Hi. I've decided to make this into a drabble series. There's no fixed timeline, but you should get the idea.
PS Emma is about seven in this.
Fa- arsed bitch.
Hospital nightmare.
Dorothy jumped when the door opened, and she checked her watch. Taisie and Elise weren't back home yet, they had another twenty or so minutes, and Janet usually worked late. Her puzzlement only grew when she heard the sounds of a child sobbing. She was just getting up when two people walked into the kitchen.
One of them was, surprisingly, Janet who was certainly not wearing the clothes she'd worn this morning, and the other was a tiny girl Dorothy knew too well. Emma Bailey, Rachel's daughter. Dorothy was about to open her mouth, asking why she was here when she caught sight of her daughter's face. Janet looked tired and her eyes were red, meaning she'd been crying but she was clearing trying to be strong for the girl whose hand was in hers. The weariness on Janet's face, her expression and her body posture made her look years older.
"Janet, what's happened?"
Janet licked her lips, and glanced down at Emma and then back up at her mother. Dorothy blinked and she studied Emma properly for the first time. The little girl was in a terrible state, sniffling and crying. Her long chocolate brown hair was in a mess like she'd been sleeping all night and hadn't bothered to brush it. Her eyes were red from crying and tears were still falling down her little face.
"What's happened?" Dorothy asked, knowing Emma wouldn't be brought to the house unless it was truly serious. Janet, Elise, Taisie and Rachel knew that she disliked the Bailey girls though her reasons didn't make sense, and that dislike had transferred over to Emma. Janet and the girls adored Emma and Rachel, but they would always go round to Rachel's place to preserve the peace. It saddened Dorothy her own family would do that, but truthfully the only other solution would be if the Baileys left them alone, and there was no chance of that happening. The bond was too strong.
Janet took a staggering breath, and to Dorothy's shock, she looked down at Emma. "Emma, should I tell her?"
Dorothy's shock grew as the little girl slowly looked up at Janet, her usually bubbly and innocent eyes grave and terrified. "I've already heard it, Auntie Janet. She's going to find out eventually. Don't worry about me."
Janet frowned. "I do worry about you sweetheart, don't say anything like that." Emma stared her down, and Janet let out a sigh. "Okay," she looked up at her mother. "Rachel's been stabbed, she's in hospital and Alison's on holiday until one of us can get in touch with her." Fresh tears poured down both their faces.
"She's on a cruise, our Alison," Emma said. "She won't be back until the end of the week."
"Do you know her contact details, how we can get in touch with her?" Janet asked, trying to keep her voice professional as though Emma was another person to be interviewed, but both Emma and Dorothy heard the strain in her voice. It always happened when someone she loved was hurt. Dorothy had been on the receiving end of such a tone in her daughter's voice, and even Elise had been known to use it from time to time.
For Emma, the tone was familiar since her mother used it a lot as well, but only when she thought Emma was hiding something, like a surprise for her mother, or when her mother asked her about school. She shook her head, making her hair whip around. "No, I don't, sorry. My mummy would know, but-" she trailed off with a sigh.
Janet looked down at Emma thoughtfully, wondering how to speak to her mother with her there. Emma solved that for her. With tears still trickling down her face, Emma looked back up at Janet. "If its okay Auntie Jan, I'd like to sit in the living room. I know you two wanna talk, and I don't really want to hear the story a second time."
Dorothy was glad to see it wasn't just her that was stunned by Emma's perceptiveness and observation, but Janet took it in her stride better than Dorothy did. "No, you don't," Janet agreed, knowing she'd only told Emma what happened because the child had told her she'd find out eventually, and she didn't want to be looked down upon like a little kid. The irony of the statement wasn't lost on either of them. "Alright, I'll check on you later."
Emma nodded and she walked out of the kitchen without the usual spring to her step. Janet watched her as she went out of sight, and she gently closed the door. Emma was right, she didn't want to hear it a second time, and Janet really didn't want to repeat it a second time, but it was important for her mother to know what the girl was going through. She was only being like this rather than her tetchy self whenever a brown lock of Rachel or Emma's hair was nearby because she'd been shocked into virtual silence. And Emma crying had really helped a lot.
