Chapter Text
“Mash!”
“Not again.”
“Mash!”
Sofia stands on Jolie’s thighs, digging her little toes in and wiggling around while her mama raises her eyebrows at her.
“No! We’ve heard Monster Mash far too many times today already!” She admonishes, poking Sofia lightly in the side and making her squirm.
“Mash!” Sofia yells again.
“What do you think Ellie, are you fed up with Monster Mash?”
“Mash!” Ellie yells, making the sign for more. Jolie really doesn’t feel like she’s going to win here.
“Fine … Alexa, play Monster Mash.”
There’s silence for a second and Sofia’s whole body freezes in anticipation. When the song starts playing she squeals happily, wriggling around with a big grin on her face as she dances and ‘sings’ along. Even though the song is slowly driving Jolie to distraction, she doesn’t mind it for the joy that Sofia and Ellie are getting out of it.
Jolie is subjected to the song a further three times before a noise from the front door distracts both girls from their mini dance party.
"Duh?" Sofia exclaims, ceasing her wriggling for a moment.
"Yeah … I don't know if it's Uncle Ryan or the postie!"
"Poh!"
“You think it’s the postie? Well, let's go and see then.”
Jolie lifts Sofia down onto the floor and the girls run through to the hallway, while they rattle the baby gate impatiently as they wait for Jolie to catch up with them. She forgoes her crutches - using her wheelchair more out the house means that she’s in less pain and steadier on her feet, meaning she can get around the house more easily and doesn’t have to rely on her crutches all the time. It’s so much nicer.
There’s no shadow of a person on the other side of the front door so Jolie assumes it was the postie and she opens the baby gate to let the girls through to the front door. There is indeed post that’s come through and Jolie anticipates an argument about who will get it but they seem to come to an agreement between them and each carry back a couple of pieces.
“Come on then, shall we go and see what we got?” Jolie asks, heading back to the living room with the toddlers in tow, waving their treasure around in the air. She sits down on the sofa and they scramble up either side of her, Sofia shoving her stuff in her mama’s face so she can open it.
“Hmm let’s see … ooh we’ve got the electric bill, how exciting. And a leaflet for a pizza place but there’s a voucher on it so I’m keeping that and convincing Yaz to get pizza one night. And Ellie’s got my National Geographic magazine and … what looks like a hospital letter. I’ll save that one to open later with mummy,” Jolie narrates. She knows Yaz would want to open any hospital letters for Sofia together so she’ll wait until her wife gets home from work to do that.
“Right, what shall we do until Uncle Ryan gets here, hmm?”
“Mash!” Sofia yells again, shaking Jolie’s arm.
“Argh, no more mash! How about we watch some penguins?”
It takes a bit of convincing but as soon as Jolie loads up Frozen Planet, Sofia is completely entranced. They’d recently discovered her love for the series, and they’re not sure if it’s David Attenborough’s calming voice or just getting to watch animals on the TV but either way it works and they’re not going to deny her. Sofia’s calmness rubs off on Ellie and soon enough Jolie is able to sneak away to get a few house jobs done while the girls are relaxed in front of the TV.
She finishes loading the dishwasher and setting off a load of clothes washing and then heads back through to the living room to check on the girls. They're still totally entranced by the documentary, although Ellie has moved off the sofa and to the floor, lying against Oreo.
She stands in the archway and smiles at them for a moment, but the slam of a car door outside catches her attention.
"I think that might be Uncle Ryan," Jolie narrates, heading to the front door. Ellie squeals excitedly and gets up to follow her but Sofia stays on the sofa, engrossed in the beluga whales on the TV.
"Hey Ry," Jolie says as she opens the door, allowing her brother-in-law to draw her into a hug. Which is of course interrupted by Ellie reaching up to pull at the bottom of his jacket insistently.
"Hey Jo. And of course hello Ellie, can't forget about you, can I?" he says, bending down to scoop Ellie up and giving her a hug.
"Hiya!" She grins, leaning into him.
"You're in a good mood," he says, sitting down so he can kick his shoes off while still holding onto Ellie.
"She is."
"And what have you done with Sofia? She's never this quiet."
"Frozen planet."
"Ahh."
Ryan stands up with Ellie in his arms and carries her through to the living room so he can sit down next to Sofia on the sofa.
She looks around in surprise, a grin spreading over her face as she realises her favourite uncle is here.
“Unc Ry!” she grins, pushing herself up with a grunt of effort.
“Hey Sofia!”
“Telly!”
“Yeah, you’re watching the telly! Can I watch with you?”
Sofia nods, leaning into his side so Ryan lets go of Ellie with one arm and wraps the other around Sofia.
