Wow look at me, back with the pinkwald.

Clara was quiet when they got back. The visit to the grave had been good - the kids had all spoken to their Grandma and Clara had watched on as they told her everything they could think of. It was good, but it was emotionally draining. Danny had got the dinner sorted and got the three younger ones to bed while she sat up in their bedroom. Ellie and Chloe decided she shouldn't be alone and sat in the room, silently doing their own reading and drawing while Clara had the TV on, barely watching it.

When Danny came back the older girls left them two it and he sat on the bed, taking her hand. "Okay?"

"You've asked me that a lot today," she replied. "I am, honestly. I just needed space to think for a while. Thanks for sorting everyone out and basically running the roost today," she kissed him. "I know I've said it before, but Mum would have loved you so much - you're so good for me."

Danny smiled and kissed her again, "likewise. We're a team and sometime one of the team needs a little support."

"Look at you with your metaphors. You're learning," she smiled. "Early night?" Before Danny could reply there was crying coming from down the hall. "Maybe not. I'll get it," she smiled and left the room before he could argue.

Niamh was sat on the floor of the room she was sharing with her brothers who were sat on their beds watching as Chloe tried to settle her sister. Clara knelt down beside her. "She won't say what's happened, the boys said that they'd not long gone to sleep and they woke up to find her on the floor."

"Thanks sweet, you can go if you want," Clara thanked her.

"I'll take the boys to my room, then you can speak to her in private," she smiled and went over to Bobbie and Ollie who slightly reluctantly went with their elder sister.

When the door shut the room was quiet again and Niamh's sobs had begun to lessen also. Clara simply held her while she settled, gently rubbing her back. A few minutes later Niamh pulled away and looked up at her Mum, "sorry Mummy."

Clara kissed her head, "you don't have to be sorry, it's okay to get upset. Tell me what happened?"

"I had a really scary dream, I can't remember it properly but someone was shouting and then you were gone and I woke up and I couldn't stop shaking it was so horrible," Niamh started crying again.

Carefully, Clara wiped away Niamh's tears. "It's okay darling, I'm right here and it was only a dream. Shall we get you back into bed?"

Niamh shook her head, "I don't want you to go Mummy," she clung onto her tightly.

"I'm not going anywhere, I'll stay here until you go to sleep and for a bit after," Clara promised her and slowly got up, picking her daughter up as she did. She could tell that Niamh was tired, resting her head on her Mum's shoulder. "Come on sleepyhead," she kissed her hair gently and lay her down on the bed. Niamh immediately reached out and Clara took her hand, "I promised I wasn't going didn't I? Settle down now." Clara sat down on the edge of the bed and gently brushed her hair back. "Sleep now darling, rest your eyes," she whispered softly, humming quietly under her breath while Niamh fell asleep. After a few minutes, when she was definitely sound asleep, Clara went off to check on the others.

A small knock on Ellie's door prompted a small 'come in' from Chloe. Clara opened the door quietly and found Ollie and Bobby lying on the double bed in the room with Chloe in the middle. "They're fast asleep," Chloe smiled. "Is Niamh okay?"

"Yeah she's asleep too now. Just a bad dream. I'll carry these two back so you can settle," she went over.

"I'm quite comfortable here actually, they can stay if it's easier. If they wake up I'll get them back to bed," Chloe replied. Clara went to interrupt but she changed the topic, "Mum don't blame yourself."

Clara furrowed her eyebrows, "what for?"

"Anything. You were really brave today Mum, I know how hard it is to talk about stuff," Chloe told her honestly. "Thank you for taking us."

She silently thanked the darkness of the room for hiding a tear that slipped down her cheek. "I love you kiddo. Any problems come and get me okay?" Chloe agreed and with that, she returned to bed.

#-#-#-#

When Clara woke up she realised that Danny had been replaced by Niamh in the bed. Her daughter was curled up beside her and fast asleep, ever so peaceful. She kissed her head gently, stroking her hair and watching her sleep. Clara could hear the boys downstairs and picked up on Danny's voice briefly and he was clearly heading upstairs so she watched for him to come up.

"Good morning," he whispered when he walked in. "She woke up again about an hour after you came back to bed. I knew she needed to be near you so we swapped beds," he explained, sitting down on the bed by Niamh.

Clara nodded, looking back to her little girl. "Niamh picked up on a lot of what I said about Mum yesterday, not all of it good," she sighed. "Poor lass is terrified I'm going to disappear."

