A/N As promised, here is the epilogue. It took a while to write, and has turned into a bit of a mini-story all of its own. But I've read a few stories where the epilogues are set one year or two years, or even five years in the future, and I wanted to do something different. So this is ten years in the future. And there was a lot of ground to cover. Although I've left a few things vague as I'm going to write a few one-offs for these characters yet. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this!

So without further ado, I bring you a Sunday, in Auckland, 10 years into the future.

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.

SPOV

I loved Sunday mornings. It was officially sleep-in day when children were banned from annoying me, at least for an hour or two. So I was happily enjoying just lying there in that nice place where I wasn't quite asleep, but I definitely wasn't awake, when I felt the bed shift.

"Soooookie" crooned the voice behind me.

"Get off, you're squishing me." I mumbled, half-heartedly as a large arm was thrown across my side, and a large body pressed into my back.

"I'm cuddling you."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm sleeping."

"No, you're not. You're talking to me. So you're awake. And it's Suuuuunday!" There was now a hand gently tracing my nipple. And then a mouth started working its way down the back of my neck and across my shoulder. "I could wake you up properly" said the voice.

I sighed. I did really like my sleep-ins. But there was now a hand snaking up under my pyjama top and fondling my breast. The sleep versus sex debate raging in my head was getting more difficult by the minute.

"Fine" I huffed, "but you're doing bath time tonight".

"I probably was anyway. But what do I get?"

I turned over. "Sex, wasn't that the point?"

Eric sighed, "You say that like I'm the only one that will be enjoying it. And I know that's not the case". He put a hand inside my pyjama shorts and started probing me gently. "See" he said "definite signs of enjoyment there."

"Sooo, what do you want then?" I asked, as I grabbed the hem of Eric's t-shirt and started trying to pull it over his head.

"Shower" he said, kissing me once his shirt was off.

"Sex in the shower?" I asked, as Eric helped me get my top off.

"Nope. Sex now, shower afterwards." Eric bent to take one of my breasts in his mouth.

"OK, that's fine." I was rapidly losing interest in further negotiations. Eric pulled my shorts down and pushed my legs apart. He ran his tongue up the inside of one thigh and then the other. But he didn't put his tongue where I really wanted it; he just lay there breathing on my sensitive places.

I tapped his back with my foot. "You are so impatient" he grumbled. But he put his mouth to good use after that and his tongue felt amazing. It didn't take long for me to have a rather spectacular orgasm; Eric knew where all my buttons were.

He came back up to lie beside me. "Are you feeling better now?" he asked.

"Slightly better" I said, leaning over to kiss his chest. I reached inside his boxers and stroked his penis. "I'd feel much better if you were inside me right now."

Eric grinned at me. "I think that can be arranged" he said, taking off his boxers.

"Oh good, because I would have hated to have been woken up for no good reason".

"I think you've already had at least one reason" Eric said, as he positioned himself between my legs, "How many do you want?"

He entered me and I felt that amazing feeling I always get when it happens, like I'm somehow more complete. I can't stop myself from grinning like an idiot.

"Oh, I don't know. What else are you offering?" I said. Eric took that as a challenge, lifting one of my legs and speeding up his thrusts. I moaned. This was good.

Just then there was a shout somewhere else in the house, followed by the sound of feet pounding down the hall outside. I tried to peer past Eric, worrying about what was going on. He grasped my chin and turned my face to look at him. "Sookie, just ignore it. Right now, you're mine. Don't fucking forget it." He made his point with a few deep thrusts.

"Uh huh" was about all I could manage at that point.

I was feeling pretty hot and my hips were pushing up to meet Eric's thrusts. "Ohhhh" I said, burying my face in Eric's chest as I came. I wrapped my legs around his back as he finished with a few more good thrusts. "Fuck!" he exclaimed.

"Ssssh, Eric" I admonished. "We're supposed to be asleep remember? Otherwise they'll stage a break-in."

Eric looked at me "The door is locked, right?"

"Don't know, you were last to bed last night."

Eric did a half-shrug, which could have meant anything. He pulled out, which left me feeling empty again. "Come on" he said "shower" and he padded off to the ensuite bathroom.

I got out and followed, resisting the urge I had to put my robe on for the short walk between the bed and the shower. I wasn't too thrilled at being naked in the morning light. But I was making an effort to try to remain as unselfconscious as Eric.

By the time I got into the bathroom he'd already started the shower, and he held the shower door open for me so I could get in first. I had to admit, our shower was pretty good. It was much larger than the one in the old house. When we'd done the renovations here Eric had taken over a lot of the planning and this bathroom had been one of his pet projects, so we had a fancy shower with multiple shower heads and a seat on one wall. My contribution had been insisting on his and hers sinks.

I stood under the warm water to wet my hair and then let Eric put shampoo in it for me. I rinsed it off and put conditioner in while Eric washed his hair. Then he set about washing the rest of me. As always, he was very thorough. He paid a lot of attention to my breasts, which were, apparently, extremely dirty. And had some particularly stubborn marks that he needed to use his mouth on. Eventually I managed to peel him off me so I could wash him, which would have been a lot easier if he wasn't trying to grope me the whole time.

In the end we were both clean, and both had some places which were very clean. We stood pressed up against each other, under the warm water, just kissing. It was a routine we'd done so many countless times before, and I never got tired of it. I just loved the comfort of our naked bodies pressed together, even though sex was over for the morning and real life was about to intrude again.

When we were dry and dressed we headed out to the kitchen. Amelia was standing there, half-heartedly eating a bowl of cereal while engrossed in a very dog-eared copy of Twilight. Eric couldn't help himself. "The sparkly vampires? Again?" he asked. I gave him a look which said 'please do not fan the flames of teenage angst', but, like a lot of my looks, it was lost on him.

Amelia just sighed and mumbled, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Eric" and went wandering off to her room, without ever lifting her eyes from the page.

Eric watched her go. I patted his back. "Don't be jealous of the sparkly vampires. She still loves you the most."

He huffed and went off to make coffee. The coffeemaker we had now was truly state of the art. And definitely Eric's baby. I couldn't be bothered figuring out how to work it; if he was away, I just used instant. Sometimes I worried that if there was a fire one of the kids might get left behind in favour of that coffeemaker.

Speaking of kids, I wondered where everyone else was. I looked in the living room and found Felicia watching music videos on TV. While listening to her iPod. She was wearing some shorts that I'm fairly certain were Amelia's, a hoody that definitely belonged to one of her brothers, as it was too small and had a picture of Spiderman on the front, and the knee-high socks that were part of her soccer uniform.

I waved to get her attention and she removed an ear-bud. "Seriously, Felicia? That's all you could find to wear today?"

She looked at me and shrugged "You need to do some washing Mum" and she put the ear-bud back in. Well that was helpful.

