Dreaming of a white Christmas Ch. 11

I wiped my hands on a wet wipe and returned Maddy to my shoulder where I felt I could protect her from the big bad world. Angie sat on the bed and tapped it for Freddy, he joined her and I took to the armchair, we sat there for ages nattering and making plans, all of a sudden everything seemed so different now and we certainly didn't expect to be returning home as a family of four.

This chapter contains some unexpected and not recommended sexual content, your author interviewed a married couple for advise, the description and timing is loosely based on their replies.

================================== Chapter 11 ==================================

Six o'clock arrived and so did Angie's dinner, I reluctantly laid a sleeping Madeline in the clear plastic crib, just as reluctantly I kissed Angie goodnight and Freddy did the same, deposited our rubbish in the bins and on the way out returned the empty mug to Costa.

"What shall we have for dinner tonight Freddy?"

"Pizza please."

"You have been so good I think that is a very good idea."

I had no idea what the place was like but just along from the hotel was an Italian restaurant so I parked the car at the hotel and we walked, the very pretty Italian waitress chatted us up for a few minutes as we decided on Hawaiian thin crust, tomato and green salad, apple juice and a pint of beer. I rejected chips. When the food arrived I discovered the napkins are the real thing and effectively a large bib to defend against spaghetti and securely tied one round Freddy using the included tails. It was good and so much better than most of the British versions of a pizza house, it was listed as twelve inch but I'm sure it was bigger and the copious toppings ran very close to the edge. Freddy ate much more than I expected but it beat me, I couldn't finish it. There is a limit to how much lovely food I can force in and I'd seen what was in the chilled display on the way in.

Dessert just had to be the Strawberry and grape Tiramisu and of course Freddy opted for ice cream, looking at the selection in the freezer he chose banana, I asked for some dark chocolate ice cream on my dessert too.

The short walk back to the hotel, showering and bedding Freddy was easy and for most of it he really opened up about his sister, until then there hadn't been much of an interest. I read 'The Red Tractor' and as is often the case he listened to the end, wiggled and went to sleep.

I did most of the packing, showered and watched a little television, ten o'clock news and weather and turned in.

Ten to seven I heard "Uncle Terry."

"Hello Freddy."

"When can Mannydin play with me?"

"Mannydin? Our baby is called Madeline." I repeated the name several times, "but most of the time we will say Maddy, it sounds a little bit like your name, Maddy."

"Maddylean."

"That's very good Freddy. Shall we get dressed and get breakfast?"

"Yeaahh."

And we were off; stripped, quick wash, dressed, hair brushed and we were in the restaurant right on seven-thirty when it opened. I don't know where he put it all but unusually Freddy chose hot food and when he'd cleared the plate, which was more that I expected him to eat, he then asked for more.

"Hello Mister Brown."

"Oh hello," I stood, "Thank you so much for the other night, I can't believe how quickly you managed to make it look like new."

"Hmm, I get plenty of practice. How is your wife and your little girl?"

"They are, doing really well. Hopefully we'll go home today."

"Oh that's nice, have you got a name yet?"

"No not yet, we're still thinking about names."

"Give her my best wishes please."

"Thank you, yes of course I will."

"Have a good day."

Another customer took Madeline's attention.

I didn't want to tell her we had decided to use her name.

After breakfast we cleaned teeth and washed away evidence of breakfast, I packed and checked I'd missed nothing and we went to reception.

"Hello Mister Brown, how are Mother and baby?"

"Good morning. They are both doing well and we are expecting to go home today. I need to check-out but just in case we have to stay another night is it possible to reserve the room until this afternoon please?"

"Your booking is for another two nights so yes that will be fine."

"The next thing is we would like to return here with our daughter and say thank you to Madeline with flowers if she's on duty."

The receptionist looked at the computer screen. Madeline is in the restaurant this morning until ten then with housekeeping until four.

"That is perfect thanks."

"Madeline doesn't like lilies or roses."

"Oh, oh thanks for that."

I completed paying and handed over the key.

"Hold on to that for the car park later... I don't know what your plans are but there's a florist just behind the hotel, they will drop them in for free and we have a cool storage area if it helps."

"That is most helpful thanks."

"Have a nice day mister Brown."

"Thanks we'll see you later, one way or another."

