Work Text:
Family Matters
It was four days since moving back into the Mill. There were still times when Robert got a lurch in his stomach on opening his wallet to see that there were no rings there and it would take a millisecond or two for him to realise that his ring was back on his finger and more importantly its comrade was on Aaron’s finger. Things had slipped back in place so quickly. They were happy, really happy. Aaron was the happiest he could nearly ever remember him and while Jimmy’s absence from work was grating he was making sure to make time when he could. That was why he had a mild headache this morning as Aaron had suggested marking the week since they got back by going back to the club. It had been a good night and the time in their bedroom had been good as well. He had missed Aaron in every way imaginable and things were very good in the bedroom again as well. He allowed himself a smile and made his way out of the bedroom.
Aaron and Liv were downstairs and Liv was about to put on her school shirt from the ironing board.
‘Eh, What’s that?’
‘Nuthin’
‘Aaron?’
‘It’s a bit of a long story Rob…just’
‘I’ll tell him, I guess he should know’
She did, she told him everything she had told Aaron, everything that had happened.
‘Right’, Robert said quietly. The tone that would be enough to turn water to ice, he was at the hall stand grabbing his coat.
‘Where are you going Robert?’
‘I am going to Bernice’s to see if I can have a word with that feral creature she calls a daughter, I won’t be long’
‘Don’t, please’
‘Liv, she has no right, no right to do that. To write that and to say what she said, I’ll bloody…’, the tears came. Aaron approached him, guessing that this was a complicated one.
‘No Aaron, I know, I mean we know what it is like and she can’t get away with it. I mean Liv, Liv does not deserve this, I…I wasn’t here, I should have been here to help you, I should…’
‘You’re here now’, Liv was beside him, ‘I told you I needed you and I still do, I just need time to figure things out now Robert and you going off on one with her like you did with Joe Tate won’t help me, so please I just need you to be here for me’
‘I am and I’m not going anywhere. Liv, your brother and I, well it wasn’t easy for us and when you are ready to talk we are here, whichever of us or both of us, but whatever it is we are here’
Liv smiled faintly, ‘I know, and as much as all the gooey stuff all week has been vom’ Aaron blushed, ‘I’m glad you are back and both of you are here, my two brothers’.
Robert smiled and blushed at the same time, he was back with his family.
oOo
Robert was slightly rocking Seb and looking at his phone, a trip to Barcelona was on the cards over Easter, he was determined they would make it and Liv was coming too, there was so much he wanted to show them. He was zoned out of all around him until he heard Marlon’s voice.
‘I don’t get it though, Aaron loves her, all that from the past has been forgotten’.
‘She thinks different, that she has been a rubbish Mum and that’s why she doesn’t want another one’
‘And you?’
‘Like I said I’ll support her’
Robert looked round almost involuntarily and Paddy’s face dropped. He came over towards him.
‘Robert, um, you can’t say anything’
‘Paddy, Chas is a great Mum to Aaron and to Liv, I mean’
‘I know but she doesn’t think so’
‘Is she…is she, no sorry it’s none of my business’
‘Don’t tell Aaron any of this’
‘Paddy, I’m not keeping secrets from him, not anymore but I know nothing for sure so let’s keep it that way for now’.
‘Vic, is Chas around?’
‘She’s in the back room, can I have him for a bit?’
‘Sure’
He walked into the back room and took a deep breath. Chas had been shockingly ok with everything, she had told Aaron as much and in the times they had been back in the pub she had been friendly to him, more than he had hoped for and more than he felt he deserved. He went in and she was sitting at the table looking at their wedding photo.
‘Hey Chas’, he noticed the photo, ‘you doing voodoo on me?’
‘No, Robert, I’m just thinking of how happy he was that day, both of you and how much has happened since’.
‘Yeah, I ruined everything and I will never forgive myself for that’
‘Robert, that’s in the past and you need to try to forgive yourself you know’
‘Well I am trying but forgiving yourself can be the hardest thing to do sometimes’
He was struggling to say what he wanted to, to give his mother in law the reassurance he felt she needed without letting her know that he might know something.
‘You Chas, he was lucky in a way?’
‘Sorry’, he could see the flash across her face.
‘I mean when…when he got ill after I told him he had you. I mean I know I was probably the most important person in his life in ways but he still had you. No matter how much of a prick I had been he still had you. He knew he was able to go to you and you would be there to help him heal.’
Robert studied her carefully and decided he would continue.
‘I was so glad he had you, I mean I know it was my job as his husband but I was the cause of it all but he had you, his Mum and he knew that’
‘Yeah, that might be true but…’
‘There really are no buts Chas, you were there. I know what it’s like not to have that and, well I’m not sure I’ll ever have a real figure like you but I know that I am going to do all I can to be that for Seb and for Liv’
‘He’s changed you, Seb has’
‘No Chas, Aaron did and he brought me back and…’ he began to sob.
‘What are we like eh?’
‘Maybe Aaron is rubbing off on us’
Robert left the backroom and brought Seb to the Mill, he was going to stay for two nights. Later that evening Robert was entranced by the sight of Aaron playing with him on the couch. Aaron looked up and caught his eye.
‘What?’
‘Nothing, just thinking how lucky I am’
‘Soppy git, your Daddy, eh Seb?’
‘Yeah I know, by the way I asked your Mum over for lunch on Sunday.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah, we’re family and family matters’.