They're hand in hand as they walk up the steps in front of the Woolpack. Vanessa leans into Charity, bumping their shoulders together. "That was nice. Thank you."
Charity glances at her and shakes her head with a smile. "It was a toastie at Bob's cafe, babe. Not champagne at the Ritz."
"It was an hour of no kids and no Paddy and Pearl. And a toastie." She pulls Charity to a halt just outside the door that leads to the bar and goes up on her toes to peck her cheek. "And you. So it was perfect."
Charity makes a show of sighing. "Aren't you supposed to get less soppy after you're married? Not more soppy? In my experience, at least."
"That's 'cause you've been marrying the wrong people," Vanessa tells her with a wink.
"Oh, is that what it is?" Charity tugs on her hand until they're flush against each other. "Lucky I eventually found the right one then, yeah?"
Vanessa links her hands behind Charity's neck and pulls her into a soft kiss. "So, so lucky," she murmurs against her lips. A cough sounds from behind her and she turns to find Robert smirking at them.
"Don't mind me." He nods to the door that they're blocking. "Just trying to get in for a quiet lunchtime pint."
"Yeah, and we're just trying to have a quiet lunchtime snog," Charity snaps.
Shaking her head, Vanessa pats Charity's arm and moves around her to open the door, gesturing for Robert to enter. Charity glares at him as he passes her, but it's mostly for show these days. Vanessa takes her hand again and tugs her into the bar.
"Nice lunch?" Chas asks, leaning her elbows on the bar as they approach.
"It was lovely," Vanessa tells her. "Thanks for watching the boys. Did they behave?"
"Johnny has been such a good help with keeping his little cousin entertained" Chas says, with a fond look over at the corner where Johnny's reading a picture book to Hope, who's hanging on his every word. "Isn't that right, JD?"
Johnny looks up and smiles when he sees his parents. "Auntie Chas says I'm a angel."
"Auntie Chas hasn't had to try to get you into a bath lately, has she?" Charity says, raising her eyebrows at him, making him giggle guiltily. "'Cause you're no angel then, Johnnykins, I can tell you." She turns back to Chas. "So where's the devil child, then?"
"Oi! Don't call him that!" Vanessa says, backhanding Charity's chest gently.
"Through the back. Paddy looked in on him not long ago, said he was playing away happily." Chas lifts her eyebrows as she goes to serve Robert. "And quietly. So I've left him to it."
"Quietly," Vanessa repeats, frowning slightly. "Doesn't sound much like our Moses."
"He's fixin' Rubble," Johnny calls over.
"How d'you mean, 'fixing Rubble', love?" Vanessa asks, with a glance at Charity.
Johnny shrugs. "Rubble had a tummy ache so Moses said he'd fix him for me." Hope tugs on his arm and points at the book, babbling away at him in baby talk.
"I don't know about you but I could do with a decent brew," Charity says. "I'm positive Bob reuses them teabags." She bumps Vanessa's hip as she passes. "C'mon. Let's go and make sure he's not practising voodoo on Rubble."
Vanessa follows her, grasping her waist with both hands and following her steps like Johnny and Moses do when they're playing trains. Charity covers her hands with her own as she heads into the living room, but then stops walking suddenly, causing Vanessa to collide with her back.
"Shit!"
"Charity! What have we said about swearing in front of the k-" She comes fully into the room and sees what Charity's seeing. Moses is standing by the couch, toy stethoscope around his neck and Johnny's cuddly Rubble toy lying in front of him, with the stuffing pouring out of a jagged cut in his stomach. "Shit!"
Moses looks up in surprise. "Mum! That's a bad word!"
"Your Ma just said the exact same word!" Vanessa protests, noting the brightly coloured safety scissors lying by Rubble's head. Sharper than they look, obviously.
"But she says it all the time." Moses shrugs and turns back to his patient.
"Little grass." Charity murmurs. She nudges Vanessa. "That's you, that is." Vanessa nudges her back, but she can hear the warmth and affection in Charity's voice beneath the accusation. Vanessa's about to go and investigate when Charity grabs her elbow, pulling her close. "What are we going to do? Johnny's gonna have a hissy fit when he sees Rubble's been sawn in half."
