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“Mommy! Mommy! Someones here!”
It’s been a pretty uneventful Saturday morning, and Chloe had been working on some lesson plans while watching Sofia play with puzzles on the living room floor.
“Sofia! How many times have I told you not to open the door without Mommy!” Chloe Beale says to her six year old daughter.
“But Mommy….. It’s Mama!”
Chloes movements stop.
It had been a messy divorce along with a horrible custody battle between the two mothers. Chloe had fought dirty for her two children, six year old Sofia and two year old Ronan. That hadn’t worked well, and the siblings got separated between the two mothers. She had regretted the battle which made her children separated and ended things on a rough patch with Beca.
Now, she lives with her daughter, who was a splitting image of Beca, and sometimes, Chloe would be surprised at how similar their daughter was to her ex-wife.
Never in a million years had she expected her ex-wife and son to be at her doorstep. Beca would always send her manager to come pick up Sofia and drop off Ronan on the occasions she had days with them.
“Mommy?” The six year old tugs on her shirt.
“Sorry Sof. Let’s go open the door then?” She says to her daughter as she makes her way towards the door, and there she is, Beca Mitchell. Her, their son Ronan in her arms. “Beca…..”She opens the door and mutters.
Sofia on the other hand, is jumping up and down, hanging on to her Mama’s arm, “Mama! Mama!” She says excitedly as she clutches on tight.
“Hi Sofie.” Beca says in her mom voice. “Chlo, I’m sorry I came without calling or anything…” The brunette says with an apologetic look on her face.
“Its fine…. Come in?”
“Thanks, Sofia, can you you let go of Mama so she can come in?” Beca asks her, but she shakes her head.
“No! Last time you told me to let go, you were gone for a long time!” She stomps her foot to make her point.
“Sofia…ugh.. please?” Chloe asks her daughter in a desperate tone.
The little brunette stomps her foot once again as she shouts, “NO! I’M NOT LETTING GO OF MAMA!”
“Sof, umm… okay Bec, I’ll take Ronan, you take Sofia?” Chloe says to her as she reaches her arm out for her son.
She doesn’t realize that she lets the old nickname slip.
“U-uh Okay,” Beca stutters a bit, picking her daughter up. “Come here you little munchkin!” She kisses her daughters head and receives a giggle back from the six year old. “I missed you a lot baby girl.”
They all walk into Chloe’s home, (read: their old home). It looks different. She doesn’t know what’s different. But it’s different.
“Hi Bubba! You look so big now!” Chloe kisses her two year old son as she sits down on the couch.
“So, what brought you here all the way from LA?” Chloe asks the brunette in a calm tone.
She can almost feel Beca’s nervousness in the air as she opens her mouth to say something, but closes her mouth once again. Chloe waits patiently for the brunette to speak whatever is on her mind.
“Chloe… I’m sorry… I’ve thought about this for the past few months, and… we had a chance to do this right, and we did it wrong. Sofia and Ronan deserve two happy moms. I’m not saying get back together with me, but I’ve decided to move back to New York. For Sofia and Ronan.”
Chloe’s thoughts stop. She doesn’t know what to say.
She’s brought back by Beca calling her name. “H-huh?” She jolts. “W-what?”
“Chlo, you literally zoned out. I know it’s all sudden, I just,I….”
“No its okay. I-I’m sorry. I think it’s great. Your job, they’re okay with you coming back here?” She asks the brunette.
“Yeah. I gave them an ultimatum. Either I leave for a new deal from a record in New York, or stay at Capital and work from New York, and they took the latter.”She smiles and kisses Sofia’s cheek. “And I’m here to ask you if you could split custody of Sofia and Ronan. I don’t know how exactly its gonna work out but, I thought it would be great if I could see Sofia few times a week and you could see Roro few times as well. Maybe try to get them to spend time together more.” Beca almost rants as she strokes her pointer finger with her thumbnail back and forth, a nervous habit that Chloe had noticed Beca has, and its good to see that some things just never change.
Chloe’s more than excited to hear this, she’d say yes to any chance she gets to see her son, and even better, son and daughter together. She didn’t want the siblings to have an estranged relationship. “That would be amazing Bec! I would love to do that!” She says to her and smiles.
Beca releases a sigh of relief. “Thank you for agreeing to this. I don’t know how thankful I am.” She kisses Sofias head. “SoI was planning to house hunt tomorrow if you said yes, and fly back with Ro if you had said no, but I’m going to go look at a few houses I’ve had my eyes on tomorrow. I have an Airbnb booked while we’re here, I promise I won’t bother you too much.”
“Mama, can I go with you!? I want to go hunting!” Sofia exclaims as she jumps up and down on Beca’s lap.
“House hunting sweetie.”Chloe corrects her daughter. “If you want, we could go all together. If that’s okay with you Bec.” She says to her ex-wife. “And if you can’t find a house right away, you’re more than welcome to stay here.” She finds herself says out of excitement.
“Mommy, is Mama and Roro gonna live with us again?” The six year old looks at Chloe with her ocean blue eyes.
“No Sofie. Mama’s gonna live close to you. Not with you “ Beca says to her daughter, pushing away the piece of hair that’s in the way.
“But why? Mama, you and Roro used to lived with us. Why can’t you live with us now?” She looks at her Mama.
“Sof. I’m sorry. Mommy and Mama aren’t married anymore sweetie.” Beca tries to explain to her.
“Why can’t you live with me and Mommy if you’re not married? I’m not married to Mommy and I live with her.”
“Sofie….” Chloe mutters, not knowing what to say to her smart child. Did she have to explain to her six year old daughter abut divorce? Two years old Ronan is mumbling to himself as he plays in his mom’s auburn locks.
