Carter
Getting off the phone, I sighed. Phoebe's hand caressed my back and I turned to her, tears in my eyes.
"What's gone on?" she mumbled, still in a tired state.
"Tarken has been sent to hospital. They want to keep him for at least a week." I put my head in my hands and caressed my temples.
"What about Lily?"
"I don't know. Should I offer her to stay here, with me?"
"If you want to," Phoebe replied, eyes still closed.
"Okay. I need to go get her from the hospital anyway. I'm going to go now," I said, all very quickly and got out of bed.
"Baby?" Phoebe muttered.
"Yeah?"
"Will you be working tomorrow?"
"Not anymore princess, don't worry," I kissed her head. "Sleep tight, I'll try not to disturb you too much when I get back." Phoebe grumbled in reply and rolled over. It was 4am and I knew the hospital was quite a while away so I won't be back until at least 7am. I'm just hoping Jess and Phoebe won't be too worried about having Lily stay.
Tarken was my best friend, he has been for 10+ years and his little one was Lily. Tarken has had some underlying health issues for a good few years now and occasionally, they play up to the point of hospitalization. I've always looked after Lily in the past but never with my own little around really! This was new territory and I have all my fingers and toes crossed that Jess will cope okay!
Phoebe
I woke up again to the shuffling on Carter's side of the bed and questioned it as I knew that he shouldn't be back yet. I couldn't have slept that long and the sun wasn't up. I grumbled and heard a sniffle. It was Jess. I opened my eyes slowly and caught sight of my princess. She'd shuffled under the covers and was moving over to cuddle into me. Her face was tear stained and her cheeks a lovely rosy pink. I pouted and opened my arms for her as she slid into them. She buried her head into my chest and sniffled a little more.
"Bad dream baby?" I asked, running my hands through her hair. She only nodded before shuffling in more. I saw it was 6am on the clock but I was still so tired and Jess seemed to be too so I settled back down to sleep. Hopefully a few more hours won't hurt.
Waking up a third time, it was Carter coming home with Lily. I hadn't spoken to Jess yet- wait. Jess wasn't with me. I could have sworn she was in bed with me a few hours ago. I opened my eyes and sat up from my bed, looking around. Jess wasn't anywhere in here. I got out of bed, pulled on a dressing gown, rubbed my eyes and went to check her bedroom. She was in fact, in her little room. She was playing with her legos and was in her own world. I smiled and quickly left, she hadn't noticed me so I was going to go and check in with Carter and Lily.
"Hey lovely," I said softly. I kissed Carter's cheek and ran my hand over Lily's back.
"Hi," she mumbled back, shuffling from one foot to the other.
"Do you want some breakfast? Are you hungry?" I suggested, hearing her belly grumble.
"Erm, yes please," she replied, putting her hands in her pockets.
"Come on then," I smiled, holding out my hand. Lily was perfectly comfortable with me. She was just worried about her daddy and honestly, I couldn't blame her.
"Where's Jess?" Carter asked.
"Upstairs, playing. She doesn't know anything yet though," I sighed.
"What do you mean? You haven't told her?"
"I've only just woken up babes. She's content playing for now. I'll go up and talk to her once breakfast is ready," I explained. I began making some beans on toast- simple but yummy.
Once breakfast was ready, I still hadn't heard a peep from Jess so I went upstairs, leaving Lily and Carter to eat up.
"Hey sweetheart," I greeted, walking in.
"Hewwos Mummy," she replied, sweetly. I sat beside her on the floor and ran my fingers through her hair- untangling it slightly.
"How are you this morning?"
"I otways. Hows woo mama?"
"I'm good, thank you princess." She smiled at me and showed me her lego house she was building. The walls were pink and purple and all the furniture was green and yellow. She began telling me all about it and was honestly, so, so cute.
"That's awesome baby!" I giggled, pulling her close to me. "Can mummy talk to you about something?"
"Uh ohs. Mummy it was daddy no me!" she said and put down her lego house. I giggled and shook my head.
"No baby you're not in trouble. You remember Lily and Tarken, yeah?" she nodded, clogs going around in her head. "Well you know how sometimes Tarken gets poorly? He's having to stay in hospital this week so your very, very kind Daddy has offered to look after Lily," I said to her, feeding her the information slowly.
