Chapter 34
Ella stood in the doorway of the nursery and burst into tears.
"I hate you." she muttered to him.
Roman folded his arms across his chest and chuckled.
"So did I do it how you wanted?" he asked.
She glared at him with narrowed eyes.
"Is that a yes?" he asked chuckling.
He pulled her against him, holding her loosely in his arms and kissed the top of her head.
"Now then I'm pretty certain that we will need a few more things before we bring them home tomorrow so how about we go shopping?" he asked.
"I know I should have started shopping for things for them but I kept putting it off hoping you would be home." She admitted.
"I'm home now." He said.
He took her into Yabbie Creek and they spent the rest of the day shopping. Buying car seats, baby clothes, toys, blankets and cot sheets. Then wipes, talc, bottles, a baby bath and towels of the softest cotton, cotton wool, nappies, baby lotion, nappy rash cream just in case. Ella found she couldn't decide between which cot bumper set she wanted and so bought both.
Roman laughed at her and then they looked at the pile of things they just bought. It filled the back seat and the trunk.
He grinned at her.
"Are you ok if I just make one more trip to another shop?" He asked.
"I'll come with you." She murmured.
He shook his head.
"No sorry. This is definitely one trip I'm making alone. If you really don't want to be alone then I'll do it some other time." He said softly.
"I'm not going to …" she snapped.
He kissed her quickly stopping the flow of words.
"Yes or no El?" he questioned.
She nodded but tears had sprung into her eyes.
"Good. I'll be about 15-20 minutes." He said to her and pressed another quick kiss to her lips.
She watched him walk away and felt herself begin to shake. She climbed into the car and distracted herself by turning the CD player on and selecting her favourite songs to listen too.
"This is stupid." She groaned unable to stop trembling.
She climbed out of the car and looked to see if she could see him. She spotted someone walking along the street that had a passing resemblance to Gardy. She gasped and was hit by a flashback to being in the room. She clutched her arms across her stomach and started to hyperventilate, her chest rising and falling in panicky gasps.
Just when she thought she was going into a full panic attack Roman came back. She launched herself into his arms and started crying.
"Its ok El, I'm here." he said to her. "I shouldn't have left you." He groaned.
"I'm ok I saw someone who looked like him. I'm fine." She said again, not sure if she was trying to convince him or herself. She pressed frantic kisses along his jaw and then his mouth.
"Oh god." She moaned and pressed herself as close to him as possible. He responded by holding her tight.
"Its ok. I promise he won't get you again. I always keep my promises El." He whispered softly. "Here." He said and loosened one of her hands to place something in it.
She looked down.
"I had to get the chain mended." He explained and watched as she clutched the dog tags to her.
"Thank you." She whispered. "I never asked if you'd found them."
"Nic found them, see?" he said showing her he was wearing his ring.
He kissed her gently.
"Let's get you home and unpack. I'm sure we have missed something."
Ella laughed.
"No, I'm pretty certain we got the whole shop here." She replied.
She looked over at him after she climbed into the car.
"Thank you." She said to him.
"For what?" he grinned.
"For not telling me it's nothing or that I'm going to be ok or that I'm strong and I'll get past this. I guess thank you for accepting that it hurts." She said softly.
"It hurts me too El, And I really don't know how to fix it but I know that we need to find a way together." He whispered.
She pressed her hand to his knee and they pulled out of the car park and headed home.
"When you came home how did you get past the alarm and how did you get in. You left your keys behind plus I had the locks changed." She said puzzled. "The alarm was off too."
He grinned over at her.
"Well when I left the army I did consider becoming a cat burglar." He admitted.
"You broke in?" she muttered.
"Sorry El but yes. I had to guess at the code for the alarm but came up with it on the final attempt. Nic's birthday." He said.
"I need to get new locks." She said.
"Its ok." he told her.
"No. If you got in it means he can get in again." She said her voice rising.
"El seriously, take a breath ok. If you want the locks changed I'll phone Pete and get it done this afternoon but I am not going to let him get you again, beside he is locked up."
