Caroline smiled ever so subtlety at the stacks of paperwork surrounding her, the same paperwork that never seemed to end. She would often complain about it but at the same time, she secretly loved it. The order of it all, turning chaos into a written report that would properly assess a situation or tell a story. With her head down and concentrating on a scheduling issue, she hadn't initially heard her phone but by the third ring, she managed to pick it up.

"Hello"

"I'm not disturbing, am I?"

"No, I always have time for my favorite wife."

"Only wife," corrected Kate.

"That too."

"I am calling to see if you need to work late or if you plan to be home for dinner."

"I shouldn't be too late. Beverley added a few meetings to my schedule otherwise I'm just catching up on paperwork."

"I need to go; someone needs my attention. I'll talk to you later, love you," said Kate.

"Love you too. Bye."

Just as they hung up, Caroline thought she heard the laughter of a young child, not just any young child, it sounded like Flora. She stood up to out to the main office when Kate walked in and closed the door.

Like a reversal from years earlier, Kate spun Caroline around and pressed her wife against the door as she kissed her. Her hand felt for a way beneath the blonde's blouse but was thwarted by a suit jacket.

"Is this your way of letting me know you want me home by 4:00?"

"No but…," she leaned in and whispered in Caroline's ear.

"Promises, promises, promises," smiled Caroline. "I do recall you stated that snogging in my office was mad."

"Mad, yes but…" she pulled Caroline in for another kiss, "…but I never said I didn't enjoy it. We need to hurry; we only have a few minutes."

Caroline gave her wife a look.

"Not for that. I have the next song to play and Flora is out with Beverley. I brought her favorite snacks and asked Beverley to try to occupy her for ten minutes to give us some privacy."

"But I have a meeting now with the mother of a prospective student."

"All part of the ruse. I am both the 11:00 and 12:00 meeting Beverley added. We came in to visit and have lunch. I'm sure we'll be back before the move but I wanted to see some of the staff before we have to say goodbye. A new adventure but sad at the same time."

"They'll miss you but I'm sure most of them won't be sorry to see me leave."

Kate wrapped her arms around her wife. "The good ones, the ones that matter, they will miss you. As for the others, there may be a few, and only a few and when you leave, they will learn the hard way how wonderful you are. How wonderful I know you are."

Caroline leaned in and kissed her wife.

"We've made a lot of memories both in this office and here at school."

Ashamed, Caroline looked down, "where I dumped you."

"Where you pinned me against the door and had me seeing stars after you kissed me. Where you had me so turned on that 4:00 couldn't come soon enough. I know it was bittersweet at the time, but it is where I told you I was pregnant. Although she already knew, it is where we officially told Beverley we were a couple. It is where she helped us plan out how we would formally tell the board and the staff. Where the staff held a baby shower for us. Where students brought in gifts for Flora. Where we brought her for her first visit." Kate smiled, "Where she got sick straight down the front of your blouse. And before all of that, there were other memories."

Kate pulled out her phone and searched for a song. "I added this song because you were upset, hurt, crying and I wanted nothing more than to hold you, dry your tears and make you feel my love.

July 2012

Caroline caught up to Kate in the hallway.

"Can you come with me; I need to talk to you."

Kate followed Caroline into her office and the door was barely shut when her composure began to crack.

"I should be used to it by now but the depths that man will sink to. Drunk phone calls, disappointing our children, withdrawing funds from our accounts, lying, cheating, name calling, it's nothing new and feels normal now. But to do this, who, who, who does that?"

"What did he do?" Kate asked.

With a mixture of shame, anger, and tears, "I know it isn't as bad as disappointing the boys but who would say these things?"

"What happened Caroline?"

"How, why, what kind of normal person does that?"

Unable to find out what happened, she stepped in and hugged Caroline. It took a few moments before she melted into Kate's arms.

After a few minutes, "What will people think?" Caroline mumbled. "How will I face them?"

Kate guided Caroline to a seat and sat down beside her. "What did John do?"

"What must they think of me? We don't have a lot of couples we are friends with. Only a few who are more than an acquaintance. A dinner out with them, an invite to a party, a book reading for some of John's literary friends. Nobody I confide in though. Within the last hour, I've received a few texts telling me I should be ashamed of myself and John is too good for me, they never liked me, that sort of thing. I don't know what tale he told them but how these people, people I counted as friends, at least at a surface level, suddenly have such contempt for me? Their disgust, their judgement, when I did nothing wrong."

Kate didn't say much, she just took Caroline's hand and listened. She listened until the blondes hands stopped shaking, she listened until the tears dried, she listened until Caroline's confidence returned.

The bell rang.

"I have class now, but we can talk later, here or we can go out or you can call me, okay?"

Caroline nodded in reply.

