Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback, it's been great to get your love for this story!

Please note the canon may tweak a little as new episodes air, hence Matthew is also a resident of the house now in the downstairs bedroom (wherever that may be). Let's pretend it's always been that way.

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Alice looked, quite frankly, alarmed.

"Lucien", she started, looking at the knitted quilt on the floor, littered with blocks, a rattle, and a well-loved copy of Blinky Bill. "There's a baby in your living room"

He poked his head out of the kitchen, looking at Alice standing awkwardly in front of the couch she was about to take a seat on. She was motionless, almost oblivious to the baby gurgling happily on the floor except for the fearful gaze she was giving it from the corner of her eye.

"Yes" he drawled. "She hasn't crawled away has she? She's been getting very confident in herself the past couple of days"

Alice looked at him, then back to the baby, then back to him. "No, she's not crawling away"

She looked back at the baby now like it had two heads, the thought of it being mobile even worse. "But… why is it here?"

He tried not to let his amusement show as he walked back into the living room, a warmed bottle of formula milk in hand. Amelia was starting to eat soft solids – bites of pureed apple or a chunk of soggy Weetbix when the rest of them had their meals – but her mainstay was still a warm bottle every few hours. Lucien had been woefully out of practice with the whole process, but Jean had set him right quickly, and he was very hands-on when possible. Given said woman was down at the store this afternoon, he was tasked with solo babysitting duties for a couple of hours, requesting Alice meet him at home to discuss their latest case.

He sat on the couch and gestured Alice to do the same next to him. She did, watching warily as he reached forward and picked up Amelia, setting her on his lap, facing her.

"This is Amelia" he said, holding the baby's hand, making it gently wave in her direction. "Jean's granddaughter. Amelia, this is Aunty Alice"

Alice's eyes – if it was possible – went even wider at the introduction, but Lucien was ignoring her, getting the baby settled in his arms with the bottle. They settled into a stance that left him with one free hand, and Alice was transfixed. She knew Lucien was a complex man, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine they would sit in his living room discussing blood test results over the head of a feeding infant. It was all too surreal.

"I don't understand" she said, shaking her head a little, finally giving up on figuring this out.

"Jean's son and daughter-in-law are in Melbourne, attending some appointments" he said, looking at Alice as she studied the baby. "Jean and I offered to take care of Millie in the meantime"

Alice was very still, and then she faintly smiled, the small expression barely visible and obviously unconscious. "Millie" she mimicked, meeting his eye with mirth. "That's sweet"

Amelia's leg kicked out in the space between them and Alice reached out a single finger and tapped her foot, scratching her nail very lightly over her bare toes. Amelia's leg kicked again twice, ticklish and pleased all at once. Alice didn't make any particular expression, though Lucien got the impression she was waiting for something terrible to happen, or for Amelia to start squalling, or for strange smells to start emanating. He watched with patient curiosity, wondering for the first time if Alice had ever held a baby, and entertained himself at the thought of her potential reaction if he offered her a hold of Amelia.

"I've never taken to babies" she said, still staring.

"Oh?"

"There are… bodily fluids everywhere"

He swallowed a laugh, not wanted to offend her with how much she was amusing him. It was difficult, but he managed it, and could only silently nod at her as she met his eye. She still had the look of a deer caught in headlights, which he found quite endearing, and a laugh still threatened to break free which he fought with all his might.

"They're actually wonderful, once you get used to them" he said, giving Amelia a quick look full of love and wonder. Alice didn't know his whole story, but she knew enough – knew he'd lost the chance to be a father to his child a long time ago. She was glad for him, to get to play Grandpa now. He was clearly besotted, and in her inexpert opinion he was rather good at it.

She hummed at him, an uncommitted sound, like she wasn't quite convinced but willing to let him try.

"You never wanted your own?" he asked. He kept his tone light, knowing such questions could be minefields, but he trusted that he and Alice were good enough friends that he could ask her. A shadow came over her face – just a little bit, just enough for him to register there was a wound there – but it passed before he could work it out.

It occurred to him that he didn't know very much about his friend beyond the surface. Something told him she liked it that way; that she played her cards close to the chest very deliberately, and only let people see what she wanted. The horrible business of Munro airing her dirty laundry and the contemporaneous murder investigation had given him more information than he – or she – was comfortable knowing, but Alice rarely volunteered it herself. Had she wanted to marry and have a family he was sure she could have, but he'd never got the inkling she was that way inclined. Lucien honestly couldn't say which answer he was expecting from her, only that every possible answer would have surprised him to some degree; Alice was always full of surprises.

"No, never actually" she replied. She straightened her spine in a confident way. Of all paths, motherhood was one she had honestly never aspired to; marriage had seemed a daunting enough prospect to grapple, without a family to follow. And she hadn't experienced a very good model in her own childhood, so the whole idea seemed rather foreign. She'd always been solely focussed on her career, and prided herself on being good at it, so children had never felt like something she missed out on.

Alice broke her introspective trance quickly, shaking herself back to reality, and picked up the file left abandoned on her lap.

"So", she started. "Blood results"

"Yes" said Lucien, trying to hide his amusement as they got back to business. He quickly checked the level in the baby's bottle – that she wasn't sucking on bubbles – before giving Alice his full attention. She still looked wary, which he supposed was an improvement on outright ignoring Amelia.

It didn't take long to go through the results, and the potential hypotheses for their case, and Alice studiously avoided the baby for the rest of the afternoon. When Jean arrived back they had a pot of tea, and by the time they had got talking it was close to dinner and Alice was invited to stay for that too. She even helped Jean with the chopping, quoting her excellent knife skills, even if everything else was lacking.

What had started as a quick stop in for work turned into half a day at the Blake household, and honestly Alice rather liked their exuberant company. She always had. By the time Charlie and Matthew came home from work, dinner was nearly served, and she ended up seated next to Matthew on one side of the table, with Lucien at the head, and Charlie and Jean on the other side. It was positively domestic; a far cry from the family scenes she remembered from her childhood, which suited her just fine.

Amelia was placed on Jean's lap, for want of a proper highchair, and Jean and Lucien took turns trying her on all manner of soft foods – a bit of mash with gravy, a soft pea, even a well-boiled piece of carrot – while the adults talked through hypotheticals of the case, all pretence of secrecy or decorum long out the window. Half of the food ended up down Amelia's front, but Jean paid her no mind, content to eat one-handed like a practiced pro while she juggled a squirming baby with the other and kept up with the conversation.

Yet still, Alice felt no twinge of jealousy or longing. She admired Jean's capacity, and thought it charming that the baby had been accepted into the fold so easily. But watching her chubby face experimentally roll food around her mouth, and seeing half of it spit out, the thought of childrearing seemed rather too much like hard work. She would look on fondly from afar, she would enjoy watching her dear friends interact with one another with such ease and love, and she would count herself grateful that she had been accepted as one of their own without a second thought. That was more than enough for her.

At one point she caught Matthew's eye, the two of them sharing amusement at something Charlie said, and Alice felt a deep kinship over being able to do such a thing; to share a smile with someone she cared about over a warm dinner table. It left her feeling… safe. Warmth settled over her, and she privately noted it down in her mind, treasuring this moment for later.