"Daddy!"

Jacob grinned as he stretched his arms out to his youngest daughter. "Hello, monster! Here, I'll take that." He swung her princess backpack onto his shoulders, taking her hand as they walked out of the school gates and to the car. "We need to make a quick journey to get Grace, and then Mummy is going to meet us at home later."

He put Ava in her car seat and strapped her in before walking around to the driver's seat, his phone vibrating in his pocket. He glanced at it, and quickly typed back a reply to Kate, offering to arrange dinner for another evening.

Grace was already waiting outside, arms folded, when Jacob arrived, and she climbed into the front seat silently, then stared straight ahead.

"...Hi, Jacob. How was your day? Thanks for coming to get me." Jacob offered, attempting to get a smile out of his step-daughter.

"Well I don't see why I have to catch the bus but she gets picked up." Grace grumbled, gesturing to Ava who sat yawning in the backseat.

Jacob was quiet for a moment and then nodded. "We're all tired, so we will talk about that another day. There's no food at home, so do you want to stop off and get something or can you wait until dinner?" When Grace just gave a shrug, Jacob sighed and started the car.

...

Who are you?" Grace asked an hour later when she pulled open the door and found a woman she didn't recognise on the doorstep. Jacob was currently trying to feed Ava and had called to Grace to open the door.

"Ah...who are you?" The woman asked back.

"You came to my door, so you have to answer first." Grace folded her arms.

A smile slowly lit the woman's face. "You must be Connie's daughter, Grace. You look just like her! I'm Kate, I'm here to see Jacob, and I brought you dinner!" She held up a container. "Can I come in?"

"Hey! I thought I told you another night!" Jacob appeared behind Grace and put a hand on her shoulder as he grinned at Kate.

"You did, but you also said your fridge was bare and that you were exhausted, so I thought I'd bring you all something to eat. It's your favourite cuisine!" Kate smiled hopefully.

"Mum doesn't like Italian." Grace reminded Jacob. She'd been looking forward to Jacob helping her with her homework after Ava went to bed, and she didn't want this woman to ruin that.

Connie's shift had now ended, and the last thing she wanted to do was do a food shop. She had already assigned Kate to the next five night shifts, and was going to speak to Jacob about their history tonight. The more she knew, maybe the less irritated she would be. Perhaps they really were just good, old friends.

She gathered her coat and her bag, and swept a set of files from her desk before leaving and locking the door. She bypassed the nurses' station, wanting to find Kate and ask her how her day went in an attempt to make amends for her brusque manner earlier so that the girl would have less reason to disfavour her to Jacob when she inevitably complained about her shift allocations.

"Connie! I haven't seen you since you got back... Everything okay?" She walked very nearly into Charlie as he appeared from cubicles. She sighed, not wanting to divulge every detail of her day, seeing as he did always seem to know when something, or someone, was bothering her.

"I'm just tired. And Jacob..." She trailed off before rubbing her temples. "It doesn't matter. Have you seen the new girl? I wanted a word."

"Oh, she said something about telling you she'd see you this evening."

Connie stared at Charlie, her jaw tensing. "She what?"

"Something about bringing Italian? Night, Connie."

Connie's eyes shut tightly as she muttered, "Night Charlie."

...

When Connie arrived home that evening, having only done a short, angry food shop, she was in a worse mood than ever. Tired, hungry and still with paperwork to finish, she just wanted to go home to one of those lovely, peaceful family evenings where they'd all sit in silence but together.

Grace was the first to greet her when she walked through the front door, hugging her mother tightly and shocking her in the process. "Hey, Gracie. Did you have a good-"

"Connie! Bet you're glad your shift is over. Glass of wine and some pasta?" Kate appeared in the doorway, holding up both a bottle and one of the wine glasses that had been a wedding present.

"No, thank you." Connie replied, glancing into the front room as she passed to find Jacob sleeping sitting up again, this time with Ava curled into him, her eyelids heavy as she fought sleep. "I'm not hungry, and I still have work to do."