“Looks like I’m not needed anymore,” Jolie chuckles, sitting down on the other sofa and accepting Pickles into her lap when he appears seemingly from nowhere, purring loudly and headbutting her for attention.
They sit together for about 20 minutes until the silent alarm goes off on Jolie’s watch to remind her she needs to get ready to leave.
“I hate to disturb you, Pickles, but I’ve got to get moving,” she says, lifting up one leg slightly to get him to move. He scowls at her and digs his claws in, which makes Jolie wince slightly, but he jumps down and Jolie stands up before he can jump back up.
“Hey, I’ve just noticed, you’ve not got your crutches!” Ryan exclaims, looking up from the TV.
“Yeah,” Jolie shrugs, blushing slightly. “Funnily enough, using my chair more outside the house has made things less painful. Don’t get too excited though, still taking my crutches to the hospital though,” she says, grabbing her water bottle off the bookshelf and going to the kitchen to fill it up.
In theory, the hospital would be a great place to take her wheelchair for practice, however she's never taken it out on her own. Also, Isaac is still being funny about it, and she doesn't want to make him any more nervous about today than he already will be.
Jolie comes back from the kitchen, dropping her water bottle into her backpack along with a snack, a colouring book for Isaac, a couple of fidgets for herself and her phone charger.
Both Clara and Isaac are getting their casts off today, but unfortunately their appointments overlap. So Beth will be taking Clara to her appointment, while Jolie will be taking Isaac to his. Hence why Ryan has appeared to babysit Sofia and Ellie.
"Right, I don't know how long we'll be. It's likely that Yaz will beat us back to be honest.”
"Not a problem."
"Yeah. Thanks again for doing this. And you know where everything is if you need anything."
"I do. We’ll be fine, won't we girls?"
Sofia is transfixed by the TV again but Ellie nods.
"Right, I'll see you later then," Jolie says, leaning forward to give both Sofia and Ellie a kiss on the forehead and patting Ryan's shoulder awkwardly.
"See you later!" Ryan echoes back as she heads out the front door and to the car.
As Jolie had suspected, Yaz is already home by the time she gets back from the hospital with Clara and Isaac, the latter of whom is fast asleep in the back of the car, the day having exhausted him.
The appointments to actually get their casts off had been on time, but then they had both had their range of motion assessed and then an appointment with a physio each. And then they had to wait while an elbow brace was sourced and adjusted for Clara. Isaac has one for his hand and wrist too, but it didn’t need to be custom fitted.
“I can start on dinner if you like,” Clara says as Jolie pulls the car to a stop in the driveway.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, just a bit of pasta, I can manage.”
Jolie bites back her sigh.
“I know you can. Just wanted to check,” she says softly instead.
“Sorry … just processing.”
“I know, it’s okay. Do you want me to tell Yaz what the doctor told you or do you want me to do it?”
Clara shrugs. “Would you mind? I want to talk to her but I just … I need to concentrate on something easy first.”
“I understand. I can tell her, and I can be there when you’re ready to talk to her, if you like.”
“Thank you,” Clara smiles.
They get out of the car, gently waking Isaac up from the back seat and taking him inside.
“Hey!” Yaz says, looking up from where she’s sitting on the floor with Sofia and Ellie and the building blocks.
“Hey,” Jolie echoes back, sitting down on the sofa nearest to where Yaz is and greeting Oreo, who comes bounding over for cuddles.
“I’m going to get started on dinner. Isaac, do you want to come and help?” Clara says. He nods silently, following his mum through to the kitchen sleepily.
“What happened?” Yaz says quietly, leaning against the coffee table.
“Isaac is doing well. They were happy his hand has healed, he has to wear the brace full time for four days, then at night for three weeks and he’ll be good to go. He’s got some physio exercise too, to improve his movement and strength. Clara’s was … less good,” Jolie sighs.
“Should we wait for her to come back?” Yaz asks, sitting up with a look of concern on her face.
“She asked me to tell you before she talks to you. I think she’s struggling to process the information.”
“Okay…”
“So the break in her elbow has healed, but they’re not going to take the pins out. But the sensation and movement in her hand is worse than she had hoped for.”
Yaz’s face falls, filled with disappointment and concern for her best friend.
“How bad?”
“Bad. She still has limited sensation and function in her right hand, especially in her ring and pinky finger. She has a list of physio exercises to do to try and strengthen it that’s almost as long as mine, but there’s no real way to tell if she’ll regain the full function she had. The doctor wanted to talk to her about occupational therapy so she can talk about how she can adapt day to day activities but she wasn't sure yet, I think she's struggling to get her head around things.”
