Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but I love them as if they were my own.

She was coming home.

Emily hadn't moved, spoken, or as far as JJ could tell, blinked since that piece of information had been released.

'Emily?' he asked uncertainly, waving a hand in front of her face.

Snapping out of it, she batted the hand away irritably. 'Fuck off, JJ.'

Effy smirked.

'You too,' she warned Effy, who held up her hands innocently, exhaling a plume of smoke that shifted across her face and up into the air.

'Am I missing something children?' Gina placed a pot of tea on the mat in the centre of the table. The flowing material of her sleeves wafted the perfume from her wrists. It smelt like sweet fruit. Emily fucking loved that smell. It scented the whole house.

Gina always called them children, despite their perpetual aging. Emily sometimes half worried that Gina actually thought they were her children seeing as she had, quite spectacularly, misplaced her own.

'I think Emily's shell-shocked,' Effy said through another cloud of smoke.

'I am not,' Emily mumbled.

'You were displaying a number of the classic characteristics Emily,' JJ observed.

'Shell-shocked about what?' Gina asked, pulling a seat out from under the table and sitting down. She plucked the cigarette from between Effy's lips and stubbed it out in her saucer. 'Sorry love,' she said, 'if Kieran comes home and sees you smoking in here he'll think he's allowed to do it.'

'Whatever,' Effy shrugged before continuing, 'Emily just found out your rogue daughter's on the home stretch.'

Gina eyed Emily warily. 'Are you okay, love?'

'Of course I am!' Emily hastily replied. 'I don't know why everyone thinks I'm not. I'm absolutely fine. She can do whatever she bloody well likes.'

'The lady doth protest too much, methinks,' JJ grinned.

'Shut up JJ,' Emily said.

'... my pride fell with my fortunes,' he conceded quietly.

Emily rolled her eyes. Shakespeare was the last thing she needed right now.

'Can you stop being a tit for a second JJ?' Effy requested politely. 'Emily's still adjusting.'

'Oh just stop it, all of you,' Emily snapped, folding her arms and watching the amber liquid splash into her cup as Gina tilted the teapot forwards.

Gina gently knuckled Emily's chin, forcing Emily's gaze in her direction. 'It was news to me too love,' she said. 'I found out from Effy.'

Effy lit another cigarette casually, inhaling deeply, 'Naomi's just a bit of an inconsiderate cow.' Smoke seeped from her mouth as she spoke. 'No offence Mrs. C,' she added.

'None taken,' Gina consented, taking the cigarette from Effy and stubbing it out again.

It was Effy who had started coming to Gina first, when she felt she had nowhere else to go, and nothing left to hold on to. It was Naomi who had first brought her here, wrapping the shaking girl in her own coat and depositing her in the arms of her confused mother, before rushing immediately to Cook's side. Eventually, one by one, they'd all started trickling to her door. Emily was the last one. Initially she had found it very hard to even go near the house. Now she spent more time there than she did anywhere else. Every evening after they had finished work, they'd all wend their way back to Gina's kitchen. Emily sometimes wondered if Effy ever actually left.

'So when does the prodigal return?' Emily asked, trying to make it sound like it made very little difference to her.

'Tomorrow evening,' Gina answered.

Emily glanced over at the calendar secured by a magnet to the fridge. Tomorrow's date was circled. It had been for a while. Why hadn't she noticed before?

'You miss her a lot don't you?' Emily asked, sadly.

Emily was consistently amazed by Gina. How she listened for countless hours to other people's problems, comforting them regardless of whatever had happened without ever revealing that she was sad, lonely ... hurt.

'I do miss her,' Gina agreed, 'But I'm sure I'll have had enough of her in a few days,' she said, with her famous 'that's enough about me, let's talk about you' smile.

'She's not staying long then?' JJ asked.

Gina shrugged, pouring milk into her tea from the china jug on the table, 'I expect she'll stay a few days. She'll want to catch up with Cook. And I imagine I can expect both her and Effy to stagger in gone midnight and fall about the living room for a while.'

Effy gave a small nod of agreement.

'She'll want to see you too, Emily,' Gina added.

Emily snorted, 'I doubt that somehow.'

'We all do stupid things, Emily,' Gina told her.

'Naomi just manages to do about twenty a day,' Effy finished the sentence for her.

'That implies that potentially, given the average length of a stupid activity as around zero point three recurring, Naomi spends roughly sixty percent of her day doing stupid things,' JJ interjected, maths whirring around his brain as usual. He paused thoughtfully. 'That's pretty stupid ... er ... no offence Mrs. Campbell.'

'None taken. And it's Gina, dear. How many times?'

Emily was just about to protest once again that this conversation was entirely trivial seeing as she didn't care if Naomi was returning from the other side of the planet or not, when the door opened and Katie clattered loudly into the kitchen.

'I've had the most ridiculous day at the shop,' she announced. 'Seriously, what is it like ... international wanker day or something? My feet fucking kill and the coffee machine was broken and our entire delivery of maternity knickers hasn't turned up again. Which means either the delivery company is hugely perverted or there's a massive charity for pregnant women that have to go commando operating in the area – ' She stopped for air, '... and I got splashed by a fucking bus on the way here. Like mid-stride so it got both of my legs. Budge up Em, fuck's sake,' she concluded, shuffling Emily along and plonking herself down on half of Emily's seat.

Once Katie had finished her rant, she took the time to absorb the atmosphere of the room.

'What the fuck's going on in here then?' she asked, looking from person to person as they exchanged glances around the table.

'Emily's upset because Naomi's coming home tomorrow,' Effy summarised.

'I am not upset,' Emily argued.

'Really? Tomorrow? Oh just fuck her Em, she's not worth worrying about,' Katie said, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder, 'No offence Gina,' she added.

'None taken.'

Emily shot an apologetic look in Gina's direction. 'Look everyone,' she said, 'I really appreciate how concerned you all are,' she paused, 'or how amusing you find it,' she glared at Effy, 'but it's been two years. I'm over it. And I'm over her. I couldn't give a shit if she's coming home. Tomorrow or ever. No offence Gina.'

'None taken.'

(Thank you for reading my first chapter :D)