"What a mess I was. John lied and I was the one that felt powerless and full of shame."

"The truth came out eventually and in time, you grew stronger and you morphed into my beautiful, sexy, confident wife."

"Oh, so you didn't find me beautiful or sexy back then," teased Caroline.

"You know what I mean," said Kate before leaning in to kiss her wife.

Just then, there was a loud knock on the office door and a long pause before it opened slowly. In walked Flora, slowly followed by Beverley.

"Mama," Flora shouted before holding up her hands, "bissits," said the toddler proudly showing that she had not one but two biscuits to eat.

"Sorry," said Beverley, "I thought it might buy five more minutes, but she got so excited and wanted to show you."

Caroline picked her daughter up and walked towards Beverley, "Flora, what do we say to Beverley, thank you."

"Welcome," said the child.

"No, you say thank you."

She once again responded "welcome."

"I think that is as good as we'll get today. Thank you, Beverley," said Caroline.

"You're welcome," said Beverley before smiling and walking out, closing the door behind her.

Kate looked at the time, "eight minutes, not as long as I had hoped but better than I expected."

"Spin," said Flora, pointing to Caroline's chair, a favorite thing to do at home and when they visited.

"I'll be right back," said Kate as she walked out of the office.

She returned a few moments later to find her wife and daughter laughing while spinning around and around. "Again," squealed Flora.

"It is still a little early for lunch but we brought a picnic," said Kate, "an indoor picnic. And some toys and crayons and books to occupy someone," holding up the bags she just retrieved.

"Well, I do like to draw pictures," joked Caroline.

Over an hour later, they were still in the office, holding hands while lying down on a picnic blanket on the floor, empty food containers pushed to the side and Flora nestled between her mothers, sound asleep.

The peace was broken as the door flew open and Lawrence barged in, "Mum…," he quickly assessed the situation before him, "…you two are so weird."

Flora began to stir and before they could get her to settle back down, her sleepy eyes opened to see her big brother.

"Yes, we are weird, it is a requirement for becoming a parent. What was so important that you had to rush in without knocking?" Caroline asked sternly.

"Beverley said it was Kate and Flora in here with you…," said Lawrence, "…but she did say to knock first, sorry."

Kate sensed Caroline morphing from mum into head teacher mode and squeezed her hand and then smiled at her stepson. "Apology accepted. What did you need from your mother?"

"Well, Angus' mum texted him and said the video game he ordered was delivered. She said I can have dinner with them and stay over so we can play it. I wanted to see if it was ok." He broke eye contact with his mum and shifted to Kate knowing she could help the cause.

Kate read the situation and glanced at her watch, "Lawrence, you have about ten minutes until lunch is over. How about you give you mum a few minutes to think it over. In the meantime, take the box of pastries on the table and see if any of the office staff would like one. Why don't you take Flora with you."

His eyes got wide and nervous, "with Flora, but…"

"I understand, you may not want to be seen with your little sister at school but I can hear Isabella Pierce out there. You like her, right? She thinks Flora is adorable, it'll win you some bonus points with her."

"Okay, come on Flora," said Lawrence as he picked up his sister, grabbed the pastries and walked out the door.

"What was…how did you know?" Caroline asked.

"I taught her three years in a row and all the boys like Isabella, I took a guess. I saw her a few weeks ago at the store with her mother and she was enamored with Flora and vice versa."

"I suppose you are going to tell me I should let him go."

Kate stood up and began to clean up the empty food containers, "No but I can remind you, William did the same thing once, minus the 'weird' comment and you didn't get upset with him. Also, Lawrence has been much more helpful around the house, and he reads to Flora almost every day now."

"She doesn't give him much of a chance when she climbs on his lap while holding a book," laughed Caroline.

"No, she doesn't but he always reads the book and sometimes lets her pick a second or third. I know he is very excited to play the game. It was out of stock and he told me all about it when Angus was able to order it."

Caroline gave her wife a look.

"What? He tells me things."

"Well," Caroline paused, "I guess we'll be home by 4:00 so he can go to Angus' house."

"And then I get to make you happy, make your dreams come true," said Kate in a singsong voice. "Nothing that I wouldn't do, go to the ends of the earth for you, to make you feel my love."

"And then I get to spend time with my daughter and romantic, yet weird wife."

"Only wife," smiled Kate.

Caroline leaned in and kissed her, "only wife, romantic wife, kind wife, beautiful wife, favorite wife, amazing wife, sexy wife, best wife ever."

Note: Make You Feel My Love – written by Bob Dylan but first released by Billy Joel in August 1997 and covered by hundreds of other artists. While I am a fan of both Bob Dylan and Billy Joel, I find the Adele version of this song hauntingly beautiful and that is the version I imagine Kate would have played.

Uggg, life. Sorry for the long delay between chapters.