Yaz sighs, getting up from the floor so she can sit on the sofa next to her wife and lean in for a cuddle.
“It makes me so angry. She doesn’t deserve any of this. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
“She didn’t,” Jolie agrees quietly.
“And now her whole career, the whole way she does everything, is all different and a thousand times harder.”
“Hey, come here,” Jolie whispers, pulling her wife into her side and stroking her hair slowly. Seeing Clara struggle to accept what has happened to her and her children is so hard, and seeing Yaz process what has happened to her best friend makes it even harder.
Yaz sits up, wiping her eyes and accepting a tissue that Jolie hands her. Sofia climbs up into her lap for a cuddle, Ellie following but leaning against the side of the sofa and awkwardly patting Yaz’s knee.
“She should be nearly done with the pasta now, right?” Yaz asks, holding Sofia around the waist and she stands on her lap and wiggles around.
“Yeah, probably.”
“I’ll go and see if I can help, lifting that big heavy pot by herself is probably not a good idea.”
“No, probably not,” Jolie agrees, giving Yaz’s hand a squeeze as she picks up Sofia and takes her through to the kitchen with her to check on the pasta progress.
A few minutes later they call through that dinner is served, so Jolie goes upstairs to collect Isaac from where he had been having some quiet time in the back bedroom. He's subdued and quiet, and brings his teddy with him downstairs for tea.
While the pasta meal is simple, it fills them up and is comforting. Even Sofia gives some of it a try, although she doesn't manage much before she decides she doesn't want it and Jolie ends up giving her a tube feed since she finishes eating first.
After tea, they get the little ones to bed while Isaac and Yaz take Oreo for an evening walk to burn off the last of his energy and to get Isaac out of the house so he has the opportunity to talk about some things with Yaz. They’ve not had much one-on-one time since everything happened and while he’s closer with Jolie, he’s been struggling to open up to anyone.
Just as Yaz and Isaac get back, Clara and Jolie have gotten the babies into bed and are settling back downstairs with cups of tea.
Once Isaac is happy in bed with his headphones and a book, the three of them settle themselves on the living room sofas with blankets and tea. Jolie has the impression that Clara wants to talk to them about things so they wait her out and give her the space to open up.
“I think I’m going to call Beth in the morning,” she says eventually, staring down into her mug of tea.
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m ready to start talking about things, about everything that happened. I know it’s a really big web that needs to be untangled but I have to start somewhere.”
“I’m so proud of you,” Yaz says softly, looking across at her best friend. “We’re both so proud of you.”
Clara just blinks and stares down at her mug, biting her lower lip as she obviously tries not to cry.
“Want to come for a hug?” Yaz offers, gesting to where she and Jolie are pressed up together to signify that they’ll make space.
“I don’t want to intrude…”
“You’re not intruding Clara.”
“Okay,” she whispers, putting her mug down on the coffee table and untangling herself from her blanket. Yaz shuffles over, making space between herself and her wife for Clara to clamber in between them for a hug. Once she’s settled, they both encase her in blankets and limbs and love.
It’s not surprising when she starts crying, so they squeeze her tighter and Yaz brushes her hair out of her face for her.
“It’s okay Clara. Let it out. You’ve come so far in the last couple of months and we’re so proud of you.”
“I feel like I haven’t done much,” she shrugs.
“Yeah you have. You’ve kept yourself and your kids safe, you’re ready to start talking about what happened, and you’ve worked really hard to not let this get the better of you. You’re getting your confidence back and we’re so proud of you.”
“Thanks,” she mumbles, still staring at her knees and rubbing her nose with her good hand.
They sit quietly for a few more minutes until Clara stretches and announces she needs to go to the toilet so they let her out of the blanket pile.
“Oh, did I tell you we got another hospital letter for Sof earlier?” Jolie asks, looking over at her wife.
“No … where is it?” Yaz asks, sitting up with a stretch.
“Hall table.”
Yaz nods, getting up to go and grab it. She’s soon back, sitting down much closer to Jolie as she rips open the letter and puts it on her knee in between them so they can both skim read it.
It seems that they get to the crucial part of the letter at the same time.
Her blood tests have shown indicators for celiac disease.
“Do you want me to call tomorrow morning to book her in for the biopsy?” Jolie asks her wife softly, wrapping her arm around her shoulders and playing with her hair.
“Yeah,” Yaz sighs.
“I know it’s hard, love,” Jolie whispers, squeezing her shoulders. “But this is a good thing. It’s the first time they’ve come across a possible explanation rather than ruling something out.”
Yaz just nods against her, wiggling closer and burrowing herself into her wife.
Jolie crosses everything she can that this will finally be what gives them an answer.