*twiddles thumbs* umm, hi guys. Welcome to my first ii fic! This is an odd request, but if anyone happened to Read my fics on ff.net and anyone happens to have “l.a.” saved I NEED it! Erm, anyway, this fic is kinda short but if people like it I will write a sequel! So.. erm.. enjoy!!!

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Tommy smiled as he licked the envelope and hopped down to the mailbox. He stood on his tippie toes and posted the letter to his grandma in the mailbox. He smiled to his mum and took her hand. He skipped down the road and let go of his mum’s hand as he walked along the wall outside an estate. He jumped down and ran down the path. His mum smiled and shook her head. 5-year-old Thomas was just too hyper. His mum, 27-year-old Lisa, was always tired after a day with Tommy. She only just coped.

‘Tommy! Be careful!’ Lisa called out to him.

Tommy ignored his mum and jumped up on a little wall. He missed and fell to the ground.

‘Owwwwwwwwwwwwwww mummy, Oww!’ Tommy started to cry.

‘Aww, babe, I told you to be careful!’ Tommy’s mum sighed.

Tommy stood up and wiped his eyes. He took hold of Lisa’s hand once again and walked alongside her all the way to the supermarket.

‘Mummy! Can I ride in the trolley? Please mummy!’

‘Of course you can Tommy.’

Tommy’s mum lifted him into the child seat in the shopping trolley. He sat down and held Lisa’s shopping list and mobile phone. He started to pound the keys of the phone.

‘Tommy, honey, don’t do that.’

‘But I want to make someone’s phone ring and talk to them on it.’

‘Really?’ Lisa smiled. ‘Who are you trying to phone then?

‘Maybe I can talk to daddy! I can remind him to send me my birthday present!’

Tommy was to be 6 in three days. He always looked forward to his birthday because Lisa bought him loads of presents and his grandparents sent him loads of stuff from Britain. Tommy and his mum had lived in America for all of Tommy’s life. After Tommy’s dad left, Lisa fled to America because she felt she couldn’t cope. She had planned on returning but when she realised she was pregnant, she couldn’t bring herself to come back.

‘You cant call daddy. He’s in England.’

‘But mummy! Granddad and grandma are in England. You call them!’

‘Yes but they are my mummy and daddy. When I became a grown up they gave me special powers to contact them whenever I want!’

Tommy nodded. She hated to lie to him like that, but she couldn’t think of any other explanation for him. She finished the shopping and took Tommy home.

A couple of days later, Tommy was playing on his game boy and kept moving from side to side. Lisa watched him and smiled. She turned on the TV and flicked through the channels. Suddenly she stopped dead and dropped the remote control. There, on the TV, a1 were performing. Lisa looked at one of the members. It was mark. Tommy’s dad.

‘Mummy!’ Tommy yelled and started to shake Lisa’s leg. She snapped back into reality, picked up the remote control and turned the TV off. Tommy shrugged and carried on playing his game boy.

Lisa put her head in her hands and thought to herself. Mark was in a band? Since when? Well, she hadn’t seen him for 6 years. She thought she would be well away from him in America. She thought to herself. Maybe she could move her and Tommy to another country. No, she thought, she’d done enough running. She had to face mark. For Tommy’s sake. He always wanted to meet his dad. But she’d go and see him by herself first. Yes, that would work.

‘come on Tommy. We are going shopping!’

‘But we went shopping on Tuesday mummy.’

‘No, not to the supermarket. Just round the shops! Come on, I’ll buy you some chocolate.’

‘Yay! Chocolate!’ Tommy ran out of the house leaving Lisa to grab her bag and trundle after him.

They walked into virgin megastores and Lisa headed straight for the a’s. She didn’t bother calling tommy when he ran off to the games section. She looked through and found a1 straight away.

‘a1. Mark’s looking good.’ Lisa sighed to herself. She stared at the cd case and turned it over. She scanned the tracklisting. She frowned.

‘Make it good? Same old brand new you? Weird titles.’ She kept it in her hand and checked the cd rack again. They had 3 more albums on import from Britain. She picked up ‘here we come’ and scanned the tracklisting.

‘Like a rose! That’s the song mark told me about! The song Ben wrote. Ben from marks old band. Hmm, I wonder if Ben is in a1? I never did find out what he looked like…’ Lisa’s trail of thought wondered off and she forgot to think instead of talk.

‘Mummy, who are you talking to?’ tommy came bounding up to Lisa.

‘No-one, honey. Come on, I want to but these cd’s.’ Lisa picked up all 4 a1 cd’s there and walked to the counter.

‘Mummy.’ Tommy smiled.

‘You want something.’

Tommy outstretched his hand up and out to Lisa. He was holding a game boy game. Lisa sighed took it from him and placed it on the counter. She paid and they left.

Once they got home, tommy run inside to play his new game. Lisa sighed and walked inside to play her a1 cd’s.

As she listened to them, she looked through the booklets. She looked through from the first to the latest album, looking how mark had changed over the years.

