With a combination of her mother's beauty and kindness and her fathers quiet determination and charm, everyone agreed, even at the age of four, that Isabelle Eve North would go far. Isabelle was a sweet natured, pretty thing, with blond hair and large baby blue eyes.
Hers was a happy existence. On Mondays and Tuesdays she would stay with her grandparents, who had moved to London from Cumbria so that they could see her every week. On Wednesdays and Thursdays she would go to Ladybirds where she would play with the other children while her Mummy and Daddy were at work.
On Fridays she and Mummy would have their special days together. She looked forward to these days with her mother. Some times they would go to the zoo, other times to the park or the library or to visit her cousin Toby.
The part she liked the most was when at the end of the day Daddy would come home. He would sneak up behind Mummy and surprise her while she was making dinner or doing the washing, and put his arms around her and kiss her.
Isabelle would wait silently, hopping from one foot to the other, almost bursting with excitement, for the moment when her father would let go of her mother and turn his attention to her. Then he would pick her up and twirl her in the air until she became dizzy with the thrill of it all and Mummy would give Daddy a look and say she had to be put down.
Once her Daddy was home they would go and see Mr Snuffles, her rabbit who lived in a hutch in the garden. If she had been good that day Daddy would pick her up and sit her on his shoulders as they walked out. From there she had the best view in the world.
In the garden Mr Snuffles would look solemnly at her with his big grey eyes, telling her that he wanted to be fed. Daddy had showed her how to feed the rabbit through the cage by placing some pellets on her palm. Isabelle never failed to giggle at the feeling of him nibbling at her hand. After that he would be allowed out to play with her, but only for as long as he could without making trouble by getting into the garden.
At dinner Isabelle would sit with her Mummy and Daddy. Often they would talk about getting the new room ready for the baby. Daddy said it had to be blue for a boy, but Mummy said she preferred yellow.
Isabelle took the opportunity to ask again whether when the new baby came he would be able to ride Mr Snuffles. Despite being told "no" quite definitely by both her parents she was still firmly attached to the idea. Her repeated questions left her Daddy thinking that she would clearly need to be supervised while in the company of both the rabbit and the baby in case she decided to put this scheme into action.
Every night after Mummy had given her a bath and then sat with her for a little while watching the TV and stroking her hair how Isabelle liked her to, she would sit on her Daddy's knee and together they would read about Fantastic Mr Fox or the Hungry Caterpiller or Snow White.
Before he turned the page he would ask her what she could see and she would reach forward to point out the pictures and explain to him why it was that Fantastic Mr Fox was shown to be wearing a three piece suit when the foxes they saw at the park never did.
The explanations were always apparent. "Daddy, it's because he's not really a fox in that one. I think he is a person wearing a fox's clothes or maybe he is just very clever and is trying to pretend he is a person to play tricks on them."
After they had finished reading Daddy would ask her about her day and she would chatter happily until her eyes would start to droop and her stream of words would become slower and slower until eventually he could only make out only indistinct murmurings about Elly's party or how Mr Snuffles had looked when he wiggled his nose.
Then her blonde head would come to rest against his chest and after a little while he would gently pick her up in his arms and start to move towards the door, pausing to let her mother bend to kiss her goodnight on her forehead.
Isabelle didn't know it but every night her parents would visit her as she slept.
Lucas would smile at Jo as he watched his daughter sigh happily in her sleep and comment that she looked just like her when she was little, thinking of the picture her mother had showed her of his wife at five years old.
Then he would kiss her and tell her that he was in love with her, and she would laugh and say that with one child already and another on the way he had better be.
Sometimes Jo would pause to ask him a question that played on her mind occasionally.
"What do you think would have happened if you hadn't taken me home that night from the George?"
Regardless of how she asked the question, his reply would always be the same. "I would be a lonely man."
And she would kiss him and reply as she always did, "You always say that home isn't where you live but where people understand you. Lucas you're home now."
**
As you can see the votes came out in favour of a girl. In fact I didn't have any for a boy at all! Thanks for voting and also your comments on how you've enjoyed the story.
And I have decided contrary to what I said earlier that I will do a bit more on this story. However it won't be picking up the story from here onwards but rather a look at Lucas and Jo's relationship prior to the story starting.
I want to do their first meeting and also there are a couple of other scenes that would be rather interesting.
Like for example the scene in 7.5 where Jo drops the drinks.
This just ticks so many boxes for me (Lucas in that suit, being a bit harsh and angry and I have to agree with everyone who said Lucas angry is fantastic, ooh he is so dangerous, and sadly I would love to be dragged off to a corner by Lucas, sigh) it is way too tempting not to do something on what the heck they are thinking in that one, cos Jo kind of looks like she wants to die of embarrassment on top of Lucas being all hot (his specialty).
But anyway that would be a couple of days away at least. Must concentrate more on my day job and other things and less on writing fan fic in the meantime.