Thank you to those still reading this, this chapter is again a load of drabble, which I'm not even sure makes any sense but…
This is for Sophie and Katherine please review it, hope it's not too bad!
Chapter 4:
It was 3 days after the birth of the twins. Chris and Rachel had bought them home earlier in the day. Most of those from work were coming around tonight: Gill, Julie, Janet, Taisie, Elise and Kevin. Alison had popped to the hospital the night before, but she had book club tonight, Mitch had to look after his own children, and Lee was on a lad's night out. Andy had rung up earlier saying he was stuck somewhere and that he wouldn't be back but he sent his regards to the family.
Rachel had just finished changing Eva when the doorbell went. Chris was downstairs with Joseph, under strict orders from Rachel not to make him sick. Rachel threw the towel on her shoulder and picked up Eva, carrying her downstairs. "Hurry up Rach! It's bloody freezing out here!" Kevin shouted from the other side of the door. "Shall we just leave him out there for a while, see what happens?" Rachel whispered to Chris, who had just lay Joseph down, leaving him to moan. He shook his head and began to smile, as Rachel opened the door. "About time!" Kevin cried, running into the lounge. "Hi" Rachel called after him. "Hey Jan, hey girls! You all ok?" Rachel said, ushering them in from the cold. Considering it was mid-August, the weather was horrid. Elise let out a little squeal when she saw Eva, lying in Rachel's arm. "Oh my Gosh she's beautiful! Can I hold her please? Can I?" Elise gushed. "Go and sit down then and wait for Rachel to get sorted!" Janet said, pointing towards the living room where Kevin was doing superman with Joseph. Elise let out another squeal when she saw Joseph. Rachel began to smile. "She's such a sweet kid, Jan". "Hmm, if you say so. Anyway, how are you coping?" Janet asked, walking into the lounge. "I'm not too bad, tired but that's expected I suppose! Chris has been great, and to be fair, they haven't been waking up much in the night." "Good, anyway, pass her over then!" Janet said, reaching for Eva off Rachel's shoulder. "Muuuum, you said I could hold her first!" Elise said, pushing Taisie out of the way. "Well you can hold her after! She's not going anywhere! Why don't you and Taisie go and help Uncle Chris with the drinks?" Janet said, whilst Rachel tried to tidy up a bit. Elise sulked off; "Promise I can hold her after then?" "Yes, fine whatever!" Janet said, looking at Kevin, who had sat down with joseph on his knee.
"Look Janet!" Kevin piped up; "It's a baby!" Janet raised her eyebrows, and took a seat on sofa next to Kevin. "Is it Kevin? Really?" Kevin scowled and looked at Rachel, who was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing. "Can I hold Eve please after?" Kevin asked. "Her name is Eva and of course you can" Janet said.
Back in the kitchen, Taisie was helping do glasses of squash, and Elise was sitting on the work surface, swinging her legs. "The babies are so cute" Elise began. "Thanks Elise, they're not that bad now, but when their walking and talking they're going to be a handful!" Chris replied, handing Taisie some more glasses. "What made you decide you wanted a baby?" Taisie asked. "Um, I don't know Tais, just did" Chris said, turning to look out of the garden. "Are you two going to get married now?" Taisie asked. "Maybe, I don't know, we are just focusing on these two at the minute" Chris replied, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Can we have a look at their room please?" Elise asked, jumping off the side. "Yes of course, if we just take these through, I'll show you". Chris said, putting the drinks on a tray.
"Hello everyone!" Gill said, pushing open the door. "Hi Auntie Gill! Hi Auntie Julie!" Elise said, smiling at them. "Hiya Elise, you alright chick?" Julie asked, following her into the lounge. "Yes thank you, how are you two? You haven't had any more incidents involving alcohol have you? Mum told me all about that" "Elise! Don't be rude!" Janet piped up, from the other side of the room. "Sorry!" Elise said, turning back to Julie and Gill who were looking at each other.
