" On the step you handed me
Pieces of the plan
At the gate you handed me
Pieces of the plan
Can I hold it for a week?
Can I hold it for a week?
Can I hold it for a week?
Can I hold it for a week?
Can I hold it?
Can I hold it?
Can I hold it for a week? "
'The Plan' - Death Cab for Cutie
*****************************
Emily started to panic immediately as soon as she heard the words, 'For godsake, Shannon. Call an ambulance,' coming from Jared down the other end of the phone-line.
"Jay! JAY! What's going on? Is everything OK? Why do you need an ambulance?"
He didn't respond. There was just more scuffling and muffled talking.
"JAY!" She shouted again, causing Kali to fly into the room.
"Emily! EM! Are you OK?" She paused when she saw Emily sat on her bed looking flustered and upset. "Woah. OK, what happened? Are you OK? I just heard aloud of shouting and thought you were in trouble."
"No, I'm fine, but they're not! Something happened, and Jared's asked Shan to call an ambulance, but no one's telling me what's going on!"
Kali came and sat down next to her on the bed, wrapping an arm around her.
There was a muffled but slightly louder voice that came back through her phone.
"Em?" It was Shannon this time, on Jared's phone.
"What's going on? What's the ambulance for? Are you OK?"
"Erm...yeah we're fine. Emma's not."
"WHAT!? What happened? Is she breathing?"
"Yeah, she's breathing, but she's been knocked out."
"Fucksake you two. Is she conscious now?"
"She's come too, but holding her head. She hit it on the kitchen island.,, there's some blood. Jay's on my phone talking to the paramedics."
"What happened?" Emily sighed.
"Erm..." She could imagine Shannon stood there, pacing about, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.
"Shannon..."
"I lunged to punch Jay, OK. It's my fault."
"You and your temper at your brother."
"Yeah. Well. Can you blame me? The woman I love just broke up with me at the godamn airport because of my brother."
"Shannon. I don't know what else to say. I said I'm sorry, I know it doesn't count for much.""
She heard some muffled hiccup crying starting to come from Alex's nursery and knew she was going to have to go check up on him.
"You want me to go?" Kali asked.
"No. No. It's fine. I'll go check on him in a second, but thanks."
"Is Alex crying? Do you need to go to him?" Shannon asked.
"I probably should. As long as all is in hand at your end. It's not like I can really do much here. Message me later to let me know if Emma is OK and what's happened. It's late here. I know you're an hour ahead, but I'm shattered."
Alex started bawling by now.
"I've got to go. Alex is screaming."
"OK. Go check on him, Em. I'll message you later. I think medics are nearly here anyway. I love you."
"Take care, Shannon." Emily awkwardly replied. She then heard him sigh before disconnecting.
"Is everything OK?"
Emily managed a faint smiled "I'll tell you about it once I've got Alex settled again."
************************************
**December Time**
Anchorage had been hit by its usual dump of winter snow, but it wasn't anything new. Emily had been busy enjoying spending her time bonding with Alex without having to be at work or darting all over the place.
Jared had been to visit her once since everything had kicked off between the three of them. Apparently he had conveniently had a meeting up her away in Anchorage; what on Earth could have brought him her way for a meeting she had no idea, but he had phoned her, and asked if they could meet up and she had been made to feel obliged.
They had managed to meet up for dinner, but she had had to bring Alex along with her as Kali was working and it was too short notice to book a babysitter as it had been so spur of the moment.
Luckily, with Jared, being Jared, he had managed to reserve a quiet corner of a restaurant for the three of them, so they hadn't been disturbed and Alex had slept peacefully through the whole meal whilst they had been there.
Afterwards, she had invited him back to her apartment, where she had made him a herbal tea and a coffee for herself. She had let him bond with Alex for a little while, but she had to laugh to herself as he definitely didn't have the paternal instinct that Shannon had had with him.
At one point, she knew she was going to have to feed Alex and asked Jared if he minded, and he had said no, so she had placed a shawl over herself whilst she sat on the sofa talking to him, but could tell that he had become slightly embarrassed.
Things became slightly sour once she had managed to pry out of Jared, that Shannon hadn't known about Jared's trip up to Anchorage, and she had snapped at him for not telling Shannon as she hadn't want any secrets to be kept between them.
She had made Jared leave after this and he had gone back to his hotel, messaging her later to tell her that he was sorry for not having told his brother about his trip and visit to see her, and she had woken up the next morning to the front desk ringing to let her know that a bouquet of flowers had been delivered and was downstairs waiting for her; from Jared nonetheless as a way of an apology
The gorgeous white lilies now sat in a glass vase on the windowsill in her bedroom and that was currently where Emily resided, wrapped in a towel from her shower, wrestling with Alex on her bed as she tried to dress him appropriately for the snowy adventure they were about to embark on to the grocery store.
