"Daaad will you stop checking on us? We're fine okay!"

"But Ma-"

"Father. Can you leave? We were in the middle of a conversation."

"Oh...okay, I'm sorry."

After seeing the stern look in his daughter's eyes as she made the request, Gill couldn't do anything but abide to the child's wishes. Turning on his heel he quietly closed the door behind him, giving his daughter and her best friend, Angie, some space to finish whatever 8 year old girls talk about nowadays.

Letting out a sigh as he walked down the small hallway leading to the rest of the house, he couldn't help but feel a sense of un want- he knew he was just being a over protective father, but it was hard for him to listen to his 'baby girl' tell him that she didn't need him around anymore.

She was finally growing up – soon she wouldn't want to be spending time with her old man and granddad, sitting in Flute Fields having a picnic, or going out to play with the animals after her Mother had finished looking after them for the day. Soon, Gill figured, she would start to get into boys and looking nice and being popular, only seeking advice from her Mother, she couldn't have 'girly' talks with a man, after all.

Soon, she wouldn't need him anymore.

"Hey...you don't need to look so sad. It's normal for a girl to act like that, you know?"

Jerking his head up as the familiar soft voice broke him out of his thoughts, Gill looked up to see his wife stopped in front of him, a pile of clean washing resting in her arms.

"I know..." he muttered, embarrassed, " But, it makes me think if I really am a good father to her...I know I've never been , but I thought that at least my own daughter would like me."

"Oh you're so silly!" Nudging her husband with her elbow slightly, Angela giggled as she saw what had become a signature frown appear on his face, but quickly drop again as his face crumpled. "Come on..." she said, more lightly this time, her face forming into a comforting smile, "let me put this away and we can have a talk."

Nodding his head slightly, Gill turned away from his wife to wait for her in the living room. Maybe she was right, and maybe he was just being silly? It there was one thing which had learnt from years of living together with Angela, it was that she always had a reasonable explanation for everything, and always found a way to make him smile again, which was one of the prominent reasons why he decided to marry her.

Already smiling, he took a seat by the small coffee table which held two printed photographs in neat little silver frames; one being of him and Angela on their wedding day, the other when Maria had just been born, and they were still in the clinic whilst Angela rested after giving birth.

"So..." appeared Angela's voice as she walked through the door, "I think that you need a lesson on how to father a young daughter without getting too upset."

Rolling his eyes, Gill moved over on the sofa to make room for his wife, pretending to sink back down into it as she took her place, earning him a half hearted bat of a hand at his head.

"Make the most of me not being heavy..." she muttered before crossing her legs neatly in front of her.

"Huh?" Now confused on top of being saddened by his daughter's earlier remark, Gill turned his head to stare at the woman intently, cocking his head to the side like a small child, the action causing her to giggle like a school girl herself.

"What is it?"

"We're going to have another baby."

Freezing almost comically, Gill opened his mouth and then closed it again, the abrupt news taking the man by shock.

"W-what...but h-how? I mean...what?"

It become Angela's turn to frown as she tried to believe that her husband, her super intelligent and always composed (He told her that almost passing out whilst she was giving birth didn't count) husband, could ask a stupid as question as that one.

"Do you need a lesson on sex education as well?"

"N-no! You know I didn't mean to ask that..." folding his arms across his chest, Gill turned to face away from Angela, his face growing redder and redder by the second.

"You really can be so silly..."

"Yeah..."

"You really don't need to worry about Maria." Moving closer to him, Angela swiftly put her arms around a still in-shock Gill, hoping to calm him down slightly after the news which she just gave him. "She's going to be like that. Did you ever stop to think that she may have just meant it when she said they were in the middle of a conversation? I remember when I was little, I got really angry when one of my parents tried to intrude one of my talks with my girl friends..."

"I...I never thought of it like that..."

"Exactly, see. It doesn't mean that she doesn't need you...because she sure as hell does. You mean so much to her, she's just not going to admit it to you directly at her age."

"You're right." Smiling as he lifted his head up, Gill proceeded to put his own arms around Angela, stealing a quick kiss from her in the process. "And besides...I'll be needed by this new little one, won't I?" placing a hand lovingly over her still reasonably flat stomach, Gill's smiled widened as he thought of what they could do as a family again once their newest member arrived.

Maybe all wasn't lost, after all.

Sorry for not updating in so long, I've been doing things for summer, and been distracted by playing Pokemon white...(I already played black, and I wanted to play again so brought white. ; )

Actually, it was the scene where Bianca's dad comes and has that talk with her in the game which inspired me to write this...I even listened to the music which played in the background as I did so ha! I hope that didn't give any spoilers...I tried not to. .-.