say that as if it's my height that's the problem!"

"Well, you know, from my perspective it is."

I managed to get myself mostly dry before he started hustling me towards the bed. My hair was still wet and it was going to be a write-off in the morning. Oh well. We tumbled into bed where Eric claimed a playground injury meant I had to be on top. Also he wanted to assert his visitation rights with my boobs. It was hard to protest when he just kept making me giggle.

Later on, when I was feeling warm and sleepy and relaxed I curled into Eric's side and put my head on his gorgeous chest. "I love..." I said, pausing to think about what I wanted to say "I love that it's fun. With you. That you make me laugh, and we have a good time. Thank you for that." I looked up at Eric and went to kiss him, but he looked a bit puzzled, or something.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Thank you. I like that it's fun too" he said, kissing me, very passionately. Wow. I always loved kissing Eric, but that was a particularly good kiss.

I cuddled back down and Eric stroked my back until I fell asleep, feeling very warm and content and safe. And like I was right where I belonged.

EPOV

For a split second I thought that Sookie was going to tell me that she loved me and the whole world stood still. Then she didn't, and all I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears. She told me I was fun instead. It really fucking wasn't the same thing.

Maybe she didn't love me? Maybe that was behind the whole 'let's make sure no one even dreams we're married' shit? Surely by now though she felt something? I didn't fucking know. This was not my area of expertise, as we'd already established.

Fuck, I thought. Maybe if I told her I loved her she'd say she loved me? And then it would all be OK.

While I'd been lost in thought though, Sookie had drifted off to sleep. So all I could do was hold her close and whisper "Sookie, I love you very much". You never knew, there was always a chance that whole subliminal message shit would actually work. And if it didn't, I was sure I'd find a chance to say it to her when she was awake. Someday. Soon.

Thanks for reading!