A Mighty Need

Audrey was walking around the family room of her and Noel’s home, picking up toy after toy and wondering why she was bothering at all. They would just end up scattered all over the floor and furniture again the next day, and the day after that. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the fireplace and grimaced; spotting an array of silver hairs poking through her dark tresses. In recent years she had gotten bored of coloring her hair red and gone dark brown, much like Noel, who had briefly attempted blonde for a spell. But now, Audrey was in-between colorings and her silver hairs were starting to reveal themselves again, once again teasing her about her advancing age. She was forty-one now. It was to be expected.

Turning off the lights in the room she, gave it one last look and smirked happily.

Noel and Audrey had bought this place in the Hampstead Garden Suburb five years ago, just after Ember’s first birthday and successfully selling the terrace house in Highgate for £3.1 million. There had actually been three weeks where they had been virtually homeless, however; it was the gap between when they had to be out of the terrace house so the new owners could move in and when they were able to move into their new home. Austin was already living with Lindsay in Dalston by that point so it was only Audrey, Noel and Ember (and their cats) who were out in their asses, in a sense. Obviously his parents offered to put them up for the time being, but they opted to just stay in a hotel for that time frame. They settled rather comfortably into the Opium Suite at the May Fair Hotel where Ember had taken her first steps.

Rewinding back seven and a half months would find Audrey and Noel on their honeymoon in Bora Bora, talking about the idea of moving into a new home. It was not decided at that point, but just something thrown on the table once again that they had considered a few times before.

They were staying at the Four Seasons resort in an over-water bungalow suite with a plunge pool. They rarely left the bungalow; spending their days swimming, attempting to lay out in the sun and tan, dining in their bungalow and mostly having sex. They were making up for lost time where the months leading up to their wedding following Ember’s birth was concerned. They had flown out of London on a long 11-hour British Airways flight to Los Angeles, where they walked around LAX for a while to give their legs some exercise. After a two and a half hour layover, they boarded the Air Tahiti Nui flight to Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia on the island of Tahiti; the latter flight taking eight and a half hours. It was ten-thirty at night local time, but for Audrey and Noel they were ten hours ahead, on London time where it was eight-thirty in the morning. With having slept terribly, if at all, on either flight, the newlyweds were dead tired and just wanted to sleep. The next flight wasn’t until early in the next morning, so they had to go through customs and collect their luggage and hope check into the Hilton hotel ten minutes away. Just before midnight when they got into their meager room and literally just fell asleep on top of the covers with their clothes and shoes still on.

In what felt like a blink of an eye, morning came and so did their wake-up call from the front desk. They quickly grabbed showers so they didn’t feel like death anymore and changed into fresh clothes before gathering their luggage back up, checking out of the hotel and heading by cab back to Fa'a'ā International Airport where they caught their connecting flight to Bora Bora Airport; the connection which took fifty minutes. The sun was bright in the sky, and the air was warm during their boat ride from the resort. When they had arrived to the main building to check in and were greeted so very pleasantly with flower leis (much like arriving to Hawaii) and wished congratulations on their recent wedding. Afterward they were then taken out to their particular over-water bungalow suite, the Mt. Otemanu Suite, because it looked out at the lagoon and Mount Otenamu, where the suite got its name.

As soon as they were inside, Audrey and Noel dropped their bags and immediately walked toward the double doors and out onto the terrace. They looked at each other and smiled and then somehow found energy as they began to scurry around looking at every nook and cranny like kids in a candy store. There was deck down below where they could jump right into the water, or use the ladder connected to it. There was even a shower for rinsing off afterward. On the terraces, there were plenty of lounging areas, including an outdoor bed, plus there was the plunge pool and beside it, in front of the bed, there was a trampoline that could be used for jumping into the water below.

When they came back inside and settled on the bed, just sitting there, taking it all in, Audrey began to cry. Noel had asked her what was wrong and she admitted she had been so tired from traveling and then so distracted by how beautiful everything was that she had forgotten how much she suddenly missed Ember. Overnights with grandparents were one thing, but this was going to be a little over a week without her and she felt horrible.

