"Miss Pullman here to see my mum, Grace Pullman." Sandra told the receptionist at her mum's care home.
"Oh, I'm sorry did no one call you?" The receptionist asked sympathetically.

"Where's Granny, Mummy?" Olivia asked from her buggy.

"One minute baby." Sandra said to her daughter before turning back to the receptionist. "My phone died and I only just put it on charge before I left. Is everything okay?"

"I'm sorry, your mum's condition deteriorated overnight so she's been taken to the hospital."
"Oh God, thank you."

Hurriedly Sandra and Olivia returned to their hotel room, where Sandra grabbed her phone which had been charging while she was out. She scrolled through her contacts until she found the number she needed and dialled it.
"Sandra is everything okay?" Esther asked.

"Not really, mum's been moved to the hospital."

"Oh God, is she okay?"

"I don't know, is Brian in?"

"Yeah he's in the garden, do you need me to get rid of him for a bit?"

"No it's fine, is there any way you could take Olivia out for a few hours? I don't want to take her to the hospital, I'd give you money to take her out of course."

"Course I'll have her Sandra, anything I can do to help I will."

"Thanks."

"Olivia, you remember the lady who came last night?" Olivia nodded. "She's going to take you out today."

"But I want to see Granny!"

"You can't she's not very well, I'm sure Esther will take you to the park if you ask nicely."

There was a knock on the room door not five minutes later.

"Thank you so much for doing this Esther. Here's £20 to take her out and £10 for doing this for me. She has her teddy and won't go anywhere without it and here's her epi pen as she's allergic to nuts, but you probably won't need it. Any problems just call me." Sandra explained as she did Olivia's coat up and strapped her into the buggy.

"I'm not taking your money, I'll treat her. It's not everyday that there's a new child to spoil."

"Do you think you'll be okay then?" Sandra asked feeling guilty for leaving her daughter on their first full day in London and with someone Olivia barely knew. She also felt guilty for asking Esther for a favour after having not seen her in three and a half years, even if Esther insisted that it was fine.

"We'll be fine, now go and see your mum!" After having again said thank you and saying her goodbyes, Sandra left.

"Can we go to the park please?" Olivia asked politely.

"Of course we can Olivia."

Olivia was now running about playing while Esther sat watching her. Esther had missed doing things like this since Mark and her grandson had moved away.

"Esther?" A familiar voice called.

Next thing she knew Gerry, Steve and someone else who she recognised as the man who took over from Brian at UCOS, were beside her with Gerry Jr on the field behind them.

"What are you doing here?" Esther asked nervously as she glanced back to Olivia to check that she was still okay.

"We all got the day off as Sasha's on a course and Gerry Jr has a teacher training day so I thought I'd show these two how great my grandson is at football." Gerry replied proudly.

"Hey granddad are you coming?" Gerry Jr called.

"Yeah, one minute!" Gerry called back. "So why are you here?"

"Babysitting my friend's daughter, she had an emergency to tend to." The situation was going well up until Olivia began crying. Esther leaped up and picked the little girl, who had fallen over, up and now had two skinned knees.

"If you want I can take you back to my place to patch her up. It's just down the road and these two can cope without me for a bit." Steve offered. Esther wanted to turn him down for fear of what Sandra would say but Olivia kept crying and her knees needed cleaning and dressing so she had no option. She was just going to have to handle this carefully.

"Yeah, it it's not too much trouble."