"Can I come and do my homework in your office?" Grace asked hopefully, eager to be away from Kate, who had doted on Ava and yet barely acknowledged Grace since she'd arrived.

"Of course, sweetheart." Connie replied, worry about her daughter still in the back of her mind. "Sorry, Kate. We've all had a long few days, as you can see." She gestured towards the front room. "Perhaps you'd better get going."

…

Once Kate had eventually left, Connie washed up with Grace, before insisting that Ava start getting ready to go to bed. She helped her change and brush her hair, before she wandered into the front room to say goodnight to Jacob.

"Ava sweetheart, come to mummy for a minute." Connie crouched down in the doorway, allowing Ava to run into her arms. "You wake up daddy and say goodnight, and then tell him that mummy would like to have a word with him in the kitchen once he's tucked you in." Ava nodded, going to the sofa to wake Jacob, and Connie left to find Grace, sitting in her chair, doing her homework.

She walked over to stand behind her, placing her arms around Grace's shoulders and resting her head on hers.

"I don't like her either, Gracie."

...

Grace went up to bed not long after, and although Connie knew she would be on her phone, tonight wasn't a night where she was willing to fight with her. She stood in the kitchen, leaning against the island, straightening when Jacob came through.

"Are you going to tell me what's up, Con?" He moved over to her, attempting to take hold of her elbows with his hands, which she pushed forcible away.

"I want to know what you were thinking when you agreed to let her in my house tonight." He chose to ignore her emphasis on 'my.'

"Con, she just wanted to catch up-"

"That's all you seemed to be doing on shift." She glared at him, and he sighed. "And, the fact that you didn't even tell me she was here! I mean, Charlie told me!"

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Sorry isn't good enough, Jacob! You let her come here, a complete stranger to our children, when Grace is quite evidently upset-"

"She was f-"

"No, Jacob. She isn't, but you know, if you'd have been bothered enough to talk to her instead of moseying around all evening with Kate, then maybe you would have realised that."

Jacob lowered her head, feeling himself start to get angry. "I didn't know she was coming, Connie, I didn't invite her, but I wasn't going to be rude and tell her to leave when she was trying to do something nice! I don't know what I have done to piss everyone off today, but-"

"oh, you don't know? you have no idea?" Connie questioned, arms folded.

"No, I don't! All I have been doing all day is trying to make sure everyone else is happy and okay, and I'll I've got for it is silence or anger, so you know what? I'm going to bed, and I'm going to forget today ever happened." Jacob turned away.

"I don't want her in my house again." Connie spoke in a low voice.

"Fine." Jacob replied sharply, walking from the room.

Connie paced the room for a while and then threw the remnants of Kate's offerings into the bin, along with the food she'd brought specifically for Jacob at the shop in the hope he'd turned Kate away. Switching off the light, she then stormed up the stairs and into the bathroom to try and relax herself with a warm bath.

When she came back into the room, she found him already there, sat up in bed. He gestured for her to come in with him, and she sighed before walking over and settling next to him. He put his arm around her and kissed her head gently, noticing how tense and quiet she was.

"I'm sorry Con, I am. I know I should have asked her to leave tonight, I just thought she was being nice."

"Mhm."

"And I'll speak to Grace tomorrow. She was a bit funny with me in the car earlier, with Ava." He turned to look at her, sighing as she made no move to look at him. "What else is it, Con? If you don't tell me, I can't fix it."

"Nothing. I'm just tired." She leant slightly into his side, and he stroke the top of her arm gently as he tried to think of what else he could possibly apologise for. Whenever she said 'nothing', there was always something, usually quite a big something too.

"Talk to me."

She turned her head to look at him then, before closing her eyes and turning away. She said nothing else, believing that all things considering, he should be able to work it out for himself.

"...Not exactly how I expected to spend our first official night in our own bed after getting married," Jacob finally offered, hoping for a smile, but all Connie did was offer a sigh as she moved away from him and rested her head on her pillow. Though she had her eyes closed, she knew Jacob watched her for a long time before he reached to turn the light off and settled down to sleep.