Coping
Fandom: Eve
Rating: K+
Genre: Family, Romance
Pairing: Eve/Will
Word count: 1773
Summary: [Eve/Will] "Stop worrying. I think I can cope with KT on my own." There's a beat of silence on the other end of the line. "I can - Eve, I can cope on my own!"
AN: Go on without me. I'll only slow you down. These two have ruined my life, and will continue to do so, hopefully, for many series to come.
DISCLAIMER. I own nothing.
07.30 PM.
"But -"
"Eve." Will interrupts her with a meaningful look. "It's fine."
She doesn't look consoled. "Are you sure that you'll be alright on your own?"
"Yes. I'm not five anymore -" Will cuts himself with a slight wince, as KT comes barrelling through from the living room, wrapping her arms around his middle. He tucks his arm around her shoulder in a returning gesture, before looking back to Eve. "We'll be fine. Go on."
"Yes, Eve, come on." Lily's voice echoes from the hallway, impatience in her tone. "I told Cain we'd be there ten minutes ago."
Eve still looks unsure, but, this time, she doesn't argue. Instead, she kneels in front of the blonde child, brushing a wayward strand of hair from her forehead and pressing a kiss there.
"Be good for Daddy."
"Yes, Mummy."
"Eve!" Lily appears in the doorway, coat and scarf already on, grabbing her arm and proceeding to pull her away from the room, much to Eve's dismay. Will grins, shaking his head as he watches them go, before looking down at the girl still hanging off his waist.
"So, pizza, then?"
08.05 PM.
"Hello?" Will answers his phone through a mouthful of food, still smiling at the sight of KT sitting opposite him, tomato sauce smeared across her mouth from where she's literally devoured the pizza that he served up for her.
"Will!" He can hear the smile in Eve's voice, despite the noise of Cain's party in the background. Apparently, he would have been welcome too, but he's still not quite forgiven Cain just yet, for Adam or for the whole haunted house thing, which is how he ended up volunteering to be the parent staying at home in the first place. "How are you?"
Will rolls his eyes, even though she can't see the gesture. "I'm fine. Just like I was half an hour ago, when you left."
"How is KT?"
"She's fine too." KT smiles cheerfully at him when he says that. "Anything else?"
"No. That is all." She hangs up rather abruptly, most likely because either Lily, Zac or Cain have called her away for something. Will puts the phone down on the table, eyebrow raised, taking another bite of pizza.
08.45 PM.
"Found you, Daddy!"
The air is knocked from his lungs, as KT grabs him from behind. Will chuckles, albeit a little breathlessly, patting her on the shoulder.
"How d'you manage that? Not even Eve can find me in here."
"I followed the noise," the little girl explains proudly. "Your phone was ringing."
"What?" He checks his pocket for the phone in question, and sees that she's right. Two missed calls - three, if you wanted to count the one that was currently incoming. He considers leaving it for a moment, before deciding against that, and hitting the little green ANSWER icon.
"Hello?"
"Is everything alright?" Eve asks immediately, obviously having decided that pleasantries wasted far too much time.
"Yes." Will pulls a face, but there's a smile there too. "Stop worrying. I think I can cope with KT on my own." There's a beat of silence on the other end of the line. "I can - Eve, I can cope on my own!"
"If you say so," Eve replies, not sounding convinced. There's a scuffling sound in the background, and someone shouting. "I have to go. Apparently, somebody else requires to use the bathroom, and logic dictates that they will not appreciate me staying."
Will rolls his eyes, as she disconnects the line without saying goodbye, yet again, shaking his head at the home-screen of his phone as the call ends.
"Is Mummy alright?" KT asks, watching the half of the interaction that was happening in front of her.
"She's fine," he reassures. "Just worrying about how we are."
"She does that a lot."
"Yeah. She does."
08.59 PM.
Not again.
It's the third phone call in the past hour. Coming from Lily, this time, Will notices, when he checks the caller ID.
"Lils?"
"I didn't get to finish what I was saying before." Eve's voice echoes from the receiver. Judging by the way her voice wavers, she's standing outside to avoid the loud noises, although Will can definitely hear the cries of someone, who sounds suspiciously like Zac, egging on someone else to do something stupid. "How is KT? Is she settled?"
"Seems to be, yeah." He glances at the blonde child next to him, sitting on the sofa, exploring the programming magazine that Nick had left out on the coffee table when he had gone to work earlier that afternoon. "Why are you using Lily's phone?"
