Lean on Me

Part Two - Chapter One: Coping with Parenthood

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she rolled out of bed, Cassidy Smith yawned as she reached for her navy peche long robe.

Cassidy was home alone with the children since her boyfriend of over a year was away playing in Euro 2012 for his country which was being co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

Cassidy pulled the navy robe on over her pink boyfriend night shirt, she quickly fastened it before hurrying towards the nursery before the twins woke anyone else.

Leia pouted as her mother lifted her out of her crib as she checked if the little girl had woken her brother; Noah slept peacefully unaware that anything was happening.

"It's okay mummy is here," Cassidy said cuddling the two month old close, she peeked into Nora's room which was next to the nursery and smiled that she was still asleep and then she headed back to her bedroom; the brunette fought back a yawn as she closed her door over.

Settling down to give Leia, her night time feeding the brunette glanced at the empty side of the bed where Fernando should have been; she still wasn't used to the fact that he wasn't there and she couldn't wait for him to come home even if he had only been gone two weeks.

"Cass?" Nora whispered making Cassidy reached for a towel so that she could cover herself as she fed Leia; she wasn't surprised since Nora always seemed to wake up when it was the twins feeding time, she was taking well to the role of big sister to her new siblings.

"Nora... you should be in bed," Cassidy said gently as the two year old padded into the bedroom, she tilted her head as she looked at the brunette that was feeding her little sister; she pouted as she clambered onto the bed to sit next to her.

"Is Leia okay?" Nora asked peeking at her baby sister, she frowned wondering why sister was awake and had cried; she watched wondering if there was anything that she could do.

***

Fernando stretched waking up and fought back a yawn, he glanced around his hotel room and sighed wishing that he was home with Cassidy and the children; he missed them and spoke to his girlfriend whenever he could.

Shaking his head, Fernando climbed of bed, he carefully dressed for another day in Poland; he knew that he had training that day for another match that was coming up and he was prepared to do his best to make his family proud.

Before long Fernando was heading down for breakfast, he smiled to himself as he spotted Juan was already downstairs and had a phone pressed to his ear as he talked to his girlfriend of four months.

Fernando chuckled as he got himself some toast before sitting by his club team-mate, he surprised how well things were going between Juan and his girlfriend Lorena Martinez.

Sipping on his orange juice, Fernando listened partially to his friend while he thought about Cassidy; he missed his girlfriend and he knew that she was busy with the children.

Nora and Leo had completely settled down after the twins had been brought home and were completely taken with their roles of big siblings while the couple made sure that they didn't feel left out.

"So have you heard from Cassidy this morning?" Sergio asked sitting down by his best friend, he glanced at Juan for a moment before turning his full attention to Fernando, who shook his head as he nibbled on his toast; Poland was two hours ahead of London and he didn't wish to wake up his girlfriend.

"When do I get to meet the twins? I've got a Real stripe for Noah sorted," Sergio quizzed making Fernando glare at him; he wasn't going to allow any of his children were a Real Madrid stripe, he might play for Chelsea now but he was still an Atlético Madrid fan at heart.

"Over my dead body," Fernando said making Juan laugh finally coming off the phone with his girlfriend, he watched as Sergio rolled his eyes as he stole some toast from Fernando and smiled at him innocently.

Fernando rolled his eyes finishing his toast as he returned his thoughts to his family, he knew that Cassidy wasn't going to be flying out for the tournament since the couple had agreed it was better that she didn't with the four children.

"So four months left of maternity leave... has Cassidy thought about what she'll do?" Juan asked putting his phone down, only Nora would be old enough to go into day care; that left them with a question of what they would do with the other three when Cassidy's time came to return to work.

"We haven't really talked about it... I think she wants to go part time or something," Fernando said shrugging, he didn't want his girlfriend to do anything that she didn't want to; she loved working at Chelsea so things were going to be a little stretched.

Juan and Sergio looked at one another, things weren't going to be easy for the couple and if they didn't do something soon then they were making things only much more difficult for themselves.

***

"I miss you," Cassidy said softly pressing the phone to her ear, she smiled as she heard Fernando's voice; she couldn't believe that it had been two weeks since she had last seen her boyfriend.

Cassidy curled up on the couch in the family room, she knew that the children were all in bed and she had a feeling that this wasn't an easy call for him either.

"How are the children?" Fernando asked her, it was getting late in London and he knew they'd be asleep by now but he still worried for them; he missed not being able to put them to bed.

"They're fine... Nora's still getting up during the night time feed," Cassidy said moving her legs, she stretched them a little before resting her head against the couch as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Her body had slowly recovered from the birth and she was starting to work on slowly losing the baby weight that she had gained.

"She's an overprotective sister," Fernando joked making Cassidy laugh softly and nod her head, she nibbled on her lip in thought of the little girl growing up without her mother; Olalla hadn't spoken with her children in months and from what Cassidy had heard was spending a lot of time with her new son.

"Any news about Olalla?" Cassidy asked softly, she was hoping that the other woman would want to see Nora for her birthday but with Nora's third birthday quickly approaching and there was still no word.

"Nothing... it'll be okay amor, we'll have a wonderful time at my parents," Fernando said reassuring his girlfriend, he knew that she didn't want to cut Olalla out but they couldn't wait around for her to come back; he wanted to move on with his life and it annoyed him that he had this connection with his ex-wife even though he loved his children.

Cassidy sighed, she didn't know what it was but she had a feeling that her boyfriend was keeping things from her; she knew that he hadn't really had time to himself between them and his marriage and it worried her that maybe they had rushed into this.

Fernando was her boyfriend and she truly feared what would happen if he ever broke up with her.