Forced Reconciliation

68.

TRAVELING DAY

Harry Styles

"Hey, they said we're landing in fifteen minutes. Do you think we should wake her up?"

I turn my attention away from Andi to Shawn crouching down at my side as he speaks. "Yeah, I'll uh- I'll wake her up."

He nods and stands back up before heading back to his seat with Harper. I close the book that I've been pretending to read for the last few hours and set it back inside my bag.

Andi sits in front of me, her seat reclined back as she sleeps peacefully. Both Ellie and Rome are cuddled into her, and she's got an arm around each of them as their heads rest on her chest and in the crook of her neck. Ellie's got an arm thrown over Andi's torso and Rome holds a piece of Andi's hair in his hand like he always does when he sleeps with her.

Luckily, Andi and the kids have both been asleep for the last few hours. We had originally thought that with the way we scheduled the flight to London that it would work out great and the kids would sleep the majority of the flight and it would hopefully not mess with their sleep schedule too much.

We were wrong.

The first six or so hours of the flight were spent chasing them around the plane, trying to entertain them even though it was the middle of the night and we would have normally all been asleep.

By the seventh hour, Ellie was getting tired and grumpy from lack of sleep. Rome was crying and whining because he was tired but neither of them would just fall to sleep like we expected. Andi was finally able to rock Rome to sleep in her seat, but when I tried to do the same for Ellie, she just wanted Andi.

She said she wanted to lay with "momma and baby." So she crawled up with Andi and Rome and fell asleep curled up into her side.

And they've been asleep ever since.

I think I've taken about two hundred photos of the sight in front of me, convincing myself that each photo is somehow different from the last.

The pilot comes through the speakers of the plane again, announcing to our small group that we'll be landing in the next five minutes. I know I need to wake her up so she's not startled by the bumpy landing, but they all look so peaceful and content, that I don't want to wake them.

Taking a deep breath, I lean forward and rest a hand on Andi's leg, rubbing back and forth lightly. "Baby, we're about to land."

Andi's a pretty light sleeper, so I'm not surprised when her eyes begin fluttering open the smallest amount. I stand up and crouch down right in front of her, pressing a kiss to her forehead as I do.

"How'd you sleep? You feel okay?"

Andi sits up a little bit, making Ellie stir just barely. "I'm okay. Did you sleep?"

"Kind of," I smile. She knows I didn't. I couldn't, I was too entranced by her, Ellie, Rome, and my other baby the entire time to sleep at all.

Andi just shakes her head and I carefully take Ellie from her arms. She pulls Rome tighter to her chest and he continues sleeping peacefully. Ellie sinks into my arms, her head nuzzled into my neck as she falls back into a deep sleep while the plane lands.

During landing, Ellie lifts her head up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she glances at her surroundings and figures out where we are.

"We made it?" Her small and raspy voice makes me smile as she watches me.

"We made it, babe. Just need to go to the house now and then we'll see Nana and Auntie Gem. Sound good?"

Ellie nods and her lips tug up in a sleepy smile as she leans forward and cups her hands around her mouth while whispering in my ear. "I can't wait to tell them about my baby."