A/N: Updates galore today. I had a virus in my Chrome browser, funnily enough (I didn't find it funny, but it was weird) which I've now kicked to the kerb! So we're celebrating. I also took LOADS of awesome photos of my local are and they turned out wicked - everyone go and Google Noosa, Australia (unless you're going to stalk me...but whatever) - they won't be my photos, but you won't be disappointed!
Anyway. I'm happy, you should be happy.
We love more More, so have at it. I'm writing Chapter 20-something at the moment, so don't any of you worry. This thing is going until the end - somewhere definite I have already picked out. It's just these kids! Who knew they had such a mind of their own :D
To the ever graceful Spin - I'm naming her cos she deserves to be - the best beta and friend a gal could ask for. Love ya!
-0-
After four continuous days of Cara calling during nap time to let her know how upset and unsettled Sam was, Miranda finally had to face the truth about their new life.
"Andréa, this cannot continue," Miranda sighed as she sat on the bed that Thursday night.
Andy went very still and felt the first tendrils of inevitability seeping back into her. She'd thought Miranda would be forever, and that small part of her that she never allowed herself to listen to had become louder as they'd navigated the first inklings of family life. But now, it was all coming crashing back down.
"Right," she whispered. "I understand. I guess it wasn't ever more than a dream."
Without waiting for the actual words that would cement someone once again discarding her, Andy fled to the bathroom where she got in the shower, fully dressed in her pyjamas, and sat on the cold tiles, allowing her tears to flow with the water.
"Andréa? Andréa whatever is the matter?"
She wasn't sure how long she'd been there, but she was exhausted. She wasn't sure how long she'd been crying for, probably the whole time she'd been in the shower, and that had long since run cold. She felt Miranda's soft hands under her arms, her voice in her ear, but she didn't really hear her. Miranda didn't care. She was too much work, too much bother to compete with all her other facets of life.
"Andréa?"
She blinked as Miranda's face swum before her own.
"What is it darling? What's wrong? Tell me where it hurts."
"Nobody wants me," Andy said, her voice cracking under the truth. "Nobody ever wants me."
She was cold and wet, but it matched her melancholy perfectly and it wasn't until Miranda's warm body joined hers in bed that she realised what was happening.
"What are you doing?" Andy asked, looking around in shock, wondering where her pyjamas had gone. "Don't," she pushed at Miranda. "Don't prolong the inevitable."
"Darling? I don't know what you're talking about?"
It was like a dream. A terrible dream she couldn't wake up from. She could hear Miranda's voice, her beautiful voice soft and warm against her skin.
"You don't want me!" she wept.
"Where on earth did that idea come from?" Miranda said sounding scandalised.
"This cannot continue? Don't lie to me Miranda, I'm a big girl; I'm used to people deciding I'm not worth the effort. I'll just go."
She went to get out of the bed she didn't remember getting into but found Miranda clinging to her desperately, her arms around her shoulder and her legs around her hips.
"You will not leave me." Miranda hissed. "You said to me, promised even, that you would never leave me Andréa."
"But you said -"
"Whatever I said, there has been an obvious miscommunication. If you think for one moment I would send you away Andréa, like a scrap of cloth I would discard, you are so wholly mistaken I am ashamed at myself for allowing you to think so - even incorrectly."
Andy allowed Miranda to roll her over and she was suddenly cradling Miranda's smaller body with her own, the warm feeling creeping from her outer limbs to other parts of her that just couldn't help but react when she realised that both of them had nothing but their lingerie on.
"I should have told you from the start. I should have made you realise, when you first told me, that those feelings you had were reciprocated. That what you said about me not being ready, or not feeling it being okay? I should have shut you up and told you how desperately I loved you, how desperately I love you."
Andy's heart thumped painfully in her chest.
"You do?"
"I do, and I cannot possibly imagine my life without you. When I said that this wasn't working, I was so caught up in my thoughts I forgot for a moment that no matter how in tune you are with me you actually cannot read my mind. I was thinking about how we cannot both remain working as we are, not with Samuel still so unsettled. I was mulling over possible solutions when I said that. I was not, would never send you away Andréa, never."
