4 (jaylor) gleaming twilight and an infinite afterglow

chapter twenty six.

The days in the hospital, thankfully, went by in a blur of babies crying and trying to insure that Thea knew that she was still just as loved as the new twins. Taylor's parents left Thea at the hospital on the third day, and headed home. Taylor was waiting to sign the papers that allowed her to leave. She couldn't wait to leave, so that they could all go home together. Thea was being the best big sister ever - both Taylor and Joe knew that already. They saw the way that she would lie on the bed beside Taylor and watch them, the way that she'd kissed each of them goodnight when Taylor's parents had left. The way that when she arrived this morning, she'd brought two of her favourite little toys for them to play with. Taylor thought that Thea was just as excited as they were at the fact they were finally going to be able to go home and start creating their routine. They don't even know what exactly their routine is going to be - they'd discussed it quite heavily over the last couple of days, and they'd figured that no matter what, they had to try and keep Thea's routine as normal as possible. They didn't want things to have to change too much when they got home - Blake had said that keeping up the routine as much as possible was one of their saviours during the first couple of weeks.

Taylor sat beside Joe on the couch - Thea was sitting on the floor in front of them, colouring in a picture. Blake had popped over for a couple of minutes to bring a couple of gifts over - and Thea had been colouring in the Disney colouring book ever since.
Moving in beside Blake and Ryan was one of the best decisions they'd ever made, and Joe and Taylor often discussed how much they relied on one another. It was so nice, living beside your best friend. It was nice for Thea, who also lived beside her best friend.
Nora was asleep beside her, in one of the portable beds they'd brought. Luca was asleep in Joe's arms, having just had a big feed.
"Mommy?" Thea asked as she looked up briefly from her colouring.
"Yes?" Taylor replied softly.
"Do I have to go to school tomorrow?" She asked, and Taylor sighed.
"Why don't you want to go, Theabear? You used to love school." Joe asked her, and Thea, very dramatically lay down on her back, staring up at the roof. "If you tell us what's wrong, we can help you."
Talking to children was frustrating sometimes. Sometimes you just wanted to understand just exactly what was happening, but they'd never tell you. Sometimes you wished you could read their minds. Just to make sure that you knew exactly what was wrong with them. And that's what Joe wanted right at this moment.
"People say that I'm a... I'm a goody-two-shoes." Thea whispered quietly, and Taylor closed her eyes. Joe held out a hand towards Thea, and she took it, climbing up onto the couch between them. "I don't wanna go back."
"Who's been calling you that?" Taylor asked her softly. "It's not a bad thing, Theabear."
"Well when they say it... it is. I don't wanna go back to school. I wanna stay here, with mommy and daddy and the babies." Thea sniffles.
"Who's been saying it?" Taylor asked again. This was the closest they'd gotten to finding out why exactly she didn't want to go to school in the morning.
"Big kids."
Taylor felt fire in her veins. Older kids had been calling her that? How could they?
"What are their names? How often have they been doing that? What else do they say? Do they hurt-" Taylor begun, but Joe's gentle arm against her shoulder, told her to stop. She couldn't push Thea too far - this was one of the first times they'd even gotten her to speak about it. She couldn't ask too many questions, or she'd end up overwhelming her.
"Have you told your teachers?" Joe asks softly.
Thea shook her head. "They said I couldn't and that I had to make sure I kept the secret."
"We'll tell Mrs Green, okay? But that's a bad secret, okay? We can't keep bad secrets to ourselves. There are good secrets, like what we're going to get Mommy for her birthday, and then there are bad secrets, like if someone is hurting you and doesn't want you to tell anyone. We've got to tell grownups about bad secrets," Joe told her, his voice gentle. "Do they say anything else?"
Taylor could see her trying to decide whether or not she should tell them, and that hurt her. Had they done something to make her feel like she couldn't tell them about these sorts of things? She thought of everything and couldn't think of a single moment where Joe or herself might have made her think that she couldn't go to them. She found herself biting her lip, anxious about it all.
"They just say mean things," Thea finally broke the silence, and Taylor was so angry. Who were these older kids and why did they choose to pick on her?
"Like what, honey?" Taylor asked, and Thea looked up at her, eyes watering.
"They don't like my hair." Taylor looked at the curls - at the ringlets that were tied in two pigtails, and sighed. "They said I should wear a hat."
"Mommy had hair just like that when she was young," Joe smiled, and Thea looked about at Taylor's hair. It had lost the frizzy curls - it had now loosened to waves, and Thea frowned.
"No she did not!" Thea argued, and Taylor grinned. "Do you want to see?" She asked her, and pulled up her music video for The Best Day (Taylor's Version). Unfortunately, she didn't have any other copy of her family videos in this house - they were located in their Rhode Island home. This would have to do.
"Mommy that's you singing!" Thea exclaimed.
"See? My hair was just like yours - and often, grandma had to sit and brush my hair for ages!"
"But your hair is so pretty now," Thea whispered.
"Your hair is beautiful," Joe told her softly as he kissed her head. "We love it."
"Other people don't." Thea sighed.
"Your hair is beautiful, Thea." Taylor told her quietly. "It doesn't matter what other people think. You are beautiful."
"Can I wear a hat tomorrow?"
Taylor closed her eyes. It wasn't fair. How could they say that to her?
"You don't need to wear a hat, Theabear. Your hair is perfect." Joe told her.
"Will my hair look like Mommy's one day?" Thea asked as she looked up at her, sighing.
"I think so," Taylor answered.
"Did you know that Uncle Patrick used to have hair like that too?" Joe asked, and Thea laughed. Even Taylor didn't know that - and she gave a little laugh.
Joe pulled out his phone, and Taylor went to turn off the video, but Thea wouldn't let her. "No! I'm still listening to it!" She grabbed Taylor's phone and held it close to her chest.
"See?" Joe held up a photo of both him and Patrick - and sure enough, Patrick's hair was sticking up in all sorts of directions. Thea laughed, admiring the photo.
Thea smiled. "I have hair like Mommy and Uncle Patrick."
"You do!" Joe grinned.
"That's so cool!" Thea exclaimed, and Taylor laughed. It's so funny how easily children can be persuaded to think a different way.

