Raising Laila

Chapter 13 - Beautiful

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if only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies how very different our idea of beauty would be 

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January 6, 2018: 7.57am. 

"Laila?" Jade asked curiously. They had been up for about an hour and neither had moved from the couch where they were watching the television, but now Laila had stood up, Jade noticed something unusual. A wet stain on the back of her pyjama pants. She had done her best to hide it but couldn't find any more pyjamas so had to make do with a wet wipe and covering the stain on the bed with her duvet cover. 

"Yeah?" Laila replied quietly she was terrified of Jade finding out, she used to have accidents when she was little but Mummy and Daddy didn't mind. But Jade had just bought her new sheets for her bed and new pyjamas so she thought she'd be cross that she had just ruined them. 

"Are you alright?" Jade said carefully, if Laila had wanted her to know she would have already told her so it was clear that she was scared. 

"Yes..." Laila choked out, holding back her tears. She knew that Jade knew now and she didn't want to be in trouble. 

"Have you had a little accident?" 

"No!" Laila defended, tears escaping her eyes. 

"Hey, you're not in trouble if you have. Come on, let's go and get you clean, baby," Jade said comfortingly, reaching out for her hand. 

"No, I haven't!" Laila cried. 

"Sweetheart, it's fine. I don't mind, it doesn't matter. Let's get you some clean pyjamas on or we can get dressed?" Jade said. "You can't sit in your wet clothes, angel," 

"I-I d-didn't mean it!" Laila said bursting into sobs now, devastated that she hadn't hidden it well enough. 

"Okay, okay. Come here," Jade said ignoring Laila's wetness and lifting her on to her lap, she didn't care that the little girl was wet or dirty she just wanted to comfort her when she was upset but clearly Laila did care. 

"No, no. Off," Laila said embarrassed that she had wet herself and that now Jade knew. She so wanted to hide it but she couldn't! Not wanting to upset Laila anymore Jade set her on the floor in front of her. 

"Hey, let's go and get changed, shall we?" Jade said standing up from the couch and taking Laila's hand to lead her upstairs, Laila was too upset to protest so ended up just following her reluctantly. 

"Okay, I know you don't like to have a bath but I think you need one to get clean, okay? But we can make it nice and like a swimming pool! 

"I don't want to..." 

"I know but we really need to? What about a shower, I'll put my bikini on and we can go in together?" Jade suggested. 

"No, I don't want too!" 

"Let's at least get you out of these wet sticky clothes," Jade suggested reaching out to help Laila out of the clothes, "And I'll wash them so you can have them again tonight," she explained knowing the starry night pyjamas were her favourites. 

Laila couldn't deny how much she wanted out of the clothes so gratefully accepted Jade's help taking them off. Jade was hoping that once Laila was out of the clothes it would be easier to get her in to the bath, she was wrong. 

"Come into the bathroom," Jade said casually going in to turn the bath taps on, Laila obliviously followed her. 

"I'm not going in the bath," Laila said defiantly, as soon as she saw what Jade was doing.