The next morning Karen got up early to go to the rink, she made an extra effort to look nice and then picked Chris up on the way. The children had to stay with their grandparents, Chris's parents. It took them about 10 minutes to get to the rink from Chris's they sailed through all the places where normally they'd get stuck, purely by luck. They arrived before Jayne who was late as usual, so Karen and Chris had more quality alone time on the ice practicing their own thing and just talking as they skated round with ease, waiting for Jayne and everyone else to arrive. When she came in at last and swiftly got her skates on she came over to Karen and Chris, and all three of them skated around together, Chris and Karen filling Jayne in about what had happened with Jill, how she was in the hospital as they spoke, and had no idea what had happened, whether she had had the baby or not. Jayne was an incredibly good listener, she was always there to listen to other people's problems and often forgot about any of her own, but she was happy to help. "Oh and Emma's engaged!" Karen added on the end."Ah, tell her congratulations from me!"Jayne said happily hugging Karen. "Do they have a date yet?""No I don't think so, and don't worry I'll make sure you're invited..." Karen said. "Haha why thank you, I can do hair for her and bridesmaids if you like?" Jayne offered. "I'll ask Emma and see what she thinks, that would be lovely Jayne," Karen replied. The three of them then got to work after being fully updated on each other's news, and soon after the celebrities and professional skaters started turning up ready for rehearsals and training, there was two group numbers they had to work on. Chris gave them all an early break at 10am, he couldn't help but wonder where Jill was and what was going on, she hadn't come back home yet clearly, but there was no text messages full of demands or missed calls indicating she wanted to be picked up - he hoped maybe she had phoned the father of the baby? Maybe she'd move out of that house and go and live somewhere else with this mystery man no one knew, or something like that... After their early but short (10 minute) break Chris called everyone back on the ice as now all the pros were there, and they did a good couple of hours working on that week's group dance, an 80's medley piece full of life and exciting tricks. After a while Karen left Jayne and Chris with the pros doing the group routine and she took a celebrity at a time to other sections of the rink to strengthen the basics, just so she could have a bit of time on her own to think about things, okay maybe just to think about Chris... but she was just fed up watching Jayne and Chris skate together and she certainly didn't feel like she was doing much just standing and watching, memorizing the choreography in her head."Could you tell me where Chris is?" a sharp rude voice demanded from behind where Karen was standing at the bottom of the large rink, and a baby could be heard crying in this woman's arms, but Karen had no suspicions as to who it was before she turned around. It was Jill of course, she had the baby and was demanding to see Chris, she was unbelievable, and Karen didn't know what to say, she knew Chris would not be in the mood to see her and he was quite busy with all the other skaters."Erm, are you ignoring me? Could you get me Chris please I need to talk to him!" Jill carried on, acting as if she didn't even know who Karen was, and then Karen realized she'd just been standing and staring at Jill. "Oh I'm sorry," Karen snapped back, "he's over there but he's incredibly busy right now I really don't think now is the right time..." Jill stormed off and wondered why she'd even bothered to talk to Karen, who she thought was a manipulative bitch, it made no sense as to why she'd asked her, she'd already done enough to upset her, even if it was Jill that did wrong first. Jill stormed up down the side of the rink snuggling the little tiny baby boy into her tightly trying to keep him warm in the freezing temperatures. Chris slowly turned round to see who it was, he was shocked to see Jill turn up without any warning and was even more shocked to see her cradling the most tiniest human being he had ever seen. He couldn't help thinking the baby was so beautiful, he tried to storm himself as he knew it wasn't his, and he tried to remember he was mad at her. "Jill, what the hell are you doing here?!" he practically shouted, "Take 5 guys," he said to the rest of the skaters who had all turned and gone into little groups whispering to each other wondering what was going on, they'd no idea Jill was pregnant or that Chris and Jill were getting a divorce, and Chris guessed he'd have to give them some kind of an explanation as to what was going on at some point."I was expecting you to at least call and let me know what the hell is going on with all this," Chris said as he stepped off the ice in front of Jill and put his bright blue skate guards on carefully. "Am I ever going to know who the bloody father is? And let me tell you I want this divorce for definite now, no counselling necessary I've made up my mind this is ridiculous, I refuse to live with you and this baby that doesn't belong to me... does this mystery guy even know you were pregnant?"Jill broke down a little and just squeezed her baby tighter into her body. "Chris I'm so sorry..." she started, trying to speak with some emotion in her voice to get Chris to take pity on her, but it wasn't going to work."Jill I'm not going to argue with you here and now, just go home please and wait for me there, because you're not getting away with this without saying anything, I want answers Jill, I want to know everything. I've told you my secret now I want to know yours. Besides, this is hardly a suitable environment for a baby, take him home and wait there the kids have been worried sick about you, good luck explaining why they have another little baby brother," Chris said icily and then storming off to the dressing room behind the ice rink.
