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Aaron wakes up in his own bed. It shouldn’t be unusual, that’s how he normally wakes up, except last night he fell asleep in a chair next to his husband’s hospital bed. Yet, he’s at home in bed and next to said husband who appears to be injury-free.
“Throw ‘em off the scent,” John mutters. He says such weird things in his sleep. Aaron remembers hearing him say the same thing when he woke up yesterday. He must be having the same dream he had last night. Aaron doesn’t want to think too hard about what his own dream must mean. Having an incredibly vivid and intense dream about his ex-husband hitting his current husband with a wrench can’t spell anything good for his psyche.
He gets to the scrapyard and the car and the white goods he and Vinny had taken apart in Aaron’s dream are intact. How and why did he dream up an entire day? He swaps with Vinny so he can at least scrap different items than he had in his sleep until he eventually cries off work at the exact same time he had in the dream.
He goes to the Woolpack to meet up with John and Vic, same as he had last night and Robert’s there. He’s sitting at a table in the middle of the pub in his stupid, soft, blue jumper that he’d been wearing in Aaron’s dream. It doesn’t concern Aaron too much seeing as it’s close to the sort of thing Robert would have worn before prison, it makes sense Aaron would dream up Robert wearing something like that. It seems plausible to Aaron, that the day he dreamed up could occur in reality, with a mundane morning with John, a short day at the scrapyard taking apart items he’d picked up yesterday and going to the pub with his husband and sister in law. It makes sense that Robert would show up in his dream, he’s been worried about what his ex-husband will do next. It’s all just a very reasonable coincidence.
Then Ross shows up. That’s when the coincidence seems less reasonable. Same as in Aaron’s dream, he accuses Robert of stealing his weed and selling it to pay for Annie’s field. Moira and Mack are there to give him a piece of their minds. Robert makes the same excuses and the same accusations of John. Aaron starts to think his dream was more of a premonition.
“Thanks for the tip off by the way,” Aaron hears Ross mutter to John. That must be how he already knew about Robert and the drugs. If John already knew, Aaron must’ve heard John say something about it yesterday and it somehow sneaked its way into Aaron’s dream.
Eventually, Vic herds Robert out of the pub and Aaron and John go to David’s on their way home.
“Just need to fix a few things on the van, stick that stuff in the fridge will you?” John passes the bag from David’s to him. Aaron goes inside because surely, while everything else he dreamed up happened so far, the most outrageous part won’t. Vic will arrive, the three of them will have dinner together and discuss what to do about Robert. They’ll come to some consensus about how to get him out of the village and out of their lives, and then Aaron doesn’t have to think about him all the time.
Only, Aaron’s put away the shopping, answered a text from Mack, and got out a couple of cans from the fridge and John still isn’t back. With a feeling of horror growing in the pit of his stomach, Aaron leaves the flat.
John’s unconscious on the ground in the same spot he’d been in Aaron’s dream.
Robert runs out from behind John’s van while Aaron’s kneeling next to his husband.
“He wound me up!”
The rest of the day goes just as it had in Aaron’s dream. Vic shows up, Robert runs off, the ambulance arrives, Aaron falls asleep in a chair next to John’s bed.
*
Aaron wakes up in his own bed, in his own flat again. He checks his phone and it’s the 31st of July once more. John mutters the same utterance in his sleep that he had the last two times Aaron had woken up. So, Aaron’s stuck in an eternal nightmare, losing his mind or he’s in a genuine Groundhog Day scenario. Either way, he wants to make sure he doesn’t see John lying on the ground outside his house unconscious again.
He doesn’t go into work, just fobs Vinny off and sticks around the flat until it’s time to meet John and Vic at the pub. He lets the confrontation play out as it did, though there’s more venom to his words to Robert this time. Now he knows the day is definitely heading in the direction it did the previous times he lived it, the idea that Robert could accuse John of hurting his mum, Cain and Jacob just hours before he attacks John is outrageous.
Aaron and John go to David’s after everything’s settled down at the pub. Same as they did the last two times Aaron’s been through this day. They get to the Mill at the same time they did before.
“Just need to fix a few things on the van, stick that stuff in the fridge will you?”
“I could help you out. Used to be a mechanic, you know!” Aaron tries to make it sound casual, not like he’s desperate to stay outside so he can head Robert off before he even has a chance to pick up the wrench.
“And I’ve owned this van for years, I know how to look after it,” laughs John. “I’ll give you a shout if I need any help.”
“But-”
“Go on, before the food spoils, you can’t be too careful this time of year!” John has a way about him, of being insistent that makes Aaron feel silly for arguing with him, so he goes to the flat. He reasons that he only needs to come out a few minutes before he did the previous times and he’ll have a chance of stopping Robert. He put the shopping bag down. He’s about to leave the flat when he stops. Robert wielding a blunt force weapon outside the Mill is dangerous, that’s how he ended up in prison for six years. Aaron shouldn’t go downstairs empty-handed. He picks up a frying pan from the draining board and heads back out.
Aaron’s too late. He opens the door to the flat just in time to see Robert hit John with the wrench.
*
Aaron wakes up at home again.
This time Aaron calls the police before Robert has a chance to hit John. He waits until after the confrontation in the pub because so he can explain how he knows that Robert’s sold a pile of weed to a drug dealer. He stands outside the pub and watches a police car pull up outside Keepers and two officers march in and come out of the cottage shortly after escorting Robert to the car. Vic follows them shouting the odds as she goes.
“I’ll be right behind you, I swear!” she tells Robert just before the car pulls away. She takes a deep breath before looking across the road, straight at Aaron. She marches up to him, glowering the whole time. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
“What was?” Feigning ignorance never works, especially not when you’ve been caught watching the consequences of your actions unfold.
“You called the police on Robert!” she shouts, jabbing a finger at Aaron’s chest. “You know how awful it was for him inside and you know they won’t be lenient with him and you still did it!”
“He deserves locking up.” Aaron folds his arms. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t. If it prevents Robert from hitting John, it’ll have been worth it.
“You know last month wasn’t the only time he was beaten in there?” asks Vic. “He’s traumatised. The last thing he needs it to go back there. You’ve made things so much worse for him.”
“Well, I’ve made things better for the rest of us!”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean? You know what? I don’t care because whatever you think you’ve done, if Robert goes back inside, he might not come back out!” She wipes at her eyes, taking a few steps back. “I need to go. You know, at least John’s been trying to help him lately!” With that she heads off.
