A/N: Good evening, hello to you all. Another chapter for your perusal as I sit here and wait for the Commonwealth gold medal netball match between Australia and New Zealand. I figured in the remaining half an hour before the first whistle I might as well do something useful!
As ever, I couldn't do what I do without the tireless patience of my amazing beta, who puts up with my nonsense! Thanks!
-0-
Andy was cosy and warm, and smiling in her sleep when something poked her in the arm repeatedly. She was dreaming that Miranda was blowing on the back of her neck and giving her goosebumps, but the poking was annoying her and she groaned in her sleep as she tried to pull herself away from dream-Miranda. She felt something pull at the covers, untucking them with some difficulty before it got into bed with her.
For one irrational moment, Andy supposed it was Patricia but couldn't make any sense of that thought in the half-wakeful state she was in.
"Andréa?" Miranda mumbled, nuzzling her neck with a cold nose.
Andy wasn't sure if it was the sensation or her name that finally brought her out of sleep, but she cracked open an eyelid and immediately noticed two things: firstly there was a little boy in her arms, breathing deeply against her chest, and secondly Miranda's arms were now wrapped around her, cradling her gently so that she was leant against Miranda's body.
"Oh," she said, frowning as she tried to understand what she was seeing.
"Go to sleep darling," Miranda whispered, sounding half asleep herself.
Ever one to do as she was told, Andy mentally shrugged and pressed back into Miranda's body, pulling Sam even closer into her arms and falling back to sleep.
-0-
"Um, Mom?"
Andy blinked as she woke up, wondering who was calling her Mom, and why they were in her apartment. Slowly coming to she glanced down, remembering vaguely that Sam had joined her in the night, and then remembering that she wasn't in her apartmentbut in Miranda's house, in her room, in her bed.
The mumble against the back of her neck confirmed that all the worries she'd had about snuggling up to Miranda were moot, as it seemed the woman in question was very much a cuddler, and was plastered against Andy's back with not a care in the world.
"Girls?" Andy said, trying to look around at where they were.
"Um, hi Andy," they both said awkwardly. "Mom's cuddling you," Cassidy stated, tilting her head to the side.
"Yeah," Andy whispered. "I caught that."
"Um, and Olivia and Nicholas are in bed with you too," she pointed, but Andy couldn't be bothered to turn. "We came in to tell you they weren't in their beds when we went to look in on them," Caroline said, blushing a little as Andy grinned, "but we still can't find Sam."
"He's here," Andy reassured them, tucking the covers under his shoulders so he could still breathe.
"Oh, okay," Cassidy said, looking a little put out.
"Are you not getting in too?" Andy asked, chuckling when the light reappeared in Cassidy's eyes. "Just don't wake anyone up when you hop in, I don't know when the other two came in, but I bet they're exhausted," she said, shifting again into Miranda's body and suppressing a moan as she felt Miranda's breast against her back.
Caroline disappeared out of view, but Cassidy gently lay down next to Andy, gripping her hand to make sure she didn't fall out. Miranda's bed was huge by Andy's reckoning, but there was now seven people in it, and it was feeling a little crowded.
"Andy?" Cassidy asked quietly.
"What's up munchkin?" Andy urged, smiling as Sam wriggled around until he woke up and clambered over Andy and in between her and Miranda. Andy wasn't sure whether she was happy or sad about the development, until she realised Cassidy was still waiting for her.
"Sorry," Andy said, shifting a little closer.
"Are you and Mom, like, girlfriends or something?" she asked, refusing to meet Andy's eye.
"Cassidy, Andréa and I are whatever we are," Miranda said suddenly. "I admit that this particular situation is not something you are used to seeing, but we had a trying day yesterday, and nowhere for Andréa to sleep."
"But you're like, cuddling," Cassidy said, ignoring Miranda's stern tone. "You never cuddle anyone but us."
"Cass, I think what your Mom means is that we're not sure what we are. Right now, I'm your Mom's friend, but when - or if - something changes, you and Caroline will be the first to know."
Andy felt Miranda's thumb stroke her hip before she retracted her arm completely, leaving Andy colder than she should have been wrapped up in the million thread count sheets.
"Fine," Cassidy said. "But I wish you were going out."
