Work Text:
Staying away is a coping mechanism. Mia wants, as much as possible, to hop between exotic locations, pop back for the occasional board meeting she can’t get out of or zoom into, and see Roger’s ratty little face as infrequently as possible while still getting paid enough to finance her lifestyle.
At least, that’s what she used to want.
The thing about being in love is that it makes you want to stick around.
Mia isn’t used to wanting to stay.
Mia isn’t used to being in love.
She’s in the Bahamas, lounging on a hot beach with a cocktail in hand, watching people swim in the clear blue ocean as the sunset turns everything golden, and she’s… she’s something. Not sad, exactly, but not happy either. There’s something tugging inside her chest, a weight in her stomach. When she closes her eyes against the low hanging sun, she sees Char like she’s printed onto her eyelids, soft and smiling.
She supposes that this is what being with Reece would have been like if being with Reece had meant anything at all. She’s glad, secretly, that he has that now.
Her phone pings. A goodnight message - it’s almost eleven in the UK and it sounds like Char has had a hell of a day. Staffing issues, terrible agency staff, then coming home to one of her girls unwell. Mia aches to be with her, to take some of the load from Char’s shoulders and put it on her own. She wouldn’t admit it to Char, and even if she did Char would tell her she’s being silly, but Mia feels guilty for being in paradise alone while her girlfriend juggles so much.
Escaping only feels worth it until there’s something worth facing your demons for.
Goodnight, sweetheart, she types. I’ll be home soon.
Mia drags a finger through the sand, then takes a photo to send to Char.
M <3 C
Char manages one more message, and Mia can just imagine her typing while rapidly losing consciousness.
liveyopo7
They’ve not said it yet, not really. And that settles it. Mia finds and books a flight departing in a handful of hours, gathers her beach things, and heads quickly back to her room to throw her belongings in a bag and check out early. If she’s lucky, she might even make it home before Char’s lunch break tomorrow. It’s a redeye but Mia can sleep anywhere, and she’ll deal with jet lag if it means being home with her girl.
Mia sleeps enough on the flight to survive and makes sure to be awake early enough to check in with Char first thing in the morning. She sends a message at 6am her time, while Mia is somewhere over the Atlantic with WiFi she’d paid well over the odds for.
Both girls have the bug now. Been up and down all night with them. They’re going to their dads early to rest up because he can work from home. Dragging myself to work and praying it won’t get me too. How’s paradise? Xx
Too far. I miss you. Xx
If it helps, I’m a mess. I’ve barely slept and I’m not convinced I don’t still have puke somewhere on my person. You wouldn’t want to be around me right now. Xx
Baby, I’ll always want to be around you. Why are you going to work? You need to take care of yourself too. Xx
No staff. Carly’s got study leave to work on her assignments, Sorscha’s whole household is ill, basically everyone who’s relatively competent is off except me and Winter and we’re barely holding the place together. Unless and until I’m actively throwing up, I’m going in. Xx
Mia sighs, head back against the hard economy seat headrest. She’d have preferred better typically, but this was an emergency. She considers her options for a moment, imagining Char desperately dragging herself through her day. Time to pull some strings.
With a strong tailwind, the flight lands early and Mia runs through arrivals, barely stopping to grab her case, and jumps into the first taxi she finds. She’s going to make Charlotte’s lunch break, and a little birdie has told her that the staffing situation has been resolved somewhat - partially by the agency responding to an email containing a thinly veiled threat or two by sending some good staff, but also by half the kids coming down with the same bug that’s taken out most of their siblings in the local primary schools. She’s checked Char’s break time on the rota she somehow has access to and her shared location says she’s still at the nursery so she hasn’t given in and gone home. Yet. But the same little managerial birdie from before also mentioned that with the lower numbers, Char will be out of ratio after lunch. Which is useful. And she also practically begged Mia to come and make Charlotte see sense. Which was satisfying.
The first stop is the first supermarket the taxi drives past, where Mia leaves the meter running to go inside and collect supplies - some of Charlotte’s favourite snacks, plus rehydration powder and paracetamol. She pays the extortionate taxi fare when they reach her house, then switches to her own car to drive to Char’s. Mia sets up the snacks beside the sofa along with some comfy blankets, then does a quick scan of the house. Working fast, with time against her, Mia strips and changes Charlotte’s bed, puts her bedding alongside the girls already stripped bedding on a hot wash, unloads the dishwasher, and leaves. If she’s timed it right, and she’s certain she has, Char will be leaving the building to nap in her car as soon as Mia pulls up.
