Thank you readers and reviewers you have been awesome this week as always.

I'm sorry to announce yet another disruption to my regular posts. I'm being sent on a training course so I will be away from my laptop until Saturday. I hope you can bear the wait.

SPOILERS - this week - AJ meets JR's lawyer, and the Inquirer goes one step too far.

...

Marissa tucked the blankets under AJ's chin. Bianca had already been in to say goodnight and now AJ was settling into his pillow.

"Are you all ready for tomorrow?" Marissa asked, kissing his forehead as he snuggled under the covers.

AJ nodded sleepily.

"Uncle Jack talked about what they might ask me to say, and that I should just tell the truth…" AJ noticed his mom raise her eyebrow. "Is it alright to call him Uncle Jack; he said it was." He asked suddenly uncertain.

"I think it's wonderful that he told you it's okay." said Marisa happily.

AJ nodded.

"And he said afterwards we could go on his dingy again and sail round the harbour."

"Well that will be fun." said Marissa, "So you're not worried about tomorrow?"

"If I tell the truth then everything is going to be fine." said AJ with a little yawn. "Uncle Jack said so."

Marissa couldn't resist the urge to give her son one last kiss.

"If Uncle Jack said so, then I know everything is going to be okay." she whispered in his ear.

Sitting back she stroked her fingers through his scruffy mop of blonde hair.

"Goodnight AJ. I love you."

"I love you too, mom." AJ sleepily muttered into his pillow.

…

In the opposite wing of the house Bianca was settling Miranda in for the night. She had come in from saying goodnight to AJ to find her eldest child; sat up in bed; the bedside light on; busy sketching away in the journal Dr Stanhope had given her.

"What are you drawing?" Bianca asked, sitting beside her on the edge of the bed.

Miranda simply held up her picture. It was of a smiley face in a car with a pair of shorts hanging in the air above it.

"You saw flying shorts today?" Bianca asked in playful confusion, not really understanding Miranda's happy picture.

"No," explained Miranda. "When Reggie was driving us all home from school he asked me if I'd seen anything that made me smile today, but I couldn't think of anything. So Reggie said they should all try and think of something to make me smile. And then Gabby suddenly cried out 'Giant swimming trunks!" and looked at me all expectantly. It made us all laugh. We worked out she was trying to tell a joke but forgot the bit before that makes it funny. AJ thinks it was the 'What do get if you cross a whale with an elephant?' one.

"Giant swimming trunks." said Bianca with a nod.

Miranda nodded and started laughing again at the memory.

Bianca gave her daughter a kiss.

"Well I'm glad it was your baby sister that gave you something to smile at today." she said, "Are you ready for bed now."

A hint of apprehension appeared in Miranda's face. It was her first night back in her own bed.

"I'll leave the night-light on," reassured Bianca, stroking her daughter's brow as the child settled into her pillow. "And we are just a few doors away if you need us… okay."

Miranda nodded her head slowly before half-closing her eyes.

"Just think happy thoughts; think of bad jokes and your silly sister." added Bianca kissing Miranda's brow.

Miranda smiled at the words and the contact.

"Goodnight, angel. I love you."

"I love you too, mommy." Miranda sighed, curling onto her side and giving in to sleep.

…

Marissa and Bianca were sat up side by side in bed, both caught up in their worries.

"Do you think the kids will be alright?" Bianca asked.

"AJ is confident with his Uncle Jack's help he'll be fine. Although I'm not sure what seeing his dad again will do to him, if it gets that far."

Bianca reached across and squeezed her knee.

"AJ has been amazing through all this. I don't think that is going to stop if he's faced by his father. As long as he knows he has you and us behind him I think he can cope with anything, I really do, he's incredible!"

"And I suppose all that's left is to see if Miranda can sleep through the night."

"She went to bed thinking happy thoughts, I hope it helps. There is just so much uncertainty at the moment."

"Hey," said Marissa, taking the hand resting on her knee into her own. "With you as her example she'll be alright. You are so brave… she must have got a little of that from you. She's a Kane woman for goodness sake!"

"That can sometimes be a lot to live up to." said Bianca nervously. "I wasn't that much older than her when I stopped eating because I couldn't take the pressure. It felt like I had no control and the only thing I had any influence on was the food I put in my body. It almost killed me!"

"But you got through it. You have overcome so much! Miranda knows this and I know you inspire her."

"I just never thought that my daughter would need counselling."

Bianca caught Marissa watching her with patient sympathy.

"But if it helps her then I guess isn't a bad thing." she added with a small smile. "And Dr Stanhope is a miracle worker."

"Yes he is!" said Marissa with a cute wrinkle of her nose. "There are far fewer holes in my Swiss-cheese brain as evidence of that."

They held each other's gaze for a moment longer, but then Marissa bit her lip.

"Speaking of doctors." she said nervously. "You didn't finish telling me about how things went with David."

"No change." said Bianca. "I went through all those hoops to be told there is no change and to keep doing what we're doing. He said they were considering lowering my medication at some point, so I won't rattle after ever meal… but my muscle development will be slowed by the change of steriods so it won't happen for a while yet."

"That's understandable." said Marissa, but she sensed there was something that Bianca was holding back. "Did he say anything else?"

Bianca frowned and shifted self-consciously in the bed, looking down at her numb left leg.

"He made noises about trying again with the Orpheus treatment; finding me a full cure."

"He can do that?"

Bianca looked up at the excitement in Marissa's eyes.

"I'm not sure I want him to." Bianca admitted.

"Why?"

"I don't want to end up spending more months in hospital. I can't put the kids through that again, and I don't think I could bear it myself… summoning up more hope on such a slim chance. I know it's not perfect but I'm coping with my dumb leg and I will keep on coping. I just don't think I would cope in the disappointment if it didn't work." Bianca watched as the excitement faded from Marissa's eyes. "We can cope can't we?"

Marissa found Bianca a wide smile and kissed Bianca sweetly on the lips.

"As long as we have each other." She said reassuringly.

"So you're happy?" asked Bianca pulling away slightly to look into Marissa's eyes once more.

"I'm happy. Are you?"

"I am – I guess it's just with everything else that's happened…" Bianca sighed "… So you really think you could love a girl with a gammy leg?"

"Only if she could love a girl with a Swiss-cheese brain?!" Marissa replied with a playful grin.

"Very easily!" said Bianca, nuzzling her nose against Marissa's, "I love you, and I love our kids and I love our house and I love that we are a family. I never want that to change."

"Then we won't let it."

Marissa smiled.

"I love you too, Bianca." she sighed, closing the distance between them for another gentle kiss.

…