Janet went to the kettle to make some tea, and Dorothy had to sit down to make sense of what she'd learned. Rachel had been stabbed? Dorothy had met Rachel before Emma had been born, and though the younger woman had been on her best behavior Dorothy hadn't liked her more lower working class background though she could tell none of it had been her fault. The primary reason for her dislike of Rachel had been her easy going attitude to life, not something Dorothy liked.
Life should be taken seriously, but Dorothy did agree that it shouldn't be spent as though you were a teacher. Ironic since she'd been a teacher herself, though her style of teaching had been different from Adrian's.
Janet came over with two mugs of tea and she sat down to drink it. "We were investigating a murder. A young girl was stabbed last night, we were asking around a neighborhood. Usual stuff, but the place Rachel went to...," Janet took a shaky breath and carried on. "The lad who stabbed the girl last night panicked and when he saw Rachel and the PC, he lashed out and sent them both stumbling and he grabbed the knife. He went berserk, and stabbed Rachel in the stomach. The boy panicked, and he was quickly restrained, and Rachel was rushed to hospital. The look on her face, the way she whispered to take care of Emma to me and to Gill who was there with us, supervising because Rob's sick..." Janet shook her head, fresh tears making their way down her face. "Then she fell unconscious. She was holding out to say that." She closed her eyes. "I know what she's going through, I was stabbed once remember. I wanted my daughters to be well looked after, and I didn't want to have an autopsy. Long story," she muttered the last part, knowing her mother wouldn't appreciate that particular comment. She was right, too. The look Dorothy sent Janet spoke volumes but she didn't say a word but that didn't mean she wouldn't be speaking to Janet later.
"How is she?"
Janet wasn't sure if Dorothy was being genuinely compassionate or just simply wondering aloud how long Emma would be seen as a burden to her; part of Janet resented the fact Rachel and her mother didn't get along despite Rachel's attempts, but Janet truly hoped her mother wasn't going to make life a living hell for Emma. The little girl was blameless and wasn't a part of whatever petty little one sided feud between Rachel and Dorothy, and she didn't need that when Rachel was in a hospital bed.
"She should make a full recovery. The lad was panicky and he didn't keep her hostage or anything, so we got her to hospital okay."
"Hold on," Dorothy began after something Emma had said earlier entered her mind. "You told Emma, a child, what had happened to her mother?"
"Trust me, its not what you think," Janet said quickly though she wasn't sure what her mother was thinking. "But Emma insisted. I had to go round to the school she goes to and pick her up, something Rachel or Alison would do, and its a miracle Rachel took me there herself a couple of times so the teachers know I'm trustworthy in case those two weren't able, and she even did the same with Orla, Gill, and Julie I think, even without my warrant card. When she saw me crying she knew it had something to do with her mother, and she made me tell her what had happened. Emma is very bright for her age, and she has her mother's keen observational skills in spades."
Dorothy shook her head. "I still don't think it was a good idea to tell her she'd been stabbed-"
"What would you have done? No, go on, tell me mum, why shouldn't I have told Emma that her mother was in a hospital bed? If I didn't then she would get suspicious and ask around, Emma is not stupid. Her mothers taught her a lot and don't you forget it. I'm going to take her to hospital later on to see her mum, and that is that."
Emma was watching television quietly, legs brought up on the couch, knees up to her chin. She'd stopped crying, but she was sniffling quietly. She wasn't really interested in any of the programs as far as Dorothy saw, she seemed to be trying to take her mind off her fears for her mother's wellbeing by not getting too absorbed in her thinking. She flicked between the programs after a minute or two of scrutiny.
The old woman had been watching Emma carefully and silently since Janet had left to go round to Rachel's place to pick one or two things up for Emma, and the little girl's silence was beginning to get to Dorothy, but truthfully she didn't know what to say to the girl. Her lack of time spent with Emma and Rachel didn't help because, if it was Taisie or Elise or even Janet, she would know something, some words to take their minds off their worries, but with Emma she had nothing.
Dorothy ran through her mind what she already knew about the girl; she was bright, quick, and very perceptive, and she wasn't afraid to show off her intelligence.
