A/N: Here's a short story that I hope you enjoy.

Thank you all for your patience, and your kindness, as I am making my way through a dark and frustrating writer's freeze.

You are all WONDERFUL!

All my love,

CBC

Miranda was irritated.

Her wife, Andrea, was gone on a business tour. Her make-up department head was out for maternity, and had taken her stylistic manager out with her. Nigel was on his honeymoon, the man declaring they could push it off no longer. It left her completely short staffed on competent brains, and had piled on massive amounts of undercut work on her plate.

Miranda was completely out of her mind.

The girls' father had been scheduled to take them for a two week stretch, which she was in desperate need of to get her work done. She loved her daughters with her whole being, and she didn't want them to go, but even she was not blind to the fact that it did them all some good to have them out on occasion.

This was supposed to be one of those occasions, only the rat bastard had canceled at the last minute. The Nanny, Cara, had been given a two week leave, and despite Miranda's deep desire to call her back, she knew how badly Cara needed to visit with her ailing father.

So now Miranda was eyeball deep in work, with her two energetic daughters at home, and no wife to help keep nerves settled.

There was yet another knock on her study door, "Mommy!" Her daughters pushed into the room for the hundredth time, "We're bored!" Cassidy exclaimed.

"Perhaps you and your sister could try that new yoga video, or the new dance video, Cara bought." She replied, her eyes never lifting from the paperwork before her, "Or you could sit Patricia down and brush through her fur, the groomers recommend it as she has an appointment tomorrow."

It was only five, on a Thursday, she had just gotten home moments before, and had barely had the proper silence to get work done. Because Cara was gone, and the girls were not, it meant Miranda had to come home early. Which only snowballed into creating more work and more backlog on the upcoming release.

Miranda was already leaving them home alone for nearly three hours, and even though her twelve-year-old daughters were quite mature, they were still children. Fear gripped her chest at the thought of something happening, so she grit her teeth and arranged to be home early for every day that she had to wait for Cara to return, or Andrea to miraculously get home early from her two month trip for the latest book release.

Cassidy grunted, and Caroline sighed before leaving the study with a half-hearted, "Okay, Mom."

Her heart broke a little, but she simply sighed and continued on her work. Oh her ex was going to be on the receiving end of another round in court after this. If he was going to throw away his time with the twins for some floozy, then he just wasn't going to get any time at all.

Not nearly enough time passed before another knock sounded at her door, "Mommy! We're hungry!" Cassidy stepped into the room again, Caroline at her heels.

The Cook wasn't coming until six-thirty in order to have dinner ready by eight-thirty- the girls were well aware of this. "Gerta will be here shortly to get dinner ready, there is yogurt in the fridge, and a fruit platter for snacks."

"But-"

"There is granola in the cupboard, as well as a few snack bars. Bobbseys, you know what we have in the kitchen, you and your sister are capable of getting a quick snack together." Her eyes once again never lifted from her papers, and her ire continued to rise.

"Okay." They grumbled before closing the door on her way out.

Miranda continued to slash and mark away at the photos and design mock-ups she had in front of her face. If this was such a disaster, she could already feel her irritation stirring at what The Book was going to look like.

An hour later she heard the front door open, and minutes later the door opened once again, "Mommy! Gerta is here. She wanted to make sure you knew."

"Yes Bobbsey, I heard the door."

"Do-"

"Bobbsey, let Mommy work please."

"Mommy, would-"

"Girls!"

The door closed once more.

Ripping apart one of the photos she grabbed the office phone and made a call. She could not believe the amount of lazy production she was seeing.

As she was hanging up, her anger and frustration far beyond its peak, the study door swung open again, "Mommy!"

"Girls! Mommy is very busy! Quit interrupting! I do not wish to see either of your faces in my study again until it's time for supper! Now leave Mommy alone!" She slammed a hand down upon her desk, and immediately regretted her outburst. For the first time that evening, she looked up… to see tears gathering in her daughters' eyes, just before they ran out, slamming the door behind them.

She felt her breath hitch in her throat, and swallowed passed the lump that had formed rather quickly.

Heaving a loaded sigh, she swiveled back to her work, and buried the guilt down to deal with later- she had work to finish.

/DWP/

Andy groaned as she rolled over and picked up the phone, "'Ello?"

"Momma?"

"Caroline, sweetheart? Are you okay?"

She heard a sniff, "Mommy yelled at us."

"What? I thought you were spending two weeks with your father, you were supposed to have gone over yesterday evening."

"He- he canceled!"

Oh no.

"Sweetheart, is Mommy working in her study?"

"Mm-hmm."

"What did she say?"

"That she didn't want to see our faces again."

