Heather pushed Nicole on the swing in the deserted park under the dusky sky.
"Push me higher mummy!" Nicole squealed.
Heather's mobile went off and she answered it. "Hello Ben," she said.
"Where the hell are you!?" Ben exploded. "I was supposed to pick Nicole up ten minutes ago,".
"Sorry, I lost track of time," Heather said. "We're still at the park,".
"I'm coming to get her now,".
A few minutes later, Ben turned up at the park. "Come on Nicole, come to daddy," he said, crouching down with his arms open.
Nicole clung to Heather's leg. "I wanna stay with mummy!" she cried, her face crumpled into a frown.
"You can see mummy again soon," Ben told her. "Come on, we'll go and buy some sweeties,".
Nicole let go and wandered over to Ben.
"When can I see her again?" Heather asked.
"Next week," Ben told her, picking Nicole up and holding her close to his chest.
Heather's mouth dropped open. "I can't wait a whole week. Please Ben, she is my daughter. And what about when you go on tour? Surely you're not going to take her on the road,".
Ben paused and thought about it. "Yeah, I don't think it would be wise to take her with me, so I expect you can have her then. But... I don't know if there'll be any more tours...".
"What do you mean?".
"I don't want to ever see Paul again," Ben said angrily.
Heather gasped. "You can't break the band up over this,".
Nicole interrupted the argument. "Daddy, don't you love mummy any more?".
Ben didn't know what to say, he just looked down at the ground.
"I still love daddy very much," Heather said.
"I think it's time we left," Ben said, he didn't know how much more of this he could take. "Heather, you should get a letter from my lawyer in the post during the week,".
Ben drove Nicole home, and on the way they stopped at Marks and Spencers to get some shopping.
Nicole was playing up. "I want this!" she cried as she grabbed a tin of soup off the shelf, causing the rest of the stack to topple over.
"Put that back," Ben told her sternly.
"I want mummy!" Nicole screamed. She started crawling on the floor and got in the way of other shoppers.
"Nicole, behave!" Ben yelled. He dragged her to the checkout to pay for the shopping.
"I want mummy!" she cried. "Mummy, mummy!".
"Shhhhh! You'll see mummy again soon," Ben said, losing his patience.
The other shoppers in the queue were watching and didn't look to happy. "Sorry," Ben said. "Come on Nicole, be quiet. Look, I'll buy you a Tweenies lolly,".
"Don't want lolly, I want mummy!" Nicole bawled.
That evening, Linda was sitting in the hospital chatting with Helen.
"So when are the boys going back on tour?" Helen asked. "Paul hasn't mentioned anything about it yet,".
"Paul and Ben aren't speaking of course, so I doubt it'll be anytime soon," Linda said.
"Why?" Helen said in surprise.
"Oh no," Linda said under her breath, realising what she'd said. "Um, it doesn't matter...".
"Something's up, tell me," Helen demanded.
"No, I think Paul should tell you himself," Linda said, standing up. "I'd batter get going,".
"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what's happened,".
Linda sighed and sat back down. "OK, OK. You're not going to like this,".
"Well?" Helen said nervously.
"Heather was having an affair... with Paul,".
Helen sat in silence, completely shocked.
"It's over now," Linda carried on. "Paul was planning to tell you himself,".
Helen didn't know what to say. "How could they?" she finally managed to whisper.
Lucy and Nick sat watching MTV in bed. "I really like the video to our duet," Nick smiled as they watched the 'Dancing Queen' video which had recently premiered on MTV.
"Mmmm," Lucy said. "Listen Nick, I have some news,".
Nick turned to her. "What's that?".
"In nine months time we're going to have a lot of sleepless nights,".
"What?" Nick asked, confused.
Lucy laughed. "Duh, don't you know what I'm getting at?! Nick, I'm pregnant,".
Nick grinned. "Wow that's cool! I'm gonna be a father,".
Lucy turned away so her couldn't see the look on her face. Nick probably wasn't the father...
Heather knocked on the door to Helen's hospital room slowly, feeling nervous. She walked in slowly.
Helen looked up at Heather in silence.
"I take it you know," Heather said, sitting on a chair by Helen's bed.
Helen nodded. "Yes,".
"Look, we didn't want to hurt you," Heather explained. "It just happened. We tried to stop it and we ended it last week, it's all over now,".
"I'm glad to hear it," Helen said in a flat voice.
"Look, I know you must hate me..." Heather said. "I'm so sorry...".
"No, I understand," Helen interrupted. "You spend a lot of time together... I can't blame you for being tempted, I know what Paul's like,".
Heather stared at Helen in disbelief. "You mean you're not mad at me?".
"Well, I'm not delighted over the fact you were sleeping with my husband," Helen said. "But I don't wanna fall out over it,".
Heather smiled with relief. "Thanks Helen,".
.