"Why didn't you think to tell me that your dad's brother is deaf?"

"God Nikki I told you days ago and you're still moaning at me?" Jennifer pouted as she pulled a suitcase out of her room and smiled at her friend who was leaning up against the wall behind her, arms crossed over her chest as she raised an eyebrow "Because I never thought you would ever meet dad and you certainly won't be meeting his brother, he went deaf when he was twenty three, there was some sort of accident or something. He can sign and read lips but I never learnt to sign because I was too impatient to learn and I knew he could read lips so I didn't bother. I feel quite ashamed of that really, he's my uncle and I never learnt"

"You can sign now after the lessons"

"Yes but not fluently like you and Harry almost can"

"We're nowhere near fluent"

"You know what I mean, you can" she made some motions with her hands and Nikki giggled at her "It seems to us like you're fluent okay so that's what we'll call you whether you are or not"

"Okay" Nikki shrugged and Jennifer smiled at her.

"Uncle Jim can speak as well"

"I should hope he can considering he lost his hearing at twenty three" Nikki smirked and Jennifer gave her a mock glare.

"No but you know when deaf people talk and they have that.." Jennifer winced as she tried to explain it to her friend, closing her bedroom door as she did so "That..way of speaking, it's like that and people look at him sometimes like he's..mentally disabled or something because he speaks like that" she sighed and Nikki placed one hand on her arm, squeezing it gently "God you probably didn't want to hear that did you, what with Donny"

"It's fine, I know what people think and we're bringing Donny up so he knows there's nothing wrong with what's happened to him"

"The reason I didn't tell you about my Uncle is because I'm ashamed of not really trying" Jennifer whispered "With his deafness, I was going to tell you when I found out Donny was deaf because I thought we could bond over some sort of shared family deafness or something stupid, but then I saw how well you and Harry had learnt signing and how patient you were with him and I was ashamed of myself because I never tried that with my uncle. I was only a year old when he went deaf so there was plenty of time for me to learn to sign when dad and mum were learning but once I reached about four years old I didn't care, I just wanted to play all the time I didn't want to have to sit and learn sign language when he could understand me anyway"

"Don't feel guilty about that, I'm sure they don't hold it against you, especially your uncle"

"They tell me that but I'm not sure"

"Well anyway they'll be proud of you for learning now won't they?"

"I suppose they will be" Jennifer smiled at the thought and nodded, Nikki chuckling when she turned and saw Gabriel running from the direction of her room dressed only in his nappy. "Not that I see him much anymore anyway"

"Mama" he grinned as he ran towards her and the two women laughed loudly as she leant down and scooped her oldest child into her arms, holding him up and blowing a raspberry on his exposed stomach as Gabriel laughed loudly and struggled. "Ma"

"Why are you running around naked young man?" Nikki asked him with a grin as she placed him on her hip and then turned when she heard Harry's voice.

"There he is, cheeky boy ran off when I was attempting to get him dressed" Harry laughed and Nikki giggled, looking at their son who was grinning cheekily at his father "Come on you, let's go and get you dressed so you're not half naked for when you meet Jennifer's mummy"

Gabriel however just leant away from Harry and patted Nikki on the face, grinning at her.

"Mama"

"Yes I'm your mama" Nikki chuckled and turned her head so she could kiss the palm of his small hand "And that is your daddy and he's going to go and get you dressed now"

She handed Gabriel to Harry and the little boy pouted before placing his tiny hands on his father's cheeks, Harry blowing a raspberry on his cheek and making Gabriel burst out laughing.

"Come on you, let's go and make you respectable"

"Jennifer's gone to meet her mum, she'll be back soon" Harry told Nikki as he walked into the living room where she was sitting with Donovan on her lap "And then we'll have to put the car seats in the car, that'll take about five hours" he rolled his eyes and Nikki giggled at him, shaking her head at Donovan.

"Your daddy is silly"

"Thank you" Harry grinned from where he was leaning on the doorframe, his eyes flicking to Gabriel who was sitting on the floor playing with some of the toys they were leaving behind "Are you looking forward to Christmas?"

"I am" Nikki smiled and nodded "It's their first proper Christmas even though they won't remember it. Are you?"

"Very much, I can't wait to see their faces when they see their presents"

"Well they'll probably do what they did for their birthday and be more enthralled with playing in the boxes the toys came in and not the actual toys" Nikki snorted and Harry nodded in agreement with her "Now are you sure we have everything?"

"Yes I am very sure we have everything we need, stop worrying"

"Sorry, I just don't want to forget anything, we're not here for three weeks"

"We have everything we need"

Nikki nodded and smiled slightly at Donovan, kissing him on the cheek before putting him on the floor so he could go and play with Gabriel while they were waiting for Jennifer to come back with her mother.

"Are you feeling okay?" Harry asked her quietly as he walked over and sat down next to her, there had only been two crying sessions in the days that he had known what had happened to her but he had expected a lot more. He was worried that she was bottling everything up inside her and would have preferred it if she had been an emotional wreck than bottling it all up inside her until it got too much.

"I'm fine" Nikki nodded as she leant into him and he wrapped one arm around her waist, pressing a kiss to her forehead and then resting his forehead on hers.

"Are you sure?"

