The Long Haul

A/N - Thank you to @beautyofthend for helping me come up with this idea, I hope you like it, please leave a comment and let me know what you think...

It's finally the school holidays, Jack and Nikki had both managed to get the same week off work to take their children away to a campsite in Devon, spending a week away in a static caravan with their pet dog – Crackers, who unfortunately was named by their son when he was two years old, although the name choice had been terrible it had the Springer Spinel right down to a tee, energetic and crazy.

Jack and Nikki had finally got together as a couple six months after Thomas sadly passed away after saving Jack's life, with Clarissa, gone too it drew the pair closer until Nikki finally told Jack how she felt about him, it all happened very quick Nikki breaking up with Matt, the pair getting together and then finally Jack asking her to marry him. They had spent a good nine years dancing around each other not owning up to his feelings, within a year and a half of entering a relationship together they decided to tie the knot, with Clarissa stopping off on her travels to finally see Jack and Nikki commit to each other.

With their relationship already heading in the right direction at hyper-speed the couple took a step back from their hectic work lives to focus on a family, although they did keep working they took fewer hours for a few months to attempt to get pregnant.  Within four weeks of trying for a baby, Nikki found out she was pregnant with their very first child, their lives were now certainly falling into place.

Despite a rough pregnancy for Nikki, she gave birth to a very healthy baby boy, surprisingly on Jack's Birthday which ended up being a little bit of an inconvenience so the couple decided to celebrate their son's birthday the day before to allow his own celebrations. For the first week, their son went without a name due to the couple unable to settle on a name until Conor came up with a name which Jack and Nikki actually agreed on. A week after being born their son was finally named – Ethan Hodgson.

Their little family of three soon expanded after Jack fell in love with a dog who had just been retired early from the police force, due to 'Lack of use' although Nikki thinks it was down to his destructive personality. The Springer Spaniel was originally named 'Jack' but they couple allowed their two-year-old son chose a new name – Cracker, coincidentally Ethan's favourite food at the time as well as being the dog down to tee.

Six years on the final member of their family made a very early appearance, their daughter made a very early appearance as 29 weeks, arriving in dramatic style in the car on the way to the hospital after Nikki's waters broke at work. A very chaotic and emotional 24 hours to being with followed by a five-month hospital stay for their daughter – Eva Hodgson.

Finally, a complete family. Jack, Nikki, Ethan and Eva, and the dog Cracker, sat in the car on their way to Devon. The journey had gone plain sailing an hour into the journey, with a pit stop to allow Cracker to go to the toilet and also a chance for kids to get some air and stretch their legs. "Mummy? Can we listen to frozen?" Eva asks as she follows her mother to the service station toilets.
"We'll see darling, you have to remember Cracker is in the car, and he always howls at that snowman song" Nikki responds grabbing hold of Eva's hand making her hurry up.

The pair stand in the queue to use the female toilets, she stands watching the three-year-old who is singing away to herself, somewhat in tune, although by the looks of some of the women in the queue Eva's singing wasn't quite up to their standard.

They move forward in the queue and Nikki sighs as she tries not to think about how badly she needs the toilet, since giving birth to two children her bladder had weakened, she dare not laugh or even cough right now at the fear she may pee.

As they draw closer to the toilets, Ethan approaches her and taps her shoulder, "Mum, Dad wants to know where you put his wallet, he needs a drink."
Nikki turns and looks at Ethan, "It's in my handbag, don't worry tell him I'm going to pick up a few bottles of water before coming back to the car," She smiles and Ethan turns around and walks off, "Hey where are you going?" Nikki asks.