They were most of the way to the car before Andrea noticed twin red heads leant against the side of it. With a smile she pulled Miranda to a stop and when the other woman looked at her questionigly she simply inclined her head in the direction of the car. The smile that lit up her wifes face was beautiful.
"Little devils," she said quietly and if her pace quickened slightly Andrea sure as hell wasn't going to pass comment on it simply speeding her pace to match. The girls had spotted them now and were grinning, Cassidy bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet and Andrea couldn't help but think that if these weren't Miranda Priestly's kids they would have been tearing across the space and shouting thier hello's. As soon as they were close enough though, Andrea reached out and pulled Cass towards her, pleased to see Miranda do the same with Caroline.
"Hey kiddo," she pressed a kiss into red hair and squeezed the girl tightly, "We weren't expecting to see you guys until tomorrow"
"We wanted to surprise you guys, we've missed you," Cassidy smiled up at the brunette, there were times when she thought she was too old for the cuddles and the 'kiddo' and the wanting to spend time with her mom and Andy, but then she realised how lucky she was to have such a loving family and she knew that she never wanted to loose that,
"We missed you too sweety, you'd have loved the beach,"
"They would have terrorised the beach," Miranda chuckled, her arm slung around Caroline's shoulder, holding her close to her side, being away from the girls had taken its tole on both of them and Andrea was just pleased that they had another week away from work to spend as a family, "Come on, in the car everyone, I'm more than ready to be home."
After pizza and cake, neither of which Miranda complained about, and catching up on what everyone had gotten up to over the last two weeks, the adults let the girls choose a film and the family curled up together on the larger sofa in the den to watch. Tucked into her wifes side, Cassidy's head on her lap, Andrea couldn't think of a place she would rather be.
Miranda had surprised them all earlier, when Andrea had presented her with her mobile phone and she had simply tucked it into her pocket, not even bothering to turn it on. Andrea had expected her to at least check her messages, her emails, knowing that despite the fact everyone had known the Editor would be uncontactable for the duration of her trip, that her inbox would be full to bursting and at least half of it would actually be important. When Andrea had caught her wifes eye and raised her eyebrow in question Miranda had simply shrugged and offered her a small smile before turning her attention back to the girls. Maybe Miranda wa serious about the retiring thing, they hadn't really spoken about it again since the first week of their trip but it hadn't been far from Andrea's mind since Miranda had admitted that she was genuinley considering it.
She never thought she would see the day that Miranda would willingly step down from her position at the magazine, there were some days when she actually believed that the older woman would die before she left that job, but maybe she was wrong. She couldnd't deny that the thought of Miranda retiring filled her with hope. When she'd gotten into a relationship with her Andrea had been more than willing to come second to the girls and had resigned herself to coming second to the magazine too. She loved Miranda, she loved her passion, her drive and her dedication to her work, she understood why she worked so hard and she wouldn't try to change that, even if it meant that sometimes the older woman missed dinner, or they had to go a few days without seeing each other much outside of sleep. But Miranda had changed, it had started before their relationship had begun, Miranda had started to make sure she was home more for the girls, but it had continued to change once their relationship had started, Miranda made sure that she was home for dinner at least three nights a week, most weeks it was more and it was very, very rare that she didn't manage the three, even if it meant having to bring a little more work home with herand finish it once the girls were in bed, if she wasn't going to make it home for any reason she called, she didn't ask her assistant to make the call, she didn't send a text, she stopped what she was doing and called home, spoke to the girls and explained why she couldn't make it and then more than made it up to them afterwards and then there were the events. During the months that she was Miranda's assistant Andrea had acompanied the editor to her fair share of events and Stephen had only been there once, and that had been the night he had turned up uninvited and drunk so in Andrea's head that didn't count, and he had only attended the last day of fashion week, since their relationship had become public though Andrea had been to every event, every Gala and had spent at least half of each fashion week at the other woman's side. Maybe she had changed enough that retirement was an option.
"Where is that layout?" Nigel all but squeeled rubbing his hand over his bald head as he paced up and down behind Miranda's desk. She had insisted that he take her office while she was away and he was running the magazine. He had resisted at first but had realised quickly that her office was better situated than his was. If she turned up at the office just then though she would have a fit. The way he worked was the total opposite to Miranda's perfect order and because of that her desk was invisible under piles of papers, stacks of polaroids and all of the layouts for the upcoming issue, except one. "Miranda will never trust me again."
"Nigel," Emily was leant in the door way, her arms folded across her chest, eyes following the man as he paced, "Miranda isn't due back for another week, the layout is probably under all that mess you have spread all over her desk and it's late. I think it's time we headed home for the day, start with a fresh pair of eyes in the morning."
"Come on Emily," Nigel was cleaning his glasses now, "You've worked for Miranda for long enough to know that she may not be due back at work for another week but that doesn't mean she wont be on the phone as soon as six gives her it back doling out orders and demanding to see the book, the book that has a gaping hole where a layout is supposed to be with only ten days to print deadline"
"Nigel, firstly will you sit down, your pacing is making me dizzy." she waited until the man had dropped himself into the chair before moving to sit across the desk from him, "Thank you. Secondly, you're right, I have worked for Miranda long enough to expect that kind of behaviour from her, but I also know that hers and Andrea's flight landed at three, I've also had a text from Andy to say that they got back ok and that was five and a half hour ago. Andy gave Miranda her phone back the minute they got back to the townhouse and she hasn't called. What does that tell you?"
"That Six has actually done the unthinkable and changed Miranda Priestly's most ingrained habits. Where has she been all of our lives?!"
"Whatever," Emily rolled her eyes, "what it means for me is that I'm going to go and get Serena and we are going to that new cocktail bar that opened last week and we are going to have a drink or two or three because it's Friday night. Coming?"
"Come to bed," Andrea grinned from where she was curled on her side of the bed, watching through the open bathroom door as Miranda removed the days make up,
"As soon as I'm done here darling," Miranda smiled indulgently over her shoulder before continuing, ignoring Andrea's pout, "I thought tomorrow we could take the girls shopping and have dinner somewhere?"
"As long as I can have a lie in?"
"Of course, it's not like the girls are going to be up at the crack of dawn. I thought I'd make a late breakfast. Waffles?" Miranda was moving towards the bed, slowly untying her robe and she couldn't quite work out if the grin on her wife's face was brought on by the thought of waffles or the slow revealing of skin. Her question was answered when Andrea's hand reached out to meet her part way, her palm sliding around the curve of her waist to pull her down on top of her.
"You do know the way to my heart don't you?" brown eyes twinkled at her and she pressed a kiss to the edge of a smiling mouth, "Waffles, dinner, you naked at home in our bed for the first time since our wedding." Miranda arched her back as the other woman's hands smoothed down her spine and came to rest on her backside, puling her tighter to her with a grin.
"Keep talking," she husked, slipping her hands up over Andrea's torso, smoothing over her shoulders. This was it, this was her life now and she wouldn't change it, not for anything. She would do whatever she could, give whatever she could, to keep this woman in her life, for the rest of it if she would have her. Since Andrea, everything had slipped into place, her life, her family finally made sense and it was all thanks to this wonderful woman who had chosen her against all the odds and now it was time for her to make some decisions of her own, decisions that meant she could finally give her all to her family, to the people she loved.