Finding Family

Faye: Whole family

With Evalynn here everything felt right. I felt like my family truly was whole. Like I finally had the reality I'd dreamed of for so long. And it was wonderful. It was lovely to wake up each day and know I was going to get to see not only my best friend and our son, but also that I got to see my daughter. And it was brilliant that I'd kept it a secret so long and yet Mick was loving every second of her being here almost as much as I was, though I didn't entirely know why. Maybe because he was happy to see me so happy?
"Is Lisa still meant to be coming to see us on Friday or did that decide it wasn't happening?" Mick asked as we sat together on Wednesday evening.
"No that's still a thing. And don't sound so sad about it, I know you enjoy it really." I replied, kissing his cheek softly. "Oh, and for some reason my sister's coming to see us tomorrow. Conveniently she has a meeting in Newcastle." I added with a roll of my eyes. Whether Clare 'had a meeting' or not she wasn't coming to see me, she was definitely only coming to see Evalynn.
He laughed, "I know but even if you are friends with someone there's only so much of them you can see in a year. And mmm... very convenient yes... She's only been nagging you about it since she found out you'd met Ev."
I had to laugh too. "Yeah no that's a male thing." He and I both knew that I could spend whole days with most of my friends and still want to spend even more time with them the next day. I was fairly certain that as a result of Steps the first time round Lisa and I could probably spend a whole year together and still not be bored of each other, though I wasn't willing to test that. "And you know Clare by now. She's too excited by the idea of meeting Evalynn to miss her chance."
Sighing, he decided against making any further comments.
"Faye, you very definitely watched this episode by the way." He added a bit later.
I was half way through an episode of Sherlock because I had both series on DVD where I'd missed episodes, and I had been thinking this one was very familiar. "Ah. But it does make more sense now I've watched all the episodes leading up to it."
"Things do tend to." He replied. I shot him a look and he shut up.

As we very quietly got into bed (me having finished watching the episode), he brought up the topic Evalynn again. "I've really been enjoying having Evalynn with us, more than I thought. Which is not to say I thought I wouldn't like her, but more that I was unsure what having a young girl around the house would be like. God I messed up saying that didn't I?"
I tried not to giggle. "It's fine, I knew what you meant. Everything just feels so much like it's right with her here too."
He nodded. "It's going to be weird when she goes home. Which reminds me, have you spoken to her about that yet?" I knew exactly what he meant, and he knew that.
Shaking my head I sighed. "I just want to get the tour out of the way before I do that, because we've already said that after the tour we're taking a break. You know because of B, Daisy, Star and the boys."
"But have you even asked her if she'd like to? It'd be a big change for her to move."
I sighed again. "No, but I have a plan for that one as well." It was true I did, and I was going to address the first part of that plan tomorrow while the males were out the house (and therefore out the way).

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I sighed as I stood outside Evalynn's room. In just a few short days it would be empty again and she'd be on her way home. I knew what had to happen, and inviting her down to Wolverhampton to see the next tour really was the only way I could think of. And then Lisa would get to be there for it, given she'd practically convinced me via text message in the last few days I had to ask Evalynn, I'd make her be there for it whether she wanted to give us privacy to do it in or not. I was pretty sure the actual asking of the question of if she wanted to move in with me had to be done in front of an unrelated witness anyway, it might as well be someone I felt a strong connection to.
I knocked on her bedroom door, just in case she was changing, and she told me I could come in. So I pushed the door open and sat down on her bed. Closing her book, she set it down, looked up and smiled at me as I smiled at her.
"I thought you were cleaning while the boys were out, so I was keeping out your way and doing my reading." She said to me. "If you wanted me to help..."
I cut her off. "No, that's alright, I was fine with cleaning on my own, I've been doing it for years. But that's not why I'm here. I need to talk with you for a moment and I'd rather do it while the boys were out." I replied.
She shuffled along the bed and snuggled up against me. I knew why she loved to be close to me, I loved us being close too. Because for almost 12 years we'd been unable to enjoy the simple pleasure of a mamma and daughter hug. And because when she went home it would be ages until we could have one again. So we were both making the most of what time together we had. I slipped my arm round her shoulder.