A nice warm relaxing bath was definitely needed; a good fifteen minutes where she didn’t need to worry about anything because Zack had promised her would take care of anything.

Alaska couldn’t remember the last time she was given some peace and quiet, some time to detox and get refreshed, it was probably before Ava was born and when she was practically living with Josh, getting cherished every single minute by him.

It had been nearly six years since the accident and Alaska was ready to accept that she had moved on from Josh, even though she knew a small part of him would always own her heart, even if he wasn’t here to claim it.

She still get a small stabbing pain in her heart when she thought of him, which was quite a bit since she was constantly reminded about him from Ava, even though she didn’t get the chance to meet her father she seemed to carry a lot of his mannerism, something that shocked Alaska.

Although, sadly, Ava didn’t look like him in the slightest, which was something she had hoped for straight after the accident when she realised Ava was now the only peace of him she left, but when Ava was born and was the spitting image of her mother it was something that Alaska was thankful for, knowing that she wasn’t going to have to look into a pair of eyes that belonged to the man she loved and was going to see again.

Alaska was ready to move on with her life, not that there was many men knocking her door down in order to date her, she hadn’t had any intimacy in a relationship since Josh, heck she hadn’t even had a relationship since Josh and she deeply missed the affectionate side of it.

The hand holding, stroking of the hair, cuddling and hugs. Small aspects but they were something that she missed and she wished she could have back, with someone that would love her and would love Ava.

She was happy that Ava was getting attached to the boy’s especially Zack and Jack, Alaska had always felt back that she didn’t have someone to give Ava a father figure in life and she didn’t want to give that role to Chris who she knew was reluctant to even look after the girl in the first place.

But with the guy’s she knew that Ava was going to be happy, that they were going to be able to teach her fingers that Alaska couldn’t do and hopefully it would help her mature and her relationship between the mother and the daughter. That is if the boy’s decided to stick around.

Alaska wouldn’t hold it against the group if they chose to end the relationship, after all it was a lot of responsibility to take in, a young mother and a five year old girl, it’s not your typical night down the local pub, is it?

Reluctantly, Alaska pulled herself out of the warm bath of bubbles, wrapping herself tightly in a overly fluffy white towel, allowing the softness to hug her as she paced over to the dresser, wiping at the foggy mirror to gaze at reflection, something she hadn’t done for quite a long time.

Alaska could still see aspects of the carefree girl she used to be, the slightly wavy dark hair, the piercing green eyes, the small slightly chubby nose. But then there are things she knew hadn’t been there before, things that had happened in the past few years.

The dark bag’s beneath her eyes, the small wrinkles that surrounded the corners of her eyes, and the slight dullness that had replaced the spark that the green eyes had once gleamed with.

Alaska sighed, turning her back on the reflection, wondering why she tormented herself as she unlocked the bathroom door, sticking her head out to check the coast was clear before quickly darting into her room and shutting the door swiftly behind her.

After quickly getting dressed in a clean shirt and pair of jeans Alaska sat on her bed, reaching under it to pull out an old battered shoe box which she placed on her lap, her fingers gently tracing the top before she pulled it off.

It had been years since Alaska had last gazed at the contents in the box, and she didn’t know why exactly she felt the need to look at it tonight, it might have had something to do with her conversation with Zack or maybe it was just time.

Her finger tips brushed against the soft fabric of Josh’s old track shirt, the one she had stolen from his house after one sleepover and which she decided to keep, practically living in it for the first week of college when she felt nothing but homesick.

Underneath the t-shirt was the countless photographs that they had taken during their three year relationship, some of them silly with goofy faces pulled at the camera, some of them group pictures with mutual friends that had soon drifted out of touch with Alaska after his death. There were a few pictures that Alaska treasured above the rest and they were the ones where it was just the pair of them, posing for prom, before going on the first date, and just silly little spur of the moment pictures.

