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Edwin had hoped and prayed to a God he found questionable at best that things would be able to calm down after Port Townsend.
He had only just been getting used to the new normal. Edwin had never been good with change, it always upset him and caused him to feel unsure of everything he thought he knew. With the change of Crystal and the Night nurse being added to the mix of recovering from Hell and Esther it had been hectic.
After Port Townsend, Edwin and his relationship with Charles had changed after his confession. While Charles had said it didn't change a thing there was definitely something new with them. It wasn’t anything bad, but they both craved the other's touch and closeness in a way they hadn’t before. The small touches were no longer enough to satisfy the hunger and starvation Edwin felt.
Charles had felt the same way and one night after Crystal and Charles had a talk, Charles had come home to the office, marched over to Edwin at his desk and pulled him up from his chair. Holding his face in one hand, thumb caressing his check like Edwin was something to be cherished. His other hand sat on Edwin’s waist, the weight making Edwin go red with blood that should no longer exist. Edwin had placed his own hands on Charles' wrist and shoulder. Sinking his face into Charles' hand.
Charles had waxed something nearly poetic about his feelings and then confessed to Edwin, before politely asking to kiss Edwin.
After that their relationship changed again but now there were no worries about touching each other, they could be as close as they wanted. Their relationship had only changed to include a new kind of love.
Edwin couldn’t have been more happy about it. Charles too, Crystal seemed happy enough for them as well, despite her complaints about their sappyness. It was overall incredible.
They were back to taking cases again, with and without help from the Night Nurse, who despite how charming Charles’ smile was, refused to be called Charlie. Crystal had been a change in the Agency that at first Edwin struggled to accept, he had never been fond of change but he had been doing better at asking for help. With Charles there he and Crystal were able to get over their old differences. Their friendship did mainly consist of snarky comments and playful bickering now.
They'd been taking cases from early in the morning trying to find something important and worth their time to do. When a woman walked in.
She was something out of an old Photograph, nothing but a ghost of her time. She was easily recognisable as an Upper Class woman, the way she walked into the building with her head held high and her nose upturned like the Agency did not fit her tastes. She was one of those people who expected everything to be formed and moulded to fit what she wanted, ignoring others opinions and feelings unless they matched her own.
The other tell was her clothing, the blouse with a high neckline and a cameo brooch pinned perfectly to the middle, decades old lace wrapped around her like a blanket of her era., Her skirt was dull in colour and hovered above the floor, sitting high on her waist. Pearls decorated her ears and her hair was held up and pinned away from her ageing face. She looked to be 50 at most, her attitude and manners completely changed as she noticed company. To others it would look like a period ghost getting used to the changing times.
She was gentle looking, lavender gloves pulled over hands held at her waist, she looked over at the detectives with sweetness. She painted a picture of a perfect, submissive wife.
“I want you to find out what happened to my daughter,”
Her voice
Edwin recognised it immediately. It was the voice of the woman, who said she loved him yet locked him away from the world and left him and his older sister to care for the children. He remembers when the soft and kindness left and was replaced by a bitterness only her children ever seemed to hear. The voice that had stuck with him throughout hell, the disappointment always there telling him in all the ways how he was wrong. He still remembers the voice had been soft once, soft with love before her new son's quirks had poisoned the love and turned it sour.
It was his mother.
The bitterness and irritation that had laid dormant under his skin at her filled his veins, seeping into his blood and tainting all other emotions. He had forgotten her face long ago, but her voice would always stay in his head.
This woman couldn't even recognise her own son.
He missed Charles waving her down to sit in front of them and offering her a polite smile as she did so.
“Could you give us some more information?” Crystal asked after the silence had gone on for too long.
Normally, Edwin would carry these conversations but with his mother, he didn't know if it was his anger that prevented him from speaking or the old nagging feeling in his brain waiting for her to berate him.
“My daughter Florence, she disappeared one day, she was my pride and joy and to not know what happened to her is truly upsetting you must understand,” she explained, craving the attention and sympathy.
