Ella pulled on his hand and stopped him.
"How strong are you feeling?" She asked.
"Are you ok?" he murmured softly.
She wavered.
"I seem to have no energy left." She confessed.
He responded by picking her up and carrying her.
"I'm beginning to think you are doing this just to test me!" he teased.
She laughed softly.
"I felt good all day and now I'm just so tried." she said to him wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning into him.
"And what have you eaten?" he asked quickly.
"A couple of biscuits and a banana smoothie." She replied. "Don't nag."
"How am I supposed not to nag?" he grouched at her. "Ella, you know what Rachel said. "
"Put me down I'll walk from here." She told him huskily.
"Nope." he replied.
"I said put me down."
"And I said no." he muttered.
"Put me down or I'll scream." She muttered wriggling in his arms.
"Fine!" he said finally, and let go of her. She stood beside him and tugged his arm so that he was facing her.
"I know exactly what Rachel said to me and I have been through a miscarriage before. I have eaten a Banana Smoothie, which has fruit and vitamins and potassium and iron in it. I have taken my vitamin tablets and my iron tablets. The two biscuits I ate this morning are especially for pregnant woman to help with nausea and stomach upsets. Now I am sorry that it isn't a three course meal that I have had but I am not a big eater anyway and I intended to have a meal this evening, it was going to be with my husband but he can go to hell." She finished shouting at him and walked away into the house.
Ella walked in through the front down and tried to slam it but the new carpet prevented her from forcing the door closed.
"Dammit!" she muttered and walked quickly upstairs where she slammed the bedroom door successfully.
"So much for hoping that they wouldn't notice the door not closing!" Nic said to Ruby and Annie.
"You're not worried about Ella?" Ruby asked.
"No my dad keeps doing stupid things and anyway her temper usually cools down after about 5 minutes." Nic told them with a grin.
Annie chuckled.
"Still Nic perhaps you ought to check on her?" Annie said.
"No chance, my Dad was in the SAS not me!" Nic told them.
Ruby laughed.
"Ruby I'm serious, it'll be ok its just hormones mostly, she's pregnant." Nic told her. "She's been a bit under the weather though, and we keep asking if she's ok and it drives her nuts." Nic explained.
"I would have thought that even more reason to go check on her." Ruby told her a worried expression on her face.
Nic looked at her watch and on cue the bedroom door opened and Ella walked slowly down the stairs.
"Feeling better?" Nic asked.
"Yes." Ella said with a slow blush on her face. "But I think he's going to notice the door won't close." She told them.
"He might not. What did he do this time?" Nic asked.
"Nag me about what I'm eating." Ella told her.
"Ah ha." Nic said. "So you've actually eaten something?" Nic asked.
Ella looked at her.
"No you don't daughter! You are not going to wind me up so I distract him by having another argument as soon as he walks in." Ella told her with a laugh.
"I tried." Nic said with a shrug.
Ruby looked at Annie and saw that the other girl was trying not to laugh.
"You are all mad." Ruby told them with a grin on her own face.
Annie picked up a cushion and threw it at Ruby, who caught it and fell back on the sofa giggling.
"El what do you think of these?" Nic asked showing Ella a wedding magazine with bridesmaids dresses in.
"I like the gold colour I think that could pick up a theme for the wedding." She told her. "But are you going to make them wear matching dresses because obviously they have different tastes."
"We were discussing that when you er…walked in!" Nic said.
"Uh huh!" Ella said to her. "And what did you come up with?"
"Nothing. Still deadlocked." Nic said with a sigh.
"Well they are your Best friends Nic, why don't you make them something. " Ella suggested. "You can pick up the material in the city and run up the dresses yourself."
Annie and Ruby grinned.
"A Nicole Franklin Design." Ruby said,
"No." Nic said. "A Nicole Harris design. Thank you." She said.
"Since when?" Ruby asked.
"Since when Mike decided that he wanted dad to adopt him legally so that he had the same name. I know that it will change to Campbell in a few weeks. But when I stand next to Geoff at the altar and they get to the bit where they ask me if I take this man I want to see the look on my dad's face when they call me that." She said a tear falling down her cheek. "And I will keep the Harris part for my designing. I've already done the paperwork to change it on both counts." She confessed with a teary smile.
Ella pulled the other girl into her arms and held her, tears pouring down her own face.
"He will be so proud of you." She told the girl.
Nic laughed and wiped the tears away.
"Until he tries to close the door he will be!" she said.
Ella laughed and wiped her tears away.
She stood and walked into the kitchen pulling things out of the fridge to make dinner. Inside 10 minutes she had a salad ready and was grilling veggie burgers while jacket potatoes were cooking in the microwave. She set the table making sure that the burgers didn't crisp under the grill too much and lifted down a jug to make some fruit punch in.
