Light in the darkness

44. Family always comes first

With a quiet sigh of relief leaving her lips, Alice closed the door of her daughter's nursery. Putting a teething baby to sleep was everything but easy. Hopefully, after half an hour of cradling and singing lullabies, Chloe closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, finally letting her mother take a rest.

On her way downstairs, Alice poked her head into Charlie's room just to make sure he was sleeping peacefully. And just like she thought, he was indeed fast asleep in his bed, but the bedsheets had fallen off his body. With a tired smile, Alice walked to the bed and covered his body back. He stirred a little in his sleep but settled as soon as she stroked his cheek, tenderly, feeling the warmth of his skin under her fingers.

And though everything seemed to be fine, she could swear, he was warmer than usual. Her eyebrows furrowed a little and she let her hand reach to his forehead to see if it was just as warm as his cheeks. But taking into consideration it was the beginning of September and it was still pretty hot outside, it was probably the reason for his slightly flushed skin, so hopefully, there was nothing to worry about much.

She kissed the top of his head and turned off the lights before closing the door of his room and walking downstairs to finally check the emails and see if her coworkers took her corrections into consideration as far as their reports were concerned. Though it was still pretty early for Alice to come back to her full-time job, she was constantly keeping in touch with RIVW and tried to work from home at least a little bit when it was possible.

When she grabbed her favorite snacks from the fridge and opened her laptop, she felt the anxiety and tiredness taking over her. After babysitting a teething Chloe for the whole day and making homework with Charles at the same time, spending the evening working was the last thing she needed.

So as fast as she opened the laptop, she closed it and picked her phone to call FP. It was the least she could do taking into consideration the distance that his business trip caused. Alice hated the thought of being away from him more than they had already been, but the smile appeared on her face once she heard that he picked up the phone.

"Hey, baby. You've got perfect timing. We just returned to our rooms." His voice was sweet and soft, making her feel butterflies in her stomach.

"Oh God, is your room next to Fred's and Hermione's?" Alice asked playfully, wanting to tease him just a little bit since she was well aware that since Hermione and Fred had gotten back together, they basically couldn't keep their hands off of each other.

"Yeah, I already found out that they don't even bother to keep it quiet." FP huffed.

"You're not a king of silence yourself, Jones," Alice said lowly, making him growl in anticipation. She sensed that he was frustrated.

"But only when the kids aren't around." He pointed out playfully and fortunately couldn't see the way Alice bit her bottom lip, because it would definitely be the death of him at that very moment.

"Speaking of kids, how are you doing alone with them?" FP swiftly changed the topic, before their phone call would change into a sex call.

Though he would be more than willing to start their little dirty play, knowing that Alice was alone with their kids was much more important than his needs right now. He couldn't help but feel guilty that she was left alone with their son and a little baby. Making sure they were doing alright was his priority.

"Well with Chloe teething the things are much more complicated," Alice said honestly, not wanting to sugarcoat the whole teething thing since it was one of the hardest moments for both them as parents as well as for Chloe who was in pain.