Alaska sifted through them, a sad smile pulling on her face as she remembered time’s that felt they were a lifetime ago instead of a handful of years, but as she gazed at them she didn’t feel the aching pain she usually felt when she saw the boy she was so damn certain was the love of her life, instead she saw a chapter of her life that her made her something so much stronger than she thought she could have ever been and have gave her most prized treasure.

“Mama! Mama” Ava giggled, as she ran up the stairs, her feet thundering down the hallway as they were followed by more giggles, this time of the male kind, which Alaska guessed was Spencer trying to keep up with her crazed daughter.

“I’m coming baby” Alaska called back, hastily stuffing the lid onto the box and slipping it under the bed, deciding that the next time she would look at it was when Ava wanted to know about her father and how great of a man she was.

She stood and took in a deep breath, wiping her hands on her thighs before exiting the room, coming face to face with a very scary look Ava and Spencer. Ava’s usual pale complexion now held an impressive handle bar moustache while Spencer stood behind her, with what Alaska could only guess was an eye patch, a coat hanger taped to his arm.

“What are you guys doing?” Alaska asked as they both grabbed her by the hand and dragged her downstairs and towards the living room, not bothering to answer the older woman’s question as they continued to giggle and laugh amongst themselves.

“We’re playing Peter Pan” Ava grinned at her mother, still running towards the living room, Spencer letting go of Alaska’s hand in order to fling the door open and propel her into the room.

“Woah!” Was all Alaska could say as she took in the sight before her, Jack and Alex both adorning eye-liner eye patches a rather scraggily beard drawn on their faces while Rian was wearing a long wig and Zack had a paper-towel hat on their head for reasons Alaska didn’t even know.

Alaska turned and raised her eyebrow at Zack who merely shrugged, a small smile playing on his mouth as Ava animatedly was trying to explain to her mother the game.

“Mama, I’m Peter Pan and Spencer’s Captain Hook!” Ava grinned, still dragging her mother around the room, pointing out that the area with the small circle of chairs was the mermaid lagoon and the two sofa’s pushed together was Captain Hook’s ship while the remaining chair was Peter Pan’s hide-out.

“I can tell baby” Alaska chuckled, a hand stoking her daughter’s hair affectionately as Ava pushed her mother on the chair, her and Spencer standing either side and beginning to fiddle with her hair.

“Lex and Jack are both pirate’s and Rian is Tiger Lily” Ava explained, ignoring the sound of complaint she received from Rian along with the snickering Alex and Jack sent the poor boy “and Zack is a Lost Boy but we need you to play” Ava continued, jumping down the chair when she was pleased with the job she had done on her mother’s hair.

“And why is that?” Alaska asked with a slight raised eyebrow, wondering how she was going to be involved in the whole scheme of things when it looked like the two kid’s had the whole game planned out.

“Because Miss Darling” Spencer began before his face turned red in embarrassment “I mean Miss Ad” he corrected himself, a small smile playing on Alaska’s lips at how adorable the young boy was before he continued “You’re Wendy!” he finished beaming at the older woman.

“Yes you are!” Ava persisted “It’s your name, Adelaide Wendy Darling” she finished pulling her Mother up off the chair and leading her to a chair where she and Spencer then began to proceed to tie her up with toilet role, which Alaska had to admit was creative on their behalf.

“Yes baby, I get that” Alaska hastily trying to cover up her embarrassing name and trying to get the reason why she was being detained on the kitchen chair, “but how does this involve me getting tied up?”

Ava just sighed, turning to look at the rest of the guy’s and giving them a look as if to say she didn’t understand how her mother wasn’t understanding how the game worked, this caused Alaska to giggle, seeing how much Ava was like her.

“Because Mama, Cap’n Hook has kidnapped you and Peter Pan and his Lost Boy and Tiger Lily” more snickering was aimed at Rian “need to fight the bad pirates and save you” Ava smiled, placing the remainder of the toilet paper on the floor before running over to where Zack and Rian stood, grabbing a plastic sword from her toy box off the table.

