Don't Say You Love Me

	Sharon had been in the Vic since crying off her shift at the club at about half six. Her head ached desperately, less pounding than shattering, worse than a herd of elephants going through a conservatory. She had so many things to think over, and yet she just dared not even address them. She'd rather pretend they weren't there, and so far, on her sixth or seventh G&T by now, at least she thought it was her sixth or seventh; she wasn't doing a bad job of it.

	She had been trying not to draw attention to herself, but as the drink loosened her tongue and made her grip a lot less steady, more glances had been sneaked in her direction, louder mutterings could be heard as they turned away. Sharon was practically slumped over the bar, the tears silently pulsing down her cheeks and dripping into the glass, which most of the time, seemed to be empty.

	Running her finger along the rim of the glass, she dropped it into the liquid and sucked it off her finger, groaning inwardly.

	"Have you thought that maybe you should go home Sharon?"

	Putting very little effort into lifting her head, she muttered; "Anyone would think you didn't want my money Peggy."

	"It's not that.... I could just do without you being sick all over my carpet!"

	Sharon laughed dryly. This carpet had been here forever, probably before even she had lived here. It had seen enough people throw up on it for Sharon not to matter. So that was bollocks.

	"Just get me another one will you?"

	The corners of her mouth barely lifting, Peggy took the glass, but Sharon did not see it being refilled. Peggy left it at Tracey's elbow and muttered what Sharon supposed could only be the immortal "Will you be alright on your own for a minute Trace?"

	"Where's my drink?" Sharon roared, pounding her fists on the bartop, and glaring at anyone who dared question the disturbance. "What are you all looking at?" she spat, suddenly realising how heavy her head felt. Hazy as hell, but she was going to get her drink.

	Anyway, she thought angrily, staggering round to the other side of the bar she knew so well, they should be bloody grateful for something to look at. She'd seen more action in a bloody graveyard.... and she'd been there almost as often as she had been here. The most thrilling thing to have happened tonight before she had dared to raise her voice above a whisper was Nana having a coughing fit and Alfie having to pass her a pastille.

	"Woah, woah! What do you think you're doing?" came a gruff cry as Phil rushed into the bar. Peggy tottered in behind him, her eye falling piteously to Sharon. Was obvious where she'd gone then.

	"Whassit look like?" Sharon snapped, filling her smeared glass again. "Don't look at me like that, s'not as if I don't know how everything works round here is it?"

	"Sharon," Phil started awkwardly, picking at the folds of his neck with those grubby fingernails. Ugh, how had she ever been attracted to that? "It's not that.... it's- Trace, how many has she had?"

	Poor Tracey. Everything always fell to her when something went wrong; but coming back into the bar from the ladies, she hadn't seen a thing, her eyes wide in surprise at seeing Sharon leant against the dispensers, glugging back yet another gin and tonic. She shrugged. "I, er..."

	"Don't go blamin' her. Christ..." Sharon puffed.

	"I told her she should go home Phil."

	"That's right." he replied, nodding at his mum and licking his lips nervously. "You should."

	Narrowing her eyes at him and then Peggy rather contemptously, Sharon hissed, "And I told her, Phil, to get me another drink, but did she? No! So I had to get it meself. Bloody awful service these days, never happened when I ran this place."

	Peggy's lip curled, and Sharon was happy to meet with that same contempt. It was almost a comfort to spar with Peggy. Her old friend. "How dare you! You oughta be careful Sharon, or you'll end up just like Angie!"

	"You bitch!" Sharon cried, not thinking before flicking her glass in her nemesis' direction, the liquid splattering her face. Garry coughed out a laugh, doubling up as the slice (or rather, slither) of lemon slid slowly down her cheek, becoming utterly caked in Apricot Creme as was Peggy's own battered skin.

	She didn't feel particularly threatened, more nauseous as Peggy lifted her talons, barely scratching against her nipples rather than the throat she had undoubtedly been aiming for.

	"Mum!" Throwing his arms out, he caught her, mid launch, and she wriggled like a fish in a net.

	"Lemmeatta!"

	"Oh look!" Sharon taunted. "Isn't your Phil a good boy Peggy? He's giving you a bunk up - then maybe you'll get near my face this time - Jesus, I could have you arrested for sexual harrassment from down there!"

	"Phil!" she barked, (although Sharon preferred to call it a yap.... come to think of it, she did look a lot like a menopausal corgi) "Get her-"

	"Oh wait for it - "outta ma pub!" You're a scream Peggy, you know that?" She shoved roughly past, stumbling back to the other side of the bar and slamming her glass down. "'Nother one please, Trace!"

	"Didn't you hear me?"

	Sharon looked across at her, her saggy chest heaving, and couldn't help but smirk. She'd gone extremely red in the face and could barely draw breath. It looked as though she was going to spontaneously combust, and Sharon planned to stick around. It promised to be great entertainment.

	Tracey hovered behind Peggy, the drink shaking uncertainly in her hand. So Sharon lurched across and grabbed it, some of the liquid overflowing and splashing Peggy's top, who gasped and hissed, flicking her claws.

	"Sorry Peg, didn't see you there."

	"What the hell is your problem?"

	"Oh, wouldn't you just love to know?" she slurred, before spinning round and addressing the entire pub; by whose faces she could tell were all totally enthralled. This was scandalous. Well, it would be. "Bet you'd all love to know wouldn't you?"

	She heard a sharp intake of breath she was sure was not her own. But she was mistaken. Because the desperate sobs that rang out in that next moment were hers - unmistakably so. Her chest constricted painfully with the effort of releasing each one to the mercy of her audience.

	"Well, you can't! Fuck off!"

	"Well, I say-" Dot gasped, stuck fast to her seat, her eyes bulging, the blue-grey plumes of the ever present cigarette between her tight lips silently choking those around her.

	"Sharon-"

	Phil came towards her, his hand ready to fall against her arm, and she leapt back defensively, not needing to voice the words "Don't touch me!" as she scowled.

	"What?" she spat savagely, cradling her glass.

	"Do you not think you should....?"

	She didn't vocalise her next words either. Luckily, they remained thoughts and thoughts alone. But she heard them anyway, every feature of one face filling her mind's eye, and though the idea made her feel even more sick than she already did, she somehow felt cheated that Dennis' was not a face she could see here. Did she not think she should face him? Did she not think she should stop rushing out of the room as soon as he came in? Did she not think that when it was he dared to speak to her that she should at least try and raise her eyes from the floor and say something other than "Mmm," or "No, I don't think so"?

	No, she didn't think so. She laughed pathetically through her tears as she realised which words had come to her. Because she was so scared. Scared beyond all belief. As she thought about him, two things happened. Her stomach dared to writhe and do somersaults and then there was the searing pain in the middle of her chest, with a force much like that of a fist.

	Eleven weeks ago he had left her. He'd abandoned all pretence of wanting to be her lover when he had tried so painstakingly hard to make sure she knew that he could want nothing more. She'd fallen in love with his every word. She'd tried so hard to resist, and now, especially now she berated herself so for not trying just that little bit harder. It hurt so much, because she had learnt to want him so much. As soon as she had however, he'd bailed out on her like he'd never wanted to be in love, like he'd just wanted to test her sexually. Could she want him? Would she be willing to sleep with him? His own sister?

	But, however bitter she felt, and however drunk she had found herself, she couldn't make herself deny that he had loved her. Passionately. He was just scared, that was all. But now, she knew she needed him more than ever. He couldn't leave her alone, not now.

	"....be careful." Phil advised, pentrating her torment with that gravelly and downright irritating voice, his eyes raking her up and down like she had two heads or something.

	"Careful?" she bawled. "Oh fuck off!" And she deliberately let go off her glass, letting it shatter all over the floor. It left her hand unoccupied and shaking dangerously, but she did not jump as everyone around her seemed to. "Ooops, sorry! Was that not careful?"

	"You're clearing that up yourself!"

	"Yeah, and I'll be chucking that at you an' all if you don't shut your mouth!"

	"Oi!"

	"Careful ladies and gents, here comes Sharon Watts! Just like her mum; good ol' Ange! Eh?!"

	"Sharon-"

	She didn't say a word to him, glaring at him over her shoulder and turning straight back to address the shocked pub, so many mouths agape.

	"Maybe if any of you used your fucking brain cells, you'd bother to remember! Maybe you'd figure it out! But-" she added quietly, breathing deeply. "-maybe not. I never would have...."

	And she picked up a stool cluttered round a table and threw it aimlessly at Phil, who managed to fend it off with his arms. Peggy and Tracey ducked behind the bar, waiting for the inevitable shattering of glass.

	"Jesus Christ Sharon!"

	"Fuck off!" she screamed again. "I'm not talking to you! I'm not talking to any of you!"

	"Phil...." The voice was not Peggy, as Sharon would have expected, it was Pauline, scooting out of the booth she was sat in with Martin. "...should I go and get Den?"

	"Yeah...." he answered distractedly, running his sweaty hands over his equally sweaty face, his piggy, bloodshot little eyes unnerved by the raw anger in Sharon's face. "....yeah..."

	Knowing any words she spoke would not be heard, she was simply just a drunken mess after all, she pushed the Queen Vic bust off the bar with a scream, raising one much louder from around her; but it still barely touched the ear-splitting crash.

	Peggy's jaw was practically on the floor.... and oh, Sharon hoped she would be able to afford the wrinkles such a facial expression would cause!

	"No! I don't want Den - Paul, don't you dare get him!" She barely managed to stop herself from stamping her foot. "I want Dennis, you understand me? I want Dennis! Dennis!"

	Tears were pouring down her blotchy face, hotter and more uncomfortable than ever before, a lump having formed in her throat just because she'd had to say his name.

	"Al- Alright Sharon love, I'll go get him for you, shall I?"

	Pain shot all through her neck as she lifted her head, nodding furiously and hearing several little bones in her neck simultaneously crack, before she sank down amongst all the glass, burying her face in her lap, her knees drawn against her chest, refusing to be moved and sobbing hard and slow, her whole chest heaving, feeling more sore with every gasping breath she was forced to take as she waited to feel those familiar arms around her.....

	"Dennis!"

	Recognising that voice immediately; God, it kept him awake at night for the nightmares, Dennis slipped what he hoped was further back into the shadows of the packed up market place, praying that the apparition of tight wrinkles, frowning mouth, gnarled teeth and Marks & Spencers polyester jumper rushing towards him would pass by without noticing him.

	Pausing to draw in a long breath mixed with the intricate poisons of his cigarette, he held it in his mouth, neither taking it any further in or expelling it, waiting to hear the footsteps hit the puddles littering the potholed road and go by.

	But, no! The flickering embers against the inky black night had given him away, damnit. She slowed up, even her eyes managing to frown disapprovingly at him, her arms folded across her chest.

	He obediently quashed the cigarette under his foot, immediately scratching at the back of his neck to occupy his hands, choosing to stare more at Pauline's splattered trainers than into that as ever unamused face as he chuckled

	"Alright, Pauline, you got me! I'll smoke the next one by another stall, promise!"

	"I know you will." she told him with a fake sweetness that made him want to be sick. But he settled for ramming his hands in his pockets, hunching his shoulders against the cold winds that were beginning to pick up around him. Strange, he'd been alright a minute ago. He'd never been quite able to shake the feeling that this sort of thing followed Pauline around, like she was some sort of bad omen. And the look on her face, as he finally dared to look at her, told him she probably was. She didn't even seem to be blinking, her lips twisted in an unforgiving way. She was making him feel quite uneasy.

	"Wh-What is it?"

	"It's Sharon. We need you over at the Vic. Now."

	"What? Why?"

	"Oh Dennis, I don't know why! She's in a right state. Drunk as anything, she can barely stand up. She's been ranting at the whole pub.... Peggy tried to get her to leave but she... well, she's asking for you- and when I say asking, she's gone crazy - smashed her glass,  thrown a stool at Phil and chucked the bust to the floor.... I thought I should get Den..... but she insisted it had to be you, demanded even-"

	Sharon had been mistaken in supposing that no-one remembered what had happened between herself and Dennis, at least in Pauline's case anyway. She'd been greatly affected by the whole episode; after all, Sharon was just short of being her daughter and there was no way, shape or form that her own father's son could have been any good for her, but she certainly wasn't about to say as much given what a state she had left Sharon in.

	Dennis seemed to understand the glaring way Pauline was staring at him, her lips now pursed, her eyes barely slits. "Shit! She what?"

	And he was sprinting towards the Vic without a second thought, with Pauline immediately out of breath and having to puff dramatically just to keep herself up to half his pace. Thankfully, he didn't try and speak to her until they were in the Vic and she had a moment (in between beating her way past the poor door he had crashed through) to draw in a breath to reply.

	Everyone in The Vic was deathly still as they realised he was finally there. All that could be heard was Pauline gasping for breath and Sharon wailing.

	"Was she like this when you left her?"

	"Y.... yes. S-Said she wouldn't ta-talk to anyone but y-you...."

	Phil dared to move forward, stretching over poor Queen Vic lying helplessly on her back to press his hand into Sharon's arm.

	"Don't touch her." Dennis growled.

	"She's off her face! I was just-"

	"I said don't touch her!"

	"C'mon Phil-" Peggy advised, waving her hand, unnerved by the menace she saw in Dennis' face. "Do as he says."

	So he straightened his back and moved away.

	Dennis rushed forward, wincing as he heard the many shards of glass crack under his feet, more still as he crouched down.

	"Sharon.... Sharon, it's alright. It's me.... it's Dennis.... I'm here."

	The sob became strangled on its way up from her throat and she slowly lifted her head, her hair ruffled and becoming stuck across her face with the help of the tears that were still falling. Her eyes sparkled miserably. 

	"Oh...." he whispered, bundling her into his arms and feeling her grapple at his shirt, the tears stiffening the material. "Oh, darlin'...."

	"I've b-b-been s-s-so s-s-scared!" she howled.

	"What of? What's happened to you?" He looked desperately around him as he rocked her, just for some indication of what. But all that looked back at him were blank faces and shrugging shoulders.

	"You happened to me. None of them remember, Dennis...."

	The uneasiness settled into the room immediately, you could practically taste it. He tried not to meet anyone's eye. Instead, he stupidly said what they were all thinking.

	"Yes, they do Sharon..... now come on.... you're going to hurt yourself down here in all this-"

	"No!" she screamed, clinging to him like a child. "Stop ignoring me; stop ignoring us!"

	That hurt. Like it got him right in the stomach. Yes, he had been ignoring her, but only because, had he not, he knew he would have been on his knees, not entirely unlike he was at that very moment, begging her to take him back. Not because he no longer believed she deserved, or that he wanted a family, but because he was still so very deep in love with her. Wanting to be with Den & Vicki had meant a compromise of that love, and it was becoming more and more impossible to mould it into a brotherly form when he considered how much he wanted back the passionate and blinding love they had previously shared.

	"OK.... alright...." he murmured gently, dragging her across the floor in his arms, wanting to bring her away from the glass.

	"I loved you, you know. I still love you, so much."

	"Thank you." he replied, lamely, cringing even as the words left his mouth.

	"Don't thank me!" she begged. "Love me too! Please Dennis.... I can't do this.... I know you're trying to pretend we never- f-f-felt that way but I can't. You have to understand I can't!"

	Fear prickled within him as he realised everyone was looking at him, sat on the floor in the middle of a pub, his older sister sobbing helplessly in his arms, pleading with him to take her for his lover once more as utter chaos lay illustrated all around them. This was.... mind boggling.... what was he meant to do?

	Biting on his lip as he summoned all his courage, he murmured, kissing her hair; "I understand. I love you too."

	"Don't. I can see in your eyes you don't mean it..... that you're lying to me." she surmised sadly, pulling back from him. "What did I do? Why don't you love me anymore?"

	She screwed her eyes tight shut, not wanting to be entirely present as she heard what he spoke next. 

	"I do. It's just.... it's different now.... you know it is."

	"So soon?" some faceless crowd member scoffed.

	"I didn't want it to be any different! I was fighting for you!"

	"Exactly! I couldn't be the reason your whole life fell apart Sharon. I'm not worth that." He felt his cheeks flush as tears stung in his eyes.

	"You don't know that! You didn't give me chance to work that out! And.... and you can't say that.... not now...."

	"Why not? You'll.... You'll get over me-"

	"He ain't lying Sharon!" Kat called out, hoping to be encouraging, but instead being stared down by practically everyone else in the entire pub. "What?"

	"I-It's bigger than that. So much bigger and f*ck.... I- Can I get another drink?"

	Dennis glared pointedly at the trio stood, stock-still, behind the bar. "No." he said firmly. "You can't."

	"Please?"

	"No! Sharon.... what is this?"

	She folded, slumping against the wall, fresh sobs taking her over. "I'm scared." she said again, looking to him desperately.

	"Wh-Why?"

	"Because.... we've d-done something we can't ignore - and that's what you'll do, I know it is!"

	"Oh- Sharon..." he sighed, pulling his hand through his messed hair, staring at the floor. "It.... we... we weren't.... I didn't.... I can't...."

	Her eyes burnt uncomfortably into him, like a flame on his skin. More tears poured down her cheeks as she tried to shake his words away, whimpering; "No... no...."

	"Dennis?" came the gentle voice he had been praying for.

	"Dot?" he smiled, the corners of his mouth falling as he realised she looked grieved and would not smile at him.

	"Don't lie to her."

	He managed a lukewarm laugh, and looked back at Sharon, lifting her hands into his, and realising he was shaking little less than she was. "Maybe.... maybe I'm scared too."

	"Don't be! Come back to me!"

	"Er, excuse me!" Kat called out again, frowning. "But he is seeing my little girl!"

	Sharon tried to ignore her, because she'd seen a flicker in his eyes. Hope.

	"I love you." she pressed shakily.

	"I know you do."

	"Then stop pretending. You loved me too, I know you did!"

	Dennis caught Kat glaring at him as he glanced around the room, whom he smiled apologetically at. "I'm sorry Kat." he said, turning back to Sharon. "OK.... you want my cards on the table?"

	She nodded, gulping back a sob everyone heard get lodged in her throat.

	"I do love you. I love you so much. And I know I said I wanted Vicki and that I even wanted Den, and I still mean that; I'm sorry but I do. This is hard for me too, the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life.... because I look at you and.... this is why I've ignored you Sharon.... not to hurt you.... but because I know.... and you obviously know it too.... that I'm not gonna be looking at you the way I look at Vicki. It's different.... it's more, I dunno- fierce."

	"If it feels like that, why are you ignoring it? Why aren't you with me?"

	"Because your life is here Sharon, everything.... your friends, your family, your work, and I wanna be part of it all cos together, it's so much. I can't give you that on my own."

	With a sinking feeling that fell so deep she felt sick, Sharon recognised that he had completely contradicted what he had said to her before. He told her he'd give her everything - he'd give her the world if only she'd have him. And now... 

	"You regret us don't you?"

	He laughed nervously, still painfully aware that dozens of pairs of eyes were burning into his back as he crouched here. "I.... I might be a selfish, ignorant bastard Sharon, but I haven't forgotten it was me who started all this. I was the one who told you how I felt.... and you were...." He tried to push the word "scared" from his mouth, but only as the words hung in the air did he realise that wasn't what he'd said. "...you were right."

	She tried to pull him back as he rose up but he just wouldn't be reached, his back turned on her as she screamed "No! No I wasn't! I love you for Christ's sake! I wanted.... I just.... I want you! I want to give you everything!"

	"Well I don't want it!" he yelled back, whirling round, his eyes bulging and glittering, a sweat all over his face.

	Practically everyone in the pub flinched at the strength of his outburst, their backs rigid.

	"Dennis!" Dot gasped.

	"Dot..." he stammered, feeling as if his mother had just given him a beating. "I- I don't want it. I'm with Zoe now. I don't want it."

	"You don't have a choice." Sharon coughed bitterly wiping her tears away miserably with the back of her sleeve.

	"What?"

	"I said you don't have a choice!" she hollered. Maybe he'd hear her this time. He apparently had, because as she descended into a sobbing come coughing fit that was severe enough for Pauline to jump up and steady her so she didn't fall over, he turned slowly on his heel, his eyes narrowed, his face twisted in utter little-boy-lost confusion.