"He's hardly sawn in half," Vanessa says, peering around Charity. "It's not a bad incision, actually." She ignores Charity's scoff and moves closer to Moses, standing by his shoulder to watch him work. "What's...uh, what's wrong with Rubble, love?"
"He has a sore tummy so I'm taking all the bad stuff out to make him better," Moses says, yanking more of the stuffing out and discarding it on the floor. She kneels down beside him.
"Have you found what's making his tummy sore?" She watches him gently stroke Rubble's face, murmuring to him that everything will be okay and that he'll be feeling better soon.
"Not yet." Moses sticks his hand in the hole and roots around.
"Uh, Vanessa…" Vanessa looks over her shoulder at her wife, who raises her eyebrows and pointedly looks at Rubble's innards on the floor. "Shouldn't we be doing, you know, damage control here?"
It's sweet, really; how concerned Charity is about how Johnny will react. She still sometimes likes to pretend that she's a terrible mother and has no idea what she's doing. But Vanessa's never been fooled by that act. She tilts her head and smiles. "Why don't you go and keep Johnny through the front while me and Moses get Rubble sorted out, eh?"
"I got it!" Moses holds up a handful of stuffing, identical to the rest of the stuffing on the floor. "I got the bad stuff!"
"Excellent!" Vanessa stands up and moves swiftly to the kitchen, grabbing a bowl from the drying rack and ignoring Charity's incredulous eyes. She drops back to her knees by Moses and holds the bowl out. "Drop the bad stuff in here, eh? We'll send it away to the lab for investigation."
"For 'vestigation." Moses nods and places the fluff in the bowl, gently.
Charity throws up her hands, shaking her head. "What are the pair of you like?" She turns to leave, but pauses in the doorway, looking back over her shoulder. "I'll give Johnny an update on the patient, shall I?"
Hiding her smile at Charity playing along, Vanessa nods. "Tell him Moses found what was giving Rubble tummy ache, and he's been able to sort him out and he'll be just fine."
"Just fine," Moses echoes, patting Rubble's head. "You'll be just fine."
"I'll let him know," Charity says, leaning against the doorframe, her eyes on Moses for a moment before lifting to meet Vanessa's. Vanessa smiles and Charity rolls her eyes and pushes herself upright. She wrings her hands in front of her chest. "Please do your best by him, Dr Moz." She's adopted a southern belle accent for some reason. "We're all countin' on you to pull him through!"
Moses gives her an exasperated look over his shoulder. "Ma, he'll be just fine. I just told you."
"Now go on." Vanessa shoos her. "We need to concentrate."
Charity laughs and winks at Vanessa before heading back through to the bar. Moses sighs beside her, his eyes trained on the stuffing all around his feet. He looks up at her, worry collecting between his eyebrows. "We got the bad bit out. Now what do we do?"
She takes her thumb and rubs his forehead. When he smiles, he looks like Ross, but when he's worried, she can see Charity in him with no bother at all. "Well, we put all the good stuff back in and we stitch him up. And he'll be good as new in no time." She smiles and picks up some of the stuffing. "So, why don't you work on getting this back in, and I'll sort out some thread for stitching him up?"
He nods, happy that they have a plan. He starts shoving stuffing back inside Rubble's torso and by the time Vanessa's located a needle and a length of thread, there's not a single piece of fluff left outside Rubble's body.
"Good job!" Vanessa sticks the needle into the couch and squidges Rubble around until the stuffing is as evenly distributed as she can get it; he's almost the same shape as he was before. She picks up the needle and gives Moses a wink. "Okay if I do this bit?"
He nods, moving in so that he's standing right by her shoulder, leaning down to watch as she expertly slips the needle through the fabric again and again, making a neat line of stitches.
"Can I try?" Moses whispers when she's about halfway along.
"Course. You need to be really careful, though, because this is sharp." She hands him the needle and guides his chunky little hand as best she can for a few stitches. He smiles and nods as he sees his handiwork. They're a little wonky and out of line with the rest, but his stitches aren't half bad for a five year old. "That's brilliant, Moses," she tells him. "Now, I'll finish him off and that'll be him done. He'll just need a bit of a sleep after his operation."