Noel laughed and embraced her, agreeing that it was going to be weird, but they could always call to check up on her; just, the hours would be weird because now there would be an eleven-hour difference. At the moment they were talking about it, it was already night in London while it was late morning for them. Noel assured they would call home before they went to bed every night because it would be morning for his parents who would be awake to answer the phone.

After settling in, they catnapped again for a few hours and then got up and changed into their swimsuits. They unpacked their luggage and put their toiletries in the bathroom and then ran out onto the terrace to climb into the pool where they splashed each other for a bit before moving up to each other and removing their swimsuits to make love. Over the course of their stay, they made use of the entire bungalow, mostly the bed (indoor and outdoor) and the pool, but also the tub, the couch, the table, one of the lounge chairs, the floor and even in the actual lagoon once. However, the latter proved a little awkward when little fish came up to nibble at Noel’s feet and freaked him out.

Their first evening, Polynesian drums and tiki torches welcomed them to a private beach for an island welcome reception under the stars. Mango martinis, local Hinano beer, fresh sushi, and local fire dancers made for a wonderful night. The pair even got to mingle with other guests staying at the resort; several from the States, one couple from Australia, another from Argentina, a family from Canada and a lesbian couple, also on their honeymoon, from Norway. There were others, of course, but those were just the ones that Noel and Audrey got to meet. The following morning they had breakfast on their private terrace with the breeze off the lagoon caressing their skin. The rest of the day they spent making love again, off and on, before bothering to heading to the Sunset Bar for cocktails and the dinner at Arii Moana. Once back at the bungalow, they called Ray and Diane to check in on Ember.

It wasn’t until their third morning there that they realized something they had forgotten. Audrey had been digging through her virtually empty suitcase and laughing at herself, which caused Noel to peek his head into the bedroom from where he was lounging in the living room area after they had finished breakfast.

“What’s funny?”

“Well…in all the excitement of packing and traveling and then immersing ourselves here, I just remembered I never packed my birth control pills.” Audrey turned and looked back at Noel. “I can see exactly where I left them on the bathroom counter at home, right next to my favorite body lotion I also forgot to pack.” Audrey sauntered up to Noel, who was standing beside the dining table with his hand on the back of one of the chairs. “We could very well walk away from this honeymoon with a very special souvenir if we keep up with all the carnal married sex we’ve been having.”

Noel smirked and placed both his hands on her hips. “That’s the best kind of souvenir; the unplanned ones,” he teased, before leaning in and kissing her.

By the week’s end, they gone and had massages at the spa, taken a cocktail cruise at sunset, attempted a few water sports and, on their last night, they had a romantic dinner for two on a small private island that they were taken to by canoe. Their every whim was catered to by one of the resort’s Executive Chefs and a private server tended to their dining needs. After the meal, the evening was topped off by a Polynesian fire dance before they were returned to shore by canoe once again. They packed up their belongings that night, leaving out only what they’d need for the morning when they checked out and left. They literally needed nothing else that night; not even clothes. They spent what was left of the night, together in the plunge pool, staring up at all the stars in the sky before retiring to the outdoor bed and making love.

Their trip home was just as exhausting as the initial trip and they were beginning to think they’d need a vacation to recover from their vacation. Their flight out of Bora Bora didn’t leave until six in the evening, that Saturday and nearly thirty hours later, they arrived back in London at quarter to eleven in the morning on Monday. As soon as they got home, they went straight to bed and didn’t get up until almost five in the evening when they forced themselves to; otherwise they would never get to sleep that night. They unpacked, made something to eat and took in their surroundings, which seemed weird without Ember; who they wouldn’t pick up until the following morning from Ray and Diane’s.

The wedding was over.

The honeymoon was over.

They would gather up their child in the morning and it would be time to finally start their life together as a family.

