It was all quiet at the dinner table the next morning. Kriss and Yvonne couldn't even look at each other without smirking
"What's wrong?" Lilimay asked suddenly "it feels weird in here"
"It's okay" Yvonne and Kriss announced in unison
"Are you angry at anyone?" Lilimay continued "I'm sorry if I've done something wrong"
"No" Yvonne assured her "no-one has done anything wrong"
The rest of the meal carried on exactly as it began – in complete silence. Kriss and Yvonne waited until Jemimah, Lilimay, Junior, Chloë, Llewey and Jim-Bexley had finished before saying anything else.
"I'm sorry about last night" Kriss announced suddenly "I didn't mean to ruin it"
"You didn't" Yvonne assured her "after you went, we had wonderful sex"
"Us too" Kriss smiled back
"Why did you come and see us at all?" Yvonne enquired, "You knew we were going out"
"Lilimay and Jemimah told me you were treating them differently to Junior" Kriss responded "you need to talk to them about it"
"Okay" Yvonne promised, "I will"
Arnold didn't do much all day; he either stared into his food or stared into space. He ignored everyone and even Lilimay couldn't get him to snap out of it.
Kriss was having a terrible day. Both Theo and Alicia-May were ill, Dave was doing an excellent job of taking care of Alicia-May and Lilimay and Jemimah were doing their best to help with Chloë, Llewey and Jim-Bexley but Kriss needed Arnold to help with Theo. He could see that she was struggling and everyone could hear Theo screaming
"Arnold" Kriss asked "can you take over with Theo to give me a break?"
"No" he muttered, "I'm busy"
"You're just staring into space" she yelled, "Now hold our son"
Arnold reluctantly held out his hand and took Theo from Kriss. Arnold held Theo for thirty or forty seconds before screaming at him and handing him back
"I can't deal with him now" Arnold yelled, "He's your son too"
"Whose the one who has him 20 hours out of 24?" Kriss yelled back "whose the one who gets up to him in the middle of the night?"
"Well…" Arnold stuttered
"I do" Kriss interrupted "and so does Dave, he's more of a father to Chloë and Theo than you are and you're saying that you can't give him half an hour when he is poorly"
"I'm sorry Kriss" Arnold answered sincerely "give him here"
Kriss gave Theo a kiss handed him to Arnold and walked out of the room.
Kriss kept walking until all she could hear was her footsteps. She leant on the wall and sunk to the floor with her head in her hands. She started crying, she couldn't cope, she had five children and she couldn't cope. She cried and cried and cried until a tiny voice stopped her
"Mummy" the tiny voice said "would you like a cuddle?"
Kriss rubbed her eyes changing the sight from a blurry outline of a little girl to the perfect picture of her eldest daughter Chloë"
"Oh, hello darling" Kriss smiled "yes please, but mummy's got a head ache so you need to be quiet"
Chloë and Kriss sat there for about thirty minutes before Chloë started fidgeting
"Do you feel better now mummy?" Chloë asked, "Can we go back to daddy and daddy Dave?"
"Okay darling" Kriss answered, "let's go"
"What was wrong mummy?" Chloë asked
"I was just worried about Alicia-May and Theo" Kriss answered "don't worry about me"
Kriss and Chloë walked quietly through Starbug to where the chaos had been 45 minutes before. Instead of all the children yelling and Arnold yelling back the place was quiet, the only thing you could hear was Theo's tiny baby cry.
"Ah good" Arnold said enthusiastically as he entered the room with Theo "he's hungry"
"Oh okay" Kriss agreed "hand him over, I'll take him home and feed him"
Kriss took Theo back to her quarters to feed him. Kriss looked behind her and saw Chloë skipping along. When Chloë caught up with them she started to walk normally. Kriss could see her daughter's brain working away, Kriss knew what Chloë was thinking about; she was going to be five years old in a few days.
"What are you thinking about Chloë" Kriss asked her, just to make sure
"My birthday" Chloë responded, "Can we have a party?"
"Oh, I don't know about that" Kriss answered "you have to ask daddy and daddy Dave"
"But…" Chloë replied, "if they say yes will you let me?"
"Sure"
"I don't want Junior there"
"But he's your brother, why not?"
"I don't like him, he's horrible to me"
"Oh, so who do you want to come to your party then?"
"You, Daddy Dave, Daddy, Llewey, Jim-Bexley, Alicia-May, Theo, Lilimay, Jemimah and Yvonne no one else"