"So we no swee daddy dis week?"
"Not quite, angel, Lily is staying here- with us."
"Oh."
"Is that okay?" I asked, wrapping my arm tightly around her.
"It has to be," she shrugged, suddenly out of her headspace.
"No baby, it doesn't," I whispered, kissing her head, trying to coax her back into her little space. "If you don't want to, we can go home this week. Just you and me."
"No, because that's just rude. I like Lily I just, I just- she's going to want all my stuff and like I'm going to have to play with her and things and hm," she shuffled and put her head in her hands. "It's unexpected."
"I get that baby. Mummy's here," I kissed her head and rocked us side to side, humming a gentle tune to her.
After a little bit of persuasion, Jess came downstairs to eat her breakfast. However, she wasn't really little but she also wasn't completely out of her headspace.
"Morning monkey," Carter smiled, pulling Jess into him as she walked past. She squealed and looked at him, smiling. "How's my baby?" he asked.
"I okay," she replied, eyeing Lily nervously.
"Hi Lily," she mumbled, keeping her head down a little. Last time she and Lily interacted, it ended up in a fight so I'm hoping, this week, we can keep things calm.
"Hi Jess," Lily replied, pushing her finished breakfast away. She let out a big yawn and stretched.
"Do you want to go nap, lovely? You didn't get much sleep last night," Carter suggested to Lily. Lily just nodded then raised her arms to Carter. He carried her away upstairs- hopefully to a guest room.
"Hm," Jess grumbled, sitting in a chair around the dining table. I giggled then placed her tablets in front of her as well as her pink dino cup. She just huffed again and crossed her arms.
"Baby, don't be like that," I giggled slightly, teasing her. She just glared at me.
"I'm serious. If this is going to be on all week then we are going home right now. Carter is doing Lily a favour, he'd do the same for you so stop with the eyes and get them down, please." She sighed and took her tablets like the good girl I knew she could be.
Half an hour later, Jess had finished her breakfast and was waiting to be excused from the table but she was still being grumpy and huffing at the slight mention of Lily so I was leaving her to it until she would calm down.
"We need to take the dogs out soon," Carter said softly from opposite me on the island.
"I come?"
"You can come princess yeah," Carter replied to Jess, smiling at her. "We can all go, Lily too." Jess' face fell and she put her eyes down. I just sighed, walked over to her and pulled out her chair.
"Go play nicely until I come to get you ready baby," I said.
"I can get myself ready," she replied, suddenly seemingly out of headspace. She walked from the kitchen.
"Hey, no Jess!" Carter exclaimed, trying to go after her.
"Leave me alone, please," she replied just before heading upstairs. I groaned and looked to Carter.
"I knew this would be a bad idea," he grumbled, dropping his head.
"No. No. J-just give her a little while. She needs to adjust, she'll be fine, I'm sure." I went over and gave him a hug, wrapping my arms securely around him.
A few hours later, after Lily had joined us back downstairs and Jess had been hiding for a while, I went to talk to her. It was time to take the dogs out and I just wanted her to feel welcome in her home- not pushed out by a guest.
"Jessss," I sung, knocking on her door. I walked in and she was sat on her floor, doing her makeup.
"Oh you look pretty," I smiled, standing over her.
"Thanks," she grumbled in reply.
"Can we talk?"
"Right now?"
"Preferably?"
"Hm, no."
"Jess, come on."
"I don't want to," she whined, kicking her legs. I grabbed them gently and looked at her.
"Let's not do this bubs. It's not tantrum time," I whispered, softly. She pouted and hung her head.
"Lily is here to stay with Carter, she doesn't have to stay with us. We can leave but you don't want that so what's upsetting you?"
"She's taking my daddy," she grumbled.
"She isn't bubba. You can share your daddy."
"I no wan do dwat. Daddy mineeeee," she whined and crossed her arms. I giggled at how cute she looked and just uncrossed her arms.
"We have to learn to share at some point, angel. Therefore, we're going to be good this week. No silly tantrums and no getting upset about sharing. If you're really struggling then I'll take you home and we can let Carter and Lily be here- does that sound good?"
