Time•EDxEC~Ethma•

epilogue

"Hey baby, how was work?" Emma greeted, as her fiancé walked through the door.

"stressful as usual" he sighed, placing multiple bags on to the foor, "I went shopping"

"I can see that" she giggled, walking over to him, and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Have you had a good day beautiful?" he asked her, his tone happy as he pecked her forehead, an aspect that never failed to make her cheeks burst into flames.

"mhm, I finished my paperwork my boss gave me today, so tomorrow i'm officially free from all things work" she smiled, nuzzling her head into his chest, breathing in his comforting scent.

"well, I'm off tomorrow too" he replied, rubbing her back, and before she could reply, a padding noise sounded down the corridor.

The pair both smiled as a moody face appeared from around the corner, her hair a mess and pouting as she rubbed her eyes.

"mummy, it's too early and you're being noisy" she complained, her eyes still slightly shut as she tiredly stumbled towards them.

"sorry princess, we were just talking about a possible day trip tomorrow" Ethan spoke, knealing down before her, and her eyes shot open.

"Daddy!" She said suprised, "when did you get home?"

"just a second ago baby, was mummy really boring you that bad?" Ethan teased, looking back up at her with playful eyes as she slapped his shoulder softly.

"don't hurt daddy, you meanie!" she scolded, angrily, and Emma giggled, sitting on the floor next to Ethan.

"Sorry" she smiled, giving her a daughter a kiss on the cheek.

"daddy, guess what?" she said with a cheeky smile.

"what baby?" he whispered, with a teethy grin.

"mummy was really boring today" she giggled while Emma gasped.

"Connie Grace!" her mum laughed with fake hurt, and she laughed in return, "that's it! I'm coming to get you!"

Connie squealed, running as fast as her little legs could take her, to her room. Ethan swept her up, putting her on his shoulders and running the rest of the way, as she shouted "run daddy!" with a fit of chuckles.He finally entered her pink room, putting her down on her flowery bedding as Emma ran in.

"I'm going to tickle you!" she laughed, putting her hands on Connie's stomach as she screamed, "no mummy! Daddy help me!"

They continued to play for a while, until Emma decided to make dinner, while Ethan bathed Connie. She came running out in her frozen pajamas, her blonde her freshly washed combed, still a little damp, with her dad not too far behind her.

"just the little princess I was looking for" Emma said, as Connie came up to give her a cuddle. She usually got very clingy around the night time, always craving their attention.

"why?" she asked, curiously. Currently, it was her favourite word. Anything you said, the three year old would reply with the same curious question over and over, and the couple were sick of hearing it already.

"dinner's ready" Emma put the plate down on the top of the kitchen islamd, while Ethan lifted her to sit on the chair.

"Thank you daddy, thank you mummy" Connie said, politely, before begininng to eat her chicken dinosuars.

"that's okay, baby" he told her, kissing her hot cheek, before walking over to his girlfriend and hugging her from behind.

Later on, after everyone had eaten, Ethan walked Connie to bed to read her a story, because Emma did the night before. The pair of them were like two peas in a pod, and if you couldn't already tell, they were each others best friends. When she was younger, Connie was really clingy towards Emma, but for the past year, she'd been warming up more to her dad.

She jumped on to her bed, scooting over so Ethan could lay next to her. He had picked out her favourite book, the one she chooses every night but still isn't sick of. She snuggled into his chest as he opened the book to the first page, beginning to read the story to her in a hushed voice as she began to fall asleep.

Emma walked to the door, after turning all the lights off in the corridor, and swung her head around to ask Ethan if he was ready to come to bed. She stood there and smiled to herself, watching as Ethan glanced down at their daughter, noticing her sleeping, and shuffled out of the bed. Her heart melted when he left a kiss on her forehead, whispering a 'I love you' before switching off her nightlight.

Maybe time is all they needed, she thought to herself, maybe this is the happy ending they had been waiting for.

••••

789 words

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Wow. It's finally over. Both 24 hours and time have been such a journey to write, and thank you for all the support you've given through it all. I love you all, and stay tuned for my next ones❤️