Aaron knows he did the right thing. If Robert’s at the police station he can’t attack John, besides it’s where he’d have ended up anyway. This way Robert’s going to be charged with supplying class C drugs instead of GBH, so really Aaron’s saved both Sugden brothers. If Vic knew what Robert had been about to do, she’d have done the same. So it’s fine. John seems to think he’s done the right thing, that Robert landing back in prison is inevitable, and he’d been trying to help Robert, so he ought to know.
An incessant ringing at their doorbell interrupts Aaron and John’s evening. It’s odd because the only person who’s ever come by the house at this time before is Vic and she’s at the police station. Unless something happened and she’s returned already.
“What the hell are you playing at?” Charity’s voice rings through the intercom when he finally answers.
“What?”
“Mack and Ross have been arrested!” Charity yells. Aaron sighs and lets her up.
“I didn’t report them,” Aaron tells Charity sullenly as she storms into the flat. “So if you want to have a go at anyone it should be Robert.”
“It was Vic, actually, who said their names,” says Charity. “We don’t know what he’s been saying.” Aaron thought it was unlikely Robert would miss a chance to get Ross into trouble, especially if it could get him out of trouble. Besides, Aaron had been through multiple iterations of him trying to pass off the blame to Mack and Ross in the pub, there was no doubt he’d do it in the police interview room too.
“Look, I’m sorry Mack has been dragged into this, but from what I gather he was barely part of it, so he’ll probably get a slap on the wrist. As for Robert, you can’t say he doesn’t deserve to be locked up,” Aaron reasons.
“I never took you for a snitch,” Charity huffs.
It just sounds harsh to Charity because she doesn’t understand. If she knew what Robert was capable of, she’d know it would be all worth it, even Mack getting pulled in.
“Shows what you know. You’re not much help to Mack here, are you?” says Aaron.
“Fine. You’re not worth my time anyway.” Charity leaves, swinging the door shut with a loud bang.
“You did the right thing,” John reassures him later on. “Vic’s just too nice for her own good, gives Robert too many chances. It’s unfortunate that Mack and Ross were caught in the crossfire, but it’s their own fault.”
“You’re right,” Aaron says.
As he gets ready for bed, Aaron can’t help but replay Vic’s words in his head. “If Robert goes back inside, he might not come back out!” Robert’s bruised faced on the day Aaron visited him in prison flashing up in his mind. Vic was just catastrophising, as long as he’d known her brother, Robert had always come out of the worst circumstances if not on top then at least surviving and getting a little extra for himself. This situation would be no different.
Still, Aaron goes to sleep hoping to wake up on the same day again.
*
“Throw ‘em off the scent.”
Aaron checks his phone and sees that it’s the 31st again. He has a chance to fix things without getting Robert thrown in jail. This time he goes shopping in the morning, that way he won’t be in the flat putting away groceries when Robert hits John in the afternoon. He considers skipping the pub altogether, but that would leave John vulnerable when he’s on his way home.
This turn, Aaron sticks around, bypassing John’s suggestion that he goes inside and starts on dinner with a self-deprecating comment about his cooking skills. He takes a look at John’s van which really doesn’t seem like it needs much work doing to it. Then again, John can be very particular about these things.
“Finished your packing?” Aaron turns to see John addressing Robert, who’s sloping past the Mill. He walks towards his brother who stops and stares at him. “Seeing as there’s nothing left for you here, is there?”
“Don’t antagonise him,” Aaron hisses as he makes his way over to the brothers.
“Yeah, don’t antagonise me,” Robert mocks with a roll of his eyes. “And no, I won’t be packing my bags, not while you’re around creating your little emergencies, putting the people I love in danger!”
Robert looks straight at Aaron when he says ‘the people I love’ and Aaron scoffs. He keeps saying he still loves Aaron, but he hasn’t listened to a thing he’s said since getting out of prison. If he had he’d be far away from the village by now. Aaron doesn’t want his love anyway. Not from someone who’s capable of attacking the man Aaron actually loves unprovoked.
“Robert, we talked about this, it’s your paranoia talking,” John says calmly, looking a little like he’s approaching a dangerous animal in the wild. “But don’t worry, we can get you help.”
“What? So you can show everyone what a hero you are? ‘Look at me, I saved my crazy brother from himself!’” Robert lets out a bitter laugh. “No thanks!”
“For crying out loud, John’s actually trying to help you!” Aaron snaps. He actually thinks John’s interpretation of Robert’s behaviour is startlingly charitable. He knows Robert, knows the kind of shit he pulls to get what he wants. The man’s always been a liar and he’s not going to stop now. “Stop making stuff up!”
“You know me,” says Robert, not for the first time that day. Aaron’s heard him say it five times at the pub now. “Don’t you think if I was making this up, I’d have found a way to falsify some kind of evidence? I bought a field! I could’ve used that money to pay someone to make a false accusation of him or summat! Spreading rumours isn’t really my style?”
Aaron has to admit that this is sloppy for Robert. He’d tried to create false evidence and pay false witnesses against people who really were guilty, back in the day. But maybe that was why he wasn’t going to those lengths, because deep down he knew John was innocent. Or maybe this was simply the Robert who came out of prison, who wasn’t as capable of scheming and manipulating as he had once been.
“Robert, I know you’re not lying, not intentionally. It can’t be easy, coming back here after spending years in a place where you had to look over your shoulder, someone waiting around every corner for you.”
“What?” Robert’s eyes dart to John, he looks completely thrown by John’s words.
“Bet it must be difficult being back here, where you murdered someone,” John continues. “I bet you must still feel like you have to look over your shoulder everywhere you go.”
Robert stares off into the middle distance, almost looking how he did after he’d attacked John in those previous loops. After a moment he shakes himself a little.
“You’ll be the one looking over your shoulder when everyone sees you for who you really are!” Robert’s practically shaking as he points at John, jabbing a finger in his direction. He turns as if to leave, then freezes as Vic walks down the path towards them.
“Alright?” she asks, looking between them. She turns to Robert. “Good walk? Why don’t you head home, get an early night?”
“I know what this is.” Robert turns to each of them, suspicious glint in his eye. “You weren’t exactly subtle, were you? Talking about meeting up to talk about ‘what to do about me’ like I’m a problem child, just because I’m...” He looks around as if to search the air for the right word. “Struggling, you all think you can talk about me behind my back!” He turns to John. “And who do you think you are to stage an intervention, lock me in your van over night, speculate over symptoms I don’t have? You may share DNA with me, but you’re practically a stranger to me, I don’t want you near me!” By the time his rant it finished, Robert’s eyes glisten with unshed tears.
“Robert, we just want what’s best for everyone,” Vic says.
“Whatever.” Robert shakes his head. “Just... Be careful around him.” As he walks away, Aaron lets out a sigh of relief. He was going to end the day without anyone getting arrested or assaulted.
