Thank you for all your lovely reviews of this story. I am going to wrap this story in the next two chapters, but people have been encouraging me on, so I will bring this family back for a new set of adventures in another story soon. Maybe the new radio series of Silk will provide some story lines? It might not be on the TV but I'll take what I can get!
A year later and Clive looked at his watch as he turned the engine off. 6pm. Perfect. It was days like this when he was glad he wasn't CW. He had met her on the way out of the office. She was just returning from a meeting and had some work to do on other bits of admin before she could head home. Whilst she was the named head, with Martha and Clive having taken up her offer of the newly created deputy head positions, it was more like the three QC's shared the job.
Clive and Martha's responsibility was to ensure everything ran smoothly in chambers. He was in charge of the prosecution lawyers, and Martha the defence. If the juniors were having any problems, they were the first port of call for advice in order to maintain and foster the family atmosphere that Shoe Lane was so proud of. With Martha on maternity leave at present, he was shouldering more of the load, but he could still remember how to be a good defence lawyer, and any difficulties he could always phone the expert at home for advice.
Billy had been told he was in remission, and was back to his wheeler dealing exuberant self, getting lots of interesting cases for his barristers by means unknown. He had formed a better relationship with John and was teaching him everything he knew about being a senior clerk. Clive and Martha often had their hands full keeping an eye on the pair of them to make sure everything was above board.
Things were also looking up for the other clerks as well. Jake had finally got his girl, and he and Bethany had started dating meaning Clive and Martha were not the only romantically involved couple at the chambers . This had made for an interesting time in the clerks room, especially when they were having a tiff, which seemed to be quite a frequent turn of events, but thankfully they always seemed to make up.
Getting out the car Clive headed to the front door. Everything had gone smoothly and the Costello-Readers had moved into their new dream home about nine months ago. It was a beautiful home and they were all very happy there.
Toeing off his shoes and depositing his briefcase in the study, he heard voices coming from the kitchen living area so headed in that direction. As he got closer he could hear Liv telling Martha all about her day. His little girl was growing up. She was now four and had started preschool a few weeks ago. She was really enjoying it and had settled in very easily. Clive and Martha had been more upset than her on her first day when she had followed the teacher inside without so much as a backward glance at her parents.
"How's everybody doing?" Clive asked as he entered the room. Martha was sat on a sofa in the airy kitchen, breast feeding. She loved the room as it was from here she could look out onto the garden during feeding time. Next to her sat Liv. She had removed her school jumper and shirt so she was naked from the waist up and was holding a doll against her chest.
"Hello Daddy. I'm best feeding my dolly," she explained to her father.
"So I see," he replied as he made his way over to the pair and greeted them both. "How are the terrible twosome doing?" He asked as he ran a finger down the cheeks of the feeding pair attached to Martha. This distracted them both from the job at hand of feeding, and each released one of Martha's nipples to give a tiny smile to their father before being encouraged to resume their suckling by their mother.
It was quite a surprise to Clive and Martha to find out they were expecting twins. One had remained hidden at her first scan so they didn't find out until her anomaly scan at twenty weeks. Martha had thought something was severely wrong when she caught the sonographer looking very worriedly at the screen on her machine. Happily it wasn't as bad as she had feared, no problems with the pregnancy, just an extra healthy baby! The sonographer had been worried as she was working out how to explain to the expectant parents that in fact they were expecting twins.
The surprise news did answer a lot of questions for Martha - the worse morning sickness this time around, and for an unexplainable reason she seemed to have a much bigger bump as well. The obstetrician had explained that twin pregnancies were more common with older mothers as they often tended to release two eggs at ovulation instead of the usual one.
The only word that Martha had heard during the explanation was 'old'. "I'm only 40," she had huffed to Clive after their consultation. "I feel like a flippin' geriatric,".
They had delivered the news to their whole family at Christmas when they had invited everyone to celebrate in their new home. Liv had been super excited to learn that (in her mind at least) she was getting two sisters. Clive and Martha had tried to shut that expectation down straight away.
"It might not be two girls," Martha had explained patiently, to which Liv looked horrified.
"But I don't want a bruvver," Olivia had replied adamantly.
