A/N - Hello! Remember me?!
Apologies for my absence; there is a very long story but I don't want to bore you with it all. The short version is that I've had to take some time out for my health as I've had a few problems since last summer. I've got a bit of a long road ahead of me to get back to being myself (I can't say 'back to normal' as I wasn't normal to start with!) but I really do want to get this story finished and I made a commitment to get it done (to you all as well as to myself), so here we are. :) Again, sorry for my absence; I didn't mean to be gone for as long as I was and have struggled to post this chapter for a couple of months.
I've got a few chapters beta'd and ready to post and I cannot thank J enough for their time and effort in helping this little story be the best it can be. I couldn't do this with them.
Thank you all for bearing with me and hanging on in there while I get this story finished. I'm very grateful. I know I've lost a few readers, and that's okay. I just hope the ones that remain will give this story another chance. Love to you all xx
.oOo. Chapter Thirty Seven .oOo.
"Right, my small gang of mischief makers, are you up for this challenge?" Beca asked, brandishing a wooden spoon as she spoke, wincing slightly as the shrill shrieking she received in response to her question echoed around the large kitchen.
She had the girls perched on the kitchen stools, each adorned with their own mini aprons, and with various ingredients in mixing bowls sitting in front of them. She'd had them wash their hands, as she'd tied their hair back into pony tails, and was now running through the plan for this evening.
"Here's what I think we should do first," Beca began.
Beca had been living in the pool house for three days now, and this afternoon was the first where she had the girls all to herself in the house, without Stacie or Chloe around. Chloe had texted her around half past three and said, if all went well, she'd be home by six. With that in mind, Beca decided, as she hadn't seen Chloe the day before due to her own work commitments, she'd make dinner for all of them today.
Knowing the little ones usually ate around five, Beca decided she'd sort them out first, and then reheat whatever she had made when Chloe got home. It had sounded like a good idea at the time until she remembered that her cooking skills weren't exactly up to par.
Deciding to involve the children, she figured she could blame any disaster on them, knowing that Chloe would see through the silliness, but still give her points for effort. She didn't really know why it had become so important for her to impress Chloe so much, but it had. Beca also figured that the movie star needed a break. She also wanted the opportunity to see how the redhead's new movie role was going.
"Kate, you are mixing this salad together, okay? Try and make the colours pretty," Beca encouraged, nudging her head towards the small pile of ingredients on the counter.
"Yup, Beca," Kate said, picking up a ladle and a pot of cut tomatoes and dumping it into the bowl in front of her. Beca cringed a little as Kate began pounding the tomatoes, instead of mixing them around.
"Stir it with a spoon, it might be a little easier," Beca tried to explain but Kate shook her head no. Beca decided just to let her get on with it.
"Alex, how about you try mixing the tuna together with a little bit of mayonnaise? Can you do that?"
Alex nodded enthusiastically and picked up the large bottle of light mayo and set about trying to get the lid open.
"Need help?" Beca asked, watching her struggle.
"No, I do it," Alex shook her head. She was so adorable with her tongue caught between her teeth.
"Okay then," Beca winced as the tiny little girl hit the container of mayo on the counter top, before turning to the last little girl. "Jessica, my girl, you've done this before. How about you prick the potatoes with that fork there," Beca pointed to the one she wanted Jessie to use. "And then I'll find you another job in a minute."
Jessie picked up the fork with vigour and reached for the largest potato that they had all helped wash in the sink.
Beca turned around to check the oven, having spent the past ten minutes trying to figure out how to work it. It was a lot fancier than the one she had had in her old apartment, with twice as many buttons and ten times as many functions. Eventually, she'd looked it up on a YouTube video, thank god for YouTube, following along at the same time. She checked back just as Kate tried to tip up the bowl of chopped cucumber and pickles into her mixing bowl and ended up with most of it in her lap.
"Beca! Help!" She wailed, dropping the container back onto the counter.
"It's okay Kate, it's okay!" Beca rushed around to try and grab the salad items from Kate's apron, knowing it was cleaned just that afternoon. She thought she'd just scoop the items back into the bowl and it would be okay.
She didn't bank on Kate having a mini meltdown in the two seconds that it took her to get around the other side of the counter. Kate bounced around on the stool, spilling the rest of the food onto the floor. She cried even harder as she realised what she'd done.
"It doesn't matter!" Beca said, trying to make light of the situation as Kate threw herself into Beca's arms. "We can get this cleared up in no time, don't cry. And there's more in the fridge, it's okay."
Kate sniffed and nodded and proceeded to jump off the stool, squishing the cucumber into the floor, making a slippery mess.
"Maybe you'd best stay on the stool," Beca patted the seat to encourage Kate to perch out of the way.
She looked over as Alex finished emptying the mayonnaise into the bowl, the whole, family size bottle being used. Beca gagged, wondering if she'd be able to scrape some of it back into the bottle when Alex thrust her hands into the bowl, using her fingers to try and mix the flaked tuna fish in with the mayo.
'Ah fuck!'
"Maybe use a spoon Alex?" She joked, trying to school the look of horror on her face. She knew adding more tuna wouldn't make a difference as she'd probably need two catering buckets of the stuff to counteract the mayo.
Alex pursed her lips, shook her head and carried on with her task.
Turning to Jessie, she figured her little job would be safe but while she'd been dealing with the other two mini disasters, Jessie had gone to town on the potatoes, stabbing them so hard that they were starting to disintegrate.
"Getting your anger issues out there, are we?" Beca mused, taking the fork away from the little girl. Deciding that it wouldn't really matter what they looked like once they were cooked, Beca laid out the potatoes on a baking sheet and slid the tray onto the rack in the oven, shutting the door with confidence.
"What's dat cooking?" Kate pointed to the oven.
"They are the baked potatoes we decided to make for Mommy when she gets home. They'll need... oh wait, don't they take like two hours to cook? Damn, your Mommy will be home soon."
"Don't like bakeded 'tatoes," Alex announced, screwing up her face.
"Don't you?" Beca asked. "I thought everyone liked baked potatoes."
Alex shook her head animatedly.
"Well, perhaps you can just have the tuna fish and salad."
"I don't like tooona," Kate wailed.
