EC Brenway - thank you so much for your feedback! Glad your eager to read more! Chloe really should tell Aaron it's her life!
Chapter Forty
Monday 30th December – 12.30pm
Bea walked into the Kennedy household, seeing her sister on the couch, let out a bright, "Hi, sis!"
"Shush," Elly immediately responded as she turned to Bea.
Bea grimaced, "Right, sorry, baby Elliot, I really gotta get used to being quiet when I'm around you as the lil guy is never far from you."
Elly turned her head back to nod towards Chloe, "Actually I mean 'shush' because of Chlo."
Bea walked around the second couch and sat down on it, where she realized Elly had been lying on the couch Chloe had been using as a makeshift bed for the past five nights. Elliot was curled up in his mum's arms whereas Chloe was in a seated position on the opposite end of the couch except that her head was splayed backwards as she had her neck craned on the top of the back of the couch and had fallen asleep as she was snoring gently.
Bea giggled softly at the sight then even more so when she noticed, "Did Chloe fall asleep in the middle of giving you a foot rub?"
Elly rolled her eyes at Bea's teasing, "Yes."
"That is the cutest thing I've ever seen," Bea whispered, "After everything Chloe has been doing for you the past few days, she still tries to make time to give you a foot rub...and promptly falls asleep in the middle of it."
Elly pouted, "I can't move my feet out of her hands which are covered in massage oil because I don't want to wake her but my feet are getting cold from the oil and her hands aren't warm anymore."
"So, you're just lying here on the couch until Elliot forces you to get up by needing a change or a feed and you have no choice but to wake your sleeping beauty?" Bea asked.
"Pretty much," Elly admitted, "I love Chloe to no end but I knew she needed sleep and she wouldn't listen to me. She was insisting on making me lunch before she started to give me the foot rub and now, she'll probably feel bad for not doing it when I'm already is awe of what she has been doing for me since she started staying here."
Bea found herself making faces at her nephew as he stared at her before addressing Elly, "Good thing I came home from work for my lunch break to get something and to check on my gorgeous nephew of course. I'll make you both lunch."
"Thanks, Bea," Elly whispered.
"How are you and Chloe doing? I've been trying to give you both some space to figure this whole thing out of the pair of you...being a couple and having a newborn in your life," Bea inquired.
Elly smiled down at her son then over at Chloe, "I love being a mum, it's the most amazing thing I've ever done in my life. I'm so tired and exhausted every day but just looking at Elliot when he is in my arms like this makes it all worth it. I'm so in love with Chloe. She has been so perfect with me...except for the not letting me kiss her part that she still won't let me do. But I'm getting worried it's becoming...too much for Chloe."
"What makes you say that?" Bea asked then nodded at Chloe's sleeping form, "Because she's falling asleep in the middle of trying to help you with something?"
"Not just that I'm just worried she's doing too much and she's not taking time to herself to recover properly from not sleeping at night. Instead she mostly gets me to sleep for several hours during the day and she looks after Elliot but she won't let me do the same for her. The only time she is taking for herself is not even for herself. She's spending time with Aaron, David and Hendrix well mostly Hendrix taking him out to dinner or going over to the boys for meals because she's trying to make it up to Hendrix for not getting him to Sydney. She's trying to prove to him that he's important to her and that her ending things with Pierce doesn't change that since he has issues with thinking his parents don't care for him. Don't tell Chloe I told you cause she's embarrassed by it but Aaron and David all but carried Chloe back to ours last night as she fell asleep on their dinner table in the middle of their meal. I told them to take her back to her place to sleep the night in peace but by then she was forcing herself to stay awake to be here for us when I knew she needed a night off," Elly explained.
"Maybe Suze, Karl and I need to help the pair of you out a bit more," Bea offered, "I think Suze and Karl have been like me and letting the pair of you attempt to fall into your roles of raising this lil guy as a couple."
