He Who Conquers Others Is Strong, He Who Conquers Himself Is Mighty

Drinking Tea and Eating Pies

PENNY'S POV

"She'll be fine babe" Julian tried to comfort me as we sat in our seats ready for take off. "we've not left her before" I said, feeling the tears bubbling up again. "She'll be fine. Think of it as a practice run for when the baby comes" he said, giving me an awkward smile. I blinked my teary eyes at him unconvinced. "Winnie will be fine with Jamie and Danny." Amelia chipped in from the other side of me. "and Clay is there to keep her company too" she smiled, holding my hand. "I-I know" I nodded with an uneven sighed. God, I should have been ecstatic that my husband had gotten us a flight back home, not to mention a ticket for Amelia to fly with us too. But these damn pregnancy hormones were continuing to kick my arse. 

"I bet your mum will be so excited to see you! and your bump too!" Amelia squeaked excitedly. I smiled and nodded, "I haven't seen her in so long, I've missed her so much" I said, and yep, here came more tears. The flood gates were officially open. "alright, so I'm just gonna sleep through this whole flight..." Julian spoke up from the window seat. "enjoy the overly emotional pregnant lady Melia. Wake me up when we land..." my dear husband teased as he turned over to get comfortable in his seat. I narrowed my eyes at him and folded my arms over my belly. "that's cool." I whispered to Amelia, "I'll just swipe all his snacks. Let's see who'll be crying then" I smirked. 

............

The 9 hour flight seemed to be, well, flying by. Julian had snored his way through a good few hours of it. Only snorting himself awake (conveiniently) when the lady brought round the first meal of the flight... 

"man I wouldn't have had a clue what the hell these things were if I didn't know you two" he said, prodding the little tray of food with his fork. "dude, it's cottage pie." Amelia snorted at him. "but that's not a pie" 

I rolled my eyes and sighed, "J, do not start now" I huffed at him before turning to Melia. "The only proper meal I've been craving is corned beef hash. Trying to explain what corned beef is was horrific" I told her, making her snigger. "you guys just eat weird shit" he argued. "you can tell my mum that when she's cooking dinner tomorrow night" I told him smugly. 

"you mean tea" Amelia chipped in. "oh well yeah, when she's cooking tea tomorrow night."
"tea?" Julian looked perplexed. "tea."

"but you drink tea."

"we do. But where we come from, we eat tea at tea time." I said.
"which is dinner." Amelia added. "and we eat dinner at dinner time."

"which is lunch time" I added. Julian looked between the both of us more confused than he had ever been before. "what the fuck have I got myself into" He sighed dropping his head back against the seat. "I'm gonna be heading back home saying the most random shit" he muttered. "wait til our boy's here. He'll be talking a whole different lingo" I smirked at him. J shot his head round to look at me wide eyed. "Love you Hotshot" I winked at him. 

.........

After what felt like another 9 hours, we were finally in sunny old England. And when I mean sunny, it was exactly how I left it. Cold, grey and wet. Perfect. "I see we brought the weather with us...." J teased as he walked out into the cold November air. I rolled my eyes and waddled after him, with Amelia beside me. 

"here's our ride..." she said, taking my attention away from glaring into the back of Julian's head and to my right, where an all too familiar battered up Land Rover Defender rumbled on the road side. "oh god!" I shrieked. "Mum!!" I yelled on seeing her almost leap out of the driver's side. "Penny!" she beamed back at me, arms wide open as she swooped towards us. 

