By the time morning had rolled around, Rachel felt like crap. Her body ached all over, her arms and legs felt like dead weights, her stomach was twisting and turning and her head felt like it had been repeatedly hit with a hammer and wanted to explode. Rachel rolled over onto her side, groaned and pulled the blankets up closer around her and willed her body and mind to go back to sleep.

As Shelby immerged from the bathroom, after having a nice long and hot shower, she decided to go check on Rachel after she had gotten a thermometer, glass of water and panadol from the kitchen.

As she entered Rachel's room, she placed the water, panadol and thermometer on the bedside table, so she could see how Rachel was fairing with being sick today. She noticed Rachel was still asleep so she placed her hand on her forehead, noticing Rachel was burning up and was starting to sweat. She slowly and carefully removed the doona off of her body, just leaving her covered with a sheet and two blankets.

Shelby woke Rachel enough so she would be able to take some panadol to help reduce her fever and hopefully lower her temperature. As Shelby lowered Rachel back down onto the pillows, Rachel was back asleep, like she hadn't even been woken up.

Shelby decided to get some housework done, to help distract her, even though she was checking in on Rachel every half hour. She swept and vacuumed the floors, washed the windows, dusted, and polished anything that needed to be polished. By the time Shelby had finished cleaning it was 5:00 pm and Rachel was still sleeping. The only time Rachel had actually gotten out of bed on her own accord was when she needed to use the bathroom and Shelby took that opportunity to get Rachel to take some more panadol, drink some water and eat a biscuit or two.

As the rest of the day went by and Monday morning rolled around, Rachel was still in bed sick, the doctor had come and gone and prescribed some antibiotics as Rachel had a chest infection, which both Shelby and Rachel knew was caused by the thunderstorm. Rachel was not happy about missing a day of school. She tried to get up and get ready but her head spun so fast when she stood up, she sat back down on the bed and groaned. Rachel did not like being sick at all. Shelby ended up moving a television into Rachel's bedroom and they spent the next few days in there watching musicals as Rachel got better.

Saturday came so quickly and Rachel was feeling heaps better and loved spending so much time with her Mum. She planned on staying with Shelby till her Dad's came back, hopefully still together, she prayed, and she wanted to talk with them about staying with her mum for part of the week. Rachel loved her Dad's a lot, but as she was spending time with her mum, she came to realise that her love for the older woman was just as strong as it is for her dads, but she felt a connection with Shelby, she had never felt before and she had only been with her for a week.

Rachel was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard screaming from outside. She went over to the window and looked outside. As she peered out of the window, there were two men outside in the middle of the street, with beer bottles and bats trying to hit on another while cursing and swearing at them. She wondered why weren't they at home, it was dinner time, wouldn't their partners waiting for them.

"Rach, what're you doing" Shelby asked as she noticed her daughter staring out of the window.

"There are men outside, they seem drunk and like they want to have a fight" Rachel said, staring out of the window.

"Ah yes, they live the street over. This happens at least once a month. See the taller one is married to the other ones sister and he thinks he's cheating on her. You will get use to it sweetie, now come help me clean up the kitchen."

As Rachel followed her Mum into the kitchen, she picked up the nearest tea towel and began to dry the dishes her mum had cleaned the old fashioned way, as she liked to put it.

"You have been awfully quiet today" Shelby stated as Rachel seemed to drift off into thought again.

"I've just been thinking a lot today, that's all"

"You want to tell me about what, sweetie" Shelby probed

Rachel put the tea towel she was using down and turned to face her mum, who was leaning up against the cupboard. She thought she might as well just tell her mum as she doesn't like to hold things back and it would also help ease the headache she was starting to get from thinking too much.

"Okay, so lately I have been thinking a lot, about you, my dad's and what I really want. I've just noticed that over the last week and a bit, being around you makes me feel rather whole, before it felt like something was missing, but now it doesn't. I love you and my dad's the same, but being with you is different. I feel like we have a connection which I have been missing out on my entire life until recently and when my dad's come back, I was hoping to ask them if I could stay with you for part of the week, if you would like me too of course. But then with my dad's they have been growing apart lately and I have a gut feeling they will come back broken up and if they break up, who would custody of me go too. I know they are both my legal guardians but if they break up I don't want to choose either, I would rather stay here. I know that may seem cruel on for my dad's but I just want to be with you, my mum, if you get what I'm saying." Rachel said quickly, breathing out a sigh in relief after she had finished, looking up at her mum to see what her reaction would be.

Shelby couldn't believe that Rachel wanted to stay and be with her. She walked up to her daughter and pulled her in for hug resting her chin on Rachel's head and telling her she was more than welcome to stay for as long as she wanted.

Fin~

Authors Note: This is the end. My muse ran away from me and I thought it would at least be nice of me to finish it for those people who enjoyed reading it and a thank you too gold-stars-xx who reminded me kindly so that I haven't updated this in a while. I did revise the story though and fixed some things in it which can be viewed on my live journal at hollie-1201 . livejournal . com (just remove the spaces)