The following evening, still a bit off from traveling, Noel headed into Hammersmith to Riverside Studios to tape the final episode of the series thirty for Never Mind The Buzzcocks with his wife and daughter in tow. Just like the Tuesday leading up to his wedding, the previous Tuesday, while on his honeymoon, Noel had obviously been absent from taping those episodes, but the Tuesday following the wedding, just before the honeymoon, he had been there and was grilled, jokingly, about where he’d gotten off to. His response was to flash the wedding ring on his left hand, take a sip from his coffee mug and announce, “I got married.” The audience, the host, Phill and the panel guests had clapped for him and congratulated him but otherwise let the subject drop for the most part. Occasionally, it came back up, but only minutely.

The last taping was slightly different.

Noel was once again asked where he’d gotten off to, by a knowing Phill and Noel simply shot him a withering look.

“I was learning acrobatics in the Arctic Circle with polar bears.”

“That’s not what I heard,” Phill teased. “I heard you were on your,” he paused, making faces to suggest something tawdry, “honeymoon.”

“Alright, maybe that’s where I was.”

“Ooh, where’d ya go?” asked Sarah Millican, his teammate. She poked his cheek with her finger. “You look like you got some sun.”

“Yeah, I went to Bora Bora. It was beautiful. It was perfect.”

“I just gotta say, what I think is beautiful is the fact that this is where you met your wife, right?” Vic Reeves, Phill’s teammate, commented. “She was on your team, and clearly you hit it off, and sometime later you two got together, and then engaged, and you had a child, and now you’re married. And it was all possible because of this show.”

Noel just nodded and smirked, while Phill took the opportunity to comment. “Well, if that isn’t great promotion for this show, then I don’t know what is.”

“What; come on Buzzcocks and you’ll end up married to your teammate?”

Vic looked at Phill. “God, I hope not.”

Audrey had been watching the taping from backstage in the green room so Ember didn’t cause any sort of commotion. She could’ve stayed home with her, but Noel wanted them all together, considering the time they had just spent apart from their little girl. The staff and crew backstage were over the moon with Ember; taking turns holding her and making faces at her. She was five months old by that point and just the cutest thing ever.

Because it was the Christmas episode they’d been filming, there was a Christmas party afterward, including Phill once again dressed up as Santa, giving out purposely shitty gifts. When he came up to Audrey and Ember, he made big faces at the girl.

“Had I known your mummy and daddy were bringing you here tonight, little one, I would’ve bought you something nice,” he announced and then leaned in to give her chubby cheek a kiss. Ember seemed mesmerized by him and reached a hand up to try and grab his beard.

“You can make it up to her next month when it’s actually Christmas,” Noel said as he approached with a drink in his hand. He turned to Audrey and asked, “Do you want to head home or stick around for a while longer?”

“Ember seems fine. We can stay.”

“Alright.”

Sure enough, come Christmas Eve, there was a packaged delivered in the post, addressed from Phill with express directions not to open it until Christmas Day. It was few toys and a few vinyl records with a note attached, instructing Ember to listen and enjoy the music when she was old enough.

Along with actual gifts for their families, Noel and Audrey also gave them all the same thing as the year before: the announcement that they were pregnant again. It was very early still, just only over a month, but they were just so excited, they took the risk of jinxing themselves. They had agreed it definitely happened during their honeymoon and they did, in fact, leave with the best possible souvenir.



On August 2nd, mere weeks after they had moved into their new home, Audrey gave birth to their second daughter, Antonia Rose Fielding. Originally, she was going to be named Stevie, after Stevie Nicks, but due to past instances with Audrey’s ex, Steve, the name was just too close for comfort. Like her big sister, Antonia also had her daddy’s blue eyes, but her face shape was slightly more akin to that of Audrey’s, as was her nose. Her parents had been in London, on time, for this birth, staying in one of the extra bedrooms, now that there was plenty of room.

