Just a little happy filler before the next thunderstorm Apologies as always for the delay; life as always has been rearing its head. Jessie xx

Life in Stereo

It was one of the most comfortable positions she had found all day. Leaning back against his chest as they lay on the sofa, the remnants of the evening being tidied away by Mia. She was safely surrounded by him, one arm around her, resting on her, while the other placed his wine glass on the coffee table in easy reach.

"So are you going to find out the sex tomorrow?" Mia asked as she picked up the plates and put them on the tray. Rob's birthday dinner had been followed by a decadent selection of cheese and biscuits in front of his favourite film: Alfie, the original one, which, oddly, he'd only just that day acquired on DVD.

"Haven't decided yet," he let Sandra answer as he pondered (like he always did) what it was all about…

"What about names?" Mia continued to interrupt his philosophical thought process. It was almost as though the meaning of the film had been lost on her… wait, he'd been trying to answer the question his whole life since he'd first seen it. Maybe there wasn't an answer… or a meaning…

"Same," his wife smiled, toying with his fingers as they lay lazily between them. Her day had involved an epic amount of paperwork; reading an even more excessive amount of guidance and reworking rough lecture plans around them; ten official tutorials and three unexpected ones; a meeting with her supervisor; driving across to the UCOS offices and a meeting with her supervisee. If that was even a word. All she'd wanted to do all day was get to this point. In fact, all she wanted to do most days was to get to the point where she was home, with her husband. She smiled, turned her head and met his lips briefly.

Mia took the plates away.

"I had had a thought," he said, gently squeezing her fingers as they threaded through his. "About names, if you don't like it, just say. But how about, if it's a boy, you name it? And if it's a girl…"

"You name it?" she asked with a hint of playfulness in her voice. "Can I trust you to do that?"

"I never wanted to call Mia, Hermione," he muttered precisely pinpointing her game. He'd heard the old UCOS team mocking his children's names that day at the circus. God, that was a long time ago… a lifetime ago. Where did the time go?

"Oh yeah, what did you want to call me?" Mia's voice returned from the kitchen.

"Katherine," he said, his mind returning to a vague memory when he had at one time been happy with her mother. "Or Elizabeth."

"What about Rufus?"

"Richard."

They fell into a comfortable silence, each in their own thoughts. Robert musing through old memories like a scrap book of torn pictures, trying to remember the joy and finding only the cold evidence; putting to side each thought and concentrating on the reality around him. Mia pondered on what life would have been like if she'd lived under another name while she washed, dried and put away the dishes. Sandra lay quietly, happy in the company she was in.

"Goodnight, Sandra. Goodnight Dad, happy birthday," Mia placed a childlike kiss on her father's forehead and left the grown-ups to it; she checked on her sleeping daughter, glanced at the next day's timetable and went to bed. Just before she fell asleep she heard the muted giggling of two people locking up the flat and making their way to their bedroom.