The Night Watch ✓

31 / epilogue

After a month of sun, the summer temperature reaching new highs, the heavens opened on the day that Maddie and Nick planned to tie the knot, and Bree couldn't help but laugh at their luck. It was sod's law, she thought. They had put the day off for five years and their punishment was a flood of rain that thundered down on the roof of the church.

"Typical," Bree murmured to no-one in particular, though Gaia stood next to her with a lavender bouquet in her hands, the soft purple hues matching the colour of the dresses Maddie had picked out with her bridesmaids in mind, a style that complemented all six. Sarah stood to one dressed the same as all of Maddie's bridesmaids, and she clasped a basket of petals. All week, she had been practising her flower girl duties, spreading petals around the twenty-first floor with the help of her best friend, another of Maddie's miniature bridesmaids.

Maddie's best friend and maid of honour, Posy, turned around with a look of pure exasperation. "I know, right? They take so freaking long to get married and then it freaking pours." She shook her head to herself, and held out her hand to her daughter. Only six months older than Sarah, the two had grown up together, forming a friendship as strong as the one their mothers shared. "Come on, hun, nearly time to walk," she said. Gaia did the same with Sarah, each adult paired with a child, and Bree was in charge of the youngest of the arrangement. Her goddaughter.

Exactly seven months ago today, on the fourteenth of February, Laura Langley had met the world for the first time with a red face and an angry scream, no doubt outraged by the twenty-seven hours it had taken for her to meet her parents once she had decided she wanted to. Bree had been at work when she had got the call from a blubbering Nick, dropping everything to meet her goddaughter, and ever since the first time she had laid eyes on her, she had found herself oddly entranced by the child. The spitting image of her sister, Laura possessed the biggest, darkest eyes that could transfix even someone as child-averse as Bree.

Bree pushed the pram that Laura lay in, still a long way from walking when she couldn't yet crawl, and watched with a laugh as the girl grabbed at her feet, tugging off the frilly white socks she wore. Kit had shown his prowess with a needle, using the same material as everyone else's dress to make a tiny version for Laura, and it was then that Maddie had officially accepted him into her bank of favourite people. He could do no wrong in her eyes, and Bree struggled not to agree with her there. Their fights tended not to last too long. Though they both preferred a good night's sleep to hashing it out before bed, occasionally going to sleep angry, it was hard to wake up the same way after eight hours of peacefully lying beside each other.

Any moment now, those doors would open and she would follow Gaia and Posy, leading the way before Maddie stepped down the aisle with her father. He had been on the edge of tears all day at the thought of giving away his daughter, finally marrying the man he had approved of so many years ago, and Bree knew he wouldn't last long into the ceremony before he wept. She chuckled, gazing down at Laura, and looked over her shoulder when she heard the swish of a dress behind her, and the soft padding of flat shoes on the church's wooden floor, and her heart soared to see Maddie behind her, a vision of beauty in a pure white dress, splashes of colour hidden in the folds of the fabric. The spotless gown swung at her feet, the sleeves fitted down to her wrists, and the lace-embroidered bodice highlighted the body she had worked hard for since the start of the year. An impending wedding had proved to be good motivation to shift the majority of her baby weight, the dress skimming over the residual roundness of her stomach and highlighting her full breasts..

"Hey," Maddie said, her beam brightening the whole room. "This is pretty crazy, huh?" She moved over to Bree, glancing into the pram, and her eyes softened as she looked at her daughter. The first few months hadn't been as easy as they had been with Sarah, but things had settled down since the start of the summer, and Maddie grinned down at the face she adored. "Hey, baby," she said when Laura grabbed her finger, and she smoothed down the girl's dress before she lifted her eyes to Bree. "Can you believe this is happening?"