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Chapter 11: Love
16th December 2021
A loud 'NO' woke Gabi up from her sleep that morning. Rolling over she was met with an unmade bed and a light shining through the open door. She squinted as she sat up and heard Troy rush down the hallway to sort out this morning's problem. She yanked the cover's off and slipped on her slippers and dressing gown before she went out the bedroom to investigate.
Gabriella met Logan in the hallway. The child having just woken up herself had one fluffy sock on and was holding a teddy bear. "I was just coming down to have a cuddle with you Mommy," she said sheepishly as she lost her balanced and fell back, to sit on the stairs.
Gabi chuckled. "Take it easy Lo, I don't think you've properly woken up yet." Logan groaned then yawned, before she reached out and grabbed hold of the banister pulling herself up to stand.
"If your going downstairs," Logan mumbled sleepily. "I'm going back up to cuddle with Freddie instead." Then she turned and dragged her tired body back up the stairs.
Gabi felt and ounce of guilt run through her. Logan looked disappointed as she turned round. She sighed. "Logan," she called to the child who had just reached the top floor. "Come here sweetheart, we'll go downstairs, stick on a Christmas movie and snuggle up together. Hey?" The girl turned and looked at her mother, her wide eyes full of hope.
"Really?"
Gabi held out her hand. "Yup come on, you can pick the film."
Logan's eyes lit up immediately and she skipped down the stairs and locked hands with Gabi.
Once reaching the bottom of the stairs, Gabi pushed Logan through to the lounge whilst she walked into the playroom to see Troy trying to reason with Ella-Grace and Hetty. She could see that Hetty was held firmly within Troy's grasp whilst Ella-Grace was stood looking guilty as Troy told her off. Hetty picked her head of Troy's shoulder as Gabi entered the room and she held out her arms towards her. "Momma," she whimpered quietly.
Gabi frowned as she took the child into her arms. Looking at her face which had a purple line drawn right down the middle. Ella-Grace's doing she presumed. Hetty laid her head down upon Gabi's shoulder as her hands balled fists at her chest. Clutching onto the material of her fluffy dressing gown. Gabi swayed with her slightly as the child closed her eyes. Whilst doing this she watched as Troy picked up Ella-Grace and carried her out of the room.
To the time out chair, Gabi knew. Ella's screams echoing around the bottom floor of the house. Logan appeared at the door and tugged on her mom's dressing gown. "Mom are you coming?"
"Yep. Coming now." Gabi tried to sit Hetty on the floor but the 4 year old had other ideas.
"No Momma. Me stay you!" Hetty pointed at Gabi and burst into tears.
"Hey, baby girl. It's ok." Gabi picked up her crying child and turned back to Logan "Ok if Hetty joins?" Logan promptly nodded but Gabi could tell that she really wasn't pleased that a crying 4 year old had intruded on her time with her mom. "Ok lets go and watch a film then." Gabi followed Logan back into the living room and walked around the 'L to sit comfortably in the join of the sofas. "What film Lo?"
"This one." Logan presented The Christmas Wrapper to her mother, "I found it at the bottom of the chest." she said while pointing over to the weaved DVD basket.
"Ok sounds good. Turn it on." Logan shuffled around - trying to find the remote to press play. "Hetty sit still or you can't be with mommy."
"No film, watch Cinderella." Hetty began to cry again and Gabi turned to look at Logan, who threw the remote down and got up from the sofa.
"Fine. I'll just go back up stairs." She stormed out and ran up the stairs.
"Logan." Gabi called after her but it was too late. "Hetty, it was mommy and Logi time. Why did you do that?" Hetty was unable to hear Gabi speak over the wails she was making. "Hetty - stop crying and tell me what's wrong." Hetty shook her head and continued "Hetty Taylor Bolton. Tell me why you are crying like a 2 year old or I take you back to bed." Hetty's cries slowly got louder and louder. "Ok. Back to bed for you missy." Gabi stood up and picked her child up; once on Gabi's hip Hetty started kicking her and waving her balled-up fists.
Gabi was just about to climb the 1st step when Troy appeared from giving time out to Ella-Grace. "Tired?" He asked, Gabi nodded and turned back to her task. A large thump was then heard from the laundry room and as Troy walked back to it, he shook his head Ugh temper tantrums, he thought.
"Ella-Grace, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Troy asked the 4 year old covered in clean towels. He removed the towels from her head and started to roll them back up. Just as he turned around he saw the whole shelf of clean laundry was now on the floor. "ELLA!", she looked at him with her large chocolate eyes that matched Gabi's and smiled proudly. "No. No smiling this is naughty." He tapped her tiny nose with his pinkie, and turned back around to place all the clean laundry back on the shelf.
Ella saw her fathers distraction and made a run for it out of the door and up the stairs. She was about to bolt into her room and hide under her duvet when she saw Gabi emerging from Madi and Hetty's room. "Ella ... what are you doing?"
"I am just ... going to play with Maebh, daddy said I could get up from time out." She answered in an very convincing tone.
Gabi nodded at her daughters acting abilities, they would have to follow up on that talent in the future; "Yeah right, back down to time out." Gabi followed Ella back to the laundry room and pushed her in the door. As she walked away, she laughed - her daughter was something else, and Gabi thought back to the day when a huge surprise came it's way out in the morning of a brisk Easter day.
