Thank you for the reviews.

I know it's been a while. Trust me I am fully aware... It's just been a bit of a strange year. Where I have had successes (like reading the most books in the year than I ever have) and sometimes of being... unsuccessful (exams have been going okay but I failed the one I did in December of last year but managed to pass it in March. Then I failed to one I took in June, so am retaking that next week).

Just if you haven't guessed, it hasn't been a year for writing. Which is okay. I feel like I've put a lot out in the last couple of years that it isn't a big deal. But know that I don't like leaving things unfinished. So yes, this year you might only get another chapter out of me, but I do plan on finishing this and coming back to some other things that I've left unfinished (luckily I think I have left myself some notes on some things...).

But on with this chapter. And this is a flashback chapter. It might seem a little strange but this seemed like the best way to write it once I started.

Enjoy

Seven

2014

If Rachel hadn't been there, Kim was certain that she wouldn't have gone.

Dex was being clingy. Which wasn't too out of character for him but it was when Holly was around. When Holly was around, it felt like her and Rachel had to physically tear them apart to get them to separate.

But not today.

Instead, Holly was staring at them, eyes darting between Kim and Dex. Luckily Kim had seen Rachel confused before, meaning that she knew what the look on Holly's face was. And the more Dex clung to her, the less confused Holly was and the more angrier she was getting.

If Kim thought about it, Dex hadn't been himself all week. And it shouldn't have taken to that moment to understand why.

Dex hadn't been there when Kim made the plans that she had with Andrew. That was purposefully done as she hadn't wanted to involve Dex just yet. It wasn''t fair on him to introduce someone to him if they weren't going to stick around.

Not that he hadn't already been introduced to Andrew.

But that hadn't mattered.

Dex knew that she was going out.

And he didn't want her to go.

Kim could feel her resolve disappearing. Dex always came first, which meant that her instant instinct was to cancel on Andrew and stay with him, joining in whatever activities Rachel had planned. She was sure that Andrew would understand. And if he didn't, tough. He wasn't a parent. He didn't understand what it meant to be one. Or the struggles that came with being one.

She had opened her mouth to tell Dex that she wasn't going to go and leave him but Rachel got there first. Somehow, she always knew when she was making a mistake. And Kim had learnt (the hard way) to listen to Rachel.

"Dex, why don't you go and get ready? I think we should go to the park." Rachel said as she joined them.

Holly's eyes automatically lit up at the suggestion and her excitement was infectious.

Dex looked rather torn now. He kept looking between her and Rachel. The park was his kryptonite. He could never say no to the park. It was one of the ways that Kim got him to behave at times. The whole 'if you are good, then we will go to the park after doing the thing you don't want to do' thing. It always worked a treat.

Maybe if Kim was being honest with herself, she did want a reason to cancel on Andrew. His reappearance had brought up old memories and feelings. All of which she had realised that she hadn't processed properly.

The first time they had broken up, it had been on her terms. In fact, she had left him because she felt like she wasn't contributing the same way he was in Rwanda. Everything with Grace had partly been due to her jealousy that he could do more to help than she could. That the roles had been reversed to how it seemed at Waterloo Road. Although, she was sure that Andrew never felt like he was in the way as she had felt in Rwanda.

The second time wasn't really a breakup. The most accurate description would be that they had a fling. He returned to her. She took him back. They had some time together. He chose not to go back immediately. But he had to go back in the end.

Most people would say third time lucky.

Kim didn't know whether she could trust that.

"Go," Rachel said. "It's just coffee."

Kim hadn't realised that Dex had decided that the park was better than clinging to her. She should have taken some comfort in that but her stomach dropped at that thought. She was sure that if she voiced that thought to Rachel, she would understand but disregard it as a reason why she shouldn't go and meet with Andrew.

"Nothing has to happen unless you want it. And you were the one to reach out to him." Rachel continued.

Kim couldn't argue that. Nor could she put it down to some sort of drunken mistakes because she had been perfectly sober. It wasn't even like she'd had a bad day either. She had…

She had just wanted to see him.

She had wanted to talk to him.

Just like old times.

Maybe she was searching for something.

Maybe being around Rachel more had made her reminiscent of the connections and friendships she had made in the past. Notably at Waterloo Road.

And it made her realise how out of touch she had become with them all.

"Go," Rachel said.

Kim hated how Rachel could read her but, with a sigh, she nodded.

"He is on an ice cream ban," Kim said. "He was sneaky with his dinner last night and has lost… his ice cream privileges."

Rachel smiled. "No ice cream then. Go."

Kim had wanted to say goodbye to Dex but she knew that the best thing to do now was to sneak out the door before he started to cling to her again.

She tried to close the door as carefully as she could to try and not alert anyone else to her departure and she knew, between Rachel and Holly, Dex would hardly notice her absence.

But that did nothing for the feeling in her stomach.

Although, she feared that it was a completely different feeling altogether.

Andrew was waiting for her.

Kim almost rolled her eyes at it. She was sure that even without her delay (both with Dex and herself), Andrew would have been there before her. He had always been stupidly punctual. It wasn't one of his worst qualities but it was, sometimes, his more annoying one.

It was the small smile and wave that he gave her when he noticed her that made Kim remember why she wanted to see him again.