"You won't?"
"I won't darling, ever. Even after such a short time of living here with you I cannot imagine my life without you."
"You don't want me to leave?"
"No," Miranda said gently, brushing Andy's fringe away. "No, I don't want you to leave."
"I didn't want to go, but I would have if you had told me to," Andy admitted quietly. "I would do anything for you."
"Then I shall have to make sure that I only ask you for exactly what I want," Miranda smirked.
Andy grinned, exhausted but happy as Miranda leaned down and kissed her gently. They kissed for a while before Andy pulled away and yawned.
"Sorry," she muttered trying to stay awake.
"Never mind darling, close your eyes."
"Will you still be here?" Andy asked, not caring if she sounded childish.
"I'll be here all night. Right here with you."
With that reassurance echoing around her brain, Andy closed her eyes. She was asleep before she had a chance to misinterpret anything else.
-0-
Andy woke up blearily wondering what was happening as someone kneed her in the stomach.
"Ouch," she groaned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she looked around for the perpetrator.
"Wha'is't?" Miranda muttered tiredly.
It was only when Andy lay still for a moment that she realised all was not as it should be.
"Did you spill something?" Andy asked as she tried to make her brain function.
"What?" Miranda muttered. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm wet."
"Darling," Miranda muttered darkly, her hand slipping over Andy's ribs. "I thought we weren't going to do this until we were ready."
Andy gasped as a hand brushed her breast, sliding down her front until it stopped over her stomach.
"You're wet!"
Miranda's hand disappeared, leaving Andy feeling utterly confused until the light came on, blinding her temporarily.
"Oh Samuel!"
Andy felt slightly uncomfortable as her brain finally caught up. She lifted herself up, groaning at how exhausted she felt and sighing as she saw what was hiding underneath the covers. Samuel was curled up in a ball, sleeping like nothing was wrong, wearing pyjamas that he had found in the pile of things they had sorted. Andy could see the discolouration on them indicating that the poor boy had wet the bed and his pull ups had leaked, quite spectacularly if the damp feeling Andy had was any indication.
"Come on sweetheart. Let's get you into the shower," Miranda groaned, standing up and pulling on her tired old grey robe. Andy smiled at the visual, knowing how the routine would go after just under a week in her home.
Miranda scooped Samuel up, taking him into her - their - bathroom to shower him. Andy would be in charge of changing his sheets and then apparently their own. It was part of the reason they were so tired. On top of all the change they had to cope with and adapt to, they were yet to have a full night's sleep since the children arrived. If it wasn't Samuel wetting the bed, even with the pull-ups, which usually prevented Andy having to change the beds, it was Nicholas screaming in his sleep about being shut inside dark places and missing his Mummy. And if it wasn't them, it was Olivia, waking them up to check they were real. It was a heartbreaking cycle the couldn't seem to compete with.
Once Andy had successfully changed the bed in the boy's room, stopping to press a gentle kiss to Nick's forehead, she returned to Miranda's room, meeting both Miranda and Sam coming out of the bathroom in new pyjamas. Sam was practically sleepwalking and it meant that Andy was able to steer him back to his room and into his own bed, tucking him in before returning to fall back into theirs, sleeping again without effort.
-0-
"Andy?" Someone shook her, but she groaned in protest. It was too early for her to care. "Andy! Cara wants to know what's going on."
Finally unable to ignore the voice any more, Andy cracked open her eyes, seeing one of the twins standing next to the bed biting her thumbnail. She peered closer, realising it was Caroline that was asking for her attention.
"Morning Caro," Andy muttered, sighing that it was all going to start again.
"Um, hey. Everyone is downstairs, except you and Mom."