I tried the family room next. The room was in a complete state of disarray; all the cushions had been removed from the couches and piled up to form a barrier, along with other bits of toys and possibly the coffee table. There were two blond heads giggling behind the construction.

"What happened here?" I asked.

"We built a fort" said Sam. "Yeah" chimed in Tray, "It's to keep our stuff safe."

"Well the cushions need to go back, now please!" I left the room to the sounds of whinging and cries of "But Mu-um". This was the trouble with the adults lying in on a Sunday morning, the other inhabitants of the house decided that all was fair when nobody was around to see. Sam and Tray, at 8 and almost 7, were particularly bad at thinking up 'fun things to do with furniture.'

When I got back to the kitchen Pam was sitting on one of the barstools deep in conversation with Eric. Those two were as thick as thieves sometimes. Probably because Eric had to work really hard to convince me to have one last kid, and four year old Pam was the result.

I left them to it and started emptying the dishwasher. When I pulled out the big serving dish I'd used in the previous night's dinner I handed it to Eric and said "cupboard".

We'd moved after Sam was born, as we needed a bigger place, and we'd found this lovely old villa, closer to the Mt Eden village. Villas were prettier than bungalows, still just as cold and difficult to heat, but they had the lovely Victorian trimmings that you just didn't find in a bungalow. They also tended to have 10 foot high ceilings.

We'd discovered pretty early on, while trying to finish the renovations on the place in Merton St, that Eric just isn't cut out for DIY. In any capacity. He gets bored very easily and tends to give up. What he is really good at is project managing. He'll happily spend half a day trying to track someone down to do the work for him, and then he's especially useful at standing around and looking authoritative, even if he has no clue about whether the tradesperson is actually doing it right or not.

So when we had this house renovated, I let him talk to the kitchen designers, who were enthusiastic about 'maximising the storage space for our growing family' and 'utilising the wonderful openness you get in a villa'. This is how we ended up with cupboards only Eric can reach without standing on a stool. Luckily he was pretty good about putting stuff away and getting it out for me. And I had high hopes that one day Sam and Tray would be useful like that too. It seemed only fair recompense for putting up with my family room being turned into a fort.

Eric wandered off and I was left with Pam. "Mom..." she began. "Mum" I corrected. In her devotion to Eric she managed to pick up all his Americanisms, even the ones that mostly didn't show up anymore.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Mum. Can I make some cookies this morning?"

If it had been any of my other children, I would have said yes immediately. But with Pam, it paid to check.

"Why?"

"Because it will be fun. And I could sell them!"

"Who are you going to sell them to?"

"Sam and Tray."

"Pamela! You're not going to bake cookies and sell them to your brothers! If you want to make some, fine, but everyone in this house gets to eat them. For free!"

"That's not fair!" she huffed "If I do all the work, then I should get some reward for it."

"You'll get to lick the bowl. That's how it works."

"Daddy said it was good idea."

"Yeah, well, Daddy is American. They have weird ideas about the entrepreneurial spirit."

Her eyes went wide, and she shot off the stool and was off. Bugger. That was going to come back to bite me.

At that point, I felt something furry underfoot. Without much hope I called out "Has anyone fed the animals?" Deafening silence was the answer, so I picked up their bowls and started to clean them.

Bob had had to be put down when his kidneys failed the year before. Amelia was heartbroken, but she insisted on coming up to the vets when we had it done, then cried on Eric all the way home in the car. She kept his ashes in a box on her dressing table. I hadn't yet decided if that was creepy or touching.

However, pretty soon the requests for replacements had started, and we'd taken a trip to the SPCA where she and Felicia picked out two new kittens, and, in a rare display of sisterly solidarity, named them Edward and Bella. Mainly, I think, to annoy Pam, who wasn't allowed to watch the Twilight movies but who said she 'didn't care about stupid vampires anyway.' The new cats were cute, but they weren't Bob.

They weren't alone for long though. Pam began a campaign to get her own cat as well, saying it wasn't fair that she missed out. She spent a long time convincing Eric of this fact. So back we went to the SPCA where I expected her to find her own fluffy kitten. But no, Pam picked the weirdest looking, ginger tom-cat lurking in the shadows of his cage and brought him home. And named him Stan. She originally wanted to call him Eric, which I thought was taking the hero-worship a bit too far. I vetoed that because one Eric is enough. Eric remained silent on the matter, but he was secretly pretty pleased I think. Now Stan lurks in the shadows of our house and jumps out at stray kids as they pass him.

We also have the world's worst behaved cocker spaniel, Ivan. As in Ivan the terrible. When he arrived he chewed everything and there was huge drama when he chewed one of what Pam called her 'Alice-in-wonderland-shoes', patent leather mary-janes like the Disney Alice wears. So I bought a replacement pair. And he chewed one of those, the right one again. The third pair I started putting on Pam's chest of drawers every night, and Ivan discovered that Sam and Tray had all sorts of interesting things you could eat in their room. We lost a lot of Lego. And socks.

When the animals were fed I finally got to have a sip of my coffee as Eric came wandering back in to refill his cup. "What's this about me being weird and American?" he asked.

"Well it's not news." I replied, sticking my tongue out at him. Eric took that as an invitation to lunge in for a kiss. Somewhere in the background a child went "Euw" but I'm not really sure which one.

When we broke off the kiss, I continued on. "Pam wanted to bake some biscuits then sell them to her brothers and apparently you'd said it was a great idea."

"I told her that selling them was a great idea, not selling them to family members."

"Who else was she going to sell them to?"

Eric shrugged. "She could sit at the end of the driveway and see if anyone would buy them?"

"We live in a cul-de-sac; I think she'd be out of luck."

"Yeah, but it might keep her occupied."

Eric disappeared again and I grabbed some cereal and went to join him. I found him in the family room, where the fort was still in place but it no longer had any occupants.

I'd spent a lot of time over the years worrying about whether Eric would leave me. Especially when I'd had Sam and Tray only 15 months apart, and I seemed to be a perpetual blob of motherly goo. Not my most attractive time. But some days, I'd look at him, like he was now, sitting on a couch with no cushions, checking his mail on his phone while watching whatever American sport they show on New Zealand TV on a Sunday morning, unshaven and wearing a shirt I'm pretty sure I've put in the rag-bag at least once, and I think to myself 'who else would have him?'.

If nothing else he comes with a lot of kids now. And it's hard enough to be Pam's mother sometimes, good luck to anyone who wants to take on the step-mother role.

"Eric" I said "you didn't think to put the cushions back on the couch?" He looked up at me. "I promised the boys I wouldn't" he said and went back to what he was doing.

Just then there was a commotion in one of the bedrooms. Eric and I did a quick round of rock-paper-scissors to see who had to go and deal with it. I won and did a small victory dance, which earned me a smack on the bottom as Eric headed off to confront the culprits.