"Well I think Daddy might want one to be a boy, otherwise he's going to be the only boy in this household," Martha continued.
Olivia had finally conceded that a brother and sister would be ok with her. "As long as it's not two bruvvers," she had warned her parents immediately placing a lot of pressure on their shoulders.
As Martha had neared her delivery date, one twin decided to be difficult and change position, meaning her obstetrician felt it would be much safer if Martha had a Caesarean section. If she was honest, that wasn't a very attractive proposition. The thought of being cut open whilst awake, freaked her out a little bit. However, with Clive by her side, it really wasn't as bad as she had imagined. She hadn't felt a thing and was distracted by the anaesthetist asking lots of questions. By the time they had explained to him that Olivia would only let them back home with either a boy and girl or two girls, the doctors were ready to deliver the babies. They held their breath when a boy was delivered first, but were very happy and relieved when a little girl soon followed.
Martha kept her promise and named her son after Billy. William Costello-Reader had weighed in at 5 and a half pounds. Lily Costello-Reader was smaller at only 5 pounds. Olivia had helped to name her, by choosing her name from a list her parents had drawn up. In time their names had been shortened, and now whenever the family talked about the twins, they were referred to as 'Will n Lil'.
Olivia had met her new brother and sister a couple of hours after they had been born. She had been taken to the hospital by all her grandparents who had come to stay and look after their granddaughter whilst Martha was in hospital. She was being even more spoilt than usual and totally loving all the attention.
Happily, she accepted her young siblings, even her brother, very easily, and was an excellent big sister. From the moment Martha returned home, Olivia become her little shadow helping out her mother as best she could. That even included helping with nappy changes, which was when she had noticed the difference between her brother and sister.
"Mummy what's that?" She had asked, pointing between her brother's legs. She had asked a few difficult questions throughout Martha's pregnancy. Clive had got the 'How did the babies get in Mummy's tummy?' question. It transpired their daughter had a built-in bullshit detector because she didn't believe Clive's vague explanation of 'special hugs' and 'watering seeds'. It had ended in them buying an age appropriate book to explain to her as Clive had got too flustered with her persistent questioning on the matter. It looked like Martha was going to have to explain the differences between boys and girls.
Martha had tried to explain as simply as she could. She thought she had done a really good job as Olivia had seemed to accept it all. However when Clive had arrived home, she had cornered him and started asking questions all about his 'downstairs' which had completely unnerved him. He had shouted for Martha to come quickly.
"What's the matter?" She had asked on arriving at the scene. She was expecting an emergency from the way he had hollered for her, but instead she saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Why is Liv asking questions about my penis?" He had asked her, whispering the last word. "How come she even knows that word?" He had continued, totally shocked. She had been his innocent little girl when he had said goodbye to her that morning. What the hell had happened during the course of the day for her to brazenly ask questions about his reproductive organ?!
Whilst Clive recovered, Martha had had another little talk to her daughter about how it wasn't considered polite to talk about such things to people and that she definitely shouldn't go around asking men about their 'downstairs'. Thankfully she seemed to have heeded her mothers advice and she hadn't mentioned the topic again.
"Well we had a trip to the doctors today," explained Martha to Clive as he sat down next to Martha and placed Liv on his lap. "The health visitor is very pleased as we're continuing to grow and put on weight,".
"Well done guys," Clive had praised their youngest although he wasn't entirely surprised. They were definitely only interested in Martha's breasts at the moment and always seemed to be attached.
"We also had our three month immunisations whilst we were there. It seems to have gone ok although we might be a little cranky tonight,".
"Does that mean they're gonna cry?" Asked Liv. When they both got worked up the two little Costello-Reader's could make some noise, and they could keep the whole household up throughout the night.
"Hopefully not," replied her mother.
"Good," confirmed Liv. "Can I show you what I learned in ballet class today?" She asked her parents turning the conversation on to herself. She had recently started attending ballet lessons with her friend Ruby and was enjoying it a lot. Her parents agreed and the next thing they knew she was scampering off to get changed. Whilst she was gone the twins finished feeding and Clive took his son to burp him, whilst Martha took charge of her youngest daughter. They were settled on their parents' laps ready to watch their big sister's show by the time Olivia reappeared dressed in her new leotard and ballet shoes.
