John is an early riser. He can't help it - his body clock is just set differently to hers - Roxanne knows that but it's his first day off in almost two weeks and last night, he himself had said that he was looking forward to a lie-in but when she's disturbed by the rays of the early morning sun, she knows that he's awake.
"John," she whines, glancing toward the window to see him peering out, "What time is it?"
"Ten to seven."
"What?" she groans. He had to be joking, "John, you said you were having a lie-in. This-"
"Every time," he mutters quietly, interrupting her.
"What?"
"Every time I'm off," he continues to grumble, "Every time, Roxanne. It's like they know."
"Who?" she asks, closing her eyes against the bright morning sun.
"Casper," he tuts, "And that arsehole cat from next door."
"Louie?" Roxanne yawns, "What about them?"
"They fight, make those horrible noises that cats make," John shakes his head, "They only do it on my days off."
"They're fighting?"
He nods and opens the window a little bit and she hears the noises that he's talking about, making her get up and go peer out the window with him, looking out in time to see Louie (a skinny grey tabby), rip a chunk of fur from Casper.
Roxanne gasps, immediately leaving John's side and he stays put, taking a sip from his glass of water and watching as Roxy marches across the grass (barefoot and in a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt that he's pretty sure belongs to Roger), to where the two cats are still hissing at one another, crouching down to scoop their cat up into her arms and thanks to the window being open, he can hear her giving Casper a telling off as she walks back to the house.
"Honestly," he hears her tut, "How many times do I need to tell you, be nice to the neighbours. Amos doesn't do that, does he?"
"That's because Amos is a lazy little shit," John says as they return to the bedroom, Roxanne dropping the cat gently onto the bed, "All he does is sleep on the rocking chair in Arthur's room."
She laughs, the pair watching as Casper jumps down from the bed to go search for the cat in question before she climbs back into the bed, patting the space that belongs to him while wiggling her eyebrows, "Come on. Arthur won't be up for at least another hour."
"A whole hour?" he asks, grin matching that of his wife's, "What can we do for an hour, hm?"
"Lot's of things," she giggles, feeling him wrap his arm around her waist, kissing her cheek softly, "But really, I want to sleep. Last night was a rough one"
"I know," he whispers, laying down so they're sharing the one pillow, "Hopefully he'll settle back into full nights soon."
The two of them dose for maybe ten minutes and when Roxanne is just about to fall asleep properly, the phone ringing jolts her awake again.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," John growls, "Who the hell could that be?"
"I'll go," she pats his arm, "You go back to sleep."
John reluctantly lets her go so she can climb from the bed once more, peeking into Arthur's room to see that he's still fast asleep, Casper and Amos on the rocking chair before she makes her way down the stairs to the phone, which is by the little table that's by the front door.
"Hello?"
"Nessie," Roger greets, "Nessie, hey!"
"Roger?" she sighs, "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Roxanne!" she hears Rebecca cheer in the background and Roger laughs, "Roxy, he proposed, Roger proposed. We're getting married!"
And suddenly, she's not so tired anymore.
Sure, she knew it was happening but Roger had dropped no hints about when he'd be taking Rebecca back out to Rockfield.
"Rox, do you know what this means?" Rebecca's voice is clearer now, probably having grabbed the receiver from Roger, "We're going to be sisters!"
The two squeal excitedly, completely ignoring Roger's cry of no you're not!
She says on the phone with them a little longer, listening to Rebecca gushing about the ring but when she hears Roger whispering (well, he thought he was whispering) in her ear, she decides that it's time to say goodbye, promising that she'll come round with Arthur when they return.
When she returns to bed, John is passed out - or so she thought.
"Did he do it then?"
Roxanne startles, pressing her hand against her chest as she looks at him, seeing the cheeky smile that is on his lips, "I hate you sometimes."
"Has he?" he repeats, ignoring her little jibe and she nods.
"Yep. We won't be the only married couple now. Oh, think of all the double dates we can have with them, John!"
"I will," he nods, shuffling so he can share her pillow again, "That's what I'll be dreaming about - the double dates with Roger and Becca. Now, can we please have my lie-in before our son wakes up and demands all of our attention?"
She laughs quietly, turning her head so she can press a kiss to his cheek once more, "Of course we can."
++|++
It's no secret that John loves taking photographs; pictures of Roxanne, Arthur, the cute dogs he sometimes sees in the park when they're out for walks. Every time they go someplace new with the band, he's got his trusty camera secured around his neck.
So really, Roxanne shouldn't have been surprised when he came home with a new toy.
She was in the living room with Arthur, supervising as he plays with some of his toys on the floor mat, raising an eyebrow when her husband comes practically falling through the door.
Arthur immediately gets excited, babbling and squealing as John sets the box down and comes to scoop him up into his arms.
"Hello," he grins kissing his cheek, "Did you miss me, kiddo? Hm? Did you miss daddy?"
"What's this?" Roxy asks, crawling over to the box so she can have a nosey.
"It's a video camera," he grins, bouncing Arthur from side to side.
"A video camera? John, you only went out for milk!"
"I know," he nods, "But I was walking by that electronics store in the village and I saw it in the window and thought hey, we don't have one of those. Besides, it'll be good, won't it?"
"For what?" she asks, opening the box to have a look, "It's huge!"
"Well, the album is almost finished, isn't it? When it's released there's going to be a tour," he looks down at Arthur, who's grabbed a section of his hair in his little hand, "'m gonna be gone."
Roxanne pauses where she's lifting the camera out of the box. They hadn't really brought up the subject of touring yet but they were going to have to soon - he was right, the album was close to being released and soon after, he'd be jetting off.
"It's so if the two of you don't come along with us, I don't miss anything," John explains, sitting down on the floor with Arthur between his legs.
Roxanne pulls the camera out of the box and sets it down on the floor, digging through the box to find the instructions for it.
"I don't know if it'll have any charge," John warns as she skims over the first page of the booklet before tossing it back into the box.
"Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" she grins, turning the camera over in her hands, "How do you turn it on?"
Rolling his eyes, John stands up again, "Here, let's swap."
"Hi," Roxy whispers when Arthur's settled in her arms, brushing some hair from Arthur's forehead, "Aren't you just so handsome? Look at all this hair."
She loves his hair; the same colour as John's and she honestly can't believe how fast it grows. She was dreading the day they had to get it cut.
Hopefully she wouldn't be an emotional wreck.
"Alright," John announces and she looks up to see him holding the camera's viewfinder up to his eye, red light flashing away, meaning that he was filming her.
"John," she blushes, trying to hide her face with her hair, "What are you doing?"
"Trying it out," he grins before calling Arthur's name, trying to get the child's attention but he's got a hand wrapped in Roxy's necklace, "Arthur,"
Gently, Roxanne untangles his hand. "Look at daddy," she says softly, waving the same hand that was pulling at her necklace to wave at John, who's grin grows.
"There he is!" he cheers and then, he pulls back from the viewfinder, "Rox, Roxanne, look! He's smiling!"
And he is. It's a small, lazy smile but Roxanne does not care.
"Oh John, look at him!" she whispers, holding him close to her chest once more and hell, she hopes she doesn't start crying right here and now. He was just growing up too quickly.
Their baby was smiling and they'd caught it on camera.
++|++
so it just occurred to me that i never got round to actually doing a cast list for STL and so, here is Rebecca, the lovely Kirsty Mitchell :) of course, you can choose whoever you want!