"Hi" Rachel said, coming down the stairs to find her living room full of people. "Ma'am" Rachel said, nodding her head. "Please, call me Julie out of work. We are in your home after all!" Julie said smiling. "Thanks. Can I get anyone a drink?" "It's ok Rachel, I and Elise have done some. Shall we just pop them on the table?" "Oh thank you girls! That's very kind, yes please! I'll just go and put a wash on, and then I'll come and sit down. It's unbelievable about how many clothes two tiny little things get through a day!" "Oh don't let me re-live that!" Gill groaned. "I got through so many pairs of clothes with Sammy! It's not much better now to be honest!" "I know what you mean Gill! These pair go through clothes like there's no tomorrow! By the end of the week I've got to wash four hoodies! I don't understand why they can't just wear the same one! It's not like they get dirty anymore!" Janet said, handing joseph over to Gill. Kevin passed Eva to Julie, as she sat down on the other sofa. "Muuuuuuum!" Taisie groaned: "You're so embarrassing! I'm going upstairs. Chris said he would show us their bedroom." "Come on girls, Chris is just doing a few domestic chores. I'll show you it, that way we can have a mooch" Rachel said, throwing the blanket that was slung over her shoulder at Kevin. Gill snorted and covered her mouth, afraid the juice would go all over the baby. "Sorry" Gill said, blushing. She broke off as Joseph began to squirm. "I think someone wants their mommy!" Rachel said, picking him up. "Julie, are you ok with Eva whilst I just go and change Joseph and show the girls the room? If she's hurting you give her Chris" "No, no she's fine" Julie said smiling. "I just can't get over how beautiful she is" she said, messing with her tiny hands.
Rachel left the women to gush over Eva, whilst Kevin and Chris had gathered in the kitchen with Chris, talking about cars and exhaust pipes. "Oh wow! It's so cute!" Elise said as she walked in. "Aw all the little clothes and things!" she opened the wardrobe and was mooching around, fetching out little outfits. "Do you want me to help change him Rachel?" Taisie asked, getting the change mat from the top of the wardrobe and laying it in his cot. "Yes please if you want, baby wipes and nappies are in the bottom drawer" Rachel said, taking off his baby grow. "How old will they be when they move into here?" Elise asked. "Um I'm not sure, whenever I feel ready to move them in here. They will probably be about 4 or 5 months, so maybe just before the new year" Rachel said. "Aw, that's so cute. They don't make any noise do they?" "No, they're pretty good, but in the night they scream the place down!" Rachel said, making Elise giggle. "You can't get drunk for a while can you now?" Taisie asked, passing the wipes across. "Taisie!" Elise said, nudging her. "What? It's true!" Rachel began to laugh. "Well no I can't, but when they are bottle fed then I shall be able to go out again!" "Are we allowed to come over again and help you with them?" Elise asked, trying to change the subject. "Yes of course you can! I can always do with the extra pair of hands! If you ask your mum, you can come with us next week if you want when we take them to the clinic?" "Ok! That sounds great! I'll go and ask her now!" Taisie said, taking to the stairs, two or three at a time. Rachel heard Taisie burst into the living room. "Mum,canmeandElisecomeovernextwee ktohelpwiththebaby? Please!rachelsaidwecouldtakethemtot heclinicwiththempleeeeease!" "What? Say that again? But slower!" Janet said. "Mum, can me and Elise come over next week to help with the baby? Please Rachel said we could take them to the clinic with them pleeease!" "If that's ok with Rachel, we've not got anything else planned" Taisie let out a little squeal. "Thank you mum!" she shouted as she ran back up the stairs. "Mum said yes!" "Yay ok great, well I've finished with this, how about we go downstairs and order some food? I haven't eaten in hours and I would like to before these pair get hungry! We can send Chris and Kevin out to get it. They won't mind" "Chris and Kevin won't mind what?" Chris said, putting his head around the kitchen door. "You won't mind going and getting Chinese for us all will you? If we write it down, all you need to do is give the woman the list and the money. It's not that difficult, even for a pair of amateurs like yourselves." Rachel said, walking into the lounge. "Can't you go Rachel? Me and Chris are discussing whose car is the fastest!" Kevin piped up. "Well Kevin, believe it or not, I had two babies only a couple of days ago. I have had about 6 hours sleep in total and have to live with Chris snoring-" "Hey! I don't snore!" Chris said, grabbing the car keys off the side. Rachel ignored him and carried on. "-his head off, so I don't think it will go down well me trying to make my way to the chippy." Kevin grunted. "You can always stay with us girls if you don't want to go?" Janet said. Kevin stared at Janet. "I think I'll go with Chris then" he sulked. "Right, what does everyone want from the chip shop?" Chris said, changing the subject. "I'll just share a bag of chips with Gill please Chris" Julie said. Gill turned to her and raised her eyebrows. "Oh you will, will you? What happens if I don't want chips? What happens if I want pie?" Gill said. "Well, have pie then, and I'll have the chips" Julie said, smirking. "No! I'd like chips please" Gill said, turning back to Chris. "Janet? What do you want?" "Can I have a kebab please?" "Yep sure. What about you girls?" Chris said. "Can I have a chicken and mushroom pie please?" Elise asked. "I'll have a steak and Kidney pie please, and we can share a bag of chips" "Ok sure, that's everything. You want your usual Rach?" Chris said, putting his shoes on. "Yes please. Remember to get yours as well" Rachel said. "That happened once Rachel! Only once!" he said, opening the door. "Well, just to make sure"
"Come on then Sherlock, show us around your castle" Gill said. "Oh right, yes. Do you girls want to look after Eva and Joseph whilst we have a wonder?" Rachel asked. "Yes please!" Elise squealed, as Janet handed her Eva. "Are you sure you trust them?" Janet asked. "Yes of course, their old enough" Rachel said, much to the joy of the girls. "Ok, well be careful, they're still tiny and fragile. Don't try and walk anywhere with them, just stay seated. Call us if you need us" Janet cooed. "Yes mum" Taisie groaned. "We are responsible you know. Plus you're only walking around!"