“Of Course. What is your name?” Charles asked
“Victoria,” she said.
Now it was shocking for her to not say the last name, that was weird. His mother had been proud of her family, proud of herself for marrying well and getting a comfortable life.
However, she did not deserve to know about Florence. His wonderful older sister had been his only friend. She had never cared for his differences, would not yell at him to stop moving in certain ways and she even taught him how to embroider and knit, skills he still knows to this day. He had taught her the languages he spoke, he’d always loved learning languages, their sounds, their flow, it had been enchanting to him.
Edwin struggled to not press his closed fists together.
“I am afraid there isn’t anything supernatural about this case, this agency is particular in the cases we take,” Edwin spoke before Crystal and Charles could cut in with their feelings. He wanted her away. He felt Charles give him a nudge and a look at the rudeness of his statement.
“Oh but please! My daughter, my sweet lovely daughter Florence, she was my everything. My horrid husband had our prodigy son and my little Florence, my angel, had been my only chance at serenity. I must know what happened to her!” She begged and pleaded putting on a pitiful face that Edwin knew would pull at heartstrings for both Crystal and Charles.
The words ‘horrid husband’ Edwin knew would make Crystal and Charles’ hearts go to her and want to help her more. Edwin bit his tongue.
Edwin knew Florence had disappeared. She had been nearly 18 by the time he died and once he escaped hell he'd gone to find out what happened to her and his younger siblings. He knew Florence went missing, presumed Dead and murdered but he had also known that Florence had a love for a lower class man, a black man. Both he and Florence knew their parents would never accept that, Florence was always expected to marry for money and security rather than for love.
She'd done so anyway, Edwin had found out, he'd managed to remember the name of the man she'd loved and found her through him. She'd lived a happy life and had only one child, a daughter named Edith, who had a son named James Edwin. To know his memory lived though Florence was something so comforting. The knowledge that he mattered to his sister as much as she did to him was worth more than any love their parents could have given him.
Edwin bought himself back from his thoughts. Hearing and seeing Charles and Crystal comfort his mother though her fake tears and Edwin's blood boiled with the oh so old rage against her. He hadn’t thought about his mother in years, the idea of her using the disappearance of Florence made him want to scream.
“We of course will take your case, your daughter must have been a lovely girl,” Charles commented kindly.
“She was the very best, she would have made a lovely wife and mother, I only wish my husband would not have treated her so harshly,” she added.
That was rather confusing. Edmund Payne had not been a good person. He was in fact rather awful, especially to the staff at their home and to anyone he deemed lower than himself. His business was also filled with poison no one was brave enough to mention out loud. He had, however, loved two of his five children. Edwin and Florence. Florence and Edwin had received many gifts from their father from his various work trips and had been ecstatic to be gifted an embroidered handkerchief from Florence and had bragged plenty about his prodigal son, Edwin's intelligence had been admired from a young age. He most definitely never treated Florence harshly. Edwin as a boy was canned multiple times by their father, always controlled and never done in rage.
“I still can't see the supernatural mystery that we require in our agency, while I see your upset, Mrs Victoria, and while my partners were quick to say we will take it, I will have to overrule it. We will not take this case,” He managed to get out.
Edwin needs her to be gone. He so desperately wants to press his fists together to be able to show he was tense and upset by this woman so at least Charles would understand. Right now all he could focus on was getting this woman out of his home and away from him for good.
Crystal and Charles' heads whipped around to face him, shock and anger painting on their faces at the words that came out of Edwin’s mouth. His mother only looked at him with a fake face of hurt to hide the annoyance and anger.
“My daughter was presumed dead! I lost all my children! One of my sons died in war, the other ran off like a coward! And my two twin babies died young from sickness! My daughter, My Florence is the only one I must know!” She cried. Fake tears rolling from her eyes.
“Where have you buried all your children?”
The words were out of Edwin’s mouth before he could stop them.
