Chapter Text
‘Honey I’m home.’ Aaron calls as he steps through the door to their bedroom. He’d been expecting to find Robert in the backroom when he got home, seeing as he’d been working late at the scrapyard, but there was no sign of his fiancé. He’s just about to go back downstairs to see if maybe he was round the front of the pub, something that was happening more often now that Robert seemed to actually be making an effort to socialise with people outside of his own family.
He’s stopped in his tracks by the sight of a letter sitting in the middle of the perfectly made bed, Robert’s doing of course. He always insisted on making the bed first thing in the morning, whereas Aaron was happy to just leave it as it was, seeing nothing wrong with just falling into bed at the end of the day; it was just going to get messed up again anyway.
His heart skipped a beat on seeing the letter, his name clearly written in Robert’s untidy scrawl. The man was such a contradiction; every aspect of his life had to be neat and orderly except for his handwriting, resembling that of a five years olds, which Aaron had teased him about on several occasions.
Reaching for the note Aaron realises that he’s holding his breath, his mind racing through an endless list of possibilities as to its contents, none of them good. Deciding that it’s probably best to just get it over with and read the damn thing, he unfolds it to find a mess of words. He really hates Robert’s handwriting, even after all this time it was still like trying to decipher some kind of code.
Aaron,
First things first, I’m not leaving you so you can stop thinking that right now. I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again every minute of every day if I have too I’m not going anywhere.
Now that’s out of the way you can breathe again and stop freaking out okay? Because, this next bit, well it’s serious and I’m sorry that I’m telling you in a note like this but please believe me when I say this I did this to protect you. I don’t want to hurt you, it’s the last thing I ever want to do and I wanted you to be okay for just a little bit longer. With everything that’s been happening recently, I just didn’t want to give you anything else to worry about.
But before I go on if you’re alone right now, which you probably are because I put this in the bedroom so that Charity wouldn’t have a nose through while you were still at work, go find someone, anyone. I just don’t want you to be alone right now.
I’m serious Aaron, I know you’re ignoring me right now but stop reading, go down stairs, or next door if Liv’s in and find someone. Hell, even Charity will do if you’re stuck, just don’t read this alone okay. Just let me protect you for a little bit longer.
Aaron considers ignoring Robert’s plea, he just needs to know what the hell is going on, because whatever it is it’s going to big and scary, and Robert obviously doesn’t think that he can handle it, which makes it hurt just that little bit more. But he doesn’t have time for self-pity right now, so he does as Robert asks.
Gripping the paper tightly, the weight of it weighing heavy, he turns from the room and heads down the stairs to the back room of the pub. He can hear dishes rattling as he approaches the closed door, and silently offers a prayer that it’s not Charity. She’s really the last person he wants to deal with right now.
He’s glad to find his mum standing at the sink, dishes clattering in the washing up bowl as she scrubs at them furiously. “I swear if I have to wash up after you lot one more time…” She starts but is quickly silenced by Aaron’s appearance in the doorway; the look on his face obviously saying everything that he doesn’t know how too.
“Aaron, what is it? What’s happened?” The dishes are now forgotten, with Chas making her way across the room, hands still dripping with dish water. Getting no answer, she tries again, eyes searching Aaron’s for any kind of a hint. “Aaron?”
He tries to say something, he’s not sure what, just anything but it seems as though his voice has abandoned him along with Robert. Despite Robert’s assurances that he’s not leaving Aaron, nothing else about the note in his hand is doing anything to ease his panic.
Getting nowhere, he decides that the easiest thing to do is to show his mum the letter, thrusting his hand out he nods at her to take it from him. Wiping her hands on her jeans, she takes the offered paper and begins to read.
Aaron stands, still as a statue, his eyes taking in every minute change in her expression. Watching and waiting he can see his own emotions playing across his mum’s face. He can tell the moment that she gets to the part about finding someone; there’s a brief hint of a frown before she’s looking at him, offering the note back.
It’s all he can do to shake his head. No, he can’t read the rest, she’ll have to do it for him. He knows that whatever it is he doesn’t want to know but he needs to know, needs to know that Robert is okay.
Chas nods, affirming before taking his arm and gently guiding him to the sofa. Once they’re seated she turns her attention back to the note in her hands, now slightly crumpled and a bit damp.
Now that you’re not alone I have something to tell you. Before I do, believe me when I say I am sorry for the way this has happened but as I said before I was trying to protect you, and this was the best way that I knew how.
I’m in the hospital right now, having surgery. Brain surgery.
Chas couldn’t hide the shock as she read those words. She felt rather than saw Aaron tense beside her, his breath quickening. She pressed on wanting to read through the note as soon as possible, searching for answers.
I have a brain tumour. It’s not cancerous, so don’t worry about that I’m not going to die or anything. I’ve been waiting, hoping that it would be okay and that it would stop growing, but it seems that I’m not that lucky so the doctors have decided that the only thing to do is have it removed. I’m sorry for not telling you before, I’ve been trying to work up to it, but they had a cancellation so I’ve been bumped up the list to today. That’s where I am right now, getting rid of it so we can carry on enjoying our life together, to old age.
The thing is that, well it’s brain surgery so there’s a chance that things might not go to plan. I’ve been told the chance is small, that most likely I’ll come out fine, but there’s a chance, and please remember it’s a small chance that it could leave me with permanent damage. But that’s not going to happen so I’m not even thinking about it, I just have to tell you because I’ve kept it too long from you already.
I love you so much, Aaron. I’ll see you when I wake up.
Robert.