I set about putting the cushions back, having made no promises about keeping the fort, and knowing that I'd be the bad guy on this one. Just as I finished Eric arrived back. "What was up?" I asked.

"Well it seems that the fort was built to keep Pam out. But in retaliation she went into their room and started removing toys while they were in here, and she's just been discovered."

"So what did you do?"

"I just said anyone caught with anyone else's stuff gets a week cleaning the pet's bowls. And a trip to school or pre-school in your work van."

I laughed. Eric was really good at this stuff. I tended to get bogged down in who had done what to whom, and try to work out a complicated system of reparations and punishments that got me nowhere. Eric would just rock up, pretend he didn't actually know what was going on, but say if he found out that anyone was doing it, he'd meter out some terrible punishment. Then he'd bugger off again. The annoying thing was they all listened to him and stopped whatever it was they were doing. I had never worked out whether it was a brilliant parenting strategy on his part, or whether he really just wanted them all to shut up quickly so he could get on with his day.

I sat down next to him on the newly-restored couch cushions and ate my cereal while trying to figure out what on earth was going on in the baseball game Eric seemed to be half-watching. Then I realised I'd better go and rescue the washing I'd put on last night from the washing machine, if Felicia was ever going to find something more appropriate to wear, so I dragged myself off to the laundry to empty the machine.

EPOV

One of the things I loved about Sookie was her never-ending optimism about the weather in Auckland. She was always convinced that the rain would hold off long enough for her to actually get a load of laundry dry outside. I'm not sure it had ever actually happened.

I found her loading wet clothes into a laundry basket and looking pensively out the back door at the clouds. "I think I might risk it" she said.

I picked up the basket. "Really?" I asked "I wouldn't bother; we could just put it straight in the dryer."

"Fuck, Eric. Did you even see the last electricity bill? If it gets any more expensive I'll have to sell one of the kids, or I don't know, put you out to stud or something. Thank God it's nearly summer and we won't be spending so much, but seriously, it's getting a bit ridiculous."

I laughed and followed her out to the washing line. Sookie was always threatening to sell a kid or pimp me out. I'm pretty sure she was joking. Honestly, if she did want to pimp me out I think it would have to be after we'd got rid of all the kids, because otherwise I'm not sure I'd have the energy. I loved my kids, but fuck, they were a handful.

I probably didn't quite realise what I was signing up for. When we finally thought we might try for a kid of our own, Sookie did warn me that having three kids was going to be different because we'd be outnumbered. But I was a bit blasé by that point. Seriously, what could happen that hadn't already? I probably should have listened to Sookie. It was one of the few things she actually did let slip.

She completely forgot to mention how easily she gets pregnant. I set myself up for months of fucking around the clock. Yeah, that didn't happen. Six weeks later she peed on a stick and that was that. By that stage she was in the grips of some pretty serious all-day-sickness and my role was reduced to bringing her dry crackers and ginger tea, and shooing small, curious girls out of the bathroom when she was throwing up.

I did get to make the most of the nice bit in the middle of the pregnancy, when she was horny all the time, although she'll deny that completely. The pregnancy-enhanced boobs were every bit as good as I'd imagined. But all good things come to an end and when she was nearing full-term she was just really cranky. All the fucking time. Even in her sleep she'd just kick me, then wake up and accuse me of taking too much space in the bed.

Apart from the fact the actual birth freaked me out, I enjoyed Sam as a baby; he was the first one that was all mine from day one. Not so much though that I really wanted to have Tray quite so soon afterwards. He was a mistake, but although Sookie and I will argue until the end of time over who dropped the ball and caused that pregnancy, we'd never tell him. I wouldn't want to fuck him up completely. I'd have to pay for his therapy.

Even the trauma of four kids and two under two didn't stop me wanting another though. By that stage I was pretty much king of the tribe of people who've been peed on and I was immune to most of the gross stuff. I really did fucking love to see Sookie pregnant and with a newborn, although she'd do her best to push me away every time. And then we got Pam. Pam, who, thank God, is still my little girl and hasn't yet fallen under the sway of those stupid as fuck sparkly vampires.

As I was carrying the laundry across the deck, which was an essential addition when we renovated, my foot made contact with one of the many piles of discarded toys that littered the property. "Fuck" I yelled. Sookie shot me a withering glance; I never will fucking learn.

"What?" I asked "Whatever the fuck that was it hurt."

"You could try not to swear Eric. Honestly, would it be that much to ask?"

"Well maybe if this place didn't look like a minefield set up by Santa's elves, I wouldn't have to!" Yeah, it wasn't the best defence, but I was going down swinging.

We'd reached the washing line now and Sookie turned to face me. "They're your kids too, Eric. You tell them to pick their stuff up for once. I get sick of being the nag on that issue." She started pegging clothes out.

I decided a tactical withdrawal was the best option. "Yeah, fine. OK." I muttered while finding something to hang up myself. That seemed to satisfy Sookie and she shut up on the matter, thank fuck.

I heard a call of "Da-ad" and looked up to see Sam and Tray standing there, Tray was holding a cricket bat. Oh fuck no. I couldn't see the point in cricket. I'd tried, I'd really tried. I'd even been to a game with Sookie; we lived so close to Eden Park now it was hard to miss when it was cricket season. But I just couldn't get it. So I was at a bit of a loss when the boys wanted me to play with them.

"The ball's on the garage roof, Dad. Can you get it?" asked Sam. That was better; at least they weren't asking me to play with them.

"Can't you guys get it?" I asked. "Just climb the fence." Sam looked pointedly over my shoulder, and I heard Sookie say "Eric!" Oh yeah. I knew they were OK climbing the fence because I'd shown them the best way, but Sookie wasn't keen on that solution.

"Fine, I'll go and get it" I said, looking back at Sookie who was giving me some kind of look. It was probably a bad one, but that's about all I could tell.

Five minutes later I'd stood on the fence and retrieved the ball. Honestly, if the fence could hold my weight it would be fine with the kids scaling it. I was heading back to see if Sookie still needed help, when I got waylaid by Pam, who appeared to have set up a picnic under a tree.

"Daaadeee" she called out. "Do you want a cup of tea?"

I went down and sat with her and the menagerie of toys that were the party guests. "Um, could I have coffee instead?" I asked.

Pam shook her head. 'No, it's a tea party. We're having tea. See, there's the teapot. So, here's your tea."

She handed me a tiny china cup with pink polka dots on it. "Uh, thanks" I said. I really didn't get why all these games had to involve pretending we lived in an English country mansion or something. It had been the same with Amelia. And Felicia. I'd had a lot of pretend tea over the years. Just once it would be nice to get pretend coffee. I wondered if Pam would like a toy coffeemaker for Christmas.

As if she'd sensed what I was thinking about Pam said "Daddy, you know I wrote my list to Santa this morning. Amelia helped with the writing."

"Oh, and what have you asked for?" I hoped it wasn't anything too ridiculous.

