Thank you everyone who reviewed last chapter :) I wasn't expecting that many! It inspired me to write faster, which resulted in Chapter Two being posting much sooner than I thought. So enjoy... :)

April 23rd, 2000, Part Two

'Yes, mom,' Carol said. She rolled her eyes and Doug smiled, trying not to laugh.

'Yes, mom,' she said again, shaking her head this time. Doug ducked his head and nibbled her ear lobe. Carol tried to shove him away, while trying to keep her giggles down.

'Of course, mom,' she said, varying it slightly. This time Doug snorted loudly and Carol had to press her lips together to keep quiet.

'Okay mom, see you tomorrow. Give the girls a big kiss from mommy,' she said then. Doug raised his eyebrows.

'And daddy,' she added and Doug heard Helen Hathaway sigh loudly. He smiled.

'Okay, bye,' Carol said, and finally hung up the phone. Immediately she smacked Doug with the back of her hand. 'Could you have been anymore distracting?' she asked.

'Well yeah, I could have done this,' he said, then attacked her, tickling her in all the wrong places. Carol dissolved into fits of laughter and tried to push him away, without any luck.

Only a loud tapping on the glass of the back door brought the tickling attack to an end and they both looked around to see a tall, brunette woman standing in the doorway, a small blond toddler in one arm, a basket in the other.

'Can I come in?' she asked.

'Of course,' Doug replied and the woman stepped into the kitchen, 'Carol, this is Erin, Tom's wife, and their son, Luke. Erin, this is Carol,' Doug introduced.

Erin Henderson grinned and approached Carol. She swapped the basket in her right hand to her left, balancing the little boy on her hip and held out her hand. 'It's so nice to finally meet you. When Tom came home and mentioned that you were here, I just had to come and say hi. I hope I'm not interrupting anything.'

'Of course not. It's really nice to meet you too. And Luke. Hi, there,' Carol said, smiling at Luke. The toddler grinned at her and then tucked her head under his mother's chin.

'He can be a bit shy sometimes. Here, I brought you over a cake I baked this morning,' she said, handing the basket to Doug.

'Thanks Erin, but really, you didn't have to,' he said, placing it on the breakfast and then holding out his arms to Luke, whose whole face lit up and he mostly jumped into Doug's arms.

Carol smiled. It was nice seeing Doug with a child. She couldn't wait to see him with the girls.

'I'll make some coffee,' Carol said and walked around the island to switch on the coffee machine.

Erin slid onto a stood at the breakfast and smiled at Doug who was now lifting Luke high into the air and pretending to drop him. Luke was squealing with laughter.

'How old is he?' Carol asked.

'Eighteen months, almost,' Erin answered, 'Your girls are about the same age, right?'

'No, they're only five months. So there's a year between them. But I'm sure they'll love a little friend when they get here.'

'There not here now?' she asked.

'No, I left them with my mom. It was sort of like an impulse action, me coming here,' she explained.

Doug had now moved out onto the deck with Luke and Tom had joined them again.

'It's really good that you're here. I hope you don't mind but Doug told us a lot of what happened between you two. I guess he just needed to talk about it. But there's such a difference in him now, even since yesterday, before you arrived. He's so happy,' Erin said.

Carol smiled. 'There's a big difference in me, too,' she hesitated, 'How was he really? When he first got here?'

Erin pressed her lips together. 'Honestly, not very good. He didn't speak to us for weeks, even though both Tom and I tried really hard to be friendly and welcoming. He wouldn't speak to any of the neighbours at all. But slowly, he came around. He was much better when he found out you were pregnant and ever since your daughters were born, we can't get him to shut up about them, or you,' Erin told her, smiling towards the end.

Carol smiled, too, just as the coffee machine beeped. She searched the kitchen until she found the right cupboard, took out two mugs and brought them, along with the coffee pot, to the breakfast bar where Erin sat.

She was so glad that Tom and Erin had been such good friends to Doug. She knew how hard it had been for them to be separated, but she was at County. She had Mark and Elizabeth, loads of friends, and her mother. Doug had been alone.

'Thank you,' she told Erin, who smiled.

'We'll have to have you all over for a barbeque when your daughters get here' she said.

'That sounds great,' Carol told her truthfully. She liked Erin and hoped they could be good friends.

'Have you met any more of the neighbours?' Erin asked, sipping her coffee.

Carol shook her head. 'Am I in for a treat?'

Erin laughed. 'Most of them are really nice...and old. There are not many young families on this street. Just us, you and the Andersons three doors down. They're...nice, maybe a bit too friendly at times and they have enough kids to make up a football team. Then there's the Brandons. Mrs Brandon is a widow, her husband died a few years ago, cancer. She has two sons but they're both gone now. But the youngest boy left his daughter with Mrs Brandon, Jennifer, she's only about three or four years old now and Mrs Brandon dotes on her. And then, of course, you have Mrs Hernandez. She's lived in the same house for as long as I can remember, all on her own. She's the most foul-mouthed pensioner I've ever met and all the Andersons kids are terrified of her. She seems to like Doug, though. He helps her out sometimes with thing such as mowing her lawn or bringing her groceries, which is so kind of him. He definitely gets no thanks for it but Doug insists on helping her.'

Carol smiled, picturing Doug bringing groceries bags to Mrs Hernandez door and smiling that smile at her. Hearing about all the neighbours made her even more eager to get settled here. She couldn't wait to have the girls here, too. She could just see them, playing out on the deck with Luke in the summer time, while she, Doug, Erin and Tom had barbeques. She could see Doug teaching the girls to ride their bikes on the tree lined street out the front, or splashing around in the water that bordered their garden at the back.

She could definitely see herself spending the rest of her days in this beautiful place, watching the girls grow up, with Doug at her side.