Danny got her attention, lifting her chin up to force eye contact. "It's not your fault so don't even think it. Once she's awake we can have a good chat and explain it all. In the meantime I'd better check nobody has died downstairs - it's gone terribly quiet," he chuckled and quickly kissed her. "Don't rush."

"I won't, thank you," she let him go and settled her attention back on her daughter.

Danny went back downstairs to find Ellie and Chloe playing snakes and ladders with the boys. "You lot okay?"

Chloe stood up, "I'll be back in a sec," she guided her Dad out of the room. "How's Niamh?"

"Still asleep. You're doing great with those two, thank you," Danny replied.

"They're being great, but they're really worried about Niamh. We're trying hard to distract them, but I don't know how much longer it'll last."

"I know love, I'm sorry it shouldn't be your job to deal with this," Danny rubbed her arm apologetically.

She shook her head, "Dad we're a family, we stick together. And it's my go on the game, so come on," she grinned and took him back into the lounge.

While they continued to play downstairs, Clara had discovered she couldn't really move without disturbing Niamh so she was just lying in the bed, occasionally scrolling through her phone. Time rolled on and it was nearly 11am when there was movement from beside her. "Mummy?" she rubbed her eyes.

Clara put her phone down and turned over a little to face her. "Hey you, how you feeling?"

It was taking her a moment to wake up and Niamh hugged her Mum as she did. "I still feel scared."

"You don't need to be scared, I promise you. I'm going nowhere, you don't get rid of me that easily," Clara smiled at her, tickling her to make her smile. "That's better. Let's get up and dressed shall we?"

They did just that, although Niamh refused to let Clara out of her sight the whole time. She couldn't help but think it was a little familiar from her younger days. Eventually they made it downstairs and she got Niamh her breakfast, thankful for the mug of tea that Danny handed her. "How is she?" he asked.

Clara shrugged, "brighter than she was, but as you may have noticed she's constantly looking up to make sure I'm still here." Danny nodded, "we'll have to be careful about this."

He wrapped an arm around her quickly, kissing her head. "It'll be fine. We'll have a wonderful day. I was thinking, what about going to the forest?"

"I don't know, maybe something not related to my Mum would be better…?" she sighed.

"Or maybe showing Niamh how much fun you had will help?" he suggested. "Come on I want to build a den!"

Clara laughed, hitting his stomach, "you're an actual child. Fine, we'll go. Round up the troops?"

#-#-#-#

Ellie had worked out exactly how they could build the perfect den and had all of them helping out collecting wood and leaves. Clara had, as instructed, gone to collect some thinner sticks and crouched down to pick some up when a bunch of leaves were dropped on her head. "Hey!" she jumped up and ran at Danny who immediately started running away from her. "Danny Pink you're in so much trouble," she called out, doing a pretty impressive job of catching him up considering their differing fitness levels. "You're an idiot," she finally grabbed his arm, both of them falling to the floor as she pinned him down, smirking. "Ha!"

Danny waited for his chance and flipped her over, "ha ha! No time to gloat - gotta keep your eyes on the ball," he grinned. "You appear to have leaves in your hair Mrs Pink."

"I wonder whose fault that is," she rolled her eyes but smiled. "Been a while since we've done this."

"Lay on a forest floor? Yep been a little while," he grinned. "We do have 5 children expecting us back though, should probably move."

Clara scrunched her face up in disappointment. "Why do you have to be so sensible?" He laughed and kissed her quickly, helping her up. "Thank you," she smiled, keeping hold of his hand and heading back to base camp.

Thankfully Niamh seemed too distracted to notice she'd been gone a little longer than planned, but Ellie was a little more observant. "You've not bought anything back," she pointed out.

"You're very messy Mummy," Ollie added. "Did you fall over?"

Danny started laughing and Clara shot him a look. "Daddy was being mean."

Chloe raised an eyebrow at her parents while Bobby replied, "well that wasn't very nice Daddy."

"Hey, Mummy started it!" he complained.

"Don't lie, you threw the leaves at me!" she faced up to him.

"Alright shortass," he looked down at her in trainers. She put on her 'moody teacher' face and took a step closer. Danny held his hands up and stepped back, "aaalright you win. Leaves you wanted right El?" he ran away jokingly but also to do what he'd meant to be doing.