Andy's heart thumped painfully in her chest. Someone wanted her, someone other than the people that should have wanted her. It was the fears of her childhood still coming through, a part of her she thought she'd overcome, but she couldn't help it. She leaned forward and kissed Cassidy's forehead.
"Thanks munchkin."
"Mom?" Caroline said from behind them.
"Yes Bobbsey?"
"Can we make pancakes with Cara?"
"Is Cara here already? Well, I don't see why not, as long as she doesn't mind," Miranda sighed. "Is it something you wish to do on your own, or would you mind Olivia tagging along?"
"We don't mind," Cassidy said, peering over Andy at her mother. "Can we wake her up?"
"Best not to," Andy said immediately. "I'd let them rest, they wouldn't necessarily have had much sleep the last few days."
"As Andréa said, Bobbsey's. You two go and have your showers and get dressed. When Olivia wakes, and has showered as well, we'll be down to help you."
"What about pancakes though?" Caroline said, the frown she was no doubt wearing coming through in her voice.
"What about asking Cara to make some of those cupcakes you were both raving about so much, then when the children are awake, we can have breakfast together."
"Okay Mom," they said in unison. Cassidy pressed a kiss to Andy's cheek and she heard Caroline do the same for Miranda, before slipping out of bed and leaving the two women alone, with three sleeping children.
"I manhandled you during the night," Miranda said after a while. "I apologise."
"Don't," Andy whispered. "I'm not sorry."
"No?" Miranda asked, a tentative hand brushing Andy's ribs.
"No," Andy repeated, her breath shaking when Miranda's hand started moving along her side, down past her hip to her thigh, and slowly back up to the sides of her breasts where she had to close her eyes at the careful caress. "Miranda?"
"I apologise again. Now is not the time," Miranda whispered, sounding as sorry as Andy was at the thought of not continuing, rather than her actions.
"Perhaps," Andy swallowed thickly, "perhaps later?"
"Definitely," Miranda said.
Andy couldn't be sure, but she thought she felt a tiny kiss to her shoulder and that alone was something that she was going to treasure until they could revisit the conversation their two bodies definitely wanted them to have.
"Did you hear the other two come in last night?" Andy asked.
"Olivia apparently found Nicholas wandering around the hall looking for her. She brought him in here and I persuaded her to stay; she looked exhausted."
"I'm not surprised," Andy whispered, rolling a little to look at the two kids clinging to Miranda's back. "She's so strong."
"Indeed," Miranda hummed, smirking just a little as Sam mewled, stretching his arms above him as he blinked owlishly.
"Hey," Sam said suddenly, sitting up. "Where is we?"
"Where are we, darling," Miranda said.
Andy smiled as she saw his beaming face, clearly happy to be in such a huge bed, and no longer in the orphanage.
"I knows you!" he giggled, laying back down between the two of them and playing with Miranda's fingers where they rested on his stomach. "Is you's home?"
"Yes sweetheart," Miranda said sadly, "we're home now, for you and your brother and sister."
"'kay," he said with a shrug.
He lay for a while before he got bored, kicking his legs in the air so that the cover would rise before dropping on them and laughing madly at the whoosh of air that washed over him. Olivia was next to rise, tumbling out of bed and running around to stand in front of Andy.
"Sam, don't!" she hissed, looking a little worried.
"Hey, don't panic sweetie," Andy said gently, offering the little girl her hand. "He's okay. Miranda would have asked him to stop if he was doing something wrong."
"I don't want him to be naughty. I don't wanna go back," she admitted worriedly.
"Olivia, come here," Miranda said, resting her arm on Andy's side and holding out her hand.
Andy wrapped an arm around her as she knelt on the side of the bed, her head down and her hands clenched.
"I am not in the habit of saying something I don't mean," Miranda said gently, but firmly. "I will tell Samuel if he does something I do not approve of. In the meantime, I would like for you to do something." Olivia perked up a little and she nodded so hard, Andy was sure her little head was going to fall off. "I would love it if you would go with Andréa and have a shower before helping Caroline and Cassidy make some pancakes?"
"What about the boys?" Olivia looked down at Sam, who was now wriggling down under the covers and playing peek-a-boo with Miranda.
"The boys will be fine with me, I assure you," Miranda soothed. "Now would you go and check on my girls for me?"
"I guess," Olivia said, biting her lip and looking over at Nicholas, who was yet to stir.