"A bike!" she said. I thought of all the bikes I had cluttering up the garage. I was sure I'd be able to find one that was suitable, and if I spruced it up and put a bow on it and stuck it under the Christmas tree Santa would have come through. No problem.

"A bike that's all mine and no one else's!" Pam continued. Oh, right. A new bike. She handed over a piece of paper, "See, like that one."

In typical Pam fashion she'd done her research. Next to each thing on the list she'd cut out and glued a picture from one of the deluge of brochures which had started arriving in the letterbox at the beginning of November. Sure enough, at the top of the list was a picture of a small pink bike with silver tassels.

I looked at her; I wasn't really sure what to say. For one thing, I wasn't sure how far we were taking the whole Santa thing with her. At least two of the kids in the house knew the truth about Santa these days, and although I was pretty sure Amelia would keep the secret for Pam, as she was very fond of her, Felicia had a bad habit of blabbing all sorts of things.

"Um, well, hopefully Santa's elves will be able to sort something out for you" I said, trying to be as non-committal as possible, because I was only half of the Santa equation and I'd have to run it all past Sookie.

"Cool, well can you make sure that Mum sends my letter off?"

"Sure" I said folding it up and putting it in my pocket. I stood up to leave. "Uh, thanks for the tea, sweetheart."

"No problem Daddy." She busied herself pouring more tea for the collection of dolls and stuffed toys that surrounded her. I spied the Tinkerbell doll I'd bought Amelia just after we'd agreed I was staying. I guess with some things it didn't matter if they'd been someone else's first.

Sookie had just finished hanging the laundry out when I got back to her. "Great timing there, Eric!" she said rolling her eyes.

"What? I've been hanging out with Pam." I said.

"Yeah, yeah. Trust Pam to rescue you."

Just then Sam and Tray arrived back, clutching a soccer ball. That looked more promising than the cricket bat.

"Dad, can we go to the park?" asked Tray. There was a park with a small playground on the corner of our street; it had been one of the reasons we'd liked this house so much.

I looked at Sookie, "You can have an hour then its lunchtime" she said.

"OK, come on then." I said, heading off past the garage.

"Eric, aren't you going to put any shoes on?" Sookie called out. I turned back to her, not sure if I was in trouble again. Didn't seem like it, she was pointing at my feet and laughing.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, we've so turned you. You're such a Kiwi now. One of these days you'll go to work with no shoes on and the transformation will be complete."

"Yep, you're all sucking me in." I shrugged and walked off following Sam and Tray, none of us bothering to put shoes on. Maybe I was one of them now?

SPOV

I watched Eric walk off with the boys. Well, I figured, he was always checking me out so I could return the favour, right?

I grabbed the laundry basket and headed up the steps to the deck, just as Felicia was coming outside. She'd changed into some capri pants that were most likely hers, but still had the Spiderman hoody on. She wasn't watching where she was going, and stubbed her toe. "Fuck!" she exclaimed. "Felicia" I said as a warning, but really, there was no hope for her, not when we lived with Eric.

"Yeah, I know. Hey, can I go over to Caitlin's house? She's got a new rabbit."

"Well, it's nearly lunchtime. Do you want to go this afternoon?"

"Nah, I'll just have lunch there. Her mum won't mind."

"Should I call her?"

"Nah, it's sweet. Hey, can we get a rabbit?"

"Are you kidding? It would drive Ivan insane!" I gestured over to where Ivan was. He'd been barking at the sparrows on the lemon tree, but they'd flown off and now he was left just barking at the lemons. "You know what he's like if there's a hedgehog, we have to put the hose on him. It would just be cruel". I wasn't sure who it would be the cruelest to; the rabbit, Ivan, or Eric who'd have to be out there separating them every night. Probably me who'd be stuck refereeing between the three of them.

"Yeah, I guess so. But they're so cute and fluffy."

"So are Bella and Edward, remember them?"

"Fine! I won't get one then."

She started to walk off. "Have you got your phone?" I called out after her. In a triumph of nurture over nature, Felicia did an exact copy of one of Eric's non-committal shrugs and I was none the wiser. And then she disappeared around the side of the house.

I went inside and put the basket back in the laundry. I called Caitlin's mother to make sure that my daughter wasn't going to be a burden, and then I went into the kitchen to start assembling lunch. I'd learnt a long time ago that it was usually better to just let everyone make their own sandwiches, so I buttered a pile of bread (it was scary how many loaves we went through), and just put out every possible sandwich filling they could want. And then I waited.

Just as I was thinking I might have to send out a search party, Eric arrived back with the boys. They were all looking a bit hot and sweaty, so I hoped that had used up a bit of energy. Eric started making sandwiches for the three of them, and I went to get Pam in from outside. I heard Amelia come down the hall way then singing out "Daddy!" which probably meant she wanted Eric to take her somewhere. Because he'd started out as Eric to her, she still frequently called him that, although for a while there she'd switched to Dad almost exclusively once she realised all the other kids in the house were using it and she was the odd one out. Now she flip-flopped depending on her mood and what she wanted.

"Hey, can you take me to St Luke's? So I can meet my friends?" she looked hopefully at Eric. St Luke's was the mall, and therefore Amelia's second home these days.

"Umm, OK" Eric said, looking up from the sandwich he was making for Tray. "Which friends?"

"Just some friends. No one you'd know."

"Boy friends?" Eric asked, I was trying to give him a look to say cut it out, but he wasn't looking. If he didn't shut up soon, I'd have to go and stand on his foot.

Amelia tried to look indignant. "Maybe, I don't really know." I could tell she was a bit worried about Eric following her in and embarrassing her. I didn't blame her; I thought it was a distinct possibility. I decided to step in.

"That's fine, Amelia. Eric will drop you off" I tried to emphasise the dropping off part for his benefit, "and then he'll pick you up at 5 o'clock, OK?"

"5.30?"

"5"

"OK then. But, um, we can go in your car, can't we Eric?"

Yeah, I was stuck with the people-mover that everyone hated. But unfortunately it was a necessity with our family. Eric's SUV, while still quite large, was considered much cooler. The worst of all was my large, brightly coloured work van; none of the kids even wanted to acknowledge me if I turned up in that.

When Eric had first been looking for a business we'd tried to find something we could do together, given I wasn't exactly enthused about returning to the murky world of banking which was run by the likes of Sophie-Anne. So we'd looked at a lot of franchises. And in the end we'd bought one together which only I ran. It was a Jumping Beans franchise, one of those programs where you teach little kids through movement and music and dancing. It worked out well because I ran classes from 9am to 1pm four days a week at various church halls and community centres, and I could do all the admin and preparation at home. So I was around a lot for the kids. It did mean that I had a large van to carry all the equipment in, decorated with the Jumping Beans logo. These days Judith worked with me, using her background as a pre-school teacher, and we made a reasonable income from it.