The girl had glanced at her once or twice, quietly. Her brown eyes would then flick back to the set and she wouldn't say a word, and the silence was getting to Dorothy.
Finally Emma seemed to have had enough. Without taking her eyes off the television, she spoke and made Dorothy jump. "Are you just going to stand there staring at me, or are you going to sit down and say something?"
Blunt. The trademark of a Bailey. "I didn't want to disturb you," Dorothy replied, feeling a bit silly.
"You disturbed me by coming in here and not sitting down and staring at me. This is your home too, isn't it? You shouldn't need to be worried about speaking to me." Emma said.
Dorothy bit down her tongue to stop the anger surging through her at the child's remark, but she knew Emma had a point. Quietly she sat down, but she didn't know what to say to this unwanted guest. Unfortunately Emma, again, proved she was her mothers daughter.
"I know you don't want me here," she whispered forlornly. "But it won't be for long. Auntie Gill's gonna look after me tomorrow night. I know you hate me and my mother, but please try to see things the way I do. I'm frightened. My mother is the only parent in my life I love along with my aunts, she has always been there for me. My dad, the less said about that liar, the better."
Janet had walked in by that point, but no one had noticed her which surprised her because her entrance was just as noisy as it usually was. She walked into the living room and heard Emma speaking. She was a little bit appalled with the way the girl was speaking to her mother, but she was only stating a fact. What really surprised her was the way she spoke of her father. She hadn't realised or known Rachel had told Emma anything about Nicholas Savage and what he'd done to Rachel, but it didn't surprise her that Emma was bitter about it.
"Emma," she said, grabbing the girl's attention; she saw the child look embarrassed, and guessed it was either because of the way she'd been speaking to her auntie Janet's mother, or because she'd walked into the house without Dorothy or Emma not knowing about it. "I've got your things. Do you want to come up to the guest bedroom?"
The girl nodded, seemingly wanting to get away from Dorothy.
When the two of them were in the guest bedroom, Emma sat on the bedroom with her head bowed. "I'm sorry I spoke to your mummy like that, Auntie Janet. I was just so tired of the way she stood in the doorway, staring at me and not saying a word to me, and for the way she's acted to me in the past."
Emma's apology had Janet sitting next to her. Janet wrapped an arm around her. "I agree, you were a bit rude to her Emma, but seriously I think my mother needs a wake up call."
Emma pulled back slightly to better look her aunt in the eye. "Why does she hate me and my mummy? We haven't done anything to her."
Janet had heard her mother come up the stairs to better hear their conversation, but she paid her mother no heed. "I don't know, Emma. I've been trying to work that out for a long time. But please, try to take it easy, yeah?"
"How can I take it easy, Aunt Janet? My mother is in hospital, and she's been stabbed. How am I supposed to take it easy?"
Janet had looked after two girls and they'd both turned into teenage horrors. She wasn't going to have an argument with Emma unless it was needed, but she knew the girl was scared, and with good reason. "I'm surprised Rachel told you about your father," she said instead, trying to take the subject away and divert it from Rachel being in hospital.
Emma looked down with a sigh. "Yeah, I asked about him when I got that disgusting doll, you know the pink one I told mum to throw away. She'd taken the card from it, and we opened it together when you'd all gone. She'd dropped little hints and stories about him in the past, she didn't want to talk about him until I was older. She told me the full story a few days after my last birthday. It was a happy occasion and she didn't want to ruin it. It answered so many questions like why she was so bitter about him. Is she really going to be okay?"
Janet was heartbroken by the look on Emma's face and the sound of her little voice, the voice she always used when she was frightened, and she was a little sad Emma had changed the subject round to its original topic. "I was stabbed," she confessed.
Emma looked at her aghast, and Janet carried on. She rolled up her shirt as she spoke to show Emma the scar. "I was stabbed in the stomach, like your mother. She was pregnant with you at the time," she added, further surprising Emma, who hadn't known her beloved auntie had nearly died before she'd been born. The little girl gently reached out with a finger to touch the scar, looking up at Janet for permission, and with a smile and a nod Emma touched the scar.
