Espresso

Goodbye

A/N: This could be sad for some people so just a warning to you all there, ok? Anyway, hope you enjoy :3

"So you don't want to run a pub?"

Ellie put her head in her hands but couldn't help laughing at her brother. "It wouldn't be a pub Jason, we'd turn it into a bigger version of the coffee shop."

"But this one works fine, doesn't it? Why would you need another one?"

"Maybe Auntie Ellie wants to collect them like I do with leaves," Alfie said, beaming as he helped Bailey stack some wooden blocks. "Someone in my class collects worms."

Ellie giggled once more and shook her head. "I'm not sure we should 'collect' living things, Alfie, but thanks anyway."

"I had the idea, " Robin said, entering the room with three cups of tea skillfully balanced in her hands. "Of expanding the coffee shop to cope with the growing popularity." She handed one of the cups of tea to Jason and sat down in the armchair, handing a second mug to Ellie.

"Except, as nice as Robin's idea was," Ellie said slowly, putting a hand on her wife's knee. "She didn't think about all of the practicalities involved."

Jason took a sip of his tea and shrugged. "That's fair enough. Big decisions like that need to be discussed together. It's a bit like when I sat down with Kate and we talked about her trying properly cooked steak for the first time; it was tough but we're better off for having talked."

Ellie's jaw hung open - as much as she loved her brother, some things came out of his mouth were astounding. What he'd said sounded sensible, but it involved steak so caution would have to be applied.

"What's steak, Daddy?" Alfie skipped over and climbed onto his father's lap, snuggling into his chest.

Jason bit his lip and took a breath. "You'll learn when you're older. Keep brushing your teeth and soon they'll be strong enough to devour the beauty that is steak and then you'll realise that no other food is equal."

Just as Alife's eye began to widen at the prospect of being able to eat steak, Robin's phone began to ring. "Sorry," she said, going down the hallway to answer the call.

"Well we'd best be getting home, little man, or your Mummy will wonder where we are." Jason tickled his son until a small squeal came from the little boy, making Bailey laugh in turn. "Go and get your shoes on and then we'll head home."

"Thanks for having us," Jason said, putting his own shoes on. "You're the best sister a guy could ask for."

Ellie laughed and grabbed his coat from the hallway cupboard. "It's no big deal Jason; I couldn't just leave you in the cold, could I?" She handed him the coat and he smiled sheepishly.

"I'll try not to forget my keys the next time we go to the supermarket. Alfie will help me remember, won't you?"

The little boy nodded and clung to the side of Jason's leg, smiling at Ellie from behind the faded blue jeans.

"Well, it was nice to see you Alfie, and thank you for playing nicely with Bailey."

"That's ok, Auntie Ellie. Thank you for the chocolate."

The brunette saw out her brother and Alfie before heading back to the living room. She was about to sit down when she saw the tear-stained cheeks of Robin walking into the evening light. Even Bailey stopped playing with his blocks to see what was going on. Ellie rushed to the blonde and wrapped her tightly in her arms, Robin resting her head on Ellie's shoulder.

For a moment, they stood in silence. Ellie stroked the long, blonde hair and placed a kiss every so often on the top of Robin's head. The blonde in return sniffled and closed her eyes as tight as she could to stop the tears from falling.

"What on earth happened?" The brunette sat down on the sofa, guiding Robin to do the same, their hands entwined to a point where they seemed to be one and the same.

"It was her, it was Soph."

"On the phone? How does she still have your number?"

Robin shook her head and the tears broke through the barrier of her closed lids. "I have no idea; when we broke up she swore she'd delete anything to do with me so she'd never contact me again. I saw her delete every trace of me from her phone before he left the house and never came back."

Ellie held a hand to the side of the blonde's face and tried to smile. "That was then and this is now. What was she said to upset you so much? What did she say to you the other day?"

Another wave of tears came from the blonde and Ellie kissed her lightly on her forehead. "Come on," the brunette mumbled. "Tell me what happened and then I can help, you know that."

"When she came into the cafe she was just telling me that I'd ruined her life but at least I hadn't screwed up hers as bad as I had my parents."

"Oh no," Ellie said, her voice barely a whisper. She took Robin's head in her hands and held her close to her chest, stroking her wife's hair and trying to hold back her own tears. "No wonder you weren't yourself after that."

"Well, believe it or not, it just gets better," the blonde said, almost laughing at her own sarcasm. "She rang to say my Dad had visited the house yesterday."

Ellie pushed the hair out of Robin's face, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Considering how spiteful she seems to be, that can't have been it."

The blonde's hands began to shake, in turn shaking the brunette's. Tears were constantly streaming along her cheeks and falling into her lap, eyes red and sore.

"My Mum died."

"Oh Robin, I'm so, so sorry." Ellie wrapped her arms around the blonde in the only gesture she could think of to soothe a broken heart. Having known the pain herself, she knew that truly there wasn't anything to be done to make the pain go away other than time and acceptance.

"She passed away last week and Soph only rang to tell me because the funeral was today. She went to the funeral, Ellie, and I didn't. I missed my own mother's funeral because I never checked that my Dad knew where I lived."

"Hey, that's enough of that; you're Dad is always living in different places in the UK let alone the world. It's not your fault your letter got lost in the post and it isn't your fault that he never checks his emails or that he maybe got a new phone number. You did your best and so the fault is his own, ok?"

"But Ellie," Robin looked straight into her wife's eyes and blinked away the tears just long enough to see clearly. "I still missed my opportunity to say goodbye."

A/N: Longer chapter = more feels(?) let me know what you think with a comment and count yourselves lucky to have two updates in one day - it probably won't happen again XD Enjoy folks.