They finally get to have the talk about Robert. John talks of ultimatums, of ways tp incentivise Robert to sell Annie’s field, of the prisons and psych wards he’ll end up in if he doesn’t get his act together. Vic chews her lip and worries and worries. Aaron doesn’t contribute anything. He keeps thinking about the tears in Robert’s eyes. He’s not a man prone to crying, let alone angry tears. Eventually Aaron puts it to the back of his mind, he can think about it tomorrow when it’s finally the 1st of August.
*
“Throw ‘em off the scent.”
Aaron punches his pillow in frustration. What did he get wrong this time? Nobody got hurt, nobody got arrested, Robert’s not on his way back to prison. As Aaron wracks his brain for what he missed, it occurs to him that he doesn’t actually know why Robert didn’t attack John. He assumes it’s because Aaron was there, but Robert didn’t seem like he was riled up enough that he could attack someone. He was frustrated and angry, but not aggressive.
So, either Aaron had disrupted a pre-meditated attack, or something happened all the times Aaron had been in the flat that led Robert to attack John. Aaron would have to come out of the flat sooner this time. Let everything play out the way it had, then enter the scene before Robert has a chance to even pick up the wrench. That way he’ll at least know why Robert did it. He might wake up on the same day again, but he’ll at least have some useful information to take with him into the next loop.
Aaron doesn’t say anything at the pub this time. He’s just too bored, living through it time after time. He leans back against the bar, rests an elbow on it from the side, and puts his chin in his hand. Robert keeps looking to him, trying to gauge his reaction and Aaron gives him nothing. He’s waiting for this to be over, so he can move onto the next part of the day.
When the time comes Aaron puts down the shopping bag in the entranceway to the Mill and picks up a crowbar from where he’d stashed it behind a plant pot. He thinks he hid it a little too well because it takes him a little longer than intended to get it out. He hears John and Robert’s muffled voices, not loud enough to make out what they’re saying. Loud enough to know they’re not making small talk out there. Once he’s freed the crowbar, he leaves the Mill.
“You’re scared. You should be,” Robert says and for a moment Aaron thinks he’s mistimed it and this will be the moment Robert picks up the wrench.
Then Robert starts to walk away.
John grabs him by the shoulders, spins him around and put him in a headlock.
“You need to be careful who you cross around here, there is always someone around the corner waiting to get you!” John shouts, unaware of Aaron running towards them. Robert’s trying to pull John’s arm off him, his face is turning redder and redder as he stares at Aaron’s approaching figure.
“Let go of him!” Aaron yells, letting the crowbar fall to the ground.
John releases Robert and he lands unsteadily on his hands and knees in the dusty gravel. John looks up at Aaron, his eyes widening.
“He – he attacked me first!”
“No, he didn’t, I saw him, he was walking away!” Aaron’s trying to keep his voice even. He’s not the one who’s been attacked. The reality he’s been living with for almost a week has been turned upside down and he can’t let it show. Not when Robert’s still on the ground, struggling to catch his breath.
“He riled me up!” John insists. Aaron ignores him in favour of crouching down in front of Robert.
“Robert,” he says softly. “Are you alright?”
He looks up at Aaron, haunted expression painting his face. It’s not far off how he’d looked after hitting John. God, Aaron had got it so wrong.
Instead of replying, Robert lets out a muffled whimper.
“You’re going to be okay,” Aaron reassures.
Only, that’s when Aaron feels a sudden burst of pain in the back of his head. He falls to the ground and sees John looming over him, holding the crowbar aloft.
“Robert, what have you done?” he hears before everything goes black.
*
“Throw ‘em off the scent.”
Aaron needs to see Robert. He can’t be near John. He grabs a pair of jeans from his wardrobe and gets out of the bedroom before he even changes into them. He barely remembers his phone, keys and wallet before he’s out of the flat.
Aaron learnt two important things in that last loop. Firstly, Robert hasn’t been lying about John. Whether his specific theories are correct remains to be seen, but he was right not to trust him all along. The other thing is Robert’s mental health must be worse than Aaron realised. He hadn’t paid much attention to the haunted look in Robert’s eyes, or the way he’d been frozen to the spot in the previous iterations of that day, he’d been more concerned about John.
Aaron hadn’t given much thought to what happened after the day reset for him. Whether it reset for everyone else without their knowledge, or if it continues and Aaron gets put into another reality. This time, though, Aaron wonders if there’s a version of Robert out there who’s been framed for GBH, attempted murder, or even murder. He hopes the days reset for him too.
Aaron doesn’t bother knocking when he gets to Keepers.
“Let yourself in, why don’t you?” Vic says when he walks in. She’s sitting at the table having breakfast with Harry, Robert’s nowhere in sight.
“Robert in?”
“Yes, but he’s still asleep, so if you want to talk to him, you’ll have to come back another time,” Vic replies, keeping her voice low.
“I’ll wait here ‘til he wakes up, then.” Aaron doesn’t know what he’s do with himself if he tried to go elsewhere only to come back.
Vic regards him for a moment before jerking her head to the kitchen. She gets up and Aaron follows.
“It sounded like he was having a nightmare,” she tells him. “So whatever you want to yell at him about can wait because he won’t be in the mood when he gets up.”
“He’s having a nightmare?” asks Aaron.
“Please, just come back another time.” But Aaron doesn’t listen to her, he runs upstairs, ignoring Vic as she calls his name. He can hear Robert even from outside his room.
“Stop, no, please don’t,” Robert whines.
Aaron reaches out to the door handle before he can think the better of it. Now that he’s let himself see Robert, he can’t ignore him when he’s in distress. Robert’s twitching on the bed, face scrunched up, as his head rolls from side to side. His fearful murmurs continue. Aaron goes to the bed and sits facing Robert. He reaches out and shakes his shoulder, before he can reconsider it. He knows he shouldn’t, he knows from experience, still he does it. He needs to see Robert awake, for him to reassure Aaron that he’s fine.
The reaction is almost instantaneous. Robert shoots bolt upright and pushes Aaron to the ground.
“Get off me!” Robert yells. His faces crumples as he sees Aaron sprawled on the ground.
“It’s okay,” Aaron says as he sits up, trying to calm him. It falls on deaf ears, Robert is curled in on himself, hands pulling at his hair.
“Get out,” says Vic, from the doorway. Her voice is soft but her face is fierce. “Actually, get Harry ready to go, your mum’s coming round to take him and Eve to kid’s club.”
