Author's Note: Thanks so much for the great response to the last chapter! I honestly can't remember if I replied to reviews or not, so if I didn't get to your review I am terribly sorry! I've been pretty busy with Christmas-related things this week and also have been terribly busy watching The Office (no really, I'm addicted).

Song for this chapter is No Church in the Wild by Kanye West ft Jay-Z. Give it a listen. Better yet, watch the video because it's awesome.

And as usual, I don't own or have anything to do with Skins.

Chapter 33: No Church in the Wild

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

Emily and I were slowly settling into becoming parents. Ellie – yes, I had caved and started to call our daughter by her nickname – was already on a schedule and was eating well and gaining weight like any newborn baby should. Our daughter wasn't an exceptionally difficult baby, but she wasn't exactly easy like Owen. Both my mum and Jenna had already been over to help take care of the baby and both were quick to remark that Ellie was more hard work than any child they'd raised. Since Jenna had raised twins and James Fitch, I took that statement pretty seriously. But Ellie was worth it. I loved to watch her sleep and she'd always make these adorable baby noises...little gurgles and sniffles. Ellie was perfect in every way, even if her behaviour wasn't necessarily perfect.

"You were such a well behaved baby, Naomi. I used to be able to take you to protests all the time and you wouldn't make a single noise!" My mum remarked as she tried to settle Ellie down.

"I've got a special trick," Emily remarked. She walked over to my mum, who passed Ellie over. Emily held Ellie in her arms and started bouncing her hips slightly and swaying and walking all at the same time. "She goes right to sleep if I make a few laps around the living room like this."

I smiled at Em. She'd discovered that trick when Ellie was two days old. We started to call it the "Ellie Bounce". Ellie loved to be bounced and rocked when you were trying to put her to sleep. I think it's because she wants to make sure you're still there with her while she's napping. If she's being bounced or rocked, then someone must be there with her, watching her and keeping her safe.

My mother watched Emily and smiled at me. "You've got a keeper there, Naoms."

"Who, the baby? Not like I can return her, mum."

My mum smiled at me and Emily shot me a playfully dirty look. I decided that was my queue to go back to the kitchen and finish up the roast dinner. My mum was staying for dinner and Effy and Katie were coming over as well. Katie and Effy arrived a few minutes after Emily had put Elouise down for her nap.

Emily had asked how exactly Cook found out about Ellie even being born the other day and I fudged a bit of a lie to protect Effy. I told Em that I'd added him to the announcement message list and that he found out through the e-mail. Emily believed me right away. I knew if I'd told her the truth, she would have told Katie, and Katie would have flown off the handle. Effy and Katie had a no-secrets policy and this secret was a very bad one to hide from Katie.

"Hey, need any help?" Effy asked, walking into the kitchen and placing a carrier bag on the counter. "I brought dessert."

"You mean you bought dessert," I replied with a smile. Effy shrugged.

"I bought it and then I brought it over here. So I brought dessert."

"I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here. Can you chop the carrots?"

Effy nodded and took the carrots and knife I handed her and stuck to her assigned task. I heard Emily playing with Owen in the living room when Katie's loud voice interrupted the peace.

"What on earth is this?" Katie asked, making her way through to the kitchen. She was holding Cook's congratulations card. I saw Effy's face go pale right away.

"It's a congratulations card from Cook," I answered, trying to make myself look busy and avoid having this conversation with Katie. I knew that Effy didn't tell Katie that she still spoke to Cook, and I knew Katie would be upset if she found out. Obviously, Emily had told Katie a bit about my past with Cook and when he moved away, Katie was anything but upset. I'm quite sure she considered throwing a party to celebrate his departure, and not in a traditional going away party kind of way.

"Well I know that," Katie replied. "But how did he even know when you had Ellie?"

I shrugged. "I added him to the announcement message list."

"No you didn't," Katie retorted, reading the card again. "I looked through that list a bunch of times and I never saw his e-mail address."

Emily walked into the kitchen, carrying Owen on her hip. Owen was looking around at us all fascinatedly as he sucked on his pacifier.

"What's going on in here?" Emily asked as she smoothed Owen's long dark hair away from his face.

"I was just asking how Cook found out about Ellie's birth when he wasn't on the announcement message list," Katie replied. Effy was staying very quiet and remained very focused on chopping carrots while I continued to try to make myself look busy by rearranging the fruit bowl.

"What do you mean, he wasn't on the message list? Naomi said she added his name to it," Emily replied. Oh crap. This was going from bad to worse to catastrophic.

"When I looked it over, I didn't see his name. So who told Cook?" Katie demanded, placing her hands on her hips. My mum walked into the kitchen, looking confused at all the commotion.

"I did."

Everybody looked at Effy with a different expression on their face. Katie was furious, if her quickly reddening face was any indication. Emily looked exasperated and shot me an unimpressed glare. My mum looked terribly confused, and gave me a questioning glance. I was shocked that Effy had fessed up that easily. I knew she hate keeping secrets from Katie and that she probably wanted to get the whole Cook thing off her chest, but I was surprised that she admitted to it that quickly.