Emma, bless her, couldn't imagine her life without Janet, just like Janet could not imagine a life without her own daughters. "I'll tell you the story later, but right now I want to get the worst of it out of the way. I was lying, blood pouring from my stomach like mad when I was rushed to hospital. Your mother had my head resting gently on her belly, and I could feel your little kick. She kept saying that she wanted her kid to know its auntie Janet, and she was there for me. Gill allowed her to stay at the hospital on her work days, and she and your Aunt Alison would always make your mother go home to get some rest, and make sure you were healthy."
"I never knew that," Emma replied slowly, looking at Janet with sympathy for what she'd gone through.
"Now you do," Janet said quietly. "The point I'm trying to make is I had to wait a few minutes to get to hospital, and your mother was rushed there almost immediately."
"So," Emma scrunched her face up as she worked out the gist of what Janet was saying, though her mind was working slowly because of the scale of what had happened to her dear aunt whilst she hadn't even been born yet. "You're saying mummy will be okay."
Janet smiled and hoped so, deep inside. "I'm going to take you to the hospital, to make your mother feel better."
Her efforts were rewarded with a smile.
Emma was cheerful, or she tried to put up a front. Either way, the Scott family didn't know, but they imagined it had something to do with what Janet had told her about her mother's prospects. When Elise and Taisie arrived home from school, both girls hid their surprise Emma was there and they hid their own worry for Rachel for the girl's sake when their mother had told her what had happened to their friend, and they were both occupying her time before Janet would take her to the hospital.
Dorothy stayed at home with the girls who were engrossed in their own things. Elise had gone upstairs saying she wanted to get some homework done, and surprisingly, so did Taisie. Dorothy would've thought nothing of it if she hadn't gone upstairs and found the girls having their own conversation in Elise's bedroom.
"This brings back memories," Taisie was saying.
"Yeah," Elise replied. "I wonder how Emma's coping. You saw how forced her cheerfulness was earlier."
"Yeah, I think she's only doing it to try and take her mind off what's happened to her mum."
Elise was silent for a moment. "Remember when Mum had been stabbed? Rachel had been pregnant then, and she was a total mess, but she was there for us. She was there for Gran as well, even if she didn't appreciate it."
Dorothy let out a breath the girls didn't hear, she was hurt that even her own granddaughters didn't think she appreciated all that Rachel had done for her and Janet and the girls during that time when she hadn't been able to be in two places at once.
Taisie asked the question Dorothy had heard so many times before by different people. "Why does she hate Rachel?"
Oh, so she was going to be called she was she? But Dorothy did not storm upstairs to give the girls a piece of her mind, instead she just stood there and listened. "I don't know, but I think she's unfair to Emma," Elise replied. "I heard from mum that Emma had had a go at gran."
Dorothy couldn't believe this, even her own daughter was talking behind her back.
"I heard that too," Dorothy almost cried when she heard the laughter in her youngest granddaughter's voice. "I'd have given all my pocket money just to see that!"
"Me too!" Elise chuckled before she said more seriously, "How do you feel about Emma staying here tonight?"
"I'm okay with it," Taisie chuckled. "I just wish mum and Rachel'll just let me play with her."
"Oh, you mean where you taught Emma to swear? I thought Rachel was gonna pull her hair out!"
Dorothy blinked. When did that happen?
Dorothy, Elise and Taisie all mutually, if not discussed, staying up till Emma and Janet had returned to the house. Fortunately they didn't need to wait long, the two returned at 11.30.
Janet breezed into the house, carrying a sleepy Emma in her arms. She asked Elise and Taisie to take her upstairs to get her ready for bed, and that she'd be upstairs in a moment before we sat down at the table with her mother.
"How was it?" Dorothy asked watching as Janet rubbed her eyes.
"Emma was brave," Janet replied. "But when she saw her mother in that bed, she almost burst out crying and I can't say I blame her. After that we both sat with Gill and Kimberly, and talked about everything and nothing to pass the time."
"What about Alison?" Janet frowned at the way her mother spoke the name of her close friend, but she answered the question though she didn't hide her annoyance by how little her mother seemed to think about how this was affecting her as well as Gill and Emma. "Gill's been phoning Alison's work colleagues all day to find out what cruise she's gone on, and she's also done the same with Tony's. Alison's husband, but so far nothing."
