It had been the idea of Ronee's manager, Alan Lewis, to pair her up with Loretta Tortelli. Loretta had moved with her husband Nick from Boston earlier that year and had been eager to start a career in showbusiness. Alan had suggested that Loretta pair up with Ronee to sing songs from Ronee's album, Mood Swings. Since the album had sold only about 7 copies, as far as Loretta and the audience were aware, the songs were new. Ronee was to play the piano for Loretta and be the backing singer. She had been reluctant at first.

"Go for it, Ronee," Alan had said to her. "Think of the publicity this could gain your album. People will want to hear it sung by a real singer afterwards."

And so the Lawrence/Tortelli duet had gone ahead, but to a bad reception. Loretta's "singing" - well, Ronee's ex-husband could have sung better. And the only time he sung was when he was drunk.

Never mind, she thought to herself. I'm out with Ned tonight. I can moan about it to him and that will make me feel better. She smiled at the thought of Ned Foley. They had met whilst he had been a dancer, and had been dating for about a year. They were crazy about each other. He was sweet, funny, handsome, and got on well with all her friends.

"Hey, Ronee? Have you seen Sherry anywhere?" Ronee's friend, Sue, asked her.

Ronee's thoughts were interrupted. "Oh, no, sorry. Is she due on stage soon?"

"Yep. The boss is getting impatient."

"Well, I hope she does better than I did with that bimbo."

"Yeah, I heard all about it," Sue smiled. "Well, when my hands were not over my ears!"

Ronee chuckled. "I'll tell Sherry she's on if I see her. If there is any audience left after Loretta Tortelli!"

Sherry Wallis had lived in Las Vegas for about 2 years. She'd left her ex-husband behind in Atlantic City and had moved to try treading the boards. Ronee had to admit, Sherry was one of the better dancers she'd seen. Her fashion sense might make her look like Carmen Miranda, but she was a nice enough girl whose main claim to fame had been appearing as a girl in the background in the video for Doing It All For My Baby by Huey Lewis and the News a while back. Ronee and Sherry had bonded over discussing ex-husbands and swapping stories.

Ronee arrived at her dressing room and was about to walk in when she decided to surprise Ned. He loved her in her costume and found it a real turn on - and after the day she'd had, she just wanted to make love to him all night to forget all about it.

She opened the door of Ned's dressing room.

"Surprise," she said seductively. But the surprise was on her. Ned was standing against the wall kissing and cuddling - Sherry Wallis. The two turned, startled at the interruption.

"Ronee!" Ned gasped, almost dropping Sherry from his arms.

Ronee gazed coldly at the pair. "You're due on," she said to Sherry without a flicker of emotion.

The cries could be heard anywhere in the Crane apartment. Nowhere was safe from them.

"All right, all right, I'm coming!" Martin Crane almost yelled as he exited the kitchen with a bottle in his hand. Heading towards the bedroom, he nearly tripped over Eddie.

"Hey, watch it," he said to the dog as he regained his balance. He headed into the bedroom where his grandson, David, was crying loudly.

"Here we go, Dave," he said to the baby as he put the bottle of milk into David's mouth. David sucked the bottle happily as Martin sat down next to the crib. He and Ronee were looking after David whilst Niles and Daphne were out shopping. He had jumped at the chance to help ever since David's birth. His first grandson, Frederick, had lived too far away for Martin to be a hands-on grandpa like he was now. The fact that he and Frasier had not got on well back then hadn't helped either.

Now, he had both his sons in his life and his new grandson, whom Martin and Ronee spoilt rotten. Martin smiled at the thought of his wife. A year ago, if you'd told him that he'd be married with a new born baby in his life, he'd have said "Oh jeez" and called you crazy. It was amazing what change a year bought.

He just wished Ronee could be around a bit more. OK, she hated being called "Grandma" but she doted on David as if he were her real grandson. But she'd been working a lot recently. Every time her boss called her, she'd gone to the Wellington to do some overtime.

"You work all hours as well," she'd said. "You know how much my career means to me."

"I know it does," he'd said to her, "but I'd just like you around a bit, that's all."

"Am I not round enough?" she'd teased.

The key turned and Ronee came in through the front door from another shift. "Hey, handsome," she said.

"Hey," Martin smiled.

"Enough about Dave though, how's my Marty?" Ronee teased.

"Your Marty is feeding the baby," Martin said. "And he still has the knack! When you have kids, you never forget how to do things like this."

"You used to feed the boys quite often, right?"

"Sometimes," Martin told her. "If I was coming in from a night shift, I'd often give the boys a quick feed if they needed it."

"Something I never had to do," Ronee said as she sat down.

"Do you sometimes regret not having kids?" Martin asked.

"Sometimes," Ronee said. "But everything turned out for a reason." She thought of Sherry and Ned back in 1987. "Everything turned out just fine."

"Hey Mom, how about this one?" Alice Doyle asked her mother. "This one looks cool!"

Roz looked at it. "Sorry honey, but spending $19.95 on a lunchbox isn't a good idea. How about this one?"

"Nah, not 'nuff pink," Alice protested.

Roz did not notice the older woman approaching her from behind. But Alice did.

"That lady has lots of pink!" Alice giggled. Roz turned around.

I recognise her from somewhere! she thought. The woman walked up to her.

"I know you," she said. "You're a friend of Frasier Crane's."

"Yeah, I used to work for him before he moved to wherever he is now," Roz said.

"I heard his last show. It was quite sad," the woman said. She sighed. "And to think, I could have ended up his stepmom."

Roz suddenly remembered how she knew this woman.

"Sherry?"

"That's right."

"Hey, I haven't seen you for years!"