The burgers were cooked and she lifted them onto a plate and placed another one on top to keep them warm whilst waiting for the microwave to finish.
She cut up an apple and orange and placed them in the jug adding fruit juice and lemonade to it. Oh, for the pre pregnancy days when a slug of vodka would have gone in as well, she thought with a sigh. The microwave pinged and she tested the potatoes making sure they were cooked before placing them in a dish on the table.
"Lunch." She called to the girls.
Annie looked up.
"Do we have to eat it?" she asked mock fearfully.
Nic pushed her towards the kitchen.
They saw the food on the table.
"Ella I thought you couldn't cook?" Nic said to her.
"I can't. Not stuff like your Dad does but I can do simple stuff and I can order pizza." She grinned.
"Seriously this is amazing!" Nic told her.
She sat down at the table and poured out some of the drink. And topped up the glasses of Ruby and Annie.
"Thanks Ella." Ruby said.
"No problem." Ella poured herself a glass of milk and sat sipping it before lifting up the lid of the burgers and placing one on her plate. "Sorry that they are vegetarian."
Ruby grinned.
"I wasn't quite sure how I was going to tell you but I'm a vegetarian now." Ruby told them.
"Seriously?" Annie asked.
"Yes, I know you and Geoff come from the farm and its natural to you but I have strong views about it." Ruby told her.
Annie laughed.
"Sorry Rubes, but I've been a vegetarian for the past two years now!" Annie said.
"Get out!" Nic said.
"No way!" Ruby said at the same time.
Annie laughed.
"Yeah, I just decided one day and that was it!" Annie said.
Ella avoided the salad but ate a small jacket potato and managed two of the burgers and even some bread. She stretched and stood from the table.
"Can I leave you guys to clean up for me?" she asked them.
"Of course you can." Nic told her.
Ella walked up the stairs and was at the bedroom down when she heard Roman walk in and ask why the door wouldn't shut. She thought she heard him grouchily say never mind, and walk up the stairs.
She was lying on top of the covers on the bed when he came in.
"Is it my turn to apologise or yours?" he asked folding his arms across his chest and grinning.
She looked over at him.
"I think its mine this time. " she told him. "But I am worried. If we are like this now how are we going to cope with sleepless nights and nappy changes?" she asked.
He kicked off his shoes and lay beside her.
"Well we are coping with sleepless nights very well!" he murmured in that tone of voice that usually managed to make her knees go weak.
"Oh no you don't." she muttered. "You are so not getting round me like that!"
"Really?" he asked using the same tone.
She looked at him and burst out laughing.
"You did it deliberately didn't you?" she asked.
He tried to look innocent but a slow grin spread on his face.
"Guilty as charge. Seems when I get you mad you …" he began.
"Go off like an angry cat?" she suggested the ending of the sentence for him.
"Well," he paused. "Yes!" he confirmed.
"If I wasn't totally in love with you I would be so mad right now!" she said with a grin.
"Yeah and if I wasn't in love with you I would suspect that the carpet downstairs is new." He told her.
She blushed.
"It may have been really good carpet shampoo they used?" she suggested.
He leaned over and kissed her.
"El I do love you and no matter what happens to us we will get through it." He pulled her into his arms and held her.
"Uh huh! Well in that case I cooked lunch and yours is waiting downstairs." She told him.
"I said I love you not that I'm suicidal." He said with a grin.
She sat up and looked at him, a hurt expression on her face before standing and walking away into the bathroom. He heard the shower go on and decided to follow her. She was hormonal and the last joke may have really upset her, he thought with a frown. He should stop picking on her cooking, he thought, but normally she laughed.
He stepped through the bathroom door and saw her dress and underwear had been dropped in an untidy pile on the floor. He looked up in time to catch the sponge she threw at him.
"For that last remark you can wash my back!" she instructed.
He grinned.
"Just your back?" he specified.
She peered at him from under the hot spray.
"To start off with!" she grinned.
He stripped of his own clothes and climbed in beside her.
"Hey this is my shower gel!" He grouched, looking at the bottle she handed him.
She smiled at him.
"It's the only smell I like at the moment." She explained.
He sighed and squirted a generous amount on the sponge and rubbed it slowly down her spine until it lathered up. He spread the foam across her shoulders and began a slow massage.
"Is that what you wanted?" he asked.
"Yes it is." She confirmed with a sigh.
"Now is that all you wanted?" he asked huskily.
"Yes." She said. "Unless you have any suggestions?"
He turned her around and kissed her long and slow, his arms tight around her. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him close.
"I may be able to come up with something." he whispered in her ear.
She laughed.