And because Mia has never met a plan she couldn’t execute, she times it perfectly. She’s a bit early, even, because she has time to stroll up to the nursery doors and wait outside, just out of sight.
It’s 1:02 when the door opens and an exhausted, pale shell of a person Mia vaguely recognises as her girlfriend leaves the building, closing the door behind her with a huge sigh.
“Oh, sweetheart,” Mia says sadly, and Char turns, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.
“Mia,” Charlotte breathes, stepping forward to just sag against her. Mia holds her, takes all of her weight, and presses a kiss into her hair. Mia feels Char’s tense muscles relax, and then the shake of her chest as she takes deep, ragged breaths. “What are you - how did -”
“Not important,” Mia says, kissing Char’s head again. “Baby, you didn’t tell me it was this bad.”
Charlotte takes some of her weight back onto her own feet but stays close, hands on Mia’s waist gripping hard. She ducks her head, and a tear drips off of her cheek and splashes next to Mia’s shoes. “I… I didn’t want you to feel like you had to ruin your trip because of me. I didn’t want to be that girlfriend.”
“I would do anything for you, Char,” Mia says, and Charlotte lifts her chin again to meet her gaze. “Unconditionally.”
Charlotte breaks at that, quiet tears turning to full sobs. Mia pulls her in, holds her tight, and runs a hand up and down her back in comfort.
“I’ve not slept for three nights,” Charlotte admits into Mia’s shoulder. “I haven’t eaten in two days in case I’ve got what the kids have got and then I have to take time off and make everything harder and it’s just easier not to find out.”
“Easier for who? Everyone else? Sweetheart, you need to put yourself first once in a while. Don’t kill yourself over work. It’s not worth it.”
Charlotte nods against Mia’s collarbone, her sobs slowing and her breath steadying. Mia kisses her head again, then the shell of her ear, and lets her hands slide down to take Char’s and lead her to the car.
“Where are we going?” Charlotte says, a slight panic in her voice when Mia starts the engine.
“Home,” Mia says. “I’ve sorted it all. You’re not in ratio this afternoon anyway. You need to rest, and you’re not going back until you’re back to normal.”
“How did you know-”
“I have my methods.”
It’s a short drive, but Charlotte falls asleep before they get to her house. Mia scoops her out of the passenger seat and carries her inside, and the action makes her think for the first time in her life about both marriage and babies - carrying her wife over the threshold of their home, and carefully transferring a sleeping mini Mia-and-Char, however biologically implausible that may be, from car to bed. Mia lays Charlotte on the sofa, gently removes her shoes, and covers her with a blanket. She makes sure that the snacks and bottles of water she left out earlier are within grabbing distance, before ducking into the cupboard under the stairs to grab a bucket to put by Char’s side. Just in case.
Mia kisses Charlotte’s temple lightly, her skin notably warm and a little clammy against her lips. Listening intently, Mia puts the clean bedding in the dryer and heads upstairs to put clean sheets on the girls beds and tidy up a little - nothing invasive, just straightening bookshelves and brushing dust off of some little used toys. House in order, Mia settles on the other end of the sofa, gently lifting Charlotte’s feet onto her lap. She turns the TV on low just for background noise, not really watching whatever’s on. Mia presses her thumbs into the soles of Charlotte’s feet and begins to rub them, slowly and rhymically. Char stirs a little at the movement but doesn’t wake, and the moment is so still and warm and comfortable that Mia feels the long flight catching up with her, pulling down her eyelids. Char hums drowsily as Mia closes her eyes, then speaks two words, quiet and sleep-muffled.
“Love you.”
Mia rubs at Charlotte’s big toes, her efforts becoming less and less co-ordinated as she drifts.
“Love you too,” she whispers. “So, so much.”
When they’re both more awake and functioning, Mia thinks, she is going to tease Char
so hard
for the first two times she told her that she loved her being via barely comprehensible text message and then in her sleep. But the point still stands. Charlotte loves her, she loves Charlotte, and later she’s going to cancel every flight she’s got booked for the foreseeable.
Mia is home, and she’s home to stay.