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Andy splashed water over her face and straightened, for the first time in a long while, at ease with the face looking back at her in the bathroom mirror. The weight of the last three years could be seen in the strands of grey in her hair, the lines in her face, but they told a story too and, after a lot of therapy, she was no longer angry about that.
The year and a half after Cate was born had been rough, it had come as no surprise to her when post-natal depression had hit her hard but Miranda hadn’t been prepared and did not know how to cope with being pushed away or screamed at, couldn’t handle Andy crying at the drop of a hat and not feeling that she deserved the support of her family. It had nearly broken them until the clouds lifted enough for Andy to see that she needed help, it hadn’t been an easy ride, she had to rebuild her relationship with each member of her family while working through her own issues but they’d made it. Andy finally felt comfortable and safe in her relationships, she could recognise when she needed to ask for help and did, most of the tears she had shed in recent months had been tears of laughter.
“Morning love,” she smiled as Miranda entered the bathroom behind her, the older woman’s arms automatically sliding around her waist, her chin coming to rest on the brunette’s shoulder.
“Morning, are you coming back to bed? I have a gift for you before the rabble wake up.”
“It’s not Christmas until tomorrow Miranda,” she chastised lightly, leaning back into the other woman’s embrace, her hands moving to the arms wrapped over her stomach.
“But our littlest love is three today and that should be as much a celebration of you as it is of her,” Miranda said and Andy could only roll her eyes at the other woman’s grin, “come, they’ll be up soon.”
Andy allowed herself to be led back into the bedroom and shoved playfully onto the bed,
“You’re ridiculous you know,” she grinned, tucking her legs underneath her and leaning back against the headboard. Miranda disappeared into their walk-in closet and Andy heard the telltale beep of the electric safe that was hidden in there before the older woman emerged, her hands held behind her back,
“You mentioned once that it was one of the things you loved about me,” Miranda demurred as she walked towards the bed, Andy chuckled, leaning forward to snag the belt of Miranda’s robe to pull her closer.
“More than once I wouldn’t wonder,” Andrea murmured, kissing Miranda lightly, “Now, what have you got for me that you felt the need to hide in the safe?”
Miranda found herself suddenly nervous then immediately felt ridiculous, reminded herself that she had been thinking about this in some form or other since the brunette and her daughter had stumbled into her life five years ago. The five years that had followed had done little to dissuade her despite the ups and downs that they had weathered as a family but now that she was actually doing it she was worried about upsetting the status quo.
“Hey,” Andrea’s hand on her cheek pulled her focus back to the present and she looked up into loving brown eyes that made all of her fears melt away.
“Andrea,” she began, dropping the small box behind her back so she could take both of Andrea’s hands in hers, “When we bumped into each other at the zoo that day I didn’t dare to hope that five years later you would still be in my life. But you are here and you have given me more than I ever could have imagined, you have loved my daughters and I without question, you have completed our family in every way and given me two more perfect girls to love. I will never feel deserving of your first smile in the morning or your last kiss at night but I will spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of you.”
“Miranda,” Andrea whispered, her eyes shiny with unshed tears,
“Let me finish,” Miranda’s voice cracked but with a nod from Andrea she pushed on, “the last three years haven’t been easy but they have made us stronger and given us a firm foundation to continue to build the rest of our lives, lives I hope you will agree to spend as my wife,” with shaking hands she reached behind her for the ring box and flicked it open, holding it out for Andrea to see, “Andrea Sachs, will you do me the greatest honor and marry me?”
“Oh god yes Miranda,” Andrea sobbed, throwing herself at the older woman and burying her face in her neck, kissing every inch of skin she could, “yes, yes, yes.”
“Mumma?” the voice from the doorway pulled them apart and Miranda turned to find Catherine stood in their bedroom doorway rubbing tiredly at her eyes with one hand, the other gripping pingping (when Catherine was born Charlotte had announced that as a big sister she no longer needed Pingping and instead he should look after her new little sister, Catherine had kept tight hold of him ever since.)
“Hey peanut,” Andrea said, rubbing the tears from her face with her sleeve and holding out her hand for their youngest, “happy tears,” she reassured when she saw the questioning look on the girl's face as she neared the bed, “very happy tears,”
“Sure?” she asked, pulling herself up onto the bed between them and looking at them both one after the other, she was too clever for her own good sometimes and Miranda had absolutely no doubt that she was going to run rings around them all given time.
“Sure,” Miranda watched Andrea scoop the girl up and tickle her until she squealed, “Happy Birthday Catey baby,”
“Yes,” Miranda agreed, leaning forward to kiss their youngest, “Happy birthday my littlest love,”
“What this?” Catherine asked, her small hands finding the ring box that has ended up discarded on the bed between them when they were interrupted, “pretty,”
“That’s a present for your mumma my darling,” Miranda said, attempting to brush the riotous curls out of the girl's face,
“Mumma birthday too?!”
“No love, but without your mumma I wouldn’t have you so I thought she deserved a little something.”
“Mums you being sappy,” Catherine giggled while Andrea smirked at her over the top of their daughter's head. Miranda still couldn’t fathom that she got to call all of this hers. While the last three years hadn’t been easy, when there had been occasions when she was sure that the family she so loved would be lost to her, she had never stopped loving this woman and she knew, deep down, that Andrea hadn’t stopped loving her either. “Maybe a little,” she conceded with a smile, leaning forward to kiss first Catherine and then Andrea on the forehead, “but I love you both very much. Catherine, will you help me out your mummas ring on please?”
She sat curled in the corner of the sofa and watched her family all around her, her eyes occasionally straying to the ring on her finger, watching the way the tasteful diamond caught the light. Cate was playing with pingping under the tree, walking him over the presents there like he was climbing a mountain, Lottie was curled in Miranda’s lap reading to her quietly, something they had done together since they met and the twins her engrossed in their mobile phones, it was the calm before the storm and it was perfect.
“Mumma!” Cate interrupted, landing in Andy’s lap, her reflexes only just fast enough that she managed to keep her daughter from falling backward, “Pingping wants a story.”
“Oh he does, does he?” She grinned, catching Miranda’s eye over the girls heads, “And which story does he want?” she watched her baby whisper to the stuffed penguin, a little worse for wear now from the love of two little girls, but still precious.
“He said princess and dragon,” Cate nodded emphatically Andy was not surprised in the slightest, settling herself more comfortably in the corner of the sofa and tugging Cate and Pingping close she took a deep breathe and began…
Once upon a time there was a princess who had fled her kingdom with her little girl, they lived alone in a tower far from anyone who knew them and though the princess loved her daughter and was glad to be safe from her evil stepmother she was sad too. Until, one day, she met someone she hadn’t expected to see again, a queen from a nearby kingdom who had always looked at her and smiled, this is the story of how the queen fought the monsters haunting the princess and helped her to be happy again…