Dawn

"You will tell Watson and Elizabeth how sorry we are not to be there, won't you?" Richard said to me as I passed him a drink of water. He took two tablets and swallowed them down. "It would have been so nice to see them again, and all you young ones back together again."

"Young? Richard, you know we are all in our thirties now? Hardly young! But yes, I will of course pass on your apologies." I knew it wasn't just missing the party that bothered my stepdad. He hated that his health was holding him back from doing the things he wanted to do.

"Well you know you and Mary Anne will always be my little girls! No matter how old you get. Or at least until one of your gives me a granddaughter. Or a grandson for that matter…"

I gave a theatrical groan. It was an established routine for Richard and my mom to tease Mary Anne and me about giving them grandchildren. We had both been married for a few years now, and Richard and Mom were old fashioned enough to epect children to follow marriage after a suitable interval.

But Mary Anne had had her cancer to deal with, and while I had no doubt that one day she would become a mom (and a great one at that), it hadn't been at the top of her list of priorities recently.

As for me, well funnily enough I was pregnant! My husband Jethro and I had decided a couple of months ago to start trying for a baby, and it had happened far quicker than either of us had expected. Today was the day that we had decided to tell Mom and Richard, and then we were heading over to my dad's to share the happy news with him and Carol.

I would tell Mary Anne that she was going to be an aunt when we caught up with her and Taye in Connecticut, and of course then I could share the news with all of my old friends too. It was going to feel so odd going back. I had never fallen out with Kristy and the others in the same way that Mary Anne had, I had just lost contact with them as you tend to do when you move across the country. Anytime that I had thought about getting back in contact with them, I thought about Mary Anne, and felt somehow disloyal towards her. Besides, I had plenty of friends here in California who filled the gap that was left by my BSC friends. Jethro had been one of those friends. We had met in high school and become close friends straight away, and then we had fallen in love. We had been together ever since, and had got married when I was 25. I never thought that I would marry so young, but Jethro was my soul mate, and when he proposed, I knew that there was nothing that would make me happier than to be his wife. I usually left all the sentimental, lovey dovey stuff to Mary Anne, but I loved Jethro as much now as I did the day I married him, perhaps even more. And now we were having a baby.

Jethro and my mom had gone to buy food for dinner, leaving me with Richard. Whilst Mom didn't want Richard to feel like she was babying him, she didn't like to leave him on his own unless strictly necessary. Mary Anne and I took it in turns to stay with him whenever Mom needed to be gone for long periods of time, and Jeff helped out whenever he was in town. He was working in Los Angeles now, as a set designer on a television series, and so he was busy most of the time but got home with his partner, Thom, as often as his job would allow.

"We're back! I hope you've set the table!" Mom's voice came through the front door and I jumped to attention. I had spent the whole time that they'd been gone daydreaming about just how fabulous my life as that I had completely forgotten to set the table.

"Uh, yeah, sure!" I shouted back, and heard Jethro laugh. We sat down to a lovely dinner that Mom had got from the local health food shop that had just opened a deli. Luckily, as a fellow native Californian, Jethro enjoyed healthy food as much as I did.

As we finished eating, Jethro caught my eye and smiled. I took this as my cue to break the happy news.

"Mom, Richard, Jed and I have something to tell you." As soon as I said those words, I saw two sets of eyes light up. I knew that they had guessed, but I also knew that they wouldn't ruin this moment by pre-empting me. "I'm pregnant. We're going to have a baby!" Mom screamed a little while Richard just beamed. It felt good to make the two of them so happy. Jethro took my hand as Mom left her seat and enveloped us both in a huge hug.

"Oh Dawn!" As she pulled away I could see tears in her eyes. "I'm so happy for you both."

"As am I. Congratulations Dawn, and you too Jethro. You're going to make fantastic parents." Hugs and kisses dispensed with, Mom disappeared to the kitchen to find something to toast our news with.

"Here's to Dawn and Jethro!"