War Bride - Chapter 29 – Parental Instincts
Ava's recounting of events had gone better than it could have. Ava had been good at answering the MP's questions as fully as she could the first time so very little prompting had been required. When they had overstepped, in Rachel opinion, asking unnecessarily traumatic questions, a hard glare from her had had them retracting them fairly quickly.
In the end Ava had not been able to provide much more information then they had already told the officers. A better idea of locations the trio had lived this last year, but nowhere the despicable man was likely to ever return too. Information on any associates had been limited too, the man was a loner...and most likely a runner, even before all this.
If it had not been for his weakness in collecting a 'piece on the side' to satisfy his carnal desires on the road, he would have been leading a completely solitary life.
It would have been better for everyone if he could have just kept it in his pants. The man clearly hadn't been remotely able to actually care, either emotionally or practically, for a woman and her child. He never should have left town with them.
Once again Rachel questioned Kelly's sanity in being with the man. In running off with him. Could she have been so very desperate to get out of dodge after the way things had gone down that she had thought this guy was a good option?! She was a mother for crying out loud! And Rachel understood what that meant even better now than she had then. Surely her default instinct should have been in protecting Ava first…not herself… Surely her running had never held hope of accomplishing that?
The girl had contacts here. Friends, people who would and had protected her with their lives…and Kelly had thrown that away.
Rachel didn't understand in the least. She had come to motherhood strangely. First suddenly, when she had technically become and stepmother, and then slowly as she had started to become an actual mother to those she was already stepmother too, and then suddenly again when she had birthed her two little girls from her own body.
But even from the first Rachel knew her instincts had been to protect all her charges with her life. How could Kelly have made such a reckless choice that could easily have put Ava's life in danger instead of her own? And all because she was too embarrassed to stay?
When the MP's finally left Rachel let them just have a quiet moment, just the two of them. Ava was naturally upset but she had held it together well for the most part.
After assuring herself that Ava was as recovered as she could be in the small time they had, she retook the girl's hand and led her back upstairs to the rest of the family.
Rachel had not heard a peep from upstairs, though she wondered how much that meant. She opened and peeped in through the door. Tom was sitting on the far side of the bed, his children sitting close on either side of him. Only Tom's calm smooth tones drifting from the room. The corner cots were quiet and it would seem the girls had fallen back asleep. She hoped…
He was talking about the time he was gone, Sam and Ashley were listening in rapt attention. Rachel wasn't surprised, she knew there curiosity would not be stilled for long and having got their father alone for the first time Rachel could understand that the questions had quickly flowed…after more hugs she imagined.
Rachel had the thought of what was likely to happen when she and Tom were finally alone for the first time since his return. Alone and not in fear of imminent interruption that is. Would it be tonight? Most likely… Would he want to share her, no…their…room tonight? That was likely as well, it was his room too…
Rachel felt her heart start thumping harder in her chest at the thought. And it wasn't just lust…though that was very much present. There was also an element of fear to it, she wasn't sure she was ready to receive some of the answers she had been obsessing over for so long.
She had built herself up to someone who could keep going regardless of their answers…because she had to, and she didn't think she had the option of ever knowing the real and true answers. She now realized there had been some benefit in that. She may not feel the exultation of knowing she possessed her husbands heart…but she didn't feel the wretched rejection of knowing she definitely didn't hold it either…
Though after his earlier question, Rachel had to admit that there was still a small lingering part of her that was able to produce a small mouth-twitching smile at the thought of doling a little justice. After all, her husband was all about crime and punishment…
However 'true' their marriage was, and however new she was to the institution, she knew that in the complex politics of marriage, her husband had most definitely committed a crime and expulsion from the marriage bed for an indeterminate amount of time was the usual minimum response to that crime.
Some of the notion was attractive…mainly because it would buy her time. Though time she wasn't even sure she even wanted.
Oh God, she didn't even know what she wanted!
Part of her dreaded the moment when they would have to talk about everything that took place near a year ago…and the true reasons why it had, his reasons. That part wanted to avoid him and that conversation like the plague now that it was upon her. But then part of her wanted to get some alone time happening pronto! So they could recommence their activities of earlier this morning…and complete them! He had flipped a long unused switch on this morning…and he had neglected to turn it back off…it was still humming bright in her blood.
Deciding that one, her rumination were ill-timed and pointless, and two, to let the remaining trio of the 'original' family have their moment together, Rachel closed the door and spoke quietly to Ava.
"Why don't we give them a few minutes, we could get breakfast started, just the two of us, that sound alright?"
Ava nodded, and spoke. "I'll help…but I'm not very hungry."
Rachel's eyes softened. "I know, me either really, it's understandable, but let's both try to eat something, okay?"
Once again Ava nodded and the two of them made their way back down the stairs.
They had a pile of grilled toast ready when Tom appeared in the kitchen entry with a child of his on either side.
Rachel had known he would have heard her at the bedroom door earlier, thus she had felt no need to inform them that they were finished downstairs. He had probably heard the MP's drive away too.
Sam and Ashley immediately took their regular spots at the kitchen counter and started spreading their toast with their preferred toppings. Ava was nibbling on a plain piece, which had been all that she had wanted. Rachel had already downed a piece herself, the act of eating more of a perfunctory necessity that something to take any real time or thought in...especially right now.
Breastfeeding twins, she could no longer afford to continue her long practice of meal skipping, but that didn't mean she had changed who she was…and it still seemed to her that it was a ridiculously common cultural practice to waste an inordinate amount of time on the small necessary practice of providing bodies with fuel.
"Okay?" Tom asked her. She knew what he was asking with those few syllables…a lot. She nodded and asked the same in kind.
"You?" He hesitated, the discussion with Sam and Ashley had clearly been emotional too, but then he nodded, resolutely. It would be ok, she translated. Maybe he had already noted that all was not fixed simply by his return. Good.
She never said the man didn't have good instincts, and he had clearly brought them out and used them for his children. She wondered how good those instincts would be when it came to her. She was both curious and terrified. She did not feel ready to be read like an open book by her husband…not at all.
TBC
A/N: Hope you all liked! Going to take the weekend again, a bit behind where I would like to be right now, and that should give me time to get my updates a bit more comfortable again. Ciao! :-D