"Well, after Marty and I split up, I did tend to avoid people close to him." She paused. "Uh, how is he?"

"Oh, he's fine," Roz told Sherry. "Still using the cane, but he's never been happier. Especially since.... oh, excuse me." Roz answered her cellphone. "Roz Doyle.....really? Well, tell Gil if he doesn't do his show then I won't let him have that cheese specialist on his show. That's right, that 23 year old sexy tanned guy.....Right, OK. Bye.". She put the phone down. "Sorry, work called. Being the station manager is hard!"

"Hey Mom, can we go now? I'm bored." Alice asked her mother.

"Sure thing, honey. Sorry Sherry but we have school supplies to buy on one of my few days off."

"That's fine," Sherry said. "Listen, Rose..."

"Roz."

"Sorry," Sherry smiled. "I'm useless with names. Listen, do you know where I can find a Ronee Lawrence around here?"

Roz froze slightly at the name. "Ronee Lawrence?"

"Yeah. I heard she'd moved back to Seattle a couple of years ago. I saw a poster advertising her at the Wellington. We knew each other in Vegas. What's so funny?"

Without realising it, Roz had started chuckling. "Oh, nothing," she said. "It's just.....Ronee Lawrence is now Ronee Crane!"

"Really?" Sherry was gobsmacked. "Well, do you know where they live?"

Daphne Crane ran up the stairs, 2 at a time. She puffed as she ran, thinking how nice it was when she was pregnant and people would give up their seats for her. But now, all that was over. The elevator had been full when she'd arrived and the other one was out of order.

Run up. It'll help you lose some of the excess pregnancy pounds, she'd thought to herself. But as she touched every stair, it seemed less like a good idea.

Exhausted, Daphne arrived outside Martin and Ronee's apartment. Ronee was just leaving.

"Hey Daph," she said. "Good timing. I'm just leaving."

"So is my son not worthy for your company?" Daphne teased.

"No, he is. Marty's in there with him. No, my boss at the Wellington just called. He wants me to drop off this paperwork."

"Paperwork?"

"Showtimes, when I can and can't do a show etc," Ronee explained.

"Oh, all right then," Daphne said. "Thanks for babysitting. You're a great gra-"

"Don't say it!" Ronee smirked. "It's a big step going from singleton to a...a... that word in just 12 months or so."

Daphne and Ronee said their goodbyes and Daphne entered the apartment. Martin as watching the TV.

"Hello Martin."

Oh, hi Daph! Dave's asleep in my room."

"It's David, Martin. We never shortened our names in my family. Well, except my father. Harry rather than Harold. But when he married Mum..."

"Right, right," Martin interrupted, not wanting to get Daphne started on stories about her family. Especially stories about Gertrude Moon. Martin had been thrilled when Gertrude had moved back to England a few months before David's birth. "Daph, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"What's up?" Daphne asked as she went into the bedroom, returning a few seconds later with David in her arms.

"Does it bother you that Niles works all hours, leaving you alone during the day?"

"No, not really. I knew when I fell in love with him that that was who he was. I accepted the baggage." She paused. "Why?"

"Well.....Ronee's been working a lot."

"So do you. You always seem to be working late shifts."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But recently she's been working more and more. I hardly ever see her some days."

"All couples have things like that. I'm sure Hester had to put up with your shifts."

"She did," Martin said. "I suppose you could say that history's now kicking my up the ass. But.....when Hester cheated on me with - with - him..." - he couldn't bring himself to say Stan Lawlor's name - "she often told me she was working late."

Daphne understood. "Ronee is a wonderful woman and she loves you deeply. I'm sure she just wants to earn a bit more money. When she comes in, talk to her. Have a romantic weekend or something like Niles and I did a couple of weeks ago."

"You're right. I'm just worried over nothing." Martin chuckled. "I guess my instincts were just going overboard or something. Thanks, Daph."

"Don't mention it," she smiled as the door opened. Ronee stepped into the room. "Boss called, said he found his copies," she said, putting the paperwork down. "Sod's law."

Daphne said her goodbyes and soon she and David were gone. Ronee went to the kitchen. "You wanna a beer?"

"Sure," Martin called to her. Ronee came in with 2 beers and sat next to Martin.

"Ronee, there's something I need to talk to you about."

"Sure Marty, what's up?"

"It's about all this working."

"Marty, we've talked about this. I'm just doing some extra money. You know how much I enjoy my work."

"And you know how much I enjoy listening to you. But I'd just like you to spend sometime with me. I think maybe we should go away for the weekend and forget all about our jobs etc for a few days."

Ronee smiled at him. "Good idea. I'll ask my boss about his cabin. But no family this time, OK?" She looked at Martin. "Something else is up, isn't it?"

"What? Oh, it's nothing."

"Is it about my job?"

"No, no, it's silly really. It's just when you keep saying you're working, I just worry. Are you really working or....."

"Having an affair," Ronee finished. "No. I'm really working and you know that."

"I do know that," Martin said. "It's just that when Hester cheated on me all those years ago, she used the 'I'm working late' excuse."

Ronee understood. "I understand. An ex-boyfriend of mine used that excuse. I later found out he'd been cheating with a friend of mine in Vegas."

"Ouch. How did you find out?"

"I caught them at it," Ronee told him. She hugged Martin. "Marty, in all the relationships I've been in, I've never cheated on anyone. And I don't intend to start now."

Martin smiled. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. But how does that weekend away sound?"

"Great idea. I'm....." Martin was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"I wonder who that could be?" he muttered.

"You won't know until you open it," Ronee teased. Martin opened the door.

"Martin?"

Martin rubbed his hands against his eyes. "Sherry Dempsey?"