He reached out and caught a hold of her hand, feeling it tremble within his own.
"Sorry." She muttered. "I'm overreacting."
He smiled.
"No its understandable." He said softly.
"What if you hadn't have guessed the code?" she asked.
"Well I guess it wouldn't be the first time that Jacko and I have been arrested. Although maybe a first for your dad." He joked.
She looked at him.
"Actually no. We were locked up in Hong Kong once." She admitted and grinned at him seeing the look of shock on his face.
"Elizabeth Harris!" He gasped.
"How was I to know what I said to that custom official meant that!" she muttered.
"What?" he couldn't resist asking.
"Just something about his mother a goat and her dog." She smiled. "and that my dad witnessed the whole thing. I think was the whole phrase." She laughed and looked over at him.
"Fine but how did you get locked up?" he couldn't resist asking.
"Because my dad turned round and told them I was a wanted fugitive he was trying to escort back to the UK. He decided that the best place for me was also a jail cell until everything was sorted out."
"I know I'm going to regret this but that's not the full story is it?"
She laughed again.
"No. I had run away from the prissy English boarding school took my dad's credit card and decided I wanted to go to home. I got as far as Hong Kong before the card got stopped and he flew out to get me. He was dragging me on a plane back to the UK so I tried to get him stopped in customs by insulting the head official." She giggled. "He was so upset."
She looked up to see that they had pulled into the driveway of their house.
"Nicely done Lt Harris." She grumbled, realising he had distracted her from her panic of earlier.
"Thank you Mrs Harris." He said and leaned over to press a quick kiss to her lips before she could release the seatbelt. She reacted, feeling trapped by the restraint and feeling the hot breath on her lips before he made contact and the panic returned in a frantic burst. She pushed at his shoulders and screamed.
With shaking hands she tugged at the release of the seatbelt and pulled at it. Roman reacted slower shocked by how fast this had happened.
"Ella!" he cried out, trying to cut through the panic.
She pulled again at the belt and the catch released. She pushed at the door handle until it swung open, her weight pressed against it, she fell out on the ground below scraping her knees and hands, only reacting.
He scrambled out of the car and ran around to her side.
"Ella." He said
"No!" she screamed. "Don't call me that." she moaned tears falling down her face.
"El. It's ok." He knelt down next to her.
"El." He said again softly.
She blinked and looked at him.
"Roman." She said, her tone returning to normal.
"Can you stand?" he asked.
She nodded and eased up feeling the sting of the scrapes.
"Ok I'm going to put my arm around you." He told her and did so leading her slowly into the house. He clicked the numbers into the alarm on the way past and led her to sit on the sofa. He left her there while he fetched a glass of water and held it so she could take a drink.
Seeing that she was calming down he gave her a moment alone and went outside to see to the car. When he returned he fetched the first aid kit from the kitchen and bathed her hands first them her knees applying antiseptic balm to the scrapes.
She looked at him and slow tears poured down her face.
"It is going to be ok El, we need to give it time." He said cutting off what he knew she was going to say.
"How?" she asked, with a self mocking smile, "because I'm pretty convinced I came unglued just now. What if I'm with the babies and the same thing happens?"
"I don't know. I don't have an answer for you. I am certain that they probably won't kiss you just yet and maybe expecting them to talk so soon is a bit much even if they have my brains." He said.
She looked up at him, torn between laughing and crying. She settled on thumping him on the arm for the terrible joke.
He leaned forward and kissed her.
"See." He told her when she didn't panic. "We'll find a way to work things out but I guess that suggesting we use handcuffs will be out."
She glared at him.
"That's so funny!" She muttered and stood up walking stiffly to the stairs.
"El?" he questioned.
"I'm going to go and throw the handcuffs out!" she winked at him. "If you don't want to try them."
He laughed and opened his arms.
She ran to him and held him as tight as she could, then remembering his injury she eased off.
He pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head.
"I promise you we will get through this. Please give us time El." He sighed.