"I've missed you so so much" I breathed out a shaky breath as I tried desperately to hold in my emotions. "I've missed you too my beautiful girl..." she whispered, before pulling back. "and look at you!" she gushed, looking down to my stomach. "you're positively blooming!" her eyes filling up with tears. "I can't believe you're here" she pulled me back into her arms again. "me either" I said, glancing over her shoulder at J, as he pulled our luggage towards the boot of mum's car. She followed my gaze to Julian and then looked back at me. "everything okay sweetheart?" she asked in slightly hushed tone. I nodded back at her, "yeah, honest" I smiled at her. For a moment she held my gaze, and I swallowed deeply. "Okay sweetie" she said, with a wider smile, even though she knew that there was something I wasn't telling her. I hoped I had that intuition with my boy when he was born. I inwardly shivered at the nerves that had slowly started to over come me lately. I'd not mentioned it to J, he had enough on his plate right now. He didn't need to hear about my 'new mum nerves'. 

"well then Pen, let's get you in the car!" Mum said excitedly, drawing me out of my day dream. "we have to drop Amelia off at her house before we can get home. I've set up your old room-Thank goodness we got that double bed when you moved out- or Julian would be sleeping on the couch" she giggled, waffling on excitedly as I shuffled along behind her. 

"what's that about sleepin' on the couch?!" J chipped in as he watched us walk over. "oh I was telling Penny, if we hadn't bought a new bed when she moved out, you'd be on the couch! She only ever had a single in that huge room of hers!" she continued, walking around to the drivers side. Leaving J leaning against the Rover smirking at me, "weren't you-"
"22. Yes" I snapped a little. I caught him smirking out of the corner of my eye as I attempted to climb into the car, "laugh it up arsehole...you can still kip on the couch" I added, hearing him chuckle. 

"why is it as soon as you're on your way to England you turn even more British than you were back home?" he asked with a smile as he slipped into the back seat beside Amelia. "because I'm home. With my own kind" I replied as Mum started the engine. "I have to reign it in when we're over there- can you imagine Rob? He'd be even more clueless than he is already" I giggled, "sorry Meils." I added, shooting a smile back at her as she rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"Oh, is that romance still blooming Amelia?" Mum asked, looking into her rear view at her. I chose to stay quiet and look out of the window. J on the other hand... "you shoulda seen Gronk when he saw Melia walk in to the house at the shower!" he laughed. "his eyes practically followed her around the room all the day" he added. "he did not" Amelia shot back playfully. "yeah he did!" Julian laughed, "it was only cause of Dola that he wasn't stick to ya like glue!" he laughed louder. "Danny?" mum questioned. "ugh yeah" I huffed out a laugh, "you know he's been all crazy mother hen around me since I got pregnant," I reminded her, rubbing my stomach. When she nodded I continued, "well he had taken it upon himself to plan my shower, and literally do everything" I said, "I mean, don't get me wrong, he did a great job-"

"but he was a total bridezilla type crazy person" Amelia added. "yeah, he had Gronk suited up as a waiter for the day" J chuckled, "he was like totally his bit- oh, excuse me ma'am" J coughed awkwardly to attempt to cover up his interesting language in front of my mum. But she laughed, "I've told you before Julian, I'm not offended by it. Be how you are- that's all I ask." she said warmly. "thank you ma'am" he said softly, and I knew without turning around to look at him- he'd be blushing. Ugh that man could be a total sweetie. Or should I say charmer?

..............

A couple of hours later, we were finally at my mums house. Truth be told, as soon as Julian told me that we were coming here I was beside myself with excitement. With all the shit going on, and the fact that I was so close to giving birth, I was desperate to be with the one person that knew me better than anyone- my mum. 

"Did you want to take a nap? or at least rest a little while before we go out for tea?" she asked me as we walked into the house. I placed my bag on the stairs and let out a huff. "a cuppa and a Jammie Dodger would be great" I beamed a smile. Mum wrinkled up her nose with a smile and nodded. "go sit down, I won't be long" she said, ushering J and I into the living room, whilst fending off J's offers of help. 

I walked into the living room and stopped in my tracks. "Nanna!" I giggled loudly, seeing her sitting in the chair, clearly expecting us. She sent me a huge smile, which got even bigger when Julian poked his head over my shoulder. But then it started to drop as her eyes searched behind him, "Haven't you brought that lovely Thomas with you?"