"They should have left contact details in case something happened," Dorothy shook her head, unable to believe anyone could be so stupid, and Janet came back at her. She showed no mercy when she unleashed both barrels on Dorothy's attitude. "They probably didn't leave any contact details because they're going to be moving from place to place, and because they know that Rachel and Emma are a strong team."
Janet sighed. She didn't want to do this, she didn't want to have to fight her mother who was so stubborn and so, ironically enough, like Rachel. It was strange, Janet mused to herself, how alike Rachel and her mother really were in terms of their strength, kindness, and yet neither of them got along despite attempts on Rachel's part.
Maybe Emma's time, brief as it was, could make her mother see sense?
"Look, I'm gonna go upstairs, and see to Emma."
Dorothy watched silently as her daughter went up the stairs to check on Emma, tears falling down her face as she realised maybe she should change her views towards the little girl and her mother.
Janet found herself on an ordinary looking street, looking on as police officers in uniform and in plain clothes went in pairs to knock on the doors of the houses.
She stepped forwards, a pit in her stomach when she saw her reflection in a car window, and when she realised where she was. Dreading what she would see, Janet turned to see Gill directing Rachel and a uniformed police officer to a house. Rachel nodded, and with the interview book, she went off with the uniform over to the house.
"Rachel, don't!" Janet called, but Rachel didn't hear her.
Gill spotted her, and called her over. "Right, Janet," she said. "I need you and Travis, its Travis isn't it?" She asked a nearby uniform, not bothering to wait for a reply when suddenly the uniform who'd gone with Rachel came out, shouting. He was dragging Rachel out, and Janet nearly cried when she saw her friend clutching her bleeding stomach, her hair obscuring her eyes. "He's stabbed her, get her to bloody hospital!"
"Mitch, Lee, you lot," Gill shouted at a group of uniforms. "Oh, fuck I don't know your names, get him out of there. Be careful, he's still got a knife."
Janet rushed over to the uniform holding Rachel.
"Rachel? Rachel," Janet pressed her hands against Rachel's injury, feeling the hot blood as it poured out of her, and Janet felt tears in her eyes as she heard Rachel's ragged breathing. Rachel looked up at Janet as though she were seeing an illusion.
Mitch and Pete came out, pulling a small, rather pathetic looking man out of the house. In Mitch's fingers there was an evidence bag with a large knife stained in red and black, Janet's eyes watered at the sight of it before she turned her attention to the man sobbing piteously in the grip of the two men.
"I didn't mean too," he sobbed, and if it wasn't for the almost shocked, dead look in Rachel's eyes, Janet would have killed him. She would've grabbed the evidence bag, pulled the knife out, and use it to slice open the man, who reminded her of Geoff Hastings only far less clever, if Rachel didn't need her.
After putting him in the car, Mitch and Pete came over with Lee, and they gently lifted Rachel up, but the injured woman stopped them when she grabbed hold of Janet and Gill.
"Take care of Emma." She managed to gasp.
"Rachel?" Janet said, surprised to find she was repeating what she'd said at the time when her best friend had been stabbed. "Don't talk like that-"
Rachel shook her head. "No, Janet," she gasped, using what was left of her strength. "Please," she begged. "If anything happens to me, I want you," she turned her gaze over to Gill, "and you," and then to Kimberly. "And you to bring Emma up with Alison when the silly cow gets back. Bring her up, I know you can. Taisie, Elise, Sammy, you raised them into exceptional, kind and loving people. I want nothing less for my little angel. Please. Promise me."
Gill, Janet and Kimberly glanced at each other, scared. Rachel wasn't going to die if they could help it, but it terrified them she would speak like this, but they imagined it couldn't be helped. She was a good mother, and she loved her daughter so much. The first thing she would think about would be the wellbeing of her little girl, her Emma.
"Promise me!" Rachel gasped though it was obviously meant to be a shout.
Gill, Janet and Kimberly nodded as one. "We promise, Rachel."
"We'll take care of her." Gill added. Tears were sliding down her face somberly.
