A Risky Business #SYTYCW15 #CarinaPress

Chapter Twenty Four

Time ticks on, it's the end of January – the Farringdon contract has started – and Jack starts to make plans ...

*Kate*

I must admit that, after the fiasco with regard to Christmas, I really wasn't sure what was going to happen with Jack and Kim, or even how things stood between us all. I couldn't believe that, even after Damien had rung and invited them over, Jack had flatly refused to change his mind. Damien didn't really get what the problem was, but the whole situation had really upset me.

It was odd though because, the day after Boxing Day, Jack returned to work and Kim turned up to reclaim her bedroom, behaving as though nothing had happened. She insisted that she and her Uncle Jack had had a nice Christmas, quiet, but nice none the less. She was her usual cheerful self and it seemed as though everything was fine. I thought about saying something, but in the end, decided we'd all had more than enough drama lately and, on this occasion at least, to let sleeping dogs lie.

Jack's tying up of the loose ends seemed to be taking longer than he had first thought and somehow, here we were at the end of January, and they were both still here. Which, I must say, I was pleased about. Damien was really taking control of the Farringdon contract and he was managing and co-ordinating the team as well as doing a fair few of the shifts himself. He said it was because he wanted to keep an eye on everything that was happening there, and because it was a good payer. He said he wanted to get some overtime in now so that he could start getting some things for the baby. He'd already made a list, apparently you wouldn't believe the amount of equipment that a new born baby needs. I was quite sure that it wasn't all entirely necessary, but it was lovely that he was showing such an interest and that he wanted to do things right. But of course, because of all these extra shifts he was hardly ever here, so for me, Kim was proving, once again, to be great company.

I was however, much to Kim's dismay, beginning to worry about how much schooling she had missed while she had been with us. She's at that age where she should be starting to concentrate on her exams. It's important stuff, even if she doesn't think so. I decided that I needed to speak to Jack about it, and, while I was at it, see if I could find out a bit more about some of his long term plans.

*

Damien had booked Friday off because I had received my letter from the hospital inviting me to my twelve week scan. I had mentioned it to him fairly gingerly, again not entirely sure what he was going to say, but he seemed to be really excited, read the letter, asked all the right questions and rostered himself off straight away. There had to be some benefits to putting yourself in charge of such a complicated contract I suppose! I was pleased and relieved that he would be there with me, and in a way, that made me feel even worse about the question that I had to ask him this afternoon.

"Damien?"

"Hhmmm?" he said, halfway through some cheese on toast.

"Have you got any plans for the rest of the day on Friday, after the scan?"

"Err, no, I don't think so," he said. "Why, what did you have in mind?"

I took a deep breath.

"I wanted to do some shopping with Jenny," I lied. "She's got an early finish and I thought it might be nice if I met her in town, had a wander round the shops and a bit of a catch up over a coffee. I'd like to tell her the news about the baby, we'll know for sure that everything is alright with him by then," I added.  We were still trying to keep the news to ourselves, although everyone at work already seemed to know.

We were also sticking with his idea that the baby was a boy. It was more than an idea actually, he was absolutely convinced.

"Of course everything will be alright with him," Damien said. "Just the one cup of coffee though, and make sure it's decaff. You really shouldn't have too much caffeine this early on."