	"Why not?"

	"Because..." she gasped, her words coming out entwined with a violent cough. "I'm pregnant."

	A gasp tore through the room, mouths falling open and desperate whisperings happening in ears and behind hands. Dennis' mouth had suddenly run dry and his lips, in desperate need of words, felt cracked and sore. Sharon continued to cough, wondering if she was going to be sick; after all she had enough reason to. Pauline was no longer holding her up, her arms having fallen like lead to her sides. But Sharon didn't notice, slumped against the bar coughing and spluttering, tears still dripping from her cheeks, trying her hardest to raise her head from the screen of her hands and meet the eye of her errant lover.

	"You?" he managed finally. "I thought you couldn't-?"

	She laughed.... cackling even, the force of half a dozen gin and tonics taking hold of her again, her face still pressed against the bar top. "Oh, I bet you wish you'd used condoms now don't you?" she muttered listlessly.

	"You're preg-pregnant?"

	"Oh shittin' hell!" Kat moaned from her table. Zoe was gonna love this.

	"Sh-Sharon... you're not... lying.... just to...? Are you?"

	She glared at him, and he knew he'd said the wrong thing. Of course he had. Sharon wouldn't lie - not about something as huge as this.

	"Wanna see my cards do you Dennis?" she spat savagely.

	He nodded dumbly, his attention flying right over her tone. He didn't know what on earth she could mean but realising he couldn't do anything but agree.

	She finally straightened up with a moan, her hair decidedly rumpled. and rummaged in her bag, finally surfacing with a small card in her hand.

	"Here!"

	And he took the card, turning it over with quaking fingers. It felt like someone was slowly suffocating him, their huge invisible hands squeezing tighter and tighter against his neck as he realised that the smudgy black and white photograph he was staring at was a scan. He didn't know what he was meant to pick out beyond that, but he could do nothing but believe her implicitly.

	"M-My baby?" he stammered, not meaning to make it sound like a question and immediately recognising the flare of irritation in her face.

	"Nah, probably not. Could be the milkman's, or the postman's or maybe even that bloke who smiled at me in the market this morning! Of course it's yours!"

	He laughed nervously, although her expression of deep hatred did not falter. And he almost stumbled on the bust as he staggered backwards, running his hands around his flushed face and hoping that it would all make sense as he looked around the room again.

	"You're having my baby?"

	"Not right this second, but yeah. Yeah, I am. So now do you understand?"

	"No." he answered honestly, his voice barely a whisper. He wasn't expecting he would be heard. "Have.... Have you told anyone?"

	Hardly daring to laugh, she looked miserably around her, gesturing that Dennis should follow, taking in each and every gaping mouth. "Does it look like it to you darlin'?"

	"I'm sorry." he mumbled awkwardly, staring at the floor.

	She lifted her chin defiantly, although what with the effect of all those G&T's, she could barely hold her head straight. "No, you're not. You wouldn't have so much as looked at me ever again if.... oh, that doesn't matter anymore. Dennis, you're going to be a daddy- and I.... we need you darlin', please.... please let's not pretend anymore."

	Breathing heavily, each one tight in his chest, Dennis eased forward on his foot, barely registering the sound of all the glass crunching beneath it. Sharon watched him come closer, fright in her face. She gasped as he reached out to touch her, but remained defiant, gulping back her protests.

	"Look me in the eye..."

	She spat out a mocking laugh at those words, so cliché, so desperate.

	"Sharon!"

	"Alright!" she snapped, glaring at him as she returned to looking into his crazed, unsettling eyes. She spoke slowly, wanting to drive every word home. "How do you want this said Dennis, eh? I'm carrying your child... I'm having your baby. I don't know how it's possible all of a sudden so don't bother asking. But I am pregnant. Whether that matters to you or not is up to you."

	"Matters? What are you talking about, of course it matters!"

	"Oh so what's your child gonna get from you Dennis huh? Weekend visits? Zoe detesting every second of 'em? C'mon tell me, cos the two of us, we're interested! In fact..." She turned and gestured to the whole pub, silent for their gaping mouths and keen ears. "...the whole Square's interested! Bet you're all so glad you know now aren't you eh? Peggy... Mo? Good bit of gossip to spread round isn't it this? Sharon Watts... always was a dirty little slut! And look at her now - pregnant by her own brother!"

	Dennis looked at her so sadly, his piercing eyes wanting so much to fight through her defences. "Don't... Don't say it like that." He found that even to his own ears, his tone was pleading - and meant nothing to her.

	"Why not?" she demanded coldly. "That's what you are. You're my brother. You left me to be my brother. Or have you forgotten that bit?"

	"Of course I haven't! Sharon, I-"

	"If you say you're sorry-" she cut in accusingly, "-I swear to God, I will tear you into tiny pieces and send 'em back to your whore."

	 Kat, with one maternal growl that suggested justice for the scorned one, her own precious baby, leapt up amongst the angered cries of her family and was all but ready to launch herself at Sharon and tear her into pieces. Great big bloody ones. But Dennis sensed her approach and swung round, shielding Sharon.

	"Kat, she's pregnant. You can't just-"

	"Whose fault is that Dennis eh? Have you any idea what this'll do to my little girl?"

	Dennis could say nothing, simply casting his guilty eyes to the floor.

	"And what about 'er eh?" Kat sneered, stepping back to meet Sharon's eye. "She said herself she's nothing but a slut, that baby could be anyone's! C'mon fellas!" she called, swinging round expectantly to the rest of the bar. "Own up! How many of you have had her? Ow- get off me."

	She struggled as Dennis pulled her round, gripping her wrists as his thin lips twisted unfavourably. "Look, I know this is the last thing... but I won't let you... I won't let anyone... it's my baby, alright? It's mine. Zoe's just gonna have to deal with that!"

	"You reckon?" Sharon mumbled bitterly from behind him.

	He swung round, confusion etched in his face as he flung Kat away, whose bright red lips crept into a smirk as she listened to the mutterings.

	"What?"

	Sharon pulled in a deep breath and straightened up, swinging her hair from her face and smiling a bright smile as she looked at him which made him flinch because it so obviously told of falseness.

	"Well, what amazes me in all of this Dennis is that you haven't stopped, even for a second, to ask me what I intend to do!"

	Kat threw her head back, laughing cruelly. Dennis shot her a dark look, stomach dropping as he turned anxiously to Sharon. 

	"Wh-What? What do you mean? You... You just said... you're pregnant... having a baby... that's it isn't it?"

	"I don't know. Is it? I don't want my child growing up in the middle of some Cinderella story."

	Dennis cocked his head, utter confusion playing across his face.

	"Oh you know... the evil stepmother... the ugly sisters!" she waved nonchalantly in the direction of the Slaters, so stiff in their disapproval the lot of them looked severely constipated.

	"Oi!" Kat roared. 

	Sharon just raised an eyebrow, her gaze sliding back to Dennis. "What's to say I'm going to keep it?" 

	Dennis froze, letting her words attack him for all the malice they held. He twisted his hip, turning halfway towards her, frightened to move all the way forward, scared to contemplate what it was that would meet him.

	"You wouldn't."

	"Try me."

	Dennis scowled and looked contemptously to Tracey, Phil & Peggy, eyeing the shattered glass still uncleared on the floor. "How many has she had?"

	Tracey, at the very least, showed some shame, bowing her head and flushing guiltily. Sharon wated so much to come to her defence. Why was it no-one around her seemed willing to take responsibility?

	Laughing coldly, Sharon glared at Dennis with her maddened eyes. "Oh yeah, let's just blame it on the booze shall we Dennis? After all, I must have been bladdered to let my brother knock me up, mustn't I?"

	He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you being so cold?"

	"Why?" she demanded. "Why? Why do you need to ask?"

	"You shouldn't be drinking! Sharon, for God's sake - think what you've done to the baby!"

	Sharon pursed her lips and shrugged. "Mighta killed it off... so what?"

	She winced with the force he held her, his hands pressing viciously into her shoulders as he shook her, needing to see flashes of the Sharon he recognised. He knew he'd never loved a woman so callous.

	"This isn't you! This isn't what you want!"

	Fighting her way free of his grasp, Sharon spluttered on a sob, its very creation betraying her in this one miserable moment.

	"But you don't care what I want do you Dennis? You left me!"

	Dennis bit into his lip, returning awkwardly; "I know. I'm... sorry."

	"You can't even lie convincingly... what's happened to you Dennis?"

	"Thought that's what you were telling me. Sharon, when I... you said I was gonna be a dad. How's that gonna happen if you're so certain you're gonna get rid? You think I don't remember you, but I do. You'd never do it."

	"Oh but I would." she spat, her filling eyes snapping to Phil. "Tell him, Phil. I had my husband's child cut out of me, Dennis. And what are you... you're nothing."

	His pain at such words was fleeting, and this only served to infuriate Sharon. She wanted to see him hurt as she had done, as she feared she would always do.

	"But that ain't true is it, cos not five minutes ago, you were telling me you still love me."

	A blast of bitter laughter left her mouth, and she bowed her head against the bartop. "And what good's that doing me, I mean, really? It might be true Dennis, but all it's doing is proving what an idiot I am for ever believing you long enough to let it happen."

	"So do it Sharon, go on. I'll hold your hand all the way down to the fuckin' clinic if that's what you want, but I'm telling you, there's no way in Hell you'll actually be able to go through with it. Cos you've just said yourself, you don't hate me and I'll never believe you could hate yourself that much. You've  wanted a baby for years, and you're stood there, telling me you're gonna have one. You expecting that to hurt me, scare me? Cos it don't."

	"Then I envy you. Because I'm petrified."

	"How... How long have you known?"

	"About... a week. The scan was today, measurements and stuff."

	"You should have told me, I coulda-"

	"What?" she demanded. "Come with me? Yeah, you and every other interfering bastard on this Square, coulda made it a right proper freakshow couldn't we eh?"

	He forced his eyes shut, refusing to take in her words. He wouldn't hear them because he knew they weren't meant.

	"How far gone are you?"

	Sharon straightened up, hunching her shoulders. "Seventeen... eighteen weeks, they said. Still plenty of time to book myself in right?"

	Dennis gave her a deep look and slowly shook his head. "This isn't you talking, Sharon."

	"What do you know?"

	He humoured her with a soft smile. "You're having my baby. I'd say that means I know you pretty well, wouldn't you?"

	"You just don't get this do you? Dennis, look around you darlin'. In case you'd forgotten, we ain't alone here - look at 'em all. Dying to go tell the world. How long before Dad knows eh? How long before you're in pieces across the whole of London and I... God, what's gonna happen to me eh? What's really gonna happen to this baby?"

	Daring to look past the distraction Sharon presented as she stood in front of him, Dennis cast his narrowed eyes over the silent punters. Many of them were wriggling guiltily in their seats. For they were the ones with their hands already halfway into their pockets, reaching for their mobiles. The ones that terrified Sharon in wanting to tell the world, just for something to gossip about in the market the next morning. And Dennis was ready to kill 'em all. But no-one had confessions of such guilt for him to hear, hanging on too eagerly between the every word that had passed between him and Sharon... the woman carrying his baby.

	"Don't you see?" Sharon sniffled desperately as his eyes came to settle on her face once again. "I don't have a choice in any of this!"

	"There's always a choice, Sharon." he returned steadily. "You told me that remember?"

	She did, but even if her half-cut state, she was hardly about to announce in what circumstance she had uttered the words. "Hardly the same is it?" she laughed bitterly, pushing the tears unsuccessfully from her eyes. She flung her arms out, spinning unsteadily around and gesturing to those sat around her. "My friends, right? All these people you left me for... do you really think they care?"

	His jaw dropping, Ian indignantly put down his glass and cried; "That's not fair!"

	Sharon tilted her head back, smiling knowingly as she stared at the ceiling for a moment before whirling round and heading over to where Ian sat in a booth with Jane. "I know it's not!" she hissed. She leant her hands drop, slapping against her thighs almost in defeat. "But c'mon Ian, if I'm so wrong... then why don't you be the first to congratulate me eh? Tell me you're happy I'm having Dennis' baby. Tell me!"

	Though he tried to find words with which to pacify her, Ian found that he only opened and closed his mouth, his sentences never so much as beginning. Sharon scoffed knowingly and turned slowly back to Dennis.

	"They used to incarcerate people like me y'know." She ignored the look of disgust that came her way, too immersed in her words. "Yeah. They'd lock you up, and then they'd take your baby away from you. And that's what'll happen Dennis, it is. All these people that you think care so much... they'll take my baby away from me!"

	She flinched as he moved towards her, every eye in the place tracking his movement, like he might have been impregnating her in front of them. He caught his hands around her shoulders. She whimpered as he shook her slightly. "You're drunk Sharon."

	Anger flared in her eyes and she shoved him away, hot tears pouring from her eyes as she bawled; "Don't you dare fucking patronise me - you've got no right!"

	"You've got my kid in there, I've got every bloody right!"

	Sharon fell back on her heel, stunned. Her laughter was forced, disbelievingly, but oh, it rang out as clear as anything. She turned away and then back, drumming her fingers across her lips and then swung one finger at him in pending accusation.

	"You... You know what? Just then... you sounded exactly like Dad. I know what Michelle musta felt like now... when she was having Vicki? Cos, just then... you spoke to me just like he woulda done to her. You're tryin' t'control me! Just like my Daddy!"

	"Shut up." Dennis sneered. "Shut up!"

	"Oooh!" Sharon cried in mocking, ignoring the dangerous look in his eyes. "What ya gonna do Dennis? Hit me, like you did last time we were in 'ere like this? Well, c'mon then! Oh-" She softened a little as he looked away from her challenge in disgust, with what looked like tears threatening. "-but you couldn't hit a pregnant woman could ya?"

	"Sharon, please!" he pleaded, hating that as he tried to step forward, she lurched back, to escape him. "You know I never meant-"

	Her lip curled to emit a sneer almost immediately. "Yeah well, there's a lot of things you never meant i'n't there Dennis? This baby's one of them!"

	Dennis hated that he could not just bounce off her words and proclaim that she was lying. Because she wasn't. Had he ever known that he & Sharon were to have a child together, to build their own family to escape the pain of the one that disapproved of their love, then, oh God, he would have been stronger. He'd never have let Den... he'd never have-

	But his thoughts died away before they were born into reason, because he had none to announce. Because whatever he would have done, there was nothing to change the fact that his sister-come-lover and back again was stood in front of him, in front of their famished, enthralled audience, her beautiful face stained with tears, her lips twisted unhappily with the effort of keeping sobs back. And she was telling him that he'd created a purpose in creating the life inside her. A pure, innocent life that she was so terrified would be blackened by those around - all those Dennis had so stupidly surrendered her to, without knowing that he too was tossing his unborn child away without a thought.

	And Sharon, she was only made more upset by his silence, her breaths erratic at the arrival of each fresh wave of tears, but what could he say to console her. He had nothing. Sharon saw that the same was true for her too. She staggered towards the door, barely managing to secure a grip on the handle she was shaking so much.

	"I won't let them destroy my baby. It's better that I do it myself..." 

	
	"Sharon!" Dennis yelled, racing after her, rebuffing the look of repulsion that came his way from the Slaters table with a dark return of his own. Whatever they thought him, he wasn't going to let Sharon move away from him, not in the state she was in, not on those kind of parting words. It made him feel ill just to consider what she might do... to herself... and the baby. And whatever she thought of him, he valued them both, he did.

	"Leave me alone!" she screamed, staggering blindly across the thankful deserted and eternally potholed road. Dennis winced. The sobs she had evidently been holding back as he had been looking at her in there had obviously taken her over. They sounded like they were tearing her open from the inside with the every breath she wasn't even managing to bring in. And she was shaking, so badly. She was coughing on her sobs, her misery was choking her, her hands flying erratically to her face in the vain hope they could smother them.

	"Sharon, please!" he pleaded, rushing to her aid, one hand pressed in her lower back as he tried to help her straighten up with his other. But she didn't even have the strength to hold her weight on her own two feet. But then, Dennis considered painfully, she was carrying an extra burden now - all because of him.

	She writhed desperately against him, feeling like his arms around her were a restraint. "No!" she bawled, trying with all her dying might to fend him off. "Get off me!"

	"Please!" he cried out again, his voice cracking, with the pain, the effort. His arms ached as he pulled her round to face him, roughly tilting her chin just to get her to look him in the eye. Even as she did this, she was still blanching her lip as her tears drenched it, shaking her head fiercely, even without words to deny. "This is my baby too!"

	Sharon glared at him. She made him uneasy as her watery eyes travelled with a slow pity across his feverish face.

	"And that's all you care about isn't it? The baby!"

	"No! Oh God, Sharon... no!"

	"Yes!" she hissed. "You... You've barely spoken to me... looked at me since you left this fuckin' thing inside me! I think you knew... I think you knew you'd done it, and I think you were just as disgusted as me!"

	He threw her away in disgust. "No! This ain't you!"

	"So you keep saying-" Sharon muttered quietly, but she did not go unheard.

	"This ain't the Sharon I know." he whispered sadly.

	"That's because you treated her like the trash she was. You threw her away!"

	"But she... she matters!"

	"Why?" she demanded, her eyes bulging dangerously. "Cos she's got your bastard baby feeding off her? News flash Dennis, that ain't her - that's me! She was with you... I couldn't wanna be further away! She loved you and I-"

	"-still love me." Dennis concluded for her flatly, raising an eyebrow and waiting for her vehement protests. But none came despite the anger in her face and Dennis was glad. He knew they'd be futile anyway.

	"You love all this don't you?" Sharon spat. "I never asked to fall in love with you - never."

	"But you did it anyway."

	"And I never asked to have your fuckin' baby but you did that anyway didn't ya? What was it Dennis eh? Little leaving present? Something to always remind me of the massive, tragic mistake we were? Well, cheers darlin', you really shouldn't have bothered!"

	"Well, I can't agree alright? It's a baby Sharon... summat you've always wanted. How can I say I regret giving that to you? I don't. I don't."

	"Course you don't!" she cried out, with a manic laugh of mocking. "All it was to you half hour in the bedroom then remembering to do your fuckin' fly up afterwards. Piss easy for you innit - you're a bloke!"

	Groaning outwardly in frustration, Dennis pressed his laced hands against the back of his head, turning slowly on the spot as he drew in a deep breath. "Will you stop being so flippant about this? I'm not just any bloke am I, Sharon - I'm-"

	"-my dad's son!" Sharon cried out desperately. But Dennis ground his teeth together and spoke his words out over her.

	"-the father of this baby!"

	Sharon's chest was going like crazy. She could not bring enough air into her needy lungs to breathe her breaths at the rate she needed to expel them.

	"So... a dad... yeah." Dennis nodding slightly, finally allowing himself to address Sharon's frantic interjection. "A son-" He hunched his shoulders. "-maybe. Did say I'd leave that to you- ow!"

	But even as Sharon drew her palm back from Dennis' newly stung cheek, she could not be apologetic. He was infuriating her, and she really didn't need it right now... ever. She just wanted another drink.

	"You are my Dad's son. What d'you think he's gonna do, Dennis, I mean really? What do you really think he'll do to you if you just... swagger up to him and say "Oh hey Den, did you know I got Sharon up the duff"? That's if one of them in there ain't said it for you already!" She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, in the direction of the Vic, seemingly stood tonight just to torture the two of them. "Cos I can't see him just slapping you on the back and saying; "Oh congratulations son... Princess.." and d'you know why? D'you remember it? Because he'll destroy us. He'll kill you, he will."

	"I ain't scared of him." Dennis hissed defiantly.

	"Well I am." Sharon returned, without hesitation. "I know I'm right. He'll steal my baby. But what's worse is that I don't know how. Is he gonna... wait until it's in my arms, or is he gonna... steal it from inside me?"

	"Sharon! Sharon, listen to me... I will never let him touch you, I swear."

	Spluttering on a cough, Sharon raised her gaze from the floor, such miserable diamonds sliding silently down her cheeks. Dennis tried to raise his hand to wipe them away, but Sharon tilted her head away. "You won't have a choice. You'll be dead."