"'Kay."
He leans against her shoulder again as she stitches up the rest of the tear and finishes it off, snipping the thread as close as she can. Moses pushes off her and grabs a cushion, lying it flat and patting it before gently lifting Rubble and placing him on it. Vanessa's heart almost bursts with the tenderness of it. Moses is generally a rough and tumble little boy; always tearing around the place and bumping into things and falling. Gentle isn't a word she'd use to describe him. But right now, that's exactly what he's being as he pats the soft toy's head.
"You're okay, Rubble. We got the bad stuff out and you're gonna be all okay now."
Vanessa ruffles Moses' hair. "Yeah, he will be. But...next time one of Johnny's toys isn't well, come and see me first, eh? They don't always need an operation and I can show you how to check for what's wrong."
Moses is nodding as she speaks. "Yeah, like, sometimes they just need cream and a plaster, like my knee did when I fell off the wall?"
"Yes, exactly." Vanessa bends to kiss the top of his head. "You're so clever."
"How's Rubble?" They both turn at the sound of Johnny's voice and Moses grins.
"He's just fine, see?" He points to the cushion where Rubble is resting. "He had a operation and we took all the bad bits out and kept the good stuff in."
Johnny approaches the couch, frowning. Vanessa winces as he runs his hand up the tidy stitching on Rubble's underbelly. Charity comes in with Hope on her hip and meets Vanessa's eyes, quirking an eyebrow in question. Vanessa shrugs and moves to crouch by Johnny.
"What do you think?" She nudges Johnny gently. "D'you think he's better now?"
Johnny turns to look at her, his fingers still tracing along Rubble's new stitches. "It's just like Uncle Ross's. He brings his hand up to his shoulder where Ross has a small scar. Vanessa presses her lips together; little does Johnny know how right he is. She stitched both of them up.
"It is," she agrees. "And he's doing fine. Just needs a bit of a rest now, right Moses?"
She leaves Moses to update Johnny on Rubble's condition, their heads bent together as they talk, and moves over to Charity.
"Nessnessnessness." Hope's chubby hands reach for her and she takes her from Charity, blowing a raspberry against her cheek and making her squeal.
"Guess we should be happy he didn't put Rubble to sleep, eh?" Charity says, placing her hands on Vanessa's hips and sandwiching the toddler between them, rubbing her nose into the soft dark hair on the top of Hope's head. "Not sure I could have coped with that."
"I told you he would be fine, didn't I?" Vanessa sways Hope gently. "Not scarred for life after all."
"Mum?" Vanessa looks over at Moses' expectant face.
"Yes, love?"
"I think I'm gonna be a vet when I'm big." Vanessa's eyes immediately fill up and her throat starts to throb. "Can I come and work with you?"
Vanessa nods, swallowing hard. "Course you can, my darling. Course you can. I'd love that."
Charity rolls her eyes. "Great. That means two of you trailing muck through my bar and putting overalls with sheep droppings in the pockets in my washing basket." She leans in and kisses Vanessa's cheek. "Don't cry," she murmurs, before sweeping away and tackling Moses onto the couch, making him laugh. Johnny grabs Rubble out of their way and scowls, cuddling him close. Charity sits up, her arms still wrapped around Moses. "So, this one's gonna be a vet. What about you, Johnnyface? What're you gonna be when you grow up?"
His little face scrunches up in thought for a moment and then he shrugs. "I dunno."
"Nah, me neither, kid," Charity tells him.
Vanessa rolls her eyes and lets Hope down to toddle off to play with some building bricks that are on the coffee table. She moves over to the couch and sits down beside Charity and Moses, smiling with Johnny climbs up beside them and lays his head on her shoulder. She flicks her eyes over to Charity to find that she's already looking at her.
"So, so lucky," Vanessa murmurs, repeating her earlier assertion.
Charity rolls her eyes. "Soppy cow." But she leans over and kisses Vanessa, both ignoring Moses' protests about being squished.
He'll need rubber bones in his job anyway.
