And a quick update to get everyone in the swing of the story.

~0~

Christopher was knocked for six when he got out of the car. His mother stood on the threshold of the front door, under the veranda, and just behind her in the doorway was her fiancé Lucien Blake, hands in his pockets. Christopher couldn't tell whose smile was wider. It was… not the scene he expected from two people who would soon take on the rather imposing responsibility of a baby.

"I'm so glad to see you" said Jean, pulling Christopher into an embrace when he walked towards her, a small overnight suitcase in hand. He returned her hug, not nearly as uncomfortable as he'd been the last time he was in Ballarat. Ruby stepped in behind him and did the same, as Christopher turned to Lucien and took the man's hand.

"Christopher" he said, a wide and warm smile on his face.

"Lucien" he replied. "I can't thank you enough-"

"Nonsense, think nothing of it"

Christopher nodded, and was once again taken aback by the effervescent and genuinely happy demeanour of the man. He seemed so enthusiastic to be caring for an infant so last minute; certainly a different creature to Christopher's father. He'd been a good man, but quiet and serious, the kind of man who at Lucien's age would have been content to read his paper and smoke a pipe and sit in relative silence. Christopher vividly remembered being told to go outside as a child every time there was the hint of ruckus. Christopher Senior would not have been so glad to have a baby dumped on his doorstep. Christopher stepped inside after Lucien's outstretched hand, and watched from just inside the door at the rest of the greetings.

"Ruby" said Lucien, greeting the young woman as she moved forward in the welcoming procession. "How are you, my dear?"

"Hello Doctor" she said, quite proper. They had met, of course, in Adelaide, but they weren't yet family and still held an air of polite formality. She couldn't let her manners slip for even a moment. She also didn't answer the question, perhaps afraid to be making such a fuss in front of Jean, though she looked frighteningly pale and drawn. Lucien let it be, not wanting to push when she would soon be in the care of specialists.

"And Miss Amelia Jean" added Lucien, bowing his head a little to smile at the baby in Ruby's arms. She had chubby cheeks and vivid blue eyes – the kind that cherubs were modelled after, he thought. There was a slight tint of red in her cheeks, and Lucien thought she might be starting to teethe, but didn't enquire. He flicked his finger gently over one cheek, and the baby immediately mimicked his cheesy grin, slapping herself on the leg with one hand. "Please, come in"

They all proceeded inside behind Christopher. He remembered the way well enough, leaving his bag by the staircase for the one night they would spend. He tried not to think too hard on the domesticity of the scene as they all made themselves comfortable in the living room before dinner was started.

Lucien prepared drinks for them all, and there was already a slow record playing softly from the player in the corner, and it was all so positively cosy that Christopher relaxed for the first time in hours. Jean took Amelia so Ruby could rest, and they all settled around the couches, comfortably exchanging surface pleasantries and having a drink together, catching up since the last time they'd seen each other in Adelaide.

From his place in one of the armchairs, Lucien produced a tweed country flat cap from behind his back, and placed it on the baby's head where she sat in Jean's lap – an ugly old thing he picked up and sent back to his father in his early days in Edinburgh. He'd found it gathering dust in an old box and kept it for reasons he couldn't describe. Probably he was just glad his father had kept it so long in the first place. Now it just looked comical, far too big on Amelia's head as she moved to look at it and caused it to fall over her eyes. They all laughed at her, and Lucien adjusted it back on top of her head as Jean held her steady on her lap.

"Fetching" he said, tongue firmly in cheek.

Christopher watched the moment with curiosity – Lucien interacting with Amelia and his mother watching Lucien with a gentle expression – and he felt rather pleased that he could call these people family. It had been a long time since Ballarat felt like home, but sitting in the living room with everybody made it possible to feel affection for the place. He'd noticed, on first meeting the man, that Lucien was fond of his mother; it had been confirmed when he'd shown up in Adelaide seemingly without explanation. Now that they were engaged he was pleased – for his mother's happiness and for the fact that they were making it official.

Christopher tried not to stack him up against his own father. The memories were faded, but the impression of the man remained, and he jutted up against Christopher's recollections every time he looked at Blake. There were points of similarities, certainly, but their differences were far more pronounced. Christopher Senior had been towering and almost lanky, all lean muscles and pointed features. He'd been quiet and brooding; a simple man living a simple life and happy to do so. There wasn't a lot of mystery about him, and prior to going off and dying in war, he'd been the kind of man to never need a passport, or even want to travel on an aeroplane at all.

Lucien Blake was… not that. He and Blake shared an understanding of one another because of their military backgrounds, but Christopher knew than no matter how clever he thought himself, Blake could run circles around him. There was more there – depth, perhaps even darkness – than was readily apparent in his easy smile towards Amelia. He had left Ballarat as a child and seen the world. His settling back in town now wasn't because he was born to the quiet life, but because he longed for it after so long away and adrift. Not knowing much about the man, Christopher knew at least that much.

In some ways, it made it easier to accept Blake's future role in their lives; he was here because he firmly wanted to be, not because he had to be, and that somehow made a difference. Still, Christopher found himself intrigued by his mother's love for him. She'd been a country woman her whole life, making do as well as she could for a woman who had married as a teen and been widowed young. She hadn't stepped too far out of the confines this life dealt to her, but Christopher always got the impression she would have gladly seen more of the world if the opportunity presented. Perhaps, he reasoned, through Lucien Blake, she was. He smiled a little at the thought.

Amelia giggled again when Lucien played a quick peek-a-boo with her and the cap, and they all laughed at his antics. Christopher wondered, then, if this knack with her came from a physician's usual bedside manner, or if he was just a natural with babies. But he didn't know the man well enough to ask. Soon the usual chatter continued, and they all dutifully avoided the topic of Ruby's treatment and how she'd been. Hopefully she would soon be well, and in the meantime Amelia was in the safest hands. And judging by the way the doctor kept ignoring their conversation to engage with the baby, Christopher thought perhaps his mother wouldn't be too heavily burdened after all.