Chapter Text
“Faith!” Jamie embraced his daughter enthusiastically, lifting her to her toes. He’d not seen his daughter in almost a year, and they’d been expecting her tomorrow.
“Hi Da.” The trepidation in her voice broke their hug. He stood back and examined her face. Like her mother, her face broadcast her thoughts, and currently it was showing that she was troubled and…scared?
He cupped her face lightly. “A nighean, what is it?”
She took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Is Mama home?”
“She’s just out for tea with Mary at the moment…” he trailed off. He’d never seen his eldest so reticent to talk to him, and it shook him.
“I have something to talk to you about, but I’d like to do it with the both of you.”
Jamie ushered his daughter inside. “Aye. Whatever it is, that’s likely for the best. Perhaps ye could use a wee dram before we talk?”
Faith grinned, and Jamie was gratified to see that it almost reached her eyes. “That would be grand, Da.”
–
Once Claire had returned, Faith settled them all in the living room with a fresh round of whiskey.
“Mama, Da, I’d like to bring someone home for Christmas dinner tomorrow.”
“Darling, that’s lovely!” The worry on Claire’s face broke, and Faith wished that could be the end of it, that this conversation could have been the easy revelation it was for her siblings.
“Ye didna tell us ye had a lad in yer life!” Her father was beaming, clearly thinking she’d just been nervous about introducing them to her first serious boyfriend.
“Well that’s because it’s not a lad.” Her parents’ faces froze in confusion. “It’s Joan.”
A spark of understanding flashed in her mother’s eyes, but her father looked more confused than ever
“Joan, Marsali’s sister? Aye, we’d be happy to meet her, and we’re glad ye found a friend abroad, a nighean, but…”
“That’s just it. She’s not just a friend.” Faith clarified, unhelpfully, judging by her father’s face.
“I think Faith means, she’s a girlfriend, of the romantic sort.” Her mother explained, now looking as nervous about the whole situation as Faith felt, and quickly downing half of her whiskey.
Faith braced herself for the final revelation. “More than that. I’d like you to meet her, but when you do, it won’t be as Joan MacKimmie, it will be as Joan Fraser.”
The name seemed to echo through the room, filling up the silence; the elephant now revealed.
“Did you know my first husband once said almost that exact thing to me.” Claire mused, as always, unable to restrain the first thought that popped into her head in times of tension.
“… the one you divorced?” Faith deadpanned.
“Well I’m sure it won’t come to that with… with Joan, darling,” her mother’s hands fluttered nervously about, scattered as her thoughts. “I was just… oh, I don’t know.”
Claire looked to Jamie for assistance, but his eyes were glued to Faith’s.
“But what about a family, Faith? Ye said ye wanted bairns.”
She sighed and looked back to her father’s well-meaning but hurtful question. “Da, you and Mama know that difficulties over having children aren’t exclusive to gay people.” She gave him a pointed look. The three Fraserlings had long been told how much they were wanted and how fraught it had been to conceive and carry two of them, Fergus being adopted.
“And besides, do ye think difficulty having bairns would switch me? That ease of getting children would change my sexuality?” In her rising frustration, the little hint of Scots she’d picked up from her father bled into her speech.
Her father ruffled a hand through his hair. He looked small and lost, like a child. She wondered if this was what it was to be an adult - to talk to your parent on the same level.
“No.” He finally answered. “I suppose not.”
“We are happy for you, darling.” Claire assured her, reaching out to take her hand. “We just… your father and I might need some time is all.”
In spite of her mother’s gentle words, Faith felt her spirits fall. This was far from the worst reaction she’d imagined, but it still hurt, to know that she was the only child her parents would need time to accept. “I know. That’s why I came early.” Her voice was soft, staving off tears.
“Mo chiusle,” her father’s voice cracked, and she forced herself to meet his troubled gaze once more. “We do love ye, no matter what. I just…I dinna ken what this means.”
Faith felt the protective frustration rise in her. “Well it’s not like I’m the first gay you’ve met, John’s gay.”
“Faith!” both of her parents reprimanded her simultaneously
“What? It’s not an insult!” Faith shouted, rising to her feet. “And what did you think Hector was, a friend?”
Her father’s jaw was clenched; his anger was stoked too. But her mother took her hand once more.
“Alright, you’re right. We were wrong to react like that.”
“I’m still the person you raised me to be.” Faith said quietly, trying to suppress the sudden lump in her throat and the tears teetering on the brims of her eyes.
Da took a deep breath. “Well not if ye’ve gone and married the lass without inviting yer family, or hers!”
Faith exhaled, for what felt like the first time all afternoon. “I didn’t, I was just making a point. We’re engaged, but…I had hoped we would be married with our families.” She didn’t reveal that she also wanted to be married in the church her parents had been married in. That could come later.
“Now, darling, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” her mother began. Faith shot her father a look, and tried unsuccessfully to stymy a smile. Whenever her mother uttered those words, they were bound to be followed by something intensely uncomfortable. “But ah, pleasure… is an important part of a relationship…”
“Two women can have a very satisfying time together, Mama.” Faith answered quickly, correctly guessing where her mother’s question was leading. She grinned. “Would you like me to explain further?”
“NO,” Jamie replied loudly, face flaming. “Not that I dinna care for yer happiness, aye? But I could do without such details.”
Claire beamed. “I very much agree. Just wanted to make sure you were happy, darling.”
Faith’s smile cracked into side-splitting laughter, followed seconds later by both of her parents.