Before the performance started she deemed that some furniture be moved out the way and set about moving some dining table chairs. Bob was taking a break from napping on one chair that was catching a lot of the sun's rays. He was currently grooming himself, but paused mid lick of an outstretched hind leg when the furniture moving began. He was anxious to know if he was going to be disturbed.
"You can stay there Bob," Olivia had agreed. As if understanding her, Bob continued his cleaning regime.
Once the stage had been set, Olivia went over to where her mothers iPod rested on the docking station. Sure she could dance to whatever music came on, Olivia pressed play. The familiar opening sounds of Joy Division's 'Love will tear us apart' came blaring out the speakers and Olivia started to dance. It was quite a performance. She span round in circles haphazardly, and leaped around the room in a very uncoordinated way. At one point she landed very inelegantly near Bob who was watching the performance with one eye open whilst trying to sleep. He looked very alarmed and shot out of the room as quickly as he could before dashing up the stairs to find some peace and quiet in a bedroom.
From the garden came a few barks. It hadn't taken long for Olivia to wear her father down over getting a puppy. Soon after moving to their new home, the puppy had come to live with them. Clive had done some research on the best breeds to have with small children and they had decided on a golden retriever. He was named Bailey after the law courts where Martha and Clive worked and he had quickly settled into his new family. He and Olivia had become best friends very quickly and they often played in the garden together. Whilst very playful, he was also gentle with the twins whenever they were close by and Clive had also gained a companion whenever he went out for a run. He thought from all the activity that was going on in the house, that he was missing out on some play time, hence the barking.
As the music ended, so Olivia finished off her dance to the applause of her parents. Once she had left the room to go and get changed again, Clive finally spoke.
"I think we're wasting our money on the ballet lessons," he said with a smile. "That wasn't any ballet I've ever seen before. I think Bob would agree!".
"Stop it Clive!" Replied Martha. "At least she's enjoying it,".
"I think we have to acknowledge that she will never be the best dancer. At least not with your Costello genes,".
"Oh, and you're Mr Fred Astaire are you?" Retorted Martha. "At least I get out on the dance floor Clive rather than standing around watching,".
"Ok, ok," Clive agreed. "She's never going to be the best dancer with us for parents,".
"Everyone ok?" Asked Martha from the bed a couple of hours later as Clive joined her in the bedroom after he had locked up and checked on all members of their family- even the four legged ones.
"Yep," he replied as he got into bed and pulled Martha to him. "Bailey's in his bed asleep, and Bob is at the bottom of Liv's bed. I've given up trying to get that cat to sleep in his own bed,".
"You wait until she's grown and her feet are nearer the end of the bed. I doubt Bob will sleep there then," replied Martha.
"Anyway both he and Liv are fast asleep and judging from the occasional snuffle coming from the crib over there, it sounds like Will 'n' Lil are away with the fairies as well, so that just leaves us," Clive recounted.
"Excellent," agreed Martha. "Let's hope it stays that way," she continued as she settled down against Clive.
The couple lay in silence for a while, Martha just dozing. Twins were definitely much harder work than one, and they still had Olivia to focus on once the twins were down for the night. She was glad that she was doing it with Clive and they seemed to be doing an ok job as all the members of their family seemed happy and content which made her happy too. However, as much as she loved her children, she was looking forward to getting back to work in three months time and having a bit more adult conversation in her life.
"Marry me, Marth," she heard Clive say completely out of the blue, and pulled back to look in his face to see if she was imagining things. "I've had the ring for a while," he admitted as he leant over and got it from a drawer in his bedside table. He opened the box to reveal an emerald cut diamond ring with a halo of tiny diamonds around the main stone. "I've just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to ask you, and it never seems to happen, so I'm going to do it now,". Martha looked at the ring- it was a very nice ring. Then she looked at Clive waiting to see if he would say anymore. "I just think that you shouldn't be the only one without Reader in their surname in this household,".
"What about Bob and Bailey," countered Martha.
"Hate to disappoint you Marth but they are registered as Bob and Bailey Costello-Reader with the vet. Liv made sure the receptionist had their full names when I took her with me on our last visit there,".
