Chapter 24
The day of the wedding arrived. Kryten officiated; Chloë and Alicia-May were bride's maids. Llewey, Jim-Bexley and Theo were pageboys and Cat was best man. He wasn't a very good best man, but he was best man nonetheless. It was a short service, but it was lovely.
Arnold agreed to have Chloë and Cat and Kryten offered to look after Llewey, Jim-Bexley and Alicia-May between them so that Dave and Kriss could go on honey-moon – to the lower decks of the ship – they took Theo with them because Kriss was still feeding him.
"Where are you going Mummy?" Chloë sobbed
"I'm going on holiday with Daddy Dave" Kriss answered "it's a special holiday"
"Are you coming back?" Chloë managed to say between sobs
"Of course my darling" Kriss started to cry too
"Where am I going to be?"
"You'll stay with Daddy"
"Why is Theo going with you?"
"Because he's still a baby" Kriss smiled and wiped the tears away from her face "you're Mummy's big girl, now be brave for me and Daddy Dave!"
"Okay Mummy" Chloë stopped crying, "I'll be brave"
"Give me a hug my precious" Kriss leant forward and hugged Chloë, as she did she looked at Dave; he could see a mixture of sadness and joy in her eyes. Sadness because she was leaving four of her five children for the longest she'd ever left them before and joy because she was going on her honeymoon.
When Kriss, Dave and Theo got to where they were going Kriss decided to write a letter to her mother. She hadn't sent her anything since her father died five years ago.
Dear Mum
I have some wonderful news for you. First of all I'd like to tell you about your grandchildren, all five of them. First there's Chloë, she's four now. Her father is Arnold Rimmer; I'm not with him anymore. Chloë's lovely, she looks just like I did when I was four. She's very sensitive but extremely loving to everyone, especially her brothers and sister.
Then comes my three year old identical twin boys Llewey and Jim-Bexley, their father is Dave Lister, I'm still with him. Llewey is very cheeky and gets into everything, Jim-Bexley is more nervous but put them together and it's a total nightmare.
Alicia-May comes next. She's very precious, we nearly lost her, she was born three months early and it was touch and go for a while, but she's eighteen months old now and doing really well! Dave is her daddy too!
Then comes three-week-old Theo. He's my baby. He's got bright blonde hair and deep blue eyes, he is Chloë's full brother, his father is Arnold Rimmer.
I have some more wonderful news. I'm married, to Dave Lister (that's Llewey, Jim-Bexley and Alicia-May's father. He's lovely, he loves me so much and has taken Chloë and Theo on as his own.
Don't worry about me, Mum, I'll be fine, I've got five lovely children, a wonderful husband and Kryten, a service mechanoid who does all the house work for me. I hope you and Moose are okay.
I enclose pictures of me, Dave, Arnold and the children (you'll have to ignore the state of me in the early one with Theo, I'd only just given birth) I've written names on the back so you know who's who.
Once again don't worry about me, Mum, I'm very happy!
All my love
Kristine xxxx