AN: Sorry for the wait for the chapter. I'm on less pain meds now. Although I've had such a funny week. My laptop had it's own version of a mental breakdown, I broke my glasses right down the middle so I'm currently so blind my laptop is centimetres from my face. I spilt ribena all over my white duvet. And I cried over a April Kepner's Engagement on Grey's anatomy, even though I've seen it 10 times. Life is weird haha.
I might not be updating much at the minute due to personal stuff. But I'll do what I can.
I hope this chapter is okay for you. Let me know what you think in reviews. I'll see you all soon!
"Mommy, do you and momma hafta go to work?" Luke asked his Mom who was pouring him a bowl of cereal. Boxing day had been pretty uneventful, but the exhaustion of Christmas was overpowering meaning they all went to bed pretty early. But that also Meant Luke and Lizzie had gotten up pretty early. The rest of the kids were still in bed, but the 2 that were awake were watching their mom's go about their morning routine before they had to leave. JJ was off packing Emily's go bag, because the older woman had left it till last minutes to do.
"We do bud, we've got to make sure there's no bad guys." Emily said placing the bowl on Weetabix in front of the small child. He was one of the only ones other than herself to like them. The others found them to 'weird' as they had said. Or when Gracie tried them, she just spat them all over Alice, both mothers laughed. Alice however did not.
He frowned and looked to Lizzie who was eating her bowl of Cheerio's. "Mom, we know that, but we all miss you when you're not here. We don't like it when you go away for a long time." The girl with long curled mousey blonde hair said.
"We don't like it either and believe me when I tell you your Momma and I miss you lots and lots. But we have to help other families and little boys and girls like you do." Emily had taken a seat opposite the two children. Hoping a short conversation could make them okay with the fact they had to work. There had been a few conversations like this as they had gone back to work recently, and again in the past after any time off. It was normal.
Luke pouted, pushing his cereal away. "It's not fair." He crossed his arms over his chest and sulked. He wanted his moms.
The mother pushed his bowl closer to Luke again. "What's not fair kiddo." She mixed his spoon round in the bowl and added, "Eat it up please." She hated the mornings the kids were like this. She felt extremely guilty for working, but it was something she had to do. The pair of them wouldn't be themselves if they couldn't work and couldn't so the job they were meant to do.
The dark-haired boy protested. He was going to try hard to get his way. He was stubborn just like his mom. "Stay home, don't go to work. I want to play games with you and Momma."
"Listen, if me and Momma don't have to go away for work, we'll play your favourite game tonight and you can stay up past bedtime how does that sound?" She hoped bribing her son might work.
"Could we just come with you if you can't stay home?" Lizzie asked finishing her bowl of cereal.
"That's not how it works baby. If it did, I would take you every day." She finished seeing her partner walk in fully dressed for work, in low cut dark jeans which she loved and a blue shirt, which Emily loved.
"Hey Em, your bag is packed and with mine at the front door. How are things in here." JJ asked walking into the room to grab some fruit and yoghurt for her breakfast. She could sense the odd tone as she walked in the room, so she stopped by the seats taken up by three participants and looked to see what was going on.
Luke jumped up from his chair wrapping his arms round JJ's legs. "Momma don't go to work. Please stay." The kids weren't stupid, even at 5 and a half, the child knew that tears only worked on Momma. They worked on Mommy too. But Momma was easier to persuade. "I don't want you to leave."
JJ got down on her knee's in front of the young boy who looked to be Emily's double. "Alright baby. I know." She wrapped him in a hug. Once his arms wrapped round her she stood up with the small boy in her arms still. "We have to go but Alice said if it's not wet, she'll take you to the park."
"Can't we come to work with you? We haven't been in an extra extra super-duper long time." Lizzie exclaimed, agreeing with her younger brother. She hated it when her mom's went to work.
"I know. Not today, but maybe we can talk to Uncle Aaron and see if we can bring you in tomorrow?" JJ said looking to Emily who just shrugged her shoulders. Luke had stopped his tears and begged to be put down. So, JJ let him go and he ran out of the room. "Hey Lizzie, why don't you go put the TV. You can have a movie day with Alice." Lizzie soon forgot about going to work and raced from the kitchen. They never really got to watch TV in the mornings.
JJ grabbed the things for her breakfast and took a seat next to Emily who had sat back in her chair running her hands though her freshly cleaned hair. "What brought that on?"
The woman in the park pants suit shrugged, "I don't know. He brought it up. I don't think Lizzie would have said anything if Luke hadn't." Lizzie usually never did say anything. She was generally a lot quieter than the rest and didn't voice her opinion on things like this unless she was alone, or everyone else was saying the same thing. It was almost a relief to see school was having a positive impact on some of the 9-year olds issues.