"So is that the only reason you want to get married? You do know I could say yes and then decide not to add Reader to my name once we were married? I'm quite fond of Costello you know, and everyone knows me by that name for work. I think I need another reason," she sassed.
"Ok," replied Clive as he moved Martha on top of him so he could completely look her in the face, "how about that I love you and everything about you, even your dancing and the fact that you seem to regress back to being a toddler in a tantrum every time you lose a case. I definitely know where Liv gets it from," he started before he got a warning slap on the chest.
"Bit of advice Clive, if you want me to say yes, I'd start telling me how wonderful I am rather than highlighting my flaws!".
"I'm not proud to admit it, but I wasn't a very nice person or a particularly good friend to you for the first fifteen years of our acquaintance. But then by some sheer fluke I finally managed to get you into bed. It might have taken a lot longer than I thought but I knew you couldn't resist the Reader charm forever,".
"Is that so?".
"Anyway, that night was one of the best of my life although it didn't seem that way at first when you told me I was going to be a father. I'm ashamed to think that I wanted you to get rid of Liv. Thank God you had already made your mind up, because becoming a father has made me a better person and it's brought us closer together. I think it was the responsibility I was scared of, but it's really not that bad when you find the right person to do it with. I would be honoured if you'd say yes so we can make it official that we are a pair,". He waited a beat or two, before adding, "If it makes it any easier, I've already asked your grandfather and Billy for permission. They both think it's ok,".
"Of course I'll marry you," Martha replied as she presented her left hand to Clive so he could place the ring on her forth finger, before they celebrated with a kiss.
"If we're quick we might be able to celebrate in another fashion," whispered Clive, "before the twins are awake and wanting their late night snack,".
"Sounds good to me," replied Martha before leaning down to kiss Clive again.
"Mummy, Daddy you 'wake?" They heard from their bedroom door. They turned to see Olivia at the doorway.
"Maybe not," whispered Clive. He loved his daughter but sometimes she had really bad timing.
"What's wrong Liv?" Asked Martha.
"I woked up and I was lonely," her eldest daughter replied. "I want to sleep in here with you and Daddy and Will 'n' Lil,".
"A little bird told me you had Bob keeping you company?".
"Yes but I can't talk to him,".
"Well you can't talk much in here either because you'll wake your brother and sister up if you're not careful," instructed Martha and she moved off Clive to her side of the bed.
"I won't wake them up, I promise," said Olivia as she climbed onto the bed and settled herself between her parents. "They are very 'nnoying when they cry and cry all night. 'Specially when some of us have work to do the next day,".
Martha started laughing at her daughters last words. She was obviously repeating a phrase she had picked up from either herself or Clive. "You are funny, Liv," she said as she gave her a kiss, "but I do love you,".
"I love you too, Mummy,".
"What about me?" Asked Clive.
"And you too, Daddy".
"That's good," Clive replied as he kissed his daughter as well, " because I've just got you your first bridesmaid gig,".
"What that mean Daddy?".
"It means Mummy has just agreed to marry me,".
"And I get to be bidesmaid!" She said loudly, very excited.
"Ssshh!" Instructed Martha as they all waited to see if the twins would wake up. "Yes you can be my bridesmaid," whispered Martha when it appeared they hadn't been disturbed.
"I want a sparkly pink princess dress," Olivia instructed.
"Anything else?" teased Clive.
"A hamster, Daddy," She replied after some thought.
"Can we go a couple of months without adding any more animals to this family Liv? We'll turn into a zoo if you're not careful,".
"But can I have one Daddy?".
"You can have one when you are older and can look after it all by yourself," he said, proud that he hadn't caved to her demand as easily as in the past.
"When will that be?"
"When you're 10 or 11,".
"That's ages away," she groused.
"Exactly!".
"But you promise Daddy, coz I'll remember when I'm 10,".
"I promise,".
"Good,"agreed Liv as she settled down to sleep.
"Life is never dull with her around is it?" Commented Clive once she was fast asleep.
"And we wouldn't have it any other way," agreed Martha as the newly engaged pair settled down to join their family in dreamland.