Sometimes Things Just Fall Apart *Edited*

Chapter Fifty-One

Ross

"Wine?" Mia asks me as we take a seat in my parents backyard. We've all decided to stay the night as most of the children have fallen asleep already and we haven't had an evening in so long where we're altogether. I give her a nod and she pours me a glass. I sit back and look at my siblings and parents sit around the fire pit, laughing and smiling at one another. These are the moments I live for now. Mia returns to me handing me my wine glass and sitting herself down in the chair next to me, putting her hand out to the side of her and I take hold of it, rubbing my thumb over her soft skin.

"So bit of a shock today then Ellington?" Rocky laughs, clinking his beer bottle with Ell's.

"Just a bit" Ell laughs, looking at my sister. "I literally had no idea"

"Well I think we all had a shock, not just one but two on the way!" Lucy smiles and Rocky looks over to her. "Not happening"

"I agree!" He laughs, earning a nod from his wife. My brother loves his children, he's so good with them both but I know that he wants to delve more into his music career again. He can't stay away, none of us can.

"So how many weeks are actually between you two?" Geena asks.

"Two, I think" Mia answers. "I'm nine weeks"

"Oh I'm so excited!" Stormie claps, leaning into Mark. I watch as everyone carries on chatting to one another and I look at my family. All of us together, enjoying our time together. Our children asleep soundly in doors and all of us at a point in our lives where we are happy. At times I do miss the life we once had, before the wedding plans and the dirty diapers. The freedom of travelling with my family and performing the music we wrote together.

"Does anyone still think about R5?" I speak out, not actually realising why I've even asked the question.

"What?" Riker and Rydel say together.

"I don't think we've ever stopped" Rocky admits, receiving nods from both Ellington and myself. "Why did you ask that?"

"I was just thinking about it that's all. The touring and song writing. They were good times" I say, not letting go of Mia's hand. I can feel her eye on me and I look to her smiling at me. "We've never not been R5 since we've not really been apart. But we've lost part of it when the music stopped"

"We could've kept going" Rocky says. I know how sad he was when we sat down to make the decision to stop making music. I hid myself away that night and cried to myself as I'd lost something so close to me that it felt like it had been apart of my body. It was something that kept me ticking.

"You know we couldn't" Riker says.

Once the twins were born we tried to keep going with performing and creating new music. But with two small babies on the go, we all struggled with he demands we were setting ourselves. And then I married Mia, the best decision I have ever made and I wanted to settle down. I wanted to find a home and go back there every night to lay next to my wife while I told her about my day. We couldn't do that when we were on a tour bus for five months out of the year and I couldn't of brought her back to the house we all shared as a band. We were newly weds. And then more children came along, Amber and Robin and then Ryder and Riley. Not long after Gracie and then Ben. It felt like as each year passed another member was joining our ever growing family. Which none of us will ever regret, they are the greatest gifts we could ever receive.

"Do you think that we still could?" I ask, I don't even know why I'm asking. We've all moved on with our lives personally.

"What write music?" Ellington looks to Rydel and she shrugs. Rydel was good at being in the room when we wrote songs but it was me, Rocky, Riker and Ellington we stayed up all night comparing different lyrics with different chords.