Once she saw Jill walk out of the building, Karen went to go and find Chris, who was pacing up and down his dressing room with his head in his hands, not knowing what to feel, he thought he was mostly mad at Jill, her behavior was ridiculous. "Chris it's me, can I come in," Karen said softly knocking on the door. Chris gave no answer but Karen went in anyway, walked over to Chris and comforted him with a hug, reassuring him that everything would be okay in the end."Look the sooner you can get rid of her then you will be happy again and we can be together with no regrets," she said kissing him gently."That woman is absolutely unbelievable, I don't understand her... I want to know who's baby this is!""I thought you said she was only 3 months? The baby couldn't have been healthy enough to be sent home again the next day if she was only 3 months I'm sure.""Well that's what she told me - I only told you what I knew. She probably just made it all up it wouldn't surprise me," Chris said flatly. "Whatever happened to her Karen?""I don't know Chris I really don't... you two used to be so happy... But then again so did me and Stephen, I guess things just change..." she said and they shared a few moments in a tight hug. "Right are we going to get back to work or what? What are you going to tell everyone else, they don't even know that you and Jill were having your differences, the last news they probably got about the pair of you was probably when Tommy was born and that was 4 years ago...""Oh I don't know Karen I don't think I can be bothered to face everyone right now I haven't got the energy to face all the questions...""Oh come on it'll be fine I'll come wit you it'll all be fine I promise," Karen said taking his hand and going in the direction of the door. "No really I don't babe, sorry... I think I'm just going to head home and get this argument over with and take the rest of the day off... Tell everyone I'm sorry and explain whatever you like to them," Chris said apologetically and then grabbing his bag and quickly changing out of his skates. Karen waited for him and waved him out, before returning to everyone else who was expecting Chris to return. It was then she realized she had just abandoned the celebrities she'd been working with and no one knew about her and Chris's relationship, and she didn't think Chris would exactly appreciate everyone knowing just yet."Okay back to work people. Chris has decided to take the rest of the day off as he's experiencing some difficulties at the moment and he'd appreciate it if you didn't bombard him with questions on his return tomorrow, he says he's really sorry and he will explain everything eventually," Karen said in her loudest voice so she got everyone's attention, and then lead everyone back onto the ice. Meanwhile Chris had got back to the house and surprisingly Jill hadn't got back yet, though he'd no idea where she was or anything, he expected her to be waiting for him just like he instructed. He let himself in the house and asked his parents if they could take the kids out for a few hours, just to the local park or something as he had a feeling the upcoming disagreement was not going to be something young children want to witness in their own home. He was dreading when he was going to have to tell the kids that he and Jill were splitting up, he knew it was going to be hard for them. 20 minutes later Jill finally turned up in a taxi, still cuddling the baby tightly in her arms. "Oh it was about time you turned up here, I've been waiting ages, I got the rest of the day off to sort things out with you and I want answers do you hear me? Oh and thanks to you the whole entire crowd of skaters involved on the show know I have serious marriage issues, nothing had been revealed until just then, and now I've got to explain the baby as well...""Oh I'm so sorry Chris, but quite frankly I don't care!""Sit down Jill. I want to have this conversation now and here, it's been dragged out far too long now and I'm sick of it, sick of all your dirty little secrets, I want to know, and I deserve to. And don't you dare sit there and tell me you don't think we should get a divorce because I find it ridiculous that you could even consider that, I refuse to live with you and some other guys baby!" he snapped slyly."Well I didn't exactly expect to have this baby last night either Chris, funnily enough, it wasn't on my agenda. I honestly thought I was only about 3 months, but then when I went for that scan they told me they didn't know how far along I was at all, they're totally useless at that place seriously sometimes I wonder if they have any clue what they're doing - I bet half of them aren't qualified!" "Okay well that doesn't explain anything to me, how far gone were you?""7..." Jill said quietly."7?! How could you have not found out until then?" Chris said raising his voice."Chris I was lucky I found out at all, lots of women never do...and then along comes the baby.""Well I'm sure you could have worked it out... wait... how many times have you slept with this guy? And who is he, do I know him?" Chris said firing questions away at her wanting to know all the answers. "Chris calm down please..." "Calm down?! How do you expect me to calm down when you're giving me all this... How would you like it if I told you all that?!" Chris said his voice getting louder and louder as it went on. "Okay okay... no you don't know him, at least I shouldn't think you do. I've known Cory far longer than I ever knew you... The difference is he actually loved me, all though our serious relationship never actually went very far as he moved out the country," Jill explained. "Look I don't want your life story Jill and how many boyfriends you've had and all this crap I just want you to cut to the chase," Chris said angrily."I met him at the World Champions back when I skated, right before I would have turned professional, if it wasn't for breaking my ankle in my solo routine," Jill carried on, "We became excellent friends all those years ago and we started dating for a while, we loved each other dearly, even when we competed against each other a year later, we were inseparable. But he lived in Canada and I had to return to America with my parents, and shortly after I met you.""Okay now I know all the crap behind this guy, when did you meet up again?! How did you get in contact after all those years, he must have been pretty hard to find.""Remember when I went to America to visit my parents, while you couldn't come because you said you were far too busy with work?" Jill asked."Erm actually, you never told me you were going until you walked out the house, and that was summer last year...""Whatever... that was the first time I met up with him, turns out when I moved here with you he tried to contact my parents but he's been trying to get hold of me for years now and they never told him where I was as they thought I was living a happy life with you, but when I went over I found a load of letters he'd sent to my parent's house... I told them I wanted to see him...""You're telling me you've been seeing this guy behind my back for over a year now, and that's acceptable is it? Oh and I go off for one night which I told you about afterwards because I felt bad, yet you'd been playing your little games for all that time... you absolute bitch, I don't believe you Jill I really don't!" Chris couldn't believe what he was hearing, and the baby had started screaming at Chris shouting.