"She said she was going off to get herself and Cain something to drink," Eve replies. "And, since she has threatened to disable my communications unit several times already since we arrived, I thought that this would be a safer way of communication - Zac, I really do not think doing that is such a good idea..." She trails off, watching whatever Zac is doing. "I think Zac has consumed a little too much of the mysterious liquid that I found floating about in the punch bowl."
Will smiles mirthfully. "Right."
"Eve!" The shout comes from Lily this time, close by. "Eve - Give me back my phone -!"
"Eve?"
"I think I shall have to get back to you later."
09.20 PM.
"Are you going to read me a story, Daddy?"
"Um, sure?" It sounds like another question when he answers. Usually, this is Eve's area of expertise. Neither she or KT actually sleep at night, after all, and so Eve has decided to spend that time educating the younger girl on everything she has learnt from living amongst humans for so long. War and Peace is even sitting on the bedside table, a bookmark stuck inside, a quarter of the way through already.
"Actually -" Will moves to sit on the bed beside her. She'd been gifted the guest room three weeks ago by Nick, who eventually realised that the blonde child isn't going to be leaving his house, or her new-found parents, anytime soon, no matter how much Katherine complains at times. "How about I make up a story and tell it to you?"
"Yes, please."
"Alright. So - What now?" His phone, left on KT's bedside table, starts ringing, yet again, and he snatches it up, not bothering to glance at the caller ID this time. "What?"
"Oh. I see how it is. Nice to speak to you too."
Right. Not Eve, then.
"What do you want, Katherine?"
Katherine sniffs. "I just thought you'd like to know that your robot...friend -" She emphasises the word "friend", as if to convey her disbelief at the fact that this is term that they're still using. "- has just called and told me to ask you why you're not answering your phone. So, could you please speak to her, and tell her not to call my office again, unless it's an emergency?" She hangs up before Will can beat her to it, and he drops the phone onto the duvet with a sigh.
"Daddy?" KT is watching him expectantly, curled under her plain blue duvet.
Oh, right. He promised her a story, didn't he?
"Okay...uh..." What do little kids like? "Once upon a time...there was a prince."
"Was the prince you, Daddy?"
"Maybe. And he, um, he lived in a castle, with his father, the King, just them, alone, until, one day, uh, a princess came from...out of town."
"Mummy?"
"Sure. Anyway, uh, the princess was running away from the, er...from the..."
"Dragon?" The child suggests helpfully.
"Yeah, yeah, from the dragon. So, she came to live with in the palace, where she would be safe." He shrugs a little as he speaks. "And they went on to have adventures together."
"And?" KT prompts, shuffling closer. "What happened to them, Daddy?"
10.30 PM.
"I hope everything is okay."
Lily rolls her eyes, brushing a strand of hair back from her face, as she passes the taxi driver a ten pound note, and climbs out of the cab. "Eve, we were gone for three hours. Nothing life threatening will have happened in three hours."
The blonde is already on the pavement, outside the house, looking unbothered by the cold conditions of the late evening."You can't be sure of that!"
"Yes, I can." Lily lays a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Go in, see for yourself. Everything will be fine. I'm heading indoors myself."
Eve nods, bidding goodnight to her, before making her way inside. It's mostly dark, she notices, save for one light, up on the landing, still on, seeping out from the guest room.
She peers around the door when she reaches it, having climbed the stairs two at a time. "Will?"
"Shh!" KT peers out from under the duvet, raising a finger to her lips. "Daddy's sleeping!"
Eve steps further into the room, careful not to step on the loose floorboard when she realises that KT is right; Will is sitting against the pillow, arm around the child's shoulders, face nuzzled into her hair where it had slumped to his right. Careful not to jostle him too much and disturb his sleep, KT lifts her arms out from under the duvet and holds them out towards Eve, gesturing for a hug. Eve crosses the room, perching on the edge of the bed and putting an arm around the smaller girl so that she is nestled in between her parents.
"Did you and Auntie Lily have a nice time?"
"It was pleasant enough, for the most part," Eve replies, absentmindedly playing with a strand of KT's blonde hair. "But I don't think that these sorts of social gatherings are as appealing as everybody else seems to claim that they are, especially when Zac found the punch bowl..." She trails off, recalling the memories of Zac and his escapades from the evening, before brushing it aside, and leaving a kiss on KT's forehead. "I think I shall choose to stay here with you and Daddy next time. "