Rachel padded up the stairs, followed by Janet, Gill then Julie. "This is the twin's bedroom, when they get old enough to leave ours. Then obviously when they get older and want to be separate one of them can move into one of the spare bedrooms" Rachel said. She felt like a tour guide. The three women had a mooch in the twins wardrobes, exactly like Elise had done. "It looks lovely Rachel" Janet said. "Thanks. This is our bedroom, and then the en suite is in there" Rachel said, pointing at a door as they walked into the master bedroom. "An en suite? Very fancy!" Julie said, poking her head around the bathroom door.
Back on the landing, Gill was opening and closing a door. "Gill what are you doing you daft old bag?" Julie asked. "Hey! Less of the cheek thank you! And nothing, but look how cool this is! It doesn't slam! It's like those fancy draws you can get, you know the ones that all you have to do is push them a little and they close by themselves! It's funny!" Rachel looked at Janet, who looked at Julie, who looked a Gill, who was still messing around with the door. "And she hasn't even had a drink yet…" Julie muttered under her breath. "Right, let's move away from the door shall we, um, these two are another bedrooms, and the bathroom is across the landing there" Rachel said as they walked into the one bedroom. "How many bedrooms does this house actually have?" Janet asked, opening some of the wardrobe doors. "It has 6, but we are thinking of knocking down the wall between the two smallest making it into one big playroom for when the kids get older" "Oh wow! So if we have seen 4 of them, where are the other two?" Gill asked. "Up there" Rachel said, pointing to another staircase that they didn't notice because of Gill's door antics. Janet's eyes widened. "Wow! I have two questions: 1) how did Chris afford a place like this on his own? And 2) why did he want a place like this on his own?" "Well being a sergeant for the NPIA is pretty good money Jan! And because it was cheap, because of the area it was in, and I don't actually know, but it's worked out fine for us!" Rachel said, walking up the second staircase. "These are the two rooms we are probably going to knock through and create like a playroom area" Rachel said, getting to the top of the stairs. "Oh wow, I never realised there was three floors, it doesn't look like there is from outside!" Janet said, looking out of the window. "Yeah well that's because they are like in the roof, and the windows back out onto the garden not the drive" "Lovely garden though" Gill said. "You've done alright for yourself Kid" she said, patting her shoulder. The silence was broken by a cry coming from downstairs. "Rachel! I think Eva needs her nappy changing!" Taisie shouted up the stairs. "I'm coming!" Rachel said, running down the stairs, leaving the other three women up on the top floor.
Fifteen minutes later the men were back from the chippy, with bags of food wafting through the house. Joseph had fallen to sleep in Elise's arms, and Eva was dozing off after Rachel had changed her, so she settled them down in their cots and brought a baby monitor down with her. "Do you want trays or what?" Rachel asked, getting a small bottle of wine out for Janet, Gill and Julie. "We can eat at the table I suppose, if there are enough seats." Janet said, taking the glasses through to the dining room. "Yeah there should be, I can get Chris to pull the table out and fetch the two chairs from the study"…
They had finished their food and Rachel had tried to squash every plate into the dishwasher. "Let's go into the lounge, I think it's more comfortable than sitting in here. I'll just go and check on the twins" Rachel said, running up the stairs. She came back five minutes later and walked into the living room, letting out a little gasp. "What's all this?" she asked, pointing to a pile of presents they had put by the fireplace. "They're presents!" Kevin said. "Well, yes. Obviously, but what are they for?" "They're for you and the babies!" Taisie said, offering her one. "Oh wow guys, thank you so much! You didn't need to! You brought us presents at the hospital though?!" Rachel said, taking it off Taisie. "Yeah well, this is more of a welcome home kind of thing then!" Janet said. "This one's off me and Elise. We went shopping last weekend". Rachel pulled the tape off the edges and opened up the bag. Inside were two teddies, one pink, and one blue. "Aw Taisie bless you! Thank you!" Rachel said, leaning over to give her a hug. "Thank you Elise! Come here!" Elise kneeling across to her and let Rachel hug her. "This is from me" Kevin said, handing her a present. "What's this Kev?" "Open it! Have a look!" Rachel opened the funny shaped present and saw a sandwich. "Um, thanks Kev! I think…why have