	"Oh what, and you think I'm just gonna... shuffle off my mortal coil cos Den tells me to? I'm not leaving you."

	"But you already have, Dennis." Sharon informed him with a slow sigh. "That's the whole point remember? If... If we were still together then maybe... maybe I'd think about it, but... we're not, are we? Dennis, these days... you can't even look me in the eye...I'm not what matters to you... I never was."

	"Oh, what the fuckin' hell are you on? Sharon, I don't care if you hate my guts right now-"

	"I do."

	"- and I don't care if you never wanna see me again-"

	"I don't."

	Hearing her timely mutterings, Dennis glared at her and continued. "You know how it was. And this baby isn't interested in now, it's got... twenty more weeks of baby gym to be doing in there yet, but it's about then. And I loved you, I loved you so much. And even though... I'm too much of a weak arsehole to hold onto that... neither of us can lie about how it was then. This baby... oh Sharon, it's there for a reason."

	"Reason?" she echoed doubtfully, raising an eyebrow. "Oh Dennis, you idiot. Reason doesn't mean anything, not to men like Dad! If he don't want it there - and he won't - then he'll take it away. He'll kill you and then he'll kill it. In that order."

	"Oh yeah? And what's he gonna do? Cover the kitchen table with some bits of the Gazette, sharpen up the steak knives and do it himself is he? Little backstreet job, no-one says a word?"

	"Fine then. He'll kill me, that any better?"

	"He ain't that low Sharon."

	"Strangely enough Dennis, I think I know my dad a little better than you do, thanks! You think my mum drowned herself in gin just cos'a Jan, all his tawdry little affairs? Nah, it was to make the cuts and bruises stop stinging an' all. See, you don't know him at all. After all he did with you and me, you think it's just mind games he's into. But he's like you... or you're like him, I ain't really decided on that one yet, but my dad, he ain't above raising his fist to a woman. Not even this one..."

	Dennis' facial muscles twisted in horror, confusion, never mind being reminded of the pain he'd caused in striking her. "Has he ever...?"

	"Not yet." Sharon gulped awkwardly. "But I've seen him lay into my mum enough times - when he thought I was in the kitchen with the radio turned up doing me maths homework. But I was always there, on the landing... listening to her cry... begging him to stop and he'd just carry on beating seven shades out of her-"

	Broken up once again by her memories, Sharon crumbled into inconsolable tears, wracked by more painful sounding sobs. She desperately needed comfort, to the point that she didn't even protest as Dennis stepped closer, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer, kissing her hair as he rocked her.

	"It's alright." he promised meekly, hating, hardly believing that Den was so... that Sharon had grown up haunted by the image of ready violence. "That's over now. I'm here.... shhh!"

	"I won't let him take it! I'd rather know I'd gotten rid of it... that it was dead before he could kill it! I would!"

	"You don't mean that!"

	"No." Sharon whimpered, shaking her head miserably against Dennis' chest. "I don't and I'm sorry. I don't mean it. Least not til he... he flips... beats it out of me... organises a "trip" down the stairs! Dennis, I don't know! But I... I'm scared! I'm so scared! And there's... nothing you can do, there's nothing anyone can do!"

	"We'll work something out." Dennis managed, mumbling awkwardly into her hair by way of reply. 

	She laughed weakly. "No, we won't. I shoulda just kept my bloody mouth shut."

	"No! I deserve to know when I'm about to become a dad Sharon."

	"But you don't deserve to die.."

	Dennis wanted so much to scoff, to dismiss her and maybe shake her to her senses. She was unnerving him. But he made his peace inwardly, considering that she was drunk and emotionally drained... driven mad perhaps, temporarily anyway. And that was his fault. So he let the words go, saying only; "Neither does our baby."

	"What's with the "our"?" she questioned shakily, looking up at him with such suspicion in her eyes. "We're not about to start playing happy families are we Dennis huh? So really, this has got nothing to do with you... this is just your mistake. But it's alright for you, you can get up and walk away..."

	"But I'm not going to, am I?"

	"Why not? I would."

	"No you wouldn't." he told her, shaking his head softly. "You're strong."

	She seemed to relax at that compliment. Too much, tilting her head against Dennis' chest and giggling. Moments later, she straightened up, flinging her awry hair from her face. "Yeah I am... right now, I'm about 75% proof- oooh!"

	Laughing raucously, she fell against him. He moved to aide her straightaway but... he was struggling to recognise the woman he held.

	"Dennis?"

	Looking up expectantly, Dennis was relieved to see Dot come from The Vic towards them. Dot was the kindest of all souls, but... could he still be a little afraid? That if there was someone else here then... maybe Sharon could be proved right... that they'd lose everything? Dennis had only ever lost her in the first place because he was stupid enough to let Den close.

	"We're OK, Dot!" he called hastily, stepping to shield Sharon from her view.

	"Oh, bring her back inside... she'll catch her death out 'ere!"

	Sharon shrieked out her laughter, hardly noticing the stunned look of disapproval, of concern to have come from her neighbour. Dennis smiled apologetically at Dot, offering a small nod as he tried to support Sharon, who went heavily, crying out;

	"It'll catch me wherever I am Dot. Me, Dennis, this baby... Death'll catch all of us - Dad'll see to that, you'll see!"

	"Sharon!" Dennis hissed, shaking her a little as they moved back into the Vic.

	"She's back!" Sharon sang miserably as she was faced with the same gossiping punters, still glued to their seats. "That Sharon Watts... right little slut i'n't she eh? C'mon, don't stop on my account, I know that's what you're all bloody saying. Oooh, she's stepped outside, bet that brother of hers had his hands all over 'er! That's right innit, Mo?"

	Though she wanted to glare at the woman whose dirty little secret looked set to destroy her granddaughter's life, Mo couldn't help but fix her eyes guiltily to the floor.

	Looking desperately to Phil stood watching behind the bar, and almost grateful that he looked pained on Sharon's behalf, pained to realise the extent of the mess she was in, Dennis asked gruffly; "Look, Phil, can I just take her upstairs?"

	"Yeah." he said, surprisingly without hesitation, moving down into the corridor to open the side door to the bar. "Course you can."

	"Oooh, did you get that ladies and gents?" Sharon cried ominously. "Upstairs. Wonder what could go on up there eh?"

	She was only shamed into checking her tongue when she realised that some of the people throwing her piteous looks had known her since she's been the little girl living upstairs.

	"I'm gonna make you a coffee!" Phil assured her, supporting her other side and leading her from the bar, up the stairs and to the flat. "A very large, very strong coffee. Believe me, you'll thank me for it in the morning!"

	 "Coffee... on the house..."

	Sharon threw her head back against the armchair she was sat in front of. She'd refused to sit in it, inside curling up on the floor, her legs bent up to her chest, her face buried in her knees. But now she groaned, just at the thought of coffee... its taste, its smell, having to drink it, being forced to face this mess with some bastard clarity. She just didn't want to do it.

	"No..." she pleaded quietly, staring at the ceiling as she shook her head, pressing against the cushion. "No..."

	Exchanging a look that felt so much like defeat, Dennis reached and took the steaming mug in his hands from Phil for Sharon. "So it bloody well should be." he muttered hotly, scooting forward and placing it with a definite clunk on the coffee table. "You've had enough money off her tonight... it's your fault she's in this state, Mitchell."

	Phil laughed cruelly. "Oh yeah! Course! I pour her a few drinks, so what? But it ain't my fault she felt she had to drink 'em, I didn't get her pregnant did I?"

	The only thing that stopped Dennis muttering "Not from want of trying!" was the anger. "Jesus Phil, even you must know you don't let pregnant women get hammered!"

	"Well, I didn't know she was pregnant did I? What, you think I stop every bird before I give 'em drinks they've paid for and ask 'em if their brother's gone and got 'em up the duff recently?"

	As Dennis rammed his newly formed fist cautiously into his pocket, knowing otherwise it was gonna cause some serious damage, Sharon gasped quietly. The gazes of both men stood before her snapped instantly to her frightful face, her big eyes brimming with tears. It seemed something Phil had said had struck a terrifying chord with her.

	"Sharon?" he whispered, going around the edge of the sofa and crouching next to her, the corner of the coffee table cutting in uncomfortably to Dennis' hip. But he didn't care, he just wanted to know she was OK. Well, of course, she wasn't OK but... something close?

	He didn't know why he looked back up at Phil, it wasn't like he could offer anything to make a breath of this make any more sense or to make Dennis suddenly understand what was going on in Sharon's head. And he hated that he'd lost sight of her. There'd been a time he'd known her better than anyone on this Square.

	But Phil knew immediately that he was without a clue, shrugging his shoulders and moving slowly from the room. At least there had been an understanding there, Dennis thought. If it was just him and Sharon again, then maybe she would talk to him, believe in whatever it was he would manage to say back to her.

	Sighing gently, somehow feeling inside that somewhere, he was going to go so wrong, he turned carefully, caging the mug of coffee, wincing as it burnt against his fingertips. "Drink it." he urged, even as Sharon gazed at it like he held of a cup of arsenic. "It'll make you feel better."

	She smiled weakly and Dennis was pacified as she obediently took the weight of the hot mug into her tremoring hands. She mumbled something as she took the first tentative sip, and Dennis was sure he'd heard her wrong, hence why he asked her to repeat herself.

	"What?"

	"I said-" Sharon began again, resting the mug against her knees. "-I'd feel better if Zoe was having your baby instead of me..."

	Dennis scoffed almost immediately, dismissing her before he even really knew he was doing it. "Don't be so-"

	"Stupid?" she offered, giving him a dangerous look. "Is it? At least Zoe's baby could live. He might think you were an idiot for letting it happen... not that he's one to talk, but... he'd be pleased for ya I reckon. He'd never hurt Zoe's baby..."

	"And he won't get near this-" He checked himself quickly, curling his fist again in a gentler frustration as he gave her a sympathetic look. "-your baby."

	She smiled then. A smile that Dennis could tell she didn't mean, but it was a smile that said she was grateful that he'd at least tried to say the words with some sincerity.

	"I almost wanna thank you... just for proving that I... y'know..."

	Dennis bowed his head, laughing in spite of himself. Spoken out loud, it was all so damn ridiculous, it was almost funny.

	"Well don't." he advised her. "There's no need. I don't ever remember it being a chore..." 

	Sharon returned his gentle smile. She saw a friend in his face and that was a comfort when she needed it the most. She relaxed into the closeness that existed in the warm room, which in itself existed only for the two of them at that moment. She felt safe. And she hadn't felt that for a painfully long time.

	"That's cos you don't remember it. How we ever gonna know which time it was eh? It only takes once."

	Dennis nodded slowly, licking his lips nervously. "Well, you're, er... seventeen, maybe eighteen weeks right? And I... I-"

	Sharon couldn't quite comprehend the sympathy beating in her chest as she looked at him. She only knew that it was there and that she didn't wish it away. She knew the words that lay in Dennis' mouth, the ones he was finding it so difficult to say to her face. And she took pity.

	"You left me three months ago Dennis." she said quietly, just hoping that he felt less burdened now. The next silent moment was unbelievably awkward in feeling, but at least it went by.
	
	"And we were together for... what... seven, eight weeks?"

	Sharon lifted her head steadily, tilting her chin to disguise the painful lump in her throat she was swallowing down. "Seven weeks and three days."

	Dennis winced silently, squeezing his eyes tight shut for a momet as he waited for the pain, that stabbing pain in the centre of his chest to leave. "So... So the baby...?"

	"First... second week we were together." she shrugged, never to be completely sure of the date.

	"We were on holiday..."

	Sharon laughed, biting into her thumb, like she was fighting to stop herself saying the words that came anyway. "Yeah well, I don't recall the sex stopping cos of that... in fact - God, you never did waste any time you did ya?"

	
	 Wanting to avoid her question, made uneasy by her upfront approach, Dennis asked; "How's the coffee?"

	"Awful." she replied honestlly, shaking her head gently in despair. As she caught the way he was looking at her, reproaching her, she laughed softly, promising; "But don't worry, I'll drink it."

	He nodded, relieved to hear it. But he said nothing. He wasn't about to push his luck - he was gonna leave her to it.

	But it appeared Sharon didn't want to be left to anything. Her eyes were dancing uneasily over his face, and he couldn't bear to look away, captivated almost by her pained interest.

	Sighing softly, she leant forward to place the mug on the coffee table. She winced at the exertion in her back and Dennis moved to help her, his hands pressed around hers as he guided it down. "Here."

	"Thanks." she whispered, stroking the hair back from her face. Tense seconds passed them by, and then, as if they'd never spoken at all, Sharon asked; "Dennis, can I show you something?"

	"Yeah. Yeah, course."

	Pressing her hands into the cushion of the armchair, Sharon pushed herself up with a groan, shaking her head to refuse Dennis' unspoken offer of help. She moved to the door, still stood ajar from Phil's retreat, and she pushed against it, satisfied as it clicked shut. She felt safer now, and almost felt brave enough to do this now that she and Dennis were closed off in this room.

	She bit anxiously into her lip as she turned away from the door and shrugged her jacket from her shoulders, letting it drop from her body and onto the sofa. Dennis' eyes widened, almost involunatrily as they took in her shape.

	"Hides it well don't it... all this dressing like a widow lark?"

	"Sharon..." he began apologetically, feeling his own words of the past coming back to attack him and not quite knowing how he was going to excuse himself, even now.

	But Sharon was not interested, smiling to ease his conscience. "I know you've been ignoring me and everything Dennis, but... I almost loved you for not noticing I'd put any weight on. Any other bloke I've been with woulda been right on it. You... You made me feel better. Thank you."

	His lips tightened into a smile that was not quite meant. Dennis couldn't bring his terrified eyes from her stomach.

	Sharon noticed this and released another sigh of nervousness, bowing her head as she slipped her warmed fingertips beneath the edge of her top and pushed it up, revealing her tummy. Not huge, and beneath her clothes in no way obvious. But bare, Dennis saw... he saw that she was undoubtedly pregnant, a small and not quite rounded bump sat on top of the waistband of her trousers. Had he known sooner then he supposed he would have done the typical man thing and suggested she was merely bloated. But there was a baby inside her. The evidence was looking right at him.

	"I.. I feel it move sometimes... like I've got a butterfly doing somersaults in there. It tickles more than anything, but it definitely moves."

	And he was gobsmacked, the every word he and Sharon had exchanged being tossed around in his head. 

	"But you said... you said you've only known for a week..." he muttered frightfully, mesmerised in this same fashion as he got up and sat against the arm of the sofa, just staring at Sharon's bump as his hands shook desperately in his lap.

	"Yeah, officially. I did a pregnancy test last week, went to the doctor, whatever. But I didn't need him to tell me what I already knew, did I? I just didn't wanna have to face it being true. When... When the morning sickness started, oh God, I just wanted to curl up and die... maybe I'll still get my wish eh?"

	"You can't talk like this."

	"How are you gonna stop me?" she demanded.

	"I don't know." Dennis confessed meekly. "I really don't know."

	With a sympathetic nod, Sharon reached across and took up one of his hands from his lap. He watched her, as if she were touching another, terrified, hypnotised even, as she drew it up and lay his hand against her stomach. He flinched as his skin came in contact with hers, but she was not fazed. She'd known to expect it, she could not scold him for it. She simply laid her hand firmly over his to hold him there, to show him there was nothing to be afraid of. Because she was there. And she was wishing he'd feel what she felt.

	"God... what was that?"

	He looked terrified and somehow, Sharon wanted to take him in her arms. But she didn't dare. Dennis was not a child... the vibration to have gone through his palm and startled him was.

	"That..." Sharon said softly. "...was the butterfly ballet."

	

	Dennis smiled, but God, how he tremored against her. This was... beyond anything he could ever have imagined before now.

	"What d'you think?" Sharon coaxed gently, pressing a little harder into his hand. Her stomach dropped as he flinched, apparantly fighting to escape her touch. 

	"I think.. I think you should finish your coffee... yeah-"

	Sharon understood. She was stung, but she understood and pulled back, covering her bump once again. Dennis got up immediately, entirely unable to disguise the way he was shaking. He felt as though it had gone right through to his core - and he'd never really been sure that he had one until that moment. He turned and handed her the mug from the little table, needing to occupy his hands, even if he couldn't exactly look at her as she reached to take it. Her fingers were poised in an unaccommodating way, just to ensure the two of them would not touch again. Therefore, the mug was heavy for her fingertips and she almost dropped it but Dennis barely noticed, falling heavily back on the sofa.

	Sharon sat slowly down on the surface of the coffee table, which creaked beneath her carefully distributed weight and earnt her Dennis' attention once again.

	"Made it real for you, that, hasn't it?"

	"I don't know what it's done." he confessed quietly, somehow ashamed to hear the words leave her mouth. "I don't know."

	"I shouldn't have-"

	He laughed bitterly, cutting off her admission of regret. "Ain't your fault you've got reason to is it?"

	"Isn't it? It takes two last I heard. This ain't all your doing."

	He didn't look as if he believed her for a second. But she didn't feel a need to push him. She was gonna have enough reactions to deal with once this awful mess was common knowledge, she really didn't want to be turning in on Dennis just because, at the time, she had nothing better to do.

	"Anyway, it worked the other way round for me. I've been trying to tell myself all this was just... a really, really bad case of food poisoning or something. You know, being sick... getting that feeling in my tummy? But then... today, going for the scan and just seeing it up there on the screen. It was a life, a proper little baby, with arms and legs and everything."

	"So you go and give it alcohol poisoning."

	Sharon felt her current regard for Dennis buckle viciously as she glared at him. "Don't chastise me Dennis. Don't you dare. You think getting out of your head solves everything! It's how we ever ended up having sex in the first place remember?"

	"No. I wasn't drunk." he said stiffly, his eyelids flickering slowly in indignance. 

	"Pffft - like I believe that. There was nothing in that bottle by the time I came back to the flat. You were wrecked. You must have been."

	"Oh, so there's a development." Dennis mused as he leant back against the sofa cushions.

	Sharon was bewildered. "What?"

	"You stopped me leaving you Sharon. You kissed me... we went to your bedroom."

	Sharon scoffed, tittering manically. "Oh, would you have preferred we'd gone into Vicki's?"

	He shook his head, refusing to address her words. "You weren't drunk. You were upset, that was your excuse afterwards... all that time you were tryin' t'pretend it hadn't happened..."

	"It wasn't an excuse." she protested weakly. "I was upset. You... saying all that stuff about Dad..."

	"But you knew what you were doing..."

	"Yeah."

	"But now you say I was wasted. Out of my head, didn't know what I was doing, what I was saying. You make it sound like I was the vulnerable one. So you tell me, who took advantage here Sharon? Who really took advantage?"

	"You think that matters now?" Sharon demanded sharply.

	"Well, no... it wouldn't!" he agreed, lacing his hands together as he leant forward, interest piqued in his eyes. "But we had a relationship-"

	Sharon huffed. "That what we're calling it now is it darlin'?"

	Dennis ignored her. "You're having my baby, Sharon-"

	She raised her palm to silence him. "Carrying." she corrected. "Not necessarily having."

	Thunder went across his beautiful face as he leapt to his feet, but Sharon wasn't to be fazed, there were too many despicable vices whirling round her sorely abused system and keeping her strong.

	"-and you say now that that's all because I decided to get wrecked and hope against hope that you'd fancy tearing the clothes off my back that night? You're a callous bitch Sharon."

	Beneath the clothes that hid the existence of her unborn child, Sharon shivered. She was stung, she was hurt - and maybe she'd deserved it. That was what was the hardest thing to endure. She'd expected Dennis' pain, his anger and confusion and now she clung to it, playing to his perception of her, playing with all her might.

	"Well I ain't yours anymore am I?" she spat coldly. "So don't worry about it."
	
	"I was in love with you!"

	Dennis leant in towards her and yelled out his confession. But as soon as the words were out, he regretted it, spinning away to the window before Sharon had really even registered the devestated gleam of his eyes. 

	He bit down hard into his thumb and mumbled distantly, as if he were talking to himself; "I really was."