"Chris shh, please, you're scaring the baby," Jill said impatiently cradling the baby trying to calm him down. "I don't care about you're ****ing baby or you for that matter, I'm sick of you Jill I really am, I can't live here anymore I'm sorry but I can't, we'll sort things out properly some other time in the future but I can't be doing with it all now," Chris shouted at her as he stormed out the house slamming the door behind him and climbing in the car, and drove to Karen's without thinking. He was going to have to buy his own place, or stay with someone temporarily, there was absolute no way he could stay with Jill any longer. He wanted to cut her out of his life totally, but he knew that was going to be impossible because of the children, and he knew that his decision was going to hurt them but he was left with no other choice - everything would work out eventually it was just a matter of time. Whilst he was stuck at the traffic lights right before the turning into Karen's road, he text her and told her he was going over, to his surprise she replied straight away, with lots of kisses on the end of her own text. Chris didn't even get all the way to the front door before Karen opened it and walked down the gravel path towards him, and they hugged tightly, then hurried inside to escape the cool breeze, and the rain that had just started to slowly fall from the heavy grey clouds in the dull sky. "I take it you spoke to her then... Tell me everything baby, I want to hear it all," Karen said whilst putting on the kettle and boiling them both a cup of coffee. "I really don't get her I don't Karen, her behavior is unbelievable! The father of this baby, is a Canadian skater before she met me, it was apparently years ago at the World Champs, but I've never heard of him... and she's been seeing him since summer last year, when she told me she was going to visit her parents in America!"Chris said angrily, but releasing all his emotions to Karen who was very understanding."That is ridiculous... she was seeing him a whole year behind your back, got pregnant and then said absolutely nothing, and then she had a humongous go at you for staying one night at my house, which you told her about as soon as it happened, the morning after?!" Karen was now getting quite worked up herself she was feeling for Chris and could totally understand why he was so furious. "I know... oh and you know how she told me she was 3 months? Turns out she was 7, and denied all knowledge of being any further along, I honestly don't know if she did know or not..." Chris said really not knowing what to do."What did you do then, after all this commotion?""Oh I just walked out, I'm going to have to find my own place to live, there's no way I can live there with her and this baby that I know isn't mine; I don't even know what's going on between her and this guy, it's so ridiculous. But I don't want to upset the kids, I know it's going to be hard for them, but how can I see them without Jill acting like this? What if she takes my kids away?""Chris, she's not going to take them away, she can't do that, it's not right, they love you so much Chris I know they do, and they wouldn't cope without you in their lives. And I really don't blame you for not wanting to be there, if you want you can stay here with me for a few months until you find your own place, come whenever you like," Karen said wondering how long he'd want to stay for, hoping he'd like to stay as long as possible. Maybe they'd get to a point in their relationship where they'd like to live together anyway..."Really? I'd love that Karen, is it a good idea with the girls though? You need to ask them first I don't want to barge in you without them knowing...""Oh don't worry about them Chris, they'll be fine with it they have their own lives now they don't need to worry about mine, and it's my decision not theirs..." Karen said determined to win and persuade him it would be fine, because that's how much she wanted to live with him, even if it did only work out for a small amount of time, which she hoped it would last longer..."Okay but I don't want to cause any disagreements...""It's mainly Laura that has a few problems with me seeing you anyway, Emma's absolutely fine with it, but I'm sure a few words with Laura and she'll be fine too, I'll get her to tell me exactly how she feels and we'll sort everything out," Karen promised and then passionately kissed Chris on the lips, sitting on his lap whilst he was sat on the kitchen chair; then he picked her up and carried her into the living room both of them sinking into the sofa and kissing intimately.