It meant that Eric had to find something else he could do and in the end he'd gone back to consulting, setting up his own firm advising New Zealand businesses who wanted to invest in or export to the States. To be honest it suited him, he could turn up in his suit, give a whole lot of advice which sounded great with an American accent, and charge like a wounded bull. He also worked a lot from his office at home, which helped immensely when we were trying to juggle so many kids. It wouldn't have worked out if his job wasn't flexible as well.

"Yeah, we'll take my car" Eric said, still looking at Amelia suspiciously. I felt for him, he really hated the fact that she was growing up. I wasn't looking forward to the day she actually brought a boy home; Eric would be trying to scare him off within the first minute.

Amelia looked pleased and rapidly ate some lunch, before beginning to pester Eric to take her now. He sighed and stood up to leave. "Have fun!" I called out to Amelia, but she was already half out the door and didn't reply. OK, that made me sad. What happened to the little girl who talked to me all day every day?

Eric must have been feeling the same thing, he came over and said "Remember when she used to call it 'Delukes' and want to me to hold her hand every time we went there?"

"Yeah" I replied, "but I do also remember that she used to pester us for ice cream too. And occasionally run off in Kmart."

"I know, but in retrospect, that was easier to deal with."

"It was. But you'd better get going or she'll explode with impatience."

He lent down to kiss me goodbye and then left. I started clearing up lunch.

EPOV

By the time I got to the car Amelia was standing by the passenger door practically jumping on the spot. Once we were off she starting fiddling with the stereo to find something she wanted to listen to. Whatever she settled on, I didn't recognise. I was just fucking glad we were pretty much through The Wiggles stage with all of them now. I hated The Wiggles. What made it worse was that Sookie seemed to know all the words and would try to lead everyone in really noisy sing a longs. I'd declared my car a Wiggles-free zone, but when I was stuck in the people mover there was no escape.

Amelia pretty much ignored me and played with her phone on the drive to St Luke's. I'd had a different relationship with her than the others, as she was such a little person by the time I arrived, but now she was growing up and I wasn't sure what I was to her anymore. A fucking chauffeur most of the time.

I pulled up outside one of the entrances to the mall. "Do you need any money?" I asked. I wasn't above keeping her on my side though, only a few more months and she'd be 14 and legally allowed to babysit. I was looking forward to that day.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks, Eric. You're the best!" she took the money with a smile.

"I am?" I asked. Oh, now I was looking for the approval of a 13 year old girl. I was completely in the shit.

Amelia looked at me. "Yeah, you are. You were always the coolest guy in the sandpit. None of the other dads would ever build us sandcastles like you did. See you Eric!" With that she was out the door and over to where two other girls wearing almost identical clothes were standing.

I drove off. Amelia's mention of the sandpit had made me realise something. It was 10 years now, 10 years since I'd told Sookie I wasn't going anywhere. Wow. I knew I wanted the whole family thing with her at that stage, but if I stood back and looked at where I'd ended up, I still felt a bit stunned that it had actually come true. It fucking amazing really. God knows where I'd be if I hadn't met Sookie.

SPOV

I thought maybe I'd do some vacuuming. It was a losing battle, but one I was constantly waging. I hadn't got far with it before Pam appeared in a huge huff of righteous indignation. There was a lot of finger-pointing but I missed what she was saying, so I switched the vacuum off.

"What happened?" I asked, just as Sam and Tray also appeared in the room.

"Sam called me a poo!" she wailed, turning to face him.

"What? It was a joke, stupid!" said Sam.

"OK, it's not a joke to call your sister a poo, and don't call her stupid either." I said, in an attempt to stop it going any further. Where was Eric when you needed him?

"It was a joke!" Sam yelled "It was a knock knock joke. Tray, you do it with me. Knock, knock"

"Who's there?" asked Tray, fulfilling his function in the family which was to be Sam's sidekick at all times.

"Europe"

"Europe who?"

"No, you're a poo! See that's what the joke was! Pam just has no sense of humour!" Sam was bristling now, with all the indignation of being falsely accused.

"It's not funny!" said Pam, looking to me for agreement.

"Daddy thinks it is" said Sam. "He told it to us."

"Yeah" said Tray.

Right, so the person who started all of this was now absent and I was stuck with the three of them. I really understood Eric's desire to make them all shut up and go away before you had to get involved.

"OK" I said "We don't call anyone else a poo. Even in a joke. Now, just go and find something else to do that doesn't involve annoying each other, OK?"

Sam and Tray exchanged a look, which I'm convinced signalled that they thought I was the really lame parent, and then they took off. Pam hung around.

"Mum, I'm hungry" she said.

"But we had lunch not all that long ago."

"Yeah, but I'm hungry. Can I have a snack?"

"What do you want?"

"Ooh, can I have that thing with the crackers and the marshmallow that Daddy makes?" Ugh, whatever it was it sounded weird and disgusting.

"How about crackers and marmite?" I offered. Pam pulled a face. "Crackers and peanut butter?"

"OK then."

We headed off to the kitchen so I could get Pam something to eat.

EPOV

When I got back to the house Sookie was in the kitchen by herself. "Where's everyone else?" I asked.

"Around. I got to hear your new joke."

"What joke?"

"The Europe one." Oh yeah, I thought that was pretty funny.

"Yeah, the boys liked it" I said.

"Well Pam didn't like being called a poo and there was a lot of yelling and foot-stomping as a consequence."

I shrugged. "She'll get over it. I thought it was funny."

Sookie looked at me and smiled. "You are such a dad!" she said.

"What?"

"You. The lame jokes. It's such a dad thing. My dad used to point at every cemetery we passed and go 'there's the dead centre of town'. Every single time. Jason would laugh like a drain."

"That was a lame joke. But I think mine are funnier." I was pretty sure they were, but in case Sookie wanted to disagree, I lent down to kiss her.

When I pulled back she swatted me in the stomach. "You were just trying to shut me up there."

"No, not at all. I just wanted to kiss my wife."

"Humph, I'm pretty sure that technically I'm not your wife. Have you even looked at the documents we signed? No mention of wife there."

"Sookie, you know that shit doesn't work with anymore, don't you? You're my wife and that's the end of it." I kissed her lightly and headed off to my study. I could hear her calling out "You saying it doesn't make it true Eric!"

While it was true that we weren't technically married, we'd opted for what the New Zealand government liked to call a Civil Union Partnership instead, she'd always been my wife. Probably even before we had our ceremony on the beach at Piha (which was mainly held so Amelia could fulfil her desire to be a princess for a day). Probably ever since I told that weird chick in a playground that Sookie was my wife so she'd fuck off.

I don't know why I always felt that way, I just did. It felt fucking right. So I just used to tell people she was my wife. It would drive Sookie fucking crazy, and she'd tell me off repeatedly. At first I used to argue with her, and then I learned to just shut up and look apologetic until it blew over. But I didn't stop.

