Author's Note: Thanks so much for the great response to the last chapter! I hope that I get the same response for this chapter, it really does encourage me to write. I love hearing your feedback :)

I'm updating early this week as I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend writing papers. Ew.

Song for this chapter is Skinny Love by Bon Iver. Give it a listen if you like.

Also, PSA: the second half of this chapter is angst city. Be forewarned.

And as usual, I don't own or have anything to do with Skins.

Chapter 25: Skinny Love

Wednesday, December 25th, 2013.

"Good morning, gorgeous," I vaguely heard Emily whisper before she climbed on top of me and kissed me. "Happy Christmas."

I smiled into our kiss and wrapped my arms around Em, who was being careful to put all of her weight on my legs and avoid my baby bump.

"Happy Christmas, darling," I replied. Emily rolled off me and helped me out of bed. I searched around the room for Libby, who usually slept with us. "Where's Libby?"

Emily smiled, grabbed my hand and dragged me into the living room. She pointed towards the Christmas tree, and sure enough underneath our tree, lying on her back and staring up at the dazzling lights and baubles, was Libby. I called to her and she looked over at me, but made no attempt to move. Lying under the Christmas tree was Libby's favourite part of the holidays – something about the way the lights looked and how they would light up in different patterns just mesmerized her. She also looked absolutely hilarious whenever she would lie on her back with her stumpy legs in the air. Emily went over to the tree and picked Libby up from underneath it. Libby looked quite unhappy with this new arrangement.

Emily and I spent our morning making breakfast together, wrestling Libby into her new Christmas sweater, and getting ready for later today. We were having everybody over at our place this year, and my mum was due to arrive to help Emily cook any minute now. Emily was fussing in the kitchen, wearing her Mrs. Claus cooking apron, Libby was lying under the Christmas tree yet again, and I was finishing up Elouise's baby blanket. Emily had also taken to knitting and crocheting lately and had already finished baby booties and mittens for Elouise.

I heard the front door open, letting in a cold gust of wind and probably a few snowflakes as well. This year's Christmas was the whitest Christmas Emily and I had experienced since we first got together.

"Am I late?" My mum called out as she rustled around in the front entrance, probably taking off her jacket and boots and other winter gear. Emily laughed in the kitchen and assured my mother that no, she was not late. My mum bustled into the living room, gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, wished me a merry Christmas, and then made her way into the kitchen to help Emily. Kieran followed my mother into the living room and sat down next to me on the couch.

"Hello, Naomi, happy Christmas," Kieran said as he sat down with a groan and turned on the TV. "Eastenders' Christmas special looks like it'll be good this year, doesn't it?"

I shrugged. "Dunno, Kieran. Emily won't let me watch Eastenders," I replied. Kieran scoffed.

"That's a right crock o'shite, that is."

I smiled and focused on my crocheting again while Kieran flipped through the channels. Emily came into the living room and dropped off a tray full of Bailey's-filled glasses.

"Em, it's not even gone half-ten and you're already bringing out the booze?" I asked. Emily shrugged and smiled.

"It's Christmas, everybody's allowed to get pissed up on Christmas."

"Amen to that," Kieran replied as he leaned over and grabbed a glass of Baileys.

After Kieran's fourth glass of Bailey's and the first fifteen minutes of Eastenders, Katie and Effy arrived. Katie immediately sat down next to Kieran, wished us both a happy Christmas, grabbed her own glass of Baileys and started watching Eastenders with him. Effy gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, wished me a happy Christmas, and went into the kitchen to help mum and Emily with the food.

"Too bad Pat died, eh, Kieran?" Katie mused over her glass of Baileys. "Pat would've made this episode top-knotch."

"Right you are, Katie," Kieran replied as he looked longingly at the tray of Baileys. Emily had to refill the tray at least five times now, and my mum had angrily cut Kieran off after his fifth glass in less than an hour. Kieran claimed his Irish-ness as his defence, but mum wasn't having any of it.

Half-way through the Eastenders Christmas special, the rest of the Fitches arrived. Jenna and Rob hugged everyone and wished us all a happy Christmas. Rob sat down next to Katie, making all of us on the couch rather squished but nobody said anything. James sat down in an armchair and immediately pulled out some kind of gaming console.

"Oh, Naomi, you look positively glowing! How far along are you now, dear?" Jenna asked as she pulled me off the couch and into a hug. She grabbed at my baby bump and started talking enthusiastically to it. Jenna had already been informed that we were having a girl and were planning on naming her Elouise, and when we had told her she had burst into tears and wailed that she was just "so happy" for us.

"Six months now, Jenna," I replied. Jenna hugged me again.

"You're just getting so big now, Naomi! I can't wait to meet my little granddaughter!" Jenna said with yet another enthusiastic smile before she insisted that I sit down again and stay off my feet. The ball of energy that is Jenna Fitch moved into the kitchen and immediately sent Effy out to the living room to rest. Effy huffed and slumped down into an armchair, since there was definitely no room for her on the couch.

