Twenty Six.

Chapter One

The beeping of the alarm clock filled the air and Rydel rolled over, hitting the snooze button with some force. A cheeky smile spread across her face as her eyes fluttered open. A new day, a new adventure as she liked to think. She glanced over in her fiancé's direction.

Ellington lay on his side, facing the wall. The covers went halfway up his body, leaving his sweater exposed to the warmth of the bedroom. He breathed softly and looked peaceful as he slept, one hand under his head. Rydel closed the gap in between them on the bed, sliding her arm around his waist and putting her head in the gap between his shoulder and head.

"Goodmorning cutie." She whispered in his ear, planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Mhm.." He sleepily mumbled, not moving at all.

"You're going to have to get up because it's joey's first day of playgroup and you said you'd help him get ready." She told him, breathing down his neck on purpose.

"But i don't wanna get up.." He groaned quietly, opening his eyes and rubbing them absent-mindedly.

"if you get up now, you can have pancakes for breakfast..." she whispered persuasively in his ear.

He rolled over onto his back and stretched a bit. "i'll be down in five minutes."

she giggled happily before pecking his lips and climbing out of bed. she padded across to the closet, selected a pair of jeans and one of her beloved shirts and started to change. Assuming that Ellington might be watching like he usually does, she turned around.

However instead of seeing Ellington staring at her like a little school boy seeing a pretty girl for the first time, he had fallen back asleep again and was snoring softly. Rydel rolled her eyes. She finished getting changed before picking up the spare pillow from on the floor and throwing it in his direction.

After it hitting him in the head he quickly sat up, surveying his surroundings sleepily. "I wasn't asleep." He pleaded to no one in particular.

"Yeahhh sureee." Rydel teased, completely pulling the covers off his body exposing him and his spongebob boxers.

"Why did you do thattttt?" He groaned, reaching for the covers.

"Nope, get up Ratliff."

"Okay, okay gee bossy pants." He grumbled, sitting up and raking a hand through his mop of hair.

"What did you just call me?" Rydel questioned, crossing her arms sassily and raising an eyebrow, questioningly.

"I said i love you my beautiful angel." he bluffed, smiling innocently.

She rolled her eyes again, leaving him to get dressed. She headed across the hallway to the other door that was slightly ajar. She pushed it open and walked inside.

The room was dimly lit with the multiple coloured nightlight that projected lights onto the wall. Some sunlight also peeped through the gaps in the curtains where they hadn't been properly closed. In the room, there were two beds. One in which joey was asleep in, snuggled down so far that Rydel could only see the top of his head under his dinosaur covers.

Rydel walked towards the other bed in the room, reaching down into it and picking up her baby girl.

Phoebe, her and Ellington's daughter, was five months old. They had decided to stick to names from the series "friends" and that's how she got her name. With Phoebe's tufts of blonde hair, chocolatey brown eyes, adorable giggle and cute dimples she was the perfect mixture of both of her parents.

Despite the fact that it was early, phoebe was awake and giggling as usual and as soon as Rydel picked her up she squealed with joy.

"Hello princess." Rydel cooed, hoisting phoebe up on her hip and heading downstairs. Phoebe grabbed onto Rydel's necklace and played with the charm on it until Rydel replaced it with one of her toys.

Rydel placed her in her baby chair, walking over to the cupboards and getting out the pancake mix.

Halfway through making pancakes and dancing along to the radio that was playing quietly in the kitchen, joey ran in and attacked her leg in a hug.

"Momma!!" He yelled happily, giggling as she picked him up.

"Goodmorning!" She said cheerfully, kissing his tiny cheek.

Ellington had dressed him in a smart shirt and some jeans. He had also brushed joey's long toffee brown hair, to look exactly like his own.

"You want pancakes?" Rydel asked him, sitting him down on a pillow on one of the chairs so that be could reach the table.

"Pancakes!!" He yelled happily, causing phoebe to squeal too. She smiled, placing the plate in front of him.

At that moment, Ellington walked in. He was dressed for work in some smart pants and and a button up t-shirt. His top few buttons were undone and his tie was rested around his neck, but not tied. He pulled himself up onto one of the counters and picked up his phone.

"Morning babe." Rydel chirped, walking over to him so she was stood between his legs. usually he would be all over her but he didn't look up from his phone.

"Excuse me." She said to him but he still didn't look up.

"Hey Ratliff!" She glared at him, raising her voice slightly. This time he looked up at her but didn't say a word, his face blank.

"Did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?" She asked him. He looked back down at his phone.

"I made your pancakes." She tried to talk to him again. He still didn't look up.

"Have i done something?" She questioned. He shook his head briefly.

Rydel sighed, giving up. She took the pre-prepared bottle out of the fridge and picked up phoebe. She began feeding it to her and greedily, she drank. She tried to get more milk into her mouth than she could swallow, causing her to spit some out coughing.

"Oh dear." Rydel cooed, picking her up, resting her against her shoulder and patting her tiny fragile back.

Joey, who was feeling the lack of attention, looked up with chocolate sauce smeared all across his hands and face. He giggled naughtily as Rydel looked across at him.

"Ellington." Rydel began, only to be ignored again. He was beginning to wind her up and she was frustrated because he was never like this.

"Ellington!!" She yelled causing joey to stop giggling and phoebe to stop coughing. Ellington immediately looked up. silence fell upon them for a few seconds. Rydel rarely yelled and they all seem shocked and stunned. Rydel however, felt more upset with herself for getting mad.

"Can you please clean up joey?" She asked calmly, trying to move past the outburst. He placed his phone down on the side and took joey to the bathroom without hesitation. Rydel resumed to feeding phoebe.

As she replayed the mornings events in her mind she made herself feel more upset. Ellington was never like this. Something must be wrong. Something that she was determined to find out.

Hello beautiful people. I hope you liked this first chapter. I have about 15 more chapters prewritten so all you need to do is leave me as many comments as you can, telling me what you think is going to happen next or telling me which parts of the chapter that you liked and i'll update soon! ily all!! <3