"Okay, let's take a moment here," Beca said, holding her hands up in mock surrender. "I thought we agreed on this menu together, no?"
Three little heads shook silently together.
"What do you dudes want for dinner then?"
"Pizzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaa!" Alex yelled, throwing her hands up in the air and covering a three foot radius around her in tiny blobs of tuna and mayo.
Beca wiped some of the fishy concoction from under her eye before speaking. "I think we should stick to our plan and I know Mommy will like it."
"Nooo!" Kate started to join Alex in the protest, poking her fingers in some tuna mush on the counter, before remembering she hated it. "Eeeewwwww, it's on my fiiiiinger!"
"It's only a bit of tuna Kate, just wipe it on... I meant your apron, not in your sister's hair!" Beca braced herself for the inevitable, and was proved right when Jessie screeched, completely indignant at Kate's action.
"Moooommmmmy!" Jessie yelled, acting as if she was on fire as she slid off of the stool and ran around the kitchen island to get to Beca.
"Okay, okay, can we all just take a breath?" Beca asked, trying to maintain the cool, calm facade she always tried to display in front of the girls. "Jess, this will not kill you, okay?"
"But a bear might eat me!" Jessie wailed.
"A bear? Who..." Beca faltered, remembering that was something that Amy used to say to the little girl when they lived in the van, if she ever got covered in food. "... come here."
Beca reached for some paper towels and wiped Jessie clean. "Honestly, so dramatic!"
She looked around the mess of the kitchen island and the floor surrounding it and wondered how Chloe did it. She'd seen her bake and cook with the girls before and didn't remember there being as much mess, or any mess, if she was honest. Not to be outdone, she took stock of the situation and tried to come up with a quick plan.
"Okay, let's start by cleaning up this..."
"We want pizzzzzzza!" Alex called out again, running her still mucky hands over her face. Kate started to chant with Alex, causing enough noise to make Beca's ears hurt. Jessie looked as if she was about to join in when Beca stepped into action.
"Girls, girls, hush... if you have a healthy dinner, it means you can have some ice cream as well."
"Yeaaahh!" Alex and Kate yelled together, pulling Jessie into their cheering.
"Alex, please go and wash your hands properly and Jessie... you go and help her please, in case she needs you to open the bathroom door for her. Kate, go and find the broom for me please, and let's get this squelchy mess cleared up," Beca grinned widely as she asked the girls to follow her plan. As they dashed off in all directions, she wondered if she'd have enough time to give them all a quick bath before Chloe got home, as they all looked like sticky urchins.
"Right, how do I work the microwave," Beca said, more to herself than anyone else. She fiddled with one of the knobs on the front of the machine, before managing to set off an alarm. "Yeah, that's probably not the right button."
It continued to beep until Beca pulled open the door, "Mmm, you are quite feisty, aren't you?"
"Mommy Beca, is you talking to the microwave?" Alex asked, a cheerful smile on her face as she came back in from washing her hands. She found Beca talking to herself quite funny.
"It would appear so!"
"What's next?" Jessie asked.
"Well, I'm going to cook the potatoes in the microwave then I'll finish them off in the oven. I think that's what YouTube said to do... let's give it a go." Beca opened the oven door, slipped on a pair of oven mitts and pulled out the baking tray full of potatoes.
She quickly loaded up the microwave with the luke warm potatoes, shutting the door to stop the two on the edge from rolling out.
"Let's put this on for, I dunno, twenty minutes," she said as she pressed her finger on the timer button. "I think that's right. What's next gang?"
"Dis mess," Kate brandished the small broom and dustpan, swatting Jessie with it as her twin wandered a little too close. "Coooocumber on da floor."
"Yes, let's get this mess cleared up. Can you reach the paper towels?" Beca asked and Kate nodded enthusiastically. Beca began sweeping up all the green salad pieces on the floor. She had swept most of it up, but in that time Kate had returned with most of the roll of paper towels clutched tightly to her chest. With a sigh, Beca said, "Yeah, let's go easy on that..."
She couldn't stop Kate in time though, as the keen little girl threw down the wad of paper towels on the floor and began swishing it with her foot. "Like dis?"
"Umm, yeah, that's perfect," Beca lied.
"We help?" Alex asked, pointing to herself and Jessie.
"Yes please. Can you scrape the tuna goo into a different bowl?"
"Goo!" Alex yelled, wound up for a reason Beca just couldn't fathom.
"Jess, can you get the top of the trash bin please, so I can get rid of this mess and maybe help Kate after that?"
"Yup," Jessie smiled up at Beca, she was used to helping clean up.
"Mommy Beca, dis 'mells bad," Alex announced as she climbed up onto the kitchen stool and pointed at the bowl she'd been experimenting in earlier.
"Tuna does smell weird kid. Just try not to play with it too much," Beca said, tipping the contents of the dustpan into the trash. She wasn't quick enough to stop Alex running over and chucking the tuna concoction, and the bowl, into the refuse.
"Um, what did you do that for?" Beca asked her, a little exasperated.
"It no good?" Alex asked, looking slightly crestfallen. "It 'mell like feet."
"It was fine sweetheart, just um... okay, it's just... that was going to be dinner."
"Lex no like toooona."
"But Mommy and I could have had it, if you girls weren't going to eat it," Beca tried to explain.
Alex shook her head from side to side, "Nope."
Beca didn't quite know what to do with that so she reached into the bin and pulled the mixing bowl out, banging it against the side of the bin to get the rest of the contents out. Without saying a word, she walked over to the dishwasher, pulled the door open and placed the bowl inside.
"What now?" Jessie asked, waiting for the next instruction.
Beca turned around and surveyed the kitchen mess. She needed a few minutes to tidy and clean it up and the previous thought about bathing the girls came to mind.
"How about you guys having a super quick bath and hair wash before Mommy gets home?"
"But we has a bath before bedtime, not before dinner," Kate explained
"I know, but we can do things differently every now and then."
"I want to play in the sand pit," Kate offered as an alternative task.
"No can do today, kiddo. Let's have a race upstairs and see who can get ready for the bath first, shall we?" Beca suggested, knowing the girls loved a competition.
"What 'bout dinner?" Alex asked.