As he and Florence had been left with the twins a lot as children, they had needed to entertain them and keep them happy in the minimal space. Locked away until Father and Henry returned wasn’t the best way for two young children to be. So he and Florence had made a song with them. It kept them from crying and comforted them, no matter the slightly dark meanings behind it. The twins sang the main part while Edwin added to the next, then Florence would sing more. Their father had adored the song, it was a creation from his two favourite children so when he would return, he’d get his children to perform it for him and their mother.
Their mother had hated the song. She understood the meanings behind it and was able to see it as an attack, which it had been. The only form of rebellion him and Florence could get away with towards her. The twins had been obsessed with the song and it became the only way to calm them down. She had despised it entirely.
“Tell me so I say,” He finished as calmly as possible.
Her face went through many emotions that Florence and Henry had helped teach him how to identify. Mainly shock, then recognition then the hatred he remembered her feeling towards him finally reared its ugly head.
“Edwin, what the fuck!” Charles nearly yelled at him.
“You are-”
“Edwin Payne,” He finished for her, deciding to ignore Charles. “How lovely to see you, Mother ,”
Everything froze. Charles and Crystal both wear nearly matching faces of shock on their faces and confusion.
“You had something to do with My Florence's death didn't you!?” His mother cried out, trying desperately to get the attention back.
Edwin rose so quickly from his chair it toppled over and hit the floor with a loud thud. His eyes stared at his mother with rage completely over his face.
“Don't you dare call her yours,” He hissed. “You do not get to talk of her like she was your belonging! You certainly do not get to mourn her!”
For the first time in years he actually saw fear in his mothers face.
“Love, breathe-” Charles started reaching towards him, worry creased into his face.
That word. Ever since he and Charles started dating, he called Edwin ‘Love’ now infront of regular company that would have been fine. However in front of his mother, especially after she had seen how close they had been earlier. It did not go over well. Edwin could see the disgust in her eyes as clear as the green colour they were.
“You! You disgusting fairy! I had hoped you’d grow out of your perverted nature-”
“Get out.”
Edwin’s voice gave no room for an argument. Crystal herself grabbed the woman's arm before forcing her towards the door and out of the place. As soon as she was no longer in sight, Edwin slumped body, giving way as he nearly tumbled to the floor if Charles hadn’t been there to rush to guide him slowly to the floor.
Edwin felt the rage in him dim and go out, the fire once lit now gone and replaced with the waves of the fearful, sad child he had been. The child who had wanted nothing more than his mothers unconditional love and support, a young boy who wanted his mother.
Arms wrapped around his shoulders, creating a warm and loving embrace. One hand reached to softly cradle the back of his head, guiding it down in a tender motion, while the other rubbed gently between his upper back and then down, giving him the comfort he so desperately wished for. Charles’ touch gave a silent message of him being there for him, of the reassurance of his love for Edwin. Edwin let himself experience the vulnerability as he buried his face in the space where Charles’ neck met his shoulder and sobbed. Letting himself tremble against the pure security and safety he felt with Charles wrapped around him. He could feel Charles’ legs pressed against him, either side, braced firmly while Edwin sat with his legs tucked under him. Each touch of Charles, each murmur of love and affections whispered so sweetly into his ear reminded him of the unconditional love Charles held for him.
He let Charles’s words lull him into a peaceful state, completely and utterly supported by Charles as he let his mind rely completely on the boy he trusted the most. Ghosts could not sleep, but they could get close.
“I’m gonna pick you up, Love, okay? Just gonna get you on the couch,” Charles pressed a gentle kiss onto Edwin’s forehead before manoeuvring to be able to pick him up.
He gently settled Edwin on the couch before moving to sit himself and grabbing Edwin to rest against him, no more tears leaked from his eyes, just staring off into the world. Charles resumed mutterings of sweet words and played with Edwin’s hair, pressing kisses to his forehead and cheeks to let him know, through words and actions, he is loved.
