AU for the end of Series 12.
"Would it be a sin, if I can't help falling in love with you?"
He sits in the hotel room, alone, the night before his wedding day. 14 hours until he marries Baz.
So why was he sat in a hotel room drinking whiskey from the bottle?
(pre-marital nerves? Cold feet? Doubts?) – all normal aren't they?
There's half a bottle of whiskey left on the beside table. He sits on the edge of the bed with his hands in his lap, thinking about Baz. He loves her, doesn't he? He doesn't just love her because she's Louis' mother, right? He isn't even sure he knows the answers himself any more.
There's a gentle knock on the door and he stands up, heading towards the door and opens it. He embraces Duffy tightly, taking in the sweet smell of her perfume.
"I came as soon as I got your message." She said gently as she removes herself from his embrace. He smiles moving out of the way, so she can enter the room. There's a comfortable silence between them as Duffy sits on the edge of the bed.
"Drink?" He offers.
"Please."
He pours them both a glass of whiskey and he hands her the glass as he sits beside her on the bed.
"Charlie, are you ok?"
For a few minutes he doesn't reply. (Yes? No? He's got cold feet over the wedding, he isn't sure he's in love with Baz in that way? His doubts are normal, aren't they?)
"I'm not sure I want to marry Baz." He tells her as he sips his whiskey.
Duffy smiles slightly and places a hand on his arm. "It's perfectly normal to have cold feet before your wedding." She tries to reassure.
He isn't convinced.
"Do you love her?" She asks breaking him from his thoughts.
"I think so."
"You think?"
"Yes but—" (not in the way I love you.)
He finishes his whiskey in one and tops up his glass. Duffy watches him as he necks the whiskey and fills up his glass. The silence remains between the two of them before Charlie suddenly says; "I'm in love with someone else."
Duffy's eyes widen at his revelation and the only thing she can think of asking is with who?
(You, he thinks but he can't say it, can he?)
It feels like an eternity before he speaks again, "a friend, someone special."
Their eyes meet, and Duffy finds herself biting her lower lip, suddenly nervous of what's coming next. He places his hand on her cheek, maintains eye contact and tells her what he should've told her, all those years before.
"I love you, I always have."
She closes her eyes at his words and swallows the lump that's formed in her throat. She opens her eyes and shakes her head, "Please Charlie, don't do this."
"Do what?"
"Make things—" She's about to say complicated except he presses his lips to hers tenderly, cutting her off. She knows she should pull away, she's a married woman but it feels so right.
She does pull away eventually with a soft sigh.
"I'm married and you're getting married tomorrow."
Baz, his thoughts suddenly return to his fiancée. Does he want to marry her? Does he love her? Or is he mistaking it for something else? Is it possible to experience two different loves? Fall in love with two people for two completely different reasons?
"Your unhappy, I see it in your eyes."
She shakes her head but doesn't deny she's unhappy. She's desperately unhappy but she took her wedding vows seriously and she has the boys to think about.
"The boys are happy Charlie."
He smiles sadly. She was quite possibly one of the most selfless people he'd ever met in his life and it was one of the reasons why he loved her. She always put everyone else's needs above her own.
He removes the glass of whiskey from her hand, places it on the bedside table and kisses her again.
Duffy doesn't resist or pull away. Instead she lies back on the bed, loosely wraps her arms around his neck and deepens the kiss. She knows it's going to go a lot further than kissing when he grabs her breast roughly over her top, but she doesn't want it to end.
She wants to be wanted, needed and most importantly – she wants to be loved.
jottings - may make this a multichapter, although I'm not too sure.
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