Love you Always (A Coronation Street Fanfiction)

Beginning

I lay in bed, tossing and turning for what felt like hours, it felt too hot in my bedroom and then too cold. I felt sick, usually when I felt like this, I would go and creep into my parent's bed and cuddle up to them both, but Mum didn't need this, not tonight.

I knew after a while that I wouldn't be able to sleep properly tonight. I heard Michelle's voice on the other side of my door. I climbed out of my bed and wrapped my dressing gown around me and picked up my favourite blanket before walking over to the bedroom door. I held the handle for a second longer, waiting slightly to open it. When I did, I pulled the door open and Mum and Michelle were both sat at the kitchen table, each with a glass of red wine in their hands, staring at me.

"I can't sleep" I said quietly, rubbing my eyes as they adjusted to the bright lights in the kitchen.

"Come here baby girl" Michelle said to me. She put her wine glass on the table and then put her arms out. I walked over to her, and she pulled me onto her lap, wrapping my blanket around me. She pulled me into her and then grabbed her wine glass back off the table.

I fell asleep that night on Michelle's lap and when I woke up in the morning, I was lying in Mum's bed beside her. I rolled over so I faced her and she felt me, so pulled me into her. We lay like that, her arm around me stroking my hair as I tried to drift back off to sleep. Mum knew that I couldn't and she soon pulled me into her and kissed the top of my head.

"Did you have a good little sleepover in my bed?" she asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't remember going to sleep here." I told her.

"No, you fell asleep in Chelle's arms, and we put you in here. She's sleep on the sofa." She said.

"Can we go and wake her up?" I asked and Mum nodded, before the two of us climbed out of bed and went into the living room. Michelle wasn't asleep on the sofa, she was stood in the kitchen, making a cup of tea.

"Good morning you two, sleepyheads." She said.

"Sorehead, more like." Mum said back to her, just as I got to her and she lifted me into her arms.

"Well the kettle has just boiled, and you little lady, what would you like for breakfast?" she turned to me and asked me as she pulled my head into the crook of her neck.

"Just some toast please, with jam." I said.

"Coming right up, now you two take a seat." Michelle said before placing me down at the kitchen table. I sat down beside Mum and before long, Michelle brought over a plate of toast for me and a cup of tea for Mum. I began to eat my toast, before saying,

"Mummy, what happens now? What happens now that Daddy has gone?"

That night is forever scarred in my memory. I will never forget waking up that morning and feeling that emptiness in the air of Dad not being there. In following days, we all travelled over to Ireland to Grandma and Grandad's where Dad's funeral was held.

Mum and Grandma had a very typical mother-in-law relationship and never really saw eye to eye when Dad was alive, but for that week they managed to get on, with Grandma even offering to come back to Manchester for a little while with Mum to help her out with me. Luckily Michelle saved us all from that and she decided that visiting in the summer holidays would be a better idea.

The night of Dad's funeral, I climbed into Mum's bed in the night. She was awake, and probably, like me, couldn't sleep because she kept thinking about him.

"Hey baby girl, can you not sleep?" she whispered quietly as she pulled the duvet over me.

"No, I just keep thinking about Daddy. Grandma says he'll be happy in Heaven now, but how can he be happy if he isn't with me and you?" I said.