Chapter Text
-6:57 am-
Mia stopped outside the nursery, key in her hand ready to unlock it with Charlotte a half step behind her ready to open up, when her phone started to ring furiously.
“It’s Reece.” She told her girlfriend. “I should really take it, he’s probably calling Marjorie in sick. You go on in.” She handed the keys over and answered the call as Char disappeared inside.
“Yeah?” She said.
“Are you at work yet?” Reece asked, panic in his voice.
“Char and I just got here, we’re opening up now.” Mia said. “Why?”
Reece’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “Marjorie didn’t come home last night. I thought maybe she might have fallen asleep at her desk. It’s happened before.”
There was an ever so slight pang in her chest at the hurt in his voice. “She was on the early yesterday and left when her shift finished.” Mia shook her head. “Plus the car park is empty, she’s not here.”
“Oh.” Despite not being able to see him, Mia could hear the way his shoulders dropped and he shrank in on himself.
“Look, she’s probably fine.” She assured him. “Is there any other reason she might not have come home last night?” She asked tentatively.
“We’re fighting.” Reece said. “A lot. About nothing, really. But every conversation ends in an argument.”
“I see.” Mia sighed, although it definitely wasn’t news to her. She’d been on the receiving end of Marjorie’s offloads most mornings and had even considered investing in some earplugs they were becoming so frequent. “Look, she’s probably just stayed at a friend’s. She’s been really stressed out lately because there’s a lot going on with the staffing situation across the nurseries, as well as preschool transition and a bunch of parents kicking off. Plus, she misses you and Aut. She was also completely exhausted when she left yesterday, there’s a not insignificant chance she went to the shop on her way home and fell asleep in the car park.” She rambled, coming up with any explanation she could.
“Oh. Okay.”
“Look, I will ring you when she arrives or when her shift starts if she’s still not here by then.” Mia promised. “I’m sure she’s fine, there’s no need to panic now.”
“Thanks Mia.” She could hear the lump in his throat, and ended the call as kindly as she could before hanging up on him.
Walking into the building she stopped in at the office to drop her bags, boot up her computer, and look for any signs that Marjorie had been back after closing, of which there weren’t any. Then, it was straight down to the rooms.
“What are you doing in here?” Charlotte asked as she stopped in the baby room doorway.
“Did you hear from Marjorie last night?” Mia asked softly. “She didn’t go home.”
“What?”
“Yeah, Reecey was calling to ask if she fell asleep at her desk. She didn’t go home.” She repeated.
“No, no I didn’t hear anything from her.” Charlotte stammered. “Oh, Winter’s due in in a minute. Maybe she went to help with the twins and fell asleep there?”
“That was my thought, but surely she’d have parked at her’s and Reece’s if she did. They only live a few doors down.”
“You’re right, her car would be down the road at most in that case.” Charlotte hummed. “Oh, it was Sorscha and Clodagh’s anniversary, maybe she was babysitting Quinn?”
“I’ll phone Sorscha now and check.”
“Okay, and I’ll ask Winter on the off chance her car broke down and she walked over there.”
“Babe, this is Marjorie’s car you’re talking about. It’s not an off chance.”
-7:12 am-
Sorscha’s voice was a whispered yell through the phone. “Mia, I swear to god if you are changing my shift-“
“Have you seen or heard from Marjorie? She didn’t go home last night and Reece doesn’t know where she is.” Mia explained. “I told him not to panic, but currently neither he, Autumn, Winter, Charlotte or I have heard anything from her since she left here yesterday.”
“No. No, she came in the staff room to wash up her mug as I was leaving and that’s the last I saw of her. She looked dreadful though. Not like sick dreadful, but just not herself at all.”
“I didn’t tell Reece, but she spent most of yesterday looking like she was about to start crying.” Mia sighed. “And she barely spoke, which is the exact opposite of how my day normally goes.”
Sorscha was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. “Do you think maybe something’s seriously wrong?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“I hate to ask, but are you going to report her missing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Her shift doesn’t actually start for another hour and three quarters, so if she doesn’t turn up by then I’ll probably have to.” Mia glanced at the clock.
“Do you want me to do some digging?” Sorscha asked. “I can ring around, find out if anyone’s seen or heard anything.”
“That would be great.” Mia nodded. “So far Reece, me and Char, Winter, Autumn and Summer are all a confirmed nothing.”