	Sharon rose slowly, pressing her hand into his shoulder, not really knowing whether she should touch him at all but feeling she couldn't bear to leave him alone. He turned, almost in suspicion as he felt her touch, and his stomach jolted as he found himself being pulled helplessly forward into her shimmering eyes. Even as she hurt him, angered him, damn her, she was still so beautiful. But her words were not. They did not exist to comfort him. They too were cold, even though she spoke them so gently, with such a deceptive warmth.

	"Well, now you know how I felt, don't you?"

	He shook his head miserably, hating that he couldn't help but be so honest. "But I don't do I?" he shot back shakily, so damn afraid that he was about to break down in front of her. "Cos you just told me... all of it... was lies... us-"

	But Sharon remained stony faced, even as his wordless glance pleaded so desperately with her. "But that ain't news is it Dennis? Of course it was all lies, you made it that way. I was in love with you too... but I didn't really know you at all did I? Do you know what it felt like, realising that all the time I was sat in that kitchen, listening to you tell me you'd killed someone that... that the baby... was there too? C'mon Dennis, work it out. I coulda been... five weeks gone by then - never knowing it cos I'd never have believed it! But this baby, Dennis, your baby listened to you confess to murder, of course it was lies... do you think I'd have wanted you near me, in any capacity if I'd known that you-"

	"No." Dennis agreed darkly, not needing to hear all of her words to know what she intended to say. It was extremely guessable. "-but it don't... you heard all that and you... you still wanted us to be together..."

	"I know." Sharon muttered, hardly needing to be reminded. "And I thought that was what you wanted too. But I guess I was still kidding myself that I knew you."

	"So maybe you don't-" Dennis shrugged, turning back from the window. "-but I... I never wanted to be anything different to the guy you thought you knew-"

	"So now you wanted to lie to me?"

	He flinched at the danger in her eyes as she hissed out her challenge. How could she not know how wrong she was?

	"No. Never. But I wanted you. You, Sharon, you know I did. And if I had to lie to you to-"

	"Have me?" Sharon pushed, her lip curled in disgust as she offered the words it was obvious Dennis was struggling to deliver for their vulgarity in sound.

	"-then I was gonna do it."

	"Oh I bet you were. You know, I think you had it right... what you said at Dot's that day... with you, it's... anything to get your leg over!"

	He glared at her, watching through narrowed eyes as she dropped down against the sofa. She jumped a little as he stepped up against the cushions, bending his knees and settling himself on the armrest, tugging viciously on his hands, just to distract his attention from her presence. But it was with a painful breath of determination that he lifted his head and said; 

	"But I didn't lie to you did I Sharon? I just didn't tell you the truth."

	She spat out a scornful laugh from the side of her mouth. 

	"Excuses like that don't make what you did any better Dennis. You lied to me, just to get me into your.. my bed-"

	Dennis smiled wryly as Sharon growled in irritation in her own apparant error. "But I didn't lie." he insisted. "I couldn't have done unless you'd come right out and asked me "Oh by the way Dennis, it wasn't you that shot Jack was it?" and you coulda done it Sharon, I know the thought was in your head, even if you didn't wanna give yourself the time to think it. And if you'd ask me darlin', oh I ain't stupid, of course I'd have said "No!" But I never had to because you didn't ask, so I didn't lie to you!" 

	"But you would have done!"

	"Oh Sharon, come on! We were barely holding ourselves together. What were we gonna do? Sit down and trade secrets? And what if you'd gone first eh, told me about the baby? You really reckon I'd have been jumping up and down wanting to tell ya what I'd done? Den woulda done that anyway... you wouldn't have needed me-"

	"But I did!" Sharon cried out desperately, pulling his words entirely out of context to cause herself nothing but more pain. "I needed you more then than I've ever... just when I needed you to prove to me... that you'd... meant it... you got up and left me. And why, Dennis, why? I forgave you murder because I loved you so much and that... that's the thanks I get?"

	"What was I meant to do Sharon?" Dennis questioned awkwardly with a sigh. "What was I meant to do?"

	She shook her head sadly - she didn't have an answer for him. Her logic had been destroyed long ago in the madness of their love, in the agony of their seperation - wasn't the fact that their child existed inside her proof enough of that?

	"You weren't meant to lie to me."

	"But I didn't did I?" he repeated.

	Sharon begged to differ. "You told me you loved me."

	Dennis' hand dropped away from his chin in shock. "What..." he managed at last. "...and you think that was a lie?"

	She tried to nod, but the pressure of the lump to have risen in her throat overwhelmed her and she bowed her head as the tears came, forcing her hand to her mouth to suppress the sound.

	"You... You shouldn't have let me... be...lieve... it... oh God-"

	She collapsed at last into the armchair. It hurt Dennis to look at her, but he sound that guilt would not let him bring his eyes away. She reached for the coffee mug and sat hunched with it in her lap, not looking as she had much intention at all of raising it to her lips and taking another sip. 

	She rocked over it, miserably back and forth and whispered croakily; "I wish you knew... I wish you knew..."

	"Well I won't." he told her bluntly, not really aware if she'd expected a reply, but wincing as he realised how cold his words sounded, even to his own ears. "Until you tell me..."

	But Sharon whimpered, almost in fright and shook her head desperately. "But you don't care... you don't care!"

	Dennis got up off the arm of the sofa then and walked round the back, settling himself on the edge of the coffee table in front of Sharon. He thought that maybe he shouldn't, but again, guilt made him do it.

	"How can you say that? Sharon... we've got a baby-"

	"Exactly!" she hissed, venom in her eyes as she steeled herself to look at him, just praying she would not pity him as she pitied herself at this moment. "And that's all you care about... you couldn't give two shits about me!"

	"D'you really believe that? Well alright then!" he shouted as he got up, somehow not able to bear the extent of their proximity at that moment. "Do what you wanna do Sharon, I mean, who am I to stop you? I'm just the bloke you're apparantly in love with... I'm just the bloke whose baby you're having!"

	"But am I?" she yelled back, before adding bitterly; "Y'know, I think it'd serve you right if I did get rid of it!"

	Turning away in that moment, afraid that if he didn't, he was going to say, or more frighteningly, do something he might regret, Dennis bashed around in the sideboard stood against the wall and pulled out the phone book, going through it so viciously as he sat back down on the sofa, Sharon winced with every page he turned, each one sounding as though he was tearing them out as he went. Leaning over the book as it sat in his lap, he snatched up a pen from the littered coffee table and scribbled on the edge of the folded TV guide.

	"What are you doing?"

	Dennis glared at her, tossing the directory to his side, ignoring that it bounced dangerously on the sofa cushion and instead dropped the TV guide into her lap.

	"Abortion clinic... Kensington Road."

	She scoffed, turning her head away. Dennis got up again and snatched the phone from the charging cradle. Sharon flinched as he stood above her, thrusting it at her.

	"Do it." he said steadily. "Go on... call 'em."

	"You're being ridiculous."

	"No I'm not. I hurt you, didn't I? And you... you wanna do this to hurt me, fair enough, I deserve it. So I'm offering you the way out here. I'll go with you if you want and it'll all be sorted; dead, gone - before even Den knows about it!"

	Staring long and hard at him, fright in her eyes as the steelyness of his did not waiver, Sharon took the phone.

	
	
	But it shook in her hands. 

	Tears slipped silently down her face as she looked anxiously from the scrawled numbers to the keypad, cursing everytime she got a digit wrong and was forced to endure the entire sequence again. And forced was definitely the word, she could feel herself burning under Dennis' watchful glare. He hated her right now, that's what it felt like. And Sharon wasn't particularly crazy about him either, but this? This was madness. 

	Crying out in frustration, she tossed the phone to her side and turned away from it.

	"This is stupid." she muttered, only so as not to let the silence unnerve her quite as much as it was. She drummed her fingertips anxiously across her lip and at last glanced up into Dennis' darkened face. 

	There was ever such a slight smirk. Not one of humour, one of resignation. Sharon wanted to let anger stir - he'd expected her to give up. But she was too drained to let it happen. All that mattered was that he was right - she couldn't do this.

	"There's no point to this Dennis, you know no-one's gonna answer, not at this time!"

	He shrugged. "So we'll call again in the morning."

	"No we won't!" she hissed scornfully. "You know we won't! What's with all these "we" lines anyway? You've done your bit! It's my baby, my body - my choice."

	"But what is your choice? Do you even know?"

	"What's it to you?"

	"Don't piss me about Sharon." Dennis growled warningly. "I've got a right to know."

	She sighed, pressing her palm to her feverish forehead. "I've done the whole abortion thing remember? Look where it left me. Thinking I was infertile, thinking I wasn't... a proper person - so desperate to hold a baby in my arms that I almost ruined my little sister's life! Y'know, I never thought I'd say this but I'm glad you took her... Vicki... to the clinic."

	"I didn't march her there Sharon. It was her choice. She just needed to know there was someone on her side, that's all."

	"Yeah." Sharon nodded, smiling weakly. "Well, I know how she feels. I can't do it again Dennis, I can't. Y'know, you're right, I don't know how it ever got like this but I don't hate myself... and I don't hate you enough to wanna kill our child."

	"Our?" Dennis echoed, hardly daring to believe he had her voice such an acceptance of this situation, one they could never have imagined they'd find themselves in.

	She shot him a dubious look. "Don't look at me like that." she demanded, her voice tremoring with the threat of tears she could feel burning in her eyes. "That's what it is. And I want this baby, I do. I want it so much... oh God, my head hurts-"

	Growning, she curled up miserably in the armchair, rocking back and forth. It pained Dennis to see her so affected, hear her whimpering in pain.

	"D'you want me to go get you some aspirin or summat?"

	Sharon only lifted her aching head to laugh. "This poor kid. It's not even born and already I'm the worst mum ever. Drowning the poor thing in G&Ts & caffeine..."

	"Oh shit!" Dennis cursed breathily. "I didn't think!"

	Raising her hand to dismiss his panic, she shook her head. "It'll just have to forgive us... me. I'm suffering for it, and I think that's what's meant to happen, so no aspirin - thanks."

	"Well... OK..." he said doubtfully, stepping further back into the room. "But d'you... feel any better?"

	"No." she admitted, laughing in spite of herself. "To be honest, I feel really, really sick-"

	And to illustrate such a feeling, Sharon found that she had to pull herself urgently out of the armchair and fight to be out of the room in time, running across the landing and crashing, coughing and spluttering, into the bathroom.

	"Sharon?!"

	He rushed after her, but found that the bathroom was firmly shut - locked. 

	"Sharon!" he repeated, more desperately this time, pointlessly rattling the handle, with a force that mighta meant it could come away in his hands.

	But all she could do was splutter in reply. Sighing, Dennis sank down against the door, his knees bent up to his chest, and he just waited for the noise of Sharon's ill-feeling to pass, hoping she was OK. He decided to take a chance, his cheek tilted against the door as he spoke hopefully, wondering if she would hear him at all, part of him hoping she wouldn't so he could get the words out and the other part hoping she would, just so she might believe in the words he wanted to say to her.

	"I... I want the baby too. I mean, bloody hell Sharon, you definitely know how to knock me for six, but... it's my doing innit... us? And I know... nothing's ideal... never was, but... that ain't the baby's fault. And you're wrong, you'd be the greatest mum - ever. This is your chance, yeah? And I'll be there for you... both of you, I swear. I'll do whatever, whenever you need me. Oh... I've gotta be good at something, haven't I?"

	He felt a presence close by, but knew it couldn't be Sharon, the door still shut firmly against his back, even though the gagging and gasping had thankfully died down. He turned his head, ready to snap at Spencer to go and use the loos in the bar or whatever. But he went cold. Because Dennis wasn't looking at Spencer, or any person that had a right to be upstairs. Dennis stood slowly up, shielding the bathroom door with his form and more so, his defiance.

	Den replicated his stance, tilting his chin and sporting a wry smile as he stuffed his hands deeper into his trouser pockets. "Take it she's in there then?" he said quietly, inclining his head.

	"Yeah."

	"Well..." He lifted a fist, stepping forward to rap on the door, but he tutted dismissively as Dennis instinctively stood in his way. "Oh get out the way, she's my daughter!" And he knocked. Dennis suddenly realised how sick Sharon must have been feeling to be on the other side of the door. "Princess! Princess, open the door!"

	Sharon was almost sent reeling back into the bowl of the toilet at hearing her father's steady summons from the other side of the door. This was the moment she'd dreaded, and she knew why. She remembered it too well and she couldn't let it happen to another. A crippling pain shooting up her back as she straightened reluctantly up, Sharon winced, pressing her hand to her burning temples and whimpering. She felt disgusting. And, surprisingly, even to her own desires, Sharon knew there was only one person to placate her.

	"D-Dennis?" she called shakily.

	She knew how much her need would irritate her father, but she blocked out how sickened it made her feel to consider it. She just wanted to know he was close and he too was desperate to reassure her.

	"I'm still here darlin'... I ain't going anywhere..."

	Though he could not see her, Sharon felt obliged to nod, relieved to hear his voice - to know he'd had the strength not to leave her at the first opportunity. She pulled herself up and, hardly daring to breathe as she turned towards the door, her hand shaking as it closed around the door handle and pulled it down.

	Dennis was still stood back against the door, shielding Dennis' approach. Sharon smiled weakly, pressing gently down into his arm to let him know she was there. He almost flinched in surprise, whirling round and smiling in relief to see that, although she still looked an uneasy colour, she was well. But still, he felt the need to protect her - and he hated that he didn't know how.

	"You've heard then, Dad?"

	He sputtered a laugh viciously from the side of his mouth. "Oh yes, Princess!" He rolled his eyes. "Everyone on this Square's heard haven't they? Before me I might add! And what about lover boy 'ere eh?"

	"Don't start." she groaned. "I don't need this!"

	"Yeah? Well I didn't need to hear this from Ian Beale downstairs did I?"

	Dennis glowered. "Well, he didn't have to open his trap did he?"

	"Not like my daughter eh mate? Where would you be if she hadn't eh? Not knowing about this filthy little cancer you've put inside her!"

	Seeing the tension in Dennis' back and knowing quite definitely what it meant, Sharon threw herself desperately forward, grappling for him. "No! Dennis... just... give us a moment, yeah? Just... me and my dad-"

	He shook his head; he couldn't trust himself, or Den to believe they would be OK if he left Sharon alone with her dad's menances.

	"Promise me... whatever he says... you won't call them... promise me!"

	Reading the desperation in his fraught face, pity kicked at her tender stomach until Sharon felt sick once again. "Shhh! Shhh!" And as he began to crumble, hating that he did so in front of one he hated so much; biting so hard into his lip, Sharon feared it was about to become stained with blood and she stretched up, winding her arms around his neck and driving him into her shoulder, his ragged breaths warming the crook of her neck.

	"Touching!" Den sighed, apparantly bored of their exchange already.

	"Oh shut up!" Sharon snapped, rocking Dennis gently. She only released him as his tremoring subsided and twisted her torso to push him back with her shoulders. He sagged, apparantly unwilling, or without the energy to hold his own weight with pride. So Sharon offered her touch once again, tilting his gaze up to hers by casing his jaw. "Don't go far, OK?"

	Tears were slipping silently down his cheeks as he nodded, pushing his way past Den without looking at him so he wouldn't see the way his face was glistening with such misery. He paused in the hall to take in his sorry reflection in the mirror and roughly wiped away the droplets with his sleeve, pulling in a deep breath and striding into the bar.

	It promptly fell silent. Dennis glared round at them all. "What?" he demanded quietly. Then, most of them turned away, thinking better of challenging Dennis Rickman, no matter what he'd done. "Vodka please Trace... a very, very large vodka!"

	She looked at him doubtfully and he stared at her, almost daring her to refuse him. She stepped away, hesistantly getting a glass.

	"Dennis-" came a prepatory whine from behind him. "-are you sure you should?"

	Dennis counted in five silent seconds, willingly himself to be calm before he turned round, with the falsest smile on his face as he leant against the bar. "Why not, Ian mmm? Why not? Why shouldn't I? You know it's probably thanks to you I'm gonna lose my kid? What is it with you eh? Can't keep your soddin' mouth shut when the big man arrives!"

	"He's Sharon's dad... I thought he had a right to know..."

	Dennis threw him a dangerous look. "Not before me he didn't. This ain't got nothing to do with Den... and now I don't know what's gonna happen to my own flesh and blood - proud of yourself are ya?"

	He cast his eyes down guiltily, mumbling; "Where's Sharon?"

	"Upstairs of course, not that it's any of your business. I hope you enjoy having blood on your hands Ian, cos if anything happens to my baby-"

	"'Ere, hang on!" Jane cried, scooting out of the booth to come defend Ian. "Nothing that does or doesn't go on between you and Sharon is Ian's fault! Is it Ian's fault you treated her like dirt? Is it Ian's fault you left her? Is it Ian's fault she couldn't bear to tell you she was having that baby until she was almost five months gone? No! This is all your doing Dennis Rickman and if you can't handle your own father, then maybe you should have thought about that before you started demanding sex with his daughter!"

	Dennis flinched, but recovered almost immediately, sweeping up the glass Tracey had reluctantly set down behind him and tipping the clear, burning liquid down the back of his throat. He laughed softly, a mocking laugh, but he didn't care. They deserved it, the lot of 'em.

	"Needs you to fight his battles now does he, Jane? Figures. Always was a spineless bastard. What did any of this have to do with you anyway, Ian?"

	Jane scoffed. "What did this have to do with any of us?" She gestured pointedly around the whole pub. "It was Sharon's choice to make it that way. Maybe if you'd had the guts to talk to her..."

	Hating that he didn't have the words to excuse himself, only the most hideous, strangulating feeling of self loathing, Dennis turned away, slamming down his glass and demanding; "Same again!"

	Tracey dared to shake her head. "Er, no... I don't think so..."

	"Bloody hell Trace, it was Sharon that got bladdered, not me!"

	"Yeah!" she agreed. "And given the state she's in, I don't think she needs you going the same way!"

	"Maybe she won't need me at all!" Dennis snapped, turning his head to glare at Ian.

	"Look-" he said awkwardly. "-Sharon's a mate..."

	"A mate? Do you know how much she wants that baby?"

	Ian looked away, but Dennis did not miss the way he rolled his eyes. "That's not how it sounded earlier on!"

	"Well then you ain't as great a mate as you think you are, otherwise you'd know! She's scared out of her mind up there because she knows what this makes all you faceless, nameless busybodies think of her. She thinks you've all known her all her life, but none of you have really been paying any attention have ya? It don't matter to her how it got there, she wants to have that baby, it's all she's ever wanted... but it's mine right, and she can't possibly have my baby... not when our dad's up there, ready to scare it out of her!"

	Ian's neck jerked and his eyes were full of fright as he looked at Dennis.

	"So I hope you can live with yourself knowing what you've done to your mate, Ian. I really do."

	"Oh God... Dennis, I'm sorry!"

	"Bit late for that i'n't it? But never mind, you can buy me another drink to make up for it!"

	Ian threw him a ludicrous look, illustrating what he thought of Dennis' reckless reply in that one glance.

	"I'm not going to serve you Dennis." Tracey repeated steadily behind him.

	"I will." Kat called, a little too chirpily, uncrossing her legs and getting up to stride round the other side of the bar, a smile on her glossy red lips despite the calls of protest from her family.

	"Er, Kat-" Alfie began awkwardly, rushing up to her and trying to usher her away from the pumps. "-you're not working tonight darlin', c'mon!"

	"Oh shove off Alf, I'm just getting my daughter's fella a drink... no crime in that is there?"

	As she reached over to take the glass, the uneasy smile dropped from Dennis' dried lips, in desperate need of another sheen of vodka. She smiled a deliberately cruel smile as she turned to the dispensers.

	"Not that you will be my daughter's fella for much longer-"

	"You don't know that."

	"Oh, I do mate, believe me. There ain't no way Zo'll wanna be part of your little freakshow. And anyway-" She moved back and placed the refilled glass calmly on the bartop. "-I gave her a call when Den went up. She's on her way over now. Enjoy."

	
	Sharon didn't know how it was that she was so anxious to call Dennis back as of the very moment that she sent him away. She'd known her dad all of her life, there was very little Dennis could do to protect her from any sort of reaction. And besides, hadn't she warranted it by getting into this situation? She still thought enough of Dennis, despite the way he had shattered her willing heart, to let it be her that was hurt, if that was how it was to be.

