Joe and Dianne: Life away from you

Fears of confessions and love

A/N Hey people, thank you so much for the response you have been giving me recently for this story, I really do appreciate every bit of it. Secondly I still feel like I'm going through a bit of a dry spell creativity whys so if anyone has any suggestions then I really would appreciate the help. I have some ideas for some other stories, one of which would be more like a series of one shots, would you guys like to see that or do you prefer the proper story line style, please let me know! xx

Dianne's POV:

It had been a month or two since Joe and I had been almost ex's, and since that time our relationship and our individual patience had really been put through its paces. The continued stream of bitterness and held tongues really beginning to wear the two of us down to our cores. But throughout it all, one thing had most definitely remained the same - as within those cores, that were slowly being worn down and uncovered to the real world horrors that exist in all of our lives, remained a love for one another that we were certain wouldn't be quite as wounded as it was last month, for a very long time. A love that with each held comment or catty argument we had, we became more committed too and more in love with ourselves. And now that tours were finally over, the time we had available for each other had increased tenfold. At least for a few weeks it had - as now it was well into August and Pro rehearsals for the next season of Strictly were slowly but surely filling up almost every spare moment of time that I had. Taking away the long summer evenings that we could chill together, and reducing the lie ins we were able to have with one another during the mornings where neither of us could be arsed to get out of bed.

As I walked into rehearsals there was a definitive change in atmosphere from the London streets I had just been walking on, where the sun had refused to wake up that morning and the clientele around that sort of time were equally less enthused - into the brightly lit studio filled with cheerful smiles, laughter and 15 of my friends who I love so much, may as well be my second family. Half of which were stood around in a huddle on the far side of the studio.

Placing my bags on the floor next to the bright yellow bag that I knew for a fact was Janette's, I caught the attention of one of my fellow pros as he looked deeply into the screen of his phone. "AJ!" I yelled despite being barely a foot away from him as he finally snapped back into reality. "Hey Di!" he replied back in his cheery voice that everyone seemed to love. "You okay?" He questioned as I placed my ballroom heels on to get ready for the brutality that was a 12 hour training session. "Yeah not bad, how's you?"

"Yeah pretty good." He replied back. We continued with polite small talk for a few more minutes until eventually I asked the question that had come to mind from the moment I walked in.

"What's going on over there?" I asked as I gestured over to the huddle over the other side of the studio. "Oh, um... Gorks brought Mia in so we could all meet her. Gemma's over there too I think." As soon as I heard AJ mention those words, I felt my heart skip a beat as a wave of excitement washed over me. Instantly getting up from my position on the floor, I ran across to the other side of the room and into the huddle of Pros as I looked for the cute bubble of life that I knew was waiting there for me.

As I reached the huddle, I was greeted with various 'Hey Di's' - 'you alright reddo?' - and one out of place 'the Australian has arrived!' which I soon realised came from Kevin. But most importantly I was greeted with the beaming smile of a tall blonde woman who I knew all to well. Gemma and I were great friends. She and I had gotten on like a house on fire during the 2017 season when the whole strictly thing was new to the both of us, and we had continued to be close after the season. She was the one who set me up with Anthony, and the one who comforted me the most when we split up.

After sharing a quick glance I allowed myself to look into her arms to see the most adorable baby I had ever met. As much as I love my brothers kids, when they were first born, I wasn't much of a baby person, and therefore wasn't the best aunt for the first year or so of their lives. But now that my views had changed, I couldn't help but gawk at the bundle of joy I saw before me.