-8:45 am-
A flash of blonde passed the office and Mia dashed out of her chair, leaving the emails that she’d been unable to focus on. “Oh, Shibby, thank god.” Mia said skidding to a halt behind the blonde walking through the nursery with Jamie.
“Jamie, can you please go and find your teacher?” Siobhan told him, dropping his hand. “Tell them that you’re fine but need breakfast and I’ll be in to do handover in a moment.” Jamie toddled off the few metres to the preschool room quite happily, hanging his bag up on his peg before disappearing inside.
“So, Marjorie hasn’t come in-“ Mia started before Siobhan cut her off.
“I know, she messaged me yesterday saying she wasn’t feeling her best and would likely need today off, so I’m here to cover.”
“When was that?” Mia asked. “Like, what time exactly?”
Siobhan pulled out her phone. “Five nineteen. Why?”
“Because Marjorie didn’t go home last night and nobody has seen or heard from her since cctv caught her driving out of here at five forty yesterday.”
Siobhan’s face fell, going from dismissive to concerned in a flash. “Ah.”
“I’m going to have to tell Reece to file a missing person report, aren’t I?” Mia’s voice betrayed the calm she had been trying to exude all morning.
Siobhan paused. “Maybe not. Do you have Marjorie on Snapchat?”
“I don’t, but Char does. Why?”
“She never closes any apps and never turns her location off on the map feature.” She explained. “We may be able to track her if she has the app open.”
“That’s a great idea, let me grab Char’s phone.” She jogged towards the baby rooms.
“Shouldn’t you ask her first?”
“Hey, baby.” Mia stuck her head into the room Charlotte was in. “Can I borrow your phone? Need to check something.”
“Uh, sure.” Charlotte stammered. “Check what?”
“We’re going to try Snapchat maps.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened in realisation. “That’s a brilliant idea.” She said.
“I can’t take credit, it was all Shibbs.” Mia waved her off.
“My phone is in the front pocket of my bag, let me know what you find out?”
Mia nodded. “Of course.”
-8.58 am-
Charlotte’s phone was face up on the desk, snapmaps loaded up, with both Siobhan and Mia hovering over it.
“That’s strange.” Siobhan zoomed the map view out. “It says she’s here.”
“Hold on, let me ring her.” Mia said.
The blonde rolled her eyes. “You didn’t try that first?”
“Obviously I did. But it was when I was stood outside after Reece first called and when the nursery was basically empty. This seems to suggest that her phone is inside the building.” Mia explained.
Siobhan raised an eyebrow. “And ringing her will help how?”
“Because the phone will ring, and hopefully someone will hear it.” Mia said slowly.
“As long as it’s not on silent.”
Mia’s eye roll rivalled Siobhan’s in drama. “Please, this is Marjorie we’re talking about.”
-9:08 am-
They were hunting around the office, Siobhan sifting through a pile of papers on Marjorie’s desk and Mia going through the filing cabinet drawers.
“Found it.” Siobhan picked up the phone from Marjorie’s desk. “It was under all of the papers, she likely just forgot it.”
“It’s gone nine.” Mia said slowly, looking over at the clock. “I should probably call Reece and let him know that she hasn’t turned up.”
“I take it you’re still talking about Marjorie?” Winter walked into the office. “Because I have a request on that front.”
“Winter, now is really not the time.” Mia warned.
“I know, but I was thinking, telling Autumn about the current situation may not be the best idea.” He said slowly. “And I wanted to know if you had passed that information on to her already.”
“You want us to lie to Aut?”
“No, no of course not. But given her current mental state with her anxiety, I worry about how she would react. If she has not already been informed, I can’t help but think that it might be best for her and the twins if I broke the news when I get home this evening.”
“You don’t think she deserves to know?” Siobhan raised her eyebrows.
“Of course she deserves to know, Marjorie is her best friend. But I worry about the distress it may cause her, and if she would be able to care for Dorian and Emery through it, which if she couldn’t would only serve to upset her further.” He explained.
The three of them fell silent for a moment, letting his words sink in. “Fine, we won’t tell her, and I’ll tell Reece not to either if he hasn’t already.” Mia agreed after what felt like an eternity. “He’s my next call, we’ve found Marjorie’s phone and it’s been seventeen hours since anyone saw her, so it’s probably time to get the police involved. Unless anyone else wants to be the one to break that news?”
“You’re okay. I’ll call Viv, she’s not working today, and I’ll arrange cover so we can go looking for her.” Siobhan said. “If we have three of us in driving around, we should be able to cover a good amount of ground.”
