This is for SMHHHFan, I hope that you enjoy it and thanks for the nudge but I apologise to everybody for the delay.

The bedtimes went out of the window for one night when Stephanie returned home, when the girls didn't want to go to bed and she was really enjoying catching up with them it seemed cruel to put an end to it when tomorrow was Saturday and they didn't have to be up early for school.

After giving the girls a bath they had all gotten into their pyjamas and were cuddled on the couch with a movie playing on the television, none of them could be bothered with their sleeping bags so they just had a blanket covering them as they snuggled together with Aurora one side of her and Vaughn practically on her lap as Murphy tried to squeeze herself right next to her Mom.

By the time the movie was over Vaughn and Murphy were both asleep and Aurora was just sleepy. "I'm going to go and put your sisters to bed but you should get to bed too, you look exhausted."

The little girl yawned and pushed herself off her Mom allowing her to move so she could take her youngest sister who was on her lap to bed.

When she returned from putting Vaughn to bed she smiled at the way one daughter was asleep and the other was barely keeping her eyes open, "Come on you, walk with me whilst I put your sister to bed as you need to get to bed too."

Reluctantly Aurora got up from her seat on the couch and followed her Mom to her little sister's room and waited whilst she put her to bed, she wanted her Mom to tuck her in like she had her sisters.

As soon as Murphy was safely in her bed Stephanie turned to see her eldest barely on her feet so walked closer to her and picked her up, "Boy am I glad that I lift weights, you're like a feather."

A soft giggle passed the little girl's lips as her head dropped to her Mom's shoulder and she wrapped her legs around her waist, "Love you Mommy."

Pressing a kiss to the top of her head she felt her heart swell with love, "I love you too baby girl." Luckily it was only a short distance from Murphy's room to Aurora's so she was soon able to lay the now sleeping girl down in her bed covering her over with her blanket, "Sleep well." With a final kiss to the top of her head she left the room pulling the door shut behind her.

Now that all of the girls were in bed asleep it was time for her to relax and enjoy being home again. Making her way back downstairs she went straight to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine. With glass in hand she turned to go back to the lounge but her eyes caught the jar on the counter and curiosity got the best of her, picking up the jar she took it over to the table and sat down to begin reading.

In an attempt to read the letters somewhat in order she made a tunnel through to the bottom of the jar and began plucking the letters one by one from there.

It was making her sad to read about what the girls had done with Paul, not because they hadn't had fun but because she hadn't been there to enjoy it with them. When she pulled out the next folded piece of paper she immediately noticed the tear stains on it and her stomach clenched, one of her babies had been crying when they wrote this letter, immediately getting up she went to pour herself another glass of wine, she wasn't drunk or even buzzed enough to be able to handle that tonight.

Downing her second glass of wine she poured herself a third before she returned to the table. Having not eaten anything since she had a snack between flights around lunchtime she was feeling the alcohol running through her veins giving her the beginning feelings of being drunk. Now that she was somewhat prepared for whatever was written she unfolded the paper and began to read:

I HATE DADDY! He doesn't love us, he told me he wants to come home but he's getting a new home and he will forget us and we'll be all alone.

Come home Mommy, I miss you.

Her hand immediately reached for the glass of wine and she quickly downed it, she was far too sober to adequately handle the emotions that she was feeling. Her now empty glass got placed on the table beside the jar before she neatly placed the letter on top of the pile of letters that she had already read.

She took a deep breath before she reached in for another letter, much to her relief it was far happier and it took her thoughts away from the fact that he was apparently buying a getting house. Those thoughts were not thoughts she wanted to deal with tonight which is why she had happily locked away her memory of Paul mentioning it earlier. The thought of leaving the rest of the letters to read until the following day did cross her mind but ultimately it was pushed to the side as she reached in for the next letter.

Dear Mommy,

I like Daddy a little more now. Gramma and Daddy promised me that he is only borrowing the house and he said I can help pick it too. I'm going to make him come home where he belongs Mommy, we need Daddy and I know you miss him.

