DISCLAIMER: I own none of the characters below unfortunately.
Just a bit of fluff I wrote whilst I technically should have been paying attention in my psychology lecture. I did consider making it into the trails and tribulations of the said Christmas. We will see anyway. This is for Ella, who has severe tonsilitis and her drugs arn't working...oh and there is the small matter of her not having forgiven me for killing Luka last time. Sorry! On that note I must thank the reviewers of A Simple Child. Rizzo1, Nindira, Viko, CarbyLivesOn, Teriezica, lubyforeverx711, ERbubbles, Color Esperenza. Your reviews were wonderful and meant a lot. Ella, your review was...out there. This is unbeta'ed because Ruby is a very busy person with a real life...and I am impatient! All mistakes are my own.
Abby groaned as the incessant ringing of the phone continued shattering the silence in the room. Keeping her eyes closed; refusing to give in to the shrill buzzing she shifted and smacked the arm of the man sleeping soundly beside her.
"Luka. The phone."
She heard him groan into his pillow and mutter something less than polite and then felt pressure as he leaned across her body to pick the phone up out of the cradle on her beside cabinet.
"Hello." She heard him mutter as he rolled back onto his own side of the bed.
She felt him poke her upper arm and cracked open one eye. She was greeted with the phone in her face and a smug looking Luka.
"Abby, it's your mother." He said, chuckling when she glared at him.
"Hi, Mom." She said into the receiver, eyes closed once again.
'What was that all about?' Maggie asked, clearly puzzled.
"Nothing, Luka is just being an ass."
She heard him chuckle beside her and felt him squeeze her thigh under the covers. Moving out of the bed he told her he was going to go and make Joe's porridge ready for when he woke.
"Coffee!" She called after him. Smiling sweetly when he turned. "Please." She added, with a bat of her eyelids.
"Abby!" She registered her mother calling her on the other end of the phone.
"Sorry. What?"
"I said. 'What are your plans for Christmas?'"
"Oh. Well we aren't too sure yet. Why?" She asked.
"Well Eric is going away. He is taking Helen to the Bahamas."
"Oh really…? And where is the money coming from to pay for that then?" Abby asked amused.
"He's been saving. He's a grown up now Abby." Abby rolled her eyes in jest. "Anyway, it means I'm on my own. I was thinking you guys could come here." Maggie suggested tentatively.
"Well, Luka and I are both working Christmas Eve day."
"Oh. Well, never mind then. It was just a thought." The disappointment in Maggie's voice was palpable, and Abby's eyes closed for a completely different reason then.
"Mom," She said, "Why don't you come to Chicago?"
"Really?" She could hear the barely contained hope and excitement in Maggie's voice and held back a laugh.
"Yeah. I mean, Joe would love to see you." Realising how that sounded, "We all would. And you can look after Joe whilst Luka and I are at work. Give the baby-sitter a Christmas break."
"Abby…I wouldn't want to impose…"
"Mom… Its not an imposition Come visit your family for Christmas. Really, everyone is doing it these days." She smiled when she heard her mothers laugh down the line.
"What about Luka?" Maggie asked. "Won't he mind?"
"Oh I'm sure I can talk him round…Really Mom, come. It will be fun." Abby started then. Here she was, talking her mother into visiting; talking her mother into coming and spending Christmas with her family. And she wasn't even doing it because she felt obligated. She was doing it because she wanted to. She wanted to share her family and her Christmas festivities with her mother. That was a profound personal realisation and Abby couldn't help the grin that broke across her face.
"Okay. I'll come." Maggie said decisively.
"Great. What about trying to get the overnight bus around the 20th?"
"Okay, I'll look into booking a ticket."
"That sounds good. Let me know your details and I'll make sure I'm at the station."
"Well, I'll let you go now then."
"Okay, well have a good day Mom."
"You too sweetheart. You too. Kisses to Joe."
"Okay Mom. I love you."
Abby smiled as she put the phone back into the cradle. She lent back against the pillows and stretched languidly. She could hear Joe rustling about in his crib and she kept her eyes closed, waiting for him to call out. It came a few minutes later.
"Mommy. Out!" She chuckled as she threw the sheets from her body and padded down the hall to his room.
She opened the door and saw him stood against the bars on his crib, pacifier in mouth, teddy under his left arm. On seeing Abby enter, he ripped his pacifier in his mouth and reaches his right arm out to her.
"There's Mommy!" He grinned.
"Hey there handsome!" She crooned back, moving to the crib and lifting him out. "Ohh. You smell good." She told him whilst kissing the folds of his neck and his cheek, raising a giggles all the way from the little boy's belly.
"Shall we go and see if Daddy has some breakfast ready?" She asks him as they made their way down the stairs.
"Coffee!" Joe chips.
With a laugh, "And Mommy and Daddy can have our coffee, yes." Abby tells him.
"Coffee, hot." He tells her, whilst making her laugh with his feeble attempt at blowing.
"Yes. You're such a clever guy."
When they reached the bottom step she set him on the ground and he ran ahead to the kitchen whilst she took her time and she smiled lightly when she heard his delighted squeal upon discovering his father. By the time she reached the kitchen Luka was already strapping Joe into his highchair. He turned his head and she planted a kiss on his mouth as she walked past.
"Morning." She said, getting a grin from him in response.
Sitting at the table she watched him bringing things over and he placed her coffee in front of her as she absently helped Joe with feeding himself.
"Thanks."
"You were on the phone for a long time. Everything okay?" He asked her.
Abby nodded her head and smiled as she said, "Yes, it's fine. We were just chatting. You know those girly chats that mothers and daughters have."
He laughed out right at that and she chuckled too.
"I asked her to come for Christmas." She lays it out, right there on the breakfast table. Only able to hope that he would understand.
And he did, "That's good. We will have fun."
She looked up at him then to work out if he was serious; he wasn't looking at her but making aeroplane noises to encourage Joe to eat. She watched her husband and her Son, both thoroughly 'porridged' and all big smiles, and thought to herself that she had finally arrived, she had a family and a job she had worked damn hard for, and she was going to be spending a prolonged period of time with her mother – of her own suggestion. She had grown up.