One Heart

Nathalie's POV

With Chloe back my life almost felt normal again; at least that’s what I thought after the first few days. She got on fantastically with Rae and fit in perfectly with her role as auntie, adoring my little girl with a love that couldn’t be untrue. I thought perhaps due to her miscarriage that seeing my daughter would be hard for her, but if it was, she certainly didn’t show it in the slightest. She was currently upstairs dressing her for our outing to the beach today to meet up with the others, where both she and I would meet up with the other girls who still didn’t know about us. Or rather didn’t know the real us.

“Are you sure you should be going out?” Chloe asked for the seventh time today after bringing Rae back downstairs, a bag containing various towels, sunscreen lotion and other things swinging on her side. “It’s only been a few days since the accident.”

“You worry too much Clo,” I replied, pulling on a pair of black and white striped knee length socks to cover the bandages covering the array of bruises and cuts there. “I’m fine.” Her eyes narrowed as I put on a pair of converse after, trying to find any hint of pain from my actions so that she could have the excuse to keep me bedridden for another day. “It’s not going to work, you’ve already made me stay in bed for the past three days and I’m bored and want to go out. Plus you know even if you win the battle against me, you won’t win against Rae.”

She sighed, shifting the strap on her shoulder to a slightly more comfortable position. Chloe may only have known Rae for three days, but that was clear enough for her to know that my daughter had not only inherited my stubborn personality, but added to it as well.

“On one condition,” she stated, outstretching her hand. “I drive.”

I grinned. “I was planning to make you anyway.”

--

Just like Rae had quickly won over the others, Leana and Sarah were taken just as fast, spending their time now plaiting my daughter’s hair, one of them on each side. They were absolutely captivated by her, and since I allowed her hair to grow long they were having a great time fashioning it into different styles.

I took this free time to sneak a small nap in because underneath my smiling mask I was exhausted. Not only was my leukaemia life draining but it had caused a case of anaemia within me as well as a helpful little side-effect, and after losing the blood I had from my leg it had dwindled my energy stores to almost nothing. Even my skin had begun to turn paler but I had managed to disguise that for the mean time with a trusty bottle of fake tan, one which I made sure didn’t turn me into an orange.

“Mummy?” Something prodded me in the side, softly at first but then repeated in harder motions. “Mummy, wake up!” I pulled off the sunglasses which had hid my sleeping eyes and rolled my head to the side to look up at Rae.

“What is it baby?” I propped myself up onto my elbows, trying my best to disguise the yawn that wanted to break through. “Is something wrong?” She shook her head, the plaits from the girls swinging on either side. “Then what is it?”

Her eyes grew wide at that, and instantly I knew she wanted something from me. “Mummmmmmmmy?”

I mimicked her voice. “Yes Raaaeeeee?”

“Could I have an ice cream?”

“Hmm... I don’t know...” I mused, chuckling at the beginning of her pout. “Alright, you can have one.”

Her eyes grew even wider. “Could Rae have a strawberry one?”

“Yes, Rae can have a strawberry one.”

“Can I have a biiiiiig strawberry one?”

I smiled. “Anything for my little Rae of sunshine.”

“With sprinkles and strawberry sauce?”

“You can get anything you want on it baby,” I said as I got to my feet, taking care to move slowly enough so that I didn’t get the light-headed feeling again. Bending down and picking my daughter up after probably wasn’t the best idea after how I had been feeling lately but I decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to let anything get me down- if I had a limited time left, then I am going to live it as much as I can.

Chloe’s POV

“Nathalie’s a great mom to Rae, don’t you think?” Leana mused as we all watched mother and daughter leave to get ice cream. “Rae is just so adorable.”

“I just wonder how Brian even fitted in with her making, he certainly isn’t as cute,” Sarah added, laughing as the aforementioned scowled at her.

“What about me?” Johnny whined. His arms were loosely wrapped around her as she sat in front of him. “I thought you loved me.”

“But I do Johnny,” she replied, turning to kiss him lightly on the cheek, “just that nothing can beat that little one, even you. However you are still up there on the list.”

“I guess I’ll just have to settle for that,” he said with a small sigh, blowing a raspberry on her neck and making her laugh. “But you’ll always still be number one on my list.”

“Clo, are you alright?” Zacky murmured in my ear, rubbing his hand around my arm. “You seem a bit quiet.”

“It’s nothing,” I quickly replied. It wasn’t much of a lie but I couldn’t deny there was a part of me that envied Nat- especially when she first said she had gotten an abortion in the first place but just didn’t go through with it. She wasn’t trying to have a kid, but I wanted one with every fibre of my being. “I just don’t really have anything to say.”

“If you want to go...”

“No, no.” I reached up and touched his cheek gently, looking up from where I had rested my head on his lap. “I’ve got you, and that is all that matters.”

As soon as I said it my eyes drifted to look at Brian, still the only one in the group that didn’t have someone else. He was sitting on his own away from the rest of us, making it just look more apparent that he was on his own. I nudged Zacky gently and discreetly pointed this out to him, hoping that he could do something for his best friend.

“Hey Syn, want to join us for a smoke?” Brian merely offered a shrug in reply but got to his feet anyway and began to walk away, giving Zacky just enough time to peck me on the cheek before following him. “Back in a minute babe.”

“Hey, I think I'll go join them,” Matt added, kissing Val on the cheek before jogging after them, followed shortly after by Jimmy and Johnny, leaving us girls alone.

“He’s even gloomier than normal,” Sarah stated after watching the lot of them leave. “I thought having a kid makes you happier.”

“It probably does, but how do you think it makes him feel to know that every time he sees Rae, he will have to see Nathalie as well?” Leana pointed out. Sarah hadn't thought of that, and by the looks of it, instantly felt guilty. “Even if Nat isn't there, she's still reflected through Rae.”

“I guess,” Sarah agreed, laying out flat on the towel now that Johnny had gone. “Why did she even leave in the first place? She knows we all would have helped her out.”

“I don't know why,” I answered. “There isn't any point of asking me, I didn't know she was back until a few days ago.” I turned to Val. “However some of us did.”

I shouldn't have got annoyed about it, but I couldn't say that I wasn't hurt that Val knew all this time about Nat and Rae and didn't tell any of us- didn't tell me.

“That's not fair Chloe.” As soon as Nat's hand let go of her daughter Rae went giggling over to where Val was sitting, soon offering her a lick of the strawberry ice cream cone she now had. Nat then walked over and sat back down on her own towel, adjusting the parasol next to it slightly to align with the sun so she was in the shade. “You shouldn't get angry at Val; it's not her fault that she found out. I just asked her not to say anything.”

“You could have told me. We've been friends for-”

She cut me off. “If you had known, would you have let me go like I did?”

I looked away. “No,” I answered truthfully. “I would have gone with you.”

“But what about Zacky?”

“I guess... I guess I would have left him. You would have done the same for me.”

“Yes, I would have,” she agreed, picking up the sunglasses she had left on the side and placing them back over her eyes. “But I didn't want you to have to.”