*Flash Back*
"Brie come on, the kids want to hunt the eggs, we've yet to hide!"
Gabi groaned and clutched onto the toilet, bringing up last night's dinner.
"Brie baby? Where are you?" she could hear Troy's voice approaching, the heavy thud of his footsteps ringing in her ears as she wiped her mouth and leant up against the wall. She took a few deep breaths before Troy's head rounded the bathroom door and Gabi found herself over the toilet again. He immediately rushed to her side and rubbed her back gently whilst holding back her hair.
"Troy," she whimpered once she was done.
"Brie your ill?" He asked, knowing quite possibly what the answer was.
Gabi wiped her mouth and flushed the chain. "I think, I think," she mumbled. "I might be, urm, pregnant. Again."
Gabi made her way back into the hall and she met the sextuplet girls coming down the stairs. The three of them still dressed in their pyjama's with fluffy dressing gowns hugging their bodies."Morning Mom," Breelan chirped. She always seemed to be bright in the morning, Gabi couldn't work out why.
"Good morning girls," Gabi greeted. "If you ask your father nicely I think he might make pancakes for you all, I'm just going to wake the rest of your siblings and talk to Lo." The girls nodded.
"Mommy," Annabelle started. "Logan was pretty upset by the way, I thought I'd let you know."
Gabi sighed and kissed Annabelle's head as she walked by. "Thanks Anna." she said as she headed for the stairs.
Luckily for Gabi the boys were up and making their beds. After telling them to go downstairs and get breakfast she padded across the hall into Hetty and Madi's room, to check on Hetty as Gabi knew the quads were already up and were downstairs in the playroom.
Pushing open the door Gabi saw Hetty laid in her bed tangled amongst the sheets. Her body shaking with each small sob that raked through her body as she tried to calm down, but upon seeing Gabi she cried out and her sobs grew in volume again.
Gabriella sighed, bad idea coming in here.
Hetty fought with the sheets in attempt to sit up, but failed miserably making her angry as her cries grew louder. "Momma," she wailed. "Momma, help me. Pwease!"
Gabi frowned as she picked up the pink blanket from the floor and made her way over to Hetty. Her speech had always been really good, and recently it had deteriorated. Untangling her daughter from the sheets, Gabriella handed the pink blanket to Hetty, before she pulled the small girl onto her lap. Hetty's tiny frame pressing itself up against Gabi in attempt to get really close as her sobs subsided and became tiny hiccups. "You pretty girl," Gabi whispered as she prided Hetty away from her. "Need to get some sleep. You were up all night, and apparently sleeping with Momma and Daddy didn't help."
"Seep with Momma?" Hetty asked as she looked up at Gabi with wide eyes that were reddened round the edges from crying.
Gabi sighed. "Yeah," she said as she laid Hetty down on the bed and cuddled up beside her. "Sleep with Momma for a bit."
Gabi presumed the girl would fall asleep straight away, but she was wrong. Half and hour later Gabi was still cuddled up to Hetty who was currently humming a nursery rhyme, her brown eyes wide open scanning the ceiling. Gabriella sighed, and gently rubbed Hetty's arm. "Come on baby girl." She whispered. "Close your eyes."
Hetty immediately stopped humming and forced her eyes shut. Gabi began to softly hum to the child and 10 minutes later her even breaths had signalled to her that Hetty had finally dozed off. Stripping herself of the child, Gabriella stood up and pulled the duvet over her daughters frame before she walked out, closing the door behind her. Rubbing her eyes, she headed back to the stair case, and climbed up the stairs to Freddie and Logan's floor. Popping her head round Freddie's door her was playing on his x-box. He turned and greeted his Mom, before he returned to the game.
Gabi crossed the small space upstairs and went to Logan's door. Stopping outside it she could hear the small mumbles of the child as she was talking to someone.
"She doesn't have time for me anymore. I'm not important." Logan mumbled through sobs. "She doesn't love me."
Gabriella felt her eyes cloud over with tears as she pushed open Logan's bedroom door. "Lo baby, that's not true." she declared as she went over and sat by her on the bed. "I will always love you Lo, and you are the most important thing to me." Logan stopped sobbing and looked up at Gabi.
"Why?" she asked quietly.
Logan shifted over and Gabi laid down beside her. Logan turned round and cuddled into her Mom.
"Because Logan," Gabi breathed. "You were my first baby girl, my first little princess. and that can never be taken away from me. Ever!"
The pair laid in silence for a while, the only sound to be heard was the breaths coming from them both.
Logan broke the silence moments later. "I like this mommy," she admitted. "I miss this."
Gabi kissed her daughter on the forehead, before she reluctantly pulled away. "I like this too baby girl, but come on. I need to drop you off at Vanessa's and Freddie off at Zac's. Have you packed your bag?"
"I have Mommy," Logan replied.
"Good, right. You say goodbye to your younger siblings, and I'll get Freddie, and we can go."
"We are not going with you in your pyjama's Mom," Freddie said, appearing at the door. "I am ready, so you get changed, and we'll say goodbye to the others."
Gabi smiled. What would she do without her eldest children?