"Now don't be such a Silly Billy," she chided him like one of her young patients in the children's ward. "Why would I do that when I'm already here? Besides I have already resigned from the Preston Hospital to come 'ere to be with my family"

That was a really bad time to sip his tea. He inhaled, burned his throat, coughed and slammed his chest with his fist, gasping for air. "You what?" he gasped.

"Re-sign-ed my job" Jane repeated like slowly like Bill were a small child. "Ye never paid attention well in school.. Can't very well be a good aunt all the way up in North Shields."

Bill coughed a few more times, wondering if this was the end. It bloody well felt like it. When he had recovered enough to say more, he said: "Ye can't do that, Jane. Lottie doesn't even know ye. This is 'er 'ouse. And the children don't even know of ye. They know nothing. And I mean to keep it that way. Write to yer 'ospital and ask 'em to take ye back. I'll come up to see ye. To see all of ye."

"Nonsense Billy. I'm 'ere now. I can let a room elsewhere in town if there no space 'ere." She looked him from up the crown of his head and down to the cap of his shoe "Besides, the men of the Blacke family have always needed extra takin' care of. Ye remember mam and da... Yer Lottie doesn't let ye starve I see.. or is that the ale?"

Bill started to turn his cup on the table again, watching it to avoid her eye. "Aye, I'm bein' taken good care of, thank ye very much. You ain't exactly sixteen yerself." At least he wouldn't have to house her. "Look," he looked up at his sister. "I think it would be better if ye'd do that, rent a room I mean. I don't mean to be unkind to ye, Jane. Ye were me big sister once. But it's been a long time and a lot 'as 'appened. And we 'ave enough goin' on as it is. I'll introduce ye to them all in good time..."

Her brother's comment that she was no long young and trim was batted harmlessly away, she'd heard crueler things screamed on the wards. Yet it was the comment that she was once his sister. That annoyed her. She placed her hands on the hips that were no longer sixteen years wide

"William Patrick Blacke! I was yeur sister. I am STILL yeur sister, and I will be yeur sister til the day yeur dead-stiff in a box wearin' in yeur Sunday best... And if yeur not careful, yeu'll land in hospital and I'll be yeur sister there too! Understand?"

"I don't mean to be cruel to ye, Jane. But we're not family as it stands, not but in blood. We stopped bein' family the day..." his words dried up. "... the day they took Sam an' me. I don't say I don't want to know ye now. But ye can't expect us to just pick up where we left." His hands played with his cup more intensely, spinning it faster. The next moment it keeled over and there was tea all over the table. "Shite."

"I see," Jan answered in her cool professional tone. His argument that they were no longer family was nonsense. He would always be Billy to her, time was irrelevant. The cure for this disease was for her to just get to know him again like family.

"Language!" Jane scolded as a surge of brown tea rolled across the table. He was an even worse housekeeper than his wife evidently. "Right then, it's settled. Sunday lunch then, to meet yer family and to start to make up for all this lost time."

Despite his claim that they were not siblings anymore, her scolding brought back a sudden vivid memory of a time he had called her a rude word he had heard a drunk man shout at a his wife, and Jane's swift response had left his left ear glowing. In spite of himself, his features softened ever so slightly. He got up, grabbed a towel and started mopping up the mess he had made, while thinking about her - well, not quite a proposal - her statement.

He took his time, draping the wet towel over the grate by the kitchenette. Then he sat back down. "Lottie and I will come for tea," he countered. "There is plenty of time to meet the children later. I'd like you to meet my wife first."