"Been banished to the land of the husbands and pregnant women?" I asked, fighting off my smirk. Effy rolled her eyes.

"Oi! I'm here too!" Katie replied, obviously offended by my 'land of the husbands' comment.

"Jenna banished me here," Effy said with a pout. "She says that I shouldn't be standing up for too long and that I definitely shouldn't be around a hot oven with this."

Effy gestured at her baby bump, which seemed to be expanding at an alarming rate.

"You sure there's only one in there, Eff? Looks like it could be triplets if you ask me," I said. Eff sent me a dirty look.

"Definitely only one. The midwife says I just look big because I'm small in stature."

"No, babe," Katie interrupted. "You look big because we're going to have a cute and chubby baby."

"How big does Anna think he's going to be when he's born?" I asked. Effy looked down at her fingers and mumbled something.

"Maybe eight or nine pounds," Katie replied.

I shot Effy a look of sympathy.

"Alright, everyone! Food's ready!" Emily announced as she walked into the living room. She came over and helped me off the couch, which was much appreciated. Katie did the same for Effy. We all followed her into the dining room, Kieran and Katie grumbling the whole way about missing the rest of Eastenders. Even Libby abandoned her spot under the tree to follow us into the dining room, likely in the hopes that somebody would drop some food for her. The dining room table was immaculately decorated and set up. Emily, Gina, Jenna and Effy all looked rather smugly proud of themselves. There were Christmas crackers between each place mat, and there was a huge turkey in the middle of the table, and a much smaller roast beef for Kieran since he "doesn't eat birds". Emily and I sat next to each other, Katie and Effy sat next to Em, Gina and Kieran sat next to Jenna and Rob and somehow James ended up sitting at the head of the table.

There wasn't a moment of awkwardness where we all looked around at each other and waited for somebody to say a prayer or something of that sort. We all just sat down and started shoving food in our plates.

The noise and chatter at the table was so loud that I could barely hear myself think, but I was actually happy about it. Our families had finally come together as one despite personality differences and everything else that was working against us. Jenna was listening to my mum talk about the fight for equality and the benefits of communal living. Rob was listening to Kieran talk about his students that were apparently "a right pack of fuckers". Effy, James and Katie were engaged in a conversation about Chelsea and how well the team was doing this season. And Emily and I weren't talking at all – we shot each other grateful, happy smirks every once in a while as we took in the sight of our family all mixing together and getting along.

After everybody had eaten and cracked their Christmas crackers, we all waddled into the living room to open presents. We had all agreed earlier to get gifts for our immediate family only, which meant I only had to buy a gift for Emily and my mum. Emily was definitely happy with her gift - a shirt that says "yummy mummy", three makeup books I noticed that Emily didn't already own, and a Nikon D-SLR camera for family photos. I'd bought mum some all-natural, fair-trade aromatherapy crap, and I gave her a certificate that said I donated a goat to a village in Africa. Mum was quite pleased with her gift as well.

When I opened up my gift from Emily, I was completely shocked. It was a brand new, state of the art MacBook Pro. Emily said she wanted me to be able to work from home for the magazine when we had Elouise, and this way I could write on my laptop, and then I could quickly bring my laptop into the office, transfer it onto my desktop Mac and Emily would print it and do the layout for me. Emily tentatively asked me if I liked it, to which I replied by kissing her. Of course I liked it. I liked anything that Emily bought for me because it meant she put time and effort into thinking about me and what I would like. It really is the thought that counts.

Eventually, everybody fucked off home and Emily and I were left in peace. We cleaned the house up and used my new laptop to buy clothes for Elouise online. Then we decided we were too tired to do anything else and climbed into bed and watched a movie together. Emily fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, and I followed soon after. Having family get togethers was completely exhausting, and now we were also having people over on New Year's Eve. I wasn't completely sure how we were going to be able to pull it off, but I was sure we would manage somehow.

Tuesday, December 31st, 2012

Our New Year's Eve party was almost in full swing – we were just waiting on one more person. Natalie hadn't shown up just yet, but had called earlier and told us that she would be a bit late because she had "business" to sort out before leaving London. Emily and I weren't too bothered since we weren't planning on having a sit down dinner party and were only serving hors d'oeuvres and snack type foods...and obviously an obscene amount of alcohol.

Emily was sort of in her own world tonight. She was pretty upset and obviously worried, but was trying desperately to hide it from our guests. Of course, she couldn't hide it from me. She didn't try to hide her feelings from me anymore. So when she got off the phone with her lawyer earlier that afternoon with her upset look on her face, I knew things had gone wrong at John Foster's probation hearing. Emily took one look at me and burst into tears.

"He's free again, Naoms," She cried as I wrapped her up in my arms. "When will it stop?"

I tried my best to comfort her, but I knew this wasn't just some kind of bump in the road. John Foster was a massive pain in our ass and an even bigger worry now that we wanted to settle down and just live a normal life. I was just as worried as Emily was. Worried that we'd never get our happy ending, that we'd never be able to walk down the street together with Elouise without looking over our shoulders.

