It was at least a half hour that went by that Robbie, still sitting against the door on the floor with her arms around her raised knees, was still shivering. She jumped up as the doorbell rang, she could hear someone talking. She turned her head to the door thinking it could be Michael again.
- 'No Abs, just dropping it off I'll be there in a minute' she heard it was Lauren's voice.
Then Robbie's phone went off : "LAURENB"
She heard a little bit of a rumble and noticed Lauren had opened the mailbox.
- 'Robbie, helloooo, I know you're in there I can hear your phone you numpty, got your historybook here, thanks for lending it to me!' she heard her cousin say.
Robbie just sat there not knowing what to do.
- 'Robbie, you alright?' Lauren asked 'what are you doing there in your hallway anyway, you locked out or something, come on open up, it's me cous!'
Robbie put her hands to her ears, she didn't want to hear anything, hoping Lauren would leave, but she didn't.
- 'Robbie open up come on stop messing around!' Lauren said first loud, then the sound of her voice started to whisper some more' Robbie you alright, please open the door, come on bub'.
Robbie's hand reached up for the door-handle and tried opening the door while she moved aside. Lauren slowly peeked round the door and saw Robbie sitting on the floor her head down on her knees.
- 'Robbie?' she asked a little shocked seeing her cousin this way 'hey what happened, you alright, you look like you're in a right state?'.
- 'Can you call my mum please' Robbie asked handing her phone to Lauren, who slowly sat down next to her cousin. As she tried to put her arm around Robbie, Robbie instantly put her head on Lauren's chest as if she was hiding.
- 'What happened Robbie, what's the matter with ya girl?' Lauren asked not understanding what her cousin got her so upset.
- 'My mum, just call my mum Lor, I want my mum' Robbie said looking upset.
Lauren, seeing her cousin was serious, grabbed her own phone and called for Ronnie.
- 'Gonna call uncle Jack too' Lauren said while padding Robbie on her back 'you'll be alright bub'.
15 minutes later Ronnie came rushing into the apartment after Lauren had called her. Lauren had managed to get Robbie to go inside and to sit on the sofa. When Ronnie came in, Lauren had been sitting with Robbie, and hadn't moved ever since they sat down.
- 'Robbie, Lauren, what's going on?' Ronnie said as she walked in looking kind of worried not knowing what was going on, seeing the girls she could notice something obviously wás wrong.
Ronnie walked over to the sofa, sat down next to Robbie and held her daughters head in her hands making Robbie look at her.
- 'Sweetie what is it, why are you so upset, what happened?' Ronnie asked concerned then turning to Lauren 'has she said anything Lauren?'
- 'No, she just asked for you' Lauren said turning her head looking into the kitchen and then back to her aunt 'so where's uncle Jack?'
- 'Well, he had to finish something and I, … well to be honest, knowing Robbie, I thought she might be up to something and didn't think she was that upset really, I mean like this obviously, so I said I would handle it' Ronnie said, feeling a little bit guilty seeing that Robbie was clearly upset.
- 'Robbie please tell your mum what is going on, I would like to know' Lauren said looking at Robbie who was just starring in front of her' she hasn't spoken a word to me yet'.
- 'Well thank you sweety for taking such good care of her, but ehm, well maybe she'll talk to me then right' Ronnie said winking at Lauren hinting that maybe it was better if she left to get Robbie to open up to Ronnie maybe.
- 'Alright, ehm …if you need me call me yeah bub?' Lauren said 'I'm here for you cous'.
- 'Yeah' Robbie just said forcing a smile and looking up at Lauren standing up.
- 'Thanks Lauren!' Ronnie said as Lauren left the livingroom.
Lauren then left the apartment and Ronnie pulled Robbie close to her chest.
- 'What is it lovey hmm?' Ronnie asked stroking Robbie's back 'you're not getting sick are you, is that it, you're not feeling well?'.
- 'Mummy' Robbie said 'no, it's…he…'
- 'What sweetie, it's what?' Ronnie asked.
- 'Mum, he knows' Robbie said.
