Authors notes: Thanks for the reviews. Here's Chapter 15. Please read and review and I'll update again soon.
Chapter 15
Andrea looks at him, before fixing her eyes back on Annabelle. "No" She says shaking her head. "I don't want that."
Neil looks at her slightly confused by her response. "No?" He repeats, questioning the word.
"No!" Andrea says reinforcing the word.
"Why not?"
"Because it's not what I want. Do you not remember me saying I wanted to take things slowly?"
"Yeh, but after yesterday. As much as you try and deny it Andrea, you need help. Not just with the money side of things but with looking after Bella."
"Oh, I get mugged and suddenly I'm an unfit mother." She says, anger creeping in.
"That's not what I meant and you know it, Andrea." Neil retaliates.
"Okay, maybe things are a bit tight with money, but…"
"Finally" Neil mutters.
"But I am coping. Just as I would have coped if you hadn't of showed up, because lets face it Neil, there never was any guarantee that you would."
Neil shakes his head annoyed by how the conversation is going, Andrea being headstrong and stubborn was not what he'd anticipated when broaching the subject of them moving in together, but then again what did he expect, this was Andrea who been on and off with him ever since they'd been back in contact.
"I love you Andrea. I love both you and Bella. I just want to be with you both."
Andrea rolls her eyes. "Do you really Neil? Or is it just Bella, because that's why you got in touch. I know you love Bella but I can't believe you really love me. You just want us to be a happy family because it didn't work out with Phillipa and you might not get to see Jake. And I just come into it all because I'm Bella's mum."
"Sometimes I really don't get you Andrea. Do you feel nothing for me at all?"
Andrea who is now gazing at the floor answers, "I just don't want to get myself into something that isn't going to work."
"How do you know it won't work, if you don't try?" Neil asks.
"Because it won't! Where are you suggesting we live? We both live in flats, we'd have to get somewhere bigger and as your forever reminding me, I don't have any money. Would it be in Sunhill or here? There's Jake to think about, not to mention your job and of course it's not going to go down too well that you've set up home with me, Sunhill's very own undercover journalist! And what about my job, what am I going to do? I don't think you've even thought of all this. Tell me Neil, when you lose your precious job because you're shacked up with me, will you still love me then?" Andrea rages.
"You're being ridiculous!" Neil says, "We can easily work around all that."
"Yeh well I don't fancy having my heart broken, when it doesn't work out. And I certainly don't want Annabelle to get hurt."
"Who said anyone's going to get hurt? And you know, Andrea, that I would never do anything to hurt Bella!"
Andrea, who is now standing up, looks at Neil. "I think you should go, I don't need this. This is exactly what I've been trying to avoid."
"Well I'm sorry I don't read minds!" Neil bites, "You're the one who's gone and blown this completely out of proportion! And it's not me who made things difficult in the first place!"
"Oh really and what's that supposed to mean?" Andrea asks picking up Bella.
"You know exactly what I mean! There wouldn't be a problem with my job if you hadn't lied in the first place."
"That's it Neil play the journalist card!" Andrea responds sarcastically.
"Yeh my point exactly! It's all so bloody complicated because you had to go and be a stupid undercover journalist!"
Andrea rolls her eyes. "I was always a journalist, Neil."
"Yeh I know it's the one thing you forgot to mention when you decided to have an affair with me."
"Ohhh, so it's all my fault now is it. You seemed happy enough at the time!"
"I could have lost my job!"
"I know that's exactly what I'm trying to get through to you!" Andrea says cuddling Annabelle closer who starting to get upset by her parents bickering. "And anyway Neil, it wouldn't have made much difference anyway, you're a DI and I was a probationer."
Neil just shakes his head.
"Will you go Neil? You're upsetting Bella." Andrea says tightening her arms around their daughter.
"Me? I'm not the one who started this."
"Please!"
"Fine, but that's anything between us over with! I don't want the occasional night at yours or being there when you decide you need me for some reason!"
"Fine!"
"I'm not stopping seeing Bella though; I ring and let you know when I want to see her."
"Fine! Now will you just go!" Andrea says on the verge of hysterics.
Neil grabs his jacket and heads out the door, slamming it behind him.
As the door slams, Andrea bursts into tears, falling on the sofa she cuddles up to Bella burying her head against hers, letting the tears fall quick and fast.
Neil is sat in his car, outside her flat. Emotionally drained by feelings of anger, frustration and sadness.
Andrea lifts her face from her daughters, recognising Bella's cries amongst her own.
"I'm sorry Bella. I did try. It just wouldn't have worked in the end. It's for the best."
As if able to hear from outside what is being said, Neil's car slowly pulls away.