Coffee Beans

24 Hours

"What are you up to?"

Ellie sat back into the sofa and raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean? I'm just on the laptop?"

The blonde laughed as she came into the living room, hair laying wet over a towel on her shoulders. "It's not that you're on the laptop, it's that I could hear you typing from in the shower."

"I didn't realise I was being loud. I'm a little bit annoyed with the petition is all."

Robin's grin fell and she placed an arm around Ellie's waist. "What's happened?" Usually, Robin was the strong one, the confident one. Except seeing tears begin to form in her girlfriend's eyes was turning her stomach into a butterfly tunnel, each winged creature desperately trying to escape the horrid emotion of helplessness.

"There are only twenty-four hours until the petition closes and we have no-where near enough signatures to-" Ellie was unable to stop herself from breaking down as the reality of losing her little coffee shop was threatening to become a reality sooner than she'd ever thought. Everything her Mum had fought for, everything she had built since her mum's death. All of that would go to nothing. The building would most likely be sold off to an investor from the centre of London and the street turned into a bunch of over-priced flats. The news was always reporting on housing shortages after all. Her coffee shop, a flat? It just wasn't right.

"Have you listed everyone on the paper petition?" Robin rearranged some stray hairs covering Ellie's face as she could only think to structure the issue and work it through. That's what she grew up with and it seemed to work pretty well. However, the brunette's face tightened further, releasing a new wave of tears.

"I've taken all the signatures from the past three months as well as the ones from family and friends and off of social media. They're all on there, Robin, but we're still three-thousand short. There's just no way we can get that many signatures during tomorrow's work hours. There's no way." Not knowing what else to do and too tired to talk, Ellie placed her head on the blonde's chest and allowed herself to be comforted by her girlfriend's embrace. Neither knew how long they sat for, only that the silence was golden time before having to face the harsh facts.

Suddenly, the silence broke.

"Hi Jason," Ellie mumbled into her phone, still being cuddled by Robin. "What's up?"

"It's Kate," he said slowly. "And Dad as well."

"What about them? Are they ok?" She wiped her reddened eyes with the back of her hand and sat up, the Robin refusing to detach from her completely as the brunette's free hand was latched tightly to the blonde's.

"They're fine but that's sort of the problem. Oh, I don't know, sis. Can I come over and explain it to you? Just one look and you'll probably be able to understand what I'm babbling on about. Is that ok? Please say it's ok; I'm kind of freaking out."

Ellie glanced at Robin and sighed. She'd been so worried about the coffee shop that she'd accidentally-on-purpose forgotten to tell anyone that she had a girlfriend. Taking a deep breath she said, "Yeah, sure. Come over now and we'll sort whatever this is out, ok?"

"Oh thank you so much. You have to be the best sister ever ok? I'll bring you a steak as a thank you!" With that, he hung up the phone.

Squeezing the brunette's hand, Robin kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Whatever's going on with him, we'll do it together.  

A/N: What's this? An update? Indeed it is. You'll get another one today as well. After all, everyone loves Jason - he deserves bonus content don't ya think? Anyway enjoy folks :3