"What do you mean? You still speak to Cook? Even after we agreed we weren't going to speak to him after the whole admitting his love for Naomi debacle?"

"How do you know about Cook leaving because he had feelings for Naomi?" Emily asked as she tried to use the Ellie bounce on Owen, who was getting fussy because of the massive amounts of tension in the room. He was a very sensitive baby and seemed to notice everything. Katie shrugged in response.

"Effy told me about it," Katie replied before turning back to Effy. "I thought we agreed, Effy. We agreed not to speak to him."

"I know, it's just...he's an old friend, Kay. I couldn't just cut him out of my life like that. It's not as easy for me as it is for you. Cook and Naoms, sometimes they were the only people I could rely on and trust when I was with Freddie. I shouldn't have gone behind your back and continued speaking to Cook and I swear I've been meaning to stop talking to him, but I thought he should know that Naomi had the baby and that everything's alright, you know?" Effy stumbled across her words, her eyes pleading with Katie. She walked over and grabbed Katie's hand. "A lot of things have changed for me these past few years, and Cook was always there for me, Kay. I just wanted to let him know Naomi was okay."

Katie's lips were in a thin line and she was obviously still angry. "It wasn't really your place to let him know about Naomi and Ellie, though, Effy. And it wasn't right for you to lie to me like you did for all these months."

"Katie, I'm sorry. I won't speak to him behind your back again. Can't we move past this and just forget about it?"

"I don't think I can just forget about it, Eff."

And at that perfect moment, the smoke detector went off. The noise shocked everybody into action. I went straight to the oven, which had smoke pouring out of it. I grabbed my oven mitts and quickly took the completely ruined roast out of the oven. Owen started crying his eyes out and Emily immediately handed him over to Katie. Emily went upstairs to grab Ellie, who started crying as soon as the smoke detector went off. Effy helped Katie, who was still attempting to soothe Owen. My mum jumped up onto a chair and started fanning at the smoke detector with a towel. When the commotion was finally over, I realized that things were far worse than just a ruined roast dinner. Effy and Katie were arguing, Owen was upset because he knew his mums were upset, Emily was mad at Effy for speaking to Cook and mad at me for lying to her about putting him on the announcement message list, Ellie's routine for the day had gone to shit because of the smoke detector, and my mum felt so uncomfortable that she left soon after Katie and Effy's argument. Katie offered to help clean up the kitchen with me while Effy went home to try and settle Owen down and Emily went upstairs to try to get Elouise back to sleep. I was elbow-deep in dishes and Katie was drying the dishes as I passed them to her. Furiously drying them.

"Don't be so hard on her, Katie," I said as I handed her a dish. "She doesn't ever mean to hurt you."

Katie sighed. "I know. I just hate when she lies to me. There's no need for her to keep secrets and tell me lies. I'll accept whatever she does or whoever she wants to be as long as she's honest with me."

"Effy grew up in a household where lying and keeping secrets was the only form of communication they knew. She's a lot better now since she's been with you. She's still learning how to be a good partner to you and a good mum to Owen and a good friend to me and a good sister-in-law to Emily. It's a lot for her to be able to balance all that at once. So just don't be too hard on her."

Katie's expression softened and she smiled at me. "I'll keep all that in mind."

Emily came into the kitchen looking completely knackered, though I noted that Ellie wasn't crying anymore, which meant that Emily had managed to get her back to sleep.

"Is dinner completely ruined then?" Emily asked as she watched Katie and I do the dishes.

"Yeah."

"Brilliant," Emily replied sarcastically as she walked over to the drawer where we keep our takeaway menus. "So, Indian or Chinese or Thai, Naomi?"

"Chinese, please."

Katie left as soon as the kitchen was cleaned up, looking tired and upset. Emily didn't look much better.

"What was the point in telling me all that crap the other day if you were just going to lie about putting Cook on the announcement message list? All that bullshit about coming clean and being honest with me and then you just went and lied," Emily said. Her voice sounded tired and exasperated. I knew I was treading on thin ice.

"I was protecting Effy. I'm sorry I lied."

The doorbell rang and Emily went to pay for the food we'd ordered. She spread the containers out on the coffee table in the living room and we ate in silence on the couch.

"I forgive you," Emily said as she opened up her fortune cookie. "Please don't lie to me again."

"I won't."

Emily handed me her fortune. "Can you read it for me? I can't see the writing when it's that small."

"It says 'Good luck bestows upon you. You will get what your heart desires,'" I read out in a cryptic voice. "What does your heart desire, Em?"

"Only you."

I snorted. "Well that's a bloody useless fortune. You've already got me!"

Emily laughed a small laugh and smiled. "Yeah...I suppose so."

She leaned over and kissed me gently. "Love you, Naoms."

"Love you too, Em."

Author's Note: Please let me know what you thought in a review!

Check out my tumblr at: keeping-schtum DOT tumblr DOT com