She knows that she's said it before and she'll probably say it again - Roxanne loves their house. She loved it before the three of them -five including Casper and Amos- moved in but now, seeing all of their furniture, Arthur's completed nursery...it made it all seem that little bit more homely.
Since John wasn't at the studio, it had only taken them a week to unpack everything and the night that they'd finished with the last box and with Arthur fast asleep upstairs, John and Roxanne had fallen down onto the couch with happy sighs.
"That's it," she grinned as he raised his arm, which allowed her to curl up into his side, "Everything has been unpacked."
"We are officially moved in," John declared, leaning down to give her a kiss, "Welcome home."
"We're proper adults now," she muses and he can't help but laugh.
"I think we turned into proper adults a while back, love. Say maybe August of last year?"
"Oh shush," she giggles, kissing him again, "You know what I mean."
He nods, resting his head back against the couch, "We might have done it all in the wrong order but we got there."
"Yes, we did."
They'd decided that they wouldn't have Roxy's parents down until they'd moved in and gotten the house in order - they didn't want to give Greg any reason to start on them but even so, it took Roxy almost two weeks to actually phone her mum back and arrange days for them to come.
Since there were only two bedrooms, they were obviously having to stay at a hotel (John would never admit it out loud but he was glad) and on the day of their arrival, Roxane buzzed around the flat; straightening pictures on the walls, fluffing pillows and tidying every little thing.
John's bouncing Arthur on his knee when the doorbell rings and he swears that Roxanne is close to a breakdown as she goes to answer, popping her head back around the door to look at him, "Please behave, John."
He scoffs as she disappears, "I will if he will."
He hears Roxy open the door, hears the -probably fake- pleasantries that she shares with her folks and it isn't long until Cathy steps over the threshold into the living room.
A hand covers her mouth when she spots John sitting with the baby, her eyes watering as he stands up to greet her.
He's got to at least try. For Roxanne.
"Oh my," Cathy gushes, "Isn't he handsome? Greg, come and meet your grandson."
John's eyes meet those of Roxy's dad as he saunters into the room, standing behind his wife but he doesn't say anything, turning his attention to Arthur as he starts fussing.
"He's definitely your son, isn't he John? He's got-"
"My nose," he finishes Cathy's observation, "He does, yeah."
"Coffee?" Roxanne asks as she returns into the room, sensing the tension and awkwardness immediately, "Or tea? We have tea too."
"I'll get it," John gently hands Arthur over to her and disappears into the kitchen to fill the kettle.
This is for Roxanne, he tells himself, leaning against the counter, It's all for Roxanne.
"Can I hold him?" he hears Cathy asking and he scoffs, turning around to set out the mugs.
He doesn't mind the woman, he doesn't and out of the pair, it's Cathy he would like to have a relationship with his son but come on, what they did to Roxanne was really, really shitty.
He couldn't care less about Greg.
Hearing Arthur fussing, he knows that Roxanne is handing him over to them.
As he's pouring the tea and coffee, he can hear the older woman coo over the baby and it's not long before he feels Roxanne rest her forehead against his shoulder.
"John?"
"Hm?" he hums.
"I don't think my mum knows we got married."
His hand stills on putting the sugar in her tea, "What?"
"I don't think she knows," Roxanne repeats, "She...she would have said something, wouldn't she?"
Surely not. Surely Greg hasn't kept this from his wife too. But then, as John thinks about it some more, he realises that he probably would do it. He'd deleted the message that he left when Arthur was born so what was stopping him from deleting the one from Roxanne?
"John?"
He looks down at her, "I think you'll need to ask her, love."
She watches as he dumps some sugar into her dad's coffee, three spoonfuls to be exact and she raises an eyebrow, "You know my dad doesn't take sugar."
"He doesn't?" he feigns surprise as he picks up two of the mugs, "Oh, my bad." She shakes her head, dodging him when he leans down to kiss her and he laughs quietly, "Can you get the biscuits please?"
They return to the living room to see that Cathy is now sat on the couch, cradling baby Arthur close to her while she looks down at him adoringly.
Greg watches as John and Roxanne take the armchair across from them; Roxanne sitting comfortably while John sits on the arm.
