Generations: The Long Game

Hard Times

AN: To all of you who have joined me on this journey these last six months, thank you. I hope you all will stick around until the end as I have quite a lot planned for our Knight Nursery family. I appreciate every one of you. Thank you for all the votes and comments. Happy New Year!

TW: infertility, mental health concerns, ED

Autumn and Winter

She sat in her study pinching the bridge of her nose as she listened to the voice over the phone. "I understand. Yes. No. Okay. Thank you for calling. No that's not necessary. What do you mean? Who?!? No! Absolutely not. No. Okay. Goodbye." She rubbed her temples and looked over at the little boy starting to stir in the portable crib. He would be hungry soon. She jotted something down on the notepad before standing to get him just as he started to whimper.

"Okay little one mummy is here." She lifted him with one hand as she undid the buttons of her blouse with the other. Once he was latched, she moved around the room pacing and trying to force her focus onto him. Her mind wandered between the fight that had caused her to shut herself in the study to begin with and the call she had just received.

Winter was pushing. She just wanted him to drop it. Her body had already failed her she didn't need him to remind her that she had failed him too. She wanted a big family too, but that just didn't happen for them. It wasn't going to happen for them. She was trying to accept that, and he comes home with pamphlets, brochures, and even binders full of adoption information. She wasn't ready to discuss any of that and didn't know when or if she would be.

She automatically burped and switched Ben before realizing that her thoughts had force her out of the present. She tried to remain calm and present for the rest of the feed as she made her way out to the lounge. She stared down at the coffee table covered in the adoption stuff he had brought home. Rolling her eyes, she laid the boy on the play-mat and sat herself on the sofa next to Winter. "I'm sorry for shouting."

He laced his fingers between hers and gave her hand a squeeze while running the fingers of his other hand through his hair. "I'll throw them in the bin." It broke something inside her to hear the resignation in his voice as he stood. Without thinking she reached for him. "Wint, don't throw them out."

Charlotte and Mia

Charlotte paced the kitchen trying to concentrate on the redhead's voice. "Char we are going to have to get her professional help. She isn't healing sweetheart. She is just learning to hide it better. I found her hiding in the greenhouse yesterday. She is going there to binge Char. She is going there to binge in secret. You know how I feel babe. If the kids are hungry, they should eat. If they aren't, they don't have to, but this is different. She isn't dealing with her emotions Char she is trying to stuff them down. She is trying to bury them. She is getting temporary happiness in this somehow and then coming off worse in the end. I'm in over my head. We are in over our heads."

The look on Charlotte's face was a mixture of pain, frustration, and helplessness. It broke the redhead's heart. She pulled her in and stopped her pacing. "She's fourteen, Mia, we should've been able to protect her." She pulled away slightly and pressed her forehead to the brunette's. "Char it was an accident. No one could have known. How would you have predicted that? They were friends since their preschool year at the nursery. How would you have known then what would happen?"

She shook herself from the redhead's arms and started to pace again. "I don't know what to do. She doesn't want her friends to know, and they all go to the same place. The only other office in the area is in the same building where Clodagh's office is. She won't be happy with that. What do we do if she refuses to go?" She stopped in her tracks. "What if she refuses to go?"