I'll Make You See It Was All Real

Lucy's Pov

"Luce" Cristiano says as he comes to stand in front of me. "I guess we should start on her closet. It will take up most of the time today" I say as the light beams through the now opened curtains. "There's no rush. We don't don't have to do it all today" Elena says opening the window. "Why don't you and Elena sort through the clothes and Jack and I will bring them out of the closet" Cris says giving my hands a light squeeze and I nod. I look around the room and can't believe I am doing this today. She should be here. I shouldn't be doing this.

"Luce" Elena says. "I'm fine" I say wiping under my eyes. "I guess we should make a pile that we want to keep and one for the charity shop" I say. "And I thought you had a lot of clothes" Cristiano mumbles as the clothes in his hands crash onto the bed. "Those two dressers over there are full with clothes too" I say pointing to the other corner. "And you haven't seen her shoes yet" Elena smiles.

"Well you can have first choice since she has...had the same shoe size. "Why does this look familiar?" Cristiano asks and I turn to see him holding a blue dress. "Cos it's mine" I laugh. "Try not to comment on the clothes. There is a big chance that a lot of them are Lucy's so you don't want to insult her taste" Elena says. "I already knows she has good taste" Cristiano smiles at me. "If my taste in football teams also meant other tastes were always good then my life would be a lot easier" I mumble taking a skirt from it's hanger.

"Ouch" I hear and I look at Elena. "Relax it's my idoit not yours" she smiles as Jack hobbles over to the bed. "What happened?" I asked. "This fell on his foot" Cris says bringing a suit case towards me. "She really was leaving" I say sadly. "Luce" Cris says. "I'm fine. Can you pull out the drawers in the dressers please?" I ask and he nods. "He just wants to make sure you are ok" Elena whispers to me. "I know" I say. "We can do this ourselves if you like. There won't be much lifting until the boxes are full so we don't really need the boys at the moment" Elena says. "No. I want......We would only waste time having to listen to Cris warn me not to lift anything heavy" I say as I turn my focus back onto the clothes.

"Damn" Jack says and Cris laughs. "It's ok. Nothing broken yet but it may happen soon thanks to this clumsy man" he says. "Men" Elena says rolling her eyes. "I don't know what to keep" I sigh. "You don't have to take the clothes to the charity shop straight away Lucy. We can just pack the stuff and you can sort through another day" she says. "What are you two doing?" I ask turning to Jack and Cristiano who were making a pile of noise. "I knocked something behind the dresser"Jack says. "And he's not strong enough to lift his side to move it from the wall" Cris smirks at Jack.

"Piss off" Jack says as they move the dresser away from the wall. "What the hell" Jack says. "What is it?" I ask walking over to them as he pulls a big brown covered square package from behind the dresser. "What is it?" Elena asks. "How am I meant to know it's covered" Matt says. "Well open it" Elena says. "Luce" Cris says looking at me. "Open it" i say wondering what it could be. I watch as Matt pulls the brown cover away and gasp when I realize what it is.

"Lucy" Elena says. "I forgot about this" i say kneeling to finish removing the paper. "Hey isn't that" Cris's family I say interrupting Matt. "I well Luce had before I asked. But Tina was painting a picture for Maé for Christmas" Cris says as my eyes gaze over the painting of Dolores with her children around her. "It's lovely" Elena says. "Ya it is" I smile. "She was really good" Cris says and I look up at him. "Ya she was. I'm sure your mother will love it" I say.

"Huh" he says taking my hand as I rise from the floor. "It was meant for Dolores all along. Why should she have it now?" i ask and he nods. "She'll love it" he says. "Right enough yacking we have plenty to do" I say shaking his hand from mine before heading back to the bed. "There's more behind here Lucy" Jack says. "She must have hidden all her paintings back there" Elena smiles.

"You can leave them in the living room. I can give them to Luke. Josh can make up his own mind what he wants to do with them" I say looking at the paintings of Josh, Luke and her family. "He should be here to decide now" Jack mutters. "Jack" Elena warns. "He's right Elena. But bitching about Josh won't get this room cleared out so let's get back to it" I say.

"Hey" Cris says and I look up from the bed a few hours later. "You need to eat" he says coming towards me with a plate. "I'm not hungry" I say. "Luce we've been sorting through stuff for hours. That's the last box of clothes. You need to eat something" he says. "Cris" I say. "I'll keep nagging you until you eat" he warns. "Fine" I sigh taking the plate.