Once Thea was in bed, Taylor had to phone Thea's teacher. Thea didn't want her to talk to the teacher during school, so in between changing diapers and feeding the twins, she'd managed to escape to her room to give her teacher a call.
"Hi!" Thea's teacher answered the call. "Thank you for your email - I thought that it would be easier to just talk over the phone."
Hayley Green, Thea's teacher, was one of the nicest and happiest people that Taylor had ever met. She could see why Thea always loved seeing her in the morning - because she walked into the room and all of the kids just lit up. They all loved her - and she was so glad that it was her that she had to talk to her about it.
"Thank you for making time for it," Taylor smiled. "I'm sorry that it's so late!"
"Oh! Don't even worry about it! In your email you said that Thea was being bullied by some older children?"
She couldn't stand the thought of Thea, precious and kind hearted Thea, being bullied. Her daughter, who would never, ever hurt someone, would never make mean comments or say something that would hurt another person. Thea, who was kind, even to the countless cameras.

After the phone call, she couldn't help but peek her head around the door of Thea's room, smiling as she saw her daughter, Elsie cuddled up to her chest, sound asleep.
Taylor couldn't believe that people could be so mean. She was exhausted, but she would make sure that the bullying stopped. Thea was beautiful, and she was so frustrated that a couple of people could make her feel so upset about her beautiful hair.
She realised that she also had been convinced that she wasn't beautiful, that she had to be skinnier and prettier all the time... and that made her sad.
Thea was too young to know what that felt like. Way too young to look in the mirror and dislike what she sees. Taylor turned away, didn't want to cry. Because she'd cry if she stood there watching her sleep for much longer.
She went back downstairs and snuggled beside Joe, her head resting under his chin, his arms around her. Nora and Luca were sound asleep - and Taylor knew she'd be asleep soon too.
Being a Mom was exhausting, but there was nothing else she loved more in the entire world.