Andy frowned, rolling over to see Miranda snoring softly in her sleep. The mewling noise she made when she breathed in made Andy's heart melt and she leant over to kiss her softly. Deciding to let her sleep, Andy picked up her phone and stumbled out of bed, kissing Caroline's hair before nipping into the bathroom, before meeting the girl on the landing and getting caught up on the morning's events.
"Um, it's nearly time for us to go to school and neither of you were awake. Cara said you probably had a bad night?"
"Yeah, I had a little freak out and then Sam came in. We had to change his bed, and ours."
"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, looking confused.
"He wet the bed," Andy said, pausing on the stairs when Caroline grabbed her arm.
"I mean about you," she insisted, making Andy smile at the worry.
"Your Mom said something that I misunderstood. It was nothing."
"She made you upset?" Caroline bristled.
"No," Andy reassured her. "No, she said something that I misunderstood. Your Mom was really good about it."
"So, it wasn't her fault?" Caroline asked, sounded dubious.
"I promise."
Apparently satisfied, Andy led Caroline down to the kitchen where she was met with a tight hug from Sam.
"Morning!" she said cheerily.
"Good morning," Cara smiled, handing her a cup of coffee. "I was a little worried about you both."
"Long night," Andy chuckled, taking a big sip of scalding coffee.
"Are you staying home?" Olivia asked, hope shining from her eyes.
"I think a sick day might well be on the cards," came a well-loved voice from the hallway. Andy looked around, smiling at the regal pose Miranda struck even when wearing her robe, with her hair a little unkempt and no make up on. She raised an eyebrow in surprise, smirking when it garnered a small blush on Miranda's cheeks. "Well, perhaps I will work from home. There is only the run through that cannot be postponed, so perhaps we will invite Nigel and the others here this afternoon in the hope that they will bring me something worthy."
Andy grinned, reaching for her phone now she had finished her coffee and letting Miranda sit in her seat.
"I'd best warn them then," Andy chuckled. "If I let Nigel know now, he may have come to by the time you need to see him."
Miranda's laugh followed her from the kitchen and into the guest sitting room until she shut the door and sat down tiredly on the sofa.
"Andy? What's up? She can't be this early can she? Can you stall her, I'm not even there yet."
"Relax Nigel, Miranda's working from home today."
"From home?" he repeated. "What do you mean? Is she alright? What's wrong with her, have you called the doctor? Where are the twins? Oh God, and the other children as well? I'll call Emily and tell her -"
"NIGEL!"
"What?" he asked, pausing for a moment and allowing Andy to speak.
"Nothing is wrong with her. We had a long night is all Sam wouldn't settle, so she's decided to work from home. It's a slow enough day that we can manage everything from here."
"Oh," he said.
"Nige'?"
"She's never taken a day to work at home before, not since Cassidy broke her arm, and she did that at exactly 4pm on a Friday. So technically she was working at home on a Saturday."
"I guess we're both exhausted," Andy shrugged. "I am at least. So, I think she wants you, Emily and Serena to come over later for a brief run-through."
"Jocelyn too," Miranda said, her hand resting on Andy's shoulder as she leaned down to press a kiss to Andy's head. "It's time she took on some responsibility if she wishes to succeed in her post. And call Anton, I want you to have a meeting with him soon so he can go through the assignments coming up. Your job will be much easier if you have some sort of clue as to what is expected of you before you start it."
"Yes Miranda," Andy quipped, shaking her head as the woman sashayed from the room. She relayed the information to Nigel.
"You're something else kid, do you know that?"
"I love her," Andy whispered, not sure what to expect.
"Yeah kid," he said kindly. "I know."
Andy hung up the phone and sat for a moment, taking it all in. She certainly couldn't say she wasn't enjoying life right now.
-0-
Happy in the knowledge that she wouldn't be ridiculed by the only friends she had left, Andy left Nigel to break the news to the rest of the team and went back to the kitchen where Caroline and Cassidy were bemoaning the fact that they had to go to school.
"But you never have a day off work on a school day, and the others get to stay home! Why can't we?"
