Time to let go.
Hoping this'll be a shortish one. I am absolutely gutted Rhys died and even more gutted his funeral wasn't shown on screen/the bit after was rubbish so I've decided to write my own version. 7 years on the show and no funeral is just appalling. Can I just randomly say, I really, really ship Hannah and Gilly (not quite as much as Hannah and Darren) but I didn't incorporate that into the fanfic. Hannah and Rhys are my two all time favourite characters, so expect a lot of Hannah. Their relationship was my fav thing about Hollyoaks ever.
Main Characters: Jacqui, Gilly, Suzanne, Nev, Hannah, Josh, Darren, Sinead
Other characters I imagine/in my fic attended the funeral and may possibly make an appearance at one point or another: Phoebe, Myra, Carmel, Theresa, Michaela, Bart, Cheryl, Tony, Cindy, Nancy, Dodger, Jack, Frankie, Tom. Possibly Fletch and Duncan.
Chapter 1 – Hannah's POV
I don't think our family's ever had any luck. Though, I mean, I guess up until this point we'd all survived- except Beth and Noel, but they were Rhys' family; I'd rather we didn't count them. I do remember Beth's death though, I think it was painful for the lot of us; probably a lot more so than Rhys could ever comprehend. Not because she was dead, but because of the way it separated the family. The worst part though? Almost losing my brother. The shock it sent through me when I found out what had happened, it-well-it just made the relief even better when we found out he was okay. That was then and this is now. I guess he finally used up all his nine lives. The amount of times he'd nearly died, whether it was almost drowning back when he was young, or getting into car crashes, or being beaten up by Jamie's crazy friends…he always made it through.
I loved him, I'd always felt a special bond between us. Not the same kind of bond I have with Josh, but it was an incredible thing still. Other times I'd think I hated him, especially when I was younger. He'd often say things he didn't mean, but things that hurt. The thing with Rhys was he didn't always how to show he cared, not with us his family anyway. He was fine with girls; he had some kind of charm that even Nancy fell for when she first met him. I'd never been able to see it, but there was a long list of girls wanting a bit of him. You see, when Rhys was in a relationship; when he was in love, he'd act like nothing else mattered. He'd put them above everything; his friends, his family. He certainly had his selfish moments and poor Gilly got the worst of that. The problem was, in the end, he gave so much up for the women he loved and then he got bored of her. I don't know the story and I guess I never will now, but he used to tweet and text me going on about Jacqui nagging and having to look after some teenager- 'stray' he called her. He hadn't sounded happy for a while.
I looked down at my phone, reading the text that had just popped up on the screen. 'Han, are you okay? I'll meet you at the McQueen's in an hour.' It was Josh. He'd been texting me constantly since we'd heard the news about Rhys, just because he knew what I was like. He'd quickly caught a flight home from Thailand with Michaela when he'd heard. Thankfully I had Gilly by my side for the train ride to Chester. We'd got in contact and met up in Manchester. He said he'd been living there since leaving Hollyoaks and he'd told me everything about the rape accusation. It made me think back to when I wrongly-but purposely-accused him of rape. Gilly was too good a person to do anything like that and it shocked me to hear Rhys didn't take his side.
"You alright?" He double checked, looking down at me as Josh's text swallowed my attention up and made my mind hit reality. His voice was sweet and comforting.
"Yeah," I nodded, with a breathless tone to my voice, "you?"
"Not sure I'll be welcome at this funeral. Probably a mistake going, don't yar think?"
"Gilly, you can't think like that. He was your best friend for over 20 years, yeah? It'll be fine." I spoke positively, but my mind wasn't really feeling it. Though, it was right. Gilly deserved to get the chance to say goodbye to his best-friend. Shit best-friend though with the things Rhys put him through. I tilted my head sideways and rested it on Gilly's shoulder. He'd always been like my third brother. Perhaps I shouldn't be saying that, I did try and kiss him once. But to be fair I was drunk and upset, it wasn't like I felt anything romantic for him. I sighed loudly and tears began to fill up my eyes.
