FOUR - BREAKFAST
"Ughhhh!" Rose said quietly between gritted teeth, rolling her eyes and walking down stairs, Jack following. She slumped on to the sofa, Jack sitting beside her "tell me she's not going to stay like that" "She's just tired" "oh for goodness sake, we're all tired Jack!" Rose said, clearly warn out from the day "yes, but not all of us have parents fighting in the war, do we Rose?" he snapped "I don't think you understand how fortunate we are that I wasn't sent off to fight. This war has barely effected us, so show a scared 13 year old some compassion, hey?" He stood up and walked to the kitchen, frustrated.
Rose sighed to herself and put her head in her hands, knowing Jack was right. She followed him to the kitchen "sorry… I didn't think of it like that…" Jack shrugged "it's fine… we just need to be patient with her" to which Rose nodded.
—
They sat on the sofa for around an hour and a half before going up stairs. Jack stopped outside the twins room "should we check if they're OK?" He whispered, to which she nodded. He opened the door to find no one in there, making them panic "where are they?!" Jack said concerned. "Let's go see if Grace is in her room" Rose nodded, Jack let her check, not wanting to go in to Grace's room without knowing she was decent. "Jack" Rose whispered after opening the door, he crept up behind her to see Grace asleep in the middle of her bed, Harry and Poppy on either side of her "they really love her, hey?" Rose whispered and smiled gently to which Jack nodded "do we move them back to their own room?" he asked unsure "no, leave them" Rose said and quietly shut the door, walking off to hers and Jack's room.
—
Jack and Rose woke up the following morning, glancing at the clock, they saw it was 8am. "Do we go and wake them up?" Jack whispered "no, there's no reason too. We'll just check if they're awake, in case they didn't want to go downstairs without us" Rose yawned as she got out of bed, wrapping her dressing gown around herself. Jack nodded "OK" he said as he and Rose walked to Grace's room. They opened the door to see Grace still fast asleep but Harry and Poppy sat on the floor, playing with their teddy's but not speaking, Rose assumed it was because they didn't want to wake Grace. "Hey, good morning" Rose smiled to them "hello" Harry said quietly "would you like some breakfast?" "Breakfast?" He said confused "yes…" Jack said, also confused, but not wanting to ask him why he was so surprised by the offer. "Yes please!" Harry and Poppy said in unison "come on" Rose held out her hand and Harry ran to take it but Poppy looked a little upset, Jack noticed and tried to distract her "want me to carry you?" He asked to which Poppy nodded and held up her arms. The four of them headed down stairs, leaving Grace asleep upstairs.
—
A while later, Grace woke up. She immediately noticed the twins weren't with her and she panicked. She ran to their bedroom to see if they were there, but they weren't there either. She hoped they were downstairs and ran down quickly. "Poppy! Harry!" She shouted "they're in here" Rose shouted through the hallway. She ran in to the kitchen and sighed with relief as she saw them, rushing over to them and kissing their heads. They were sat at the table drawing and colouring in, they had finished breakfast some time ago. "How did you sleep? Would you like some breakfast?" Rose asked as she put the final plate away "breakfast?" Grace frowned, sounding just as confused as Harry had when he was asked "yes…" "oh, yes please…" "what would you like? We have egg, bacon, toast, pancakes? Or you can have a bit of everything if you'd like?" Rose smiled a little "just eggs please" Grace nodded "what did you two have?" She looked at the twins "we had pancakes!" Poppy grinned "they were very nice!" Harry added as they both got back to their colouring. This was the happiest she'd seen the twins - possibly ever. She looked up and thanked Rose as she brought her over a glass of orange juice "we'll go shopping today, you can pick out stuff you all like" she smiled "we could go for a walk after that if you all want?" Jack added, also smiling. Grace just nodded, watching everything going on around her, feeling an emotion she'd not felt in over a year. Suddenly she realised that the emotion was… safe… for the first time in a very long time… she felt safe.