Chapter Twelve.
"So what are we doing for dinner?" Jade asked, flopping on the sofa. She was tired from her day of teaching.
Beck agreed, landing next to her. "I'm too tired to cook, we'll get take out."
Cat piped up. "No, I'll cook."
Jade shook her head at the redhead. "That's no fair on you though. You've been at work all day too."
"I don't mind, honestly." Cat stood up.
"Cat, you are a saint." Beck smiled at her.
She laughed. "You minds well make use of me whilst I'm here, it won't be for much longer."
"What?" Jade frowned at her.
"I've been looking at this house…"
Jade crossed her arms. "No, you're not leaving. I love you and Evie being here, so do the rest of us."
"You didn't let me finish!" Cat put her hands on her hips. "Have you noticed the house next door is up for sale?"
"Yes…" Beck looked at Cat. "You've been looking at it?"
"Better than that."
Jade grinned. "You've bought it?!"
Cat nodded happily. "The papers are going through and the family just need to clear their stuff out so I should be out of your hair soon."
"I'll miss having you there every morning." Jade sighed, resting her head on Beck's shoulder.
"You'll see me every day, it's not as if I'm a million miles away, I'm next door." Cat rolled her eyes at Jade. "Oh and how would you feel about me knocking down the middle fence?"
Beck raised an eyebrow. "You want to destroy my fence?"
Jade nodded faintly. "Of course you can."
Cat smiled at Beck. "I think I'm going with your wife's ruling."
…
Tori winced as she placed the book she'd been reading down. "Ouch."
"What's wrong?" André looked up at her from the pile of songs he had to review for his class.
"It's just Braxton Hicks again."
"Are you sure?"
Tori rubbed the bump. "I didn't have the kid then, so what makes a difference now?"
"You're getting closer to your date." André pulled her closer to him, wrapping an arm around her lower back.
She shrugged. "The midwife said the first born is nearly always late. I have a few more weeks of feeling like a huge whale."
"You're pregnant, not a whale." He chuckled and kissed her stomach. "Isn't she, little guy?"
"Brilliant, you'll be teaming up against me."
André nodded. "We'll tell you how beautiful you are until you believe it."
"I can't wait for another boy in the house; this place is a tip before there's a kid here."
"The decorators are in tomorrow to finish off and the furniture arrives in the afternoon," he reminded her, stroking her back as her face crunched itself up again.
Tori took a deep breath. "I'm going to run myself a bubble bath."
"No, I'll do it. Sit down for a bit, take the weight off your feet and relax."
She smiled at André. "I was hoping you'd say that."
…
"Robbie!" the two girls screamed as the video chat came up on the laptop.
"Hello ladies, enjoying your trip?"
Annie grinned. "Hell yeah! We're in Florida now."
"It's amazing, Robbie," Lucy added, her Minnie Mouse ears falling down her face. "You should have come with us."
"I'm kind of tied up here."
Lucy pulled the camera closer. "You're still hung up over Cat."
Robbie didn't answer, he just looked away.
"You have to at least try and win her back, Rob." Annie pushed her way back into the frame.
"He's not telling us something, he has that look in his eye."
He frowned. "I do not! Anyway, how can you tell over this camera? It's all fuzzy…"
Lucy smirked. "See? I told you he was stupid enough to fall for it."
"You tricked me!" he argued.
Lucy shrugged. "Do I look like I care?"
"The gloves are coming off…" Annie pushed her own pair of mouse ears back up on her head.
"So what's happened?" Lucy folded her arms around Annie.
Robbie avoided eye contact with the camera. "She spent the night with me."
"And?" they prompted.
"We slept together," he admitted quietly.
The two girls erupted into celebration.
He watched them for a little while. "It doesn't change anything. I still have to go back to England and she still has to stay here."
"A long distance love story! How romantic!" Annie gushed, clasping her hands together.
Robbie shook his head. "I'm sorry to disappoint you guys but I don't think that'll happen. England and LA aren't exactly a car ride away."
"Well, we've been doing some digging…"
"That means you've been working, I told you strictly no working!" He sighed at Lucy.
Annie looked at him. "It's Lucy, she's a workaholic."
"Shut it, you! We considered a few possibilities and called a few people…"
"Is there any point to this?" he asked impatiently. "I have a stack of scripts to look through."
Lucy rolled her eyes at him. "Well, Robbie, you don't have to return to England. If you want, you can live in America and film the shows live there then stream them at normal time in the UK."
…
"That was really good, Kitten."
Cat smiled at Beck. "I'm not a hopeless cook if that's what you thought beforehand."
"How did you even manage to get the kids to eat that many vegetables without them knowing?" Jade rubbed her temples. "I swear you've paid them."