- 'He who, and know what exactly, what are you talking about baby?' Ronnie asked a little confused.
- 'Michael mum' Robbie said looking up to her mum 'he knows about Phil's window, he saw me, he's gonna tell Phil, I know he will'
- 'What, no, ofcourse not honey, how would he know, where did you get that silly?' Ronnie said ruffling her hand through Robbie's hair .
- 'Cause he said mum' Robbie said standing up 'why wouldn't you wanna believe me?'
- 'It's not that I don't believe you babe but.. you might have misunderstood' Ronnie said 'wouldn't be the first time hmm'.
- ' "Anybody know about that window yet, Phil for instance?" ' Robbie said 'his words, no that definitely doesn't sounds like he knows ey mum'.
- 'Alright now when did he say this then?' Ronnie asked when her phone started ringing.
"JACK"
- 'Hi babe' Ronnie said answering the phone while looking worried at Robbie.
- 'Is she alright?' Jack asked, still at the club with Roxy and Glenda getting the club ready for Robbie's surprise party tomorrow.
- 'Yeah, we talk about it when you get home is that alright, you're almost finished right?' Ronnie asked.
- 'Yeah, the rest we have to do tomorrow since we open in a couple of hours' Jack said' so ehm, you sure she's alright?'
- 'I'll tell ya later yeah' Ronnie said and hung up.
- 'You're not going are you mum?' Robbie asked a little worried.
- 'No sweetie, mummy's going to stay here with you, when your dad comes home we tell him ok, maybe he can have a talk with Michael and have him explain what he meant yeah' Ronnie said giving Robbie a kiss on the head as she had pulled Robbie close to her chest again 'he better come up with a very good explanation!'.
- 'I told him he was weird, dad didn't believe me' Robbie said.
- 'That's cause he only knows him from when he was younger, he's only talked to him a couple of times that's it' Ronnie said looking angry, angry thinking about Michael, someone she couldn't figure out either.
For a little while Ronnie held Robbie who was really shaken up by Michael mentioning Phil's broken window. About an hour later Jack had called that something had come up at the club and he was going to be home later. When he finally came home, Ronnie was watching telly on the sofa.
- 'Hey' Jack said greeting his wife with a kiss 'where is she?'
- 'Well I managed to get her to do her homework, eventually, we ate some dinner but she wasn't that hungry, she took a shower and she fell asleep here on my lap, I just put her to bed' Ronnie said snuggling up to Jack's chest.
- 'So what was going on?' Jack asked.
- 'She ehm, well she was pretty shaken up Jack' Ronnie said.
- 'From what?' Jack asked a little surprised' you said everything was alright, what is going on, what happened to my girl?'
- 'She thinks Michael knows about her breaking Phil's window' Ronnie said sitting up again.
- ' Why, how?' Jack asked.
- 'He said it to her this afternoon, he asked if anyone knew about the window yet, Phil for instance?' Ronnie said 'now I don't know how well you still know him but I don't like this Jack, you should have seen her shivering here on the sofa, I don't want her to be scared of people you call friends'.
- 'Why didn't you tell me to come home right away Ronnie, from what I can tell she sounded pretty shaken up, I'm her dad, I'm her parent too now!' Jack said loud, standing up from the sofa, a little irritated that his wife didn't mention to him what was really going on.
- 'I'm sorry Jack, it's just that…well, I don't know, thought I could handle it I guess' Ronnie said.
- 'We should handle it together, you don't have to do this alone Ronnie, or Robbie for that matter, I'm here for both of you!' Jack said.
- 'I'm sorry Jack, now calm down, I don't want her to wake up' Ronnie said.
Jack grabbed his phone but Ronnie took it out of his hands.
- 'If you call him now he knows immediately why you're calling him, you 've got to confront him when he's least expecting it maybe, pretend as if Robbie didn't tell us' Ronnie said 'now he's gonna be there tomorrow night right?'