	Den had watched Dennis go, somehow amused to find that his son would not look him in the eye. Sharon had struggled to breathe one, sufficent breath into her chest where she would not choke and splutter on it, looking upon her beloved father with an old fright as their gazes met.

	Silently, she had turned and gone back into the lounge and Den, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers, followed her without a word. Tucking her leg up beneath her, Sharon sank onto the sofa, hugging a cushion protectively over her stomach. She kept her brimming eyes fixed at a spot on the floor as Den sank too, sighing, down beside her. He edged up onto his almost immediately however and Sharon winced at the sound of rustling. Den was holding the TV guide in his hand, swivelling it horizontally and reading;

	"Halbrook House? What's this number 'ere Princess?"

	"It's nothing." she snapped, snatching it and tossing it away for the venom it was. Venom that had never been meant, venom she was desperate to forget.

	"Really?" Den questioned, almost with a kick of humour to his tone that made Sharon's stomach jolt. "So you're not about to go running off for an abortion then?"

	She snapped her head round, looking at him suspiciously through narrowed eyes. "Thought hadn't even crossed my mind." she told him flatly.

	"I'm not sure you're being entirely honest with me here, Princess. You can't honestly want to raise that boy's kid?"

	"That boy?" she spat. "Don't talk like all this has come out of a one-night stand or something Dad, like we don't who he is. Dennis is your son."

	"Well exactly! And I can't say I'm all that comfortable with my daughter raising my son's baby!"

	Sharon couldn't help but scowl. "Just cos you never stuck around past the point of conception, Dad, don't assume Dennis is gonna be the same!"

	Den looked stung and Sharon shivered regretfully, but she just couldn't raise the right words.

	"So... you're just gonna go off and build your own little happy family?"

	Sharon scoffed. "What the hell's one of those these days?" Noticing that Den's look remained unchanged, no danger present in his eyes, she dared to soften and informed him; "No. No, we're not. But he... he says he's gonna be there for us..."

	"And you believe him?"

	Sighing, already bored of the progression of this conversation, she glared at him. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. Don't look at me like that, this isn't about me. I just need to know he'll be there for his baby and now I know he will."

	"Why d'you need 'im?" Den demanded and Sharon stared at him in surprise.

	"Dad... whether you like it or not, this is Dennis' baby and that's why. You know what being a dad means don't you? I couldn't deny anyone their child, least of all Dennis."

	"Well, how d'you know it's... his?"

	"Oh Dad, for God's sake! I'm not gonna miraculously become a slut just to settle your stomach OK?" She spoke out her next sentence, knowing it would sicken him but just needing him to understand. "Dennis was the last person I slept with. And he was definitely the only person I was sleeping with four months ago!" She widened her eyes in questioning as Den looked away in repulsion. "Happy now?"

	"Oh yes Princess, I'm ecstatic! How could you be so stupid?"

	"I didn't know it'd happen..." she mumbled awkwardly.

	Den spat out a laugh. "Oh Sharon! I know you and Ange never really talked but she must have told you the facts of life, birds and the bees and all that?"

	The look Sharon returned was damning. "You're annoying me now Dad. And anyway, who says it had to be Mum? Why couldn't you do it? Oh no, I remember now... cos first you were out doing Paula Rickman and then you were doing my best friend! I thought I was infertile Dad, what's your excuse, or did you never think you mighta left someone, somewhere pregnant?"

	She saw a stormy recognition in her father's eyes but it came to nothing. Den surprised her in fact, with a humoured smile, even as the door creaked and Dennis edged wordlessly into the room once again. "What are you expecting me to say? It's all true, we both know it is, I didn't care about anyone. But yes, Paula got pregnant. You are my daughter, and Dennis is my son. You cannot give birth to your brother's baby."

	Sharon could feel Dennis' reaction simply in his presence. And suddenly she felt so uneasy. Between the two of them, when they had been alone, they'd somehow reached an understanding, away from the complications of their past, even though this baby only served to remind them both of every painful moment. She'd really thought they'd be OK, if they could just forget the past and concentrate on moving on with this one last piece they couldn't let go.

	"But that's it isn't it?"Sharon murmured, her gaze sliding past Den's, towards Dennis whose hand was still on the door knob as he closed the door. And somehow, with a courage neither of them could feel, they managed to exchange a smile. Sharon relaxed for less than a second as she recalled what it was she had to say to present reason to her father, to remind them all. She spoke downwards, her guilty eyes watching as she toyed pointlessly with her hands in her lap. "He's not my brother. And I've never been his sister. Ever. We were lovers."

	Den intently watched the way that Dennis appeared afraid of the truth of Sharon's words. It amused him, which only served to irritate his son, needing to settle his gaze someplace else. Sighing dramatically, Den turned back to Sharon, asking; "And what are you now?"

	"Well we're not together if that's what you think."

	"But will you be?"

	"What's it to you?" Dennis muttered, no longer able to resist an input. Den turned slowly to his address, eyes widened in exaggerated surprise.

	"Oh, he speaks then."

	"Dad, for God's sake-" Sharon groaned, gaining his attention once again as she slouched back against the sofa cushions. "We're not together and believe it or not, the idea of it ain't the most important thing to either of us right now!"

	"So how exactly are you planning to do this... raise this baby?"

	"Why... Why do you care? You're making it sound like we have to be together to make any of this... acceptable and you were the one that tore us apart in the first place!"

	"Oh it wasn't quite like that was it Princess?" Den cast a dark look in Dennis' direction. "I know you've made some mistakes in your time, what with the Mitchells and all, but letting a murderer knock you up pretty much puts the icing on top the cake don't it?"

	Her hands pressed to her face, wanting to block out the harsh reality of the world around her, Sharon screamed; "Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

	"Pardon me for breathing!"

	Sharon only grew more frenzied as he effortlessly riled her. "I loved him, Dad! Why is it so damn impossible for you to get your head round that? I know what he's done, but I loved him and I'm not about to apologise for that... I'm not about to apologise for this baby! It's done, we're done... but we want this baby!"

	Den nodded wordlessly, with no return, no snide remark and this only unnerved Sharon more. Gasping a little after her over-certain declaration, doubt crept in and she raised her eyes frightfully to Dennis' face, the soft smile dancing over his every feature.

	"We do, don't we?"

	He nodded definitely.

	"I ask again-" Den sighed, apparantly bored of their interaction. "-how are you going to explain yourselves to the kid?"

	"What d'you mean?"

 	"Well, you won't be together you say, but you can't be brother and sister either, even though you're my daughter and he's my son. What will you be, cos, to be honest I don't see there's any way to the two of you won't f*ck up this child's mind."

	Sharon bit into her lip, turning her head and gauging Dennis' reaction as she spoke. "Friends." she said softly. "We'll be friends."

	Dennis didn't quite know how to agree. He was sure there was still so much more to the two of them as a unit, especially now he was aware how much they both wanted their baby.

	"Oh well, don't try and force it, Princess."

	"I'm not." she snapped, turning on her father once again. "You think we don't know how to be friends? Then I guess we had something you've never had with any woman you've ever known. We were together Dad, together because we thought enough of each other for it to be that way. And we were friends, the best of friends. We know what everyone says about Dennis, hell, I've said it myself before now, but he's not anything like you - we weren't in it for the sex. This is just what came of it and..."

	"...and I ain't gonna walk away from my kid." Dennis finished calmly. "Nothing like you."

	"Mmm, admirable son." Den assured him. "But you'll change your mind when the gossips start up again."

	"Oh, like you did when Paula got pregnant you mean?" Sharon hissed scathingly. "Least you've taught Dennis one thing Dad. You're what he never wants to be and that's how I know he'll be here for this baby. That's why I ain't afraid of what people'll say, not anymore. I'm not gonna butcher my own body, my baby, just to calm down the gossips on this pathetic little Square. They'll have to get used to it - and so will you."

	"And what if I refuse?"

	"Well you can... of course you can, it's your right. But if you really are that pathetic then... then I'll get up and I'll take my baby and I'll build us a life somewhere you, and the people round here like you, won't find us."

	"Oh yeah? And what about 'im?" He gestured lazily to Dennis, who had flinched in repulsion at the idea of losing his child in this new and equally painful fashion. "Where's 'e fit into this master plan of yours?"

	Sharon raised her weary head and consoled Dennis with a deep look from her piercing eyes. He scrutinised the flicker of her lips as she murmured; "Wherever he wants to. I know what you think of us Dad, believe me, I remember it, but Dennis has got responsibilities now. It's up to him where they lie."

	As her gaze met his hesitantly once again, Dennis could do nothing but swallow down his nerves. He hated that right now he was proving so many people right. This is massive and he was scared. But he knew he couldn't lose his baby, no matter what else had gone on before. He nodded solemnly, bowing his head and tearing his eyes away, leaving Sharon to look to her father once again, not quite feeling so consoled anymore.

	"This could be it Dad... for all of us... don't you see that? This baby... it means there's blood between us. But then... maybe that don't really mean all that much to you. Where were you for all of Dennis' life huh? All of Vicki's? Oh... when they tried to tell me you were still alive, I told them... I told then how much I loved you, how much I thought you loved me, that there was no way you'd ever leave me. But you did and worse still, you abandoned your real kids."

	And at last, Sharon and Dennis saw a look in Den's eyes they recognised, one they were too relieved to see to fear. It was cold, it was alive and it was angry.

	"You are my daughter." he repeated in a low hiss as his gaze swerved contemptously to Dennis. "He is my son."

	Sharon shook her head, sighing as she pushed herself up, announcing; "I'm bored now." 

	She edged round the coffee table and reached out to touch Dennis' arm. He gazed long and hard at their connection.

	"Are you OK?" she whispered gently, full of concern and unease too at his silence.

	"Yeah. Yeah, I'm OK. You?"

	Smiling nervously, Sharon's eyes seemed distracted from his face, making his stomach writhe. She bit into her thumb.

	"Sharon?"

	"Dennis..." she returned almost immediately, but not in reply. It was to gain his attention. Looking out past his shoulder, she nodded.

	He was almost loathe to, able to guess what was coming before he heard her voice. But hear it he did, wincing.

	Zoe was too bright, too bubbly, too carefree to know the truth. It was obvious.

	"Hi!" she sang out, pushing against the door to admit herself to the clasutrophobic room. "Kat said to come straight up so..." 

	But no-one moved. Sharon was staring at something on the other side of the room, Dennis' eyes were fixed to the floor and Den hadn't even made the effort to turn around and recognise Zoe's entrance. She was unnerved and immediately anxious. Even as she raised the question, something inside told her she didn't really want to know the answer.

	"What's... What's going on?"

	Still not looking at her, Den announced; "Well, this is when it gets interesting isn't it?" And he pulled himself up as both his son and daughter scowled disbelievingly at him.

	Zoe spluttered out a nervous laugh. "What does he mean?" she asked, her wide eyes tracking all of Dennis' non-movement. "What's going on?"

	Screwing his hands up in the pockets of his jeans, Dennis took several seconds to lift his gaze from the floor, chewing on his lip before he dared to say; "Zo... maybe you should sit down..."

	"No." she insisted, shaking her head jerkily as nerves began to take hold of her. "I'm fine standing."

	"Suit yourself..." And he moved past Sharon, who watched him anxiously as he began to pace, earning her a suspicious glare from Zoe. "I have to tell you something..."

	"Has it got anything to do with 'er?" Zoe demanded spitefully, jerking her head towards Sharon.

	"I am here y'know." Sharon muttered testily. "Yes it is... sort of."

	Narrowing her cold eyes at her boyfriend, Zoe came to her own conclusion and hissed; "Are you shagging her? Is that what this is? You're breaking up with me because she..."

	"I'm not breaking up with you Zo." Dennis assured her flatly, alarmed to see Sharon flinch. "God, can't you just have a little faith in me?"

	"No, not when you're making me as nervous as this. Just tell me what's going on."

	Sighing awkwardly, Dennis span round on his heel. "I'm gonna be a dad."

	As was expected. Zoe was staggered. "You what?"

	Blowing out a gentle breath of mocking, Den decided to help out. "What my son is trying to tell you Zoe, is that Sharon's pregnant."

	"You?" she spat, rounding on Sharon.

	Nodding, Sharon covered her mouth with her palm, glaring at Den. "Cheers Dad. That's great."

	"You're... pregnant?" Zoe managed to splutter, the last word sounding very much like it left a nasty taste in her mouth. "With Dennis' baby?"

	"Well, it was hardly gonna be anyone else's was it?"

	"But you... you can't have kids."

	"We've all been proved wrong there a'n't we?"

	Her lips twisted, unwilling to hear Sharon's words. She looked immediately to Dennis, who was sharing in Sharon's unease and could barely look his girlfriend in the eye.

	"What you gonna do about it?"

	"Nothing. I told you... I'm gonna be a dad."

	"You're letting her have it?"

	Sharon almost choked on a laugh of indignance. "I don't need his permission, Zo."

	Detesting that her rival had spoken directly to her when they was so much to get her reluctant head around, Zoe whirled round and sneered; "Nah, but you needed summat di'n't ya, you dirty little slut!"

	Dennis recognised what Zoe was about to do possibly a few seconds before she knew it herself and he stepped in her path as she flew forwards and shielded Sharon.

	"How could you do this to me?" she hollered as tears poured readily from her eyes.

	Groaning, Sharon cried out, "For God's sake little girl, he hasn't done anything. C'mon, I know you love sounding off about my bad points... you must have noticed I've been piling it on a bit? I'm nearly five months pregnant Zoe. Five months ago, Dennis was with me, yes? So he hasn't been cheating on you, don't worry. If he 'as, it ain't got nothing to do with me."

	"You ain't 'aving his baby Sharon, I won't let ya!"

	"What you gonna do Zo?" Sharon challenged cruelly. "Get Mo's knitting needles out? Oh yeah, cos Dennis'd really thank you for that wouldn't he?"

	She turned in disgust to Dennis, her every facial muscle screwed up. "Do you want it?"

	"Why wouldn't I?"

	"Cos... Cos it's hers."

	"It's mine." he returned determinedly.

	"Oh well, I hope you're proud of yourself! Keeping the bed warm for you are they?"

	"Didn't you hear me?" Sharon seethed. "I said... he's not cheating on you."

	"So why are you...?"

	"I just want... my baby. And I'm not gonna hide it away from its daddy just cos you don't like it. I don't want Dennis anymore Zoe, so shove your toys back in the pram eh? I just want my child to have a father."

	"So choose some other mug!"

	"Why? Why should I? Dennis was the one that got me pregnant!"

	"You're a liar!" Zoe hollered.

	"Really?" Sharon raised an eyebrow and turned to Dennis, who was squirming uneasily on the spot underneath the weight of the exchange going on between the two women in his life. "Go on Dennis! Tell her!"

	"It's my baby Zo. There ain't no question."

	"Do you... Do you want to get back with her?" she demanded venemously, spitting out her words for their every ludicrous syllable.

	This was the moment that Den appeared to have become shamelessly interested, snapping his head round, his eyes burning uncomfortably into Dennis, who had remained pointedly silent, inwardly wishing he had the words to dispel the suspicion he was well aware had built up inside of them, Sharon especially.

	"I just... I don't wanna lose my baby." he managed finally.

	Sharon bit into her lip as she gazed anxiously at him. "You won't." she said gently. "Will he Zo?"

	Zoe scowled, still demanding of her drained boyfriend. "Why d'you want it?"

	He dismissed her with a cold laugh. "Why the hell are you asking me to justify it Zo? It's mine, I ain't like him-" 

	He flung his arm up in accusation in Den's direction, who simply rolled his eyes and muttered; "Thanks very much."

	"-I ain't about to leave my flesh and blood without a dad."

	"So you want it cos it's yours, not just cos it's hers? I mean, she coulda been any woman right and you'd still... want the baby?"

	"That ain't fair."

	Raising her eyebrow and placing her hands on her hips, Zoe's very look dared Dennis to challenge her. "It's what I'm asking."

	But Dennis was unimpressed with the additional tension she was forcing into the room. "You really are determined to hear every dirty little detail aren't ya? C'mon then Zo, sit down!"

	"I told you-" she whimpered, pouting so pointlessly. "I don't want to."

	"So don't." Dennis shrugged. "But you knew what you were getting into."

	Zoe guffawed desperately. "Did I Hell, I didn't know you'd gone and gotten her up the duff did I?"

	"Sharon!" he cried in exasperation. "Her name is Sharon."

	"I know." she returned darkly. "But it leaves a nasty taste in my mouth, don't like saying it if I don't have to!"

	Giving her nemesis a tight smile, Sharon cocked her head and observed; "I really don't know what he sees in you darlin', you're pathetic."

	"And what are you eh? Using your brat to try and get him back!"

	Sharon was amused and actually managed a natural giggle as she brushed the hair back from her face with her fingertips. "Well don't look at me, Zo, I didn't put the baby there did I?"

	Her gaze swerved pointedly to Dennis, who cast his eyes down, hardly able to look at her while she was so calm on touching upon such private issues.

	"It ain't a baby." Zoe snarled. "It's a nasty little clump of cells."

	Sharon shook her head gently. "Oh it's a baby alright. Give her my bag Dennis."

	He didn't move.

	"Well go on!"

	His hand was unsteady as he obediently reached down to the floor for Sharon's abandoned bag. Though it looked as though the last thing she could want to do was touch it, Zoe snatched it from his grasp and began rifling savagely through it, which only amused Sharon further - because they both knew Zoe didn't have a clue what she was looking for.

	"Inside pocket."

	Her desperate hands at last closing in on the small, strong card, Zoe wrenched it savagely from the folds of the bag, a look of disgusted disbelief on her face as she took in every unmistakable feature.

	"It's a baby, Zoe. Dennis' baby. And just like the rest of us, you're gonna have to get used to that."

	"Never!"

	Straightening up in interest, Sharon smiled and turned expectantly to Dennis as she hooked her arms across her chest. "Well... that's that then."

	"Don't be stupid." Dennis hissed in reply, rounding on Zoe with a sigh. "Zo... I don't wanna hurt you-"

	"But?"

	"But..." he continued awkwardly, unnerved by her vicious prompting. "...if you seriously wanna put yourself in competition with my baby then you best be ready to lose."

	"What? How can you want... that more than you want me? I'm your girlfriend, you... you love me!"

	Her gasp of horror told him that the painful twitch in his neck had not had the decency to remain merely a twitch and that he'd shaken his head most definitely, like he was protesting.

	"No." he confessed meekly. "I don't know how do I eh? C'mon Zo, it ain't personal, I just... don't... not with anyone, apart from Vicki maybe."

	Zoe scowled. "Oh yeah, but she's the sister you haven't slept with remember? Don't look at me like that... you gonna tell me you never loved 'er? Or are you too scared to tell the truth in front of your dad?"

	Dennis threw her a dark look, making sure Den caught the gist of it as it went by. "He knows what it was like, Zo. He made it that way."

	Scoffing, Den rolled his eyes and muttered scathingly; "Have you ever taken responsibility for your own actions Dennis, or do you always find somebody else to blame?"

	Sharon tutted in irritation, feeling indignant on Dennis' behalf, but she was overlooked by all as Dennis turned to his father, his eyes ablaze. "You knew I loved her. And this is what you made that become. A mess. A miserable, pathetic mess. But whatever... I don't wanna leave my kid lonely. And you ain't gonna like this Den, but deal with it. I'm glad it's Sharon. I'm glad she's gonna be Mum to my kid. You've never seen that in her... how good she'd be, because you just wanna keep her as your little girl but..."

	"But she grew up and made her own mistakes didn't she Dennis?" Den acknowledged cruelly with a slight nod.

	 "Yeah she did." he agreed shakily, licking his cracked lips as his eyes strayed to Sharon, seeking reassurance against his words. "But if she gets the baby she's always wanted outta this, then I ain't one of 'em."

	Zoe's facial muscles scrunched sourly as she stepped forcefully into Dennis' eyeline amd squawked; "How can you say that? I'm your girlfriend-"

	"Yeah, so you keep saying!" he snapped in irritation, glaring at her and she flinched at the savageness of his tone. His remorse however, was not meant.