"Oh? And did Mommy seem very stressed out?"

"She had just hung up the phone."

"Oh, Sweetheart, now, it doesn't excuse that Mommy was wrong to yell at you, but she is very busy with work. Serena and Emily aren't working right now, because they're getting ready for the baby. Don't forget that Uncle Nigel is gone too, on his honeymoon with James. So that means she has a lot of extra work to do, and that means that she is very tired."

She looked at the clock, and quickly did the conversion, "Gerta should be there, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Why don't you ask Gerta to make a quicker dinner, and wait about five minutes before going back up to Mommy? She needs some hugs, and she'll want to apologize for yelling. But you know that she sometimes needs a good laugh to help her calm down. Do you think you and Cassidy can come up with something?"

"Uh-huh." Caroline sniffled.

"I'll be just a phone call away if you need any help, okay? I love you, and I love Cassidy. Now go give Mommy some hugs, baby, she needs some love too."

"Okay. I love you, Momma." There was another sniff before the line disconnected.

Andy ran a hand over her face and sighed. She'd call her wife in a few hours, and make sure that everything turned out okay. But for now, she was going to finish her nap before having to get ready for her evening event at the latest bookstore that was selling her new book.

/DWP/

Hearing the study door slowly push open, Miranda took a soothing breath, but didn't look up from her note scribbling. She was both irritated and relieved that her girls had come back in.

There were whispers of bare feet against the plush carpet of her study, and a quiet sniffle before a tentative, "Mommy?"

"Girls," she kept her temper in check as she slowly turned towards them, "did I not tell you that-"

Her words trailed off upon seeing her daughters. They were standing just a few steps inside the door, their feet shuffling anxiously, their hands clasped nervously, and their heads covered by big, brown, paper bags.

"Are we allowed to come in now?" Miranda was positive Caroline had asked, but not being able to see their faces- mixed with her work induced madness- was throwing her off.

"What- what on earth are you doing?"

"You said you didn't want to see our faces."

A handful of moments ticked by before she felt as if something broke inside her brain, and she began to chuckle. Reaching out her arms, she motioned for her girls to come closer, and pulled them against her, only chuckling harder as she heard the paper bags crinkle.

They let her hold them, and her chuckles turned into loud laughter. She tugged them each onto a leg, and wrapped them up in her arms as she laughed. Her whole body shook, and tears trickled from her eyes, and she held her darling girls, relishing in feeling of their arms wrapping around her back as best as they could.

Minutes passed before she began to calm down, her laughter quieting and slowing into gentle puffs of air, and hiccups, before dying out. Silence surrounded them, and not one of them moved for several heartbeats.

Burrowing her face against two small shoulders, Miranda breathed deeply before leaning back, and softly pushing her girls away, so she could see their bag covered heads. Sighing, she lifted one bag, and then the other, tossing them to the floor to be picked up later. Eyes so similar, to each other and her own, looked back at her.

"My darling girls, my precious Bobbseys, I am so very sorry for raising my voice at you. Could you ever forgive your poor, old, mother?" She brushed her fingers against their foreheads, and pressed sweet kisses to their freckled skin.

They giggled and each kissed one of her cheeks before snuggling back against her, "We love you." They chorused.

"Oh, I love you, I love you both so much." She murmured, planting her lips against their heads and combing her fingers through their silky red hair. "Now, how about we go settle into the den and watch a short TV show before Gerta calls us down for dinner?"

Cassidy pulled away a little as she spoke, "You said you had work."

"Yeah."

"I know, Bobbseys, but I think a short break with my darling girls is exactly what Mommy needs to feel better." Bright smiles was the response she received as they hopped off her thighs and tugged at her hands.

"We'd rather play a video game."

"They're more fun! We can teach you how to play!"

"We'll teach you to be better than Momma!"

"You can finally win against her when she gets home!"

Allowing them to whisk her away, she smiled at their chatter and thanked whatever greater being that was out there for giving her her precious girls.

"All right, Bobbseys, all right, let's get started then, and you have to promise not to laugh!" She said in a mock stern tone.

Her beautiful daughters smiled and laughed and nodded their heads as they plopped her backwards onto the couch and began to set up the game, "We don't promise!"

Miranda laughed, a smile spread across her face, and felt the tense anxiety of the day slowly begin to ebb away.

Taking a deep breath, she settled more comfortably on the couch, and permitted her worries to drift off as her darling twins flopped on either side of her, and began yammering excitedly about how to play Mario Kart.

Even if she remained the worst player, she would always cherish the time they spent together.

Laughing. Smiling. Loving.

As a family.

A/N: I hope you liked it!

Let me know what you thought.

Thanks for reading!

All my love,

CBC