"Because your education comes first Bobbsey. I will not be lounging around all day; I intend to work just as much as I would have, had I gone to work this morning. Today it will just happen in my office at home, rather than at Elias Clarke."
"I feel sick," Caroline said, looking desperately at Andy. "I do, I might throw up."
"Don't you dare," Andy said, ruffling her hair. "What do you say boss, can they have a day off? I think Caroline's eager to watch the run through with you."
"Please Mom, please Mom, please?"
Miranda's face was almost comical as she was faced with both her precious twin's faces turned up towards her with the most adorable pouts on them. Andy and Olivia, who had climbed up on her knee, tried valiantly to copy the twin's expressions and soon enough even Nick had tried his best to look as adorable as possible.
"How is one supposed to win against an entire family full of urchins?" Miranda sniffed, looking down her nose in disdain. "I suppose I shall have to call the school then."
The twins cheered, mobbing Miranda with hugs and kisses that was quickly copied by Olivia and it wasn't long before Miranda was accepting all of them on her person - Olivia and Cassidy on her knee with Caroline wrapped around her shoulders - an indulgent smile on her face.
"Can we watch a movie?" Caroline asked, snuggling into Miranda's neck.
"I suppose we can," Miranda agreed. "As long as you don't mind me working while we watch?"
"Nope!" Caroline said. "As long as you're home I don't care what we do. It's like Christmas."
The twins ran off with Olivia in tow, leaving Miranda, Andy and the boys at the table in tense silence. Cara disappeared quickly while Miranda sat nursing her coffee.
"They're excited," Andy said unhelpfully.
Miranda didn't say anything and Andy couldn't think of a way to help. Nick placed his spoon quietly in his empty bowl and stood up, looking awkward for a while. Andy watched with a bemused frown as the boy twitched on the spot before going over to Miranda's side and tugging on the sleeve of her robe. The warmth that enveloped Andy's chest was almost overwhelming as Miranda allowed her arm to be pulled away from her. Nicholas clambered up onto her knee and once he was settled, grabbed her arm once more and wrapped it around his tummy, sighing as he leant back on her shoulder.
"Good morning darling," Miranda said with an easy smile. Nick craned his neck, reaching up and pecking Miranda's cheek quickly before going back to playing with the rings on her right hand. The tension that Caroline had inadvertently instilled in their morning floated away.
"Are they significant?" Andy asked after a time, finally asking a question she'd wanted to for months. Miranda wore those particular rings every day, the only jewellery that did not change on a daily basis and it piqued the interest of all her employees, even Emily. Nigel knew, Andy was sure he did, but he remained mute on the matter proclaiming it personal.
"Indeed they are," Miranda said kissing Nick's head. "I had these made on the day the girls were born. Their birthstones are set in platinum and inscribed on the inside is their time of birth, weight and length. They are two separate rings that fit together making them a whole like they are in my heart."
"That is about the most beautiful thing I've ever heard," Andy grinned, trying to take the seriousness out of the situation. She could see Miranda visibly relax and mentally patted herself on the back; crisis averted. "You really are a softy."
"Yes, well don't spread it around."
Andy sat back with a satisfied smile and began absently playing with Sam who was enjoying the togetherness they usually only shared at dinnertime and a little before bed.
"Mom?" Cassidy yelled from two floors up. "The movie is ready, can we have popcorn?"
Miranda winced at the shouting through the house and from the slightly pursed lips Andy saw she refused to shout back to them. Sam, lured by the promise of popcorn, raced up the stairs squealing happily.
"All. Your. Fault." Miranda growled, leading Nicholas by the hand to a cupboard and where she reached behind a large bowl to grab something.
She stalked from the room, throwing whatever she had retrieved back at Andy before winking and leaving the room with Nicholas in tow. Andy watched her go, constantly amazed at the capacity to be surprised by this woman, and by just how much love she had for her boss.
She looked down, finding a 'pedestrian' brand of popcorn and burst out laughing.
"God, I love you woman," she whispered.