‘The years have been good to him,’ she sighed. She looked at tommy, then to a picture of mark. She noticed that tommy was started to look a lot like mark. She looked at the American a1 album and tried to find Sony’s record company number. She couldn’t find it, but remembered that in her ‘mark’ box that she kept to one day show tommy, she had a list of record company numbers that he had kept before being in a band. She ran into her bedroom, got it out of her wardrobe, and found the number to Sony UK. She smiled and phoned it. She hadn’t planned what to say; they weren’t just going to give her mark’s number. While the phone rang, she started to think. She hadn’t any time to think as suddenly the phone was answered. She was silent for a second.

‘Erm… can I speak to someone with contact to a1 please?’

She held her breath as she thought they would say something, but she was put through to the columbia press office. When the call was answered, she explained she was an old friend of mark’s, she also explained that she knew she would not be given direct contact with him, but just asked if the message that she had called from America would be put through. She held her breath as she waited for a reply.

‘Ok, that’s Lisa? From America. Old friend.’

Lisa exhaled in a sigh when she heard the woman and the end of the phone scribbling down the message. She took Lisa’s number and told her that she is lucky, because not many people would allow her to pass on messages. Lisa thanked her very much, and hung up.

The next day, Lisa was lying peacefully in bed. Suddenly, tommy came in and jumped on her.

‘Mummy! I’m a big boy! I’m 6!’

Tommy’s birthday.

‘Oh happy birthday honey! Why don’t you go and watch some TV? I’ll be out in 10 minutes. With presents!’

Tommy gave Lisa a huge grin and ran into the living room and turned on the TV. Meanwhile, Lisa turned and looked at the time. 8am. She rubbed her face and stood up. She suddenly remembered calling Sony yesterday. As her mind refreshed, her heart jumped. Maybe he got the message on return to the UK and called in the night, with all the time difference. She got dressed quickly and run out into the living room. She looked at the answer machine. No messages. Her heart sank and she went back in her room to get Tommy’s presents. She brought them out and she went to put them down when tommy jumped on her and all the presents tumbled to the ground.

‘Oops! I'm sorry mummy. Did you get hurt?’

‘No tommy, but you’re a good boy for apologising and asking me if I am okay. Let’s share some smarties as you open your presents!’

Lisa yawned, stood up and went to the cupboard. She took out the smarties and when she turned round, tommy was sitting there patiently and the tumbled presents were stacked neatly waiting to be opened. This gave Lisa a sudden flashback to when mark was sitting on the floor waiting to open some presents on Christmas day. To Lisa, the two scenes looked surreally similar. She snapped back into reality when tommy suddenly shouted at her. She came running and tommy asked if he could open his presents. She happily nodded and watched him tuck into his presents. She enjoyed looking at his eyes light up everytime he opened a present and somehow, they were all the presents he was hoping for. Suddenly, she jumped as the phone rang. Her heart was beating fast with the possibility of it being mark. She answered it but it was just her sister, living on the other side of town.

‘Hiya Lisa! Let me speak to tommy!’

Lisa turned to tommy.

‘Guess who’s on the phone tommy! It’s auntie Linda!’

‘Yayyyyyyy!’ tommy yelled as he ran to the phone. Lisa went into the bathroom and ran tommy a bath while he spoke on the phone. He came off the phone to the bad news that he had to go in the bath.

‘But mummy! It’s my birthday!’

‘Yes, but birthday boys have to be nice and clean too!’

There was a knock on the door.

‘Go on! I’ll be in to you in a minute. I’ll just get the door.’

Tommy sighed and ran into the bathroom and Lisa walked towards the door sighing. She opened the door and her face was a sight of pure shock. There standing on her doorstep, was mark.

‘Mark!’ was all that Lisa could manage to say.

‘Lisa. Look, I tried to call first, but the phone was engaged. After extensive research I found out the address behind the phone number. So! How have you been?! Its been, how many years?’

‘About 6 years and 9 months!

Mark looked confused and Lisa shook her head.

‘Mark, when I found out you had become famous I was… shocked. I’m busy now, but I would really like to chat to you. Are you busy later?’

‘Umm, no. I have the day off. How about meeting at that little café down the road at… 1pm, for lunch?’

‘Ok, sure. I have someone who you have to meet!’

‘Haha ok! See you then. It will be great to catch up. Oh, and by the way, how did you know the exact time since we last saw each other? You must be a walking calendar.’

‘I’ll explain later.’

‘Ok! Well I’ll let you go, see you at 1!’

‘Yep. Bye, mark.’

Mark smiled and waved before walking off. Lisa watched him go.

She closed the door and sat down just to get her head together. Was mark just at the door? Is she really meeting him at that little café at 1? Is she really falling for mark again? Yes. She could feel it happening, and she knew that this time, she couldn’t let him go.

‘Mummy! Shake a leg!’ tommy called from the bathroom.

She jumped up and ran into the bathroom.

After Tommy’s bath, it was already 10am.

‘Honestly, tommy, you take so long!’

‘Mummy. I had to play with my new toys! Anyway, it’s my birthday. We can just sit down all day and do nothing. Then tomorrow its my party!’