“No, I feel like if we were going to do that then it would be better if we had two cars and two spotters.” Mia said. “Too much chance we could miss something if we’re all driving.”
“Carly is off today because of excess staff and I’m spare.” Winter jumped in. “We’ve got so many families away that barely half the children are in, surely we can find someone else who’s not in ratio?”
“Summer, Lydia and Sorscha are in preschool with fifteen kids because Rosie and Jim both have heat stroke and Geraldine’s Henry is spending the day with his cousins.” Mia looked over the rota and register on the large whiteboard. “We could swap Lydia and Chloe and take Sorscha?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Right then, I’ll phone Carly and sort the rooms out whilst you two are making those calls.”
-9:21 am-
Mia closed the door to the nursery behind her, stepping outside as the ringing tone echoed out of her phone.
“Hi Ree-” Mia started as soon as the tone stopped halfway through the second ring.
“Is she there?” The panic was clear in his voice. “Is Marjorie there with you?”
Mia swallowed. “So, the good news is that she can’t have gone too far, and she is probably fine, because her phone is here and she told Shibby that she might have to call in sick today before she left yesterday.”
“What?” Reece rarely allowed himself to get angry, so the raised tone caused Mia to jump slightly. “She planned this?”
Mia stammered. “Well, we don’t think so, no. In the nicest way possible, she looked like crap yesterday and barely spoke all day, which I don’t have to tell you is really unlike her.”
He took a deep breath. “So what you’re telling me is that my wife out there somewhere, sick and alone, with no way of contacting anyone?”
Mia winced. “And that would be the bad news.”
“Mia!” He shouted in frustration. “This is not a joke. My wife could be in danger.”
“Don’t worry, Shibby, Winter and I have come up with a plan.” She promised him. “We have a plan and as long as we stick to it, we’re hopeful it’ll be fine.”
“And that plan would be…?”
“First, Winter thinks, and I do agree with his reasoning, that we should hold off telling Autumn until we know a little more and she has someone who can stay with her. Marjorie is her best friend, and she’s been struggling enough with her anxiety.” Mia blurted out. “We think telling her is just going to make her so anxious it’ll interfere with her taking care of the twins and cause her more stress than we need to.”
“You think lying to my sister is a good idea?” He asked. “Have you met Aut?”
“Not lying, just delaying the information until she’s in a position to handle it.” Mia scratched the back of her neck. “Obviously don’t lie to her if she asks about Marjorie, but it’s going to be a lot harder to find Marjorie if we’re worrying about Autumn.”
“Fine.” She could hear the eye roll. “What’s the actual plan?”
“You’re going to call the police and report her missing, then start calling around hospitals just to see if she’s there. Important part is that you stay home just in case she finds her way back. Shibby, Sorscha, Carly, Winter, Viv and I are going to split off into pairs and drive around looking for her car.”
“Can the nursery really spare all of you?”
“We’ve got a ton of kids out because of the school holidays.” Mia said. “Shibby’s got Janice and Deliah coming to cover, Carly was off anyway and Winter and Sorscha aren’t in ratio.”
-10:17 am-
The six people going to look for Marjorie gathered in the staff room, Siobhan and Mia stood at the front with the other four sat on the sofas looking at the expectantly.
“So, we’ll be splitting off into pairs. One of you will be driving and the other will be attempting to spot Marjorie, or more likely, her car.” Siobhan opened the briefing. “Carly, you’re going with Viv, you’ll be pair one, Mia and Sorscha, pair two, you can fight amongst yourselves about who’s driving, and Winter, you’ll be coming with me and we’ll be pair three. Mia?”
“So, pair one you’ve going to turn right out of here, try and keep to the north of town. Pair three turn left and keep towards the south. Sorscha, we’ll be sticking around the middle.” She directed. “You may have noticed that I’ve added all of you to a group chat, along with Reece, and Deliah, and since I think everyone here has an iPhone, please share your locations with everyone else so that any updates can literally just be be a dropped pin and the words found and either Marjorie or car and we aren’t wasting time typing out locations. Do not send any messages unless it’s a meaningful update, please keep your phones on, as close at hand as possible, and turn them off silent. Yes Carly, I am talking to you.”
The young woman grumbled. “My phone is literally never off silent, I don’t even know what my ringtone sounds like.”