During the course of her second pregnancy, Noel and Audrey had worked hard on producing their children’s book, which was ready and available in book store early the following year. It was called The Fantastic Adventure of Foo Foo and The Fieldmouse and it was a different telling of the children’s’ song, “Little Bunny Foo Foo” that instead parodied their life together. Audrey had also written two episodes for the fourth season of What Girls Do and co-wrote the season finale with one of head writers. The last episode was also a farewell episode for the main character, Sadie, as the actress, Heather, was moving up in the world of Hollywood and more movie deals had been rolling in for her that she wanted to take and spend her time on. Despite the fact that it had really always been Juliette’s star power and talent that carried the show, without the main actress, Audrey and the rest of the production all agreed the show shouldn’t go past a fifth season. They only needed one more season to wrap up everyone else’s storylines and say goodbye.

Audrey wanted to focus solely on her family and her writing after that and would step away from Hollywood’s reach for a while.

Around the time season four of What Girls Do began to film, Audrey had finally been granted British citizenship, after being a legal resident for nearly four years. Being married to a British citizen, having British-born children and working within the country helped hasten the process considerably. She had also gotten herself a UK driving license after taking a few lessons and taking two different tests. Much to Audrey’s disappointment, she failed her first exam. But she was assured by the instructor most people did, let alone American expats. It was mostly because there were certain maneuvers required by law that weren't really required in the US. But getting her license was important to her. She had gone a few years without driving and now that they had a proper home with a garage and a driveway, and the fact that it was located in a suburb much more distant from local business and public transportation, it was just something that made sense to her. Plus, it was easier for them as a family of four to travel anywhere. They just had to pop the car seats in the back and put the girls in and they were set to go.

In the spring of 2018, just before Noel’s 45th birthday, Austin broke the news that he had proposed to Lindsay and she had said yes. They were already planning on getting married the following year in June or July, but it would take place in her hometown of Thetford, which meant this time the Woods clan would be making the trek to the UK for a wedding. Audrey was a bit thankful, too, because it would be so much easier for her and Noel to get there with the little ones and not have to deal with flying, considering how well traveling to and from Philadelphia for their own wedding had gone with Ember.

Three and a half weeks after Noel’s birthday, was Ember’s second. It was her first one in their new house and they were able to have a bunch of people over and still have plenty of room. For the older kids, and a few adults who shall remain nameless, there was a bouncy castle. There was also a girl they hired who came dressed like Tinkerbell who did face painting and made balloon animals for the kids. Ember was in her element; running around with all the big kids and then being the typical older sibling by knocking Antonia down whenever she tried to stand up and walk. Antonia was getting the hang of it and would probably walk sooner than Ember did and perhaps Ember sensed that and was jealous. Or maybe it was just general sibling rivalry already rearing its ugly head. Antonia never cried though whenever Ember pushed her. She just sat there for a moment, collecting her thoughts as if she was possibly plotting her revenge and then pulled herself back up.

The two little girls were close in age, so they got on like a house on fire most of the time, but their personalities were polar opposites already. Ember was all “Stage” Noel. She was their little comedian and the star of her own show. She was still barely able to string a sentence together but whatever she was saying always cracked Antonia up, who looked up to Ember with wonderment. Antonia was the quiet one who could always be found sitting by her toys, lost in her own thoughts, jabbering away to herself. She liked to watch the world around her and take it all in. She was also very shy around people she just met for the first time, unlike Ember who loved people and readily went right up to them; which Noel and Audrey knew that could end up being a problem as she got older. They would have to enforce the “don’t talk to/take anything from/go anywhere with strangers” rule with her more so than they would with Antonia.

The party had been a lovely event, though. Noel and Audrey stood around with several of their adult guests, sodas in their hands while Austin took charge of grilling hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone; a traditional Americanism that Audrey wanted to keep alive in her life.

Basically, you can take the girl out of America but you can’t take America out of the girl.

The two Fielding daughters would be raised with the best of both worlds, and they would be joined by another sibling to share in all the British-American traditions with as they grew up.

Conceived most likely on or around the night of Ember’s second birthday party, there all at once came what Noel and Audrey would think of somewhat as their pièce de résistance. Not saying their first two weren’t amazing, but their third was so very different because it was finally their boy; their son. Carlin Ray Fielding, who’s name had been previously set for both his sisters had they been boys, came a-cryin’ on the 8th of March 2019. He was just as beautiful as his big sisters and with the same big eyes. The only difference was that he was the one who got his mother’s hazel eyes, which Audrey found surprising because blue was dominant over hazel. It was still too soon to tell, but both Audrey and Noel were in agreement that Carlin looked as if he would end up with daddy’s nose, just like Ember.