I put the bags in the car and headed to the florist, explained the situation I may need them today or tomorrow, agreed to give them an hours notice and paid. Then purchased a 'Thank You' card in the shop a couple along from the florist.

On the way to the zoo for a second visit, as Freddy had been talking about the animals so much, we phoned Angie for a chat. She was in good spirits and looking forward to leaving, she promised to call us when the doctor had been and told Freddy to be good for me. An hour and a half later she called to say her discharge is planned for immediately after lunch and I called the florist.

Freddy asked for the sausage roll again so I steered us in that direction as we continued looking at animals and after eating we headed to our girls.

Of course I made the regular purchases at Costa and received the usual response from Angie, her hands reached out to the mug way before there was any recognition of us. She took a sip and placed it beside her lunch, we kissed and I moved on to look at Maddy.

We chatted as Angie ate her lunch and various people arrived to do their bit for the discharge, the final thing we waited for was the prescription, of course then Maddy decided it was time for a feed and by the time I changed her again it had delayed us for more than a half hour. While I put the little red dress on her Angie wrote in the card and we put a decent tip in before sealing it. Putting Maddy in the carry seat and adjusting straps took a while and our final goodbyes found us heading for the main entrance with Angie in a wheelchair being pushed by a porter.

In the hotel reception the same receptionist was still on duty and promptly made a big fuss of the girls and the duty manageress came out to join in then the waitress from the lounge bar.

The receptionist brought out the bouquet, which I must say looked quite impressive, and I carefully placed the card inside the cellophane where it wasn't obvious. She called for Madeline on the walkie talkie and instructed her to report to reception as quickly as possible and make sure she was clean. It sounded very officious almost like a bollocking.

When she arrived it looked like she had washed her face and changed her uniform and she looked worried, the look on her face changed to smiling as she turned the corner and saw us.

I was holding Maddy as she walked over.

Angie spoke; "We wanted to say sorry for the mess and a proper thank you for cleaning it in the middle of the night, Terry tells me it was perfect. So these are for you."

"Thank you, they are beautiful but not as beautiful as this one," she pointed to Maddy, "you are so gorgeous."

"We'd like to call her Madeline after you, if you don't mind."

She shook her head, "After me, really?"

"It's a lovely name and it will always remind us what you did for us."

"I was only doing my job sir."

"Would you like a little hug?"

"Oh may I?" I passed Maddy over and she promptly farted.

Everyone laughed.

"Is this going to be another mess to clean up?"

Everyone laughed again.

We chatted for a little while and several other members of staff stopped as they passed. Reluctantly Madeline released Maddy as I took her to put her into the seat and we bade goodbyes, three followed us to the car park and waved us off, we were on our way home two days early.

We'd gone five miles before Freddy said; "Cor poo, that's smelly." and Maddy started crying. I changed her in the boot of the car in a car park, after that it was plain sailing and next stop was Elainer who flapped around us like a demented mother hen who insisted we stopped for a drink in the hope Maddy would wake, she did an hour later and promptly cried for dinner. After feeding, Elainer cuddled her for a while until she cried for a nappy change then we headed home.

We'd been home less than half hour when the telephone rang, I was busy with Freddy and only heard Angies side of the conversation, even that was from the other bedroom but it sounded like someone was coming to see us. It must have been ten minutes before I found Angie in our room with Maddy plugged into her left breast. She said it was Danni on the phone and she was coming to see us.

My phone rang from an unknown number; "Terry speaking."

"Hello. Mister Brown?"

"Yes, can I help you?"

"Good evening, I'm Madeline from the hotel."

"Good evening Madeline, thank you again for your effort." I switched to hands free so Angie could hear.

"I've got home and put your beautiful flowers in vases and found the card, actually I nearly missed it between the layers, thank you for the card and what is inside. You have been extremely generous and a bit embarrassing."

"Why? I know you were called into work in the middle of the night and into a really horrible mess. I'm embarrassed. I'm very grateful I was able to get back in bed, and you made that possible for us."

"I will be sharing your tip with Bonnie, she was on the night duty and our rules are with that much blood and erm, we have to have two including a senior, so actually she deserves to share this."

"Okay, yes of course."

"How are the bairn and Missus Brown?

"Maddy is having her dinner..."

Angie took over; "We are both doing well thank you, and another thank you for cleaning my mess. I know how horrible it was."

