Caroline's heart was beating in her mouth. All the noise around her seemed to blur together and it was as if she had been plunged underwater.
The staircase seemed to go on forever with her feet sinking into the carpet as if it were quick sand. As she ascended the stairs, the steps felt steeper and steeper, each one taking more oxygen from her body.
She made it to the top of the stairs with flashes of her beautiful daughter's face playing before her eyes.
Lilly had the same gorgeous skin tone and the unmistakable brown eyes of her biological mother. She had little tuffs of picky hair that Kate insisted attaching ribbon to. The same ribbon that Lilly insisted on pulling out with her delightfully chubby, but all the while wrinkly, hands. Kate always jested that Lilly had picked up Caroline's feistiness already and was sure to be destined for a career in a power suit, just like her Ma.
Caroline darted across the landing, as fast as her heavy legs could carry her, towards Lilly's room, which was next to theirs.
She could feel her lover hot on her heels.
The blood was still trailing across the landing but it the heat of the moment she couldn't focus on where the splattered path led to or came from.
She pushed the bloody doorknob open, every inch of her body dreading to see what she would find. She momentarily felt glad that she was first up the stairs, she wasn't sure she could handle Kate discovering whatever was behind the door.
A second wave of gladness washed over Caroline as she collapsed backwards into the younger woman.
"WILLIAM!" relief erupted in both women as they shouted at Caroline's oldest son in unison.
He was sat in the armchair next to Lilly's cot with his baby sister in his arms, one arm covered by a bloody bandage.
"What on earth do you think you were doing?" Caroline steadied herself and glared incredulously at her, normally sensible, son.
Kate stepped past Caroline, holding her arms out to take her daughter.
"What have you done to your arm? Are you okay?" asked Kate with an all-encompassing sense of relief, as she soothed Lilly over her shoulder by rubbing her back and gently rocking.
"I'm sorry. I'm fine!" William looked to the floor sheepishly as his Mother knelt down beside him and started to inspect the badly wrapped, bloody bandage.
"I came home to surprise you…to help with moving day. I thought you'd be in bed…clearly you were on your way there…" William added cheekily.
Kate let out a small giggle as Caroline looked down to find her pink shirt still open. She hadn't taken the time to button it in the moment of panic.
"We'll have less of your cheek, young man," she said sternly, as she buttoned up her shirt. Her brain hadn't quite processed that everything was fine and she was still a bit flustered and too thrown off guard for a witty remark.
"What about your arm?" grilled Kate as Lilly started to drift back off in her embrace.
William looked more embarrassed than ever and picked the lint off his trousers with his non-wrapped up hand.
"I…I…bought you a vase from M&S at the station…as a housewarming gift. But…I tripped over the packed boxes in the hall as I was sneaking in." He looked up and gave a small optimistic smile at the two women.
"I told Lawrence not to leave those bloody boxes there" Caroline threw one hand up in annoyance.
"I rushed up to bathroom to grab the first aid box and clean the wound. It looks a lot worse than it is, Mum. I promise."
Kate had now put Lilly back into her cot and joined Caroline next to William.
"Do you think it'll need stitches?" she asked.
Caroline scrunched up one side of her face and shook her head, "no, looks like it's just a scratch...one hell of a messy scratch, mind"
"I'm sorry for waking Lilly." Kate acknowledged William's apology by rubbing the top half of his arm affectionately. "And I'm sorry for getting blood on the carpets. I'll clean them first thing."
"Too right you will!" Caroline remarked. "Right, come on, enough excitement for one night. Bed!..." Caroline winked at her girlfriend, "…all of you! Let's leave this princess to get some sleep." Caroline glanced affectionately at her sleeping daughter, the realisation finally sinking in that everything was okay.
In the silence of the hallway, Caroline thought for a moment, "why didn't you respond to me? When I shouted that I'd invited half of North Yorkshire police around?"
"I was trying not to vomit at the sight of my own blood."
Caroline ran her hand through her son's hair lovingly and looked him in the eye.
"You, my boy, are the sweetest…" Caroline searched for the most apt description "…twerp, I know."
"I'm sorry that I got you both so worried"
"As long as everyone's alright, that's all that matters," said Kate as she placed a kiss on William's cheek. "Go get some sleep, we'll laugh about it in the morning."
"Thanks, Kate" smiled William appreciatively. "Night."
As William retreated into his room, the two women turned to each other and wrapped their arms around each other's waists.
Kate rested her forehead against Caroline's and shut her eyes and let out a soft sigh.
Caroline drank in the sweet smell of the younger woman's breath, the corners of her mouth twitched upwards into a small smile.
The blonde lifted Kate's chin with her index finger and took her bottom lip between her own and kissed the taller woman. Caroline placed another slow kiss on Kate's full lips and opened her eyes to find the brown pools of emotion staring back at her.
"Shall we pick up where we left off?"
"If I remember correctly, you were in big…big trouble, Miss McKenzie"
Kate playfully stuck out her tongue and strutted her way towards the bedroom, allowing Caroline to ogle her backside once again.
Xxxx
"Ooo-oo-oo, Caroline!"
"What is it? Did I hurt you? Is it too much?" Caroline leaped off Kate and sat up panicking.
"No, sweetheart, it's fine." Her voice dropped to a huskier tone, "more than fine," she sat up and placed a reassuring kiss on Caroline's cheek. "…It's just…" Kate laid back and awkwardly squirmed around on the bed, her hands rummaging by her pyjama bottoms, "…this!"
Caroline supressed a loud cackle with her hands as she looked down to see the offending item that was causing Kate so much discomfort.
She took the ruler from Kate's hand and glanced alluringly at the younger woman.
"Oh really?" The older woman playfully raised her eyebrows, "I didn't have you down for that type?"
"The type that pockets a geometric instrument to use as a weapon against a burglar?"
"Oh, spoil all my fun, why don't you?" Caroline teasingly tapped the ruler against Kate's thigh with each word.
Kate took the ruler off the older woman and reached around to spank it against Caroline's backside.
A look of surprise mixed with arousal appeared on Caroline's face.
Kate raised her eyebrows seductively, "as you were, Elliot!"
Xxxx
"It's mo-ving-day, it's mo-vin-day, it's moooo-vin-day!" Lawrence was sat lightly bouncing his sister on his knee on a kitchen stool. The two month old was giggling up at her older brother with sheer delight.
"Ooo, watch out Lils, it's the cat burglar!" He said as he turned his sister to face William who was walking into the kitchen.
"Shut it, special needs!" William took his sister for a cuddle and walked over to his Mum who was stood hunched over a pile of boxes on the dinning table, checking off her list.
"I'd said I'd clean the carpets up, Mum."
"Yeah, well...you ought to keep that bandage dry," said Caroline not taking her eyes off the list but with compassion in her voice. "You're now allocated to 'Lilly Looker Afterer' whilst muscles over there is chief 'Humper and Bumper'."
Caroline laughed momentarily as she looked up to see Lawrence jump up with pride and flex his muscles in the fashion of a champion bodybuilder.
Her attention was quickly drawn back to the list and she checked her watch restlessly.
"They're late!"
"Heyyy…" said Kate as she appeared from the study carrying a box and put it down on the table. The taller woman stood behind Caroline and affectionately massaged her shoulders. "…they will be here. No stress, remember! The movers will do all the hard work."
"I know, I know," said Caroline as she relaxed into the Kate's touch. She brought one hand up to tenderly pat Kate's hand. "I just like to be…"
"…in control!" chorused Kate, William and Lawrence knowingly. The family looked at one and other and erupted into infectious laughter.