"That'd be nice, I hate asking for help but I think we need it. I'll let Chloe sleep as long as she can now but maybe I should ask Suze and Karl to take Elliot tomorrow during the day so Chloe and I can catch up on our sleep. Then maybe...since you're not working on Wednesday for New Year's Day...you wouldn't mind taking him too? Just for a few hours during the day, you can wake me when he needs to be fed, I'll tell Suze and Karl the same for tomorrow," Elly suggested.
"Lock it in, I would love to spend the day looking after my nephew for you two," Bea agreed, "Two days of catching up on your sleep will do the pair of you the world of good. So...when you say you and Chloe will catch up on "our" sleep...does that mean in the same bed?"
Elly rolled her eyes at Bea, "No, it does not, Bea. You know that. Chloe will be here on the couch and I will be in my bedroom. We're not sleeping together...either meaning of those words. Besides, when I need to be woken to feed Elliot, Chloe won't be."
Bea smirked at the pair, "Bet you can't wait for Pierce to get back so you can fall asleep in the same bed for once."
Elly shrugged, "I don't think Chloe is anymore. Like she's keen to break up with him to be with me but she's also not as she doesn't know what words to say to tell him. She's avoiding him. She's trying to pretend to me that she's not but her phone will vibrate with a text or a messenger app comment or a call and she's blanking him. She barely responds. She showed me one of the messages he sent her yesterday to ask how she should reply and she scrolled back to show me what he was referencing from last week and her replies are all 2-3 words long, mainly just giving him the like button to acknowledge she got it. So, he doesn't think Finn has kidnapped her again and Pierce needs to jump on a flight home probably."
"You don't want Chloe to distance herself from Pierce?" Bea asked confused.
"It's not that...Chloe hasn't said it to me but I think she's getting anxious over breaking up with Pierce because he part-owns Lassiters and though Terese is her boss, she still needs to report to Pierce in some capacity. I think she's afraid if he takes the break up badly her career will become very hard for her," Elly sighed, "And what I haven't told Chloe is that I'm terrified Elliot and I will become too hard on her career..."
"Terese will pull Pierce into line if he tries anything at work with Chloe. For that fact, I bet Paul would love to have a go at Pierce. How do you mean you think the pair of you will be too hard on Chloe's career?" Bea questioned.
Elly nodded at the sleeping woman, "Look at her, Bea, Chloe's barely coping as it is. She's got time off work for the next week to stay with us but then she goes back. How's she going to cope working full time if she keeps insisting on helping me so much with Elliot? I fear she's going to end up resenting me or deciding raising a baby isn't what she truly wants."
"Oh please, that's complete nonsense! Chloe loves you and she loves Elliot. Okay so she's pushing herself, like you aren't either. Terese will understand once she learns what Chloe is doing for the pair of you, she's a mum, she'll get it and give Chloe flexibility. Stop being so scared Chloe's going to struggle next week and talk to your girlfriend about it when she wakes up. If you two need more help from the rest of us, we are here to do that for you. I bet Aaron and David would adore babysitting Elliot for you too," Bea insisted.
"Fine," Elly pouted, "And she's not my girlfriend...yet."
"I don't see Chloe offering to rub my feet cause she and I are friends. She's your girlfriend and you know it," Bea chuckled.
"No, I want Chloe to be my girlfriend but until she can dump Pierce then I don't get to claim her as my girlfriend no matter how much I want to," Elly replied.
Before Bea could respond, Chloe suddenly awoke with a jolt, nearly scaring Elly when her hands grabbed at Elly's feet, "I'm awake, I'm good."
"You sure, baby? You should go back to sleep, you're absolutely wreaked," Elly told the blonde.
Chloe didn't acknowledge Elly, instead she looked down at her hands as she let go of Elly's feet and reached for a towel, she'd left on the coffee table to wash her hands of the massage oil, "What time is it? I need to make us lunch."
Before Elly or Bea could move, Chloe stood up and wandered to the kitchen, beginning to rifle through the fridge.
"See what I mean," Elly whispered to Bea.
"Yo, Chlo, why don't you go back to sleep? I'll make you girls some lunch," Bea offered.