Sookie would try to convince me I was her boyfriend, but I just ignored her on that point. I didn't want to be her boyfriend, it sounded disposable or something. I wasn't going anywhere. I never did move out. Every so often I'd make noises about looking for somewhere else, but it never came to anything. And after I went back to the States for a couple of weeks to pack up my stuff Sookie decided she missed me too much to make me move out. But she did say she reserved the right to rescind the invitation depending on how much of my shit turned up in the boxes I'd had shipped over.

SPOV

Eric was always going on about me being his wife. I might have argued, but secretly I'd always kind of liked it. I would just never admit it. It was more fun to try to wind him up about it, but it was a lot harder to make him bite these days.

I assumed he was heading off to his office. I also assumed that Stan had jumped him somewhere in the hallway from the yell of "Fucking cat!" that reached my ears. I could then hear Pam yell "Daddy, you be nice to Stan!" It wasn't often that Pam crossed Eric, but Stan was a huge bone of contention between the two of them. Eric and Bob had come to an understanding in the end, helped by the fact that Bob downgraded his hunting from rats to leaves as he got older, but Eric and Stan just hated each other on sight.

From the sound of it Eric was trying to apologise to Pam without actually admitting to being in the wrong so I went back to the vacuuming.

When I was finished Felicia arrived home, and started on about getting a rabbit again.

"I'll look after it!" she said. Yeah, I'd heard that one before.

"No way are we getting a rabbit."

"I could pay for it. I could use the Christmas money I'm going to get from Nana. Please?"

"No"

Felicia wandered off in a huff.

Ugh. That would just be my luck, a rabbit funded by Lorena that I'd have to look after. We had a truce with her these days, after I'd shut her up on the subject of Bill due to the plan Eric had helped me come up with just after he told me he was staying. We tolerated her, she tolerated us (even my other three kids) and mostly we tried to stay away from each other.

Well, she barely tolerated Eric of course. When she saw him she avoided talking to him as best she could, and when I was alone with her she never mentioned him, but I knew from Judith that to the rest of the family she only ever referred to him as 'Sookie's lover'. Eric thought that was hilarious. So much so that when we went to a Compton barbecue once in order to be introduced to Caroline's fiancé (a very nervous looking Malaysian Chinese guy called Jonathan) Eric bowled up to the guy and stuck out his hand saying "Hi, I'm Eric. Sookie's lover." It was one of those moments where I wasn't sure whether I wanted to slap Eric or high-five him, as the look on Lorena's face was priceless.

Mind you, the incident was soon forgotten when Caroline pulled out her big surprise. She'd been working on a program tracing missing relatives and it had inspired her to track her father down. By coincidence he was living in Sydney as well, so they'd met up. And she'd persuaded him to come back to Auckland to meet his other daughters again. So there he was, Malcolm Compton. Complete with his life-partner, Liam. I almost felt sorry for Lorena; she hadn't driven him away at all. She just hadn't been the right gender for him. I wondered how much Bill had known about his dad.

Bizarrely the kids all loved Malcolm and he was quite good with them. It took him a while to work out who I was in the family and I thought what it must have been like for him to lose contact so thoroughly he didn't even realise his eldest child was dead. I wondered if he ever regretted his choices.

The kids may have liked Malcolm, but our one visit to Eric's dad had been a disaster. We'd only had the four kids at the time and we took a trip to the States (Eric went there sometimes for business) and called in to see him on our way to Disneyland. Eric really didn't want to go, but stupidly I insisted. He'd want to see his grandchildren, right?

No, he wasn't really interested in them. He just sat there drinking whisky after whisky poured by his latest girlfriend who said she was my age but looked ten years older. I didn't know what to say to him, the kids looked miserable. Eric looked broken. I just wanted to gather them all up and get them the hell out of there, which I did as soon as it was decent.

As we went back to the dingy motel we were staying in that night I could feel the waves of tension coming off of Eric. We had a very quiet dinner at one of those American chain restaurants and then settled the kids in for the night; because we were there for only one night we were all sleeping in the one room. All the time Eric didn't say anything. I was so worried that he would run off somewhere and start drinking, if anything would push him over the edge it would be this, and I wouldn't have been able to stop him. It wasn't like I could abandon the kids and chase after him if he left.

But instead he just pulled me into the small bathroom and we had fast and uncomfortable sex in the rather basic shower. I think by that stage I'd figured out that sometimes Eric just needed the physical closeness of sex so he knew everything was OK, that we were OK. At least he was turning towards me and not a bottle. So I'd put up with occasional bouts of uncomfortable bathroom sex for Eric. Because there were a lot of things I'd do for Eric. Because he was Eric.

At the time we had started trying, in a vague manner, for another baby. When I got back to New Zealand and found out I was pregnant I never could be sure, but I always suspected that it might have happened that night. As if Eric had taken all the grief and anger left over from his shitty childhood and poured it into making Pam. No wonder they were close. As long as Stan wasn't around that was.

EPOV

I would never understand why all the women in this house insisted on having fucking cats underfoot all the time. Stan was my least favourite; at least the two that were named after stupid sparkly vampires didn't try to kill me every time I walked past them. Even fat fucking Bob was preferable to Stan.

Pam followed me into my office, she'd delivered her lecture on 'being nice to Stan' but obviously wanted something else.

"Daddy, can I use your laptop?" she asked, looking up at me. I had intended to come in here to do some work, but I could see I was getting sidetracked pretty thoroughly by Pam.

"Yeah, OK."

"Now?"

"Just hold your horses, let me get it set up."

"What horses Daddy? You won't buy me a pony!" she wailed.

"It's just an expression Pam, it means be patient." It was easy to forget how young she is sometimes, she always seemed older.

"Humph. I'm always patient."

I really didn't want to argue with a four year old, so I just bit my tongue. I also worried that if she wasn't patient, neither was I as Sookie was always saying how alike Pam and I were, Mind you, she didn't like it when the tables were turned. Whenever Amelia really dug her heels in about something and absolutely refused to budge, Sookie would stomp around muttering about "bloody Compton genes showing up". I tried pointing out once that it wasn't anything to do with the Comptons; Amelia's stubbornness was a perfect copy of Sookie's. But all I got was a lot of yelling because apparently I had it all fucking wrong. Like fuck I did.

So when Sookie came to find me to remind me to go and get Amelia, I was sitting at my desk with Pam on my knee while she played some weird kid's game that involved Penguins. I didn't get it, but she was enthusiastic. At least they weren't fucking vampires.

SPOV

When Eric got back with Amelia I was in the throes of making tacos for dinner. It was part of my repertoire of 'interesting things to do with mince'. Eric thought my reliance on minced beef was a weird by-product of being Kiwi, and possibly he was right, but I had to feed seven people and we couldn't have steak every night, as much as Eric would have preferred it.