Kimberly didn't answer with words, she closed her eyes and nodded as tears poured down her face.
It was raining in the graveyard. Hold on, she realised, this hasn't happened, and Janet found herself standing by a plot in the ground, Gill, Kimberly and Alison nearby. All were wearing black. Janet focused on the little girl in a black dress crying with her arms wrapped around a headstone.
"Emma, come on love, its time to go." Alison suddenly called, and Janet turned her face at the woman, her friend had tears trickling down her face. Janet watched as the little girl reluctantly unwrapped her arms from the headstone, and it gave her a clear view of the name.
Rachel Bailey.
"No!" Janet whispered, before she screamed. "No! Rachel!"
"Rachel!" Janet sat up in bed, tears pouring from her eyes as her mind and body snapped back awake. She didn't have time to tell herself Rachel was still alive, hooked to a life support machine, and her chances of survival was high because she heard a scream from down the hall.
Oh, no.
"Emma," Janet got out of bed and hurried down the hall, and already Taisie and Elise were waking up. Thoughtlessly, Taisie called out. "Keep it down, we're trying to sleep."
Janet ignored her daughters as she threw open the door to Emma's temporary bedroom. Emma was twisting and turning in the sheets, moaning, "No, mummy, don't leave me!" She cried, the sounds and words breaking Janet's heart.
Janet bent down and shook Emma's little shoulders. She was so engrossed in what she was doing she didn't notice the presence of Dorothy, Taisie and Elise behind her. "Emma, wake up. You're having a nightmare!"
Emma whimpered, and she opened her eyes, gasping in fright. She looked around wildly, wondering where she was before she calmed down when she saw Janet. "Auntie Janet?" she whispered heartbreakingly. "Did I wake you?"
Janet nodded, and she wrapped Emma in a hug. The girl sobbed her heart out as she clung to Janet. Dorothy looked down at the pair of them, and Taisie bit her lip. She felt bad for her thoughtless and rather insensitive words.
Janet paid no heed to her family's feelings, her priority was Emma. Propping her chin ontop of the girl's chocolate brown curls, Janet rocked Emma to calm her down. "What did you have a nightmare about, Em?"
The girl pulled back slightly to look her aunt in the eye. "Do I have to talk about it?"
Janet bit her lip, knowing if she didn't tell the girl about her own nightmare then she'd be considered a hypocrite, but if Emma found out the contents of her nightmare...Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, Emma seemed to relent. She took the silence to mean yes.
She took a deep breath. "Um, you and Auntie Gill were holding my hands, taking me through the hospital. When we reached the room Mummy was in, we saw her being wheeled away, and suddenly you and Auntie Gill were both nurses and I was left watching you wheel mummy away. I couldn't move," Emma said, starting to get agitated. "You both looked back at me, but you weren't looking at me like you normally do, full of love and care," Elise and Taisie were silently crying along with Emma at those words. "You just looked at me so, oh what's the word," she scrunched up her face. "Cruel? No. Erm, sympathetic? No."
"Neutral?" Dorothy whispered, shaken by the description of the dream.
Emma nodded, pointing at Dorothy with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah, that's it. You were both neutral," she said to Janet, who was hugging her in horror. "I was calling for mummy to wake up, to not leave me, for you to bring her back but you wouldn't, and then you woke me up."
Janet licked her lips as she pulled Emma to her chest, letting the little girl cry on her nightdress. Silently she looked down at the mass of chocolate hair, and then back at her family before she took a breath. "Emma, I woke up just before you screamed."
The confession had Emma pull away, rubbing her red eyes. "What do you mean, Auntie Janet?"
Janet turned to her family awkwardly, and then back at Emma again. She sighed and told Emma about her own nightmare. Emma was silent through all of it, though her eyes told her how horrified she was before she put both her hands to her mouth.
When Janet had finished, she turned to her family again. Elise was holding Taisie up as the younger brunette cried though the older girl was no better, and Dorothy was looking awkward, but Janet could see or thought she was seeing tears in her mother's eyes.