Each child had plenty of qualities from their parents, but not the same ones, making them each different little people, and not just for the obvious reason that they were literally different people.

Having given birth to three children in the expanse of three years, and the stress of it all (which was well worth it, of course), Audrey and Noel agreed they would stop there; at least for the time being, anyway. Audrey got another IUD placed inside her and, if in a few years they wanted to try for a fourth child, she could easily have the device removed. They were content with the lot they had, though. And maybe they wouldn’t have any more children, biologically. Maybe down the line they might decide to adopt. There were plenty of children in the world without families or anyone to love them. And, who knows, by the time they would be ready for a fourth child, maybe neither Audrey nor Noel would be able to have anymore. There were so many options and they had the time to consider them at their leisure. There was no rush.



After Audrey made sure the downstairs was cleaned up and all the lights were off, she made her way upstairs and ducked her head into Ember’s bedroom where Noel was lying with all three children, reading them their bedtime story and using different voices for all the characters. Ember, who had just celebrated her sixth birthday three days prior, sat at the foot of her bed, watching her daddy’s face and was mimicking him. Then there was nearly five-year-old Antonia and three-year-old Carlin curled up against Noel on either side of him, looking at the pages he flipped through. Audrey smiled as she watched the foursome and her heart swelled.

It was moments like these she absolutely loved her life the most.

There were times, as any parent would agree, when sometimes she wanted to throw her hands up and walk away from it all. Those times usually were due to screaming, whining children who weren’t doing as they were told, were fighting with each other, who were throwing fits because they weren’t getting what they wanted, or when they were sick and Audrey and Noel had to sit with them all night long to take care of them, in turn not getting enough sleep themselves and getting cranky with each other as a result. Overall, though, their kids were well-behaved and polite individuals who made their parents’ lives more interesting every day with the things they said or did.

Sometimes the days felt long and the kids were acting up to the point that both Noel and Audrey just wanted to shout at them and tell them to grow up. But mostly it felt like time was going too fast and Audrey, mostly, felt as if she would blink and all three would be full grown before she knew it. In a little over a decade Ember would already be a legal adult and that was scary to think about. But there was no stopping time; there was just enjoying every minute of it while you could. There was no slowing down her kids’ aging; Audrey and Noel could only shape and mold them so they grew up into good people who would have good lives as adults someday.

“Hi mummy,” Ember greeted; her blonde hair hanging down around her face and still a bit damp from her nightly bath.

“Hey.”

Noel looked up over the book and smiled. “Book’s almost done.”

Audrey nodded. “Remember: no second book tonight,” she was saying to the kids, not to Noel. “And it’s right to bed after; no fooling around. We’re leaving early in the morning to go to the airport.”

Ember leaned back and looked toward her ceiling as she squealed with delight. “Disney World! I won’t be able to sleep at all!”

“Well, you’re gonna have to try.”

Ember nodded and crawled up over Noel, peering over the book at him. “Hurry up and finish the book, daddy, so I can go to sleep and be closer to Disney World.”

Noel snorted a laugh. “Okay, well, get off my stomach so I can breathe first. I can’t read if I can’t breathe, you nutter.”

Ember giggled, as did the other two, as she rolled off her father and jumped down off the bed to stand at the side next to Carlin and look at the pages. Audrey walked over and gave each kid a kiss on the forehead and then exited the bedroom and made her way to her and Noel’s bedroom which had four basic white walls, except for the fact that Noel had painted crazy shapes and characters all over it in different colors. She went into the bathroom and grabbed her favorite lotion and brought it back into the bedroom. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she turned on her iPod in its docking unit on the nightstand and listened to some music while she squeezed a dollop of the lotion into the palm of her hand and proceeded to rub it over her hands and arms and then onto her legs. She was massaging it into her right calf when Noel came into the bedroom and closed their bedroom door behind him.