"If I can trust you to behave in the bath, and I think I can as you are all grown up little ladies, aren't you?" Beca paused while she got three nods, "... then I'll come down and clean up and you can play with the bubbles while I do that. How does that sound?"
"Yeah!" Kate cheered.
"Come on then dudettes, the last one upstairs is a rotten egg!"
Beca charged out of the kitchen first, heading towards the stairs. She paused before going up to give the girls a chance to catch up, pretending she needed to catch her breath as six little legs clamoured up the stairs as if their lives depended on it. Jessie tripped up on the top step but Beca swooped her up in an easy movement, setting her down on two feet before they ran into their bedroom and toward the bathroom door.
"Oh no!" Beca cried out and she reached the door last. "I'm the rotten egg!"
The little girls laughed loudly, all breathing a little erratically from their sprint up the stairs. Jessie coughed a couple of times which caught Beca's attention.
"You okay?" Beca asked her and Jessie nodded back. She didn't like being any different from the other two and hated her asthma being pointed out. "Right gang, let's get the bubbles going."
Beca quickly strode into the bathroom and began filling the tub. She found a bottle of suds by the sink in the bathroom, and tipped a very liberal amount into the bath, splashing a little on herself at the same time. She was just foaming up the water when a little face peered around the door.
"Come on in, you can get in while it fills up," Beca beckoned them over and helped strip off the last of their clothes. She was grateful, both for the large tub, and the fact that they didn't mind all going in together. Hoping she had enough time to get them back out of the tub before Chloe came home, she pulled the shower attachment above the bath down and held it away from the girls, switching the lever from bath to shower before they noticed what she was up to!
"Hair wash time!" She called out as Kate put up her hands in front of herself in protest, the only one out of the three girls who hated having her hair shampooed.
Kate twitched uneasily, "Noooo!"
"It's not going to hurt you sweetheart," Beca crooned a little, making sure the shower water wasn't too hot. She quickly sprayed the jets over Jessie's hair, thoroughly soaking the little girl who didn't even flinch. "Alex?"
"Yup, I go next," Alex gave her a mini thumbs up and got a suitable soaking in response. Beca was quite glad to see that most of the tuna in Alex's hair washed away easily enough.
Giving Kate a few minutes to get used to the idea, Beca grabbed the bottle of shampoo, popped the lid and took a quick sniff at the scent, before she dropped a large blob of it on Jessie's hair. She loved washing the little girl's hair when it was just the two of them in the apartment, but she knew she didn't have time to spend too long on her, as the other two were waiting. She had Jessie and Alex's hair washed, and rinsed, by the time Kate stopped protesting and let Beca do hers as well.
"See, that didn't hurt, did it?" Beca asked Kate, who shook her head no and went back to play with the purple turtle bath toy. "Right, can I leave you alone for like five minutes while I go cleanup the kitchen?"
"Yup," three little voices chorused.
Beca quickly left the bathroom, swiping up the discarded clothes as she came through the bedroom. She hurried down the stairs, threw the clothes in through the open laundry room door, gave herself a mental high-five as she got all but one sock into the laundry basket and headed into the kitchen.
Looking at the time on the microwave, she was annoyed at herself that she hadn't set it properly as the time hadn't moved on and she was busy trying to figure out what had gone wrong when she smelled something funny.
She inhaled deeply, unable to make out what the awful smell was, but decided it must have been the tuna fish in the trash bin. Grabbing the dishcloth from the sink, she made quick work of cleaning the kitchen and was just rinsing it out when she heard a thump upstairs.
She dashed back up the stairs, thinking that one of the girls might have fallen in the bath, she flew into the bathroom and skidded on the patch of water and bubbles that had just sloshed out over the rim of the bathtub. She collided heavily into the vanity, bumping her elbow.
"Oh fu... fudge cake," she moaned, rubbing the sore spot.
"You okay Mommy Beca?" Alex asked, full of concern.
"Yes little one, I'm okay. How did the water end up all over the floor?" Beca said, lifting her right foot up to pull off her wet sock.
"Like dis!" Jessie grinned as she and Kate both shifted in the tub together causing the water to spill over the rim again.
Beca felt like King Canute as she dived to the floor in an effort to stop the water going everywhere, earning herself nothing but a thorough soaking as she hit the tiles. "Let's not do that again."
She lay on her back for a moment, a little winded, as two matching heads peered at her from above. "I think it's time we got out of the tub."
"Noooo!" Jessie and Kate chorused together, something Beca noticed they were doing a lot more of recently.
"Yeah, it's time," Beca said, straightening up. She lifted Alex out first, and grabbed the nearest towel to dry her off with. Realising she hadn't brought any of their pyjamas into the bathroom with her, she decided just to wrap the towel around Alex and asked her to go sit on her bed for a minute. "Just while I dry these two off, okay?"
Alex nodded and waddled off to the bedroom.
"Jess."
Beca scooped Jessie up and out of the bath and was just drying her when Kate decided to climb out herself, "Wait a second and I'll help you," she offered.
"I do it," Kate nodded.
"You'll fall," Beca warned.
"I okay."
Kate swung a leg over the bath but misjudged how far she had to go to get to the ground and, as Beca predicted, she tumbled, falling into Beca's outstretched arm and landed in a heap in her lap, kicking Jessie in the stomach as she settled.
"And that is why we wait..." Beca braced herself as Kate opened her mouth to scream. "Don't cry, it's okay."
Kate's scream downgraded to a look of shock as Beca snatched the last towel available and wrapped it around Kate before finishing drying off Jessie.
"Go sit with your sister while I sort Kate out."
Jessie ran into the bedroom, almost tripping over the long side of the towel in her haste. Beca took a deep breath, blew a few strands of hair out of her eye and looked down at Kate. "You okay there buddy?"
Kate shook her head and pointed at Beca's elbow, "Your arm is leaking."
Beca looked down and saw she had a fairly sizable gash in her arm from when she hit the vanity unit a few minutes before.
"I'll live," she shrugged her shoulders and quickly began to dry Kate who was just beginning to shiver. She had just finished ruffling her hair to almost dry when she heard the shrillest smoke alarm ever begin to blare downstairs.
Jumping up and grabbing Kate's hand, Beca ran out of the bathroom and called the other two to follow her.
