Chapter 30! Please review for me! Let me know your thoughts! Update ASAP!

Chapter 30

Zoe.

I had been a week since Sharice had woken us screaming. She had had a nightmare about what had happened to her before she came to live with us. I had spent the next 4 hours holding her in an embrace whilst she cried and screamed the moment she shut her eyes to try and sleep. It was like the images were permanently tattooed onto the underside of her eyes.

The day after she woke up screaming I finally managed to get her back to sleep at 10am when she became overtired and just fell asleep from exhaustion. Jess had also been woken up by Sharice and Ash had taken he back to our bed to try and get her to sleep for longer so she wouldn't be totally exhausted for the next day. Ella had been woken up and had sat with Sharice and I helping me to try and calm her down for hours, she had gone at 7 so she could get to work but she had wanted to stay longer. Jess had woken up at 7 too and Ash had taken her out to the park and to a café for breakfast so she wouldn't have to see or hear Sharice.

Sharice hadn't slept well since the incident, having to wake me up several times each night to sleep in her bed with her. She had stopped screaming but it was clear she was unsettled about it. She was very quiet and would never stray to far from Ash or I. If we were both at the hospital instead of staying with Ella and Jess for the evening she would come and sit in my office, she wouldn't walk home or go out unless absolutely necessary. Her teacher had noticed the difference in her too, and I no loner saw the girl who had come out of school laughing alongside her.

There was only one week left of school until Christmas. The weekend to buy a Christmas tree. Ash was working but was getting off early so he could come and help us decorate it.

Saturday morning came round, I normally struggle to get Sharice and Ella out of bed but today they were both downstairs and ready by 9, Jess was ready too, with my help.

We all piled in my car and drove to Holby Garden Centre. It was huge, with 3 fields of trees to cut down, a massive precut section and a huge amount of decorations inside as well.

We all got out once we were there and found a trolley. Jess clambered in and Ella took over pushing, seeing Sharice take my hand.

"We need a big, tall tree." Jess was saying to us as we walked up and down the aisles looking at trees. "That one!" she shouted as we rounded a corner. "That one there!" pointing at a tree not too far away which was the perfect triangular shape of a Christmas tree and was not too tall either.

"That one looks good. What do you think girls?" I asked.

"Its perfect isn't it Jess!" Ella said.

Sharice was smiling, "I think it would look great." She said.

"Brilliant, that didn't take too long! Now all we need are decorations," I said, a man was waiting at the end of the aisle ready to help us cut it down.

He placed the tree in the trolley, Jess climbing out first to take Sharice and Ella's hands.

We carried on into the inside section of the garden centre. The girls walking hand in hand and me pushing the trolley behind them.

"If you see anything you like put it in the trolley." I called ahead to them.

An hour and a half later and we had finally made it the whole way though the garden centre and were now queuing up for the till. I saw a costa by the exit and seeing the girls bored from just standing around and Jess was getting tired.

"Ella, take the girls and go get a drink together, cake or biscuit too if you want." I said handing her a £20 note.

"Thanks Zoe, come on, lets get something to give us energy." Ella said picking Jess up and taking Sharice's hand.

"I'll come meet you when I'm done." I said as they walked off.

By the time I had made it to the checkout the girls had finished their drinks and cakes and now had much more energy, they came and helped pack the bags and carry them to the car. Ella had also brought me a coffee, which had really helped.

When we got back home it was 2pm, gone lunchtime, no wonder the girls were hungry. Ash was still on shift so I prepared lunch, we had some soup in the fridge from the previous day that Ash had made so I heated it up.

We managed to get the tree and all the decorations out from the car and into the living room before Ash arrived home at 5.

"Hello!" he called as he came through the door.

"Hi, we're all in here!" I replied from the living room.

"Wow, looks like we've got some work to do!" he said as he saw the array of decorations scattered all over the floor.

"We certaintly do dad." Ella said as she stood up to start decorating the tree.

By the time we had finished making the house look perfect for Christmas it was nearly 10 and Jess was falling asleep on the sofa, having refused to go to bed until we had finished.

"Right honey, time to go to bed." I said lifting Jess from the sofa.

"No, we need to finish-" she protested before realizing that we had. "oh, I wanted to help…"

"We have one more thing to do," Sharice told her, taking the star from the sofa and handing it to Jess, " the final part. The star."

The star was the only decoration that I had already, the only one that was kept year on year, handed down from my parents to me and Lou the star had been part of the Christmas tradition since my childhood, Jess had been the one in recent years to place the star at the top of the tree.

"Yay!" Jess exclaimed, jumping from my arms and scrambling over to Sharice.

"Ash, can you lift me up?" Jess said, trying to reach the top by herself on her tiptoes.

"Course sweetie," He replied lifting her up to reach the very top.

Once the star had been placed, Jess came over to me to be taken to bed. When she was settled I went back down the stairs to help the others clean up.

"Sharice go up to bed, you look tired." I said, seeing the dark marks under her eyes.

"I'm fine Zoe." She replied.

"Hey, come on, I'm going up now, why don't you sleep with me tonight, sleepover?" Ella said, taking her hand and practically dragging her up the stairs to go to bed.

"Thanks for tiding up," I said to Ash.

"It's no problem Zo, how was your day?" he said as we sunk into the sofa, our first time to speak to each other today.

We talked for hours until we looked at the clock and saw that it was 1 am.

"We should go up to bed." I said.

"Your wish I my command." Ash said, lifting me up and carrying me to our room.

Laughing and kissing we made our way as quickly and quietly as we could.

"Shhh!" I said to him but neither of us were in the mood to be quiet.

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