"No."
I sighed, she wasn't going to let me win at all here. "Right, we go home right now then." I stood up and went to pack her things.
"Nooo. Mama no." She huffed and grabbed me. "I no wan go home. I stway here."
"Are you going to be a good girl then?" She just grumbled and hid her head between my chest. I ran my fingers through her hair.
"Pack your stuff away bubba. We're going for a walk." She just nodded and began packing it away whilst I left her to go downstairs. Hopefully, this week won't be as challenging as this morning. If so, I won't be able to handle it!
During the walk, Jess stayed by me and held my hand the whole way. She wasn't in headspace but we all enjoyed a good walk as a group. Lily was half in and half out of her headspace, she'd slip and then come back out again. I couldn't blame her; I knew she must be worried about Tarken. He was her daddy and boyfriend and had been for four years now!
Once we got home, although I thought Jess had relaxed a lot more around Lily, she went straight up to her bedroom again. I texted her asking what she was doing but she hadn't replied. Carter and I sat in the living room with cartoons on the TV for a very little Lily whilst she played around with Lego.
"What do you want for dinner? Shoul-"
"No! You can't do that!" I heard Jess shriek suddenly. I didn't even hear her coming down the stairs. She charged straight towards the legos Lily was playing with and began moving them around and wrecking what Lily was playing with!
"NOoooo!" Lily cried, trying to fight Jess off. I sprung off the sofa, as did Carter and grabbed Jess back. She was crying and stressing whilst fumbling with the legos.
"Baby stop. Calm down," I said, trying to hold her back but her legs were going all over the place. Lily was sobbing and reaching for Carter.
"Jessica. Stop it!" Carter shouted. That stopped her. She froze in my arms and looked at Carter. He was mad. Beyond mad.
"Go to your room," he said between his teeth. Jess just shook her head and sunk further into me.
"I said, go to your room Jess." he repeated. "You're in my house, you listen to me."
Jess just shook her head and began to cry more but Lily's sobs filled the room as she fumbled with the lego house Jess had broken. She was making it for Tarken. I sighed, picked Jess up and took her upstairs in hopes I could calm her down quickly and Carter could help Lily quickly.
"Ma," Jess cried, clinging to me as I sat us in the rocking chair
"Mummy's here princess, you're okay." I maneuvered her into the cradling position and rocked us. I ran my fingers through her hair, moving it from her face. She buried her head in my neck. I carried on rocking her, holding her and just making sure she felt safe. She hardly ever gets shouted at.
"Daddy so mad," she whimpered, as quietly as she could.
"He'll calm down baby, you're okay."
"He spwank me," she shivered, snuggling in further.
"No princess. He won't. No one will ever hurt you under my watch, if he even thinks about hurting you- we're gone," I said, being one hundred percent truthful.
For the next five minutes, she cried and whimpered in my arms but I just continued to calm her. Eventually, she sat up and wiped her eyes and nose on my t-shirt making me giggle.
"No waugh," she grumbled, crossing her arms.
"Sorry baby but you're too cute," I teased and tickled her belly a little. She smiled slightly before flopping back onto me.
"Why did you get so upset about her playing?" I asked, running my fingers up and down her arm.
"She was doin it wong," she grumbled. "She mean to keep de bwoxes an tings bu she notttt."
"Baby, she didn't know and you ruined what she was playing with! She was making her daddy a house!"
"I sowwy mama. I I just got angry." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She did look sorry.
"Are you sure you don't want to head back home baby girl? We can have a girls night?" I suggested, putting some hair behind her ear. In all honesty, I wanted her to go home. I knew that much longer here and she'll be pulling out her hair- on top of that, tonight wasn't going to be fun as Jess will want to sleep with Carter and I because there's a stranger in the house.
"Hm mama," she whispered and looked at me with doe eyes.
"We can if you want."
"I wanna," she whispered.
"Okay angel, thank you for being honest. Let's go get your things and we can go let Daddy know- yeah?" She just nodded and jumped off my knee before holding my hand. I smiled, kissed her head and we went through the house.
Twenty minutes later, we were pulling into Tesco car park to go and pick up some snacks for tonight.