"Mommy!"
"It's okay, follow me! Come on everyone," Beca called as the girls began following her out of the bedroom. She was half expecting to see downstairs engulfed in flames as they got to the top of the stairs but nothing seemed amiss. "Stay with me girls."
They scuttled down the stairs and Beca quickly assessed the situation, seeing no smoke and definitely no flames coming from anywhere. "Into the playroom," Beca ordered, knowing there was an outside door there if they had to leave the house.
"Mommy?"
"I'll be right behind you, go!" Beca called out, not pausing to see which child had called out her name.
Beca pushed them into the lounge and shut the door behind them, ignoring their cries as she ran into the kitchen. Still visually unable to find the reason why the smoke alarm was blaring, she almost gagged on the acrid smell as she reached the oven.
"What the fuck is that?" She said to no one in particular, as she pulled on the oven door. "Oh, for Christ's sake."
Inside the oven, now resting on its side on a baking tray and melting like an ice cream on a hot summer's day was the salad bowl that Kate had been mixing the salad in, half an hour before. A very thin, almost sting like column of smoke was the reason for the smoke alarm going off.
Beca reasoned that Kate must have put it in there by accident to be helpful. She quickly switched off the oven, stuck her hand into an oven mitt and pulled out the melted baking tray before hurrying to the sink and dumping it into the stainless steel. She turned the water on, and watched as the plastic cracked as it cooled down.
Leaving the water running, she turned to open the French doors that lead onto the patio and searched for something to switch off the awful racket that was threatening to burst her eardrums.
She was just about to climb up onto the work surface when Chloe burst in through the kitchen door, followed by three completely naked little girls.
"What's going on?" the ginger called out over the din as Beca hopped up onto the island, and pressed the button on the smoke alarm to silence the device. "Care to explain why my house is apparently on fire, my children have no clothes on, there are bath towels everywhere, and why you're bleeding and soaking wet?"
Beca looked sheepishly towards the girls before glancing back at Chloe. She was expecting to see her mad as hell, but to her surprise, it looked like Chloe was holding back laughter.
"I, um... we... well, we were trying to cook dinner and-"
"-I can see that!" Chloe laughed.
"And it got a little messy, and so I gave the girls a bath, but now there's water everywhere upstairs, and I slipped and fell, and I was drying them off, but then the smoke alarm went off, so I rushed them down to the playroom as I knew they could get out if the house was on fire and-" Beca gushed out.
"-It's okay, everyone is okay, breathe!"
"I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," Chloe repeated, looking around the mess as she laid her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Um, let's get this cleaned up first, okay? Then you can tell me what happened."
"Sure."
"What are you trying to defrost in the microwave?"
"Huh?" Beca looked over to the machine. "I was trying to cook potatoes."
Chloe's lip quivered as she tried not to smirk. "It's set to defrost," she explained.
"Oh... geez," Beca rolled her eyes at herself and watched Chloe pop open the microwave door. She looked on in horror as two of the potatoes that had been resting against the door, rolled out onto the counter below, one bouncing neatly off the side and landing on Chloe's foot.
"Think I need to show you how this works," Chloe breathed out, her eyes twinkling at the look of mortification on Beca's face.
Beca nodded.
"Can you go and get them dressed and I'll sort all this out?"
"Yeah, sure," Beca said, still a little sheepishly. The afternoon had definitely not gone according to plan so far, and she was embarrassed at the state of the house that Chloe had just come home to. She squeezed past Chloe and ushered the girls upstairs while Chloe took charge of sorting out the kitchen.
Beca was back downstairs a few minutes later, each girl now dressed in pyjamas and fuzzy socks. She was amazed that in that short time, Chloe had sorted out the kitchen mess, taken the trash out and was just wiping down the surfaces as they walked back in.
"I was trying to make dinner for you," Beca offered by way of explanation.
"You were?" Chloe beamed at the thought. "What were you making?"
"It was supposed to be baked potatoes and salad but it all went pretty wrong. I think we can all agree that cooking is not my forte."
"Don't say that," Chloe countered. "It's a lovely gesture!"
Beca harrumphed and looked away.
"Sorry they weren't dressed when you got home."
"This is not a big deal," Chloe said kindly.
"I now know how Amy feels now when everything she touches turns to shi... a disaster."
"Hey now," Chloe frowned, laying down her dishcloth and moving to wrap an arm around Beca's shoulders. "No harm done."
"We could have set the house on fire."
"But you didn't."
"And the girls haven't been fed."
"They don't look like they're starving to me," Chloe let go of Beca as she spoke.
"Well, I did feed them some cookies and milk a couple of hours ago," Beca admitted.
"Hey, it's okay! Don't look so worried."
"It's the first time you've left me with them on my own in the house and I-"
"-did a great job," Chloe finished off, turning to the girls. "Did you have fun with Beca today?"
"Yeah!" All three girls shouted simultaneously. Chloe gave Beca a look, like she had proved her point.
Still feeling very embarrassed, Beca looked at the ruined mixing bowl, and mumbled, "I'll replace the bowl that got burned. I should have been watching more closely, I'm really sorry."
"Oh trust me," Chloe laughed. "I've done a lot worse."
"I don't believe that for one minute."
Chloe just nodded before leaning forward and planting the softest of kisses to Beca's temple.
In shock, Beca asked, "What was that for?"
"Just... everything," Chloe replied with a wink.
Beca felt a warmth spread over her as she began to relax a little after the disastrous afternoon. She suddenly grinned and looked over at Chloe, "I know it's late but can I... can I take us all out for pizza instead?"
"What do you think girls?" Chloe asked, spinning around to look at three delighted faces.
"Piiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzza!" Alex yelled, fist bumping the air in a move Beca recognised as one of her father's.
"Run upstairs and get changed then," Chloe pointed towards the stairs. She glanced back at Beca, "you probably need to get into some dry clothes too."
"Um, yeah, I mopped the bathroom water up while I was up there?"
"With your own body?" Chloe asked playfully. She caught sight of Beca's bleeding arm. "Does this hurt?"
"No, it's okay," Beca said as she twisted her arm around to have a look at the damage.
"Looks painful."
