Timeline: Lara is 19.

Lara closed her eyes, feeling Neil run his hands through her hair. She heard the voices on the tv slowly drown into the background. Her eyes snapped open when Neil's phone rang. He quickly reached for it, apologising.

"Hey cara, you alright?"

"Hey honey. Nothing wrong, just wanted to let you know that we're on our way home."

"Oh," he said with a smile. "Am I on loudspeaker?"

"Just give me a few seconds..." she mumbled. "And there you are. Your pumpkin can hear you now."

Neil heard Gwnyth giggling and grinned. Lara rolled her eyes with a laugh. "Hi pumpkin! You being good for mama?"

"I always good."

"I know you are. You're the best behaved little pumpkin ever."

"Debatable," Lara whispered under her breath. Neil slapped her shoulder before he carried on speaking on the phone. Once he put it down, he looked at Lara and sighed.

"Sorry, tesero, I know you were just falling asleep."

Lara sighed, lifting her head up from Neil's lap. "Papa, I'm scared." Neil furrowed his eyebrows.

"Scared of what? Is there someone in uni? Is the accomadation-"

She shook her head and sighed. "You love mama right? More than anything?" A few seconds went by. "Not a trick question. Other than Gwen and I, and nona and family. You love her?"

"Tesero I love your mama and you two girls to the moon and back a million times. You three are my absolute world."

"Papa..." She mumbled. "What if no one loves me the way you love mama?"

Neil sighed as he looked at her. "Tesoro, I promise you that you will find someone who loves you more than I love your mama. You have got such a big heart and so much love to give and you only deserve the best." He kissed the top of her head. "Sometimes it hurts to have your heart broken but then when you truly meet the one, it's so amazing."

"I don't want to get my heart broken again."

"I don't want you to either, my angel. I really wish that you meet one person and they are the one. I wish that was the way. But sometimes it's not like that. I was never in love or thought I was in love with anyone before your mama so it's difficult to truly understand. But I had people break my trust and make me feel like I was nothing. What Henry did to you was wrong and truth be told, I never liked him anyways."

Lara rolled her eyes with a laugh. "That's what mama said too."

"Your mama and I are very alike."

"Hmm, don't think so. You're about a million times more annoying."

* * *

"Cara, hand me the pillow please." JJ looked around the floor and then picked up the two pillows. She continued to fix the bed sheet before Gwen barged through the room with a laugh.

"I'm finished!"

"Potato!" Lara walked into the room with a huff. "You need to put on your clothes. You can't run around naked after a bath."

JJ picked Gwen up and placed her on the bed. "Thank you so much monkey. Give me her clothes, I'll get this little girl dressed and into bed." Before Gwen could run off the bed, Neil wrapped his arms around her.

"And where do you think you're going pumpkin? Your mama is gonna get you dressed and into bed." When she pouted, Neil kissed the top of her head. "And don't even think about taking the whole sheets off again. But I love you, I'll read you a story at night."

"papa?"

"Yes pumpkin?"

"You love me?"

Neil frowned as he pulled her into a hug. "I love you to the moon and back. Do you know how many times?"

"A million times?"

"Exactly."

"Sorry for being bad girl today."

"Oh sweetheart. You're not a bad girl. You're my pumpkin. You were just a little naughty today, but the most important thing is that you said sorry."

Lara placed the clothes on the bed before tapping Gwen's shoulder. Whilst still in a hug, Gwen placed her head on Neil's shoulder and looked her way. "You are the cutest potato ever, you know that?"

"promise?"

Lara stuck her pinky out. "Pinky promise."

* * *

"Hey tesero?" Neil asked as he stood at her open door. Lara looked up from her phone with a smile.

"Alright what do you want?"

"Nothing?" She raised her eyebrow. "Fine, I want to ask you for a favour."

"So when do you want me to babysit?"

"This weekend? From Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Your mama and I haven't had a weekend away in a long time and we've just been so busy with Gwen and I want to surprise her."

"That's funny."

"What is?"

"Mama wanted to do the same for you. Well she was speaking about whether to do it or not and she wanted to surprise you."

Neil smiled at the idea and shook his head. "No. I'm gonna tell her to not do that. She deserves a break and I want to spoil her this weekend."

"Spoil her or have sex with her without Gwen getting in the way?"

He stared at her before smacking the back of her head. "I don't like the fact that you're growing up. Forget it Lara, never asking you to babysit again."

"Dad, I'm kidding! I think it's lovely that old people are still intimate." She heard him mutter under his breath as he marched away. "I'll book Gwen in for this weekend! It will give us time to hangout."

"Fuck off!"

JJ popped her head out the room with a frown. "Neil," she warned. "You know the rules."

"Fine," he groaned as he walked into their room. JJ followed behind with a frown. She watched as he took some change out his wallet and placed it on the drawer.

"and why are you huffing and puffing?"

"Because," he mumbled.

"Because what?"

"I don't like Lara anymore. She's too grown up." JJ bit back a laugh when he lay on the bed with his eyes closed. "Why did we have two daughters? God they're the worst." She slowly crawled on top of him and lay down so half her body was on his.

"Hey honey?" She whispered softly. Her fingers gently grazed his jaw. "You are the loveliest man in the world, but in the nicest possible way, suck it up and get used to it."

"I don't want to," he mumbled. He lifted her hand kissed the inside of her wrist.

"Okay. Well what did she say?"

"She spoke about our sex life. Said that I only want to take you away for the weekend so I can have sex with you."

"That's somewhat true."

"She's my little girl, she shouldn't even know what that is."

JJ smiled before kissing his cheek. "Honey, she's nineteen. Unfortunately, we cannot lock up our daughters and keep them away from everyone."

"Well why not?" He whined. He turned to face her with a frown, hating how amused she was by all this.

"Are you happy with me?"

"Of course I am! What kind of question is that?"

"Okay. Well you were happy before me too right?"

"Yes..."

"And you were happy before Lara too right?"

"Yes..."

"But being with someone and loving someone and having someone love you brings you a whole lot of happiness that is different isn't it?"

"Definitely. I was happy before you all because I never knew there was happiness like this."

"And that's my point. As much as we can keep her away from people, and as happy as she can be, we both know how amazing it is to be in a loving relationship. And that's why we can't lock away our daughters."

Neil slowly raised a hand to her cheek and sighed. His fingers traced over her lips before he started playing with the end of her hair. "I hate it when you're right." Leaning closer, he kissed her. "But you're not planning the weekend away. I've already booked half the stuff and it's my treat for you because you've been working your ass off. We can definitely have fun with the uninterrupted sex and I also want to spoil you. So pack a very nice dress and that fucking sexy lace set that you haven't worn yet."

She kissed him again, pushing her body closer. "I have a better one I bought because I was gonna plan something. I'll keep it a surprise."

"What colour is it?"

"Secret."

She kissed him once more before shuffling down and placing her head on his chest. Neil sighed as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Papa," Lara called as she left her room. "I was only joking. I promise not to make anymore inappropriate jokes." She walked into their room with a smile. "I'll look after the potato that weekend. It will be nice to actually spend some time with her because I barely get to when I come down. Is it okay if I take her to the cinema and trampoline park?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Are you still grumpy?"

"No. I just miss you being all innocent and young."

"Aw isn't this old man so sweet?" Lara said to JJ.

"Get out," he mumbled