Noel sauntered over to the iPod and changed the song, causing Audrey to scoff and swat at him.

“Hey, I was listening to that.”

“Now you’re listening to this.”

Audrey teasingly glared up at him. “Asshole. It wasn’t even Coldplay.”

Noel shrugged as he moved around to his side of the bed, taking his shirt off and tossing it to the floor. “Well, Avril Lavigne ain’t any better. I didn’t even think you liked her.”

“I liked that song.” Audrey turned to look over her shoulder at him. He was sitting down with his back to her and slipping out of his jeans so that he was only in his underwear.

“Well, it’s a terrible song. She sounds like a whiny cat.”

Audrey grabbed one of the throw pillows on the bed and tossed it at the back of Noel’s head. “I don’t complain when you play Adam Ant on repeat.”

Noel crouched down and picked the pillow up from the floor, where it had fallen after making contact with his head. He turned and looked at Audrey who was now standing and pulling her tank top off. She tossed the item of clothing to the ground without a care and narrowed her eyes mischievously at him as she then unbuttoned her shorts and stepped out of them.

“I thought you liked Adam Ant.”

“I kind of like one song, not the entire repertoire, but you never hear me complain about it. I let you play your music without question, because that’s love and that’s marriage, baby. I said I would never play Coldplay when you were around and I’ve kept that vow. You can allow me to listen to whatever else I feel like listening to. Hell, I could listen to whatever annoying children’s song is playing on whatever CBeebies show is on and you should oblige me,” Audrey playfully ranted as she rounded the bed and made her way to stand in front of Noel, who sat, staring up at her. Placing her fingertips to his shoulders, she gave him a slight shove and he scooted back onto the mattress a bit.

“Alright, I won’t touch the iPod when you got it on anymore,” Noel conceded, smiling coyly at her. He reached his hands up and around to cup her ass, giving each cheek a squeeze.

Pushing him back further, Audrey climbed up into his lap and encircled her arms around his shoulders and kissed the tip of his nose. She pulled back her head and winked at him. “Damn straight.”

He leaned forward and stole a kiss from her lips and then brought her down onto the bed with him. Rolling over so that they were lying on their sides, Noel casually moved his body so that he was more on top as he ran a hand down her stomach and inside her knickers. While two of his fingers danced the aged old forbidden dance he felt that was the best time to talk about the following day’s itinerary.

“I don’t think the kids are going to sleep much tonight,” he remarked, mirroring Ember’s earlier sentiment.

“Mmhmm…”

“They’re so excited about going to Florida, let alone Disney World with both sides of our family. Your parents, my parents, your sister and her family, your brothers and their families, my brother and his…” Noel trailed; smiling down at the scrunched up expression on Audrey’s face.

I still got it, he thought.

“Can you shut up for five seconds,” Audrey whimpered. “You know, maybe put your tongue to better use.”

“Is that a request, dear?”

“Mmm yes.”

Noel stopped what he was doing and slid off the bed to kneel on the floor, much to the chagrin of his knees, and relieved Audrey of her knickers. Audrey grabbed another throw pillow and covered her face with it to muffle the sounds she was starting to make when Noel began to ‘speak in tongues.’ Shoving their faces into pillows had become a thing in recent years to keep the kids from overhearing them during their nightly trysts. They were fortunate that neither their daughters nor son had walked in on them yet. That was mostly because they had taught the kids that when mummy and daddy’s bedroom door is closed, they have to knock first and wait for mummy or daddy to give them permission to enter.

Noel knew exactly where the rest of the night would lead when he closed their door all the way.

The night went the same as the door.

When they were good and spent, they lay in bed, spooning under the sheets; giggling at the fact that it was only ten-thirty at night and how old they felt that ten-thirty felt late to them now. Noel rested his lips down upon her shoulder blade and kissed her before nuzzling his nose up against her neck and into her hair.

“Remember our first time?” he asked.

“The drunken dalliance in my suite at the Savoy?”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “That was some night.”