Emily was getting frustrated because he wouldn't hold still long enough for her to pop some socks on along with his thermal booties, and once she had managed to get one bootie on he would kick out with his feet and it would come flying off again.
"Alex. Please hold still for me. I need to get you dressed so we can go and get some food, as Mummy's getting very low on some things, and you don't want her to starve, do you?"
She sighed as he managed to kick off a bootie once more and plopped down onto the bed next to him, holding the other navy, fleecy bootie in her hand. Her phone suddenly went, and she scrabbled around on her bed, trying to find it before answering the call.
"Hello?" She answered, trying to mask her frustration currently at Alex.
"Hey Em, is everything OK, you sound tired?" It was Shannon. They hadn't really spoken in a while, so she was a little surprised by his call.
"Oh. Hey Shan, I wasn't expecting you to call. I'm OK, just trying to get Alex dressed so I can take him food shopping with me. It's very cold and snowy here at the moment, but he's not having any of it. How can I help? Let just put you on speakerphone so I can get changed."
"I'm sorry. Have you tried playing 'This Little Piggy' with his feet? It'll distract him. It's what I sometimes did to try and get him dressed."
"Oh, OK. Thanks."
She went and picked out some thermal leggings and underwear and decided on a light grey, cashmere off-the-shoulder jumper."
"Can I help with anything?"
Alex was busy gurgling about whilst lying on his back on her bed, and she smiled down at him.
"Erm...I just wanted to say thanks for returning some of my stuff that I must have left with you. Jay came and dropped it by the other day."
"Oh. Ok." She knew where this was going to go, so decided to shut it down quickly. "Before this goes where I think it's going to go. No, I didn't ask your brother to come and visit me. I had no idea he was even in town, and he surprised me to say he was in town because he was here for a meeting."
"Ok, but—"
She rolled her eyes, pulling her leggings on. "He completely put me on the spot and I didn't want to just say 'no', when he asked if we could meet for dinner as it would have seemed rude, but it made me feel very awkward. No, we didn't go for a romantic meal, just the two of us, Alex was with us, and we ate at the 'Flying Machine Restaurant' down at the harbour side. I asked him to come back to mine because I found some of your things the other day and thought that whilst he was here, he may as well take them back with him."
"Bet he loved that, though."
"Loved what, Shannon?"
"Being invited back to yours."
Emily snapped at Shannon, fed up with his pettiness. "Actually. I had a go at him once I found out from him that you didn't know he was here. I shouted at him and made him leave. So no, I don't think he did love it, Shannon."
There was no response.
"Have you finished insulting me, as I have stuff to be getting on with that much more important?"
"I'm sorry."
"Wow. I didn't expect that coming from you."
"Emily, I still miss you. I've tried moving on. I've forced myself to go out, and I've been on a few dates here and there, but... they just aren't you."
"Shannon. I-I...don't know what else to say."
"H-have you been on any dates?" Shannon cringed at himself for asking her this as soon as it escaped his mouth. It made him sound like some lovesick teenager.
He heard her laugh down the phone. "No, Shannon. I have not. It's not one of my top priorities. I have no desire to start dating or seeing anyone anytime soon. It's not even crossed my mind. I have far too much on my hands here with Alex and trying to adjust to life as a Mum now, plus I'm going to be starting a couple of half days a week back at work soon. I wouldn't have the time even if I wanted to."
"Ok."
"I didn't break up with you, just to jump onto the next guy, if any, who shows me attention. I was serious about what I said to you, Shannon."
"You're going to go back to work?"
"Mmmhmm." She brushed out her hair. "Just a few half days a week. Look, Shannon. I really need to head out whilst it's stopped snowing. It's supposed to get bad again later on. Just because we're not together anymore, it doesn't mean I'm busy seeing other people. You've been a huge part of my life, and you always will be."
"I'll let you go then, beautiful."
"I can call you back later if you'd like. Or later this week. I-I'd still like for us to be on speaking terms."
"I'm supposed to be meeting some friends and going for a ride a bit later."
"Ok. Well, that's good. I don't want to stop you from doing that. Maybe later in the week, then."
"Mmmhmm."
"Bye then, Shannon."
"Goodbye, Little One."