Aaron has an awkward conversation with his mum when she arrives for Harry. He tries to come up with an explanation for why he at Keepers that has nothing to do with Robert and then he also has to explain why Vic isn’t there to see Harry off. It all comes out garbled and his mum regards him with suspicion but doesn’t say anything. He knows if he sees her before the day resets – or if he makes it to the next day – he’ll get a grilling.
“I know you want to have a go at Robert, but that doesn’t give you any right to show up unannounced first thing in the morning to wake him up!” Vic scolds when she gets downstairs.
“Why would I want to have a go at Robert?” Aaron’s confused, at this part of the day Robert hasn’t attacked John and neither of them are supposed to know about the weed yet.
“John told me Robert’s been spreading lies about him to Chas, saying that her overdose was his fault.”
“Oh.” Aaron had forgotten there were reasons that he might’ve been mad at Robert that predate this ever-repeating day. “I’m not here to have a go.”
“Really? I just had to spend half an hour reassuring him that you’re not hurt and he’s not going to be kicked out or sent back inside, so I think you owe us an explanation.” Vic has her arms crossed and he suddenly has a glimpse into what it’ll be like to be Harry in ten years time.
“Look, I haven’t come here to have a go, honestly,” says Aaron. “I’m here because Robert’s right about John!”
“What?” Vic freezes, she looks utterly aghast. “What’s happened?”
Aaron wracks his brain for an explanation. He can’t tell her he’s lived this day over and over and John’s strangled Robert and threatened him, taunted him, so he snaps and hits John with a wrench. She’ll think he’s lost his mind. He has to think of something else. There had been signs, hadn’t there? Signs he’s ignored in favour of trying to get Robert out of his head.
“He’s saved far too many people for it to be a coincidence, has he?” That’s what Robert had said in the pub, more or less. It was the main point he had, really. “The whole thing with Aiden, he kept lying about him, even when we confronted him. How do we know he’s not the reason the poor guy’s in a coma in the first place? I should have pushed him more. And there’s something else I should’ve asked more about. I caught him burning medical supplies in the scrapyard. He made it seem so normal, but I reckon if I said anything to Liam or Manpreet about it, he’d be in trouble.”
How had Aaron not seen it? Now he’s laid it out, it seems so obvious. Yet, none of it occurred to him while Robert was casting aspersion at John for six versions of this day in a row.
“What about the fire at Butlers last year? That wasn’t him, was it?” Vic stares him down.
“Well, I suppose there must be some coincidences in there to give him some plausible deniability.” Aaron sighs and puts his head in his hands for a moment. “You know, he took me camping in December, that ought to have been enough of a red flag.”
“This about John?” Aaron turns with a start. Robert is standing in the doorway, having descended the stairs with an uncharacteristic level of stealth. He’s wearing the soft, blue jumper he’s been wearing in every other version of today.
“Yeah, I think you might be right about him.” Aaron takes Robert in. Did he always look so tired in those previous loops? Maybe knowing what he’s been going through has somehow transformed him in Aaron’s eyes.
“Has something happened?” Robert’s eyes grow worried as he takes Aaron in. He can almost feel the clock turn back six years. To all the times Robert had asked that question, looked him over with the same expression. He wonders what Robert finds now.
“I...” Again, he’s struggling to find a reasonable answer, one that Robert will accept.
“Right!” Vic says abruptly, clapping her hands together. “I’ll leave yous to it. I’ve got to get to work.” She grabs her handbag and leaves.
Robert goes into the kitchen and puts the kettle on. He gets out two mugs without asking Aaron and sets about making the cups of tea. Aaron sits down heavily on the sofa and watches Robert through the kitchen hatch. He drums his fingers on the kitchen counter as he waits for the kettle to boil, lost in thought.
“So,” Robert says as he sets the mugs down on the coffee table. “John.”
Aaron takes a sip of his tea. Robert hasn’t forgotten how to make it for him. If anything, it’s better than he used to make it back when they were married. He never used to have the patience to wait before taking the teabag out.
“Do you really reckon he drugged my mum?” Aaron asks.
“Yeah, it seems far too much of a coincidence, that he happened to be there. Then, he was there when Jacob had that allergic reaction and when that Owen guy spiked me.” Robert hadn’t mentioned the spiking incident while they were at the pub in any of the previous loops, he had brought up another name, though.
“And Cain?”
“What about Cain?” Robert frowns. He must’ve found out about it later in those previous versions of the day.
“He almost drank himself to death until John saved him,” Aaron explains. Actually talking about it out loud is making him feel stupid. How did he not put any of it together?
“See, there’s no way it’s a coincidence!” Robert goes to say more, before grabbing his phone from his pocket. It’s vibrating with a call from someone called ‘K’. He declines the call and hastily shoves his phone back in his pocket.
“You could’ve answered that you know.” Aaron gestures vaguely in front of him to where the phone was.
“It was just a spam caller.” Robert’s going for something approaching reassurance, but he’s got the shifty look on his face that he gets when he’s up to something.
“A spam caller that you have saved in your phone?” asks Aaron. Saved in his phone as an initial the way Aaron himself had been once upon a time. Not that it was any of his business if Robert was seeing this K person, seeing as Aaron is married to someone else. Though, he supposes it could be whoever he sold the weed stash to, he’d be just as shifty about that.
“Look, it doesn’t matter!” Robert snaps. “We have bigger fish to fry right now!” Aaron can agree with that. “You haven’t actually told me why you suddenly agree he’s dodgy.”
“I caught him burning medical supplies in the scrapyard, he had some excuse but there’s no normal reason for doing that, is there?” Robert shakes his head.
There’s so much he can’t tell Robert about. He can’t tell him that the day keeps repeating. He can’t tell Robert he witnessed John strangling him which usually leads to him hitting John. There are other things he can tell Robert about, not related to the time loop. For one thing, he can’t bring Robert into the Anthony secret, not when the day might not repeat. For another, he can’t bare to tell him that Aaron found out that John’s apparently dead fiance was more or less still alive so soon before the wedding. The ‘I told you so’ alone would be insufferable.
“There’s something else.” Robert looks into his mug as though the dregs of tea and limescale are fascinating. “I tried going to the police, but they didn’t believe me... It’s Nate, I think John killed him.”
“What?” That couldn’t be possible. Robert wasn’t even around when Nate disappeared, how could he know anything about it? Why hadn’t he led with that when he was spreading his suspicions about John in the pub?
“He was at Owen’s house, there was a mix up and he was on both Liam and John’s home visiting lists the day he died,” Robert explains. He scratches the back of his neck. “I got this weird feeling about it so I did some digging and Owen couldn’t have done it, he was in Hull the day Nate died.”
“How do you know that?”