	"So why don't you care for me more?"

	"Because this has actually got nothing to do with you has it Zo?"

	"Oh what, so if I was pregnant, I'd get all this would I?

	Sharon groaned into her palm, hardly daring to contemplate the horror of such a possibility. "I bloody hope not love."

	"Shut up!"

	But Sharon was scornful. "I don't believe you. You're jealous of summat that ain't even breathing yet! He told you straight and believe me, I never thought he would, but he's got a spine somewhere. This... no, his world don't revolve around you."

	"Well it ain't about you either."

	Pulling herself up, Sharon couldn't help but smirk. "No, but it is for the next four months i'n't eh? And oh, the look on your face. That's what's gonna get me through childbirth that is... cheers Zo."

	
	"You bitch!" Zoe sneered, her face reddening as she stepped closer to Sharon beneath Dennis' apprehensive glance. "You really think you're gonna get your claws into him cos of this?"

	"Back into him." Sharon corrected gleefully. "And no, I don't. I want you all to hear this. I don't want nothing from him he don't wanna give us. That's Dennis Zoe, not you barking like a bitch on heat in his ear, cos I learnt long ago when he lies to me and I'll know it was you. You are not gonna interfere in our child's life, wherever you fit into Dennis', have you got that?"

	"Don't worry... wouldn't wanna go near it! Just remember who he's with eh Sharon? I ain't having ya calling every ten minutes just cos it won't stop crying."

	Sharon rolled her eyes. "I nearly didn't tell him at all. I was gonna do it on my own, so don't go assuming I'll fall apart just cos Dennis'd pick up the pieces. I ain't like you... I ain't that weak. I don't actually need him. But I want him to be there for the baby. I mean, have you figured yet he's worth more than sex? Maybe I shouldn't have said that... give you ten minutes, you'll be pregnant an' all. Problem is, you've heard it all and if you don't understand it, you are more dense than even I credited you for. There ain't nothing between the two of you and y'know what? I'm almost sorry..."

	"Oh piss off!"

	"No-" Sharon continued truthfully, gaze flittering to Dennis' uneasy face. "I am. It's my fault see. It was the first time either of us had really loved another person like that, but then... we were over. And that hurt him, I know, but I could only think about me... about the baby. He doesn't love you because he knows how much it hurts... and that's my... well, not only my fault. Is it Dad?"

	"Princess-"

	But she cut him off before any excuses could reach her ears. "You've destroyed your own grandchild's family, you know that?"

	"You have a family Sharon." her father assured her quietly. "You've got me, your sister and..." Wordlessly, his gaze fell upon Dennis. Sharon laughed uneasily.

	"Yeah right. You know we don't fit together like that anymore. He's my child's father. He's your son, he's Vicki's brother... he ain't mine."

	"She took the words right out of my mouth." Zoe hissed bitterly, venom alive in her eyes.

	"Will you give it a rest?" Dennis snapped, hardly caring as Zoe flinched.

	Sharon watched, aware of the unease her news, her burden was causing. "I shouldn't be here." she muttered quietly.

	"What?" Dennis questioned, hardly daring to believe the words he heard he was so afraid.

	"Look at me Dennis-" she advised. "I'm only five months gone and I'm already ruining it for you. Maybe... Maybe Dad's right. Nothing's gonna make sense for me... or for this baby as long as I'm here is it? We're just... too close. I mean, how are we gonna explain this to Vicki?"

	"We don't have to explain ourselves to anyone." he told her, glaring pointedly at Zoe who scowled.

	"There isn't a "we"." she answered sadly. "Not in any of this - this is my problem."

	"It's our baby." 

	Blinking furiously through threatening tears, Sharon twisted her hip and stood in front of her brother... her lover, whichever, and she nodded certainly. "I know. And now I'm gonna say it OK? Thank you." Lifting her unsteady hand, she hesistantly caressed his cheek, ignoring the avertion of eyes on her father's part and the sounds of disgust on Zoe's part and she stretched up and kissed his cheek before she turned away.

	He tried to lurch for her but she was gone, rushing down the stairs before he cared to suffer the pain of noticing. Den sighed and pulled himself up, demanding Sharon's bag from Zoe without words, simply outstretching his hand. But Dennis intervened. The thought of Den, so close to his child, to Sharon, God he couldn't bear it.

	"Give it to me."

	Zoe glared childishly at him. She was trying his patience like never before.

	"Oh for God's sake!" 

	She yelped as he tore it from her hands.

	"There weren't no need for that." Den barked sternly.

	"There was every need!" his son returned darkly. "Go home, Zo."

	"What... while you're out there with her... no! No way!"

	Counting away the anger building in his chest, once again waiting to be free was entirely fruitless. He whirled round as he stomped across the landing and yelled; "Why won't you get it? I don't want you... I never did!"

	Needing a moment to recover from that, as it had apparantly come as a complete shock to the young Slater woman, Zoe spat; "You are shagging her aren't you?"

	"No!" he cried, scrunching his fists in frustration. "This is about my baby, and only my baby, that's all that matters to me! But y'know what, you couldn't even blame me if I was! I can't believe you and me have lasted this long, cos it really weren't all that great. It was boring, bad-quality sex. Obviously didn't get that off your mother did ya?"

	"You... You bastard."

	"Whatever. I ain't got time for this. It's over. Go home."  

	Sharon sat, her hands pushed protectively underneath her folds of clothing and caressing her bump, jolting everytime her "butterfly" kicked back beneath her touch. She shivered against the cold winds swirling in ready attack around her. She looked miserably around the darkened Square, unable to recall anything but sadness wherever she looked. She'd been kidding herself - how was it only now that she realised it? She'd spent her whole life trying to call this place home, never really feeling like a proper person and needing so badly to belong as a result. But she couldn't bear to belong here anymore. She couldn't. She only had to think of her baby and she was all but ready to get up and run.

	Each and every time, it had been her own decision to come back here. But how could she force this innocent life to suffer in the same way when Granddad hated Daddy, Auntie Vicki was never gonna understand and Daddy, as good as he was going to be, was never going to be anymore than a weekender, repressed by his toddler of a girlfriend? It made such intense anger burn inside of her that Sharon whimpered in pain, bending over a little to ease it.

	But as she went, she caught sight of Dennis stepping breathlessly onto the kerb outside the Vic, craning his neck and quite obviously searching for Sharon with quite some desperation. She hid away deliberately. If he found her, she didn't know how she dared to tell him of her decision. He'd hate her for it, but then perhaps that was no less than she had hated him and consequently Zoe when it was that they'd gotten together.

	Thinking of Zoe however seemed to bring her rushing into the frame and Sharon was surprised to watch the scene play out. Zoe shoved her way past Dennis without a word. He stumbled a little and turned his head to look at her. Sharon wished she might have seen what was in his eyes, but by the look on Zoe's face, it wasn't anything remotely consoling. Her eyes were brimming with tears that gushed down, shamelessly marking her angered face. Her lip curled unfavourably but she was entirely unable to form words, giving way to a strangled sob as she rushed away.

	Dennis didn't seem at all affected and continued scrutinising the night. Sharon slid cautiously off Arthur's bench and crouched on the damp ground, grasping hold of the bush, tangling her hand carelessly in the leaves to hold herself upright. 

	However, she dared to peek over the top as she was assured Dennis' attentions had been stolen by Kat too staggering out into this night, roaring, "Oi! Rickman!"

	Sharon winced in sympathy as Kat's palm made a very vicious and extremely felt contact with Dennis' cheek.

	"Stay away from her or you won't just have me to answer to, you'll have my whole family! Not that you'd understand the concept of a family... I hope you and your slut will be very happy together!"

	As Dennis lifted his head, nursing his smarting cheek, Sharon herself was unnerved at the way the light caught the undeniable venom in his eyes that staved Kat off, even without the menance of words. Sharon supposed Kat had come to understand that it really was the quiet ones you had to watch. 
	
	His eyes once again swerving in search, Sharon crouched lower, her weight sinking down into her feet and making her cry out as her ankle gave way beneath her. She cursed beneath her breath as she realised she had been heard, Dennis' footsteps coming across the dampened road. Sighing in defeat and already feeling herself flush in embarrassment, she sank heavily back down onto the bench, hanging her head as Dennis approached her.

	"Sharon?"

	She forced in one deep and silent breath and pulled her frozen hands out from beneath her jumper, instead toying with them in her lap, making absolutely no effort to look at him. He understood and sat down beside her without invitation. He watched her glance quickly at the bag and he set it down on the ground, settling into the silence to overcome them. Sharon knew what he was doing and didn't appreciate that she had no choice but to pander to him.

	"Where'd Zoe go?"

	"Dunno." Dennis returned simply, hunching his shoulder. "Don't care."

	"You should." Sharon shivered. "Go after her."

	"No point. We're through."

	"You've split up?"

	Dennis shrugged as he considered her words. "I dunno if you can really "split up" with someone you were never really with in the first place-"

	"Oh God, Dennis, don't say that."

	"Why not? You know it's true."

	But Sharon scowled. "So what if I do? What's good's that to me eh? What good's it gonna do me to know you left me just to go on the rebound?"

	He bowed his head guiltily and muttered; "Well... it weren't all that. I'm sorry Sharon, I am. I'm such an idiot."

	As moments of silence passed them by, Dennis' gaze did not move from her face. She felt his eyes upon her face and turned to look at him as it began to grate on her nerves. "I'm not about to tell you're not if that's what you're waiting for." she said tersely.

	"So don't. I just want you to know that... now... there's nothing that's gonna stop me being a good dad."

	"Oh God. Oh no! Oh Dennis, how could you?"

	"What?"

	"You think dumping Zoe solves our problems? You thinking I'm gonna be impressed?"

	"No, of course not but she... she was never meant to be part of the picture."

	Sharon scoffed bitterly as she glared questioningly at him. "And when was the picture ever meant to look like this darlin'?"

	"It's not that Sharon. It's not. This is our kid and it's long term and I wanna make a go of it."

	"Of what?" she demanded viciously. "You are like Dad... you don't think I can do this on my own!"

	"Why should you? Why should you when I wanna be there too?"

	"Who for?"

	He blanched his lip anxiously, his shimmering eyes dancing nervously across her tight face. "You don't want me to answer that." he advised her softly, but she dismissed him immediately.

	"Oh but I do." she assured him dangerously. "C'mon Dennis... make my fuckin' day."

	"Both of you." he managed awkwardly. "Any way you want me."

	Sharon stared hard at the stars twinkling innocently in the dark sky, laughing coldly. "You really mean that don't you?"

	"Yeah. Yeah I do."

	"Any way eh? So... I could say I want you back... and you'd come?"

	"Yeah."

	"Oh my God." Sharon forced out quietly as the enormity of these words sank in. Then she coughed as a mouthful of the freezing night air hit the back of her throat awkwardly and she turned to him and said; "I hate you. I bloody hate you!"

	Sharon had gotten up immediately and tried to rush away into the darkness, to be lost in the blanket of the night. Though he needed a few seconds stunned contemplation, Dennis was up after her before a distance existed between them, pulling on her elbow. She whirled round to escape his touch, shivering as if she were repulsed by it. She almost stumbled off the kerb, but retained some dignity by stepping down into the road, struggling to bring in steady breaths as his eyes, still as treacherously mesmerising as they had been the moment he had purposefully weakened her enough to make her fall in love with him, worked their way desperately over her tear-stained face.

	"Oh Sharon..." he sighed gently.

	He reached to brush her tears away with his thumb, but she flung him savagely away, danger in her eyes as she sniffled. "Don't touch me! Don't you dare touch me, you evil, spineless bastard!"

	He reeled back. "What?"

	She laughed coldly through the uncertainity of her tears. "You really thought I'd be taken in by all of this didn't you darlin'? You know I can't stand her so you think, "I know, I'll chuck the poisonous cow I've been shagging non-stop whilst Sharon's been carrying my baby... she'll be putty in my hands then!" Well, you can f*ck off Dennis alright? Just f*ck off!"

	"Sharon, for God's sake!"

	But she ignored him and continued to rant. "Y'know, I might have needed you to make this baby Dennis, but let's be honest here shall we? You're not special. You coulda been any guy at all. And I don't need you in my child's life!"

	Dennis coughed out a weak laugh of disbelief as he studied her, trying to fathom where the Sharon he recognised had gone - and why she had gone so suddenly.

	"You can't force me out Sharon... I'm the dad. I've got rights."

	"That old chestnut eh?" Sharon scoffed. "Yes Dennis, you have rights. You have the rights I gave you. I'll take them away just as easily."

	"Oh yeah, and how are you gonna do that?"

	She chewed thoughtfully on her lip. "How easy is it to get into foreign countries with a GBH convinction Dennis?"

	He was staggered as he recognised her threat. "You'd seriously do that?"

	Sharon gave him a defiant look. He scrunched up his fists in frustration and groaned. 

	"Bloody hell Sharon, is running away your answer to everything?"

	"Yeah. Yeah it is. Anything to escape you and your pathetic... I take it back y'know. I do hate you enough to hurt you, to really hurt you."

	"Why?" he demanded angrily.

	"Because I'm in love with you!" Sharon hollered back, bent double with the amount of force this confession drew out of her as the tears poured miserably down her face, at last exposing her wounded soul. "You know that. And you're using me! I remember you an' all Dennis, yeah?" She turned away, hating that he couldn't help but see the way the light caught the tears on her face. She distracted herself, raking her hair back with her clawed hand and declaring bitterly; "God, you must think I'm so stupid."

	He didn't say a word in reply. His lips remained thin and straight. He stood there and awaited the continuation of her words as he shivered.

	"You don't want me! I do know that. But you know I want you... you know I've never stopped!"

	"Will you just slow down?" Dennis said firmly, cautiously stepping forward and pressed his hands around her heaving shoulders, holding her steady. Surprisingly, she did not shrug him off, her eyes instead burning fiercely into his, creating the kind of connection that had no explanation and made them both nervous and yet consoled all at once.

	"Please don't play me." Sharon pleaded. "You know I'll let you. Please don't do that to us."

	He followed her gaze down to her stomach.

	"I know you want your baby Dennis. That's fair enough. But don't come to me and make like you want me too, because I know you're lying to me!"

	Dennis shook his head, sadly biting into the cushion of his lip. "No you don't."

	"Stop it! Stop trying to make this anything other than it is! This is about our baby, nothing else. Not you, not me, not us. Just the baby."

	"But it... it doesn't have to be like that."

	"Oh it does." she assured him scathingly. "Dennis, stop kidding yourself. If there was no baby, there'd be nothing between us."

	"That ain't true."

	"You wouldn't even be looking at me right now, talking to me if there wasn't a baby... we've got nothing anymore."

	But he defied her, tilting his chin. "You reckon? So how come you're stood there telling me all I've gotta do is mess with your head a little bit more and I've got you back? If there's nothing anymore, how come you still love me?"

	"Because I'm an idiot Dennis, we established this one already. How else do you think I let myself get pregnant by my own brother?"

	"None of this washes anymore Sharon."

	She winced, forcing her eyes shut as she nodded. "No. I know. But... if I hadn't told you about the... I'd never have told you what I was feeling. Never. We'd have just carried on like we were. It woulda been OK."

	"What, you wanna be that closed down do ya?"

	"I just want to be safe."

	"I can do that." he insisted, without hesitation. "I can do that for you Sharon, I can."

	She smiled, but it sat uneasy upon her quivering lips. "You're not doing this, saying any of this for me though are you darlin'? It's all for the baby because you know that's the one thing I still have control over. You're frightened of me... of what I might do if you're not there to stop me."

	"What do you want me to do?" he questioned tearfully, hating the obviousness with which his voice began to crack beneath this miserable pressure. "Do you want me to beg you? Cos I will Sharon... I ain't above anything anymore. I'll beg." 

	"Well now you're just desperate."

	"Just tell me what you want."

	"I want-" she began with a heavy breath, diverting her eyes from his face and staring at the sky. "-I want you to admit you don't want me... like I want you. Because I'm not bringing your baby into this world just to have that hope shattered again and again." Gasping frightfully, she looked down and seized his frozen hand, pressing it flat against her chest so that he could feel her heart hammering erratically beneath her breast. "If you're gonna break my heart, do it now. Then maybe we'll at least be looking at each other again by the time the baby comes eh?"

	Dennis was amazed and terrorised at the strength with which her frozen palm held his against her chest. One such innocent touch, with her erratic heartbeat pounding through his hand, pleading for his attention with its rhythm. His own breaths were caught painfully in his throat as silence callously swept over the two of them. It hurt to so much as blink as they stood gazing frightfully at each other. He could see the lump to have risen in Sharon's throat as she waited and oh, how Dennis wished it away, hating too the tears that burned shamelessly in his eyes had appeared in hers also.

	Foolishly giving in to such a crippling need rather than possessing the bravery to instigate the movement, Dennis let his hand slide up to around her shoulder and pulled her desperately against him. Surprised she was, but only because it felt so natural to let her arms surround him too, Sharon so relieved to at last have someone to hold, and to be held herself when she had been lonely in the cold for so long.

	"I'm sorry." Dennis gasped weakly as he nestled into her shoulder and rocked her gently. "I'm so sorry."

	Sharon spluttered out a laugh as she clung to him, feeling the tears that poured from his face wet the base of her neck. "What are we gonna do Dennis huh? Tell me what we're gonna do!"

	"I can't." he said bravely, reluctantly drawing back a way. "I should have realised... this isn't about me. Whatever you want Sharon... for you and the baby... that's fine."

	She shook her head desperately. "Don't ask me to decide. You know... You know I'm rubbish at that."

	"Alright." Dennis smiled sadly, accepting her words with a slow nod. "Then I guess you're right. We've both gotta admit a couple of things or none of us are ever gonna get anywhere."

	With a fierce hold on her quivering hand, Dennis led her back to the bench. She stooped carefully to collect her bag from the ground but as she straightened up, whimpered honestly; "I don't want to do this..."

	"I'm sorry darlin'." Dennis repeated gently. "But we're out of choices. We can't keep doing this."

	"I know. I know."

	Sighing in defeat, she allowed him to guide her the rest of the way around the darkened Square but she began to pull back, her stomach plummeting so that she felt sick, realising that he'd intentionally led her away from Number 5. Noticing her resistance, Dennis turned around.

	"Where... Where are we going?"

	He tilted his head. "Well... the flat."

	"Oh yeah!" Sharon scoffed. "Great idea Dennis. You know Zoe's probably in there hacking your clothes up with scissors?"

	"Then she can get the hell out again can't she? I want to talk to you."

	"Er... question." Sharon held her weight back again and bit thoughtfully into her thumbnail as Dennis sighed and turned obediently to face her and await this question. "What if I don't wanna talk? What if I want summat else? Oh c'mon Dennis, don't look at me like that - we're good! And that way, I can really be the slut everyone thinks I am can't I?"

	"All of them Sharon... they're no-one, they're nothing! Why do you care what they think?"

 	"Because-" she confessed in a frightened whisper. "I don't know what to think. There's been so much agony with all of this Dennis, I don't know anything else anymore and it's... killing me just to look at you and I-"

	She crumbled and Dennis stepped up against her, his arms around her once again as he released shushing noises into her hair. "Alright. Alright... c'mon darlin', shhhh! Oh please Sharon, please just let me get you inside-"

	She nodded weakly and Dennis held most of her weight as she leant against him, hardly knowing how it was she managed to walk back to the flat. The staircase felt like a mountain, her every laboured breath tight in her chest, her hamstrings feeling tight and knotted, but she soon found herself collapsed miserably on the sofa in the dark lounge. Dennis left her alone for a few seconds and though he did not voice it, she knew well that he was looking for Zoe and/or her trail of destruction. He found nothing however and turned around again with a sigh of relief, with a new resolve to be rid of very sickening little thing that served to remind him of her. All her things in the bedroom got thrown beneath the bed, all her lotions and potions in the bathroom got slung carelessly in the bin. Every mug and magnet in the kitchen was hidden shamefully beneath the sink.

	But he found that he hadn't been quick enough because as he rushed back into the lounge, he found Sharon stood up, picking her way along all the photographs stood in sparkly frames on the bookcase.

