"Mummy! Help me!" The screaming grew louder and louder, coming from Fred's room. Alec burst into the room, all senses on alert for any danger, followed by Ellie, who nearly didn't have the courage to enter the room.
"Save me, mummy! Save me!" he screamed, clinging to his nightstand like death. Luckily he was small and light enough to balance on top of it.
A gush of relief washed over the two of them as they realised what he was pointing at. It was a cockroach on the floor.
Ellie walked over and crushed the bug on the floor with her shoe as Alec tried to pry Fred off the nightstand. "It's alright, look, Mummy's killed it!" he tried to soothe the hysterical toddler. Fred, seeing the squashed mess on the floor, was finally assured that it wasn't going to deliver a fatal venomous bite to his neck, and quieted down, his screams reduced to soft whimpering and he buried his head in Alec's chest. Alec handed the sniffling bundle back to his mother. "There you go. See? We're fine. It's safe," she assured him as she cradled him in her arms, sitting on the bed.
Alec sat himself down heavily on the tiny bed, which creaked ominously, unaccustomed to this much weight. He ran his fingers through his hair, remembering how he used to be terrified of insects as a child. The scene of Ellie rocking Fred back and forth reminded him of how the exact same thing would happen with him and his mother, and he looked away painfully. "Is he usually like this?" he asked, just for the sake of breaking the silence.
"He's got a phobia of insects."
"Oh." He didn't know what to say. "Hopefully he'll grow out of it…plenty of kids are terrified of insects."
"No, I mean the actual phobia. It's entomophobia," she informed him with a side glance. "He's always been like this. Really."
Alec let his mind wander for a while. He could not stop himself thinking about how domestic the scene looked. For a brief moment he imagined himself with Daisy, re-enacting the exact same scenario many, many years ago when his life had still been perfect, and he closed his eyes and shook his head to clear the thoughts, eliciting some really strange looks from Ellie.
"What are you doing? Are you alright?" she probed.
"'M fine." He stood up. "Go prepare for your picnic. I'll stay at home; I have work to do," he lied through his teeth. He just didn't want to evoke more painful memories. Ellie nodded and started guiding Fred around, teaching him how to pack his own things.
At the end of the day, they came home tired but happy and very, very satisfied. Alec greeted Tom with a ruffle of his curls, forgetting how much he hated it. But Tom was too tired to care, and he went straight to his room to sleep. Fred was already half asleep in Ellie's arms. "I'll just tuck him in," she whispered. "Go get dinner ready." Before he could protest, she had disappeared.
"Since when have I become the servant?" he grumbled as he went to the kitchen to make dinner.
After dinner, which wasn't very much because they were all too tired to eat anyway, Ellie went to check on Fred, who had done a very sleepy job of brushing his teeth and wearing his pyjamas, and Tom, who had fallen asleep, forgetting to shower. She went into her room and stretched out on the huge bed, flopping her arm onto the now empty half of the bed. Thinking about how much things had changed ever since those three words turned her life upside-down, she wondered if people would ever look at her the same way as before.
After a moment's thought, she realised that she barely had any friends left. She still had her sister, thank goodness, and…well, that was pretty much all. Beth had reconciled with her, but the Latimers had moved out of Broadchurch. The kids needed a new start, she was told. They still kept in touch occasionally, but were too far away to help her when she needed it. Ellie pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to drive away the thought that she had pretty much nobody left in the world.
"You alright?" A voice startled her, and she leapt upright.
It was only Alec.
"Good grief, don't do that!" she blurted.
"I did knock, you know," he mumbled. "Just…came to check if you were alright." He sat himself down on what little of the bed that was left because Ellie, stretched out again, was occupying the rest. "You seem unusually quiet."
"That's because I'm tired, Alec. You're overthinking," she replied with the air of a longsuffering teacher trying to teach a particularly dense student, and closed her eyes dramatically. "I was out all day with the kids, remember?"
He pulled his legs up into a cross-legged position and settled his elbow on the bed, leaning forward to her. "Sure. Get some rest."
"Can't sleep if you're staring at me like that. It's unnerving," she said with a nervous laugh and pulled the pillow over her head.
"Okay, I'll leave. Gosh, all I did was come in to show some concern and you kick me out like I'm unwanted."
"That's cos you are."
"Stop that." Alec jumped off the bed, then pulled the blanket out with some difficulty from underneath Ellie. "C'mon, get in. Get some rest," he ordered.
Playing along, she kicked off her fuzzy slippers and got under the blanket that he was holding up for her.
He threw the blanket over her, then tucked in the corners, even going so far as to lean over to the other side to make sure it was properly tucked in. He even smoothed it out for her. "G'nite," he mumbled gruffly, staring at her for a brief moment, then rushed out of the room.
All Ellie could do was stare at the black ceiling. She couldn't get any sleep for a long, long time.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait; I wrote chapter 10 first by accident, and I had absolutely no ideas whatsoever for this chapter. I had terrible writer's block. Anyway I finally managed to squeeze out something, so here you go (: sorry if I disappointed you with the terrible ending to the cliffhanger from the previous chapter! Chapter 10 is already done, I'll just edit it and upload it in about 30 minutes (or less).