“His brother told me, he won’t go to the police because they were up to something illegal, but I swear that confession must be false which means it was written by someone else and who could’ve been at his house that day? John.”
Aaron sits frozen, hands clasping the edge of the sofa. He doesn’t want to believe it, but knowing what John’s capable of, it seems more than likely. If he’d held Robert in a headlock a bit longer, squeezed a bit harder, he could have killed him. If he miscalculated any of his attempts to poison then save Chas, Cain or Jacob, they’d have died.
“You don’t believe me,” Robert says with conviction, fists clenched in his lap.
“No, I do,” Aaron corrects. “It’s just a lot to take in.”
Robert nods before frowning, deep in thought. “Wait, when did you see John burning that stuff?”
“Last week.”
“Must be because he realised I’m onto him.” Robert gets up and starts pacing, as far as he can in Vic’s small living room. “He had Liam come here for an intervention yesterday. I bet he wanted Vic to think he was a hero, saving his crazy brother from himself.”
Aaron’s face twists.
“Not you and all?” Robert rolls his eyes. “Look I’ll sort this out” he gestures to his temple “when everything with John is done, until then I can’t think about it.”
There’s a lot Aaron should say, if it’s still his place. That Robert’s mental health won’t wait for John to be found out, that he needs help before it leads him to the point of no return, but the day may well reset, rendering any advice he gives useless. He’s taken out of his thoughts by an incessant knocking at the door.
“Robert, you in there?” Ross yells.
“What does he want?” Robert mutters. He takes a step forward to answer the door, but Ross takes it upon himself, flinging the door open and storming in.
“I know it was you!” Ross says, pointing an accusing finger at Robert.
“What was?” Robert feigns ignorance. Aaron rolls his eyes as he gets out of his chair to intercept Ross.
“What are you doing here?” Ross asks when he sees Aaron. “I thought you hated him.”
“I thought you hated him and yet you’ve shown up to his house unannounced,” Aaron counters.
“Didn’t take you long to start things up again.” Ross shakes his head. “That doesn’t matter. You stole our gear!”
“Fuckssake!” says Aaron. “You ought to have learnt by now not to keep your gear around him, or do you not remember last time?”
“You’re defending him?” Ross says indignantly. “You know those guys who scoped out the farm and scared the kids half to death were there because of him!” Ross gestures to Robert.
“Robert wasn’t the one who brought drugs to the farm in the first place!” Aaron shouts. Both Robert and Ross look at him in confusion. Whether it’s because he’s defending Robert or because he knows more that he should, he can’t tell. “Get out before I make you!” He shoves Ross to show he’s serious.
“Fine! But Moira will be hearing about this and you know she won’t be taking pity on you any more when she does!” He throws his hands up in the air and strides to the door in much the same way as he stormed in.
“Not like she was even paying me, anyway,” Robert mutters, before he turns to Aaron. “Look, I know you’re gonna have a go...”
“Who said I was? Like you say, we have bigger fish to fry.” Robert doesn’t make his life easy. If he could get through this day without having to deal with Ross confronting Robert, it would be much easier to focus on the John of it all.
“Thanks anyway, for defending me,” Robert says softly, sincere gaze levelled at Aaron. “I didn’t realise you still cared.”
“I obviously care more about you than I do about Ross and his poorly stashed weed,” Aaron jokes. That gets a laugh out of Robert, despite his best efforts he’d missed making him laugh.
“Almost reminds me of old times.” Robert’s gaze drops down to Aaron’s lips.
Fuck it, Aaron thinks, he may as well do this. For one thing, the day will probably repeat anyway, and for another, he doesn’t really care that much about betraying his husband anymore. He steps closer, presses his lips to Robert’s and slides his tongue into his mouth. Time seems to turn back, he can almost imagine they’re in another living room, wiling away time from a different problem.
“Vic won’t be home for a few hours,” Robert says when he pulls away, eyes darting towards the stairs.
“Huh?”
“She’s at work,” Robert clarifies.
“But she’s not at work this morning,” Aaron counters. She’d had the morning off in all the other versions of this day, hadn’t she?
“I thought she had it off but I guess Gabby must’ve called her in.” Something must’ve changed because of Aaron coming to Keepers instead of going about his day the same as he used to. It must be because Aaron told her about John.
“I can’t tell you how I know this, but she’s not at the Hide,” says Aaron. “I think she’s gone to confront John or summat.” No sooner does he say that than Robert is running out of the front door, Aaron following close behind. As they approach the Mill, they hear shouting from John’s van.
“Why couldn’t you have left it well alone?” John yells. “We could have been happy if you didn’t let Robert get into your head and come here snooping!”
Robert opens the door to the van and they find John bent over Vic on the floor of the van, he’s covering her nose and mouth, while she struggles against him.
“John, you’re smothering her!” Aaron cries.
Three things happen, almost at once. Vic stops moving, John turns at Aaron’s voice and Robert grabs a wrench. Aaron could stop him. He could grab the wrench from Robert’s hand and keep it out of his reach, but he doesn’t want to. This time he wants John to pay.
John goes down like a sack of bricks. Aaron and Robert practically throw him out of the van to get to Vic. She’s remains still.
“She’s breathing,” Robert whispers. Aaron lets out a sigh of relief before he turns to John. He gets down from the van, figuring he ought to check on John.
Unlike, Vic he’s not breathing. Aaron can’t feel a pulse either.
*
“Throw ‘em off the scent.”
Aaron’s been sleeping next to his cousin’s killer for months.
For the second time in a row, he gets out of bed soon after he wakes up. He doesn’t think about where he’s going, just that he’s got to get out of there.
He can’t go to Keepers, showing up there at the crack of dawn had been a bad idea, not to mention telling Vic and Robert everything had put them in danger. He goes to Butlers instead, knowing that Mack will be working there. He finds him fixing fences on the top field.
“What would you do if you lived the same day over and over?” Aaron didn’t know he was going to open with that until the words come spilling out of his mouth.
“Like Edge of Tomorrow?” Mack asks.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a movie where Tom Cruise plays a guy who’s fighting aliens and he lives the same day over and over in a time loop,” Mack explains.
“Never seen it, I was thinking of Groundhog Day.”
“Well, what happens in that?” The thing is, Aaron’s never actually seen it. He’s aware of the concept, has become too aware of it by now. It’s one of those things; you know what it is whether or not you actually seen the source material.
“Dunno,” Aaron shrugs. “Back to my original question, what would you do?”
“I wouldn’t be working, that’s for sure,” says Mack. “I’d do whatever I wanted all day, no consequences.”