"Thank you," Cathy says quietly, taking a look around the small living room, "Your house is lovely."
Roxy gives her a smile. She was rather proud of their little house.
"Rather small," Greg mutters and John rolls his eyes, "I was expecting something...grander considering your rockstar status."
John knows that he's looking at him - he can feel his eyes boring into his forehead but he ignores him, smiling down at Roxanne when she looks at him.
"It's perfect for the three of us, isn't it?"
He nods, leaning over to grab a biscuit.
"That's great then, isn't it?" her mum nods, "Isn't it, Greg? Now, do you want to hold him?"
Before he can protest, his wife stands and places Arthur in his arms and John can't help but pipe up.
"Watch his neck,"
Greg raises an eyebrow, "I have held a baby before,"
As the uncomfortable silence fills the room, Cathy gets up and starts looking at all of the photographs that they've hung up around the room; pictures of them with their friends, the two of them in front of Cinderella's Castle at Disneyworld, Arthur when he was just a couple of days old and Roxanne feels her hands start to sweat when her mum gets close and closer to the last one.
It was one of the ones from their wedding day; the pair of them were stood in front of the famous Gretna Green arch; Roxanne is grinning at the photographer while John is staring at her and she swears that every time she looks at it, the look in his eyes almost makes her cry.
Every. Damn. Time.
Her mum smiles as she looks at it; eyes trailing over the two of them, how happy they both look. Then she notices the flowers that Roxanne is clutching and then takes notice of the famous sign in the background.
Roxanne's hand instinctively reaches for John's, holding it tightly as Cathy turns to look at them again.
"You...you got married?"
Roxanne nods while John stands to take Arthur back from Greg. It was as if the baby could feel the sudden shift in the atmosphere because he was now wailing.
"I'll be back in a bit," John tells Roxy, who nods.
"There are some bottles in the fridge," she tells him, "I think he might need to be fed."
Their eyes meet and without him having to say anything, Roxanne knows that all she has to do is say and he'll get rid of her dad for her.
Once John and the baby are safely out of earshot, an uncomfortable silence takes over the room until Cathy sits back down on the couch beside Greg.
"There was another message, wasn't there?" she asks and Roxy is surprised at how calm she sounds.
"I don't know what you-"
"Don't," she snaps, surprising both of them, "You...I missed her wedding day, Greg. I missed the birth of our first grandchild for Christ's sake. Please do not give me that bullshit."
It's very seldom that her mother swears and so Roxanne knows that she is pissed. And rightly so.
"Why didn't you tell her?" she asks quietly, "Why didn't you tell her that I'd rang? I invited you."
"We had decided that we wanted-"
"You had decided," Cathy interrupts again, "You made the decision Greg and when I tried to get you to calm down, tell you that we had to talk about it, you told me to..."
"You don't have to have anything to do with me," Roxanne says quietly, "I mean, that's your decision but to take the choice away from mum.."
"I never wanted this," Cathy says, getting up to move around the coffee table so she can sit where John was, "Please know that I didn't want this."
Roxy feels tears prickle at her eyes, "Then why didn't you say something that day? Why didn't you ring?"
"I was scared," she admits, "I didn't want to upset your dad and then as for not ringing, I thought you wouldn't want to talk to me."
"How could you think that?" Roxanne whispers, "I was so scared...and yes, I had Lillian and god, she was amazing but I wanted to share it with you, mum. I never thought that I would go through my first pregnancy without you."
"I'm sorry," Cathy chokes, "Roxanne, I'm so sorry,"
John returns downstairs just as Roxy wraps her arms around her mum and he smiles, leaning against the door frame.
She deserved this but now...what were they going to do about Greg?
++|++
this isn't that good. i had more plans for the chapter but alas, it didn't happen.
following on from my last author's note...please, please be kind to retail workers during this difficult time - especially those of us who are working in the supermarkets. we don't get to stay at home. i don't know how many times i've had people come up to me this week and yell because we've not got toilet paper in or antibacterial wipes. we are trying our hardest to feed the nation and keep our shelves stocked but it's hard. especially when our suppliers are struggling as well.
i'm sorry to dump that on you guys but it's just been a really tough week ❤