Chapter Twenty-Five

Sunday 22nd December – 5.30pm

What if I said…I just want to be friends…?

Those words from Chloe swirled around Elly's head the second the blonde had uttered them.

Elly immediately turned from Chloe, who was still seated next to Elly's hospital bed, cradling her son against her chest. Elly rolled over onto her side away from Chloe, curling up gently, bringing her hands to her face as she burst into tears uncontrollably.

How can this be happening? I thought Chloe still loved me…

Chloe stared in surprise at the reaction Elly had to the suggestion of them being nothing more than friends.

Chloe shifted in her position on the chair, struggling for a moment to balance Elliot on her chest with one arm holding him, gently resting her chin on top of his head as she freed one of her hands to briefly reach out to place her hand on Elly's shoulder, "Elly…"

Elly shrugged Chloe's hand from her shoulder, not noticing that Chloe then went back to having both arms cradling her son against her chest, and continuing crying heavily.

"Wow…you are really completely and utterly heartbroken at the thought that all I could possibly want is to be your friend," Chloe realized.

I've never been so heartbroken in my life. How do I ever get over this…over you, Chloe?

Elly mumbled something in between her tears, with her hands covering her face, Chloe couldn't even make out a single word.

"I don't want to be your friend, Elly," Chloe finally said.

Chloe expected Elly to have reacted to her words but Elly continued crying uncontrollably.

"Elly," Chloe said louder this time, "I don't want to be your friend."

Elly continued sniffling but pulled her hands down from her face, "What?"

"I needed to be sure without a single doubt in my mind that your feelings for me are just as strong," Chloe explained before repeating again, "I don't want to be your friend."

Elly uncurled herself and rolled back onto her other side, facing Chloe and her son, "Were you…testing me?"

Chloe grimaced, then hesitantly nodded, "Yes. After I read your card, I believe you do love me…I just…needed to know…that the idea of not being with me…wouldn't make you give up. That you'd keep fighting to be with me anyway…I didn't expect this…you to be so utterly heartbroken… I'm sorry for making you think that I could possibly only want to be friends with you."

"What are you saying, Chloe?" Elly whispered.

"I want us to be together," Chloe whispered back.

Elly broke into a gentle smile, "Really?"

"Really," Chloe confirmed.

Elly sat back up in her hospital bed, wiping away the tears that were still moist on her cheeks, "You want to be with me? For us to be together?"

Chloe shuffled forwards in her chair, cradling Elliot carefully one handed as she reached her other hand out and stroked it against Elly's cheek, "Yes and yes."

Elly reached out too, her hands on either side of Chloe's cheeks, trying to be mindful that Chloe still held her son against her chest, he was now settled between them and she didn't want to squash him, "The only answers I needed."

Elly leant forward to brush her lips against Chloe's but just as she was finally about to kiss the blonde, Chloe pulled back, "We can't."

"We can't?" Elly repeated, still cradling Chloe in her hands, "I thought you said…"

Chloe pulled back further, her hand dropping from Elly's, Elly reluctantly letting go of her cheeks, finding herself staring down at Elliot.

"It's because I have a newborn that I need to put all my energy and focus into, isn't it?" Elly assumed sadly.

Chloe gently stood up and quietly handed Elliot to Elly, helping to settle him into Elly's arms before sitting back on the edge of the chair, reaching out and placing her hand on Elly's shoulder reassuringly.

"It's not about your son at all as to why we can't. I'm not going to pretend I have any clue yet on how much I would even want to be involved in Elliot's life. I need some time to figure all that out, if that's okay," Chloe confessed softly.

"Of course, I'd never ask you to do or be anything more than you'd ever be comfortable with to Elliot. We don't have to have any of this worked out about how this will work between us anytime soon. We can take our time. I just need to know you're willing to take the time we need to figure out how you and I together will work and that you want to be with me and we can do this," Elly offered.

"Right...except we can't...not yet," Chloe whispered, before sighing, "I can't cause of Pierce."

Elly shrugged, trying to appear relaxed in her tone, "Go home and break up with Pierce. I'll be here waiting for you. I know you don't want to cheat on him, I don't want us to cheat on him, that's not how we start what's between us."

"If only it was that simple," Chloe sighed again.

"You don't want to...end things with Pierce?" Elly asked, nearly breaking at the thought.

"I'm not going to say I'd be jumping with joy to have this conversation with Pierce. I will end things with him so we can start to figure all this stuff out between us. It's just I can't have that conversation with him right now...Pierce is in New York," Chloe eventually informed Elly.

"Oh," replied Elly with disappointment, not really sure how to take that news.

Chloe ran her hand through her hair, "Pierce flew out yesterday morning when I went looking for you. I should've mentioned it earlier but didn't really seem to be anything worth mentioning until now. Pierce is there to-"

Set up a grand proposal to you there, fly you over there? Move over there? Get you to move over there?!

"Is Pierce moving to New York? Are you going too? Is Pierce trying to take you away from all this craziness that happens in Erinsborough? Is he taking you away from me?" Elly asked with rapid fire, not even halting when Chloe put her hands up to slow Elly down, "We don't have to be together, if the only way to keep you here is to be your friend only and you stay with Pierce then I'll do that. I can't handle you moving to New York, Chlo! I couldn't bare it, I-"

"Elly!" Chloe finally intervened, "I'm not moving to New York. Whatever gave you that idea?"

