Lucy's POV:
The following day after we all returned to SGP we were out training on the pitch. Charlie and Elleã were playing on the sidelines. Sarina explained to us that players from our grassroots clubs were joining us later that day. These players coming to watch us train meant that women's football was progressing since I was younger, it meant that young girls had footballers like us to look up to and aspire to me like us, which was something I was very proud to see happen.
We all headed inside for lunch. Elleã grabbed my hand and we walked with Alex inside, I spotted Charlie racing Millie and Rachel around the place. As we walked Elleã babbled to me and Alex about what she had been up to today. We had started off walking at our pace but 5 minutes in we had to slow down immensely as Elleã dragged her feet behind us. "Hey Alex, you can go ahead, if you want, we might be here a while", I said to Alex, "you sure ?", "yeah go", I replied back. Alex headed off as me and Elleã trailed behind. Elleã continued to tell me everything she could think of. "Mumma ?", "yeah ?" , "Mumma know what happen last night ?", she asked me looking up at me. "No mummy doesn't know, tell me", I replied, thinking it would be something I was there to see happen, but letting her tell me again anyway. "I in bed asleep and I had bad dream", Elleã tells me, I immediately looked down at her, "what was your bad dream about ?", I asked her gently, in case she didn't want to continue talking about it if she wasn't ready. "You and Mama left me and Lottie when you, you go play football, and ... and ... somebody take us", she had started to cry, so I knelt down and picked her up. She cuddled into my chest as I stood rocking her gently, stroking her hair and whispering to her, "me and mama will never leave you and Lottie, ok ?", she just continued crying as we stood in the hallway. I kept whispering "me and mama love you both so much, and we'll never leave you or Lottie" to her until she had calmed down.
I walked down the hallway to the dining room and opened the door, we entered into a noisy dining room, full of laughing and chatting all around the room. I walked over to the front where I could grab my lunch. I picked up a tray and put two plates on it. As I walked slowly putting things on my plate, I pointed at different things for Elleã to see if she wanted them. At the end I grabbed a smoothie for me and then quietly asked Elleã, "what drink to do you want ?", she thought about it before replying quietly "orange", I chuckled quietly. I should've known she'd pick orange juice, her and Charlie are addicted to it at this point, we always have a carton of it in the fridge at home. I grabbed an orange juice and put it on the tray, then I slowly and carefully picked up the tray, with Elleã still in my arms and slowly walked over to the nearest table. At the table was Demi, Ellen, Alex, Roebuck and Mary. I sat down next to Demi and thankfully she took our plates and drinks off the tray and I quickly put the tray back. I sat down with Elleã in my lap and Demi turned to me, "you're very slow today", I handed Elleã some pasta and then replied to Demi, "yeah we walked here at a very slow pace and had a little cry on the way too", Demi quickly asked, "is she ok now ?", I gave Elleã some more pasta as I continued my conversation wit Demi. "Yeah she's ok now, just quiet".
We ate our lunch and Elleã stayed quiet the entire time, even when Leah came over to say hi to her, she just looked up at her and then snuggled back into me. Leah looked at me questioning the interaction, "few tears earlier, but she's okay now", I explained briefly and Leah just nodded her head, before heading back to her table. When I was finished and Elleã had stopped eating her food, I put the plates on top of each other and went to get up before Ellen told me not to and that she would bring up. "Thanks Ellen". A staff member came in to tell us that it was time to head back to the pitch as the young players would be arriving soon. I got up with Elleã still in my arms and I slowly walked out the door. I went to the storage room to grab her stroller and as I walked back, I bumped into Charlie. "There you are, I've been looking for you Mum", Charlie announced loudly. "Well you must be glad you found me" I replied back chuckling at her. "We walked outside and towards the pitch, me pushing the stroller with Elleã in my arms and Charlie bouncing beside us. We walked around the pitch till we reached the subs bench, where Charlie and Elleã would be hanging about, while the visitors were here. As I parked the stroller beside the bench, G came running over with Keira. "Charlie, Sarina said if you want you can join in the training when some of the visitors join in, do you wanna ?", G asked Charlie, who nodded her head enthusiastically before kicking the football quickly through G's open legs. While those two chased each other Keira came over to me, "Hey, Leah told me what happened at lunch, is everything ok ?", I looked over at her and replied, "yeah we were walking to lunch, very slowly of course, when she asked me if I knew what happened last night, I thought it might've been something I already knew, but then she told me she had a bad dream", "did she say what it was about ?", Keira asked me looking worried. "Yeah she told me that it was that me and you left her and Charlie during a game and somebody took them", I replied, looking down at the toddler who was slowly falling asleep, Keira just answered, "oh no", before gently combing her fingers through Elleã's hair. I gently began rocking her in my arms to lull her to sleep which quickly worked and Keira gave her a kiss to her head, whispering a quick "mama and mumma love you so much baby girl", before I gently placed her in the stroller and covering her with the blanket. Charlie came over and instantly was quiet, grabbing her iPad and sitting down beside the stroller. Me and Keira went off to training, both stealing quick glances to the sidelines every so often.
During training some of the visitors joined us on the pitch, alongside Charlie, who nervously stood beside me, before slowly but surely joining. Towards the end of training, Sarina let me leave about 10 minutes early to go over to the sidelines. I quietly looked down to see Elleã still fast asleep, so I slowly pushed the stroller back to SGP. On the way back along the pitch, some of the young visiting players asked me to sign shirts and footballs and take pictures which I obliged of course but kept looking over to check on Elleã. Then some of them asked to see Elleã, but I politely said no because she was asleep. I walked back into SGP and headed upstairs to our room. I showered quickly and then got into some comfy clothes. I picked Elleã up out of the stroller and she slowly woke up, as we sat on the bed. While we were sitting on the bed, the door opened and Keira came in, she came over and gently kissed Elleã's head before turning to me and kissing me too. "I'm gonna grab a quick shower and then maybe we could head for a walk ?", she told me as she walked to the bathroom, I agreed and asked her "where's Charlie ?", "she's in G and Leah's room", Keira replied as she closed the bathroom door.
While she was in the shower I scrolled through my emails, when I suddenly noticed one from my lawyer. I opened it and carefully read through it immediately understanding this was bad news, I sighed, before putting the phone down on the bed, glancing down at the toddler in my arms who was fiddling with my hoodie pocket, gently resting my head on hers and waiting for Keira to come out to tell her the news.