"I mean, it's not that bad but I'm not in a hurry to do it again."
"Let me take a look at it," Chloe bent down and pulled open one of the kitchen island cupboard doors, reached in and retrieved a small first aid kit before she held out her hand towards Beca. "Take a seat for a sec."
Beca perched on the kitchen stool and rolled up her sleeve.
"It's quite deep," Chloe said, examining the cut.
"It's okay."
"I've got some paper stitches, I'll use those then we'll get a bandage on it, okay?"
"Just a bandaid is fine."
"You'll have a scar if you don't let me do it properly."
"Okay Mom!" Beca mumbled sarcastically. "Don't you need to see to the girls first?"
"They are not the ones who are going to bleed to death."
"So dramatic," Beca smirked.
"There you go," Chloe said, after a few minutes tending to Beca's arm. She washed her hands in the sink and tidied away the first aid box back into the cupboard. "I think you'll live."
"Thanks," Beca said, a little shyly.
"I'd best go check on the girls. Which pizza place do you want to go to?"
"I don't... Can you suggest one?!
"Ove's is pretty good..." Chloe replied, walking from the kitchen into the hallway.
"Is it quiet enough for you to not get disturbed?" Beca asked, following Chloe.
"No, but it's okay. I'll wear a disguise!"
"Like a fake nose, wig, that kind of thing?" Beca asked, her forehead wrinkling at the thought of it.
"I'll tie my hair up and put on some glasses, that usually throws people off enough to question whether it's really me, or not. Do you need a few minutes to change?" Chloe asked again, nodding towards Beca's slightly soggy appearance as she paused at the foot of the stairs.
"Um, yeah, that would be good but I'll see to the girls first."
"I've got it, it's okay," Chloe said kindly.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. You've done enough today. I bet you are exhausted now. I usually have Stacie most afternoons and I can barely manage now that their energy is increasing."
"No, I loved every minute of it," Beca said truthfully. Chloe smiled at Beca so genuinely that Beca felt her heart do a double beat at how pretty she looked. "I won't be long."
Chloe patted her arm before heading up the stairs, giving Beca time to dash back to the pool house to change into skinny jeans and one of her favourite tee shirts. She topped up her makeup, and quickly braided her hair. She was back in the main house, slipping her feet into a pair of boots by the time Chloe had wrestled the girls back down the stairs.
"Um, interesting choice..." Beca raised an eyebrow in Kate's direction, and her decision to wear one sandal and one sneaker.
Chloe just shook her head, a small smile on her lips.
"I've realised that it's simply not worth arguing over it," she mused. "She's got to find her own style."
"Sure..." Beca said with a little uncertainty, before looking down at the three shiny little faces. They were dressed neatly and while their hair was a little damp, it was still warm enough outside for them not to catch a chill. "Ready?"
"Let's go gang!" Chloe clapped her hands together.
"I'm sorry we have to go out to eat," Beca said, as the front door opened. "I meant to cook for you."
"Honestly?"
"Mmm hmm?"
"The fact that you thought to do that means more to me than I can explain."
"Oh, well... I figured you'd have had a long day and I wanted to hear about it," Beca said as they walked towards the car.
"About my day?" Chloe asked, surprised, giving Beca a long look.
"Yeah? I mean, you don't have to, if you don't want to..."
"I'd love to share it with you."
"You seem, I dunno, confused, that I asked," Beca admitted, after she'd finished helping put the girls in their car seats and climbed in the passenger seat herself.
"David stopped asking, I guess," Chloe said simply, after quite a long silence. Beca took the pained expression she wore on her face as a huge clue not to carry on that particular topic of conversation.
They drove in relative silence towards the restaurant, listening to the radio. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it gave Beca time to reflect on all that was going on around her. They got to the pizza restaurant after a few minutes, and a fairly heated discussion about the best type of pizza, who had their favourite and how many slices Alex declared she was going to eat.
Chloe parked the car and gestured towards a black fronted restaurant. There were a few tables outside, with patio heaters dotted around. "Do you want to go and see if we can get a booth please?"
"Yeah, sure," Beca said, taking off her seatbelt. "I'll take Jessie with me."
Beca slipped out of the car, pulling on the back door and unbuckling Jessie.
"Come on kiddo, we've got a very important job to do. We get to choose the table!"
"Cooool!" Jessie grinned, sliding out of her car seat and down onto the asphalt. She grabbed Beca's hand as the elder shut the door, and they hurried to the front door of the restaurant. Beca was surprised by the pretty large seating area inside and took a half step back as they were approached by a server.
"Party of two?" He asked politely, picking up a menu as he spoke. He had the name of Luigi written on his name tag and Beca couldn't reason for one minute that that was his real name.
"Um, five please. My friend is just coming in with two more children."
"Table or booth?"
"Um, booth please."
"Sure thing, please follow me," Luigi said, collecting a couple more menus and a couple of kid packs from the server station. Beca and Jessie dutifully followed, Jessie skipping as she held onto Beca's hand.
"Can we have one near the back of the restaurant please?" Beca asked.
Luigi paused briefly but nodded, "Yes of course."
"Mommy, this place is huuuge."
"I know! Is this the biggest pizza place you've ever been to?" Beca asked Jessie.
"I think so!" Jessie called out excitedly.
"Here you go ladies, someone will be over to take your drinks order in a few minutes when the rest of your party arrives."
"Yeah, thanks," Beca nodded to the server as he set down the menu and kid's colouring books on the table. "In you go Jess..."
Jessie slid along the booth just as Chloe followed up with the other two girls. For a fleeting second, Beca thought Chloe had been crying but didn't want to point it out. Alex jumped up on the seat, scooting along to sit next to Jessie.
"Want to go in the corner?" Beca asked Chloe who nodded back and slipped in the opposite seat.
"I sit next to Mommy," Kate announced as she clambered in after Chloe, moving to sit as close as she could to her Mom.
"Then I sit next to my Mommy," Alex said, patting the seat next to her.
Both Beca and Chloe froze and looked at each other, both surprised by Alex's choice of words. Beca took a seat quickly and Alex, delighted that Beca sat next to her, wrapped her little hands around Beca's arm and laid against her. Chloe handed out the colour sheets and tiny packs of crayons to the girls before she cleared her throat, and caught Beca's eye again.