I smiled at Emily from across the party, as she was in the kitchen preparing more plates full of snacks and I was in the living room chatting to my mum. Well, I was more forcing her to promise to be nice to Natalie.

"Alright, fine, Naoms. I'll try to be nice," My mum said, rolling her eyes and taking a sip of her champagne. I shrugged at her and smiled.

"That's all I'm asking for, mum. Just try. And also remember that Natalie is completely alone in this world and both of her parents are dead," I said. Mum shot me a dirty look, obviously aware that I was trying to play to her sympathetic tendencies.

"I'll try, Naomi."

The doorbell rang at that moment. I quickly went to answer the door by myself since Emily was still busy in the kitchen. I opened the door to find an empty-handed Natalie. Everybody else had been courteous enough to bring something. Katie and Effy had brought three bottles of champagne, Gina and Kieran had brought a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and Jenna and Rob had brought a quiche that was thankfully store-bought since Jenna's cooking is the most atrocious thing on the planet.

"Hey, Naomi!" Natalie said as she let herself in and hugged me. She was freezing cold and covered in snow, so I took her jacket and showed her where to put her shoes right away. I definitely didn't want her tracking that stuff through the house. "Sorry I'm late! My business partner got himself into a bit of trouble a while ago and I was helping him sort a few things out."

I nodded absentmindedly as I listened to Natalie ramble about her business partner.

"Well, see, he was charged with kidnapping and some other stupid charge a little while ago and was thrown in the slammer," Natalie whispered as I lead her through the party. I frowned a little, noting that her business partner sounded quite the dodgy character, indeed. "Hello, Emily! How are you, darling?"

Emily nodded at her and smiled, wiping her hands on her apron as she joined our conversation. I saw Gina looking over at us from across the party and I gestured her over with a small smile.

"I was just telling Naomi about my business partner. Anyway, he was just released today and I had to go get him and set him up in my flat, poor sod doesn't even have anywhere to live..." Natalie said, trailing off as she smiled gently at my mother. "Hi, you must be Gina. I'm Natalie."

My mum smiled tentatively at Natalie, but I was paying much closer attention to Emily, who had frowned at Natalie's story.

"Sorry," Emily interrupted with a tight smile. "Who did you say your business partner was again?"

Natalie smiled and waved her hand. "Oh, he's daddy's old psychiatrist. When Dad was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's, our GP referred us to a psychiatrist, and we ended up with John. He invested pretty heavily in the company when it wasn't doing very well, just shortly after Daddy gave me the company. Actually, he was pretty eager to invest..." Natalie trailed off as she noticed the look on both Emily's and my face.

"John..." Emily whispered, shaking her head as though she were trying to free herself from whatever nightmare this was we were living. "John Foster?"

Natalie frowned and nodded at us. "Do you know him?"

My heart felt as though it was going to crash through my chest wall and I was seeing spots I was so angry. I had no doubt that John Foster had planned it this way – there was no coincidence in that story. He just happened to be Neil's psychiatrist, he just happened to invest in his company, obviously not knowing who Neil's illegitimate daughter was involved with.

"Oh my god," I whispered as I felt completely lightheaded. I leaned into Emily, who was yelling at Natalie, but I wasn't hearing any of her words. Gina was focusing on my face, completely ignoring Natalie and Emily's argument. I must've looked pale and probably pretty upset since Gina gave me a very worried look.

But something didn't feel right. Something was wrong.

And that's when I doubled over. I reached out towards my mum and grabbed her hand, trying to breathe through the tightness that ripped through my stomach and the stiffness I felt in my back. My muscles started spasming and I couldn't help but cry out, both in shock and pain.

"Naomi!" Emily yelled as she tried to grab me and help me upright. "What's wrong? Is it her? Is it Elouise?"

I had tears in my eyes as I tried to look at Emily, the fog and lightheadedness and pain clouding my vision.

"Something's wrong, Em," I whispered.

Emily flew into action, grabbing our coats and shoes. She bent down and helped me into my shoes as another spasm ripped through the muscles of my back, forcing me to stand upright and cry out again. My mum looked so worried and had tears in her eyes. A crowd had gathered around us, but I couldn't focus on any faces. I was so scared for Elouise.

Emily grabbed our car keys and rushed me out the door. I saw her shoot a pointed look to Katie, who just nodded in response. Just before she shut the door, I heard a scared, angry yell that definitely came from my mum, and another yell that came from Jenna, and yet another that came from Katie. I knew exactly who they would be taking things out on.

Emily grabbed my hand and shot me a worried look.

"It's gonna be okay, Naoms, I promise," She whispered, her voice breaking with tears as she tried to get me to walk as quickly as I could towards the car. "I promise."

Author's Note: Alright so I've left you with a massive cliffhanger and you probably want to punch me in the face. I apologize, but I have to say trust me on this one. But please don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter and what you think will come of all this.

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