“Well if it isn’t Peter Pan” Spencer called out in a mock gruff voice which caused Alaska to laugh slightly, watching Ava as he paced his ‘ship’, Jack and Alex stood close behind him, stroking there pretend beard in mock thought.

The game continued for at least another hour or so, Ava and Spencer battling out. Jack took a fatal wound to the leg in the first fifteen or so minutes before taking a very respectful death and moving to sit on a chair next to Alaska watching the scene with a smug smile on his face, laughing at Rian who had to keep fixing him wig every couple of minutes or so.

Rian was the next to die, it was a sword to the back of his head which killed him off, and taking the wig off was the first thing he did, throwing it on the table as he headed off to the kitchen to grab a drink for Jack, Alaska and himself.

Forty five minutes later Alex killed himself, when he got himself trapped between Zack and the ‘ship wall’, by jumping over the edge and into the water where he drowned himself and collapsed next to Alaska, helping her take a drink, since her arms tied to her side every now and again.

It was an agonizing twenty minute battle now between Spencer, Ava and Zack before Spencer killed Zack, allowing him to go finish dinner, while Ava finally killed Spencer and free her mother from the chair.

Alaska left the rest of the group tidying the room while she went to the kitchen to assist Zack and go set the table. It was edging close towards Ava’s bedtime and she knew that within an hour the little girl would start to get grumpy and tired.

While she was getting ready after her luxurious bath Spencer’s father had phoned up to let Alaska know that the labour was taking longer than expected, the first time when she was rushed in was a false alarm but then the big show happened a couple of hours later and it was going pretty slow.

It was safe to say that Spencer would be staying the night and possibly the next, not that Alaska minded in the slightest, Spencer was the sweetest and more adorable boy she had ever met and Alaska was thankful that Ava had chosen him to be friends with him.

Alaska smiled from where she stood at the kitchen door, watching as Zack clattered about with different bowls and pan’s, emptying different sorts of ingredients into different dishes. It was a nice sight and one that she definitely wasn’t used to, but she was grateful for the help.

“Here, let me finish up” Alaska smiled, gently nudging Zack out the way with her hip as she took the bowl from her hand, motioning for him to move towards the table and relax as she finished preparing the meal, placing the bowl’s on the already set table as Zack leaned against the counter, sifting through the pile of magazines that were laid next to the fridge.

Zack laughed causing Alaska to turn around on her way back from calling in the rest of the guys, turning to see him holding the bunch of magazines that she had purchased the week before, the one’s that Ava had pointed out that had the pictures of the boy’s plastered on the front.

“So I guess you know about the band, huh?” Zack asked, lifting the magazines up in Alaska’s direction, chuckling when he noticed how red her face went when she saw what exactly she was on about, wishing she had thought to have moved them and to save herself the embarrassment.

“Ava saw them when we were leaving your house last week and she was adamant we bought them so she could find out about your band. To be fair I would never have imagined you guy’s being in a band unless you had told me” Alaska shrugged, wishing that the flush would vanish off her face.

“Well if you didn’t know I was in a band what job do you think I would have?” Zack asked, lips tugging themselves into a small smile as Alaska just stood there, dumbfound. She had never really thought about what career any of the boy’s would have, maybe college students or something along those lines. But never in a million years would she have suggested they were a band, but now she couldn’t think of anything else that would suit the four boys more.

Alaska just shook her head, her lips contorting into a small frown as Zack just looked at her, eyebrow raised with a shrug, a small smile playing on his lips was he opened up a draw and shoved the magazine’s in, tapping his nose slightly as he turned to face the small brunette.

“Our secret” Zack grinned, collapsing at the table as the rest of the group filed in, taking their seats before helping themselves to spaghetti, their half-hearted moustaches and eye patches already beginning to fade.