"Can I just say that your baby daddy makes a lot of money so don't even think about listening to Elena when she offers my services to paint this room for the baby" Jack says appearing at the door. "You'd swear we had him working hard today. All you have done is carry a few boxes and lift a few things" Elena says. "And most of those boxes were filled with shoes which are not stacked in the back of my car by the way" Jack says. "It would be a shame not to wear the shoes Jack" she smiles at her boyfriend. "It's all such a shame" I sigh. "You know she'd hated to be putting you through this" Cris says to me. "But she has. And-

"It's not your fault Lucy. None of this is your fault. You can't let what Josh said to you get into your head. He didn't mean it" he says. "And if he did then he doesn't deserve you in his life" Elena says. "Elena" I say. "She's right" a voice says and we all look up to see Josh and Luke at the door. "If you've come to-

"I haven't come for a fight Cristiano" Josh interrupts. "Then why have you?" I ask standing from the bed. "I've already lost a sister I don't want to lose you" he sobs. "Josh" I say walking to him. "Cris is right it's not your fault. It's not any of ours faults" he says. "Josh" I say. "I'm so sorry Luce. I'm so sorry" he cries and I wrap my arms around him as he cries onto my shoulder. "It's ok" I say. "No it's not. I've being so cruel to you. I've said horrible things" he says lifting his head to look at me.

"Josh" I say a tear falling from my eyes. "I've treated you so badly sorry isn't even enough. Tina dying wasn't our fault and I should never have blamed you" he says. "Oh Josh" I cry. "I'm sorry for what I have put your through. I can't lose you" he says. "You aren't going to" I cry. "Please forgive me" he begs. "Of course I do" I say.

"I wasn't thinking straight. I'm just so angry at Tina and I lashed out at you" he says. "I know Josh. It's in the past" I say. "I'm so sorry for what I said about the baby" he says and I remember the cruel words he spoke about hoping the baby wouldn't live. "It's wonderful. You're going to make a wonderful mother Lucy. The baby will be so lucky to have you both as parents" he says his eyes flicking behind me where I presume Cris is standing.

"And lucky to have a great uncle" I smile. "Well someone has to make sure he or she knows to support a good team" Josh smiles at me and I laugh. "I think it's mama might beat you to that but I guess another person reminding it that wouldn't do any harm" Cris says resting his hands on my shoulders. "Well as much as we all love this reunion all these tears will set me off so what can we do to help?" Luke asks. "You can help sort through Tina's jewelry and bedside cabinets while Lucy finishes her sandwich" Cris says and I roll my eyes. "You eat. We'll finish the rest" Josh says.

"Are you going to be able for this?" I ask. "It's time. Plus I might find some of things she's stolen from me over the years" he smiles. "Well I've found a weeks worth of clothes of mine so I think you might find something" I say. "Wow you all have a lot done so far" Luke says. "Ya thanks for helping" Josh says to Jack, Elena and Cris. "Come on let's go find you something to go with your sandwich" Cris says to me. "Chocolate?" I ask. "If you eat everything on the plate" he says. "Ok" I say. "You go and we'll finish all of this. Just don't ask me to paint the nursery. This is as much manual labour I will do" Josh says. "Well we know Tina got the talent with a brush" Luke says. "We are still trying to work out what talent Josh got" I joke.

"Speaking of nursery. When do you plan on getting one organized?" Elena asked. "Oh lord she's going to go mad baby shopping now. Isn't she?" Jack groans. "I..haven't thought about it" I say. "There's no rush. You have months. Now food time" Cris says and I head out the door.

"Do you want some water or milk?" Cris asks as I take a seat on the couch."I should be helping" I say ignoring his question. "He might need to do this on his own Luce" Cris says. "I guess" I shrug. "Now enjoy" he says handing me the plate. "You not eating?" I ask. "I'm not hungry" he says. "Hey how come you won't take that from me?" I ask. "Cos I'm not the one carrying a baby. And the others all ate something while you were in your own little world in Tina's room. "It won't be hers soon" I say placing a hand on my bump.

"There's no rush Luce. Sorting through Tina's stuff is one thing but changing the room completely is different" he says. "It's not just that" I say. "What is it then?" he asks. "It would feel like I was tempting faith. About the baby" I say. "Hey" he says placing his hand under my chin. "I know I need to stop thinking the worst" I say. "And I know it's hard but please try. It's not good for you. And you have all summer to think about doing up the room so there's no rush" he says.

