Under My Skin

Part Twenty Eight

A/N Sorry at the delay, SO hectic at the moment  that I've struggled to keep updating, also writing a biggie which is very absorbing. Hope you're all still around. Will start a new upload soon and be more committed, promise.

Chapter Twenty Eight

For six weeks she’d watched little Noah, as they’d finally decided on, grow in strength, from three to four and then five pounds in weight. Now after what felt like an eternity, he was feeding well, healthy, strong and ready to come home, ready to take his first trip outside of the four walls that had housed him since he’d come into this world so far ahead of time. Isobel smiled at every tiny achievement that her little man made. She’d become the expert at juggling, spending enough time trying to get to know the newest addition to her family, whilst reassuring the other three, still terrified children. It was those three that needed the most support, they’d witnessed more than was healthy, and they were incredibly clingy. Quite understandably. As promised, Marc had cut back on work and was doing his best, but he still was struggling emotionally with all that had happened, he still wasn’t fully dealing with all that had happened. Isobel was trying to keep the fraying ends of the family together, and was succeeding...just.

Physically, Isobel was able to realise that she’d taken longer to recover than she hoped. The deep wound to her thigh still needed to be dressed because it too was taking a long time to heal. Her shoulder and neck had eventually healed, the burn hadn’t required grafting, but had left an angry raised scar that the doctors were convinced would receded with time. Fortunately the scar ended before reaching the left hand side of her face, but the wound on the right side of her head, extending from her temple down to her right eyebrow still hadn’t fully dried up. They were both ugly scars, both visible when she walked down the street, and she knew that people stared. She wasn’t embarrassed, not at that, and not about strangers, but the scars were SO visible to the kids, they never got a chance to get away from their own trauma.  She was tempted to change her clothing, start wearing scarves, high collars, but then she knew that she would be hiding things, and that wasn’t healthy either. No, she instead researched family counsellors; “talk therapy” was the way forward...for most of them anyway.

Despite all this she was so positive that the doctors, Marc, everyone was concerned, thinking that her bright demeanour was actually a facade for her poor coping techniques. But nothing was further from the truth. She’d looked death in the eyes on so many occasions that she felt so happy to see Sophie, Lucas and Sophie again, so glad that Marc was still there loving and caring for her. She loved her friends with renewed vigour. Even her truce with Mrs Edwards had started to lead to a great friendship.

That was why she wanted the therapy for the others, they had more to deal with than her, and she knew that total acceptance of the past was what they all needed to move on.

And then there was Noah, the thought of him coming home, to being part of their lively house, their full lives, well that was the icing on her Christmas cake.

She’d prepared the smallest bedroom in the house, the one tucked next to theirs, and weeks before home was even mentioned, everything was ready for him.

Today, as she dressed him in the snow suit that would protect him from the cold winter morning, as she tucked him into his car seat, she didn’t feel nervous, instead, she was excited beyond belief. Marc was picking her up before they kids came home from their last day of school before the Christmas holidays; they were thrilled enough at that thought. When they saw Noah, waiting for them... they’d be unbearably excited.

Marc arrived in his four wheel drive, and he looked absolutely terrified, but then Noah was so tiny, and been so vulnerable, that she knew he was thinking of all that could go wrong whilst he was in their home. She knew she’d have to prove to him that that wasn’t the case. This was the start of things; this was life beginning for them all.