Somebody To Love (Ben Hardy!Roger Taylor fanfic)

ninety six

Rebecca can't quite believe how tired she is. When Hannah had gone on about how the first couple of weeks at home with Charlotte were, she thought that maybe, Hannah was exaggerating a little bit.

She wasn't.

It's been almost two weeks since they returned home from the hospital and she felt as if she was running on autopilot.

She was exhausted. They are exhausted.

The first night at home, that was a breeze. They'd actually gotten almost a full night's sleep with the exception of one interruption from Ellie and that was only for a feed and both Rebecca and Roger thought that hey, this isn't so bad.

They were idiots.

Every night since, like clockwork, Ellie would wake up at around 1am to be fed and then again at 3am to be changed.

Rebecca's just put her down, she's currently in a crib in their room, where she's going to be sleeping for at least another two weeks before they move her through to her nursery and she barely makes it to their bed, falling down onto the mattress with a loud sigh.

She hears Roger following her, the click of the bathroom light as he turns it off and not a few seconds later, she feels the mattress dip with his weight.

"Bathroom's free."

She turns her head in his direction, "Don't want to move."

But she does, silently slipping off of the bed again to go brush her teeth.

When she looks in the mirror, Rebecca truly doesn't recognise the person staring back at her; there are dark circles under her eyes, she looks pale and her hair is piled on top of her head, which she'd done after her shower that afternoon, just for convenience.

After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she wrestles the hair tie from her hair, tossing it onto the counter beside the sink before returning to the bedroom.

She quickly pulls on Roger's discarded shirt and pathetically crawls beneath the covers, startling slightly when Roger throws his arm across her stomach.

"Sorry."

"I thought you were asleep," she breathes, hand pressing against her chest.

"No," he mumbled, "Did you make up some bottles? It's my turn for the feed tonight, isn't it?"

Letting out a sigh, Rebecca presses the heels of her hands to her eyes. No, she hadn't. She had meant to but forgot.

"I didn't," she shakes her head, "It's fine. When she wakes, I'll get her."

"I would if I could," he hums, resting his head against her shoulder, "But I don't have the boobs."

She pats his arm. The sentiment was there.

"Would be nice, though," he murmurs, voice trailing as he dozes off, "Would be nice."

||-||

It feels as if Roger's just closed his eyes when Ellie starts crying and he groans quietly into his pillow.

He expects to hear Rebecca stir and get up, something she's always been good at doing when she says she will but she doesn't and he frowns, rolling onto his other side and forcing his eyes open.

She's been curled up against his back, eyes still shut as she somehow slept soundly.

So Roger gets up, silently praying that all Ellie needs are some cuddles or a nappy change. Rebecca needs to sleep.