	Dennis knew Sharon had recognised his presence because as he stood behind her, reaching his arm around to secure a grip on the frame and tug it forcefully from her hand, she had flinched.

	Dennis barely manged to smile as he set the photo down again. Sharon chewed her lip guiltily, not quite looking him in the eye as she said; "It's a shame really, you two looked good together."

	Dennis ignored her and steered her towards the sofa, exerting pressure on her shoulders that forced her to buckle and "Sit!"

	Sinking down on one leg, he sat beside her. 

	"Do you want a drink?"

	She shook her head. "Best not. Pregnant."

	Dennis actually managed a laugh then that held some feeling behind it. "Yeah, so I heard. But I meant a coffee or summat." As Sharon grimaced, he added; "It's alright... we actually do do decaf somewhere in this place."

	"God, you're going up in the world a bit aren't ya?"

	"Yeah!" he agreed sarcastically as she got up and headed for the kitchen. "I do half-fat chocolate by the truckload now an' all - can I tempt you?"

	Laughing, Sharon pulled herself up and followed him., leaning against the door frame, watching him mess with the switch on the kettle and mugs from the mug-tree with... utter contentment.

	"No thanks." she said softly and Dennis almost jumped to hear her speak, which made her giggle again as she swept the haair from her face. "Sorry. Did I scare ya?"

	"Takes a bit more than that darlin', believe me!"

	She nodded in acceptance and turned towards the fridge, opening it and lifting the milk from the door. Leaning against the door, she wordlessly handed the container to Dennis. Then, she turned back and began shamelessly scrutinising the contents of the fridge.

	"What are you doing?" Dennis laughed, sneaking a bemused look at her as he poured lashing of milk into the two steaming mugs.

	"You can tell a lot about a man by the contents of his fridge Dennis."

	"Right..." he said slowly, not quite fathoming what he was hearing. He pressed against her a little as he stood behind her, reaching over her to slot the milk back into the door. "...and have you seen anything incriminating?"

	"Vodka jelly." she said simply, lifting the packet from the shelf. "That's disgusting."

	"And how would you know? Ever tried it?"

	"No! And I won't be for the next four and a half months either!"

	"Bloody hell Sharon, you can't get bladdered on jelly and ice cream!"

	Sharon giggled, continuing on her search and then gasping. "Oh God, they look good."

	"What?" Dennis asked, amusement held in his tone as he craned his neck to be able to follow her gaze over her shoulder.

	"Can I pinch one?"

	"Help yourself." he shrugged, stepping back to hand her a spoon from the cultery drawer.

	Sharon put the pot on the side, shut the fridge door with a nudge of her elbow and took the spoon from Dennis. She pulled the foil lid slowly from the pot and carefully scraped the thick deep pinkish liquid onto the spoon, sighing happily as the taste hit her tongue. She held the large pot steady in her hand and then caught the way Dennis was looking at her.

	"Oh you can shut up!" she scolded, even though he had yet to say anything. "I've practically been dreaming about this stuff for about a fortnight."

	"Cranberry yoghurt?" Dennis questioned dubiously, a smirk taking the corner of his lips.

	"Oh yeah!" Sharon nodded, at last driving the spoon into the heaps of yoghurt. "Shoulda known you'd be well stocked up."

	"What's that then... a craving?"

	"I don't know." she confessed sheepishly as she took in another blissful mouthful. "I suppose so, yeah. I hadn't really thought about it."

	"I've had my influence then... on the baby?"

	He nodded towards her stomach and Sharon laughed gently, resting the spoon against the side of the pot and resting her chilled hand against her stomach as she smiled down.

	"Looks that way. Best get us a key cut... we'll be wanting to ransack your fridge at all hours at this rate."

	Smiling, Dennis bent his knee up behind him and lazily rested his foot on the wall. He tilted his head back and stood, calmly watching Sharon as he looped his arms across his chest. Sharon became apprehensive beneath his gaze, the spoon tremoring in her hand as it headed back to another helping of the yoghurt.

	"What?" she laughed nervously, awkwardly swallowing down her latest mouthful. "Have I got it up my nose or something?"

	Dennis shook his head in amusement, casting his eyes down to the floor as he laughed. After a beat of loaded silence, he lifted his head and confessed gently. "You're amazing."

	"No." she corrected. "I'm eighteen weeks pregnant, therefore am a glut-"

	"Amazing." Dennis insisted with a nod.

	"Oh shut up." Sharon scoffed, flushing pink as she waved her spoon erratically around in dismissal. "Didn't do that on my own did I?" And she pointedly arched her eyebrow.

	"Yeah well, like I say, was my pleasure."

	Sharon giggled as she scooped out more yoghurt. "I know it was mate, I was underneath you at the time!"

	 "Underneath?" he laughed. "You sure?"

	"Oh my God, we are so not having this conversation!"

	Grinning, Dennis reached effortlessly over and stole the yoghurt from Sharon's hand with little force.

	"That's cruel!" she cried out in protest as he took up the spoon and proceeded to enjoy the coveted contents.

	"Bloody good yoghurt though! Really Sharon, you should try one!"

	"Dennis!" 

	He shook his head with a smirk, not even taken in as she stamped her foot perpetuantly. Well, he spluttered on his mouthful of yoghurt as a burst of laughter escaped him, and he was thrown forward as he tried not to release the liquid in a cough. Sharon was unsymapthetic. Even with Dennis' current disdvantage, she still could not reach the yoghurt.

	"You're depriving your unborn child here Dennis!" she said sternly.

	"Then you're gonna have to admit it aren't you?"

	"Admit what?" she huffed, flicking the hair from her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. 

	"That you were never a "missionary position" kinda girl!"

	"Oh my God!" she cried out, her hand flying in horror to her mouth. "You actually just said that!"

	"Mmm! Cos we actually never did that!"

	"Don't you dare mock me Rickman, I am a woman on the edge!"

	Just one moment looking at her after delivery of such words and Dennis creased up. Sharon was mere seconds behind him woith her realisation, laughing only through the sheer embarrassment, feeling her cheeks burn.

	"I hate you." she spluttered.

	"No you don't. You love me."

	"Just give me the bloody yoghurt!"

	"Oh!" he cooed in surprise, straightening up and stirring the spoon teasingly in the remainder of the thick liquid. "You want this yoghurt do you darlin'." He sighed dramatically. "Well then, I guess you've gotta have it!"

	Before Sharon was even remotely aware what happening, she was squealing, because there was pinkish goo splattered across her top. Stunned, she looked up at Dennis, who grinned, making no effort to hide the guilty spoon come yoghurt catapult.

	"You know what Dennis? When I get really, really pregnant, you, my friend are buying me the bloody Gucci of maternity wear!"

	"How are you gonna make me?"

	"Oh!" she said warningly as she backed up against the fridge. "You are so gonna regret that!"

	Pulling determinedly on the fridge door, she spun away (feeling more yoghurt trickle down her back as she did so, but she'd known to expect that and Dennis was going to pay, oh yes!) and got out another yoghurt, tearing off the lid like she was loading a gun. The liquid on the underside flicked out.

	"Shit!" Dennis cursed, laughing as he backed off into the hall.

	Sharon's eyes did not leave him as she stalked over to the now unguarded cultery drawer and violently pulled out a spoon, enjoying the way it seemed to glint menancingly as she turned it slowly in the light.

	"Not the spoon, please Sharon, not the spoon!"

	"Oh you better run Dennis!" she called gleefully as he raced into the lounge, flicking yoghurt aimlessly at her as he went. "Cos you're so in for it now!"  

	The walls of 43b were sorely abused that night. The wallpaper was soaked through with the delicious pink goo that flew mercilessly through the air at the intention of the two shrieking occupants whose irrepressible laughter the quaking walls themselves held in. One particularly large splodge of the yoghurt falling from the doorframe as they raced without sense of direction into the bedroom and Sharon whirled round, almost in apology as she saw the state of the walls.

	Complying with the momentary ceasefire, Dennis followed her look of horror with a smirk as she gasped dramatically through her giggles; "Oh Dennis, I'm so... sorry!"

	"Yeah sounds like it!" he scoffed as she creased up behind the screen of her hand. "Don't worry about it, I hated that paper anyway!"

	"Oh well, in that case!" And Sharon gleefully began attacking the wall with each flick of her spoon. Shaking his head in amused disbelief, it was seconds before Dennis had joined her, standing a pace or so back from her and oh so occassionally and oh so apologetically, catching stray droplets of the yoghurt in her hair. She would throw him dirty looks out of habit, but was way past caring. "I'm not surprised y'know!" she declared, her facial muscles scrunching in reproach as she scrutinised at the wall. "That paper's revolting!"

	"Oh well, I'm glad I haven't had you in here then!"

	"Not for about a year, Dennis, no!"

	Snorting out his anxious laughter through his nose, Dennis stared at the floor for a moment, trying to pull himself together after such a passionate recollection. Sharon didn't seemed fazed at the words to have passed her lips however and as a result, he relaxed straight back into her presence, instructing her where to flick the yoghurt next.

	"This is quite theraputic!"

	"You reckon?" he questioned with a grin. "Great. So, next, we trash the place!"

	"Done that before an' all."

	"You're shameless Sharon."

	"No." she corrected, waving her spoon determinedly. "I'm lugging your kid around, so now tell me whose shameless Dennis?"

	He returned her smirk, her look thus challenged. Pressing one hand into the side of her shoulder, he stepped around her, trying to guide her to a different spot of the room so that the rest of the walls were not neglected.

	"Sharon, look, just come over... no! Sha- Sharon!"

	In the confusion of his touch, Sharon had writhed and struggled to turn around to face him. This had sent Dennis spinning off balance and in a fit of surprise, the two of them had fallen in a tangle against the bed. Needing barely a moment to come to terms with their immediate proximity, Sharon said warmly; "Hello!"

	"Hi." Dennis returned with a laugh.

	"You look in a bit of a state sweetheart, you alright?"

	"Not really. Thanks to you, I have yoghurt in my eye. I could go blind!"

	Sharon tilted her head back against the duvet and released a throaty giggle. "Blinded!" she cried out dramatically. "Blinded by a cranberry! Brilliant.... we could get his n' hers convictions!"

	"Oh piss off!"

	"Well, I would Dennis, but you're currently on top of me... and we both know I don't do missionary!"

	Sharon could feel the way he was tremouring as the force of his laughter intensified. Pinching the bridge of his nose (and probably clearing more yoghurt from the corners of his eyes!) Dennis tried to compose himself, but was laughing still. "I can't breathe!"

	"So stop laughing you idiot." Sharon rolled her eyes, but Dennis just bore down on her with a smile, totally comfortable to be with her, mesmerised by her serene face. 

	"You've got yoghurt in your hair!" he told her gently.

	Guffawing softly, Sharon lifted her warm hand from against the bed and returned; "So what? You've got... yoghurt on your nose!" as she stroked it away with a swipe of her finger.

	"We're mental."

	"No, I'm pregnant. What's your excuse?"

	"Ummm... I got you pregnant?" he offered weakly. But Sharon arched her eyebrow and nodding slowly, apparantly impressed.

	"Yeah, alright." She chewed thoughtfully at her lips for a moment, covered in a sheen of yoghurt, and Dennis watched her intently, anticipation for her words stirring like a storm inside him. Sharon laughed gently as she released the breath to have built up inside of her during this pause and she said; "Y'know... seeing as we're both here... and what with me already being pregnant and all that, d'you not think we should have sex?"

	"Oh what, for old time's sake?"

	"Well, why not? Lightning's not gonna strike twice is it?"

	Dennis shook his head slowly, not saying a word as he gazed down on her, stroking her sodden hair back from her face. "You're drunk Sharon." he repeated in a murmur.

	"Might be. But you're still on top of me!"

	Sighing in defeat, he moved off. Sharon was unaware if he heard her reluctant whimper.

	"Look-" Dennis said quickly, knowing he could feel the threat of awkwardness hurtling forward. "-we both need a shower!"

	"Oh now that has been a long time!" 

	He whirled round in alarm and Sharon giggled, her composure slipping. 

	"You're too easy Dennis, will you calm down?"

	"Yeah, yeah!" he agreed with erratic breaths, begin to pace and making Sharon's head buzz most uncomfortably as she was forced to watch him. "Whose gonna nab the first one then?"

	"You are." Sharon told him without hesitation, inclining her head in an affirmative gesture. "I'll only take all the hot water if I do, you know that."

	Dennis stood in the bedroom, watching the streams of yoghurt soak into the paper as it trickled down the wall. He made no effort to clear it off, he just stood there, smirking, and feeling rather pleased with himself. Now he had no excuse not to go all the way to getting Zoe out of his life. He had Sharon to thank for that. He had Sharon to thank for a lot of things it seemed.

	He moved back out into the lounge, dodging the pink splodges on the laminate. Apart from them, it was a lot calmer in here. So he went and got some kitchen roll from on top the fridge and went back, stooping to wipe it up. Going back into the kitchen to toss the used sheets away into the bin, Dennis paused, just for a moment, somehow settled to hear the juddering of the water coming from the shower. Sharon had gotten up as soon as he'd emerged, wearing only a pair of jogging bottoms, water still glistening on his chest.

	Dennis had taken less than ten minutes in the shower. Sharon was already heading for twenty. Not that Dennis could be surprised... she was Sharon after all.

	Knowing that he had time to kill, he sank aimlessly onto the sofa, unintentionally kicking at Sharon's bag. Leaning over to straighten it up, he was struck by a desire. Pulling slowly on the zip, he rifled amongst her keys and make-up until his hand fell around what he was looking for.

	Hunching in wonderment over the small card, he took in every amazing detail, tracing them with his fingernail.

	"Hello mate." he whispered quietly. "You're a bit amazing aren't you eh? But then... just look at your parents. We'll look after you y'know. We love you." Smiling proudly, he dutifully put the card back in Sharon's bag and pushed himself up. He went back into the kitchen and flicked the kettle on.

	"Done."

	He flinched in surprise as he heard Sharon's voice and she laughed softly.

	"Scared you that time didn't I?"

	"No chance." Dennis smirked, leaning over to the fridge to recover the milk. He put it out on the side and smiled at Sharon, leant against the countertop where his coffee stood. Then he took out another yoghurt carton and turned back to her as he nudged the door shut with his elbow. "Peace offering."

	"Oh no." Sharon smiled, raising her palms. "Couldn't."

	"Please?"

	"No."

	"Pretty please?" Dennis reached over to a bowl of fruit stood up against the microwave, settling his selection on top of the youghurt pot. "With a cherry on top?"

	Sharon giggled, shaking her head in amused disbelief as she picked up the cherry, tweaking out the stalk and turning away to the bin to throw away the stone. She missed and cursed beneath her breath as she crouched down to pick it up and at last dispose of it. She looked over her shoulder and felt heat prickle in her cheeks as she realised how Dennis was looking at her.

	"It's perverse isn't it?" she said, pulling pointlessly on the edges of the shirt she wore.

	"What makes you say that?" Dennis laughed, taking a first sip of his coffee.

	"Oh Dennis, c'mon!" Sharon pressed her hand to her stomach and held her other palm just below the edge. "Baby starts here... shirt ends there!" 

	"I dunno what you're on about. S'always looked good on you..."

	"Yeah." she scoffed. "If I'd just fallen out your bed then maybe, but I haven't have I? No, I just fell off it!"

	"Oh yeah... how is your elbow?"

	"Sore. Not really sure I managed to get all the yoghurt out my hair y'know."

	"Well, c'mere then..."

	She gave him an odd look, not quite understanding why he came towards her. But as he reached for her, drawing her against him, she didn't resist, she just giggled nervously and clung to him as he bowed his head.

	"God, your hair smells lush."

	"Yeah?"

	"Yeah. Just like cranberries!"

	Scoffing, she pushed him away and rolled her eyes.

	Dennis just grinned. "D'you want me to shove your clothes in the wash with mine?"

	Sharon gasped. "You mean you know how to work the washing machine?"

	"Dot taught me well!"

	"Bless her. OK, I'll go and get 'em..."

	She reappeared a moment later, carrying the bundle of her smeared clothing. She edged past Dennis and bent to open the machine door.

	Dennis rushed over immediately, slamming his coffee mug down only as he went. "No!" he demanded, pushing her back with the twist of his hip.

	"What?"

	"No bending, no heavy lifting, no nothing! Look, give 'em here!"

	"What, so now I've gotta rely on you to even do my washing? Dennis, I'm pregnant, not incapacitated!"

	"I don't care. You're just gonna have to learn not to be so bloody headstrong!" He closed the door and jammed at the buttons, pacified as the machine began to whir as it should. "There. Hour or so, wash and dry. Done. Now leave."

	"Yes sir." she snorted, deliberately riling him by stretching up to lift what she knew to be Dennis' not-so well concealed biscuit tin from the top of the cupboards. He stepped up behind her immediately to aid her.

	"This isn't on y'know Sharon!"

	"What isn't?" she enquired innocently, sinking back down to her soles.

	"First it's my yoghurt and now it's my cookies." He pouted as he gazed adoringly down at the tin. "You know how I feel about cookies."

	"The same as you do about vodka." she quipped immediately with a knowing nod. "But you know how I feel having this baby in charge of my tastebuds. I want a cookie Dennis."

	"Magic word?"

	"Now."

	He couldn't help but laugh and tweezed off the lid to reveal the cookies there yonder. Sharon squealed and dove in on one immediately, standing back against the counter where Dennis' coffee stood. He went and stood beside her, the open tin left on the table in the middle of the small room with the purpose of torturing them both.

	Giggling naughtily, Sharon dipped the remaining half of her cookie in Dennis' coffee.

	"Oi! That's not decaf!"

	"Oh, so sue me!" she challenged as they both enjoyed their last mouthfuls of coffee soaked coffee. Then they both leant back, both trying to give off the impression to the other that they weren't dying to make a run for the tin to nab another.

	Sharon found that her fingers, curled around the smooth edge of the counterop had slipped through Dennis' own. They both looked down in surprise but neither made an effort to part as their gazes met questioningly. But Sharon smiled softly and moved round, sliding her arms around Dennis' neck and holding him close.

	"I needed this." she whispered.

	"Needed what?" Dennis mumbled as he nestled into her shoulder.

	"You. To make this easy for me. Thank you darlin'."

	"I'll make it even easier." he told her with an apprehensive smile as they drew back. Sharon's arms slowly dropped away, back to her own sides. Dennis' eyes left her face for just a moment as he rummaged in the biscuit tin and returned triumphantly with a cookie in each hand.

	Sharon looked to the floor as she giggled, looking up to obediently take the cookie.

	Their new and seemingly wordless understanding was interrupted by the insistence of the buzzer. Dennis tutted and Sharon rolled her eyes, waving him off as she raised the cookie to her lips.

	"H'lo?" Dennis inquired down the line as he picked up the entry phone, his cookie sat between his teeth.

	He heard Sharon giggle to herself and turned his head to give her a look. But quickly took to holding the biscuit in his hand, and Sharon's amusement left her face, slowly being replaced by panic. And Dennis delivering his greeting bluntly to their visitor proved to her she had reason to allow it.

	"Den..."

	Sharon went rigid, all likelihood of relaxation gone from her system as she heard Dennis raise her father's name. Inwardly coaching herself, she clenched her fists for a moment and padded out to the hall, shivering self-consciously in the flimsy shirt. Dennis immediately saw the frightful look in her eyes and looked questioningly to her, awaiting on her instruction alone.

	"Let him in Dennis." she said quietly.

	"Are you sure?" he pressed, a little astounded as he drew the entry phone away from his mouth.

	"Well look at us-" She gestured in turn to each of their attire with a weak and anxious smile. "-he's gonna go mental anyway. Let him do it now, get it over with eh?"

	He nodded doubtfully, but obediently pressed the buzzer.

	Sharon puffed out one long breath of nervousness. Sympathy kicked at Dennis, and having placed the entry phone back into its place in the holder mounted on the wall and left the door on the latch, went over to her, his thumbs pressing protectively into her small bump as his hands lay against her hips.

	"Hey..." he said gently, bowing his head. "...it's gonna be OK. He's never gonna touch us."