After grinning with achievement for a few moments Clara also went to do what she'd been asked, with Niamh tagging along this time. Once they were back and had put everything together the den was complete and the triplets immediately ran inside. "Ellie come in!" they shouted after their sister. "And Chloe!"

It was wonderful to see their children playing together. Clara and Danny stood together, watching them interact and resting against each other. They were wonderful - such a team. "We are lucky that they all get on so well. Adrian always goes on about how much his two argue."

"They have their moments," he pointed out, "but we haven't done so bad."

#-#-#-#

After a couple of weeks at the cottage it was time to head back. Clara was packing up everyone's cases, having tried to ask the triplets to pack their own little ones but the result being far from ideal. Everyone else was downstairs playing a game, at least that's what she thought until she noticed Ellie standing behind her. "Hey you, everything okay?"

"How come we have to leave? I thought you said we could stay as long as we wanted," she asked.

Clara smiled sympathetically, "I don't want to go either love, but you must be missing Freddie by now."

Ellie nodded, "yeah I am, but it's been nice being altogether."

They sat down on one of the beds in the triplet's shared room so Clara could talk to her properly. "It really has been lovely. You've been amazing with everyone too, but Dad and I need to get back so we can sort work out, we need to go in and get set up for next year."

"There's 4 whole weeks left to do that," Ellie pointed out.

Clara laughed a little, "yeah I know, but I do have a lot of planning to do and we have something exciting to do later in the summer."

Ellie sat up straighter, "you haven't told me?"

Silently she cursed herself for bringing this up now. "I know, but I've spoken to Freddie about it all so you can trust us right? Reckon you can try that? If it gets too much you can ask me and I'll tell you everything."

It took a moment of thought before she nodded, "can you just tell me when it's happening?"

Clara nodded, "yes, I can. It'll be the last 2 weeks of the holidays - Saturday to Saturday. Anything else you want to know?"

"Nope that's cool. Do you need help?"

"Please, can you sort Ollie's case?" Ellie nodded and did as asked.

Eventually everyone was packed and they reluctantly got in the car to make the long drive back. The triplets all fell asleep within half an hour, Chloe had her music on and Ellie was watching out of the window meaning that it was pretty much silent in the car except for the music from the radio. Clara felt herself gazing out to the view over the hills as they drove, smiling at the memories of watching them as a kid, drawing pictures on the car window while her Mum and Dad sang away in the front. "You okay love?" Danny asked, stunning her from her daydream.

It took a moment to register what he'd said. "Oh, yeah sorry just thinking. You alright?"

"Yep. Back to reality tomorrow then eh?" he reminded her. Clara hit him gently. "Hey can you stop doing that? It's starting to hurt!"

She laughed, "just don't need reminding that I have to pull everything off my walls tomorrow."

"Is that a euphemism?" Danny asked, smirking. Clara rolled her eyes, "sorry - you kinda walked into that one."

"You two are disgusting," Chloe perked up from the back. "Can I help tomorrow?"

Clara looked round, "you know what, I could actually do with an extra pair of hands. Cheers kid."

With a look of shock Danny replied, "don't I get any help?"

"Big strong man like you? You'll be fine," Clara winked at Chloe who laughed. "The rest of our kids will be busy anyway," she grinned at him and sat back. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

After a long 6 hour drive they made it back home. They'd stopped for food on the way so nobody needed to eat, but the triplets were pretty much out of it and needed a little assistance to get out and up to bed. Chloe and Ellie helped to unpack the car with their Dad while Clara sorted the younger three out in their half asleep state. By the time she got back downstairs they'd unloaded everything and got it all in the correct rooms. "Ah you guys are fantastic, thank you. Get yourselves to bed now, it's late."

"Thanks Mum, love you," Ellie smiled and went back up to bed. Clara knew she couldn't wait to see Freddie tomorrow so it wouldn't take long for her to settle. Chloe followed up just as happily, leaving the parents downstairs in silence.

Danny was already making tea before she even needed to ask. "You're a star," she smiled as she went into the kitchen. "Niamh didn't want me to leave the room again tonight. Had to stay until she dropped off," she sighed and leant against the side. "I don't know how tomorrow is going to go."

"She loves your Dad, I'm sure it'll be fine," he handed her a mug of tea. "Drink that and then we're going to bed. Long day tomorrow."