Love,

Rory

Great, as if she wasn't feeling shit enough as it was her daughter had to point out how badly she had hidden her feelings from them. Yes she did miss her husband, she didn't know what he had done, what he wanted or how much he missed her so they really needed to talk about it to come to a decision about where their marriage went from here. Tomorrow she could think about agreeing a time with Paul to talk, tonight she was going to hopefully enjoy some happy letters from her daughters with the knowledge that they are safely tucked up in bed above her.

She took a moment to enjoy the silence and being in her own home again before she pulled out another letter to read. After reading two more letters she pulled out a third and the last sentence caught her eye 'Daddy said Vaughn would eat me', why the hell would Paul say that? This letter definitely had the makings to be her favourite letter so she was eager to read it.

I miss you lots and lots Mommy.

Today Daddy took us to dance and then we went to the bouncy place and then we went to my favouritest place to eat. Daddy didn't let us go anywhere without him, he was mean.

Her interest was piqued by her saying that she wasn't allowed to go anywhere without him but she did think that it was kind of cute that she thought he was mean for doing that, however it wouldn't stop her from asking him about it as neither of them were ever that overprotective with the girls.

When we came home Daddy left his phone on the table and it rings so I takes it to him at the door, he was talking to a strange lady who called me sweetie, I didn't likes her.

Angrily swiping the jar and her glass off the table she ignored the items as they smashed upon impact on the tile floor. How could he possibly bring a woman here when he promised that he wouldn't?

Her eyes took in the sight of the shattered glass and paper scattered on the floor so she stood up but instead of moving to get a dustpan and brush to clean it up she opened the fridge door and pulled out the bottle of wine, removing the top she put the bottle to her lips and drank.

Taking the bottle back to the table she sat down and picked the letter back up to read again. With letter in one hand and wine bottle in the other she was constantly taking a swig from the bottle as she repeatedly read the letter until there was no wine left in the bottle. Her eyes were heavy now so she just rested her head on the table for a minute.

Paul had underestimated how depressing it would be checking back into a hotel after a week away. When he reached his room he dropped all but one of his bags on the floor and placed the remaining bag on the bed, opening the bag he pulled out the house listings before he dropped the bag onto the floor and then collapsed on the bed to begin looking through the listings to pick out his favourites.

The sun was shining through the window directly on Stephanie's face wringing a moan from her throat. Blindly trying to cover her eyes the sun was way too bright for her to handle with the worst hangover she had ever had in her life.

She didn't know what time it was but she knew that there was no way she could or should drive the girls to dance class so through her bleary eyes she managed to knock over the empty bottle of wine as she grabbed at her phone to send a text.

I need you to take the girls to dance for 10 please, I'm not feeling well.

Looking at the time on her phone the girls would be up soon so she reluctantly climbed to her feet to make her way upstairs to take some painkillers and hopefully shower before they woke up.

After taking painkillers she had a long shower eventually walking back into the bedroom dressed only in a towel when she heard the doorbell ring, making her way out of her room she headed downstairs. Her grip on the towel around her body tightened as she slowly opened the door, a groan passed her lips when she saw her Mom stood there, "What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn't be here until half past nine."

When the door opened and Linda was able to see her daughter she had her doubts that she was sick as she didn't look it, "Well I thought as you weren't feeling well I would take the load off of you and get the girls ready for dance so that you could go back to bed for a hour. I was already up and around as I couldn't sleep."

"Um okay, thanks. You'd better come in then."

Suddenly there was a stampede of feet down the stairs as the girls ran downstairs to greet their Grandma but despite the calls of excitement Linda noticed the way that Stephanie winced at all of the noise. "Come on girls, let's get you breakfast and then you can wash and get dressed for the day."

"No!" It was only when her Mom mentioned breakfast that she remembered the state that the kitchen was in, "I'll get it."

Waving her hand in dismissal at her daughter she just walked past her and went straight towards the kitchen but stopped in the doorway when she saw all of the glass on the floor, "On second thoughts. Girls why don't you go and sit in the den and watch some television and I will bring you some breakfast in there."

Once the girls were out of danger Linda walked into the kitchen and went straight for the dustpan and brush. With dustpan and brush in hand she walked past the table and noticed the empty bottle of wine and the stack of letters, "Do I even want to ask what happened here?"

