& dynamite

a child of the eighties ( who only really came into her own in the nineties ), eleanor grew up in a loving but relatively poor home. both of her parents were hard workers, scrimping and saving to make sure they could feed and clothe their three children, but luxuries were not an option.

the eldest of three kids - though for a long time it was just her and harry. jamie was a surprise she had never anticipated...actually a surprise none of them had anticipated.

she was never that interested in school as anything other than a means to meet friends and meet boys, but she got by. education was kind of irrelevant to her, and she acted out with teachers whenever she got bored. 

she met her first boyfriend when she was 14 - and dumped him a fortnight later. she rinsed and repeated that cycle for a number of years until she was 17 - and that was when she met her first real boyfriend

jake was everything to her. funny, kind, smart ( much smarter than her anyway ), they planned to live their lives together; the wedding they’d have, the kids they’d go on to raise...they both knew jake was going to university, the first in his family to break out with a place at bristol, but it didn’t matter. their love was so strong that they could survive three years they promised. she’d wait for him and he’d wait for her

( TW: CHEATING ) at least that was the plan. until ellie decided to surprise him in his first term and travelled all the way down to bristol, saving up the money she had earned from working in the local pub - only to find jake in bed with another girl on his course

suffice to say it did not end well, with half of jake’s possessions ending up on the street and the girl losing more than a little bit of her dignity as she bolted down the stairs away from ellie and her rage. she got back on her bus that afternoon and burst into tears as the bus pulled away. by the time she got back to london she’d decided to pull herself together and not spill another tear over him.

until she was 22 ellie had never gone abroad. the first time she did was on a package holiday to zante. she overslept and missed her flight back...and then spent another two months island hopping and sleeping on roof tops with people she picked up along the way

that was the sort of woman she was - independent, headstrong, a live wire but aimless, she worked hard and played harder but was going nowhere in her life

when she finally came back from zante she decided to knuckle down and actually go somewhere with her life, find her own place and start again. and so she joined multiple temp agencies during the day, supplementing her income by working in the pub in the evening and cleaning on the sidelines. the money wasn’t great for the effort she put in, but every penny counted towards her plan of getting out of her parents flat

she was 25 when she really fell on her feet; starting out as an administrative worker on a maternity cover in the bowels of the transport for london office and spotting a permanent opening in the same department; she applied for the role and secured the spot. the money wasn’t amazing but it was better, it meant she could stop working the secondary jobs and slowly she worked her way up the department gaining promotions and pay rises as she did

things changed for her though when she was received another promotion that brought her directly into the line of thomas eagle. her direct superior, her line manager, he was a little different from the other stuffy suits, more fun to be around, with a charm and a twinkle in his eye. it didn’t take long for him to charm his way into her good books

there was just one issue -- teeny really. tiny. minimal. thomas eagle was happily married.

( TW: CHEATING ) ellie had never met his wife, and perhaps if she had then things would have worked out differently, but suffice to say a late night of work turned into dinner, turned into an invitation to come into his office, turned into a full blown affair. it was exciting and dangerous, they acted below the radar, never letting their colleagues in on their secret and capturing stolen moments together whenever they could

( TW: PREGNANCY ) they probably should have been more careful, but ellie had never been that sort of person, and so when she felt a strange sense of nausea as she sat at her desk and suddenly found herself bolting to the bathroom she initially thought she’d just had a bad bought of food poisoning. except it happened again...and then again...and then a few more times after that. and then the dates began to coalesce in her head and a sick feeling settled into the pit of her stomach

in fairness to thomas, he was very supportive and promised to stand by her when she showed him the small stick. unfortunately that meant there was no way they could carry on hiding their affair. and then ellie had to tell her parents...and everything blew up

they couldn’t believe she would be so careless, that she would get involved with a married man, that she would be such a fool. he would never stay, they warned her, he would always go back to his wife in the end. she didn’t hear any of it. she didn’t have enough money to put down a deposit but surely no council would turn away a pregnant young woman who had left her family. it was a gamble...but it paid off

she moved into the crumbling flat in camberwell for the rest of her pregnancy, leaving thomas to tell his wife the news. and, shortly after he did, he ended up moving in with her

lucy moody was born on the 8th september at kings college hospital - a bouncing baby girl who had her fathers eyes and her mothers lips. and so, with the baby bubble in full bloom, the couple went back to ellie’s flat with their daughter, determined to make it work

unfortunately bubble’s have a tendency to...burst. by the time lucy was a year old, the relationship had completely fallen apart, and as ellie insisted on keeping up the farce with thomas, her relationship with her parents continued to disintegrate

in the end they were right - thomas did go back to his wife. she wasn’t too sad about it. it was really just a natural break

thomas and ellie continued to work alongside each other for an additional three years before he chose to move to another department and ellie was promoted into her current role