The Doctors' Christmas Reunion. Meredith Webber

of her being sixteen weeks pregnant when they’d first begun their move to Maytown?

      Andy watched as Ellie ate her slice of pizza, chewing and swallowing it before she smiled at him, then shrugged as if uncertain where to begin.

      ‘I can understand her turning to a boyfriend for comfort, with her parents gone, and that the pregnancy was an accident, but I didn’t want to push her to talk too much about the future.’

      He saw the worry in the little crease between her eyebrows, and read it in her voice.

      ‘The thing is, Andy, we’ll take her in, I was sure you’d agree with that, but I wondered if she—if we...’

      It was so unlike Ellie to be this hesitant over something that he reached out and took her hand, feeling her fingers curl into his, warm and sticky from the pizza but accepting his support.

      ‘I wouldn’t like your mum to find out about our marriage right now and be upset, which she will if I’m downstairs and you’re upstairs while Chelsea’s with us. I mean, it’s a bit like shouting it to the world.’

      Her head lifted so she could watch his face as he considered it.

      ‘Easily fixed,’ Andy said, barely suppressing his delight because the top part of the house was desperately empty without Ellie in it. A cool, contained and even frosty Ellie was better than no Ellie at all.

      If only he’d realised that before she’d made the move downstairs. He should have talked to her about feeling shut out; about his own pain, and how much it had frightened him; about feeling cast adrift after she left —

      ‘You’ll move back up? I’m still sleeping in Dad’s old room, so you can go back into Mum’s.’

      She half smiled and he guessed that life in the downstairs flat hadn’t been entirely joyous either.

      ‘I didn’t take all that much,’ she said, ‘but, yes, I think that would be best.’

      ‘And Chelsea? Has she planned anything beyond escaping to Maytown for the period of her pregnancy?’

      Ellie shrugged.

      ‘We barely talked, and right now she’s confused, and lost, and really needs to know she’s safe and loved and cared for. I do wonder about Jill going off like that when Chelsea is still so young. Do you think because her husband is always off somewhere, she felt it was her turn?’

      Andy grinned at her.

      ‘Who knows what goes on in other people’s relationships?’ he said, and she responded with a small smile, turning her fingers so she could squeeze his hand.

      ‘Too true. Look at ours!’ she said with a smile.

      The smile and something in her tone of voice suggested there was more hope than defeat in the words but before he could pursue it, Ellie was talking again.

      ‘Well, all we can do is be there for her. I can only help her with her pregnancy at the moment, and perhaps you and I can both talk with her about the future. About the baby, maybe—’

      ‘No!’

      The word seemed to echo around the park, far too loud, far too strong, far too emotionally charged...

      Andy breathed deeply, counted to ten then another five, and regained a semblance of control over the dark fear that had seized him.

      ‘I know she’s family and I’m happy to take her in, but just what is going to happen to the baby when it arrives? Will you want to keep it, too? Is this your way of getting back at me for refusing more IVF? How long before you start thinking of it as your baby?’

      Obviously, the counting hadn’t helped because he was shouting now. Ellie’s face looked white and strained in the gloom.

      The silence that fell between them was somehow louder than his words, broken only when Ellie stood up and said quietly, ‘I was only thinking we might help her. Yes, take her in, she’s family. It’s up to her to decide about the baby but while she’s with us we might both be able to help her find a path ahead—at least begin to plan for her future.’

      She stepped backwards away from the bench she’d been sitting on, and turned away, pausing only to say, ‘And it was our baby I wanted, Andy, not someone else’s.’