"Not really" Nikki finally admitted quietly and sniffed, reaching up to wipe her eyes before her tears could escape, she didn't want to do this now, not when there was a journey ahead of them. She had been thinking a lot about what would have happened if she hadn't had a late period and she was pregnant, she wondered if Harry would have accepted the baby if she had informed him about the split condom which he still hadn't been told about, wondered how they would have coped if they had kept the baby, wondered what would have happened if the baby had looked like Mumford. "I've just been thinking a lot that's all, letting my mind go over and over things. I know I shouldn't but it's difficult not to sometimes when I'm alone with my thoughts or I can't sleep"

"Do you have nightmares?"

Nikki just shrugged.

"Not nightmares as such where I wake up crying or afraid but I do dream about it sometimes but then I know you're always in the bed next to me so I know I'm safe" she smiled up at him and Harry smiled back, pressing a kiss to her lips as he did so.

"If you ever want to wake me up to talk about it then do it, I don't mind"

"Okay" Nikki nodded and kissed him again just as they heard Jennifer's voice in the doorway.

"Guys, change of plan..oh sorry, actually no I'm not"

They broke away from each other when they heard their friend but stayed with their arms around each other, chuckling at their friend.

"You're just jealous" Nikki chuckled as she stood up "What's the change of plans"

"Uh.." Jennifer popped her head out of the doorway "Will you stop being nosey and come and say hello"

A few seconds later a man stepped into the room and rolled his eyes at Jennifer.

"Guys this is my dad Ian, dad this is Harry and Nikki"

Nikki smiled at the older man as she took a step forward and shook Ian's hand.

"Nice to meet you"

"And you"Ian replied with a nod and a friendly smile "I've heard about you two from my wife, Amanda"

"Really?" Harry asked in surprise as they heard Jennifer mutter something under her breath and then walk from the room.

"Yes, you were the ones who came here the same day as Jenny weren't you?"

"Yes we were" Nikki nodded and glanced down at her leg when she felt one of her children grab hold of her trousers, she bent down to pick Donovan up as Ian continued to speak.

"And of course Amanda's told me everything Jennifer has told her on the phone in the past few months" Ian smiled and Nikki groaned.

"All good I hope"

"Of course, we're both excited to have you all staying at my brother-in-law's house" the middle aged man smiled "And I'm sure Jenny gave you the same orders we gave her to take full advantage of the house while my brother-in-law is away"

"She did tell us that yes" Harry smirked and Ian clapped his hands together once and grinned happily "A few times actually"

"Good, serves him right for spending so much money on a house he hardly ever uses" he rolled his eyes "You'll understand when you see it, seriously, take full advantage neither myself nor Amanda will mind. I probably won't be around as much as Amanda anyway, I'll be working most days apart from Christmas day and Boxing day as well as a few other random days I get off"

"Where do you work?" Nikki asked in interested and shifted Donovan slightly on her hip as he began to fuss.

"I'm a policeman" the taller man told her, his light blue eyes held a kindness that made Nikki want to trust him instantly. She then remembered that Mumford had been the same and took a sudden step backwards, her heart jumping in her chest.

"Nikki?" Harry asked in concern, seeing her pale dramatically as she moved backwards but she just shook her head.

"Sorry sir.."

"Ian"

"Sorry Ian" Nikki amended, placing Donovan down on the floor again before running one hand through her hair "I just remembered someone that I really want to forget. You're a policeman?"

"Yes, a DI" Ian told them proudly and then frowned "Are you sure you're okay Nikki? You're very pale"

"He's right" Harry nodded, placing one hand on his lover's back and rubbing it gently through the jumper she had on "Was it him you thought about?"

Nikki just nodded and Harry pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Sorry sir..Ian, something happened a few weeks ago and it's made me a bit wary of new men" Nikki told the middle aged man who frowned and nodded "It's not you"

"Well whatever it was that happened I hope it wasn't too bad" Ian replied, looking from Harry to Nikki and giving them both the impression that he knew what Nikki was on about, he was a high ranked police officer after all and he had obviously seen a lot of things in his time as a policeman. "If you ever feel threatened in my presence just tell me, I won't be offended"

"Thank you" Nikki smiled slightly and nodded, Ian smiling comfortingly at her before looking behind the parents at their children.

"Now are you going to introduce me? I've heard a bit from my wife about the children here but as we're spending the next three weeks together I think we should get to know each other" he chuckled and took Nikki's mind away from a dangerous place as she turned to introduce her children to her friend's father.

"If you still have things to do here then that's fine, we don't mind taking Adrian with us" Nikki told Jennifer an hour later as they stood by the car waiting to go, Gabriel, Donovan and Adrian already in the car seats which they had only brought for this occasion two days before, that had taken a while to get in the car in the first place.

"Thank you. You won't be awkward in the car with dad?" Jennifer asked and Nikki shook her head just as Ian walked over and heard what she had said, chuckling loudly.

"If it gets too awkward then I'll just tell them stories of you as a child" he told his daughter and Nikki grinned at the older man as Jennifer looked panicked "That was a joke" he paused and smirked "Or was it?"

"See, we'll be fine. We'll see you in a few hours with everyone else, we've already said goodbye"

"Are you really sure?"

"Yes Jennifer now go and do what you need to do, we'll see you later. We'll take care of Adrian for you, and anyway he has his grandpa and grandma as well" Nikki smiled and hugged her friend who smiled and hugged her back, kissing Nikki on the cheek as she moved away. "Who knows we may have stolen the family silver by the time you've arrived"

Jennifer laughed loudly and nudged Nikki on the shoulder, her friend giggling.

"Go on before I change my mind and come with you just to annoy you for the entire journey"

"Acting like the responsible twenty two year old that you are" Nikki smirked and Jennifer mock bowed to her before waving to her father and Harry and then turning to walk back towards their accommodation.