“When a pair finds the car, you will message the group chat with your location and everyone will drive to there and start looking on foot.” Siobhan took over. “Which means that at least one person will need to stay in sight of the car until everyone arrives to coordinate and make sure that nobody is checking places we’ve already cleared.”
“Deliah is going to be base contact here because her and Janice are in the office and are therefore the only ones who can have their phones on them-“ A chorus of got it’s filled the room, and Mia didn’t feel the need to expand further on the reasoning behind that choice.
“Also, don’t contact Autumn about this. We’re not involving her in this until she’s got someone with her who can support her.” Siobhan added. “You may not agree with that choice, but I would ask that you respect it.”
-1:32 pm-
“Pull over.” Sorscha yelled after hours of driving around in a tense relative silence. “Mia, that is Marjorie’s car right there, pull over.”
Mia indicated and pulled into the side road that was thankfully free of double yellow lines. She parked the car up, barely taking the time to make sure the handbrake was on and engine was off before her and Sorscha were leaping out and bolting towards the other vehicle.
Sorscha bent down, had a look in the window and stood up. “That is definitely Marjorie’s car, just look at the appletiser cans in the back seat.”
“Do you want to start knocking on doors asking if anyone has seen her?” Mia asked. “I’ll let everyone know.”
“Grand.” Sorscha nodded. “Shall I do all the houses along this side of the road?”
Mia looked around. The houses only lined one side of the road, with a cemetery on the other. It looked untouched, from what she could see the grass looked overgrown and dotted with flowers and she was fairly certain were weeds. “You just don’t want to go into the graveyard.” She realised.
Sorscha shuddered. “You’re damn right I don’t, especially not when it looks like the place time forgot.” Mia could understand why, the concept of death freaked her out at the best of times, but the graveyard didn’t look too bad in the light. The summer’s day combined with all the greenery made it look almost pleasant, if it wasn’t for the graves acting as a reminder of all the bodies buried there.
“It’s not that overgrown. But fine, I’ll search the graveyard.” She sighed.
“Too bad Autumn’s not here, she would’ve jumped at that one.” Sorscha’s comment was met with a glare as she scurried off to the nearest house and Mia crossed the road, pulling out her phone to text the group chat.
-1:46 pm-
The overgrown grass of the graveyard wasn’t helping Mia look. Twice, she’d thought she’d seen a flash of ginger and bolted towards it, only to realise upon getting closer that it was actually a plant covered brick wall. She was glad that there was nobody else around because once would have been embarrassing enough, but twice was verging on humiliating.
She checked her phone again, to see an update from Reece that the police had finally finished questioning him and looking through their home for any indication of whether or not Marjorie’s absence was planned or where she may have gone, one from Deliah saying that Marjorie’s phone had been collected by the police, and affirmatives from Winter and Carly that their cars were heading her way.
As she tucked her phone back in her pocket she heard something. It could have been anything, the rustle of the grass, an animal, but as Mia made a silent step towards it it happened again and she recognised it as the sound of something distinctly human. Someone was crying.
Crying probably wasn’t that unusual for the location, given she was in a graveyard. But she hadn’t seen anyone enter since she’d arrived. She moved closer to the sound, keeping her footsteps as quiet as she could, which wasn’t easy given all of the plants and gravel from the path.
She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the figure, hunched over an old grave.
“Marjorie?” She asked, causing the other woman to whip her head around.
-1:48 pm-
“Okay, I’ve told everyone you’re safe but you need a little space.” Mia said slowly as she slid her phone back into her pocket. “I’m going to come closer now.” She swallowed. “Is that okay?”
Marjorie nodded, not quite meeting the redhead’s eyes.
“We’ve all been really worried about you.” Mia tried. “Reece especially.”
Marjorie’s voice was so quiet, so broken, that Mia could barely hear it even as she crouched down beside her. “He doesn’t care.”
“Are you kidding?” Mia had to fight back tears of her own. “He’s been worried sick about you. He was the first person to panic, he called me before seven this morning to make sure you hadn’t fallen asleep at work.”
“I didn’t think he’d notice.” Marjorie mumbled, keeping her eyes down.
“Wouldn’t notice? Marjorie, he’s been beside himself.” Mia sighed. “I know you’ve been fighting-”
“I didn’t not go home because we were fighting.” Marjorie cut her off.
Mia blinked. “Then, why didn’t you?”
-1:53 pm-
“I suppose.” Mia looked up at the blue, cloudless sky. “If you were going to disappear into what I can only describe as if the secret garden had a cemetery for twenty hours, you could have had worse weather.”