"We should talk about the dynamics with them soon," she said quietly. Beca nodded back, understanding what Chloe was trying to say.
They'd not sat the girls down and talked to them properly about what had been happening over the last few months. They had answered any little questions that the girls had asked, such as why Beca was now living in the pool house or why there was a little girl that looked just like Kate living with them.
"Let's order first," Beca pointed to the menus, "it might be easier to understand with a full belly."
Chloe nodded, giving a subtle thumbs up and picking up the yellow crayon that had rolled over from Kate's page.
"You help Mommy?" Kate asked with hopeful eyes.
"Of course," Chloe winked back at her daughter. "Which pizza are you girls going to choose?"
"Piiiiiiiiza!" Alex cheered again.
"You've probably guessed that this kid loves pizza," Chloe laughed, looking more like herself again.
"Yeah, I picked up on that," Beca grinned.
"They make a kid size pizza here, with a small side for five dollars. At Halloween, they do a small mozzarella pizza, with the cheese shaped like a ghost with tiny olive eyes. It's really cute."
"That's Halloween taken care of then, that's a really sweet idea," Beca smiled at Chloe, pleased that she didn't seem as upset as she had done a few minutes earlier. "So, Jess, which pizza are you going to get?"
"Which one do we usually have Mommy?"
"We used to just get pizza for her birthday," Beca explained to Chloe.
"We had a pizza jar!" Jessie grinned.
"A pizza jar?" Chloe asked her.
"Yeah, any pennies we found goes in a biiiiig jar," Jessie stretched her arms wide to show how big the jar was.
"Um, I didn't... I couldn't afford it." Beca stuttered out.
"That's great Jessie!" Chloe said, ignoring Beca's comment. "How special it must have been if you didn't have it all the time?"
Jessie looked up from her colouring page and flashed Chloe a shit eating grin.
"Shall we just order cheesy pizzas for the girls?" Chloe asked Beca, who nodded back. "And what would you like? Are you okay to split one or do you want your own?"
"Oh splitting is fine and there's nothing I don't eat."
"Excellent!" Chloe slapped her menu shut, just as the server walked up with a tray of water glasses for them all.
"Hi, I'm Tom, and I'll be your server tonight. What can I get you to drink?"
"Hi Tom, we'll just stick to water for the girls for now, if that's okay?" Chloe said politely. "And we'll have... Becs?"
"Um, just a lemonade, or something like that please," Beca responded.
"Make that two please," Chloe agreed.
"No problem, are you ready to order?" Tom asked.
"Yes, we'll take three children's cheesy pizzas and vegetable sides and we'll split a large barbecue chicken please."
"Excellent choices, I'll be back with those as soon as they're ready," Tom snapped his notepad shut and smiled at the group. "Anything else you need?"
"No, we're all good, thanks," Chloe nodded. Tom bowed slightly and walked away.
"Are you still set for tomorrow night?" Beca asked, reaching for a glass of water.
"For Avalon, yes!" Chloe breathed out. "I can't wait to come and see you work your magic."
Chloe looked so happy about that, that Beca squirmed in her seat a little bit.
"I hope I don't disappoint," Beca laughed.
"You couldn't disappoint me," Chloe breathed out, more to herself than anything. Beca didn't quite know what to do with that statement and decided to find Alex's colouring page suddenly very interesting.
"Mommy?" Jessie called out.
"Yes?" Chloe and Beca answered together.
"Why is you both called Mommy?" Jessie asked, looking at them to confirm her point.
"Well," Beca said, wiping her hands on her jeans and not looking Chloe in the eye. "That's just a thing that Mommies are called. We get to pick your name but Mommy is given to us when you are born."
"Who gives it you?" Alex asked, looking up from the page she was scribbling on.
"I guess, the world does!" Beca breezily said.
"Why do I look like hers?" Jessie pointed to Kate.
"That's because you are twins. Remember we talked about this; when we lived in the apartment?"
"Yeah. You said Chloe was my mommy."
"That's right, she is. You and Kate are twin sisters," Beca repeated, hoping Chloe wasn't too mad for her saying all of this. "There's something called a biological family, which is Chloe, Kate and you. And your daddy is called David."
"I 'member," Jessie nodded. "But I growed up with you."
"That's right.
"And Alex is my sister too?" Jessie asked.
"Yes, absolutely. You have an extended family which is when you all live under one roof and that's how Alex is your sister too."
"How come I didn't live with Kate always?"
"When you were born," Chloe joined in the conversation. "There was something called a mix up at the hospital and I brought Alex home and Beca brought you home."
"Why?" Jessie looked confused.
"When you were tiny, and none of you had any hair and your faces were all like this..." Beca screwed her face up, trying to make them all laugh (which they did). "... you all looked the same so that's how it happened."
"Okay," Jessie nodded and went back to her colouring.
"That's it?" Chloe asked across the table and Beca shrugged.
"You guys have any questions about that?" Beca asked.
"You is my mommy," Alex repeated. "And Mommy is my mommy too?"
"Yes, sort of. You are my, what is known as, biological daughter and I carried you in my tummy. But Chloe raised you as her daughter."
"I..." Alex scratched her head, and looked up at Beca. "I live with you den?"
"No, you are staying in your home," Beca nodded firmly. "Nothing will change with who you love, or where you live, okay?"
"I love you," Alex said simply and Beca's eyes went wide.
"Really?" Beca gulped, and tried not to blink as tears sprung into her eyes.
"Yup," Alex began colouring again. "You is like my blankie."
"Your blankie?" Chloe asked, her voice a little wobbly.
"Yeah, my blankie smells good. I like to hug it."
Beca wrapped her arm around Alex and squeezed her tight into her side, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"I love you Alex. And I love you Kate. And I love you Jessie. Nothing will ever change that. I promise," Beca said, mumbling slightly in Alex's hair.
"What about me?" Chloe asked and Beca finally made eye contact with her, not surprised to see tears pouring down her face.
"And I love Mommy too," she deadpanned, screwing up her nose a little, causing Chloe to smile.
"And I love all of you," Chloe breathed out. "So very, very much."