There had been too much left unsaid between them. Too much unresolved.

But there was more to it. Because in a weird way, she had realised that she had missed him. And seeing him again had reminded her of the good times that they'd had together. When she looked back, she mainly focused on the bad times, the times that meant that they had fallen out of touch.

That didn't mean that they didn't have their good times.

Realistically, they probably should have worked. They had the same 'let's save the world' mentality. And if they did work together, Kim was sure that they might have done.

Maybe their timing was never right.

Maybe they were always together at the wrong time.

But that did not necessarily mean that they were a good fit. She once thought that Max was a good fit for her. That proved to be wrong.

She made her way over to him. Wondering what this time would bring.

This might be a new adventure together.

She could gain a friend that she could trust.

She could gain something more. The companionship that Dex could never give her.

But she could walk away and believe that it was still the wrong time for them. That there would never be a right time for them.

But as she sat down opposite him, she could only feel joy that she was back in his company once more.

There would never be the perfect time to introduce Andrew properly to Dex and into his life. Kim had always put Dex first as she felt like she should do. Her son was the most important person in her life and she was glad that Andrew recognised that from the start.

And Dex had met Andrew and seen him a number of times since.

She hadn't really planned for Andrew to fall so seamlessly into their lifestyle.

It started as a quick walk after school, where they just went around the block and Dex was so quiet that Kim thought that she had messed things up big time.

The second time was more of a hit. As they met in Dex's favourite place, Kim did feel a little sad when Dex reached for Andrew's hand to push him on the swing instead of hers, with his reason being that a friend had boasted how his dad could always push him higher than his mum. Kim understood Andrew's apologetic look and she tried not to take too much offence to it.

The more they met up, the more Kim realised why everyone thought that Dex needed a father in his life. It wasn't about what she could give him, because she would have given Dex the world if she could. It was just that bond that she could never copy.

Obviously, she did have a very close bond with Dex and she hoped, with age, that it would just keep growing. She hoped that he would always be able to come to her if he ever needed something.

And maybe her past roles of being head of Pastoral Care would mean that she could deal with any hard topics as Dex aged.

But there was just a connection growing between Dex and Andrew that Kim couldn't understand. It was when Rachel picked up on it that Kim realised that it was nothing to worry about.

That maybe it was something completely natural.

Kim believed that maybe, just maybe, this was meant to be their time together. And even though they had decided to be just friends, Kim couldn't help but think that they could be more.

It was Dex who asked them first. It was said with the innocence of a five-year-old. Meaning that he asked if they were friends like him and Holly or together and Andrew was going to be his dad.

It had been a conversation that Kim had meant to have with Andrew but hadn't found the right time to have it.

Mainly because she hadn't worked out what to say.

But the way that Andrew turned and looked at her showed her that he had been thinking the same thing. If she was honest, she had realised that they had fallen back into old habits. And even though Dex was the most important person in her life, there had been a couple of times when it felt like Andrew had taken priority.

The five-year-old had seen through that though and when Kim told him that she didn't know, she was being truthful. Andrew's face only shifted slightly. It was the Englishman in him but Kim could tell he was disappointed in her answer. The man was such a lover and Kim was almost certain that he had fallen back in love with her from the moment they reunited.

Kim's feelings had always been a little more complicated and when it didn't feel complicated, she had found herself in the middle of a very complicated situation.

It also took them a couple of days to have the chat. Mainly because Kim thought that if she ignored her feelings, then maybe she wouldn't have to have that conversation. But maybe the reason she couldn't ignore her feelings showed her what she really felt.

The conversation wasn't easy. It was never going to be easy when Kim felt like Andrew wasn't taking it seriously when she said that Dex always had to come first. His 'I knows' felt too flippant to her. Like he knew there and then in that moment but would forget about it in the future and have certain expectations that she couldn't match because of Dex.

She should have given him more credit really.

She knew that he wasn't like that.

She knew that he was going to be one of those men who understood where he was in her pecking order.

She knew that he understood where she was coming from.

She knew that if they followed through with this, Dex would become just as important to Andrew as he was to Kim.

And maybe that point scared her the most.

Mainly because of their history.

"You should go back if you are that worried," Andrew said.

Kim placed the back of her hand on Dex's forehead, just to make sure that she wasn't making it up.

She tried telling herself over and over again that it was just some fever. That something was going around and kids Dex's age were living Petri dishes, meaning that they were sick most of the time.

But there was something sitting in her gut that told her that it was more than just a fever.

Kim hesitated. "But what if it is nothing? What if I am wasting the doctor's time? You know how busy they are."

"Then don't go on the health service." Andrew held up his hands to surrender before Kim verbally attacked him. "I love the health service but I think you should maybe go for a second opinion. Yes, I have private medical but if you don't want to go down that route, I do have an old friend who is a specialist in the paediatric department at St Thomas. We could just call her."

It wasn't very often that Kim allowed someone else to sway her point of view. The man in front of her probably knew that better than most. Her gut instinct was to accept Andrew's offer and even let him take charge.

Deep down she knew that the first doctor she had seen had just dismissed all of her concerns.

Deep down she knew that there was something wrong with Dex. Something more serious.

She just couldn't face not being taken seriously again.

And that was a horrible mistake to make.