Although he liked most things I made, even if he did grumble a bit about it, and was always good at thanking me for dinner, which had rubbed off on all the kids. Like a lot of kiwis my family was originally English, so I had been able to introduce Eric to a lot of new stuff like Yorkshire puddings. He was rather happy when it was roast lamb night because of those.

He had managed to avoid turning into fat Bob, although I have to say he was a bit thicker around the middle than when I got him. But it was more like he'd filled out his frame and looked less boyish. If anything, he was better looking. It wasn't fair really.

Me, I'd had five kids. I had, however, discovered the joys of the gym after I'd had Pam and it helped me get a bit of my confidence back. I even had my own personal trainer, a nice Samoan guy called Quinn. Eric hated his guts on sight, but I liked Quinn. He was a body builder and was always trying to talk me into doing body sculpting. Maybe one day. At any rate I'd discovered that I really liked the mental discipline of lifting weights. And Eric's jealousy over Quinn, however misplaced, was quite good for the ego.

It was just a good thing I wasn't someone who wanted to continually get their partner to prove how much they loved them by making them jealous; I really don't think it would have been good for Eric's blood pressure to tell him that I let Quinn take my measurements to show my progress. Including my bust measurement.

So I was busy stirring the mince in the frypan when Eric came into the kitchen and stood behind me. I leaned into him. That was nice; it was sort of like a mini-recharge of my batteries to be held by Eric. Almost like I drew a bit of strength from him. It didn't even matter that I knew he was busy staring down my top while he stood there.

EPOV

I loved the way Sookie would lean into me. It was all I'd ever wanted really, for her to just let go for a bit and share with me. Plus, I could get a really fucking awesome view of her boobs from over her shoulder. I don't think I was ever going to be tired of her boobs. They were still fucking amazing.

It was tacos again. This meant I would have to help several kids assemble various combinations of meat and cheese and salad only to watch them explode as soon as anyone bit into one. The kids loved them though.

We sat at the table and I started to help Pam with hers. "Is this American food, Daddy?" she asked.

"Um, not really." I said. The kids, and Pam especially, were always obsessed with what was American and what was Kiwi. I guess it was their way of working out where they came from.

"Do I have to have salad?" Tray was asking. So far he'd got mince and cheese in a taco shell and he was looking at Sookie hopefully. He'd never fucking learn.

"Yes, hun, you have to have salad. Have some lettuce at least" said Sookie.

Pam was now adding grated carrot to hers and looking pointedly at Sookie waiting for praise. When it didn't automatically arrive, she said "I've got salad!"

"Yes, you have sweetheart. Well done." I said.

Felicia rolled her eyes. Amelia stared dreamily ahead. Worryingly though, Sam and Tray had started to giggle, and the giggles were getting louder.

Then Pam said "Euw, what's that smell?"

Tray and Sam appeared to be struggling to speak, but eventually Sam said "Tray farted!"

"No, you farted!" said Tray. There was more giggling, their dinners having been abandoned.

Felicia said "You guys are gross!" while Pam yelled "Yuck!" at the same time. Amelia just wrinkled her nose and tried to pretend she was above such childishness. Sookie looked at me. Guess this was mine then.

"Alright!" I said loudly "Everyone, just be quiet, eat your dinner and no more farting at the dinner table!"

Sam and Tray's giggles died down slowly while Pam continued to glare at them.

Sometimes it was hard to believe I'd thought having five kids was a fucking good idea.

SPOV

When we'd made it through dinner, with thankfully only one spontaneous outbreak of farting, which wasn't bad for our house, I sent Eric off to do bath time for the three youngest kids, starting with Pam, who was still grumbling about her brothers.

I cleaned up dinner and a thought occurred to me, it was ten years since Eric had arrived. Wow, he'd now been here almost as long as Bob had been with us. But it still wasn't as long as I'd been with Bill which felt, odd. Sometimes that part of my life felt like it had happened to someone else entirely. This was the real bit.

It was strange to think of there being life before Eric. He sort of filled the house somehow. It wasn't right when he wasn't here; I found that out pretty quickly the first time he went back to the States to pack up his stuff. I hated it when he went away for business. I missed him like crazy.

I had been so scared when we'd first agreed to give a relationship a try, and sometimes I wonder how I ever found the strength to face those fears. Eric getting counselling had helped; even though he'd agreed to it, for a while I wasn't sure he'd go through with it. But he had, and it was the one thing that had really proven to me that he wasn't the kid he always accused me of thinking he was. That he was really the man for us.

Of course the counsellor wanted to see me too, and I had some sessions on my own. Guess I hadn't realised quite what the legacy of losing my parents then Bill had been. What I found out was that on paper Eric and I shouldn't have worked. We were both scared of losing people; he ran away, I pushed people away. We should have lasted five minutes. But although we were scared of the same things, we both wanted the same thing too; a family, with each other. And as long as we held onto that we'd be fine. It was hard work, but it was something worth working for.

EPOV

Bathtime was mostly just drudgery really. Pam wasn't so bad, she just wanted me to sit there and chat with her a bit while she played in the water. The boys were a fucking nightmare, by the time I was finished with the pair of them the bathroom was practically flooded and I was soaking. I got them into pyjamas and they went running off down the hall to their room.

Coming out of the bathroom I ran into Sookie, who looked me up down. "Jesus, Eric, you look like you were in the bath with them. And shouldn't they be winding down for bedtime? They're in there wrestling you know."

"Right, I'm on it." I said and went to break them up. Except that I got pulled into it and spent about ten minutes rolling round with them myself. Eventually I pulled them off and Pam came in for story time. It was her turn to pick so we were doing The Gruffalo. Pam just loved the idea of a mouse convincing all the other creatures he was the scariest thing in the woods. I worried sometimes that in a couple of years her brothers stood no chance against her.

SPOV

Eric did bedtime; I did the routine of making sure schoolbags were packed, uniforms clean, lunches made. I checked in that Felicia had done her homework then sent her off to the shower. Then I stuck my head in Amelia's room. She'd now moved on from her tatty copy of Twilight and was holding an equally battered version of New Moon.

"Done your homework?" I asked.

"Yeah" she said. "Hey, Mum. Can I ask you something?"

I went to sit on her bed. "Sure."

"Do you love Eric? Like, really love him?"

"Yes" Absolutely. No hesitation.

"So, did you love Dad then? My real Dad?"

Oh. It was going to be one of those nights. Amelia knew a bit about what had happened between Bill and me, that he'd been unwell and using drugs before he died, but I guess she needed to know more.

"Yeah I did. It was…different though. And we weren't really suited to each other, you know? I think it was part of the reason Bill was unhappy."

"Tell me something about him? About him and you?"