She was about to pull away from Emma, to put her back to bed to ease her back to sleep, but Emma wasn't going to let her. Emma, feeling Janet pulling away, instantly grabbed her by the wrists. "Don't go, please! Don't leave me!" Emma begged, terror in her eyes. Her nightmare, still clear in her mind, made her determined not to be alone, she was understandably worried everyone in the room - including Dorothy - would leave her alone.
The nightmare Janet had described had only made Emma's fears worse, but the girl was smart enough to know, thanks to her mother's showing her of dramas like Casualty and detective stories that their nightmares were induced by fears. Rachel had shown Emma those programs to let her know that just because something looked minor didn't mean it was, and serious injuries shown on Casualty could be healed with a margin for error.
Janet, fortunately, was an experienced mother and understood what was terrifying Emma, and she mentally slapped herself for pulling away from her; after what Emma had just described, the last thing the little girl really needed was her to leave her alone.
"I'm not going anywhere," Janet whispered.
Emma looked at her. She'd almost been broken when Janet had come in, afraid for her mother, and their nightmares hadn't eased their fears. "Can...can I sleep with you?" she whispered fearfully, expecting Janet to refuse.
Janet silently answered Emma by getting in the bed with her, reminding her daughters of how she'd gotten into bed with them when they'd been frightened, to keep the monsters away. When she'd gotten comfortable in the bed, Janet had Emma in her embrace. She turned her head to her mother, nodding and Dorothy silently guided her granddaughters away from the guest room by the shoulders.
Dorothy couldn't get back to sleep as she thought about what she'd just witnessed, and the nightmares Janet and Emma had described. She'd known for a long time just how much Janet and Rachel liked and adored each other to the point they considered the other a sibling, and it was enough for Emma to think of Janet as an aunt, and Elise and Taisie as her cousins.
Despite not being fond of them, even Dorothy found the sight of a young child distressing, and she'd wanted to go over to Emma to comfort her, but Janet had gotten there first, and besides that Emma knew how much Dorothy hated her and Rachel.
But even so, Dorothy wouldn't wish the kind of fates Emma and Janet had described from their nightmares. She closed her eyes, praying that Rachel would be alright.
The nightmares their mother and honorary cousins had gone through and described weren't far from Taisie and Elise's minds as they tried to get to sleep as well. Both girls' had gone to sleep, fully expecting to suffer nightmares just as bad.
Emma yawned, putting a hand to her mouth sheepishly as she looked around the table the next morning at breakfast. "Pardon me," she said shyly.
"After what you dreamt last night love, you have every right to - yawn - yawn," Janet said, putting her own hand to her mouth as she too yawned. Emma giggled.
Elise and Taisie chuckled as well. "Will you be okay today Emma?" Taisie asked.
Emma smiled at Taisie. "Yeah. I'm being picked up by Auntie Gill from school, and she'll take me to see mummy."
"And you'll spend the night at Gills," Elise finished for her, her voice sad. Okay, she might not have had much contact with Emma since yesterday, but given time the Scott girls could've helped the girl. They saw so little of their honorary cousin, especially at their own house, but this was a special case.
Emma nodded, looking sad. She loved her cousins and auntie. Dorothy, she was...neutral about. When Emma was finished with her bowl of cereal, she picked up the bowl, and she washed it in the sink before putting the bowl and spoon on the draining board before she left the room with a skip in her step.
Elise shook her head. "Oh, boy, she's certainly not your average little girl, is she?"
Janet chuckled. "No, she isn't. I'm just glad she didn't have anymore nightmares last night. I certainly did."
Face sober, Dorothy asked, "Same thing?"
"No," Her own face grim, Janet replied. "I kept seeing myself relive the horror of what Geoff Hastings did to me, and that time I saw him stab Rachel whilst pregnant with Emma."
The horrified silence that set in at the table made everyone swear not to tell Rachel about that one. Blissfully unaware of what they'd been talking about, Emma ran down the stairs but she felt the tension in the room, but she wasn't going to ask. She had more than enough on her mind as it was.
Janet bent down to give Emma a long hug outside the school gates. Gill was behind her, speaking quietly to a teacher. "You have a good day at school, sweetheart. And don't worry about your mother, she's a tough one. Like you."