Edwin wasn’t sure how long they were like that for, but he knew he felt loved and cherished in a way he never ever imagined someone would do for him. He lifted his head from where it rested on Charles shoulder and turned to look at him. Charles twisted his body, still keeping his arm around Edwin, doodling designs onto his shoulder. They looked at each other for a moment before Charles smiled and pressed a gentle kiss to Edwin’s cheek.
“I never thought I would see my mother again,” Edwin spoke out from the comfortable silence.
“That seems pretty reasonable to me, mate,” Charles replied.
“I am not shocked she didn't recognize me, the only time she looked at me was to punish me. She would lock Florence, the twins and I on the other side of the house and forbid us to go out into the world. At first, she would say it was because she loved us and wanted us to be safe.”
Edwin didn't remember the before. In his brain, he was in that part of the house until he left for St Hilarions. Nothing else but his siblings around to keep company and the few maids that were forbidden to talk to them. His mother then turned into something sour, Edwin could not remember when that soft voice turned into acid.
“She shouldn’t have done that,” Charles gave his reassurances. “She should have cared for you, you were a fucking child! Her child,”
Charles’ anger left something sweet in Edwin’s chest. The idea that his love, his wonderful, kind, Charles was angry at the treatment Edwin received was validating in a way Edwin did not know he needed.
“My mother only hit me once,” Edwin spoke again, his voice weirdly even. “I was having a… lapse in composure,”
“Like when everything gets too much for you?” Charles asked, knowingly.
Edwin nodded in reply. “She was so angry at me, furious even so she smacked me until I stopped.”
Edwin could hear Charles suck in a sharp breath, the memory hitting close to home.
“You never deserved that.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Edwin admitted softly.
Charles shifted more, turning himself so he and Edwin were now face to face before grabbing his hands and squeezing them tightly, in a way he knew Edwin loved.
“There is nothing you could do, nothing at all, that made it okay for her to hurt you,”
Charles tone held anger in it, cradled it between words. Something Charles himself struggled to believe but was so confident that Edwin did not deserve it.
“I think I could learn to believe that,”
Charles smiled at him, a beautiful blinding smile. It faulted before falling away.
“If that was what your mum was like, what the fuck did your dad do?”
Clearly his mothers words from earlier had left their imprints in Charles’ mind, understandable as it was.
“My father was a horrible, disgusting man.” Edwin began. “And I was his favourite son,”
Charles flashed between anger and then shock and then confusion. Edwin smiled bitterly in return.
“My father loved me like a father should, me and Florence were everything to him. He adored us both. He was, however, incredibly racist and a horrible man,” Edwin admitted.
“So he never-”
“Never.”
It was half a lie, his father had never hurt him out of anger like his mother, only ever out of duty.
“Good,” Charles smiled again.
“I would like to tell you of my siblings, especially Florence, you would have thought her to be quite brills,”
While his mother had brought back a lot of old fears and worries, the memory of his loving sister had been brought with her. Edwin knew he wouldn’t have had the courage to speak of her otherwise. But he liked the idea of telling Charles about her, he thinks they would have gotten along.
“That would be aces, Love” he replied.
They both knew that the conversation was over for now. Edwin felt a weight lifted from his shoulders, no longer holding the weight of his mothers disappointment. He never knew the relief and comfort of knowing he was loved, knowing there is nothing he has to do to ensure Charles will never stop loving him.
Charles gazed deep into Edwin’s eyes, a playful glint dancing on his own, wanting to cheer up his boyfriend. There was something so incredibly special about how they could communicate with each other with just a glance. Leaning in, slowly, he began to press soft kisses, starting with the tip of Edwin’s nose, the sweet gesture placing an easy smile on Edwin's face. Charles then moved to his cheeks, pressing a quick kiss on one then the other then back over and over with a genuine grin on his face. Each peck gained a joyful laugh from Edwin. Charles pulled back just enough to look at him completely. The grins on each of their faces match before pressing their smiling lips together.
“I love you”
“I love you too”
It was the closest thing to heaven Edwin had ever felt.