So I told her about how we'd first arrived in London and Bill had arranged for us to stay with a guy he'd once worked with. Except when we got to the flat in a grotty part of the city, the guy Bill had known had gone back to New Zealand. So we were stuck there, with little money, in a really crowded flat. We were sleeping on a crappy airbed on the living room floor, and we were sharing it with another guy who slept in the dining room alcove. Then I got really sick and Bill took me to the local doctor and demanded they see me even though they didn't want to because I didn't have the required NHS number yet. He just argued with them until a doctor finally agreed to see me in her lunchbreak.

I'd made my peace with Bill a while back. I could understand that he had loved me, enough to want to keep me safe. But something in him had stopped him ever really being mine. Not in the way Eric was mine.

Amelia seemed satisfied with the story. But then she said "So, if things had been different with him, you wouldn't have met Eric?"

"I guess so, although who knows. I'm not sure Bill and I would have stayed together."

"So, do you think there's just one person for everyone then?"

"Amelia, sweetheart, I don't know. I think it would be sad if there was only one. But I think there are some people who are much better together than apart, and I think Eric and I fit into that category."

I hoped that would satisfy her. But then she went on "Sooo, that locked door thing on Sunday mornings, that's just sex, right?"

I knew that Amelia knew about sex, but I really didn't want to be discussing my sex life with my 13 year old daughter. "Um, it's more about spending time together. And sleeping in."

Amelia grinned, she knew I was lying, but I wasn't admitting to anything. I guess she was naturally curious about sex, so I decided I should use the opportunity to say something.

"Amelia, just promise me you won't do anything, um, sexually, before you're ready, OK? And when you do, just promise me that it's with someone you really trust." I knew it wasn't realistic to tell her to wait for true love, I couldn't have told you that I loved Eric before I slept with him. But I did always trust him.

"Yeah, Mum. OK." Now she was looking a bit embarrassed. I did worry about her though. She had plans to do one of those student exchanges in her last year at high school. She wanted to go to the States, preferably somewhere in Washington State. I knew it was a way off yet, but I worried about her being so far from home, surrounded by American boys. Eric would probably come up with about 12 reasons to visit the States on business that year.

"So are you still thinking about going to the States for a year?" I asked.

"Yeah, but maybe not the States. There are lots of other places I could go. I was thinking Scandinavia. Like, maybe Sweden?"

"Oh, wouldn't that be hard, if you don't speak the language?"

"Well I'd learn it. Might be more interesting. I already speak American thanks to Eric."

"Yeah, guess so." I said. That was random. I didn't know of any vampires that came from Sweden so I don't know where that idea came from.

"OK, well don't read too long. Night, sweetheart."

"Night, Mum."

I found Eric making coffee in the kitchen. "Right, kitchen table" I said.

"Ooh, I'm getting sex on the kitchen table?"

"Dream on, mate! It's Sunday night, so it's schedule night."

Eric looked resigned, but grabbed his phone and sat down. I got the wall planner and my diary out and we went through who was doing what over the week. We had to be organised with five kids to get to places, it wasn't like either of us had a lot of other family kicking around to help. That was OK though. Eric and I had figured out to make this work for the two of us.

When we finished that we sat and drank our coffee, enjoying the sounds of a mostly quiet house.

Eric looked like he suddenly remembered something and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Pam made her Christmas list" he said, handing it over. "She wants a bike. A new bike" and he sat back and waited for my reaction.

I liked the idea of recycling one of the other bikes, but in this instance I felt a bit for Pam. When I was her age I'd been allowed to go out with Jason if I could keep up with him. He had a bike, I didn't. I got really good at running.

"Well, we could probably spring for a new bike." I said. Eric looked relieved; I hope he hadn't already promised her one. "I wonder what everyone else wants."

"Nothing too fucking expensive I hope."

"I just hope Felicia doesn't push for a rabbit. She's been on about wanting one all day."

"Oh fuck no. If Ivan doesn't scare it to death, Stan will. It won't last five minutes in this house."

"That's what I tried to tell her, but she's stubborn, like Amelia. You can tell they're Comptons."

Eric just raised his eyebrows. "What? You can! Don't pin that on me." Eric had weird ideas sometimes.

EPOV

As we were getting into bed, I suddenly remembered what I'd meant to say to Sookie earlier.

"Hey, do you realise I've been here for ten years now?"

She was putting on lotion. "Yeah, I thought of that too. Wow, its gone kind of fast, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but I can't remember what it was like before, you know?"

"I do. It's like you've always been here."

"We should celebrate."

Sookie looked suspicious. "How exactly?"

"Sex on the deck!" it had been our thing since the time at Piha. It was the sole reason as far as I was concerned for building a deck on this place. We made a point of doing it at least once a summer.

"Eric! It's too cold for that yet. Don't pout; it's not attractive in a grown man." What? I wasn't fucking pouting.

Sookie went on "I could recreate the night in your hotel room."

That's better. "I'm getting a blowjob?" I asked.

Sookie batted her eyelashes at me "Do you think you deserve a blowjob?"

"Don't fucking tease me, woman!" I huffed at her.

She laughed and said in a sing-song voice, "Oooh, you're sexy when you're all growly!" She kissed me and then pulled away to pull down my boxers. Oh yay, I was getting a blowjob. This was a pretty fucking fantastic day.

Sookie lent over me and took my cock in her mouth. Yeah, that felt good. Sookie was fantastic at this. It wasn't the reason I'd hung around for ten years, but I guess it helped.

I just relaxed back and gave in to the sensation of her hot mouth and tongue working me. I started to move just a little and she increased her speed and her suction and used a hand to massage my balls. I tensed up and said "Fuck!" as quietly as possible as I came. Sookie kept me in her mouth, working me with her tongue until I relaxed again. God that felt good.

"As good as you remember it?" she asked, smiling.

"Better" I said, kissing her. "Better because of everything. But now it's your turn."

I pushed her back on the bed and removed her pyjamas, enjoying seeing her naked. She was so self-conscious sometimes, but she didn't need to be around me. I fucking loved her naked.

I sucked one of her nipples into my mouth and she moaned and pushed her chest up towards me. Yeah, she was enjoying this. I dipped a hand between her folds and she was so wet.

"Are you wet for me, Sookie?" I asked.

"Always Eric" she replied. That's my girl.

I kept my hand working while I kept my eyes on her expression. If she wanted to recreate the blowjob in the hotel room, I was going for the first time in her bed, watching her come. It didn't take long before she was moving against my hand, but she kept her eyes on me. It was fucking amazing watching her come, every fucking time.

Afterwards we lay together in the dark, with me behind her, just like always. "So does it feel like home now, Eric? Now you've been here ten years?" she asked.

I didn't even have to think. "It always felt like home Sookie. You're my home and you always will be."

"I love you, Eric."

"I love you too, Sookie."

A/N Hope everyone liked it! And I hope you didn't mind that I didn't move the technology forward much, unfortunately I would suck as a sci-fi writer!

Thanks to everyone for sticking with this story!