“Sof, we can explain this to you later when you’re a bit older.” Beca speaks up. “Do you want to get some lunch? Maybe we can go for some ice cream after!”
Like that’s going to make a six year old say no, Sofia nods, jumps off of Beca’s lap and pulls her off the couch. “Lets go Mama! Mommy! You too!” She manages to pull both moms off of the couch and to the door.
“Sweetie, I gotta get my bag, and I don’t know if your Mommy wants to go with us.” Beca says going back to the couch and grabbing her bag.
“I’ll go.” Chloe says as she gently lets go of Sofias hand puts Ronan down and runs to the kitchen to grab her bag and Sofias jacket.
“Where would you like to go, my princess?” Beca picks up the toddler and asks Sofia as she holds on to her hand.
“Red Robin! Mama, can I get the big sundae?” She jumps up and down, pushing open the front door, letting go of Beca ‘s hand and waiting at the door of Chloe’s van. As soon as Chloe unlocks the car, she jumps in, and buckles herself.
“We can discuss that when we get there.” Chloe chuckles as she straps Ronan in his carseat, and checks Sofias booster seat as well.
“Can you play Mama’s songs?” Sofia asks as they all get situated in the car. Beca naturally sitting in the passenger side, and Chloe turns the engine on, and backs out of the driveway.
“That, I can say yes to sweetie.” Chloe chuckles, handing the phone to Beca. “Could you go to my music playlist and play it? It should be connected to the car. Password is still the same ” She says to her, not even thinking about the fact that the numbers responsible for unlocking her phone is still the date of her and her ex-wife’s anniversary.
“You have my songs on your phone?”
“Yeah, Sofia likes them, and so do I. I’ve always loved your music Beca.”
Beca’s heart somehow beats faster, like she’s doing this all over again. She gets to her password and is typing in her password she was always used to typing,
“Mama! The one about me and Roro!” The little girl says to Beca.
“Okay.” She taps on The Mother, and lets it play as Sofia sings along to it. “I’ve never told her the meaning of this song. “ She says to Chloe.
“I didn’t either. She figured it out. Smart baby.” Chloe smiles, her one hand on the steering wheel, and the other, naturally on Beca’s lap.
“Oh our clever baby.” Beca smiles back.
And for once, not feels like they had never gotten separated.
“I missed you.” Chloe quietly says.
“I missed you too. I missed us. Talking. Not the yelling and screaming kind, but actual talking.” Beca smiles.
“Stay with us tonight. Let’s talk. Without little miss Sofia interrupting us with hard questions.” Chloe chuckles.
“Okay.” Beca grins back, looking at the ginger. She remembers looking at her like this when they were still together. When their problems were never in between the two.
“Maamaaa Next song peaaas!” Sofia asks as Ronan shouts “next sooooooongg!” in agreement from his carseat, flapping his arms up and kicking his legs. Beca looks back to see Sofia catching his arm and holding it, and looking right into her eyes with her gorgeous blue eyes.
“Mama?”Sofia’s voice follows her brother’s, catching Beca’s attention again.
“Huh? Oh.. yeah, which one?”She asks her daughter, scrolling through Chloe’s music.
“Mommy’s!” The young girl says, and Beca frowns.
“Which one baby?”She absentmindedly asks. “There’s so many.“
“This love is fla less!”Sofia sings.
“Oh, Enchanted.”Beca says as she taps on the song, “You like this one?” She asks her daughter.
“Yeah. Mommy likes it too” Chloe smiles, taking a quick look at the brunette next to her. “You wanna let Mama hear you sing? You have a gorgeous voice baby.”
“Let me hear you Sof. Show me what you got.”
“Okay mama” The six year old says as she gets ready to sing.
“She’s just like you Bec.” Chloe smiles as she looks at the brunette. Their daughter fiddles with her hand, just like Beca does, when she gets ready to perform, or sing, or anything on stage. “I have know idea when she picked it up. One day, she just was doing it.” She chuckles.
The smile on Chloe’s face, their babies in the backseat of the car, it almost seems like they’re a family. Like she’s back to where she belongs. Beca feels this melancholy feeling as she drives down the familiar road of where they once lived together.
“Do you think we can be a family again?” Chloe asks just as Beca thinks about the same thing. She can still hear her daughter singing her heart out in the backseat. “I know what we did to each other was horrible. I just think what we had, what we have you know, Sof and Roro and us, we were and I think we still can be amazing together instead of being normal apart.” She looks away from Beca. “I think we should give us another shot, don’t you?” Tears threaten to leave her eyes, making her baby blues extra sparkly.
“A-Are you sure about that? I know we ended things pretty traumatically, and I know you can’t trust me a-and…” the brunette starts rambling and fiddling with her fingers nervously.
“I know, but I think it’s worth another try, me and you. And if you’re talking about the way we ended, I was in the wrong, I played dirty to try to get custody of both the kids, and it wasn’t fair to you and the kids. If you forgive me Beca, I promise I’ll do my best to make things better, and I’m never letting go of you again. I know you don’t trust me now, but I’ll show you with my actions, if you’d let me.” She wipes a stray tear away.
“Mama? I’m hungry!” Ronan fusses from his seat next to his sister, not understanding the depth of the conversation that’s been happening in the car.
“Yes baby, we’re almost there” Chloe says looking at her rear view mirror and smiling at her son and daughter, and the love of her life sitting on the passenger side.
That was all she needed for now, the future was unknown but everything is perfect just as it is now, feeling whole again for the first time in a long time.
Beca takes her hand and grabs Chloe’s hand from her lap and squeezes it three times,
I. Love. You.