"There's a lot of love going on at this table," Beca tried to break the tension that was building. She was extremely grateful that Tom chose the perfect moment to interrupt them, walking up quietly to their table with a huge tray balanced on his shoulder and bent arm.
"Here we go," he offered, setting the tray down on the edge of the table. "I've got three mini pizzas which I'm guessing are for the prettiest ladies at the table tonight..."
He handed each child one of the cheesiest pizzas Beca had ever seen as all three overcame their shyness to giggle at Tom's words. He dished out a small bowl of vegetable sticks and dip to sit alongside each plate with a small wink.
"In the middle?" He asked, holding up the large barbecue pizza.
"Anywhere is fine," Chloe said kindly.
Tom laid the pizza in the middle of the table, Beca helpfully moving one of the water glasses out of the way. He offered a plate to Chloe to avoid leaning over the table and laid one in front of Beca.
"Is there anything else I can get for you?" He asked, subtly wiping his hands on the small apron around his waist.
"We're good, thanks," Chloe replied politely.
"Enjoy!"
"Dig in girls!" Chloe said, as Tom left their table. She waited as they pushed their colouring pages to the side of the table before tearing a piece of pizza off and nodding towards Beca's plate. It was dutifully handed to her. Chloe loaded up a couple of slices on it and passed it back, before taking a small slice for herself. Beca's eyes narrowed at the tiny bites Chloe was taking and made up her mind to ask what was wrong as soon as they were alone.
"I has a question," Kate paused in between bites, clearly confused by something.
"Yes baby?" Chloe asked her.
"We say Mommy and you both say 'yes'."
"Uh huh," Chloe nodded.
"One called Mommy and one called something new. Jess and Alex both call hers..." Kate pointed with her uneaten crust at Beca. "... Mommy Beca. I call her Beca."
"That's right, and try not to wave your food around," Chloe said carefully, resting her hand on top of Kate's small one to lower it.
"It's hard with two Mommy's. We call hers..." Kate carefully pointed with her finger this time but didn't have the words to know what to say.
"You want to give Beca a nickname? Is that what you are asking?" Chloe questioned.
"What's dat?" Alex asked, looking up. She looked up at Beca, who reached over and wiped the little brunette's mouth, and cheese string, with a napkin.
"Like how your real name is Alexandra but we call you Alex," Chloe explained.
"What's your real name Mommy?" Alex asked Chloe.
"It's just Chloe."
"So what we call you?" Alex asked, pointing to Chloe.
"You can still call her Mommy," Beca said.
"We call you Mommy," Alex said confused and Beca finally caught on to what the little girls were trying to understand.
"You could call one of us Mommy, and one of us... say Mama? Would that help?" Beca asked, looking
"We used to call hers Mama," Kate was looking at Beca when she spoke, but pointed shyly at Chloe at the same time.
"You did?" Beca smiled, thinking it actually suited Chloe better.
"My own mom was Mama," Chloe explained. "When we started doing all the classes with the girls, they started calling me Mommy as that's what everyone else was calling their moms."
Beca nodded, "That makes sense. Following the crowd, huh?"
Chloe nodded.
"Would you girls like to call me Mama again?" She asked. "You can call me Mama, and you can all call Beca, Mommy."
"Me too?" Kate asked, looking under her eyelashes at Beca. Kate had made it perfectly clear she had grown quite attached to Beca in the few weeks she'd been coming round to the house.
"Only if you want to," Beca said gently but secretly loving the idea. "If it's confusing, you can just call me Aunt Beca or just Beca like you have been doing?"
"Nope, I calls you Mommy like Lex and Jessie," Kate said determinedly. Beca felt the first prickle of tears forming and she blinked rapidly to make them go away.
"What about you Jessie?"
"I fine with dat," Jessie grinned, pulling her slice of pizza away from her mouth; a long line of melted, stringy cheese stretching out caused her to start giggling.
"Alex?"
"I no mind," Alex looked lovingly into Beca's eyes.
"That was pretty simple," Chloe said as the girls got back to their pizza.
"A bit too simple, perhaps?" Beca frowned, starting to work on her own slice.
"They're four, you know how their minds work," Chloe offered, speaking quietly. "I think we'll tell them the whole story when they are a bit older, you know?"
Beca nodded, chewing quickly. She'd not had pizza this good before, and was trying to eat slowly to savour it, but it was just too good and she couldn't help herself from snatching up her second slice in her left hand while she was still chowing down on the one in her right.
"So..." Chloe wiped her fingers on a napkin as she spoke. "... what time does your set start tomorrow?"
"Ith should be abouth tenth fifteenth, tenth thirty," Beca mumbled, around a mouthful of food. She swallowed heavily. "Sorry, around ten fifteen, ten thirty. There's usually some warm up beats but I'm on pretty quick for a newbie."
"Excellent, what time should we aim to get there?"
"Um, anytime you like really," Beca explained, her face pinking up slightly at the thought of people she knew coming to watch her. "I've secured one of the VIP Lodges for you, and that'll be yours from around nine thirty. Main doors open at ten."
"The VIP Lodge?"
"Yeah, it's a raised area towards the back of the dance floor. Looks like a weird sort of tiki hut, hence the name. I figured you'd like some privacy with your friends."
"That's... that's really thoughtful of you Beca," Chloe breathed out. Beca shrugged her shoulders in response.
"There's a private bouncer at the entrance so you should be left alone," Beca went on to say. "And you'll have your own mini bar, although I'm pretty sure Ted... he's the events manager... will assign a server for you for the North and South bars."
"Wow, I didn't expect all that as well... I'll make sure we get there early to enjoy it then."
"I'll get a break around one ish, so I can probably come by and say hello, if that's okay?"
"That would be amazing," Chloe smiled.
Beca grinned and nodded and went back to her pizza, pleased she'd made Chloe happy.
"Oh, one thing..." Beca looked up.
"Hmmm?"
"Avalon doesn't condone Mosh Pits of any sort... so you better behave yourself when you're there, okay?" Beca smirked playfully.
"Oh shoot, and I was just planning on throwing myself into a sea of sweaty, energetic bodies."
"Well Missy, you'll have to get your kicks out elsewhere, okay?"
"Noted! Do they serve food too?"