"Why did this have to happen, Gilly? I didn't even get to see him again." I felt numb. My mind, my heart, everything. All I wanted to do was scoff as much food as possible and then throw it all back up again. I'd not relapsed since the last time, but then nothing had felt this hard since I'd left Chester. I don't think anything had felt this awful actually. Gilly shook his head, he was almost speechless and it took him a long time to spit something out.
"Just hate that we were on bad terms, you know?"
*****
As Gilly and I stood outside the McQueen's place all I could think was how little it had changed. Well, that and how much I really didn't want to step foot in their place again. I saw the worried look that spread over Gilly's face and rubbed my hand on his arm as some kind of reassurance that it'd be okay. Knocking the door, I noticed him slide behind me slightly, almost as if he was hiding. Couldn't blame him I guess, the McQueens could be terrifying at times, especially when they were all together. I was actually quite relieved when Carmel was the one to answer the door.
"Come right in," she said with a smile after giving both of us a hug. "I'm sorry about your brother. It's so very sad." She didn't think twice about Gilly, but unfortunately Jacqui and Myra were stood in the kitchen with facial expressions like wild lions waiting to feast on something. Theresa remained in the corner and gave a little wave. I'd not come into contact with her much, but I remembered she was a friend of that compulsive liar, Anita Roy. That family.
"Oi, what's 'e doin' 'ere?" Myra asked, bluntly as she walked up to me and Gilly.
"Mum, leave it," Jacqui snapped, though that was hardly convincing. Her eyes
still remained focused angrily on Gilly.
"Rhys was his best friend. Can we leave all that rape stuff in the past just for one day?" I had to say something, it wasn't like he was going to.
"Spose so," Myra muttered, "but I don't wanna see his face after today. Ya hear that?" She walked off back into the kitchen. "You just hope he dunt to the same to you," I heard her murmur under her breath not realising I could hear from where I was standing. As I began to glance around some more I noticed some unfamiliar faces. A boy who I could only presume was Myra's nephew, Bart, a pretty red-headed girl, a younger tanned girl who I could only presume was Phoebe and Theresa's child too. Mercedes was no where to be seen, but I'd heard rumours on twitter that she was locked up or something. Can't say that really surprised me.
"Oh Hannah, love. There's some boxes up in our Jac's room upstairs with things of Rhys' in. 'Ave a look and see if ya want any of it, will yer?" Myra
"Thanks, Myra. We'll go and have a look now." I wondered up the stairs knowing oh too well where I was going whilst Gilly followed. We began to look through the mountains of crap Rhys had chosen to keep throughout the years. Most of it just needed to be thrown, whilst a small amount of it was a bit of a throwback. I left Gilly to look through it whilst I popped to the toilet. On the landing I managed to almost-literally collide with the red-head I'd noticed downstairs. I smiled at her and she returned it, though she didn't look at all happy. I guess none of us were, but I didn't remember Rhys mentioning her at all so they couldn't have been close or anything.
"Who are you? You certainly don't look like a McQueen." I asked as we both came to a halt and stared at one another.
"What?" She asked, in a quiet, scouse voice, sounding confused.
"Take it as a compliment. I'm Hannah."
"Of course. You're Rhys' sister. I've urm, seen photos. I'm Sinead, I'm Bart's girlfriend."
"Girlfriend of a McQueen? I was one of those once. Get out while you still can." It seemed good advice. Michaela and Josh didn't work out, John-Paul turned gay on me…I think I might have to blame Rhys for him and Mercedes not working out though.
"I-I don't think I can. It's already too late." There was fear in her voice and tears beginning to escape her eyes.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked her, sympathetically whilst putting my arm across her and embracing her into a sideward-hug.
"I shouldn't say. Bu' I just-I need to tell someone. It's killin' me. Rhys is gonna be a dad." I led her through into one of the other rooms so we could sit down and have a proper chat. There was a cot in there, so I could only presume it was Theresa's room. I was sure she wouldn't mind. When we got there, Sinead reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a photo. A photo of Rhys. "Rhys and I were drunk at a party. I were made up he was givin' me some attention, unlike Bart who was just on the weed all the time and it just kinda…happened. Don't hate me. Jacqui already does, she won't let me tell Bart that he ain't the da. I've ruined me life. Please don't tell anyone."