I got a sandwich?" "It's interstitial cheese and pickle! Look!" Kevin said, beaming with pride. Rachel looked at Janet, who looked at Julie, who then looked at Gill, who had her head in her hands. "Kevin, why did you buy her a sandwich?" Taisie asked, unsure at what was going on. "I know what interstitial means! Pete says he doesn't know why people say I'm thick!" Rachel began to smile. Why had he brought her a sandwich?! Janet saw Rachel was about to laugh, so tried to look away, but she looked straight into the eyes of Gill, who had just lifted her head. The room erupted in laughter, leaving the men and the girls baffled. "That's not your only present! Here you go!" he said, handing her a bunch of presents which he'd had individually wrapped, then tied together with ribbon. "Aw thanks Kev! But you really didn't have to!" she carefully unwrapped the ribbon, and then tore open the presents. He had bought a collection of books, including Winnie the Pooh and Charlie and Lola. "I thought you could read to them when they are going to sleep when they get a bit older" he said, blushing as Rachel kissed his cheek. "That's really sweet Kevin, thank you!" she said, picking up the next present. "That ones from me. Me and Gill decided we would start one each for them" Janet said, picking up her wine glass. "Ohh I see…oh my gosh Jan it's beautiful!" Rachel said, as she opened the front page of the "baby book". "You can put pictures and dates and things in there, we thought it would be a nice keep-sake to show them when their older or something" Rachel nodded and opened Gill's present, which was Eva's. "They are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much!" Rachel said, getting up and hugging Janet. She then grabbed Gill and hugged her too, even though Gill felt slightly awkward having everyone watch her show affection. "Sorry Kidda, my presents not that special I'm afraid" Julie said. Inside the gift bag there were two baby grows which were identical, just different colours. One was a white and the other was a lemon, with a baby Roo in the corner. "I thought they made a change from having all blue and pink" "They are really nice" Chris said, taking them off Rachel. She opened the card that came with them and inside was a £30 gift voucher for mama's and papa's. "Aw Julie thank you! That's too much!" "No its not! It's only £15 a baby! And it's fine, I thought that way you could put it towards something for when their a bit bigger" "Thank you!" Rachel said, diving on the superintendent. She never imagined she would do that.
They talked for another couple of hours, Rachel having to feed the babies twice, until Janet looked at the clock and saw it was fast approaching midnight. "Gosh, I think we have outstayed our welcome! Come on girls, you can barely keep your eyes open! I'm so, sorry Rachel I didn't realise the time!" Janet gushed, as she began to put her shoes on. "Janet its fine. Will you calm down? We don't mind" "Well we are going to get going anyway, leave you to it. I've got to drop Kevin off home so ill speak to you tomorrow." "Ok Jan, thanks for coming over, and for the presents. I'll ring you tomorrow. Bye girls" Rachel said, kissing each of them. "Bye Rach, bye Chris!" they called. "Bye girls! See you soon!" "Bye Kev" Rachel said, hugging him. "Bye Rachel. Bye Chris" he said, shaking his hand. "Take care guys, safe journey home." "We'd better get going as well Rachel. This one is supposed to be in work for 7 tomorrow!" Julie said, pointing to Gill who was slumped over Julie's shoulder. "Ha-ha, well take care, thank you for everything." Rachel said, nodding her head. "Come here kid" Gill said, slightly tipsy. She dived on Rachel, hanging off her neck. "You look after those kiddly-winks yeah? Pop into the office sometime, I'm sure the rest will love to see them. Thank you for the wine" "Come on you" Julie said, pulling her off Rachel. "Gillian Murray I am sure you are the one and only person to have ever got drunk at a babies welcome home gathering." She said, pushing Gill outside. "I'm not drunk! Just a bit tired" Gill said, tripping over the doormat. "Yeah, right well, thank you Chick for tonight. Stay well" Julie said, patting her arm. "Thank you Ma'am" Rachel said, smiling. "Please! As I've said before! Call me Julie out of the office!" With that Rachel shut the door and lent up against it. "My word I'm tired" she said as Chris wrapped his arms around her. "Come on, let's get some sleep before Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum wake up again" he said, kissing her cheek. "I don't know what the chances of that are! They'll be up in another couple of hours!" Rachel said, giggling…
Thank you to those who actually read this, I am very sorry to have put you through it;')
Please review!