"How are we going to get out without a major tantrum this morning?" They remembered back to when a big tantrum happened, and JJ had to physically pull the smaller child off of Emily's legs and she tried to walk to get to the car outside
"Alice told us to wake her when we go or when the kids are up. So hopefully she'll manage to keep him calm. I'll find him on my way up to her. Give him time to calm down."
"Let's hope." JJ had both yoghurt and small slices of strawberry on her spoon about to put it in her mouth, but Emily swiped it and grinned. Grabbed herself another spoon eating it quickly to stop her wife from grabbing at her spoon. The two shared the morning meal before Emily got up to wake Alice and find her son. JJ was going to get the stuff in the car and grab the files she had done over the Christmas break.
JJ walked to the door picking up the stuff she had left by the door, she went to grab the keys from the table, they weren't there. She but the go bags down looking through them. Where did she put the keys? "Em, do you have the keys?" She called up the stairs, trying to be quiet enough not to wake the other 4 who were in bed.
Her wifes head popped round the top of the stairs. "No, they should be on the table down there." A jingle of keys made JJ turn around. Luke had hold of them. He was stood in the doorway of the living room, keys in his small hands. She got on her knees in front of the boy who didn't want them to go to work.
"Luke, you know not to take Momma's keys. Can I have them back."
He shook his head putting his hands behind her back. "Can you stay for one more day?" He rocked back and forth on his heels hoping his momma would stay home.
The blonde mother closed her eyes and sighed. Be strong. Don't give in she thought to herself knowing she was the easier going parent. "Bud, your gonna play lots of games with Alice and your brothers and sisters. You get to watch lots of TV. If me and Mommy was here, we would be doing homework. Pretty boring huh?" She raised an eyebrow. The kid always loved to play games. He was a little board game genius. She could hear footsteps coming down the stairs, she knew the footsteps of her wife and Alice. They were watching.
"But I miss you Momma, and when you go to work you don't come home." Luke avoided his mothers eyes. He saw the people behind her avoiding them too. The 5 year old just wanted his parents. All he knew was that his Momma and Mommy had been off work for a long time. They had so much fun. They dropped the kids off at school and picked them up when they didn't have appointments. But now they were going back to work. He didn't like it.
"Not all the time you silly goose. Sometimes I have to help other boys and girls. But we always come back don't we."
"Yeah." The boy rolled his eyes. He had inherited his mothers tendency to eye roll at everything.
"So how about you pass me the keys? Me and mommy will come home tonight okay?"
Luke didn't like it. He had lots of fun over Christmas. He liked when his moms were home and missed them loads when they were gone. It wasn't fair. His moms kept leaving loads. He didn't like it. He threw the keys and ran past his mom and upstairs.
Emily and Alice had witnessed the entire thing. They had stayed at the bottom of the stairs watching JJ who seemed to have a handle on things. That was until the keys went flying into her face and Luke went running past. "I got him; you guys go. After your gone they are always fine." Alice said making her way up stairs as Emily went to her wife.
"You alright sweetie?" She pulled JJ up from her kneeling position on the floor.
"Ooo, yeah." She groaned as she stood up from the floor. "I'm getting old though." The younger mother felt her bones creaking as she stood from the floor. Her kids had to grow some.
A chuckled escaped Emily's lips accidentally. "Shush, your 34, you're not old." She took JJ's hand away from her eye. "Nice shiner." She laughed. This wasn't the first time one of them had got a black eye from the kids. Who knew children were so lethal?
"Your kidding?" JJ's jaw dropped she brought her hand back to her eye feeling to see if there was a lump that was noticeable. She couldn't feel anything.
Emily pulled JJ towards the mirror by their door. "Nope take a look." She pointed to the mirror. Bruises from kids always seemed to show so much quicker.
JJ went close to the mirror, she poked at the bruise just below her brow. It wasn't too bad, but it was noticeable. "Fantastic." She continued to poke at it.
"Come on we need to go." The older woman pulled her wifes hands away from her face, handing her, her go bag and the bag with the files.
"What about Luke?"
"He'll be fine. They're strong kids. It's not a normal day, he's not in school, we've had a lot of time off this year. They're all going to struggle a bit as we get back to normal. I mean this is your 4th day in work since June. I've not been working much more than you. So, we have to suck it up their gonna resent us for a while. But we'll phone them at lunch, and check in as much as we can, but when their back at school things will be normal. Just a couple more weeks." Emily grabbed the keys from the floor. She wished this process could be easier for the kids, but it was something they always had to do. It would always be hard. But it was something that they had to get used to. The questions only started when Henry hit 6 which was 4 years ago, so they were still figuring things out.
"Yeah. I guess." JJ shrugged and pouted. She knew they would be okay. Doesn't mean that she was okay going to work.
"Come on let's go." Emily took her wifes hand and they walked out the front door. Things would be fine. Work would go by quick and they could come home to their children.