Chapter Text
I started off as a peaceful morning, something very rare for the Clayton family this past two years. Every since Bly, it’s like it has been nonstop chaos and of course the arrival of the youngest Clayton, Will, only 6 months prior, had made everything more chaotic.
But today was calm. The Leafling was closed for the holidays, Miles and Flora were at school for their last day of the school year, and Jamie had taken Will with her to do some last minute calls for some of their regulars. There was no doubt that once the older two got home in an hour, they’d be hopped up on sugar and running circles around the small, 3 bedroom home. There was also no doubt that as soon as Jamie returned with the baby, Will would be tired and screaming for a nap.
But for right now, Dani could curl up with some of her (horrible) tea and read a book.
She should’ve known the peace wouldn’t last.
The sound of her phone ringing is what startled her out of her peaceful trance. Without looking at the caller ID, she grabbed the cellphone off the nightstand.
“So help me god if this is Miles’s school.” She grumbled as she pressed the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Danielle! It’s been forever since my last call!” Her mother’s shrill voice sounded through the phone.
Forever was correct. The last time Karen had spoken to her daughter was when she still worked at Bly. Not long after, Dani had blocked her on all social media, but she must have forgotten to block her phone number.
“Mother, hi. It’s been...god...two years?” Dani tried her best to put on an excited-to-hear-her-mother voice.
“Danielle, do not take the Lord’s name in vain. But yes I think it’s been two years. How are you doing? Are you still working as a nanny?” Karen attempted to make conversation but Dani knew that soon she would ask her for something. She always did.
“Um, no actually. Now I run a small business in Vermont.” Dani explained.
“Vermont? You’re back in the states?! Why didn’t you call me?!” Karen cried, being overdramatic as ever.
“I just, guess I forgot to call. Sorry.” Dani replied awkwardly. It was then that she heard the door close and the unmistakable cry of her youngest son. “So, uh, what’s up?”
“Oh! Yes. I was calling because their bringing the annual summer festival back. We didn’t do it the past two years because we got some pretty bad weather. But! This year it’s back.” Karen went on about the old tradition and Dani held her breath waiting for what was about to come. “And I thought, you should come! Edmund is itching to see you again. He still hasn’t found someone yet.”
There it was, Karen wanted Dani to fall back in love with Edmund. But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t.
It was at that moment that Jamie walked in, Will having gone down for a nap. Dani having had enough of her mom, suddenly blurred out. “I’m married mom!”
Karen went silent.
“Yeah, I’m married. Have been for a year.” Dani told her, feeling a weight come off her chest. Jamie just raised an eyebrow and without a word, slid into bed next to her wife.
“You got married and you didn’t tell your mother?” She sounded offended.
“It was a spur of the moment wedding. We got married the same day we got engaged.” She explained.
That was true. The moment Dani proposed, Miles and Flora called Owen, who had helped plan the proposal, and an hour later they watched as Dani and Jamie were married in the courthouse. Owen said it was the most Lesbian thing he’d ever seen.
“I can’t believe you got married and didn’t tell me? That sounds very suspicious.” Of course Karen didn’t believe her.
“You know what mom, I’ll come home for the summer festival and you know what I’m going to bring my WIFE and our children.” And with that, she hung up. Maybe Dani is a little dramatic too.
“Blimey Poppins.” Jamie said with a smirk once Dani slammed the phone down onto the nightstand. “That’s one way to come out to your mum.”
Dani groaned and curled up next to her wife. “She wanted me to get back together with Eddie by going to the annual summer festival in my home town.”
“And you told her that we’re going?” All Dani could do was nod.
“Well I guess the kids are finally getting to vacation they’ve been asking for.” Jamie said with a smile, the same smile that melted Dani’s heart whenever she saw it.
“I guess they are.”
——
An hour later, the couple was started awake by a small scream of “Miles!” Followed by the slamming of the front door. All of which also woke up the baby.
Jamie groaned before getting out of bed to deal with the children.
“Oi! You gremlins woke up the baby.” She scolded the older two.
Dani had gone to get Will, leaving Jamie to see why Miles and Flora were fighting again.
“Miles took my dolly!” Flora cried.
“Hey!” Dani called out as she entered the living room with a crying Will. “We only need one screaming kid in the house.”
Flora pouted and stuck her tongue out at Miles. “He took it.”
“Miles, give your sister her doll back.” Jamie told him.
Miles huffed and handed his sister the small, handmade doll. “I didn’t take it, I borrowed it.”
Jamie gave him an I-see-right-through-you look. “Stop taking your sister’s things.”
Dani grinned at her wife as she soothed baby Will. “Hey kids, what do you think about taking a vacation?”
“Vacation?”
“Yes!”
And that was all it took to distract the kids from their argument and instead get them to focus on the excitement of going on a vacation.