A couple of months later

Chapter 49

The weekend had finally arrived. Nobody was looking forward to it more than what Phoebe was. Doing A levels whilst looking after a four month old baby was proving to be rather difficult. But luckily for her she had Ronan there to help her, and of course her Mum and the rest of her family.

Phoebe went into the lounge and put Amelia in her jungle gym, whilst she sat back and relaxed for a little bit. Rachel walked into the room to find her staring into space.

"You alright Phoebs? You're miles away" Rachel asked

"Oh yeah sorry, just thinking"

"What you thinking about?"

"Nothing in particular, just this and that"

"Me and Eddie are taking Chloe and Lily out for dinner tonight, do you want to come?"

"No it's alright. Ronan's coming over in a bit, think we're just going to watch a DVD or something"

"Okay love, but if you change your mind you know the option is always there"

A few hours later everyone had gone out so it was just Phoebe, Ronan and Amelia at home.

"I think I'm going to bath her and get her ready for bed" Phoebe said

"Okay, I'll come and help you" Ronan said

Phoebe loved how involved Ronan was in Amelia's life. He would always help her out with anything. She loved how he treated her no differently to how Phoebe did, despite the fact she wasn't his child.

Once they'd bathed her and put her in her babygrow they went downstairs and put a film on. Amelia slept peacefully in her moses basket whilst they did so.

They hadn't been watching the film for long when they caught in one another's eyes. Slowly they edged towards each other before Ronan captured Phoebe's lips in his own. Phoebe pulled away slightly.

"Let's go upstairs" Phoebe whispered into his ear

"Phoebs, are you sure about this?" Ronan asked not wanting to do anything that she would later regret. Of course he wanted to, but he just wanted to make sure she was ready and not doing it because she thought that's what he wanted.

"Positive" she replied

...

The next morning Phoebe was woken up early by a crying Amelia. She groaned at how early she now had to get up on a Saturday morning, before reluctantly getting out of bed and getting Amelia out of her moses basket. She carried her downstairs, warmed up a bottle and then went into the lounge to feed her. She was surprised to see Lily sat in there so early.

"Morning Lil, you're up early"

"I couldn't get back to sleep and I was bored" Lily replied

It wasn't long before Michael too was up. But this wasn't unusual, he was normally up earliest out of everyone.

"Morning Michael, did you sleep okay?" Phoebe asked

"Yes thank you" Michael replied

"Are Mum and Dad still sleeping?"

"Yes I think so, I couldn't hear them when I got up"

"I've got an idea, how about we make them breakfast in bed?" Phoebe suggested

"Oh yeah, we can be like waitresses" Phoebe smiled at how the littlest of things really could make little children so excited.

Once Amelia had been fed she dropped back off to sleep, which meant that Phoebe could concentrate all attention on helping Lily and Michael make the breakfast.

"Woah Michael, I think I'll cut the strawberries up. Why don't you pour the juice into the cups?" Phoebe suggested worrying what the consequences might be if she let Michael lose with a knife.

They prepared two trays. One for Rachel with yoghurt, granola and fruit and a glass of fruit juice. And for Eddie, some frosties and milk with some fruit juice.

"I'll carry the trays up the stairs and then you two can carry one of them in together." Phoebe whispered to the pair of them before they went upstairs.

They walked into Rachel and Eddie's bedroom to find Rachel laying in Eddie's arms talking to one another.

"Morning" Phoebe said to alert them they were there, because they hadn't even heard them come into the bedroom.

"Morning you three. What've you got there?" Rachel replied

"We made you and Daddy breakfast" Michael replied proudly

They gave them their trays with the breakfast on. Rachel and Eddie were both very pleased with the sweet gesture they'd done for them.

"Mummy, why are yours and Daddy's clothes all over the floor?" Lily asked, causing Rachel and Eddie to blush.

"We were a bit tired last night so we decided to pick our clothes up this morning"

Once everyone was up and ready they decided to go for a picnic in the park all together. They hadn't all been out together in a while so decided it would be quite nice. Once everyone was dressed and the picnic had been made they walked the short distance to the park.

They found a nice spot and then set the picnic blankets out.

"Mummy, please can we play hide and seek after we've eaten?" Michael asked

"That sounds like a fun idea" Rachel replied

So that's what they did.

"I'll count first" Eddie said "1,2,3

They all started running away from Eddie to find somewhere to hide. It was great for Rachel and Eddie to see all of the kids so happy.

Chloe was hiding behind one of the trees in the park with Michael when she saw the three people that she definitely didn't want to see today. She quickly looked away and hoped they hadn't seen her. But no such luck, they started making their way over.

"Michael, why don't you go and hide behind the tree over there" Chloe said, not wanting Michael to have to meet the people who were coming over.

"Oh, but I want to hide with you"

"I know, but Daddy will be less likely to find us if we hide separately"

Michael ran towards the next tree, just before Eddie stopped counting.

"99, 100. Ready or not, here I come"

Eddie started looking, and found Chloe almost straight away, along with three girls that he recognised from Waterloo Road.

"Found you" Eddie said

"Aww, having fun playing hide and seek are we?" one of the three girls said

"Hi girls" Eddie said

"Hi Mr Lawson" they all replied in unison

"Come on Eddie, lets go find the rest" Chloe said pleased that Eddie had arrived when he did, meaning that she could get away from them.

"Bye Chlo, bye sir" one of the girls said

"Bye" Chloe replied reluctantly

"I thought they were in your year?" Eddie asked once they'd walked away from the girls

"They are"

"Well you didn't seem like you really wanted to talk to them"

"So what if I didn't? I don't have to like everyone in my hear" Chloe snapped walking away from Eddie