"When you return to Auld Reekie we'll be pleased to see your family, your laddie was a pleasure to have."

"Thank you Madeline we will. There was more we planned to do but we had to cut it short."

"Aye, that ye did." Perfectly timed the doorbell went.

"I'm sorry Madeline that's the door, we have our first visitors arriving, hopefully with some baby bits." I left Angie to tie the ribbons.

"Thank you again for your unexpected generosity, I hope everything goes well for you."

"Thank you, good night."

I opened the door expecting to see Danni. "Oh hello Suzy." we hugged.

"Hi Bro."

"Angie said Danni."

"She is getting something from the ca..."

"Terry."

"Hello Danni." We hugged.

"Angie asked for this."

I took the huge polyethylene bag containing a Moses basket and by the look of it bedding too.

"Thank you, we had sort of still got a shopping list in our heads. So what's with the sisters' act?"

"We have a new niece to spoil..."

"Mmm where is she?

"Ding dong stew in the bedroom." I turned to look upstairs; "Okay to bring the wicked aunties up?"

"Yes, best be quick we'll be asleep soon."

I gestured to the stairs; they kicked their shoes off, took a squirt of hand sanitizer and started the ascent rubbing hands.

"Oh my god, I was expecting her to be tiny."

"She is so gorgeous."

My sisters were champing at the bit for a cuddle but sadly booby juice comes first.

"So tell me all the gory details then."

"Well Danni, it's like this. We had a really nice Chinese meal..."

"Oh Terry they don't want it that gory."

"Oh yes we do."

I looked at Angie and she pulled a face, a cross between a smile and a smirk; "Up to you but I wouldn't want it."

"Come on you two, what gives?"

"So we had this Chinese meal and two in the morning I wake up in a lot of pain, Angie is panicking to get to the toilet but our legs were hooked together and I thought she was going to rip mine off. I got out and helped Angie to the bathroom and she started to shit herself before she landed on the bog."

"Come on Terry," Angie had placed her free hand against her nose like she did in the bathroom.

"So..." I looked back at my sisters. "So the shit had gone everywhere, it stank and she sat in it."

"Couldn't you...?"

"No it was coming out like a hosepipe for half an hour from both ends. Now we can all see the quality of her suntan," I gestured to Angie, "she turned grey."

"Oh you poor thing, was it really that bad."

"Oh yes, it was bad. It felt like my body was turning inside out and I wanted to die."

"When it had stopped for a while we managed to get Angie into the shower and wash away the erm, the erm..."

"Shit?"

"Thanks Sue, the shit."

"I still don't know how he got me back to the bed but it still hurt like a bitch."

"And I called nine, nine, nine and tried to explain about the food and shit and being pregnant. Angie was on her side with a towel round her and she screamed and flipped on her back," Danni and Suzy looked at each other, then to Angie and back to me as I continued, "the woman asked what had happened and I said there was lots of blood and the baby's head was showing."

"So when did your waters break?"

"Sometime in the bathroom, there was so much of everything I didn't notice that part at all. Your brother was brilliant, the woman told us what to do and he did it just right."

"Come on be fair, I piled towels under you and caught Maddy before you fired her across the room. It wasn't like on those telly programs with lots of waiting and wailing and pushing and blowing. It was like your body said 'right let's get everything out of here right now'."

"Sounds pretty severe."

"How long did it take?

"Half hour on the bog, five minutes to wash, ten to get back to bed ambulance was there within ten and she missed the birth, so an hour or so we were in the ambulance and those two were zedding it by four-thirty. We were back in bed well before six after Madeline finished cleaning our room."

"Madeline? That Madeline?"

"No the chamber maid."

"Right."

"Then of course I had to do some panic buying."

"Who gets first cuddle then?" Angie offered when Maddy disengaged.

"Being big sis I bags first dibs." I positioned a cloth on Danni's shoulder; she took Maddy from Angie and expertly positioned her against her shoulder. "Oh my you are not an early bird are you? To think the scan said another two months."

Danni was gently tapping Maddy's back and of course she burped, "I bet dat feels better liddle Madeline," and following the burp was some milky sick on the cloth, "there there. At a girl" Maddy turned towards Danni's face and burped again, this time the bit of sick fell straight into the cleavage.

"There you go sis you're now christened officially as an aunty."

"Thanks Terry."