"You sort of surprised me today" I say placing my empty plate on the coffee table. "How?" he asks. "Taking it so well that I forgave Josh so easily" I say. "What did you expect me to do?" he asks. "I don't know. You haven't seen him in ages. I figured after the journalist and how you reacted when I told you what he said about the baby the day the press broke the story that you might have reacted differently. But I'm glad you didn't" I say. "I didn't want to upset you anymore than you are today" he says.

"Plus he's already done the defending his woman thing" Luke says. "Excuse me?" I ask as Luke comes into the room. "It's nothing. Josh is looking for you" Luke says. "I'll be right there" I say confused. "I'll see if I can find some chocolate for you" Cris says. "Not sure you will. I need to do a shop" I say standing and follow Luke towards Tina's room.

"You know one of you lot will have to explain what you were referring to after today" I say to Luke. "That's for one of them not me. Hey" he says stopping me entering the room. "I'm sorry too" he says. "For what?" I ask. "I should have seen how much Josh was hurting you. I didn't realize everything he had said and done" Luke says. "It's ok Luke. We are just all trying to cope without Tina" I say. "He found a letter" he says and I turn towards the room. "What is in it?" I ask rushing to where Josh sat on the bed. "There's one here for you too. It's just her explaining why she was leaving Manchester and that she loves us" he cries as Luke hugs him. "We found it in her jewelry box" Elena says handing me an envelope. "At least she wasn't going to leave without saying some sort of goodbye" I mutter ripping it open. "You don't have to read it now" Elena says as I pull the letter out.

Luce,

Ok so I know you are going to pissed that I left with Michael. And I love you for being so. But I need a clean break. I love him and want to be with him. He might not be perfect but I love him. You should know what that is like. I'll phone you when we are settled. Please try and stop Josh from going ape shit. Maybe give Cris another chance to distract him. You know you love him.

Tina

xxx.

"Luce" Elena says. "Apparently I'm meant to stop you from going ape shit" I say to Josh. "Didn't really give you much of a choice. Lucky I had help seeing my mistake" he says and I notice him look to the door where Cristiano is standing. "I think we are all done here" Luke says. "How about we go for a drink?" Elena asks. "Great. Josh is buying" Luke says slapping his boyfriends back.

"Ya I may need to get this fella drunk in order to get his agreement to hang up that caricature drawing Tina did of him" Josh says making everyone laugh. "You coming?" Luke asks. "I think I'm going to stay here" I say. "Ah Luce" Elena says. "No it's ok. You...take your time here" Josh says placing a kiss on my cheek. "Does drinks include lunch. Cos as lovely as your sandwiches were Cris I'm still hungry" Jack says. "Come on" Josh says as I take a seat on the bed reading over the letter from Tina.

The bed dips next to me. "I just need a little bit of time on my own Cris. I promise I'm fine" I say not even looking up. "I can stay here with you" he says. "Go get something to eat. I'm just going to sit here. Just say goodbye" I say looking at him. "Ok" he sighs before placing a kiss on my cheek. Once he leaves I look around the room. Everything other than the furniture is gone. All her clothes, pictures anything which shows life in the room. I move further onto the empty bed and reach over for her photo album and smile as I open it to the first page. She might not be here but she's always going to be with me I think.

I feel the bed dip and a finger running through my hair. My eyes fly open and I shit on the bed. "Hey it's just me" I hear Cris whisper and I turn to find him lying beside me on Tina's bed. "What time is it?" I ask realizing I must have fallen asleep. "Almost six. You've been asleep for nearly two hours" he smiles. "Oh" I say rubbing my eyes. "You hungry?" he asks. "I could eat" I smile. "How about I order something then?" he asks and I shake my head. "Luce you have to eat. You said it yourself that you are hungry. I'll just order something for you. I don't have to stay" he says. "What I was trying to say before you started yacking away was that I wouldn't mind having some of Dolores's or Nuno's cooking" I say. "Oh well ya that's no problem. I'll ask Nuno to bring something around" he says standing.

"Cris" I say sitting up. "Ya" he says. "Can I stay at yours tonight? I don't really feel like being here tonight" I say. "Of course you can. Luce" he says helping up. "You can stay at mine anytime you like" he says. "So how was the football today?" I ask as we walk to the door. "Huh?" he asks. "Like you weren't watching the football in the living room instead of going with the others" I say. "Well I..." he shrugs. "It's ok. Now let's go get me and bubba fed" I say pushing out the door. I turn to give one final look around the room and sigh. "Still my best friend Tina" I whisper closing the door shut after me.