Looking back on it later I realized how odd it was that after living in the same city as Colin for three years, the first time I ran into him since he left me was back in the town we'd both grew up in.

Two years after getting married, Teddy and I moved out of his flat in London and into a small house five minutes away from Shell Cottage. We decided a house near the beach would be a much better place to raise Jackie and any other children that could potentially come along than a flat in London.

And so, in the very store I'd first met him in eight years before, Colin entered my life once more, four years after I thought he'd left it for good.

I was buying a few items I needed for supper that night, when my hand collided with someone else's while reaching for a box of instant rice.

"Oops, sorry," I said, hastily withdrawing my hand.

"Vic?" I heard a voice exclaim. A very familiar voice.

For a minute the entire world seemed to stop, as I lifted my head and gazed into the eyes of Colin O'Brien for the first time in four years.

"Colin, what… what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Visiting my mum," he replied. "What are you doing here? I heard you moved to London."

He'd heard things about me? How had he heard things about me? I hadn't heard anything about him. He could have been dead for all I'd known.

"I… er… moved back," I stuttered. Talking to him was so difficult. It was like he was a stranger. Four years. I hadn't seen him in four years. He was a stranger. "Teddy and I…we, erm… we bought a house."

I watched his face carefully to see if he looked surprised about the fact that Teddy and I had bought a house together. He didn't. Perhaps he had also heard that we had gotten married.

For some reason, I wasn't as angry as I expected myself to be if or when I ever saw Colin again. I had expected that I would yell at him. Maybe slap him. Or hex him. But, I guess four years had caused my anger towards to him to dissipate. Because now, looking at him, I didn't really feel much of anything. I didn't feel mad. And I certainly didn't feel anything that closely resembled love. I guess, without realizing it, I'd gotten over him. Utterly and completely.

The only thing that I felt was a slight twinge of sadness. Sadness that a boy who had once meant so much to me, now meant so little.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Vic, I need to talk to you."

"Alright," I said. "Go ahead."

He looked around. "Here?"

I nodded.

"Okay," he began. "I… I need… Erm, first off, I just want to say how sorry I am. I never should have left you. And I especially never should have left Jackie. I thought that by leaving her I would be doing her a favor, but I was wrong."

"Is that all?" I asked coolly.

"No," he replied. "Not even close. I… I really need you to understand that I regretted leaving her almost immediately after I did. Within two weeks of moving to London, I was convinced that I'd made the biggest mistake of my life. I thought leaving Jackie would be easier. But it wasn't. It was the most horrible thing I'd ever experienced. You can't imagine how many times I thought about coming back. But I didn't think there was any way you'd let me back into her life. I'd walked out on her. Why would you? And I heard from my mum that you and Teddy were together and happy and I didn't want to mess things up between you."

His mum. That's how he knew these things about me. For a second I felt a twinge of regret. When Colin had left, I'd pretty much wanted to rid my life of everything that reminded me of him. And so I had cut his mum out of my life. I had ducked out of the way when I had seen her in town. I had pretended I wasn't home when she knocked on my door. I hadn't answered any of her letters. And so, by the time a year had passed since Colin left and I had moved to into Teddy's flat in London, she had given up trying to contact me.

Which now struck me as unbelievably selfish. She was Jackie's grandmother. Her namesake. It wasn't her fault her son had walked out on me. She hadn't.

Colin waved his hand in front of my face. "Vic," he said. "What are you staring at?"

I had been lost in thought. I quickly snapped back to attention. "Nothing," I told him. "Go on with what you were saying."

"Er, well, I completely understand that you probably hate me and never want me to go near Jackie again. But I want you to know that I really have turned my life around. I met a girl. She's absolutely amazing .And I asked her to marry me and she said yes. I'm not in the band anymore. You were right; we were never going to get anywhere. I realized, with Ashley's help, that I needed to grow up and move on from that dream."

"She's seems like a smart girl," I said.

"She is," he replied. "She… she saved my life. I don't know what I'd do without her."

"That's wonderful, Colin. Really."

"She convinced me to quit smoking," he added with a grin.

I smiled. "Well, now I know she must be your soul mate. You never would have done that for me."

He took a deep breath. "But the point I'm trying to make it, my life is really great right now. But it's not perfect. Because there's one thing that's missing. My daughter. And I understand if you don't want me to see her. But, if I could, I'd be forever grateful. Because I never stopped regretting the fact that I left her. And now that I've turned my life around, she's the only thing missing."

"You know," I said, "I think somewhere in the back of my mind I kind of always thought that you might come back. For some reason, I could never bring myself to change Jackie's surname. It's still O'Brien. Everyone kept telling me to change it to Weasley, but I never seemed to get around to it. It's like I thought that once I changed it, then you would really be gone forever. But by keeping her name the same as yours, there was a possibility that you'd come back. Which sounds completely ridiculous, I know."

"I really want to be a part of her life again, Vic," he said. "I swear, you can trust me this time. I'm a different person. I'd never leave her again. Not ever."

"I guess I can't really say no," I said. "It doesn't seem fair to deny a girl her dad. If she wants you in her life, then I guess that's her decision. Not mine."

