Baby May

Catch Up

While trying to focus on the script read, Joe's mind had been elsewhere. Somehow he got through it with only one mess up, which ended up being comical and had the room in stitches.

Following the reading, Joe approaches Alyssia. He looks her over as he gets closer, despite forgetting some of that part of his childhood, he can remember the little girl next door that just wanted a friend and someone to play with.

The wavy caramel curls she once had are now tight dark brown afro curls like the ones Brian used to have before his hair turned grey. The baby weight she once had is gone, giving her a slender lean form that she probably gained from her years as a figure skater, he can remember how good she was when she was in her younger years.

"Alyssia?" He catches her as she's about to walk away from the table, "Do you have anywhere to be right now?"

Checking her watch, Alyssia thinks about his question, "Not for an hour or two," She hasn't got to pick Ivy up from school for a couple of hours.

"Do you want to go for a coffee?"

She smiles his American accent makes her heart flutter, "I'd like that. There's a cafe down the road just let me say bye to my dad."

Beaming, Joe nods, "I'll wait by the door."

They didn't get far from the building before Allen, Ben, Gwilym, Rami and Lucy catch up, "Hey wait up," Ben shouts.

"Mind if we join you?" Allen asks but they know the question is a rhetorical one. With no reason to tell them no, they tag along.

"So is it true that you know Allen, Joe, Ben and Lucy?" Gwilym asks Alyssia once they're all sitting in a booth at the nearby cafe.

"Yeah, so Lucy and Joe I knew as a child," She explains the story to the group from when she was kidnapped to the moment she came home.

"Wow, that's insane," Rami heard her tell it before but with the extra details it's mind-blowing, "So you knew Freddie?"

"Not really, I knew him until I was taken and from what my dad has told me we were very close but I don't remember much of it. He passed away while I was in Manhattan, New York."

Rami can see the thought makes her sad so asks the next question, "What about Allen and Ben? How do you know them?"

"Allen I worked with on Downton Abbey, he was my on-screen lover and husband for three series. Ben, I've known since the beginning of high school, he was my husband's best mate and eventually mine as well, he..."

"Your married?" Rami hadn't expected that.

"Was um..." Alyssia looks to Ben for support, he gives her an encouraging smile, "My husband, Toby, passed away three years ago."

"I'm sorry," Joe mutters as do the others, his thoughts to ask her out that day change, realising he needs to be more sensitive about the situation.

"Can we ask how?" Lucy inquiries though not to be rude.

"It's a two-part story. Toby and I were coming back off holiday, we'd been away as our last holiday before I had my second child. When we got back to the airport, Tina and Matt, a guy who had been a friend to Toby were working together so Tina could get me back. The pair held me, Toby, my parents, my eldest and two others at gunpoint. My husband was a police officer and while I kept Tina talking, he contacted the police, but when Matt grabbed hold of me, Toby run at him and Matt shot him."

"Were you injured?" Joe wonders concerned even though she is clearly alive and well today.

"Yes, I was shot in the top of the leg just after, resulting in me going into labour. Toby remain in a coma for a few days after doctors removed the bullet. Once he woke up, he was discharged three weeks later. He was off work for three months, the day passed away was his first day back at work. He came home feeling fine but during the night I woke to find him cold and blue beside me. Paramedics tried to revive him but it was no use, the post mortem showed that a small piece of the bullet had been left in after the surgery and caused an infection to Toby's heart and bloodstream."