‘Well, tommy. We have to go somewhere later. You will like it, I promise, it might be boring at first, but I promise you will come home and be happy you went with me!’

Tommy nodded and Lisa picked out his favourite clothes. She felt very hyper and she had to keep herself from dancing.

Lisa looked at the clock. 12.50pm. She suddenly felt very nervous and she called tommy to hurry up. She walked into the living room to find tommy sitting there.

‘I’m ready! It is you who isn’t mummy. It is time to go.’

Lisa got up and put on her shoes. She looked in the mirror and started to fix her hair.

‘Mummy! Lets go!’ tommy sighed. He paused.

‘Mummy. You look lovely. Lets go now.’

Lisa was very pleased and let tommy push her out of the door. She sighed nervously and took Tommy’s hand. They walked down to the cafe hand in hand. When they arrived, mark was sitting there with a table and a glass of orange juice. He smiled and waved enthusiastically.

‘Hiya.’ Lisa said as she sat herself and tommy down.’

‘Hiya! Aww, you have a little boy? He’s so cute! What’s your name little guy?’

‘My name’s Thomas Daniel May!’ tommy smiled proudly. ‘But everyone calls me tommy!’

Mark nodded at him cheerfully. He turned to Lisa.

‘He has your surname?’ mark asked. He then nodded. ‘Nice! And you gave him my fave name, you always knew that was my fave name!’ mark grinned.

‘Yep. And he has your middle name.’

Mark turned back towards tommy.

‘So tommy. How old are you?’

Tommy gave a huge grin.

‘I am six years old today!’

Mark looked at Lisa, then back to tommy.

‘Six years. And 9 months.’

Lisa and mark both stayed quiet.

‘No! Just 6 years old.’ Tommy insisted.

Mark was looking down. When he finally looked up he looked straight at Lisa.

He opened his mouth to speak but decided not to.

Tommy looked confused and decided he shouldn’t say anything. He got a toy car out of his pocket and played with it quietly.

Mark turned towards him.

‘Happy birthday tommy.’ He got up and walked off. Lisa was sat there not knowing what to do.

‘Bye!’ tommy yelled.

Lisa put her head in her hands. What should she do? She couldn’t just give up. Last time she done that she lost mark. She didn’t want that to happen again.

‘Mummy? Are you okay?’

‘Yes, thank you, tommy. Do you want to go to the park?’

‘Yeah!!!’

They got up and crossed the road. As soon as they entered the park, tommy ran off to the swings. Lisa sighed and decided she should let him go so that she could think for a while. She walked towards the bench but, sitting on it, was mark.

She sat down next to him.

‘Mark. Look, I’m sorry. I should have told you.’

The pair stayed silent for a minute or two.

‘Where do we go from here? It’s hard to keep up excuses when he asks about daddy.’ Lisa said.

Mark sighed.

‘I don’t know Lisa. I wasn’t expecting this. You have to understand my situation.’

‘Mark. I do. I can imagine it’s a lot to deal with on your day off.’

‘Yes.’ Mark paused. ‘I just don’t know what to do.’

‘Well,’ Lisa sighed. ‘Next time he asks about his dad, I cant say to him, ‘he’s that famous guy you see on TV. He abandoned you on your 6th birthday.’ I can’t say that to him mark. I understand it is hard.’

Mark sat there with his head in his hands silently.

‘Are you still angry at me?’

‘Lisa I wasn’t angry. I was a bit taken aback, that’s all. I needed time by myself to think. Believe it or not it took me a long time to get over you and not seeing you helped. But seeing you again just brought all my emotions and feelings for you rushing back. I didn’t think it would be like that. Then, I have a son? I've always wanted a little son. But not seeing him grow up, hear him say his first word, all this stuff I missed out on. Its all so hard to handle in one day.’

Lisa put her arm around mark.

‘I know, I know. Mark, when I saw you on TV, I didn’t know what to think. I just sat there until tommy shook me back to earth. Not all of my feelings came flooding back, but it didn’t help. Then I opened the door and you were standing there. Feelings came back so strong I nearly fell over, mark.’

Mark smiled at her and squeezed her hand.

‘Lisa, babe, why did I leave you?’

Lisa knew this was a rhetorical question. The two hugged and stayed like that for some time. Until tommy came running up.

‘Mummy!’

‘Tommy, umm, do you want to know who this is?’

‘Yeah! He is that nice man from across the road.’

‘Tommy, this is…’ Lisa stopped. She looked at tommy, then to mark. Mark nodded and Lisa took a deep breath.

‘This is your daddy.’

This was the first time Lisa had really seen tommy shocked. This was the first time tommy was properly shocked.

‘…Daddy?’

Mark smiled nervously.

‘Wow!’

Mark made a big sigh of relief and tommy grinned. Mark gave tommy a big hug.

‘I’ll tell ya what; lets take mummy for an ice cream!’ mark grinned at his son.

‘yeah! Daddy, I saw you on TV the other day,’ tommy started to tell mark.

Lisa smiled. Her son finally had a father. She finally had a friend in this big place. She finally had nothing to run from. And finally, she was completely happy.