"I tripped late last night and dropped the jar on the floor and it smashed, I figured I would clean it up this morning before the girls got up but wasn't feeling well."

"And then you tell me the truth. There is a wine glass among the shards on the floor and there is an empty bottle of wine on the table. Something tells me that you're not sick, you have a major hangover. Am I right or am I wrong?" You weren't a Mother for forty years without learning a lot about your children and she certainly knew when she was being lied to.

Stephanie was way too tired and her head hurt far too much to continue to lie, "You're right but it wasn't my fault, I was drowning my anger in alcohol instead of arguing with Paul."

"Let me clean this up and feed the girls and we will talk over strong black coffee." Linda shooed her daughter out of the room to get dressed so that she could clean the mess that was the kitchen in peace.

Fifteen minutes, a lot of glass in the trash and a wine bottle in the recycling later and the girls were eating toast in front of cartoons and Stephanie was sat at the kitchen table waiting to be shouted at.

"So what happened?" After she placed a mug of coffee in front of Stephanie she sat down at the table with her own coffee.

Her hands wrapped around the mug and she stared down at the dark liquid contained within it, this was not going to be fun at all especially as she had a killer hangover.

"Come on Steph, I don't have all day."

"He brought a woman here." She sighed heavily before lifting the mug to her lips and taking a sip of the steaming hot liquid, "One of the letters from Murphy said that there was a strange lady here and she didn't like her."

It didn't sound great but Linda didn't know why she was condemning Paul over it as it couldn't have been purely innocent, "So he is guilty without a fair trial? You know that it could have been completely innocent and the woman could have dropped by for many reasons and they may not be because they are his latest bit on the side."

"Do you think he has another woman on the side?"

This was what was at the bottom of all of the problems, she just didn't know so thought the worst. "You can't keep doing this to yourself Steph. You can't keep yourself in the dark and as a result keep torturing yourself. It isn't even about the girls at this point, you really need to talk to Paul and get it all out in the open, you're slowly driving yourself mad not knowing anything."

"I know." She hated that her Mom was right but if this hangover showed her anything it was that she needed to just get the conversation with Paul over with and decide where their marriage went from there. She couldn't live her life thinking that every single woman he spoke to he was sleeping with, she deserved more than that and ultimately it would destroy her and where would that leave the girls.

Linda was definitely not expecting for her to agree as easily as that so she decided to push her luck a little, "Maybe strike whilst the iron is hot, so to speak. Why don't I take the girls to dance and then keep them until tomorrow? It gives you time to talk to Paul and to get over your hangover."

No, no, no, no, no, there was no way that she could talk to him today, it was too soon and she hadn't had enough time to prepare.

"You can do it Steph." Her daughter looked petrified and that broke Linda's heart, it was only a conversation with her husband, the man that she loved more than any other, but she looked like she was facing a judge.

"Can I? Do you have any idea how serious this talk is? I could go from married to single in a split second, I could go from a family to a single parent in the blink of an eye, I could destroy my children all with one decision."

"And if you don't have that conversation and make that decision you will slowly destroy everything about yourself."

This was not the kind of decision she should be making with a hangover, it was too serious, "Maybe tomorrow when I don't have a hangover."

"Or maybe tomorrow you will have another hangover or there will be another excuse. Bite the bullet, have something to eat and call him over later, you will have all of the time in the world."

Suddenly like the Pied Piper Aurora came walking through the kitchen door carrying the plates with her sisters following behind her, "All done."

Standing up Linda moved to take the plates from the little girl, "Good girls. Now we need to get you washed and ready for dance."

Sat there staring at her daughters she made a decision, "Don't forget packing for overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's."

The squeal of delight that left the girl's lips at that news caused Stephanie to wince, "If you don't want to go then you don't have to."

"We go, we go."

The look on Vaughn's face was one of annoyance at the thought of it being taken away from them was one Stephanie wished that she could take a picture of, "Well if you are sure that it is what you want. Come on and let's get you ready."

Both Vaughn and Aurora were soon at Stephanie's sides holding her hand as they all left the kitchen but her mind wasn't on them, her mind was on the inevitable conversation with Paul, by the time the weekend was over her marriage could be too and that scared her more than she had ever been scared before.