“What if something bad happened and you wanted to prevent it?” Aaron wonders.
“Is there a particular day you want to do over?” Mack’s eyes widen. “Don’t tell me it’s your wedding day! There is such a thing as divorce, you know.”
“That’s not what this is about...” Aaron starts, but it kind of is. “I think you were right about John.”
“You sure?” asks Mack. “Because I reckon I was a little quick to judge him.”
“It’s just a feeling I have.” Based on days that never happened. “I need to find evidence.”
“I’ll help you, do whatever it is you need me to do,” offers Mack.
“Meet you at mine around one?” That way John will be at the pub as he was in all the previous versions of the day.
“You’re on,” Mack grins.
Aaron goes back to the village, feeling like he might find the key to escaping the time loop. It’s the most optimistic he’s felt in a while. Maybe if he can find some piece of evidence that proves that John’s not the man he claims to be, the day won’t reset. He’s so excited, he doesn’t notice Ross walking straight for him.
“You seen that ex-husband of yours?” he demands.
“Not this again!” Aaron rolls his eyes. He’s sick of seeing Ross, day in day out, with the same demands and complaints. What he wouldn’t give for something different to happen. He turns to one of his worst instincts and punches Ross square in the jaw.
Ross stumbles back, shock evident on his face. Aaron gets hit in the face in return. They deal out exchanges of blows until Aaron gets Ross in the solar plexus and he fall to the ground. He keeps hitting and hitting, Mack words resounding in his head.
“I’d do whatever I wanted all day, no consequences.”
Eventually, the police arrive and Aaron spends a night in a cell and he doesn’t mind one bit. It’s nice to have a change of scenery.
*
For the first time since Aaron witness John strangling Robert, he doesn’t immediately flee the bedroom upon waking. Instead he goes straight to John’s side of the bed and grabs his phone off the side table.
An app called ‘Spy Ear’ catches his eye. He opens it up to see a message that says ‘Out of range’. He could drive around the village until it’s in range, but that’ll take up time he could spend looking for other evidence, and he thinks he knows who John’s spying on anyway. He opens up John’s emails. He purchased the device that goes with the app only a couple of days ago. He scrolls back to a year ago and finds an email chain about arrangements for his mother’s funeral. He finds John’s mum’s address, his childhood home. Aaron wonders if he’ll find anything there. It’s worth a look. He remembers what Mackenzie said in the previous loop, that he’d help him.
But first, he thinks it might be a good idea to talk to someone else about the time loop thing. Get some sort of insight into how to get out of it. It doesn’t really matter if he looks insane, he’ll either get out of the time loop or the day will reset and everyone’s opinion of him too. So he finds his feet dragging him to the Woolpack and entering through the back.
“Liam, have you ever heard of anyone living the same day over and over again?” asks Aaron.
“Depression can make one feel like they’re living the same day on repeat,” says Liam. Next to him, Chas’s eyes grow wide with concern. “I can book you in at the surgery, if you like.”
“No, I mean literally the same day, like-” Aaron’s interrupted by both his mum and Liam trying to finish his sentence at the same time.
“Palm Springs!”
“Russian Doll!”
“I was gonna say Groundhog Day, I dunno what those are.” Aaron thought Groundhog Day was the one everyone knew about. A touchstone for the concept of living the same day over and over.
“It’s on Netflix You know, with that husky redhead head from that Orange Black show!” his mum says. “She keeps dying and waking up at the start of the day.”
“Right.” Aaron’s glad that he’s only died once at most in this whole ordeal. “What I mean is, seeing as there’s so many movies and TV shows about it, have you ever heard of it happening to a real person?”
“This is what you show up at ours at arse o’clock in the morning for?” Chas rolls her eyes. “I’ve got to get Eve ready for kids club.” She leaves Aaron alone with Liam.
“A time loop is a narrative device writers use to explore themes such as depression, helplessness, and stagnation,” explains Liam. “Do you want to talk about what’s got you thinking about this? It seems like something’s on your mind.”
“Might be.” Aaron casts a glance towards the stairs. This could be a good opportunity to get some information, not about time loops, Liam seems only interested in their thematic relevance, but maybe he can find more about John. Only, it might be a bit difficult with his mum’s mithering.
“Why don’t I pop the kettle on?” Liam suggests, sensing Aaron’s hesitation. In the time it takes Liam to fuss over the tea, Aaron’s mum and sister have come downstairs, said their goodbyes and left. Aaron feels a moment of discombobulation as he realises in a previous version of the day he was over the road getting Harry ready to go with his mum and Eve.
“Have you had any – er – concerns about John?” asks Aaron, when they’re both sat down with their tea. “Anything suspicious going on at the surgery?”
Liam frowns. “Have you been speaking to Robert?”
“Why? What’s he said to you?” Aaron responds.
“I shouldn’t say, patient confidentiality,” Liam replies, clamming up. So, it wasn’t part of a casual conversation.
“Was this yesterday?” Aaron asks, though the concept of yesterday keeps slipping away from him. He knows Robert had a visit from Liam, wants to know what the doctor’s opinion of his ex-husband’s current state is. “How is he?”
“You know I can’t say much, patient confidentiality like I said.” Liam smiles at him sympathetically. “But he’s struggling, it’s not an easy adjustment and I suppose he still feels like there’s someone waiting around every corner for him.”
“What did you say?” John had said those exact words. When he had Robert in a chokehold, and before that when they’d been talking outside the Mill.
“Aaron, we shouldn’t be talking about this, I think I’ve said too much already. If you really want to show your concern for Robert,perhaps you should talk to him yourself,” Liam says gently.
“You’re probably right,” he sighs. “Well, I’d best be off, lots to do today.”
Aaron intercepts Mack at the farm when he’s about to head to the Woolpack and tells him he needs a hand with something. Mack gets in his car, no questions asked and Aaron drives them to the address he found on John’s phone. On the way there he goes through his suspicions about John, the things he already knew and had pushed aside, and the things he shouldn’t know.
“Robert reckons John killed Nate,” Mack tells him. “I might’ve told him not to say anything, especially to Cain. I thought he was just being difficult, meddling where he shouldn’t.”
“I ‘spose so.”
“You don’t seem too shocked,” Mack observes. “That your husband might’ve killed your cousin.”
“I’m trying to focus on the road, I’ll freak out when we get there.” Aaron’s been slowly freaking out for the last couple of loops, having already taken it out on Ross’s face.
“He’s been acting kind of weird since Nate’s body was found,” says Mack. “I thought it was because of Robert, but I guess he came back around the same time.”
