Another Life (emison)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Emily guzzled water and took a few deep breaths. Had she been this energetic as a child? Alison had always told her that she had endless amounts of energy. How the hell had her girlfriend kept up with her? Estella just wanted to go, all the time.

"One more time, Em," Estella pleaded, pouting.

Emil grinned. She could understand how Alison found that pout irresistible. She dropped her water bottle on the couch and met Estella back in the middle of her spacious living room. Her couch was against one wall and her TV against the other. There was no table or carpet, which gave Emily and Estella a huge space to move in.

"Let's try and do that double turn on the fifth beat," Emily suggested.

Estella nodded and the brunette hit play. After running through the entire dance twice, Estella collapsed onto the sofa. Emily joined her soon after.

"You're really good," Estella breathed heavily.

Emily grinned. "You, Little E, are gonna be way better than me. You've got a handle on some of the things I only learned when I was in high school."

"Really?"

Emily looked at Estella, who was looking at her in the greatest awe. She nodded. "Totally. And I love that you wanna be a dancer. When you said that you wanted to be like me, I wanted to cry."

"Why?" Estella asked, furrowing her brow. "Did I make you sad?"

"No, no," Emily said quickly. "You know that sometimes you can cry if you're too happy?"

Estella nodded.

"Well, you made me so happy when you said that, that I wanted to cry."

Estella sighed and swivelled her body so that her head was resting on Emily's stomach.

"I'm glad that you and Mommy are together again," Estella said softly. "She was always so sad, but when you started coming to movie night and stuff she was happy. I like seeing her happy."

Emily smiled and ran her hand through Estella's hair.

"Mommy does that," Estella said quietly, sounding sleepy.

Emily pulled her hand back. "Sorry," she apologized.

"No, I like it."

Emily nervously returned her hand to Estella's head and started running her fingers through her hair again.

"You're not gonna leave, are you?" Estella asked.

Emily swallowed. "No," she said honestly. "I love your mom and now there's you to love too. I don't want to go anywhere where there's no Alison and no Estella."

"Good, 'cause I don't want you to go."

Emily smiled. "Best friends forever."

Estella pushed herself up and crawled into Emily's lap. The brunette's arms went protectively around her and Estella leaned her head against Emily's shoulder.

"Jus' a li'l nap," Estella mumbled.

Emily couldn't help but smile. Yet another Alison trait that she loved – mumbling incoherently when she was tired.

"We can lie down," Emily offered quietly.

Estella just snuggled into Emily further and the brunette couldn't stop the huge grin from spreading across her face. She continued running her fingers through Estella's hair until she was pretty sure that the little girl was asleep. Carefully, Emily kept the sleeping girl in arms as still as possible whilst she manoeuvred her body so that she was lying down on the couch. Feeling suddenly exhausted herself, she gently lay Estella horizontally in front of her as she lay with her back against the cushions. She used her arm as a pillow and curled Alison's sleeping daughter to her.