Marjorie didn’t say anything. As she hadn’t for the past few minutes.
“Why here anyway?” Mia carried on the one sided conversation. “I mean, it probably wouldn’t have been my first choice. Or, you know, my second or third. I’m not Autumn, graveyards give me the creeps.”
Marjorie nodded towards the headstone in front of them. “Mia, meet my dad. Dad, Mia.”
“But, that’s not your maiden name.”
“No, mum changed my name when she married my stepdad five months later. I was eight, I didn’t exactly get a say.”
“Oh.” Mia’s jaw went slack. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m older now than he ever was.” Marjorie continued. “Dad died when he was thirty six. I’m thirty seven.”
“I’m the same with my mum.” Mia said. “She had me at nineteen and died when I was eighteen. It feels weird, passing that milestone.”
“Yeah.” Marjorie sighed. “Is it mad I still miss him? It’s been almost thirty years.”
“No, I don’t think it’s mad.” Mia swallowed. “What made you want to come and see him.”
Marjorie looked away, staring off into the distance. “I just wanted my dad.” She choked as she descended back into sobs.
“Come here.” Mia pulled her into a tight hug, letting Marjorie sob into her shoulder. “I know.” She rubbed circles onto her back as Marjorie hiccuped a sob. “I know.”
-2:16 pm-
Marjorie took a sip from the water bottle Mia offered her. “I was pregnant.” She breathed.
“Oh.” Mia couldn’t hide her surprise. “I didn’t think you wanted…”
“I didn’t.”
“So did you… you know?” Mia asked.
“I didn’t get a chance.” Marjorie swallowed. “I was thinking about it. I hadn’t told Reece because I wanted to get my head on straight first. I only found out a few days ago.”
“So when you say you were…?”
“I lost it yesterday morning.” Marjorie had gone from being hysterical to eerily calm. “All day yesterday, I was miscarrying.”
“Well, that at least explains why you weren’t yourself.” Mia sighed. “I know Sorscha and I both picked up on it, and probably other people too.”
“I meant to go to the clinic straight after work.” Marjorie said, like she was trying to justify herself. “I meant to, I got in my car and drove that way. And then I just drove past it. And just kept driving. I didn’t even know where I was going until I found myself sat here at god knows what hour.”
Mia stayed silent, just letting Marjorie get everything out.
“And I think I came here because some stupid, broken part of me is still that little eight year old girl who just lost the only person in the world she knew loved her unconditionally.” Silent tears started to roll down her face. “I just wanted to feel that loved again.”
“Marjorie, you are.” Mia breathed. “We barely had to ask anyone today before they were volunteering to help find you. Reece is a mess, and we were way too worried about Autumn’s reaction to tell her. The reason only six of us were out look for you is because we literally couldn’t spare the staff, not for lack of volunteers. I had to mute Char because all of her asking for updates was making looking for you that much harder. So many people care about you.”
“They do?”
“If we hadn’t found you by five we had three more teams of people ready to join the search.” Mia rose to her feet and offered her hand. “Can I take you home now?”
Marjorie took her hand and stood up on shaky legs. Even though she was wearing black trousers, Mia could see the bloodstains running down her legs.
“On second thought, I’ll text Reecey to meet us at the clinic.” She said.
-2:56 pm-
Reece barrelled through the waiting area and into the exam room where Marjorie was sat on the table, clinging to Mia’s hand so tightly that both their knuckles had gone white.
“Sir, I’m sorry but you can’t-” The midwife was cut off by Reece wrapping his arms around Marjorie as tightly as he could and pulling her as close to his chest as he could as she instinctively returned the embrace.
“I was so scared.” He murmured into her ear. “I was so scared that I’d lost you.” He kissed her on the top of the head.
“I’m sorry.” Marjorie sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, you have nothing to apologise for.” He shook his head, swallowing back tears of his own. “You have had so much on your plate and instead of helping, I just added more for you to deal with. I’m sorry, I should have realised that you were so stressed but instead I’ve been trying to take on everything with Autumn, who has a whole village to support her, and thinking about myself and my own feelings about getting fired. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”
“I’m going to go back to work now.” Mia told Marjorie. “Shibby’s going to cover for you all next week, don’t even think about coming in, and I think you’re in good hands now.” She smirked. “Look after her Reecey.”
“I will.” He promised. “Thank you.”
“Thank you Mia.” Marjorie echoed as the redhead ducked out of the room.