"Alright," Andy said, rubbing her hands together. "Let's go and get showered and I'll find you something to wear."
"Ah, I shall get what's-her-name to bring over some clothing."
"Miranda!" Andy scoffed, although chuckled at the thought.
"She is paid to assist me, and right now, unless you wish to go to the store on your own, I need some assistance."
"Well, when you put it like that," Andy snickered.
"That's what I thought. Would you help Olivia while I sort it out?"
"Of course," Andy said.
"Wait! Tham go too!" Sam called, throwing himself out of bed and almost landing on his head, before toddling after Andy, who waited for him at the door before supervising Olivia in the shower and Sam's time on the toilet.
"You done yet princess?" Andy called, smiling at the happy little girl. "Would you like some help washing your hair?"
"Um, yes," she said, blushing. "Um, please."
"It's okay," Andy said, keeping one eye on Sam and another on what she was doing. Olivia's hair was like spun silk and it didn't take much to wash the tangles out of it.
"I finished!" Sam called, swinging his legs happily. It occurred to Andy that perhaps Sam was still young enough to be in diapers. As she cleaned him up, she asked Olivia about it.
"Um, he does yeah. Usually only at night though," she grimaced. "He wets the bed."
"Ah," Andy said, his escape into Miranda's room making a little more sense. She made a mental note to check on his bed when he was safely re-dressed, though in what she didn't know. She walked them both into Olivia's room, perusing the pile of clothes the girls had left them last night, trying to work out if there was something suitable.
"You-know-who will be here within the hour," Miranda said from the doorway, her cream nightgown now covered in a short, blood red kimono, cinched at the waist and showing her bare legs.
"Um, right," Andy said, unable to tear her eyes away from those thighs.
"Andréa?"
Blinking she looked up, blushing at the smug look on Miranda's face.
"Thank you for the compliment," she grinned, "but I was simply coming to tell you that I will also shower, if you can find something for them to wear."
"Sure. Oh and Sam needs night diapers," she commented.
"Ah, another thing I had not thought about. Why would that woman not give us some? The incompetence of people, I'm surprised -"
"Miranda?" Andy interrupted, stopping her mid-rant. "Not here," she said, nodding to the kids sitting on the bed waiting for her.
"Yes, my apologies. I shall call whats-her-name and tell her to include some."
"Alright. We'll go downstairs in a minute. What about Nicholas?"
"He seems to still be asleep. I'll check on him again after my shower."
Andy nodded and went back to the task of trying to find something for the two children to wear. Finally fashioning something akin to a pair of shorts onto Sam and helping Olivia into a t-shirt that was more like a dress, they walked with her downstairs, both a little clingy as they moved into the kitchen.
"Hey!" Caroline said, spinning around holding a cup of flour in her hand.
"No, Caroline put the flour down before you go anywhere," Cara reprimanded, rescuing the cup and everyone else from wearing it all day.
"Oops, sorry," she said, brushing her hands on her apron. "I'm Caroline just in case you didn't know."
"You the same!" Sam said, pointing to the twins with an open mouth.
"Not quite," Andy said, winking at Cassidy. "So princess, we thought maybe you'd like to help Cass and Caro with the cupcakes and then help Cara make some pancakes? If you don't want to, it's no big deal, we just thought it might be fun."
"Yes please," she said, turning her face into Andy's hand.
"Hey, you can wear Mom's apron," Cassidy suggested, getting a lonely apron from the hook behind the door and slipping it over Olivia's head. "She only uses it now and then."
"Are you alright with this?" Andy asked Cara.
"Of course," she said easily. "Those two are terrors in the kitchen; she'll probably be more help than either of them."
"Hey!" the girls protested, laughing with Cara as she stared at them. "So we already dropped an egg and stole some icing. We're just making sure it's fit for human consumption."
"You two are terrible," Cara said, nodding them back around and kneeling down in front of Olivia. "Hi Olivia, I'm Cara. I'm the nanny."
"Wha's that?" Olivia asked, looking up at Andy.
"It's someone who looks after the kids when the moms can't," Cassidy explained. "Cara's awesome, you'll love her."
"Thank you girls," Cara chuckled. "Shall I help you up?"
Andy left Olivia in Cara's capable hands, intending to perhaps sit and watch TV with Sam until Melody arrived with some clothes for them all, but was interrupted by the most terrified scream coming from upstairs.