***************************************
**Later**
Emily stepped into 'The Bay', stomping the snow off of her boots and brushing the cotton wool-like snowflakes that had landed on the clear plastic cover of Alex's pram, he gurgled as she did so and flailed his arms about, reaching up for her.
She smiled down at him with her bright green eyes and wheeled him over to the counter. Kali was busy working with Travis but looked up once she realised it was Emily who had entered the coffee shop.
"Hey, Em. It's great to see you. You brought Alex, too?"
"Yeah, I had to go do some shopping and thought I'd pop by as I need to collect some paperwork for starting back at work soon."
"Oh sure, go on ahead to the office, I think there some paperwork waiting there on the desk for you. I'll be there when things calm down a little bit."
"Sure. There's no rush. I need to feed Alex anyway. Am I OK doing it back there?"
"Yeah, it's fine. Knock yourself out." She smiled at Emily, moving over to lift up the flip top counter so that she could come through to the back room.
"Hey Emily. It's great to see you again. Is this Alex?" Travis questioned, walking over to her once he had finished serving a customer a latte.
"Yeah, it is. The Little Terror." She laughed. "No, he's not that bad, just very, grabby and drooly at the moment. I think he's starting to teeth, so that's going to be fun for me."
Travis laughed, and Emily pushed Alex past the counter and through the door that led out to the back where the office was. It felt so strange to be back here after being off for about 8 months. It was the longest she had ever been away from The Bay.
Sitting down on the computer chair that was there, she undid the poppers on his pram to take off the waterproof cover, folding it and shoving it in the basket underneath, before lowering the hood and unzipping him from his foot muff, lifting him out in his romper and balancing him on her lap, jigging him up and down.
Alex was still a pretty long baby for his age. A trait which he no doubt got from James. She had also noticed his eyes becoming gradually bluer as the months went by, again, like James's clear blue pools that she had so often got lost in, the times they had been together.
'Hey, Alex. You've been so good for me today. Did you enjoy the snowflakes and the snow fluttering down. It's so pretty, isn't it? That's what it's like here in Alaska. It gets very cold here, but it's also so pretty and wait till Mummy shows you the Northern Lights."
He dribbled, looking up at her and kicked out with one of his feet. Emily reached for her baby bag and found a clean square of muslin that she had put in there that morning; as he was starting to teeth he was increasingly becoming more dribbly, and wiped around his mouth and chin. He started to grizzle, and she sighed before remembering that she had packed one of his teething rings that morning from the fridge. They had been a lifesaver for her the past month.
The door to the office clicked open, and Kali popped her head around the edge.
"Am I OK to come in?"
"Yeah, sure. Have things calmed down a bit for the moment?"
"Yes. Thank god. This morning has been manic. I've hardly been able to take a sip of water myself. All the regulars have been asking after you, wondering how you've been getting on with Alex and when you'll be back."
Emily smiled when she heard this. "Have they? We have the sweetest customers, don't we?"
"We do. Mr Shelikhov is constantly asking when you're back, as I keep somehow getting his cream to coffee ratio wrong. He says you're the only one who can make a good cup of coffee around here." Kali laughed.
Emily did as well. "He's a funny old man, isn't he? Sweetest gentleman, though."
"I think he has a thing for you. Do you remember last Valentine's Day when he brought those roses in for you?"
Emily blushed and laughed. "Yes, I do."
"Mrs Lindow has been chomping at the bit wanting to meet Alex as well."
"Well, at least you'll be able to tell them all that I'll be back shortly a few days a week. That should keep the peace."
"Hey, so I was wondering if you'd be up for a night out next week? It's been ages since we had one, and some of The Girls from my yoga class were talking about having a get-together. A meal and then drinks out somewhere? It would be nice for you to get out a bit and take your mind off of things. I can give you the details of a very reasonable and good babysitter I used for Jacob when he was younger, and both John and I had to work."
"Erm...I'll think about it, OK?"
"Oh, come on, Em. When was the last time we had a Girls Night? You've managed to ditch Jason. You've had Alex, and just because you're now a mum, it doesn't mean you have to retreat to the hermit life forever. One night out won't hurt."
Emily chewed her lip nervously. "Ok... but nothing too wild, and I won't be out too long."
"We'll see about that. You can crash at mine afterwards, Venessa is very trustworthy with kids. She can look after Alex for the night. In fact, why don't I give you her number now, and you could arrange to meet her before time so that you can meet her and she can get familiar with Alex?"
"Ok then. I guess it would be nice to get out for a change. Shannon phoned me again this morning. Emma's OK, just got a bit of concussion. I feel terrible."
"You need to meet a real man Em, you don't need two kids squabbling over you."