- 'Well not after I had a talk with him first, I'm not gonna wait Ron, first thing tomorrow I'm going to look for him' Jack said then sighed, stood up and walked to Robbie's bedroom and peeked around the door. Then he closed the door softly.
- 'I don't understand, why wouldn't he say anything to me, but to her, you think that's why he was outside the door the other night, waiting on her and Roxy to come back to the house again, cause he saw it all?' Jack asked.
- 'Probably' Ronnie said' he's weird Jack, that's not the only thing he didn't say to you 'Ronnie sighed' Kat told me he's the baby's father but he doesn't wanna know about it, I mean what is he doing here in Walford then ey, did he tell you about that?'.
- 'Really, no he didn't?' Jack asked' I ehm, I didn't know that'.
Jack sat back on the sofa again and they both watched telly .
When they were just laying in bed, later on, Robbie suddenly stood at the door.
- 'Mum' Robbie said a little hesitated.
- 'Hey you monkey what is it, you alright?' Ronnie asked sitting up putting her hair up in a bun.
- 'Can you come to my room for a minute mum?' Robbie asked looking at Jack who turned his nightlight on.
- 'You alright munchkin, heard you were pretty shaken up tonight' Jack asked.
- 'We talk about it in the morning alright Jack' Ronnie said winking at Jack, not wanting to upset Robbie again. Ronnie got out of the bed grabbing her nightgown and walked with Robbie to her room.
- 'What is it babes?' Ronnie asked as Robbie turned to her mum again.
- 'I ehm…I , mum it happened again' Robbie said very uncomfortable.
- 'Whát happened?' Ronnie asked as Robbie pulled her covers off 'oh, well ehm… hey come her sweetie, it's no problem'.
- 'It was an accident mum, I almost fell out of the bed also, Michael he…' Robbie said as Ronnie pulled Robbie close again.
- 'Shsss it's alright sweetie, come on you go take a shower, I'll take your sheets off, go on, you'll sleep with mes tonight ok' Ronnie said.
Robbie started crying.
- 'Hey, hey, look it's not your fault babe come here, shsss, hey you know what, look at the time, you're gonna make mé cry cause my baby just turned 16, can you believe it' Ronnie said trying to change the subject with Robbie.
- '16' Robbie said 'no not really, don't feel 16 right now'.
- 'Yeah well you know what I always say don't ya?' Ronnie said kissing the top of Robbie's head softly.
- 'I'll always be your baby?' Robbie said 'mum, you've got your proof here'.
- 'Come here, Happy Birthday my angel, 16, pfff' Ronnie pulled Robbie close.
- 'Mum you crying? ' Robbie asked looking up at Ronnie trying to wipe a tear away.
- 'You're getting so big babes, I mean age wise cause you're still my skinny little smartiepants' Ronnie said.
- 'Mum stop sobbing alright' Robbie said wiping another tear away of Ronnie's cheek.
- 'Yeah I know, I just gotta accept the fact that you're really growing up…well somehow' Ronnie started to grin, giving Robbie a big cuddle.
- 'Mum, I'm tired and I feel…' Robbie said remembering why they were awake at this hour.
- 'Yeah alright, go on, go take a quick shower, I'll take care of these sheets' Ronnie said 'come on'.
Ronnie got some clean pyama's out of Robbie's closet and followed Robbie to the bathroom, winked at Jack again, who looked at the two girls walking over to the bathroom.
When Ronnie got out of the bathroom, while Robbie was taking a quick shower, she sighed 'bad dream, she had a little accident, she's gonna sleep with us ok'.
- 'Yeah of course' Jack said' I'm gonna kill him'.
- 'Yeah well that's not gonna solve anything, just have a good word with him to stay away from her' Ronnie said 'I don't want him at her party Jack, not him, not Phil, but don't tell Phil yet, I want him to come to the club with Shirley and the kids and I just don'tallow him to come in, let him explain to Shirley why, just the kids are welcome!' Ronnie said.
After a couple minutes, Ronnie had taken Robbie's sheets of the bed and Robbie had come out of the shower, as soon as she snuggled up with Ronnie she fell asleep.