	"Us?" she echoed. "Well what about you eh?"

	"I can give as good as I get, don't worry."

	"But I am worried!" she protested desperately. "Dennis, I-"

	But Sharon's words were cut off by the creaking of the door, the clicking of footsteps against the laminate and that unmistakable sigh of disappointment.

	"Not interrupting I hope, Princess."

	Sharon scoffed bitterly and moved away from Dennis' protection, trying to pretend her legs weren't shaking beneath her as they undoubtedly were. "What d'you want Dad?"

	"I wanted to check you were-" His gaze travelled dangerously down her form. "-on top of things. But of course, I can see I needn't have worried..."

	"You're disgusting."

	Den's burst of cold laughter bounced from the ceiling. "Me? Oh Sharon, Sharon, Sharon - look in the mirror sweetheart. I think you've come up 'ere with 'im to try and sort this whole sorry mess out, and what do you do? Fall straight back into his bed like the filthy, cheap little-"

	"I've had enough of this!" Dennis snapped hotly.

	"Dennis, don't-" Sharon began nervously, stepping to create an obstacle between the two men.

	Den smirked, knowing how much it would rile his son. "What'cha gonna do Dennis? Take a swing at me? Oh step aside Princess. I'd love to see him try!"

	"Well I wouldn't." she snapped. "He's better than that. He's better than you."

	"Would you like to rephrase that?"

	"Oh, will you just shut up? Why does everything with you start and end at sex?"

	"I might ask you the same question!"

	"Well go on then!" she hit back, daring him with her ones as she raised a challenging eyebrow. "D'you wanna know what it was like Dad? You wanna know if he did it for me?"

	"Should have known you wouldn't be able to keep your grubby little hands to yourself!" Den spat viciously at his son.

	Dennis simply cocked his head. "Like father, like son eh?"

	"I'm nothing like you!"

	Sharon coughed out a laugh. "Well, finally, we agree on something!"

	"Princess-" he began dryly. "-I know you're in a mess right now but... did you really have to be so desperate as to sink to-"

	"Oh, so shoulda done it standing then should we Dad? Which time?"

	Dennis couldn't help but smile to himself. He was loving Sharon's defiance as much as she appeared to be herself.

	"Did you-?"

	"No." Dennis told him coldly, rebuffing his suspicious look. "We didn't. At all. Twat. I mean, I know you're never gonna believe anything I tell ya, but do you seriously have no faith in-" He nodded towards Sharon. "-her at all?"

	"She let you knock her up boy, I'd say my faith would be a little misplaced if I did, wouldn't you? I mean, why the hell is she prancing round in your clothes for God's sake?"

	"I'm not prancing." Sharon protested in disgust. "You're pathetic."

	"And you're still half naked!" he returned, raising his voice as his anger strengthened. "Where are your clothes for God's sake?"

	Sharon lifted her head defiantly. "All over the bedroom floor of course."

	Turning in a fit of rage, Den stormed to the bedroom, with Sharon tailing him.

	"It was good Dad. No, it was better than good, it was fantastic-"

	"What the bloody hell...?"

	Dennis folded his arms across his chest and leant against the door as Sharon sat against the bed and Den stood in the darkened room, watching the trail of yoghurt trickle down the wall.

	"What's this?"

	"What's it look like?" Dennis demanded smartly, reaching to flick on the light.

	Sharon leapt up then and interrupted one trickle with a swipe of her finger, sucking the tip. "Mmm!" she said sarcastically. "Cranberry!"

	"It's yoghurt? You've been repainting your bedroom with yoghurt?"

	"Would you rather I said I'd been covering her in it?"

	Sharon giggled and Den whirled round, his face like thunder. But Sharon just hunched her shoulders nonchalantly. "Painting." she agreed. "Oh c'mon Dad, don't look at me like that. We thought that's what everyone did after rampant sex... didn't we Dennis?"

	"Absolutely."

	"Where - are - your - clothes?" Den repeated, glaring at Sharon.

	"In the wash." she replied sweetly. "Won't be done for an hour or so. It's a shame you're here really, cos I was intending to take full advantage of that!" Clicking her tongue in the side of her mouth, she looked pointedly at Dennis, who looked at the floor to conceal his smirk. He wanted to laugh so much.

	"Think this is funny do you?" Den blasted, Dennis apparantly too late.

	"Ow! Dad, get off!"

	Dennis looked up immediately at Sharon's pained cry. Den's hand was around her wrist, trying to tug her away.

	"You're hurting me!"

	"You, sweetheart, are coming back to the house with me and you will put some clothes on!"

	She scoffed, and stood fast to the spot. "Who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

	"My daughter! And that means you'll do as I say, now move!"

	"Take your hand off her." Dennis said calmly, straightening his back and moving away from the door. "Now."

	"You gonna make me?"

	Dennis smiled, the smallest smile that said he was anything but amused. In a moment, his hand clamped in turn around Den's own wrist. Squeezing. Harder and harder.

	"Take - your - hand - off - her." he repeated slowly. "Or you'll lose it all together."

	"Oh Dennis. You can try, but you know I'm never gonna be scared of you, son. You're just me, thirty years ago."

	"Right. So you tell me what you'd do right now. If I was the one threatening the woman carrying your child? Tell me you wouldn't rip my throat out."

	"Threatening!" Den scoffed. "I'm not threatening... I'm telling!"

	"She ain't twelve. And she's not going anywhere. Not with you."

	And Dennis tore Den's hand away. Sharon whimpered at the force of pain left against her wrist.

	"Are you OK?" Dennis whispered softly. 

	She nodded dumbly, cradling her hand as she massaged the point of pain with the pad of her thumb.

	"Leave." Dennis seethed, glancing up at his father. "Now."

	"I hope you know what you're doing!" Den hissed viciously in his daughter's ear.

	Sharon flinched, lifting her head and flicking the hair from her face. Then she stepped to the side, feeling the warmth of Dennis' body burn into hers as she stood against him. Dennis pressed his hands reassuringly into her shoulders.

	"I'm staying here." Sharon returned firmly. "I'm staying here with Dennis."

	"Oh yeah?" Den snarled. "Where?"

	"That's really up to us isn't it?" Dennis said darkly, gently massaging Sharon's tense shoulders as she stood there, somehow loving how it evidently riled their father.

	"There's nothing to stay here for Princess." Den continued, with a soft sigh of dismissal as he cast a damning glance in his daughter's direction. She knew she was being scolded, but held her nerve, defiantly lifting her chin and swallowing down all her desperate protests. She was stronger than that.

	"I'm staying here with Dennis." she repeated slowly. But Den scoffed, more lines showing on his aged face as his facial muscles scrunched.

	"Why?"

	"To talk."

	"What about?"

	"The weather." Dennis spat sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "What the hell do you think about?"

	Den edged his hands into his pockets and looked up with interest. "Not sure what you're going to do about your baby then?"

	"We're not doing anything about it." Sharon informed him certainly. "I'm having this baby and I intend to raise it in a proper family unit."

	"Well, me and Chrissie will-"

	"Stop." she demanded, rasing her palm to silence him. "Just stop right there and answer me one question. Are you ever actually recognise I'm having Dennis' baby, or are you just gonna keep pretending that that bit ain't real?"

	"I don't see that you've left any of us with a choice there Princess."

	"Well, you've just made mine for me then haven't you?"

	"Sorry?" he asked, in the kind of way that made it obvious he wasn't the least bit interested in her reply. In fact, he wasn't even looking her in the eye. It was as if he was bored.

	"I don't see how you can be ashamed when I'm not. I'm not going to lie to my child, Dad. He or she are gonna know that they belong to Dennis as much as me. And if you can't deal with that, then I'd rather not have you in my life."

	"Oh, but you're happy to stick with this scum?"

	"I loved "that scum". And Jesus Christ, you can destroy us Dad, but you are never going to touch the relationships this child builds. So yeah, I'm happy to stay where I am! You know where the door is - I suggest you walk through it!"

	"He'll get bored you know."

	Sharon cocked her head, rolling her tongue round in her cheek. "Bored of me maybe, if I start offering it again.... on a plate Dad, on a plate! But he'd never get bored of being a dad. Because unlike some, he'd be good at it.

	"Oh [i]clever[/i] Princess." Den nodded. "C'mon then, surprise me. What exactly are you trying to say?"

	"What do you see when you look at me Dad? And what would you see if I told you I was proud of what we've done, Dennis and me. That I'm proud of my [i]cancer[/i]. Tell me what you see!"

	Den's lip curled and he turned venemously to Dennis. "What have you done to my daughter?" he demanded quietly.

	"I could tell you." Dennis returned smartly. "But you're not getting an apology out of me Den, not ever."

	"You've destroyed her!"

	"Really?"

	"My Sharon was intelligent, she held her own in this world, she knew better than scum like you!"

	Dennis smirked and swung round his heel, gesturing back to Den with the tilt of his thumb as he gave Sharon a questioning look. "He knows about the Mitchells right?"

	Sharon looked down, returning a wry grin.

	"Don't try and get smart with me Dennis."

	"Then stop making it so fuckin' [i]easy[/i]."

	"Oh so you want me to make this difficult for you do ya?"

	Dennis' smirk remained very much in place. "Hang on... hang on, don't wanna miss my cue.... is there where I'm meant to look [i]scared[/i]?"

	"You reduced my daughter to nothing more than another pregnant whore!" Den roared, apparantly having trouble refraining from scrunching his hand into a fist. 

	Sharon almost choked on her indignancy. "[i]Excuse[/i] me?"

	"You disgust me Princess." Den said quietly, unable to hold the words back as he turned his head to look at her.

	"Is that right?" she hissed coldly.

	"Why won't you see you can do so much better than him?"

	Sharon stood defensively in front of Dennis and proclaimed; "He's what you made him."

	"Oh no. We're not down to those excuses already are we? I will never be blamed for how he hurts you Sharon. You or your baby."

	And he backed away.

	"You could do so much better!"

	But Sharon stood her ground and shook her head, even as she began to tremor. "Better his whore than your daughter!" she screamed, tears pulsing down.

	Den was rendered motionless in the doorway as her words reached him. "What?" he managed, stumbling back into the room beneath the enormity of her words. But Sharon had turned away, her every breath torn from her chest with the effect of her crying. Dennis stood against her, her tears wetting his bare skin as he held her close, soothing her with little more than his presence as she shook.

	"Go away." she pleaded, making out the approaching form of her father through the misplaced curtain of her hair. "Please... just leave my family alone."

	With a last damning look of unadulterated repulsion cast over his children, Den turned away and stormed from the flat. Sharon stood rigid in Dennis' arms, but he refused to release her because he knew that as the front door slammed shut, sending telling pulses through the walls that surrounded them, that her tremoring would become so much worse. She nestled further into him, trying to give off the impression she was not crying quite as hard as Dennis knew her to be.

	"It's alright." he whispered into her hair as he rocked her. "He's gone, it's OK."

	He felt her shake her head. Wisely, she didn't believe him. "Why does he wanna do this to us?"

	Dennis sighed and Sharon moved away, looking up at him as her tears stained her face. Pressing into her shoulder, Dennis encouraged her to turn away and settle herself on the couch once again. But her big and frightful eyes continued to track him and he knew he had no choice but to sink down next to her. There was a moment of awkwardness as Sharon deliberated whether or not to edge closer to him, but Dennis read her intention and with a soft smile, drew her back towards his chest, his arms around her as she curled up.

	"Because I don't deserve it." he told her gently. "I don't deserve any of it."

	"But it's not about what you deserve Dennis, it's not. This baby is because of you. And no-one can ask me to be sorry." She lifted her head a little way from its resting place against Dennis' shoulder and smiled; "I'm gonna be a mummy."

	"Yeah." he confirmed, letting his hand slide down to her stomach. Sharon giggled at the feeling of his warmth and laid her hand over his, holding him in place. "Yeah you are. Maybe I- Maybe I got something right at last eh?"

	Sharon nodded. "Definitely. And I want you to know, it don't matter what he says, it don't matter what anyone says - I trust you."

	"Why?"

	"What do you mean "why"?" she laughed nervously, unnerved by the conciseness of his return. "Because you've done it. This, here, now... it's everything I wanted. You used to say you only wanted to make me happy... and you have. Because I know I don't have to be scared anymore. Thank you."

	"You have to stop that."

	"What?"

	"Thanking me. You don't know I'll be any good. What if I... make the baby miserable?"

	Sharon couldn't help but laugh. "Darlin', are you planning on being any worse than Den?"

	Dennis grimaced. "Never."

	"Then you're perfect. And the baby's gonna know that so there!" Giggling as he gave in to the smile fighting its way to his lips, Sharon leant in and kissed his cheek. "Deal with it!"

	And she smirked at the look of bewilderment that came her way and shook her head in amusement as she flopped back down against his shoulder, turning her head and pressing the lightest kiss into the blade.

	"Right, c'mon you!" Dennis said after a few contented moments, nudging her.

	"Mmmm.... what?"

	"You're not falling asleep here when there's a huge bed in the other room..."

	"I'm not falling asleep." she protested, snuggling into him.

	"Don't make me carry you Sharon... c'mon."

	He got up and offered her his hand. Smiling, she pulled her leg out from beneath herself and stood, locking her fingers through his and letting him lead her to the bedroom. Obediently, she sank down on the bed but continued in her protests. "I'm not tired." she said, tapping her hands anxiously against the mattress.

	Dennis rolled his eyes and motioned for her to budge up, sitting next to her. "You're worse than the baby's gonna be, y'know that?"

	Sharon scoffed. "Not if she's anything like you!"

	"She? Do you know it's a girl?"

	"Mother's intuition."

	"Which means you have absolutely no idea."

	Sharon tried to look indignant but failed, flushing pink as Dennis stared her down, an eyebrow raised. "OK, so no I don't."

	"Is that what you want though, a girl?"

	She shrugged. "I just want my baby... two legs, two arms and a head. That's it."

	"Well, you're definitely getting that much."

	"You made sure of that didn't you?"

	Dennis looked down into Sharon's lap as he smiled, squeezing her hand. Then he pushed himself up and declared softly; "Enough. Night darlin'."

	He stooped to kiss her forehead, smiling down on her as he drew back. But she pulled hard on his hand, apparantly fearful of his departure.

	"What? What is it?"

	Sharon didn't speak. She didn't even blink, her gaze locked upon his face. And with his strength offered to her, she too drew herself up, stretching up as she wound her arms around his neck. It was his instinct to hold her too, and to just not question her. As long as she was OK... 
	     
	"Goodnight." she whispered warmly.

	But even as she drew back, she could not bring her eyes from his face. Right now, he amazed her; his strength and his determination, and more so the fact he cared so much about the baby Sharon had been so panicked about. For a man she had watched mess up time and time again, Dennis still had this way of making everything seem OK. And she loved him right now, just for making it be that way, when he could so easily have left her to be afraid, have fought harder to hold onto normal. But he'd let it go, let it go to be there for this child, his child. Sharon felt that somehow, at last, someone understood. She thought nothing of moving forward and lightly kissing his mouth - and he gave no thought to refusing her.

	But even so, he couldn't help but confess, as stunned as he was, that he "Wasn't expecting that one."

	"Why?"

	"Because you-"

	"Because I didn't believe you wanted more than the baby. But maybe... maybe it's tough. Maybe I wanna have another family - our family. We're a package, me and this kid. And as the woman that's gonna have to endure childbirth because of you, I'm telling you, you're not having one without the other..."

	"You don't mean that." Dennis said at last, edging back and shaking his head. 

	Sharon crumpled in defeat and sank down back against the bed, pulling anxiously on her hands. "I really don't get how you can be so scared." she declared stiffly, her eyes glittering manically as she dared to raise them to his face. "I'm the one that's pregnant, I'm the one that's gonna spend God knows how many hours screaming my head off giving birth to this baby."

	"I know."

	"I don't have to do it y'know, I could have an abortion."

	"I know." he repeated, darker this time as he glared at her.

	"But you know I won't." she added gently. "Because this baby... it's a chance - one I wanna take. And I coulda done it on my own. But you said I didn't have to."

	"You don't."

	"But I'm not asking you to drop down on one knee am I? I just think it's time we admitted that there is still a chance for us. And if you don't think we owe it to the baby, don't we owe it to ourselves to try?"

	"But what if there isn't?" he questioned anxiously.

	Sharon just gazed at him, just trying to fathom him. "Sit down Dennis."

	He gave her an odd look but was obedient, if not all the more anxious as she turned in to face him.

	"Give me your hand."

	But both of his hands tremored in his lap. Sharon laughed gently and reached over to gather one up herself, flattening it out and pressing into her tummy once again, her bump more easily felt beneath the thin layer of the shirt she wore.

	"You tell me darlin', if we're all out of chances, then what's this baby doing growing inside me eh? What is it if it's not a chance?"

	"But you-"

	"-were scared. Just like you are right now. But I know you want to be a good father and I know that that means this baby is gonna be happy and safe. Because of us. And... I'm not asking you to make me any promises, I'm not asking you to say you love me. I'm asking you to give yourself the chance to tell your child that we tried. That's all."

	Dennis blanched his lip, glancing at his hand held against her swollen stomach. "Eighteen weeks." he murmured to himself.

	"That's right." Sharon said quietly. "That means we've got about another twenty weeks to try. And if we screw up, well then, darlin', we do. I'll learn to live with it. But then again, we might not. We could work, I know we could and this baby... it's just more reason to try Dennis. We could really be a family. We could be happy."

	He gave her a daring smile and she could read his eyes she wasn't exactly being believed. But she knew he was swaying. And that was good enough for her.

	"I know that when it was just me and you, we had a rough time of it, I know. But I also know we loved each other. And I honestly don't believe that I couple of months shagging Zoe Slater has made that go away. I mean, tell me if I'm wrong but-"

	"No. No, you're not wrong."

	Sharon's heart began to hammer painfully against her ribs, and her stomach gave a hopeful leap. "So you still...?"

	"You told me not to say it." he said softly with a slight shake of his head.

	"No. I said I wouldn't ask you to say it." She began to stare dubiously at the wall, still covered in lashings of the yoghurt. "We should really clean that off y'know."

	And she stroked Dennis' hand away, pushing herself up with the intent of going to get a cloth from the kitchen or something. Dennis remained still as he sat on the bed, his head bowed as he stared at his clasped hands without registering their image. His muffled words were the ones that stopped Sharon moving from the room.

	"You also said I only wanted the baby. How am I meant to prove to you that you're wrong if I can't-?"

	Pressing her hand into the doorframe for stability as she let his words sink in, Shared dared to finish.

	"-say you love me?"

	And she looked over her shoulder, back into the comforting darkness of the room. Closing his eyes, Dennis nodded.

	Sharon sighed, stepping away from the threshhold and closing the door after herself, backing up against it until it clicked shut.

	The world seemed entirely silent but for the erratic breaths the two were managing to force in and the creaking of the floorboards as Sharon pressed her bare feet into them, shivering with nerves for every brave step she took back towards the bed. She reached out and curled her hand gently around Dennis' shoulder, his bare skin smooth and cool beneath her feverish touch, designed to make her presence known to the man still so intent in blocking out the uncertainities of their world.

	But it was at her touch that his eyes snapped open once again, and she was amazed at how they shimmered. Erratically and with question. She sank down in front of him, leaning in and brushing his mouth daringly as she went.

	She'd been so afraid, wanting also to block out the world, because without the support of the man she held responsible, the promised life within her presented nothing but uncertainty and strife. And she had stupidly drunk herself into something feeling just short of oblivion. And at the exact moment she'd needed it, she had been taken into the right arms, her fears dispelled with promises she dared to believe in. Because Dennis had been the one to speak them. To mean them.

	It was though the evils were gone from her system in his presence, his comforts and his words. She had been left with only the sharpest clarity and the greatest of chances. And however they had both been abused by the bitterness and the misery of their past together, only the idea of their future remained. It might have felt like they were the only two people in the world right then, terrified, excited... but they both knew there was another. Their unborn child. To the mother, a gift she had feared she would never receive, and to the father, a chance. To be everything he wanted to be.

	A chance they had to take together. For the baby that would be born of a love that never dared go away.

	"Show me..."