"Before you complain, you woke me up." I said, taking a stool and sitting next to Jane at the island.
Jane had just had a miscarriage, so everyone was being really nice to her and was creeping around the subject of babies when they were around Jane.
"What's it like, you know, being pregnant..." I asked, naively. Maura shot a look at me, telling me to shut up.
"No, it's alright." Jane said to Maura, then turning to me.
"Well, you know when you see someone you really like, and you get butterflies in your tummy? It's like that, but all the time?"
"So... it was like you seeing Casey all the time?" I asked.
"Kind of, that's a different feeling somewhere else..." Jane smirked.
"I get you." I winked.
Maura raised her eyebrows at us, but didn't say anything.
"You'll know what I mean when you're older..." Jane said winking back at me.
I smiled.
"Why are you sat around the island at 2 am?" I asked, yawning.
"Work stuff." Maura replied.
"At 2am..." I said raising my eyebrows.
"Must be important." I added.
"It is. Very." Maura replied.
I grumbled and got myself a glass of orange juice.
"Are you staying with us then?" I asked Jane, sitting back down on my stool at the island. She'd slept on the sofa for the last couple of days.
"As long as your sister will have me, yes." Jane smiled. I liked Jane a lot. She was normal, unlike my sister.
"You should be in bed." Maura said to me.
"But Maur..." I whined.
"Yeah Maur, don't be such a spoil sport." Jane laughed, taking my side.
"Seriously?" Maura frowned to Jane.
"It's alright, let her stay until we go to bed." Jane smiled.
"I don't mind having her in here with us, It gives us something else to think about." Jane smiled to Maura reassuringly.
"Plus, my mother LOVES having her around. It gives her someone to fuss over thats not me, so I'm all for it." Jane laughed.
We stayed in the kitchen uneventfully for about 20 minutes, before Maura and I retreated to bed after saying goodnight to Jane.
Maura walked me to my room.
"Love you..." I whispered.
"Love you too." Maura said ruffling my hair.
I hugged her, then she walked off to go to her own room.
"Night!" Maura called down the corridor to me.
"Night" I called back to her.
Maura is my older sister. We've both got the same biological father, criminal mastermind Paddy Doyle. I used to live in care and my real dad would come into my life every so often and move me around to a new family, as a kid he said it was like a big game of cat and mouse. We were the mice and we could never let the cat catch us. 'The cat' was someone connected to a shooting I had witnessed when I was 10, and they had been after me since because I knew who it was and could incriminate them. When I got older, I told him I didn't want to move around anymore, and he dropped me off at Maura's one day, and asked her to look after me. So now I live here with my sister, and her best friend's family. But it's home, and I never want to have to leave.
I got back into bed, and tried to get back to sleep, but I couldn't. After about an hour or so, I had had enough. Normally I crept into bed with Maura and she'd cuddle me and make me tell her what's up and she makes it better, but I couldn't tell her what was up this time.
I decided to go back down to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
I crept across the kitchen and picked up a tumbler and went to the sink.
"Hey." Jane called. I'd completely forgotten about her, I dropped the glass and it smashed.
"Well, I don't need to explain how your sister broke the tumbler earlier do I." Jane smiled at me. I swore and turned around and lent on the island with my elbows and put my head in my hands.
"Don't worry about it, I'll clean it up." Jane said walking across the kitchen and fetching the dust pan and brush. She tidied away my mess.
"You look liked you need a cuddle." Jane said. I didn't respond.
"Do you want to come and cuddle with me on the sofa for a bit?" She asked. I nodded.
Jane went and sat on the sofa , and I sat next to her. She gave me half the blanket.
"So do you want to tell your Aunty Jane what's up?" Jane asked. I shook my head.
"Well you can tell Maura who'll get you absolutely no where, my mother who'll just flap, or me." Jane said firmly.
"Um...Okay.." I said reluctantly. I took a deep breath.
"Well...the other day, when I got in, you and Maura where still at the hospital, there was this letter in the letter box." I started.
"Go on.." Jane said, in a softer tone.
"I don't know if I can tell you this..." I whispered.
Jane shuffled closer to me, and I carefully edged closer to her, she put her arm around me and I lent my head on her shoulder.
"You can tell me anything, you've known me long enough." She whispered gently stroking my arm in reassurance.
"Well...when I kept getting moved around, the guy Dad called 'the cat' was the one chasing us. Whenever he got a letter, I had to move, to stay safe. The letters were nothing, just a blank envelope with a piece of paper inside which had one word on it. Dad never told me what the word was, but he promised me I'd be safe here. It was like his own personal witness protection program." I said, trying to get to the point.
"Well...the letter was in a blank envelope, with a piece of paper with the word 'meow.' and a paw print on." I whispered. The words hung in the air for a few seconds.
"Right, we have to tell your sister about this." Jane eventually said.
"No, No. You can't!" I begged.
"Why not?" Jane asked.
"If Maura thinks I'm a problem, she won't want me to live here anymore." I said desperately.
"She will want you to live here, I promise. She's not going to let you go anywhere. But you have to let me show her the letter and speak to her. Okay?" Jane said, in a firm but trusting tone.
"Okay.." I reluctantly agreed.
"Are you able to give me the letter in the morning before I go and speak to Maura?" Jane asked. I nodded.
"I'll speak to your sister first thing, then we'll see where we need to go from there, okay?" Jane said, I nodded again.
I lay down on the sofa on my back. Jane laid down next to me and put her arm around me. I didn't want to put my arm across her in case I hurt her.
"You can hug me you know." She whispered.
"But won't I.." I started to ask but Jane cut me off.
"You won't anything, now come cuddle with me." She insisted.
I wriggled up the sofa slightly, and laid my head down on her shoulder and placed my arm over her belly. She put an arm around me.
"Thank you." I whispered.
"Anytime." Jane replied.
"Night!" She whispered.
"Night" I replied.
I fell asleep shortly after that.
Tomorrow was going to be a very long day.