Let Me Put You In The Picture: Version 1

Chapter 188

            "Pack a bag for me, please." I said to Liam as I came into the dining room and found him sitting at the table on his laptop.

"For what?" He asked looking up at me curiously.

The boys got off school at three. Then it was homework, then the park for a bit of football and monkey bars and whatever else they could use to burn their energy off. Then dinner, more play time, then finally bed.

Noel and Sara flew off to Ibiza for five days, coming home on the weekend. I didn't have much to do with a break from Jet other than an interview someone else was supposed to cover. But she got sick and Matt asked if I'd do it. Down the studio as I really didn't want to leave London with having the boys and Liam to look after.

Pretty Green was also still there to think about but Pat could cover for me when I had to leave early to fetch the boys. Even Liam was open for helping and didn't gripe too much about having to stay at Noel's.

Everything was quiet and dark. Liam and I had settled into this temporary arrangement quite well. To be honest, I was more worried about how he'd get on given the last time we were there. But things hadn't been the easiest for me under those circumstances either.

But the past was whoever's. The future was mine.

I was in that place where it was getting hard to separate dreamland from reality. And Liam pushing on me definitely made it hard to figure out which place I was.

"Blue?" He grabbed hold and shook my shoulder. "Blue?"

"What?" I asked as I opened my eyes and looked up at him.

The glowing street light shined just enough to show me his eyes. His beautiful yet worried eyes.

"Check on the lads, will ya?" He continued to grip my shoulder. "Please?"

"I'm sure they're fine." I relaxed myself a little in hope he'd loosen his grip a bit.

"No." He said shaking his head. "Summat's wrong. Summat's-"

"Alright!" I exclaimed as I pushed him away so I could get up.

He got out of bed as well and put his clothes on while I headed off towards the door.

Donovan's room was as quiet as ours had been and the two boys were fast asleep. They decided to camp out in there and were all snuggled up in their sleeping bags on the floor.

Peppa Pig and her family had gone on a camping trip earlier that day and Sonny and Donovan felt they should too. Of course, we didn't have a camper or a tent so they had to improvise.

They were quite the engineers, moving Donovan's toy chest so they could drape a sheet between it and his bed. Then they gathered all of their stuffed animals and lined the inside of their "tent" with them.

Sonny brought a lantern down from his room and it sat between them brightening the entire inside of their tent with a shiny glow reflecting off the sheet.

I smiled to myself as I wondered how they could sleep with it on.

But they were totally passed out. They cuddled with a few of their favorite stuffed animals. I couldn't remember all the names but Sonny's was a rabbit called Baxter and Donovan had a bear who looked like Paddington but he was adamant that wasn't his name.

Imagine how much fun his father had with that...

I tiptoed close enough and crouched down in front of the tent's entrance.