"Must be my turn now." Suzy moved in and made the snatch, I quickly placed a cloth on her and Maddy instantly burped and fell asleep. "There you go Sis, you either have the touch or you don't."

"Moo to you too Susanne." Danni went to the en suite to clean the sick.

"Where were we? Oh yes the receptionist recommended a supermarket for baby bits and I got a car seat and loads of other stuff."

"This dress 'M' for Madeline? It looks sweet."

"That was from the hotel staff before they knew the name we had chosen."

"How are you now Angie?"

"Yeah, pretty good. Obviously sore and not over the food problem yet. Doing another blood test tomorrow."

"Was it, you know, really as bad as Terry says?"

"Oof, and some and he stood there in all the mess and smell holding the rubbish bin to spill out into."

"Oh and talking of mess and smell I think my little girl is sending us a message."

"Mmm yes Terry."

I took Maddy to the other room, changed her, kissed her head and put her in the cot. "Sweet dreams my darling." Returning to the bedroom I found it empty. In the kitchen I found Danni working the kettle.

"Tea Daddy?"

It's amazing how quickly my name had changed from Terry to Daddy.

"Yeah I will, go in with the others, I'll see to this."

Danni stayed and chatted as I rattled mugs.

"How are things between you two now?"

"Yeah good. In the middle of throwing up and looking at deaths door she asked if I still wanted to marry her."

"Okay, interesting."

"I have to say she looked really scared."

"Do you feel the need to get married?"

"Weirdly yes I do, I have never felt so involved before. None of the others I've lived with have ever... well never felt this good. If I'm honest the children's long term financial benefit comes into it too, especially Maddy."

"Any regrets?"

"Oh my life, no not in the slightest but ask me again in a month."

We laughed.

"I need to knock up something to eat, can I?..."

"Oh no thanks."

I carried the drinks to the lounge. "Angie, what do you fancy to eat?"

"Erm, yeah... how about cheesy egg?"

"Peas, beans?"

"Best not be baked beans." Angie touched her stomach. "Toast and tinned tomatoes would be better"

"Coming right up." I picked up my mug, "How about you two, scrambled cheesy eggs?"

Suzy frowned; "Scrambled cheesy eggs, isn't that a cheese omelette?"

"No it's scrambled egg with cheese in it."

"Sounds different, I'll come out with you."

Back to the kitchen, I started cracking eggs into a bowl and whisked. "Still thinking about eating?"

"Yeah go on."

I called out; "Danni, Suzy is eating, how about you?"

She appeared; "Yeah go on."

"Right, two brown toast each, cheesy eggs and tinned tummies?"

"Mm, yes please."

"Fanks Telly." Danni disappeared again.

Suzy automatically helped and started by getting bread from the freezer and placing in the toaster.

"You know Terry we can really tell how you are with Angie."

"How do you mean, good or bad?"

"We thought you were going to marry Molly, she was going to be the one wasn't she?"

"Hmm yeah, so glad we didn't."

"And us. Remember how you said she was gone?"

"Yep we were round at Danni's old place, mum was there."

"Do you know what we did when you left?"

"No."

"We waved you off."

"Yep."

"Danni, Mum and me... stood at the door and waved then shut the door and formed a huddle together... and jumped up and down."

"You never said."

"I wish Mum was here now to see you two together."

"Not Dad though he'd be going through the roof seeing me with a coloured girl."

We laughed.

I laid the small table and called out; "Just plating-up girls."

They arrived. "This looks interesting."

"Enjoy."

Even though I say so myself it was good, I'd used Red Leicester cheese which gave it an orange colour and mozzarella cheese which gives it a lovely juicy texture.

"Well Terry that is nice, very different to an omelette. How come we haven't come across it before?"

"I learnt about it for breakfast on Boxing Day after our," I put my arm round Angie's shoulders, "first Christmas day with you Danni."

"So this is mozzy and is the colour red cheese?"

"Yep. But don't try it with cottage cheese, it breaks down and goes soggy. It's good with Edam."

Food finished I offered more drinks and my sisters insisted they had to go. We did a lot of hugging and kissing with promises of taking care and looking after my girls.

I went to the car with them and during another hug each I asked them to discourage too many of the family visiting as there was still Covid around. I waved them off and returned to Angie who gave me such a lovely hug.

"Thank you for entertaining them Angie."