Aaron turns a corner and looks at the map on his phone. They’re about two minutes out from the house and they’re in the middle of nowhere. It kind of makes sense to him, that John grew up in a house on the edge of the woods in the back of beyond. Aaron pulls up outside the house and gets out his trusty lock pick set from his pocket, before making his way to the house.
After a little bit of fiddling with the lock pick, he opens the door to reveal an interior that doesn’t look like it’s been redecorated since the eighties. The carpet, the wallpaper and the upholstery violently clash against each other. Worst of all are the porcelain dolls lining every shelf and mantelpiece in the living room.
“Well, he’s definitely a psycho,” Mack says as he eyes the dolls.
“I think we need to find actual concrete evidence, don’t you?” Aaron says before making a beeline for a cupboard and rifling through it.
They spend hours looking room to room, checking cupboards, drawers, under furniture. They find nothing that the police would take seriously. It’s all bad vibes, items that would make excellent set dressing in a horror film, but nothing that tells them anything about what John’s actually done. The closest they get is a newspaper article about John saving a dog when he was twelve. All that tells them is that saving people might be some sort of very long standing fixation for John.
He’s thinking about heading home when he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket.
“It’s Robert!” he hears Vic cry when he answers the phone. Aaron knew something like this must be coming. Of course, him being out the village didn’t make a difference, Robert still attacked John. “He’s been mugged! Good thing John was there, got him to a hospital in time, but it’s bad.”
Aaron knows there’s more Vic must’ve said but he doesn’t take it in. He just tells Mack that they’re leaving and doesn’t speak until halfway through the journey.
“It’s got to be John, right?” he says after he’s relayed everything he remembers Vic telling him.
“We don’t know that,” Mack replies uncertainly. “Maybe it’s just some random coincidence.” But it hasn’t happened in the previous iterations of today.
“It fits the pattern though, doesn’t it?” he points out. “Someone gets hurt, John just so happens to be there to save them in the nick of time.” Aaron wonders why John made it look like a mugging this time, rather than stopping and walking away after threatening Robert. Maybe with Aaron out of the village and not about to walk in on them, John felt emboldened somehow.
“Let’s just see what they say at the hospital, yeah?” says Mack.
When they get to the hospital, Aaron leaves Mack to pay for parking, rushing straight inside. The receptionist points him in the direction of the waiting area when he asks about Robert. When he gets there he find Vic and John, neither of them using the ample seating.
“What happened?” Aaron asks when he gets to them.
“Robert was attacked just around the corner from the Mill! John found him on his way home, he was unconscious and John did first aid, put him in the recovery position, called an ambulance. If he hadn’t been there...” Tears well up in Vic’s eyes. “It’s my fault! I was mad at him, sent him out for a walk, he wouldn’t have been there if I hadn’t.”
Aaron looks at John for any flicker of guilt, maybe not for Robert, but for how Vic feels. He doesn’t see anything, just John’s usual face.
He turns back to Vic. “How is he?”
“His neck and his ribs are bruised. They reckon whoever attacked him had him in a chokehold for some time and he hit his head on the ground,” Vic explains. “But that’s not the worst part... He’s been awake but unresponsive since he got here. The doctors don’t know if it’s from the head injury or if it’s psychological. But he’s been sort of blank.”
He feels a hand on his shoulder and turns to see that Mack has arrived.
“I want to see him,” Aaron admits quietly.
“Okay, I’ll find a nurse, see they’ll let you,” says Vic. “They’ve taken him for a CT scan.”
As soon as Vic disappears, John rounds on Aaron.
“What do you want to see him for?” he demands.
“Because I think it might help?” Aaron knows in his bones that if anyone can help Robert in this moment, it’s him. The word ‘you’re here, that makes everything okay’ ring through his ears. “And because you don’t get a say.”
“I think I get a say about my husband seeing his ex,” John sneers.
“Okay, we don’t need to get all possessive now, do we?” suggests Mack, subtly stepping between them.
“Aaron?” He turns to see Vic has returned with a nurse. She looks between the three men before she speaks again. “Robert’s come back from his scan. He’s still not said anything, but you can sit with him.”
Aaron follows the nurse to Robert’s room. He finds his ex-husband reclining in the bed, staring blankly at the wall. He has purple bruises on his face and neck. Aaron sits down next to him and hesitates over taking his hand. He doesn’t want to spook an already traumatised man, but he doesn’t want to deny him comfort either. He starts by gently placing his hand on top of Robert’s. That doesn’t get a positive reaction, but it doesn’t get a negative reaction either, so he slips his hand into Robert’s.
They stay like that for a while. Robert staring straight ahead, while Aaron holds his hand. They remain undisturbed until a doctor walks in with the results of Robert’s scan.
“I can go,” says Aaron. He starts to get up, but Robert’s grip on his hand tightens. “Or not.”
“Mr Sugden, I’ve taken a look at your CT results, they’ve come back clear. ” The doctor addresses Robert directly, though Robert looks right through him. “This means you’re dissociative state is likely psychological, as such I’ve arranged for a psychological assessment tomorrow morning.”
“You don’t want me to go?” Aaron asks after the doctor leaves. He’s taking the one piece of communication he’s had from Robert since he got here and seeing if he can get more from him. “I’ll stay here, if you want me to.” That gets no response.
Still, he stays. He falls asleep in the hospital chair and, once again, wakes up in his own bed.
*
Aaron needs to get Robert out of the village. It’s for his own safety. He can’t get hurt, he can’t get taunted, threatened, or triggered into hurting John. As he comes up with his plan, Mack’s words from two loops ago are in his head, I’d do whatever I wanted all day, no consequences.
He sits in the caff and books a hotel. It’s one that Robert booked for the two of them, back when he had Home Farm money. Aaron will get the money back if the day resets and if not, then getting out of a time loop is worth at least the price of a one night stay at a four star hotel in Harrogate. He waits an appropriate amount of time until he seeks out Robert, ignoring Nicola’s unsubtle hints that he ought to buy another coffee if he’s going to stay there.
Robert’s on his way back from David’s when Aaron catches him, looks surprised to see that Aaron’s willing to talk to him.
“Come with me, I’ve got a surprise for you,” says Aaron.
“What?” Robert stares at him dumbfounded.
“Please, can you just join me?”
“You’ve wanted nothing to do with me since I came back and now you want me to follow you no questions asked?” Robert questions indignantly.
“Look, I get that this is a bit out of the blue, but I promise this’ll be worth your while.” Aaron wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and it’s enough for Robert to follow him to his car.
“Why do I feel like a kid from a PSA about Stranger Danger?” Robert jokes but gets into the passenger seat all the same.
