Work Text:
An Equation of Missing You
‘I need help with this’
The maths book landed neatly on the table in the café. Robert had noticed Liv coming in but Rebecca had not and that helped to explain the fact that she was a few millimetres from the seat. Liv laughed while Robert did everything he could not to.
‘Or maybe you are too busy’, Liv emphasised the tone of her voice to approach what she hoped was disdain.
‘No, no I’m not, we were just finished’
Rebecca looked somewhat perturbed but Robert decided to ignore it. He was intent on getting Home Farm but suddenly secondary school maths had become much more important.
‘Cool, well let’s go to the Mill’
‘Won’t Aaron mind’, Liv looked at Rebecca like she had blown in from a cattle yard.
‘Aaron will not mind at all’, the answer was directed at the man she still considered a brother in law.
‘Ok, Mill it is’
oOo
Liv made tea while Robert worked through the simultaneous equations in the book. She studied him, he was enjoying the work. His forehead would furrow slightly and then the pen would move across the page quickly until he gave that smug smile to nobody in particular, a smile that would have made her brother stagger once.
‘They’re dead easy once you get the hang of them Liv, it all clicks together like clockwork you know’
‘Yeah right, load of cobblers’
‘You have improved you know, really and the neatness is dead impressive, it could rub off on your brother’
She smiled, despite everything making him proud still mattered. She noticed the lowering in tone when he had absentmindedly mentioned Aaron. She had also seen his nervousness on entering and the way he had quickly looked around the house on entering and looked disappointed. He had been, there was no picture of him left any more.
‘Guess I better head soon before Aaron comes home’
‘He’s away on holiday’
Robert felt his stomach jolt.
‘With Alex?’
‘Oh you remember his name, though I guess plonking yourself down in the middle of their lunch date would make you remember his name’
Robert felt his cheeks grow suddenly warm as Liv laughed.
‘He’s gone on a trip with mates from France, and he will not be going anywhere with Alex. That was kind of DOA really’
He smiled, she had lost none of her wit.
‘How long is he gone for?’
‘Couple of weeks, you might have noticed if you weren’t surgically attached to her’
‘I have no interest in her Liv, none at all’
‘You seemed to have a lot that day in Home Farm’
Robert rubbed his eyes and fiddled with his wedding ring. He shuddered slightly and looked at her, she was about to get up.
‘I’m sorry Liv, I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. I would never want to hurt you but I know I did. What I said was wrong and the way I said it was awful’
‘So you were not lying the day you said you still love Aaron and wanted to be here with…’
‘There is nothing and I mean nothing I would rather have than our life here again. I love Aaron and I always will. I love you and all. I … I ruined everything’, he blinked to stop the all too familiar tears ‘I would do anything to go back and not text her, or to just have passed out. I lash out Liv, I always have and that was lashing out. I have a life ahead of me to regret it all’
Liv leaned in and hugged him.
‘He still cares Robert’, she was not going to say anymore but she knew Robert needed to hear that much.
‘He does’, it was the plea of a five year old.
‘Yeah, he sure does and so do I so look you have to be careful’
‘Huh?’, his focus was solely on the idea that Aaron still cared.
‘Whatever you are at with the Whites’
‘I’m not at anything’
‘Yeah and I’m up for a full attendance award at school, look Aaron told me that you had the pills in the brandy so that Laurence would take them for what ever’
‘Yeah, that’s it’
‘Bull and I know it. You don’t like Laurence and couldn’t care less about his health’
‘Look Liv this has nothing really to do with you. I’m very sorry that you took it and would never have inended for you to be hurt’
‘Robert, it has something to do with me. I don’t want to see you in bother and messing with them leads to bother, big bother. I don’t really care what happens them I just don’t want anything to happen you. I really don’t think you would actually survive a spell on the inside’
He was taken aback, that someone cared and that she had read him so well.
‘I will not be in trouble’
‘You sure?’
‘Pretty sure’
‘He couldn’t handle that you know’
‘I don’t think he’d care’
‘Rob you might be good with equations but you know little enough about lots of things. Aaron knows you are up to something, he got me to help cover it up with social services. All I’m saying is he would blame himself if anything happened you because he’d feel he was not around to keep an eye on you’
She had played the last card she had. He was looking into space and she knew it had turned the game a little. There was no knowing what he was at or how far he might go but if he thought it might in some way hurt Aaron she knew it would be enough to make him think twice or be extra careful.
‘Nothing will happen me’
‘Good, I miss you sometimes you know’
‘Me too’, he didn’t add all of the time.