"Mmm thanks for the reminder. That lot needs sorting too," she gestured to the pile of dirty clothes that had been sorted out. "Tomorrow. I really can't be bothered tonight," she groaned and leaned into him as they both drank their tea.

#-#-#-#

Clara woke up to silence in the house, but she felt surprisingly awake considering it was only 6:30am. She carefully climbed out of bed and slipped her robe on, heading downstairs where she was surprised to find Ellie sat on the sofa. "Hey kiddo, you alright?"

Ellie nodded, "fine, just reading. I put some washing on for you."

"You're up early," Clara commented. Her daughter looked up at her as if she was waiting for something else to be said. "Right yes - that was a very obvious thing to say wasn't it. How come you're up?"

"I woke up," she shrugged. "You're being a bit silly Mum."

Clara chuckled, "Guess I'm a little tired. Did something wake you up?"

Ellie shook her head, "I think I'm just excited to see Freddie. You said it can happen when you're excited."

"It can indeed," Clara smiled. "You want a drink?"

They sat on the sofa chatting, sorting the washing when the first load had finished. It was the first time they'd spent together alone in a little while and Clara realised she'd missed it so made a mental note for it not to be the last time. Unfortunately time ran away with them and before she knew it Clara was being called back upstairs with Niamh having woken to find Clara not in the room with Danny. "Hey, look I'm right here," Clara jogged into the room as she worked out what was going on.

The 8 year old ran at her Mummy and hugged her tight. Clara carefully knelt down in front her her. "Niamh sweetheart, you know I'm okay. Nothing is going to happen, I'm just going to work today and you're going to have a lovely day with your brothers and Grandad." She shook her head, burying deeper into her Mum. "You can't be with me all the time darling. Chloe's going to be with me today, she'll look after me."

Niamh looked up, "she will?"

"Yeah of course she will. I won't be on my own, I'm never on my own. Everything that has happened in your dreams are just dreams. You're not getting rid of me anytime soon that's for sure," Clara smiled. "Now, you going to go and do your teeth for me?" She nodded and ran off. "Good girl."

Danny sat up, "that sounds promising."

Nodding a little, Clara sat on the bed beside him. "Hopefully that'll work for now. You alright?"

After a gentle kiss he smiled, "I am now. Ready for a day of hard graft?"

"Very ready. Had a lovely chat with Ellie this morning," she smiled. "You going to get up then?" Danny groaned and lay back down. Clara grinned and jumped on him, tickling him. "Danny Pink get yourself out of bed right now or I'll set the children on you!"

He gasped, "not the children!" Clara raised an eyebrow at him. "Alright alright I'm going! You're a hard task master you."

Finally she got him out of the bed and smiled in victory, going to check on everyone else. Ollie, Bobby and Niamh were dressed and playing in their room so she gathered them downstairs to get breakfast. Chloe had made her way down so in some crazy miracle she had them all at the table eating with time to spare. "You lot ready for a fun day with Grandad?" she asked the little ones who all nodded furiously. "Good job because I think he's got a very fun day planned." Her Dad had text her a couple of days ago to ask permission for things.

The doorbell rang while she was clearing up. "I'll finish this Mum, you go to the door," Chloe took over so her Mum could answer the door.

Once she'd made sure Chloe was okay, Clara made her way to the door and opened it up. "Well good morning father dearest," she grinned and moved to let him in. "How are you?"

"Very well thank you, how was the cottage?" he asked, slipping his shoes off. "I'm guessing by your mood it was pretty good."

"Oh Dad it was wonderful. They've all been fantastic and we had a brilliant time. You have to come with us next time," she smiled.

Dave smiled in return, "that would be lovely. So are we all good to go?"

"Yes, there's just one thing you should know…" Clara stuck her head round the door to check everyone was okay before shutting it, leaving her and her Dad in the hall. "Since I told Niamh about Mum she's been having some bad dreams about losing me. She's generally okay if she knows where I am, but we've had some moments. I've reassured her that Chloe will be looking after me today so hopefully everything will be okay."

Seeing his daughter's concern, Dave put an arm around Clara and hugged her. "She's only young, I'm sure it's hard for her to understand. I'll see if we can have a little chat today. Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Clara smiled thankfully, "you're amazing Dad. Love you."

"Mmm you better, those three are a handful."

"You're not the one taking them to disney," she chuckled. "Go on, I'm going to check on my lazy husband. We've got a long day ahead of us."