Emma beamed at her for the compliment, though Janet saw the fear in her eyes. Gill did too, as she came over to the two girls, and she bent down and hugged Emma.
"I'll see you later, kid." Gill whispered to Emma, who tightly wrapped her in a hug.
A Week Later.
Emma had to hide her fear as she walked down the corridor of the hospital, Gill and Janet right behind her. The little girl fidgeted as she walked with her two aunts down the corridor, exactly like they'd done in her first nightmare staying at the Scott house. But she rationally knew this wasn't like that nightmare, in her dream the corridor was empty of people, but in reality there were nurses going about their jobs.
A few of them smiled reassuringly, kindly at Emma. They knew this little girl was special to her mother, and she tweaked their heartstrings whenever she appeared, scared for her mother lying in a hospital bed. They'd quickly fallen in love with her.
When the three of them reached the ward Rachel was in, Emma hesitated. Janet shared a look with Gill; Janet had told her about the dream Emma had had, and though it upset Gill she was involved, dressed as a nurse that rushed Rachel away like that, she didn't let that get in the way of her jobs of being a DCI working at an MIT syndicate, and an auntie for Emma. She knew which one she was proud of the most.
But yeah, Gill knew that dream that Emma had had couldn't be any worse than the kind of dream she'd had last night, about Janet and Rachel dying with everyone around her moving away from her, like she had the plague. Even Sammy, Orla and Julie, the three people she loved the most, left her because she got people killed.
Like everyone else, Gill had fears, and that was her number one fear. That her friends and loved ones would leave because of her job, her work, and she hated that what'd happened to Rachel had dredged that hated fear back from the depths of her mind.
Meanwhile Emma hesitantly paused with her two aunties, before she walked in. The sight that greeted their eyes made them smile. Rachel was sitting up, laughing with Alison when they noticed the new arrivals.
"Hi," Rachel grinned at Emma, who smiled back, and ran towards her. "Oomph!" She gasped at the force of Emma's hug.
"Hey, careful," Alison chided Emma playfully. "She's getting out of here tomorrow."
Alison felt guilty; she'd gone away for a holiday for a couple of weeks, and when she and her family had come home, they'd found to their horror that Rachel was in hospital, that Janet and Gill had tried hard to find their contact details, but it had been Tony's idea to have some peace and quiet to themselves. She'd made him kip on the sofa for that little stunt, and she'd apologised so much to Gill and Janet, and she'd also had to make amends to Emma, who'd been a little peeved at her. But she'd gotten over it, thank christ. A few samples of her cooking had gone a long way.
Emma shook her head against Rachel's chest. "Don't care, Auntie Alison. I'm just glad she's coming out."
Rachel chuckled, her heart warmed by her daughter's words, and she sent a mock smug look at Alison, who rolled her eyes playfully at her sister.
"So are we all," Gill said, walking over. "You okay, kid?"
Rachel smiled at Gill, as Janet walked over and kissed her on the cheek, and Rachel sat wrapping her arms around Emma, and dropped the crook of her chin ontop of the girl's head. Emma sighed happily.
Alison mock sniffed. "Oh, hug her why don't ya? What about me?"
Janet and Gill both laughed, and Rachel sighed dramatically. She tapped Emma on her shoulder, and the little girl peered up at her, her smile obvious. "Oh, go on, hug her Emma, or we'll never hear the end of it."
Emma showed in that moment how much she was like her mother by copying her, she let out a dramatic sigh that had Gill and Janet struggling to hide their laughter behind their hands, and she went over and wrapped her auntie in a hug. "I love ya too, Auntie Alison."
Alison laughed at her niece.
Janet shook her head at the sight, and Gill leaned over to whisper though Rachel heard it clearly. "God help us, there are two Rachel's now."
"Oh god no," Janet said in mock horror. "And I thought one was enough."
"Oi," Rachel folded her arms, pouting. "I heard that."
Gill shook her head, but she kept an eye on her niece.
Emma giggled.
Author's note. I hope you enjoy my new drabble series.
I pictured this particular short story happening after reading "Hostage" by Lemon Out, and by thinking about Janet's own stabbing for my version of Rachel's child.