Elly glanced downwards sheepishly, "Pierce can do that kind of thing for you...I won't ever be able to. I panicked at the thought of..."

"Losing me to the big city," Chloe finished then when Elly looked back up at her, "I love my life here, I'm not going anywhere. I don't need any huge life in another city just because Pierce can provide that."

"I'm glad," Elly replied quietly, trying to remain calm after her freak out.

Chloe explained further, "Pierce is over there for work. One of his businesses is about to collapse and he was needed to try and save it. He flew out yesterday...right around the time Finn found Bea and I. Pierce did ask me to go with him, make it a romantic getaway but I didn't want to. I didn't want to go on a romantic getaway with him, not when it's the busiest time of the year at Lassiters and I'm needed for my job there...which is kind of a moot point now as I called Terese after I spoke to my family to let her know what happened to us and the first words out of her mouth were 'Chloe, you've been through a traumatic experience, go see a counselor, we'll reimburse you and you can come back to work...let me look at my calendar...Monday 6th January. Come back then as I'm not having an employee resume work before we know you don't have PTSD.'"

"Terese is a pretty understanding boss," Elly recognized, trying not to giggle at Chloe's impression of her boss.

"Yeah she is," Chloe agreed, "Now I have time off work that I hadn't planned for but it might be nice...it could give us some time to spend together and work this whole thing out...or some of it at least."

"That'd be really nice," Elly smiled.

"But whatever this is and how it's going to work between the pair of us and your son...it can't happen until I've broken up with Pierce," Chloe informed her.

Elly found her eyes drift to the telephone next to her bedside table.

Chloe immediately caught on, "I can't break up with Pierce over the phone, Elly. I may not be in love with him but I respect him enough to know that he deserves to hear this from me in person. Besides I haven't even had a chance to call him about the ordeal I went through due to the time difference over there so I can't exactly call him to say this massive thing happened whilst he was on his flight over there and because of all that...it made me see that what I feel for you never went away."

And also, the last thing I need is Pierce flying back here at the thought that I need him when what I really need is this break from him before I end things once he returns. I need some time to figure out how I need to make things work with Elly now that I know she loves me and what Elly having a newborn even means for us...me...

"I know, he does deserve that respect," Elly conceded, "How long will he be away for? I mean he'll be home for Christmas, right?"

Chloe shook her head, "It's doubtful. Whatever business problems he's having, when he asked me to come with him, he was talking about the opportunity for us to spend a white Christmas...and New Year's over there..."

Elly sighed but tried to distract herself by rocking her son, "So Pierce is going to be over there for a while…? I don't suppose you would want to…jump on the next flight out to New York, break up with Pierce there then get on the next flight home? Quick round trip and you'll be home in time for Christmas to be with us…okay maybe not back in time for Christmas. You gain a day there, you spend a day or so there depending on flights, you lose a day on the way back...but y'know Pierce finds out and you come home to us."

Chloe almost smirked at Elly's suggestion and her clear impatience for them to start working on being together as a couple, "Elly, I can't fly all the way to New York then come straight back just to break up with Pierce. It's a cute idea but a little on the extreme side."

"Okay," Elly pouted, "So, how do you want...this to work between us until Pierce gets home? I mean you said you now have time off work and we could spend time together..."

Chloe leant back towards Elly, slipping her hand to Elly's cheek and being comforted when Elly fell into the touch, "We spend time together...as friends. We haven't spent a whole lot of time together of late with...me being with Pierce and you preparing to have your baby. I can come in and see you here until you get discharged. Then once your home with your family, settling into your new life as a mum...we can hang out together...the three of us. However this thing between us is going to work, it needs to work for all three of us otherwise we're just going to end up hurting each other plus Elliot in the process."

"I like the sound of that. You're right, we need to make sure this works for all of us. I don't want to get my son hurt if I stuff things up like I always do and you're the last person I'd ever want to cause any hurt. We do this right, take our time and we'll find the way to be together that works for all of us," Elly agreed.

"Precisely," Chloe smiled at the pair.

"But until we work out how this will work between us and Pierce returns so you can tell him it's over between the pair of you...we're not together?" Elly clarified.

"We're not together, just two friends spending time together with your son and getting to know things about each other that we don't already know," Chloe confirmed.

"And when you do see Pierce on his return so you can end it with him...we'll be together then?" Elly once more needed assurance.

"We'll be together then," Chloe agreed.

Chloe stood up, leaning over Elly and her son, slipped her arm around Elly's shoulders and pressed her lips to Elly's forehead.

Who am I kidding? I can say I want to wait until I break up with Pierce properly but that's not going to stop Elly and I being emotionally together for the next few weeks.

I'm already completely in love with Chloe...as if I'm going to be able to resist falling more and more in love with her everyday...broken up with Pierce or not...

When Chloe gently rested her head on Elly's, Elly leant over, kissing Chloe's cheek.

Pulling away, Elly closed her eyes for a moment, feeling peaceful in Chloe's embrace.

Peacefulness didn't last long as Elliot immediately started crying, bringing Elly to focus on trying to settle her son.

Glancing up at Chloe, Elly said, "I'm gonna have to get used to this."

"So am I," Chloe whispered.

Elly nervously asked, "You sure you don't just want to walk away from all this?"

"Not for the world," Chloe decided.