"Yeah, up in the main bar. It's pretty standard; burgers, wings, flatbreads but it's pretty good," Beca listed off a few of the menu options.
"Cool, well, maybe if you can join us, we can grab a bite to eat on your break?"
"Yeah, I'm sure I can make that work..." Beca nodded.
"Mommy?" Alex asked quietly, directing her gaze at Beca.
"Yes sweetheart?"
"What's a Mosh Pit?"
.oOo.
The drive home was uneventful and pretty quiet with all three girls falling asleep before they pulled onto the driveway. Chloe cut off the engine and leaned back against the seat.
"Thanks for this evening Beca," she said, her voice still small. "And honestly, you didn't need to pay for the evening."
"I did actually," Beca grinned, feeling pretty good that she had enough money to treat Chloe and the girls for once. "You've given me so much lately, I'm always around here and-"
"-It's my pleasure to have you here."
"I know, but I like to pay my way in life, and I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket so I wanted to treat my family."
Chloe's eyes widened at the terminology and Beca's face flushed a furious pink.
"Well, you know what I mean..." Beca stammered out.
"I get it, I've said it before," Chloe offered. She turned her head to look at the three girls in the back of the car. "It's not conventional but we're making it work."
"You seemed sad this evening..." Beca asked, almost shyly.
"No, I'm okay."
"Really? 'Cause it looked like you were crying when you came into the restaurant earlier."
"Not much gets past you, does it?" Chloe said, turning back and looking at Beca.
"Was it something I did? Or said?" Beca asked, slightly hesitantly.
"Not intentionally but-"
"-I'm sorry," Beca said automatically.
"No, no..." Chloe reached for Beca's hand, not surprised that Beca flinched when she tried to take it. She sighed heavily. "I'm just... when you said to me that you wanted to hear about my day... no one asks me that anymore. I get that, conventionally, my life is different to everyone else's but it's still actually quite nice to come home and tell someone about the day you've had, you know?"
"I'm sorry I didn't ask over dinner... the conversation with the girls took over and-"
"-You've nothing to apologise for, I swear to you. Even you wondering what kind of day I had overwhelmed me a little earlier, and I just got caught up with myself. I used to talk to David about what I was filming and he'd walk off mid sentence, not having listened to a word I said."
"Surely Aubrey asks you how your day went?" Beca thought of Chloe's best friend.
"Bless her, she's so busy with work. When we catch up, she'll check in of course, but it's not the same. The fact that you tried to make a meal and wanted to hear about my day meant the world to me today. Thank you Beca," Chloe squeezed Beca's fingers.
"It's okay, you're welcome... even though I did try to set fire to your house," Beca quipped.
"Even despite that," Chloe reassured.
"So... how did it go?"
Chloe chuckled lightly, "Actually, there were technical difficulties so we mostly hung out in Tom's trailer, drinking too much coffee and playing poker. They were ready to do some run-throughs around three, but Meryl's contract runs out at four so we said to let her finish up and we'll go in early tomorrow."
"Why does she finish at four, if you don't finish at six?"
"They ran over on a previous project so they just need her for some voice-over work in the evenings. It happens quite a lot," Chloe explained. "It will get a lot busier as the schedule progresses.
Beca nodded, before looking into the back seat. "I guess we should get these babies into bed."
"Yeah, bless them, they've had quite a busy day," Chloe said, finally letting go of Beca's hand and pulling on the door handle. It popped open quietly and she slipped out of the car, as Beca did the same.
Opening the back door caused Jessie to stir and she looked blindly around her as she blinked rapidly.
"Hey Bug, we're just going in the house," Beca hushed out.
"Mmmm," Jessie mumbled.
"Think you can walk to the house?"
"Mmmm." Jessie sleepily nodded.
Beca undid her seatbelt and helped her down from the car. From experience she knew the little girl was only half awake as she toddled off towards the front steps, her feet dragging slightly on the driveway. Beca reached over to get hold of Alex, just as Chloe was lifting Kate out of the car.
"You got her?" Chloe asked, her eyes flicking to the little brunette. Beca nodded her response as she pulled Alex out of the seat. The little girl fitted easily onto her shoulder. Leaving the car doors open, they walked towards the house and Beca grabbed Jessie's hand as they neared the front door.
"Straight up?" Beca questioned.
"Yes, they can sleep in these clothes for tonight," Chloe whispered, as she unlocked the front door.
Beca nodded, knowing one night in a teeshirt and shorts wasn't the end of the world and made her way upstairs, half pulling Jessie along with her. She laid Alex down in her bed, pulled her shoes off and tucked the blanket around her. She scooped Jessie up into her arms and held her tightly to her chest for a few minutes, breathing in the little girl's scent as she drifted off back to sleep, her little mouth popping open as she began to snore lightly.
Beca pressed a long kiss to the top of the little girl's head just as Chloe came into the room and set Kate down on her side of the bedroom. Beca reluctantly placed Jessie on the little bed that she knew the little girl loved; the heart shaped headboard being something she talked about often.
She tugged off Jessie's shoes, pulled her blanket up to her chin and watched as Jessie rolled over onto her side, her favoured sleeping position. Beca reached for Jessie's well-loved bunny, and tucked it into her side before walking softly to the bedroom door. She was closely followed by Chloe who pulled the door closed behind her.
"Thank you again for a lovely evening Beca," Chloe said, pausing at the top of the stairs.
"You're welcome," Beca gave Chloe one of her trademark side smiles. "I had a really good time too. Do you need me to sort the car out?"
"No, I got it, thanks. Would you like to have a drink with me?" Chloe asked, a hopeful lilt to her voice.
"I'd love to but I've got a few things I need to finish off for tomorrow's set. Another time?" Beca asked.
"That would be lovely," Chloe said honestly.
"So, I'll see you at Avalon tomorrow?" Beca still couldn't shake the doubt that everyone might change their minds at the last minute.
"Yes, we'll be there!" Chloe smiled, happily.
Beca grinned and headed down the stairs, hesitating at the bottom. "Night Chloe."
"Night Beca."
.oOo.
A/N - I hope this chapter was worth the long wait. Please let me know if you want shorter chapters twice a week, or longer chapters once a week xx