The rest of Monday had passed without incident and on Tuesday things were so busy that she barely had time to stop and breathe let alone have time think about Hunter.

When they arrived home in the early hours of Wednesday morning Stephanie was exhausted but as she lay down to get some sleep her mind started racing with thoughts of Hunter and it took her forever to get to sleep.

Unfortunately with a young child in the house she didn't have the ability to sleep in as late as she wanted to and a few short hours later she found herself being woken up as Mikey entered her bedroom and had Bubbles and Monkey playing wrestlers on her back as she lay on her stomach. Reluctantly she rolled over and opened her eyes to see Mikey sat cross legged next to her on the bed, "Mommy I hungwy."

Raking her fingers through her hair as she sat up in bed she rubbed her eyes reluctantly throwing the covers off and getting out of bed. Just as she was about to grab her robe her attention was drawn to her phone as the screen lit up when she received a text. Grabbing her phone she quickly read the text from her Mom asking where she wanted to meet for lunch later before she replied to her:

My place if you can swing by or I'll join you somewhere where we can talk in private. xxx

As soon as she had sent the text Stephanie placed her phone back on the top before she grabbed her robe and headed for the door quickly followed by Mikey.

Wanting to text Stephanie whilst she remembered and whilst she had time Linda sent the text soon before she left the house. Not expecting an answer quickly as she assumed Mikey and Stephanie would be asleep for a while yet as it was still really early and they had travelled late into the night she was surprised when her phone beeped almost immediately. Looking at the screen she frowned when she saw the text was from Stephanie but her interest was piqued when she saw that Stephanie wanted to talk to her in private. Quickly sending a reply before she left the house Linda then scribbled a note for Vince to let him know what was going on as he was still asleep:

I'm meeting Stephanie at hers about 1 as she wants to talk somewhere private. I will fill you in on all of the details when I get in tonight so don't worry about anything.

Linda xx

P.s. I made you a sandwich and put it in the fridge.

Once she had placed the note on the kitchen table Linda made her way out of the front door making sure to shut it quietly as she left so as not to wake him.

She finished feeding herself and Mikey and getting them both ready for the day knowing she should get on with some work once she had done it all. As she sat down on the couch to begin her work she found herself completely unmotivated as she was exhausted, nervous about lunch with her Mom and her thoughts were completely preoccupied by Hunter.

Slamming the lid of her laptop shut again she put it back on the coffee table before she lay down on the couch to relax as Mikey played on the floor.

Seeing that his Mom was relaxing and not working Mikey got up from the floor and walked over to her, "can we cuddle?"

Lifting her head a little to see Mikey stood in front of her she smiled softly, "sure. How about I put a movie on and then we just cuddle on the couch this morning?"

Nodding his head he clapped his hands excitedly as Stephanie got up from the couch and went to put a movie in before she resumed her previous position. As soon as she was settled she helped Mikey onto the couch beside her smiled softly as he lay down next to her cuddling close to her.

Relaxing completely she drifted off to sleep as Mikey's attention was fully on the movie on the TV and she only woke up when the movie ended and he elbowed her in the stomach, "Mommy."

Groaning when she felt an elbow in her stomach she slowly opened her eyes to see her son staring at her expectantly and the credits of the movie on the TV, "oh dear, I think I fell asleep."

Mikey giggled and sat up on the couch, "silly Mommy. What we do now?"

Looking at her watch and seeing that it was only just eleven o'clock she shrugged her shoulders as best she could in the position she was in, "I don't know. What would you like to do?"

Carefully climbing off the couch he looked around him, "cans we play outside peas?"

Sitting up on the couch she looked out of the window to see the sun shining, "we sure can. Why don't you go and get your shoes whilst Mommy turns the TV off?"

Mikey happily ran to get his shoes whilst Stephanie got up and turned the TV off finishing just as he returned and sat on the floor to put them on his feet.

After an hour of playing in the garden Stephanie brought Mikey back inside so she could give him his lunch before her Mom arrived so they could talk in relative peace because she didn't want him knowing anything about what she needed to talk to her Mom about.

With Mikey sat happily at the table eating his sandwich she went to tidy up a little in the lounge putting most of his toys back in the playroom so they were out of the way.

As soon as he had finished his lunch Stephanie tidied away the dishes before she turned to attempt to explain what was going to happen to Mikey, "Mikey, Mommy needs a quick word with you."

Frowning as he thought he was in trouble he looked at the floor, "I sowwie."

Raising her eyebrow she knelt down in front of him, "you're sorry for what Mikey?"

Shrugging his shoulders he didn't know, "I's don't know. I fought I was in twuble."

Laughing softly she pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head, "you're not in trouble baby, Mommy just needs to explain something to you."

His face brightened and he looked her in the eyes again, "oh, okay."

"Grandma is coming over in a little bit to talk to Mommy. It's about adult stuff that you don't need to worry about so I need you to be a good boy and play quietly with your toys in the playroom whilst we talk please."

Confused he frowned, "so I don't get to see Gramma?"

Shaking her head she was clearly sleep deprived and not explaining this well at all, "no baby, nothing like that at all. You can see Grandma and you can even have a quick cuddle with her but I'm not sure how long your Grandma has before she has to go back to work so when I say you need to go into the playroom you need to go and play nicely whilst we talk. Once we're done if your Grandma has extra time before she has to go back to work then I will tell you and you can come back out and spend some more time with Grandma. Is that okay?"

Nodding his head Mikey was okay with that, "yups."

Laughing softly Stephanie stood up from her position on the floor just as the doorbell rang, "I think that may be Grandma. Shall we open the door together?"

Nodding his head eagerly he jumped down from his chair and ran towards the door not waiting a second for his Mom to follow him, "Gramma? Are you vere?"