Who would have thought it? [Chaennie]

Chapter 24

Jennie's head nodded before snapping back up again. She’d almost dozed off that time.

Her head was resting heavily on one of her hands.

Life with a newborn was taking its toll on her since she had got back to work. Little Richard was already the apple of Jennie's eye, but Merlin, Jennie would give anything to get the little fella to sleep through just one night.

As much as she loathed to admit it, Jennie was incredibly competitive. She’d noticed immediately that Roseanne seemed to be coping with the lack of sleep much better than she was. Roseanne was still working from home, taking well to research-based work. She had Richard all day as well as at night, and yet Jennie hadn’t caught her dozing off once. She was half convinced that Roseanne was just as competitive as she was and merely hiding her doziness from her.

Jennie rubbed her eyes tiredly before crossing out the sentence she had just written.

She was working on a proposal. Something to well and truly kick off her new career. It would mean that humanoid magical creatures could not be barred from public spaces. The memory of what had happened to Cassandra at St Mungo’s still sat uncomfortably with her. It made her burn with anger at the injustice of it all.

The problem was it was taking her twice as long to draft it with the exhaustion weighing her down.

She had to get some good progress done today though. She’d already arranged to leave early so that she and Roseanne could look at rentals to move into. As vigilant as they were with silencing charms, they were not infinite. There was no way that they could keep casting silencing charms enough to cover Richard's frequent crying.

Eunwoo and Bambam were beginning to feel the toll of living with a new baby… Something making it even more difficult for them with their desperate job hunts.

It would make life a lot easier for all involved once Roseanne and Jennie could move into their own little home with Richard.

It felt quite fast to be moving in with someone. Jennie had never lived with a partner before. But the fact it was Roseanne—plus the fact they were mates—made it feel right. That and Jennie already longed to give little Richard the most precious home she could manage.

Jennie yawned, blinking hard to try and wake up.

“Baby keeping you up?” Mrs. Shrewsberry asked.

“Ah… A bit,” Jennie replied, self conscious at being caught dozing off.

“I was the same when my kids were born,” Ralph Buckle chimed in, “Don’t worry about it, Jennie. You get used to it.”

“So your wife stays at home?” Mrs. Shrewsberry asked. Jennie frowned as she detected a hint of judgment in her voice.

“Er, she’s not my wife,” Jennie replied. She wasn’t sure how to refer to Roseanne exactly. Before it had been simple—the woman she had got pregnant; then her girlfriend. But now they’d bonded, it was hard to explain. There was no formality of marriage, but somehow the connection between them felt even stronger than that.

“Oh,” Mrs. Shrewsberry replied. Jennie wondered if she was homophobic. It would explain the edge to some of her comments.

“Roseanne works from home these days,” Jennie elaborated, “She’s in the Curse Breaking department at Gringotts. Right now she’s focusing more on research.”

“That sounds really interesting!” Ralph said genuinely, “Research huh? So a woman after your own heart, Kim?”

Jennie quirked a smile. She hadn’t really thought about that. She supposed Roseanne's studious side was quite similar to her own.