The drive to Harrogate is uneventful and mostly consists of Robert asking Aaron about where they’re going and not getting a solid answer in return. He gives Aaron an impressed look when they pull into the hotel car park.
“The scrapyard must be doing well.” Robert raises an eyebrow.
Aaron somehow manages to time it so they get there just in time for check in. Their room is nice, it’s not one of the nicest ones in the hotel, but miles above some of the budget rooms Aaron’s stayed in on scrap runs. There’s bathrobes and slippers, an extensive range of teas and coffees, and a decent room service menu.
“This is a little presumptuous, isn’t it?” asks Robert as he surveys the room. “What if I wasn’t in the mood? What if I had stuff on?”
“And are you not in the mood? Do you have stuff on?” Aaron responds.
“Well no, but I’m just a bit confused. This is all a bit sudden.” Robert looks around the room uncertainly, like he’s not supposed to be there, like he expects someone to pop out and tell him he’s been pranked.
“Just... Just don’t question it, alright?” Aaron puts a finger against Robert’s smiling lips, before pressing a kiss to them.
They make love slowly, savouring each moment and getting to know each other’s bodies again. It feels as good as Aaron remembers it, wrapping himself around Robert as he pushes into him. They go again and again, until they’re both wrung out and exhausted. When they’re done, Robert lays his head on Aaron’s chest, their arms wrapped around one another, Robert stroking Aaron’s hip.
“So, are you going to tell me what this sudden change of heart is all about then?” Robert asks after several minutes of silently basking in the afterglow.
“I’m living the same day over and over again,” Aaron states, putting in out in the open for Robert to do with as he pleases.
“Like that dream I had?” Robert sits up. “Are you making fun of me?”
“No, why would I be...? What dream?” Aaron’s confused, he was at least expecting an obscure cultural reference from Robert.
“The dream I had after Lawrence hit me with his car, when I almost died.”
“Oh, that dream.” Aaron vaguely remembers Robert telling him about it, but to be fair he barely remembers his own dreams let alone anyone else’s. If he can convince anyone he’s living this day on repeat, it would be Robert. “Look, I know you woke up from a nightmare this morning and you got a call from someone in your phone as ‘K’ at ten.”
“You know about Kev?” Robert’s face crumples. “I’m sorry, I should have never burst in on your wedding without telling you I’m married.”
What the fuck?
“You’re married? How the fuck did that happen?” He gets up and find his boxers on the floor because he can’t have this argument with his cock out.
“What? I thought you knew, you just said—” Robert has the nerve to look as confused as Aaron feels.
“I said that I know you got a call from a K this morning, not that I knew who that is” Aaron explains, feeling the exasperation seeping into his tone. “I know because I saw you reject that call in one of the versions of today that I experienced!”
“Wait you’re being serious?” Robert’s eyes widen. “Go on then, what happens today?”
“I’m not telling you,” Aaron snaps while he grabs his clothes. “I don’t get to know about your secret husband, you don’t get to know about my time loops.”
“But I can help!” Robert gets up and starts looking for his own clothes.
“You’re only gonna forget this conversation when I wake up again, so I doubt that.” Aaron starts getting redressed. “Why don’t you help your husband?”
“But I don’t want him, I want you!”
“Look, why don’t you stay here the night?” Aaron suggests as he finishes putting his socks on. “Get some room service, have some time to yourself, a good night’s sleep, and come back to the village refreshed if tomorrow is a thing.”
Robert sits back on the bed defeated and watches as Aaron makes his way towards the hotel room door. Before he leaves Aaron turns back to Robert.
“How did that dream end?”
“I went to your funeral except when I opened the casket my body was in there and Val told me that getting back together would hurt us both.”
Aaron didn’t know why he thought the solution to this thing could come from someone’s dream. At least it explained why Robert had broken up with him despite the two of them being very much not together at the time. He turns on his heel and leaves Robert without another word.
He drives home somewhat erratically. Very erratically some might say. But who can blame him considering what he has swirling around his mind. He doesn’t see the lorry coming in the other direction down a winding country road until it’s too late.
*
Fuck Robert. Fuck John. Aaron’s going to let the entire day play out as it had the first time around.
In the pub he calls Robert a snake with as much venom as he used the first time around. He almost blurts out Robert’s secret. That he got married. In prison. He doesn’t, though. That’s a revelation for another time. Besides, he doesn’t want to give John too much ammunition. So, he holds his tongue. He doesn’t remember the complaints he had about Robert the first few times around, when he’s walking home with John, so he lets him ramble on about his brother. Aaron takes the shopping bag into the flat as he had before. He’s going to let it all happen.
As he watches through the window, shopping bag abandoned on the floor doubt starts to set in. It’s not any easier seeing Robert’s face redden as he struggles to breathe, hands pulling uselessly at the arm John has around his neck.
Aaron gets outside just in time to witness Robert hitting John with the wrench. When he reaches them, Robert looks at him like a deer in the headlights.
“He wound me up!” he shouts. It’s a bit of an understatement in Aaron’s view.
“I know,” Aaron says softly, as though he really is talking to a deer in the headlights. “I saw what John did to you. I’m going to call an ambulance for him, but I think you should get checked out too. He could have done serious damage.” Aaron motions to his neck. Robert doesn’t respond, just stares into the distance unseeing and Aaron has no idea if he heard him. “I’ll tell the police you were provoked, if it comes down to it. I saw what happened.”
Robert just stands there while Aaron calls the ambulance. The same expression on his face that Aaron had seen before. He really has let it play out as it did the first time around. Vic arrives, and the sirens do too and Robert runs away as he had before.
Aaron goes through the motions of being the concerned husband. He can figure out John’s secrets and how to expose them in the next loop.
“I tried calling Robert, he didn’t answer,” Vic tells him, after the doctors have assured them that John will be fine after some rest.
“Okay. It’s getting late, I think I’m gonna head home,” he says.
“You sure?” asks Vic. “I could get you some things from the flat so you can stay here.” It’s what she’d done in previous loops.
“Nah, I think John’ll be fine if I head home for a bit,” Aaron replies.
He takes advantage of the flat being empty to look for clues. But first he calls Robert, or at least tries to, it goes straight to voicemail.
“Look, Robert, I don’t know if you heard me earlier, but I saw what John did to you. I know that he provoked you into attacking him and I know he’s not who everyone thinks he is, so when you get this, can you let me know you’re alright?” When he’s done, Aaron tosses his phone aside. It’ll probably be all for nothing when the day resets.
*
Aaron wakes up in his own bed once again. He looks around to find he’s woken up by himself for the first time in a long time. His phone is buzzing on his bedside table.
Robert is calling him.