"I promise I haven't." She held her hands up. "It's a trick I learnt in order to make Evanna eat vegetables."
Beck frowned. "Speaking of our darling children, where are they? I haven't seen them all evening except from dinner."
"They're in the music room, they said they wanted to finish something off then they wanted to show us." Jade shrugged. She held an accusing finger up at Cat. "It's your fault for telling them that story last night."
Cat's eyes widened. "What? I wanted their imaginations to grow and Evie loves that story!"
Beck looked at them both. "Am I missing something here?"
"Cat told the twins a story last night about princesses, fairies and happily ever after," Jade explained briefly.
Seth entered the room with a plastic crown sat on his head.
"Oh, here come's King Seth," Beck laughed. "Are you all right, buddy?"
Seth nodded, the crown slipping from his head. "May I present to you the tale of two worlds?"
"If you must, but can we make it quick?" Jade sighed dramatically with a smirk forming on her face.
"Mom! You're supposed to say yes!"
Cat smiled at him. "Of course we are, King Seth!"
"See? Aunt Cat goes along with it." He stuck his tongue out at Jade.
"Definitely your son," Beck whispered to Jade.
Seth coughed for their attention. "Once upon a time there was a girl called Cat and she had bright red hair, she was also very pretty."
Evie rushed out she stood next to Seth.
"She worked all day and night for her evil sister Jade…"
"Hey, I'm not evil!" Jade argued back.
Blaise appeared from around the corner. "Mom, you're ruining it! You're in director mode again."
Beck covered her mouth with his hand to assure the twins she wouldn't say anything else.
"Cat heard there was going to be an awesome party at King Robbie's house, but Jade said she couldn't go."
Evie pretended to be upset.
Seth turned his back in order for Blaise to continue narrating.
"Suddenly, Cat's fairy godmother Becky appeared…"
Beck sighed. "I take it that's how I'm represented in the piece, brilliant. I'm now a girl and I didn't even get consulted about it. For a start, I would not have been wearing those shoes."
"She granted Cat the wish to go to the awesome party." Blaise waved the wand and Evanna placed a crown on her head. "She walked to the party because Becky was thinking too much about her awesome hair to arrange transport."
"It's true, I do have awesome hair." Beck nodded approvingly.
Blaise shot him a warning look for interrupting. Seth and Evie danced for a while then Evie ran behind the sofa across from Beck, Jade and Cat. "King Robbie and Cat danced all night together but as the clock struck midnight, Cat had to run away because she had to get home before Jade returned from the awesome party."
Seth looked confused and began searching the room.
"The King searched high and low for his mystery girl," Blaise said as she took the crown from Evie's head and place it on her own. "Finally, he found her, they got married and had a daughter named…"
"Evanna!" the little girl leaped over the sofa and squeezed herself between the twins.
"And they lived happily ever after!" they all said in chorus.
"And they went out for ice-cream!" Evanna added on the end.
The adults clapped, cheering and howling for more.
Cat smiled at them all then walked out, heading for the decking on the back.
Jade followed her out.
"Didn't Mom like it?" Evie tugged on Beck's sleeve.
He smiled at the small girl. "She loved it; she just had a bad day at school. That's all."
"Come on, Evie, we'll go play some songs whilst they're being boring and grown up," Seth offered out his hand. She took it, leaving Beck alone in the living room to wait for his wife and best friend.
…
She pulled her sleeves over her hands and tried her best to dab her eyes without smudging her make-up. She stared up at the sky looking at all of the stars. When she looked up at them, she could have been sixteen again, sat in the back of Beck's truck with her best friend or she could've been twenty, fresh on Broadway in her first show. But now, she was twenty-eight and crying over a boy.
The door slid open and the clicks of Jade's heels brought her back.
"What's wrong Cat? I've given you five minutes of crying."
Cat wiped her eyes. "Just their play…"
"It was Evie's idea, that's what upsets you."
She nodded. "She's got such high hopes of having Robbie in her life. How do I tell her he'll be going back to England soon and she'll probably never see him again unless it's on the television screen?"
"That's not the only thing though, is it?" Jade took Cat's hand. "Before Beck walked in, you were going to say something."
Cat looked down at the floor.
"I thought as much." Jade sighed loudly. "You're still in love with him so you went and slept with him."
Cat held her other hand up to her. "You make me sound so cheap."
"I tried not to." She squeezed her hand. "You can do this, Cat."
"Not again, this time he has Evie to hurt before he flounces off back to England and his protective assistants."
Another chapter.
I wasn't intending on spending this long on random ideas but I shizz happens and I did so eh.
Next chapter will be dramatic as there's Tori, don't forget about her.
Love always,
Chasing Midnight.
(I worry about my fifteen year old self.)