“It definitely was.”

“I want to always have nights like that with you.”

“You should’ve written that into your vows,” Audrey teased. She moved away from him, but only slightly, so that she could turn around and face him. She pushed her arm underneath her pillow and rested her head down while taking his hand in her free one and holding it to her bare chest. “I, Noel, take thee, Audrey, to forever bang like a two rabbits on the eve of the destruction of the world…”

“That’s quite the imagery.”

“Writer.”

Noel brushed his nose against hers in a sort of Eskimo kiss and then smiled back at her. “You’re so much more than that.” His eyes held a sort of seriousness to them then. “Writer, mother, wife, lover, daughter, friend, sister, aunt; to name a few. Then, there’s my personal favorite.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“Sucker of my cock.”

Audrey removed her hand from his and slapped his arm. “So uncouth, you are.”

“Talk like Yoda, you do.”

They laughed and returned to clasping their hands together.

“I love you,” Noel continued. “Seriously, though, you are more than just titles. You cannot be fully described. You’re like this abstract painting that would blow Dali’s mind and make him piss blood.”

“And here I thought I was the wordsmith in this family.” Audrey grinned. “You’ve been making me laugh for nearly nine years. In the grand scheme of things nine years is barely a blip, but it feels like we’ve been together forever, you know?”

“That’s a good thing, I hope.”

“Oh, it definitely is.” She gave him her own Eskimo kiss in return, followed by a real one. “To think, everything we have together was made possible because I agreed to film that episode of Buzzcocks a week early.”

“And then I wooed the American off you.”

Audrey chuckled. “Oh, yes. I came for the Buzzcocks but stayed for yours.”

“Were the show still airing, I’d suggest that as its tagline.” Noel removed his hand from hers and placed it on the side of her face.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. A thousand words and feelings passed through their minds but they said nothing. The biggest feeling between them then was contentment. To be so content with each other, so perfectly at ease and in love, was a beautiful thing. Sometimes it was strange to think they had lives before meeting each other. Not that their lives had been horrible or even mildly bad beforehand, but something had definitely been missing. There was a serious void neither could explain and then they met and the void was quickly filled. They became so filled with love for each other that eventually there was no room for it all and that’s where their children came in. All their excess love went into their children and that love grows every day while their love for each other has been a constant between them that has kept them going.

“What if we had another child?” Audrey commented, finally breaking the silence. “The kids are at good ages where we could handle a fourth and not have to worry about them as much every single second.”

“Are you sure you’re up for it?”

Audrey shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind another, and if we had another boy I’m sure Carlin would be very grateful.”

Noel nodded and smiled. “Yeah, that’s true.” He moved his hand from her face, down to her shoulder, caressing her skin with his thumb. “Why don’t we go on this family holiday, stuck with our parents and siblings and all our kids and when we come home, we’ll revisit this thought. I’m not saying I wouldn’t like to do it all over again with another baby, but l think we should focus on the holiday first.”

“Done and done.”

Noel and Audrey kissed, as if to seal the deal on their agreement.

“I love you,” Audrey whispered, beginning to close her eyes to head off to sleep.

“I love you, too.”

“I love you more.”

“I love you the most,” Noel smiled, his eyes shut, but able to sense Audrey’s smile as well.

She hesitated for a moment, and then spoke, “I love you to infinity and beyond.”

Noel popped open his eyes and reached around to slap Audrey’s ass. “Alright, Buzz Lightyear.”

Audrey let out a hearty laugh as Noel rolled over on top of her and kissed her all over her neck and shoulders, causing her to giggle incessantly at how it tickled and then quickly grab for a pillow to muffle herself. When she was sure the coast was clear and Noel was done ‘attacking’ her, she pulled the pillow down and looked up into his eyes; those damned, beautiful blue eyes that first struck a chord with her when they first met, the same eyes they gave to their daughters and maybe to another child in the near future if it was in the cards for them.

“My beautiful Cockney bitch,” she spoke quietly to him.

Noel kissed the corner of her mouth and replied, “My forever girl.”



There's nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need