Too Good To Be True?

Cold

Since Connie's admittance to hospital she'd held off on working as many hours but it hadn't improved things at home. Jacob was still giving Connie the cold shoulder whenever she tried to get closer to him. She hadn't verbally said anything but the little things like moving closer in the evenings, rolling over in bed at night all ignored by him.

Jacob couldn't set himself up for a perfect life just to watch it crumble around him again. He didn't like the way they were but it was going to take a lot more than that to fix it. Grace had started to pick up on the mood at home and was reluctant to spend more time there than she needed to. Whenever she could get out, she would. She began spending more time at Cal and Alicia's seeing as they knew of the circumstances.

Connie had taken Charlie into work that morning as Jacob slept in before his shift. "Morning firecracker-" "Hi..." Grace was quiet as Jacob turned around to look at her. "Everything alright?" She shrugged. "Why wouldn't it be?" "Grace you know you can talk to me." She looked up at him as he came closer. "Can I? Mum can't talk to you so why should I be able to?"

Jacob sighed as Grace moved from where she sat heading upstairs to get changed. He looked down at the counter before deciding to go up after her. "Grace?" He knocked lightly on her door waiting for her to respond but she didn't. "Please Grace, I already feel like I've lost your Mum. Don't let me loose you too."

He rest a hand against the door before feeling it open. "Are you guys really that bad?" Jacob forced a smile dropping down to her level. "Because I don't want you to leave-" "Hey, I'm not going anywhere princess. I promise, I could never leave you and Charlie." Grace smiled before wrapping her arms around his neck. "I love you Grace, so much."

She held onto him tighter at his words feeling if she let go he'd disappear. "Have you been worrying about this for long?" "Since Mum was in hospital, Alicia told me. Don't be mad at her, I kept asking. I knew something was wrong." Jacob smiled as he sat down on her bed beside her running a hand through her hair.

"Your Mum has a funny way of coping with somethings... This is one of those. I just don't know what's going to happen at the end of this one, that's all. But I want you to know, none of this was ever your fault, or Charlie's. You're the only thing we can agree on at the moment." Grace smiled as Jacob wiped her cheek from the tears. "Please don't worry about us, leave that to me and your Mum." Grace nodded reluctantly before hugging Jacob again. "I love you."

He smiled kissing her head before standing up. "You coming to the ED?" "I think I'm going to meet Jessica and Amy if that's okay?" Jacob smiled walking to the door. "I'll leave you to get changed." Grace got dressed before heading downstairs into the living room jumping onto the sofa beside Jacob. "Thought you were going out?" "They're not ready yet... So do you think you and Mum will break up?"

Jacob sat up shaking his head. "I will do everything I can to keep her, you can write that down and hold me to it. I'm not giving your Mum up without a fight firecracker... So if you're Mum wants a fight, which she normally does, I'll give it to her for sure!" Grace laughed before her phone began going off beside her. "It's Amy, see you later Jacob!" She jumped up running out the door leaving Jacob smiling to himself.

Grace wandered down the road seeing Jessica and Amy. "I thought we were coming to yours-" "I couldn't stay there anymore. Come on lets go." Grace pulled Amy's arm as they walked along the street towards the lake.

The girls spent the afternoon laughing as they messed around with one another before Amy turned to Grace. "Is everything okay?" Grace became quieter as she shrugged. "Honestly? I don't know what's going to happen... It's really scaring me. I don't think Jacob's going to stay with us." Amy shook her head looking to Grace. "Of course he is, he loves your Mum."

Grace sighed falling backwards onto the grass. "They don't talk anymore. All they do is shout and even then they give up, they don't care anymore. I'm scared that he'll leave and we'll be forgotten about again... Charlie's his child, he'll see him still but me. I'm the outsider."

Amy and Jessica lay down beside Grace not sure what to say. They were all in different circumstances with family, it was one reason why they all got along so well. "Well at least your Mum wants you, mine left as soon as she could." Amy looked back to the sky as Grace responded. "But now you have Cal and Alicia, and a baby brother or sister too." Amy smiled looking to Grace. "And you have meeeee." She couldn't help but laugh as Jessica looked to them.

"My Dad left a few weeks ago." "Jess?" Grace and Amy both sat up looking towards her as she slowly sat up too. "Why didn't you tell us?" Jessica shrugged as she messed with her jumper sleeves. "I didn't want to talk about it... But he still sees me all the time, it's just different. I guess you just have to get used to it." "I don't want to get used to it, I want them to be happy again... Mum's so different with Jacob and if he goes, Mum won't be the same anymore."

The three girls dropped back down to the floor sighing as they watched the clouds move across the sky. "Whatever happens..." Jessica turned towards Grace. "We'll always be friends." She forced a smile as Grace reached for both their hands. "No matter how messed up or weird our families get." Jessica laughed nodding as they started their laughter over nothing once again.