Chapter Text
“Betsy, would you stop?” DS Lisa Swain begged.
She was sat in her car, having just gone to Roy’s Rolls to apologise to Carla for snapping at her. She’d had a bad day already and it was barely lunch time. First, she lost her pass. Then she’d got into an argument with her daughter, which was apparently now continuing.
“No, I won’t stop!” the sixteen year old shouted. “You’re such a bitch!”
“Hey! Don’t speak to me like that!”
“Why not? Mum does.”
Lisa clenched her jaw and closed her eyes. She was right. Her wife, Becky, did speak to her like that. She shouldn’t expect Betsy to have learned any different.
“That doesn’t mean it’s okay,” Lisa said. “And you do have to listen to me. I’m your Mum.”
“Well, my other Mum, the fun one, the one who actually cares about me, said I can go.”
“And I said you can’t!”
“It’s just a holiday!”
“You’re sixteen. And not very well behaved. I’m not letting you go off to the Lake District with your mates. You need an adult for that sort of thing.”
“I’m practically an adult.”
“You’re really not,” Lisa sighed. “Look, I’ve got to go.”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You care more about that dead girl than you do about me!”
“Betsy, it’s because I care about you that I’m saying no!”
“Well, you can just take it up with Mum!” Betsy said. “She says I can go, so I’m going!”
She hung up. Lisa leant back in her seat, closing her eyes to her tears. She felt like an idiot, sitting in her car and crying because her daughter had been rude to her. She could normally take it. She didn’t normally have a choice.
But the last few months, the pressure had been building. Trying to find Lauren Bolton. Her anxiety that she might have arrested the wrong person. The lack of understanding from people like Carla Connor, not believing that she was just trying to get justice for a young girl. Becky and Betsy running rings around her at home. She wasn’t sure she had ever felt so lonely.
“Oh!” she managed, when her car door opened.
Without invitation, Carla sat in the passenger seat.
“What do you want?” Lisa asked quickly, wiping her eyes and hoping Carla hadn’t noticed her tears.
“I wanted to see if you were okay,” Carla replied.
She dug around in her handbag and offered her a tissue. Lisa accepted it gratefully. Clearly, she had noticed.
“Why?”
“Because I saw you crying.”
Lisa’s face flushed. She felt embarrassed.
“So… are you okay?” Carla asked.
“I’m fine. Just… under a lot of pressure.”
“At home as well as work?” Carla asked.
Lisa looked startled.
“Sorry. I went to give you your pass earlier but I held off because I heard you arguing with your… daughter?”
Lisa nodded.
“That’s all we ever do,” she said sadly.
“I’m sorry. I’ve not had kids myself but I had a stepson at one point. We get on fine now but when he was younger, he hated me.”
“Betsy hates me,” Lisa said sadly.
“Hey, I’m sure she doesn’t,” Carla said gently.
She reached out and squeezed Lisa’s hand.
“Sorry,” Lisa said. “I’m being so unprofessional.”
“It’s fine… Lisa? Is it?”
Lisa nodded.
“It’s fine,” Carla repeated. “Even coppers must need a break from it all.”
“Her other Mum has said she can go off on some holiday, unsupervised. She’s only sixteen. And not exactly the most well behaved, trustworthy sixteen either. I’ve said no. And now she hates me even more than she did before.”
Carla sighed.
“That sounds rough.”
“Do you think I’m being too overprotective?” Lisa asked.
Carla was surprised that the DS wanted her opinion.
“I think you know your daughter,” Carla said. “I also suspect you’ve seen enough through your job that you’d want to always protect her if you can. So, no. I don’t think you’re being overprotective.”
Lisa offered a small smile. She thanked her. Carla smiled back.
“I just wish there was something I could do to…”
She trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence.
“To…?”
“It sounds pathetic.”
“Hey, no judgement here,” Carla said.
“To make her like me,” Lisa admitted.
Carla chewed her lip thoughtfully.
“Can you try and… do something with her? I mean, what’s she into?”
“Drinking. Shouting.”
“Lisa…”
“She loves fashion. She wants to be a designer one day. She’s chosen her college course based on that.”
“Maybe you could… take her shopping? Like, for materials? Encourage her?”
“Maybe.”
She chuckled sadly.
“She’d love you,” she commented. “And your factory.”
Carla studied her thoughtfully, wondering if there was some way to help. But they were interrupted by Lisa’s work phone.
“Sorry,” Lisa said. “I should get back to it. Thank you for listening. You didn’t have to give a shit.”
“I’m all heart, me,” Carla joked.
She opened the car door in order to climb out.
“Does that mean you’ll stop giving me such a hard time?” Lisa asked hopefully.
Carla smirked.
“All the while you’ve got my best mate locked up? Afraid not.”
She climbed out of the vehicle.
“What made you fall out?” Lisa asked.
Carla leant back into the car, Carla smiled.
“None of your business, DS Swain,” she said.
She closed the car door. Lisa watched her head down the Street. Her phone rang again. It was Kit.
Next time... Roy is released, Carla and Lisa help each other out and Betsy is finally pleased with her Mum...