Chloe turned around, seemingly surprised that she hadn't noticed her there next to Elly, "Oh...hi Bea. It's good, I got it."
Elly sat up and with Bea's help, placed her son into Bea's arms, "Can you go put him down in his cot for a nap and bring me back the baby monitor?"
As Bea shuffled off, Elly walked into the kitchen and immediately wrapped her arms around Chloe's waist, "You need to come back to the couch to sleep for a few hours, Chlo. Let Bea help us with lunch. You're exhausted and so am I. We can eat after a nap."
Chloe groaned reluctantly, "Fine, I'll go nap but only if you have lunch now not later when I do."
Elly held her hands around Chloe's waist as she led her back to the couch and Chloe laid down on her side on the couch. Chloe then reached out and held Elly's hands, "Lay with me until I'm asleep?"
"Isn't that against your rules?" Elly pointed out as she immediately laid down anyway with Chloe and wrapped her arms around her, "Fine, only for a minute."
Bea came back into the room several minutes later, surprised to see Chloe laying in Elly's arms.
Without words needed, Bea proceeded to make lunch for the three of them, putting her own in a paper bag to eat on her walk back to work. Bea smiled at Elly before leaving lunches for the pair on the coffee table along with the baby monitor and headed back to work.
As soon as Bea left the house, Chloe turned over to face Elly on the couch, "You're worried about me, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am," Elly answered as she squeezed Chloe's hips.
"Am I trying too hard to do too much and failing already?" Chloe wondered.
Elly pressed her lips to Chloe's forehead, "You're not failing us, you never could but yes you're trying to do so much. I love you for it so much. You just need to take a few hours every day to sleep, baby. I don't need you awake at all hours of the day and night. I spoke to Bea, I'm going to ask Suze and Karl to mind Elliot during the day tomorrow and Bea will do the same on Wednesday as she's off work. They can still wake me to feed Elliot but that will give us 2 days to catch up on some much-needed sleep for at least 4-6 hours during the day."
"And will this catching up on sleep involve you and I together cuddled up?" Chloe asked cheekily before yawning.
"Oh, now look at who doesn't want to keep her distance from me in a more than friends' way!" Elly giggled.
"Fine, no snuggling," Chloe groaned, "Sleep for the next couple days sounds good."
"The help is here for us, we need to use it a bit more especially since...next week you'll be going back to work...and I'm worried I'm putting too much on you that you won't be able to cope with work on top of us being a couple and helping me with Elliot," Elly admitted.
"I'm worried about work life too," Chloe confessed, "I won't be here for you during the day and need to adjust to managing my work day with little sleep at night."
"It's just something new for us to adjust to...like all couples do when one partner returns to work and then we'll go through it all again when I go back to teaching at some point in the back half of next year. We'll find a way to make this all work, right? With you back at work?" Elly asked.
Chloe leant her forehead against Elly's, "I'm not giving up on the three of us making this work ever."
"Chlo, are you worried about how Pierce might act around you at the hotel after you've broken up with him?" Elly asked.
"A little, yeah," Chloe replied through another yawn, "I'm trying not to think about it. Terese will have my back. I've been avoiding Pierce's calls since the other day for a range of excuses I've messaged him. I'm hoping by the time Pierce gets back he'll already know what I'm going to tell him...except for the breaking up with him for you part. He won't expect that. I'm not great at breaking up with people."
"Good thing this will be the last time in your life you'll need to," Elly promised then whispered, "Hey, Chlo...?"
"Hmm," Chloe whispered back as she closed her eyes.
"Are you my girlfriend yet?" Elly asked quietly.
Elly sighed and shook her head as she realized Chloe had fallen asleep in her arms, deciding to herself, "I'll take that as a maybe."
Hearing her son begin crying through the baby monitor, Elly reluctantly pulled herself out of her embrace with Chloe, and stood up from the couch. Turning off the baby monitor so it didn't wake Chloe, Elly left the sleeping woman to go check on the infant.