"Really?" he asked.

I nodded. "Really." I headed toward the counter. "Do you have everything you need?" I called over my shoulder.

He nodded.

"Then come pay," I said. "Then you can come back to my house with me."

"I get to see her now?" he asked, following me up to the counter.

"Is that a problem?" I asked.

"Nope," he replied. "Definitely not a problem."

When we arrived back at the house, I walked into the living room first. Teddy was sitting on the couch, reading his paper. Jackie was sitting on the floor, playing with her dolls.

I walked over to Teddy. "Hey, honey," I said, leaning down to kiss him. "Guess who I ran into at the store?"

"Who?" he asked, not looking up from his paper.

"Colin."

This time he looked up. "What?"

"Yeah and he's right outside the room right now. He says that he wants to be a part of Jackie's life again," I whispered.

Teddy's eyes widened. "You're just going to let him back into her life like that?" he hissed.

"I talked to him. He's really a changed person. I really do trust him this time."

Teddy stared at me for a moment. "Fine," he said. "If you trust him, then I trust him."

I smiled, kissing him again. "Hey, Colin," I called. "Come here."

He walked in the room, looking extremely nervous.

Jackie looked up. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Jackie, sweetie, this is your… your daddy," I said.

This fact didn't seem to faze her as much as I thought it would. Instead, she stood up and walked over to him. She stood in front of him, hands on her hips, and looked him up and down.

Finally she spoke. "Where have you been?" she demanded.

His eyes widened. He looked slightly scared. "Er, I… well…"

"Never mind," she said. "It doesn't matter."

He looked relieved.

"My mum says that when you meet someone new, you're supposed to introduce yourself," she told him. "So I'll introduce myself."

"Alright."

She cleared her throat. "My name is Jacqueline Fleur O'Brien," she began. "I'm five years old. I can read. I have a loose tooth. My favorite color is pink. And I love Quidditch and unicorns and playing on the beach." She looked at him expectedly. "Your turn."

"Er, alright. I'm Colin O'Brien and…"

"Middle name!" she snapped. "What's your middle name?"

"William," he said. "I'm Colin William O'Brien. I just turned twenty-four. And, erm…"

"Favorite color," she prompted.

"Green. My favorite color's green."

"That's Slytherin's color," she informed him. "Teddy says that I'm not allowed to be in Slytherin."

"Jackie, don't interrupt," I scolded.

"Sorry," she said. "Go on."

"Well that's about it, really," he said.

She looked at him like he was the stupidest person she'd ever seen. "No, it is not. You haven't told me what you love. I said that I love Quidditch, unicorns, and the beach. So what do you love?"

He considered this for a moment. "Well, I guess I love music, and I love my fiancée, and…"

"What's that?"

"A fiancée? That's what you call the person you're going to marry."

"You're getting married?"

He nodded.

"Can I come to the wedding?" she asked.

"Jackie!" I hissed.

"Yeah, of course," he replied.

"And can Mummy and Teddy come too?"

"I don't see why not," he responded.

She smiled. "Good. Now you just need to say one more thing you love. Because I said three and you've only said two."

"Oh, well, I suppose I love you."

She considered this statement for a moment. "But you don't know me," she finally said.

"I used to know you, when you were a baby. And I loved you then. And I never stopped. Even though I never saw you and I still thought about you every day."

"Oh," she said. "Can I read to you? Teddy's been teaching me. He says I'm quite good."

"Sure," he replied. "If you want to."

She took his hand and led him over to a chair. He sat down and she plopped down in his lap. She reached over to the table beside the chair and grabbed three books.

"Would you like to hear The Little Broomstick That Could, Where the Hippogriffs Are, or Harold and the Purple Quill?

"Any of them are fine with me," he replied.

"Okay, then I pick Where the Hippogriffs Are."

"Sounds good."

A few hours later, I walked back into the living room from the kitchen, where I had been making dinner. Colin and Jackie were both asleep in the chair, probably exhausted from her reading him seven books in a row. She was curled up in his lap. His hand was resting on her back. They looked so comfortable together. A father and his daughter. Reunited at last.

I went and sat down next to Teddy, curling up against him and resting my head against his shoulder.

I glanced up at him. "So what do you think?"

He looked over at them. "They kind of look perfect together. She's so comfortable around him, it's crazy. It's like he never left."

"That's what I was thinking," I said, closing my eyes and yawning.

"It's been an interesting day," said Teddy.

"It's been an interesting six years," I replied.

"Very true," he replied. "But a good six years."

"Yes, a very good six years," I said, yawning again. "Wake me up when the timer on the oven goes off."

"Will do," he replied.

I felt myself drifting off. Teddy wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer.

"I love you ,Teddy," I whispered.

"Love you too," he murmured.

Next is the epilogue. I've put a picture of teenage Jackie on my profile, so that should give you an idea of when it will be taking place.

I've decided to write a sequel. It's going to be about Dominique. So hopefully you guys will enjoy that.

Thanks for reading! Please review!

Oh and I know some of you aren't big fans of Colin, but he was always going to come back. Hopefully you don't mind him as much when he's not Vic's love interest.