Save You

"That's my daughter! That's my DAUGHTER!" Phil screamed, throwing his crutches to the floor and grasping Ronnie's arms tightly. "Who do you think you are, eh?! EH?! Who do you think you are?!" He yelled into her face, his own turning a bright shade of red.

"She's better off without you," Ronnie replied, her voice steely and unperturbed.

Phil scoffed angrily. "Like Danielle was without you?"

There was a shift in the atmosphere of the pub, an almost audible wince.

"Don't you dare-" Ronnie began, twisting her arms out of her cousin's reach, but Phil cut her off.

"Well go on, deny it. She came here lookin' for yer and a minute after she told yer, she was dead! You threw her outta here and she died."

"Stop talking about her!"

"That was your doing, not mine. So tell me where my daughter is! TELL ME!" Phil lunged forward, pinning Ronnie's body against the bar.

"Dad!"

"Get your hands off her!"

Everyone turned to see Jack grip hold of Phil and force him away from Ronnie before the attention was focused solely on the little girl that stood in the doorway of the Vic, an alarmed expression on her face.

"Louise," Phil called out, gruffly. He limped over to his daughter, the little girl that he hadn't seen for so many years, the little girl his heart longed for. But she backed away, cowering away from him, instead ducking beneath his outstretched arms and rushing to Ronnie's side. "Louise?" Her dad questioned, visibly upset.

"She took care of me," Louise stated simply, her fingers seeking out Ronnie's hand and squeezing it gently. She looked up to Ronnie's surprised face and gave her a weak smile. Ronnie just looked back at her, stunned.

"Right, that's it – everyone upstairs, we're sortin' this out," Peggy ordered, taking charge of the situation before she began to herd the Mitchell's up the flat. "Er, where do you think you're going?" She asked, as Jack began to follow Ronnie and Louise, who was still holding Ronnie's hand, through to the back of the bar.

"You think I'm leaving 'er with you lot?" A derisive sneer passed Jack's lips. Ronnie turned back, her eyes locking with his, a surprised look crossing her face for a moment. Why was she surprised? She knew he'd always be there for her.

"This is family business-"

"It always is with the Mitchells, ain't it?"

"Oh Auntie Peg, just leave it, alright? We've got bigger fish to fry!" Roxy exclaimed, her ice blue eyes staring into her sister's.

"Have you got something to say, Roxy?"

"Oh, I have plenty to say-"

"Girls! Upstairs, NOW!"

Each member of the Mitchell clan trudged up the stairs before convening in the living room. Ben and Louise had been put in the kitchen with Danny, so the adults could engage in a slanging match. "What right do you have to send my daughter away, eh? Eh?" Phil shouted, his hands itching to hit something.

"You just proved the reason why I did it. You're a violent bully and she deserves better than that!"

Roxy scoffed. "Oh yeah, Saint Bleeding Veronica – the protector of the innocent children!"

Ronnie eyes flashed with an incomprehensible emotion. "Roxy, [i]shut up[/i]!"

"Why? Why should I, eh?" Roxy challenged, stalking closer to Ronnie like a cat circling its prey. "You're sick in the head, d'you know that? You'll never be satisfied, will you? You've always got to break up a family – Joel's, Phil's, min-"

"Roxy! I am warning you!" Ronnie shouted into her sister's face, cutting her off mid sentence. Ronnie's stomach churned with a strange feeling, it was almost like terror. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest and the bile rising at the back of her throat.

"Or what? What're you gonna do, Veronica? Give me another one of these?!" Roxy hissed, a manicured fingernail pointing to the scar in her chin.

"If it'll get you to shut up, then yeah." Her words were low, soft even but the threat hung in the air like a klaxon of dead, festering flesh.

"Oh, I'd like to see you try-"

Ronnie grabbed a fistful of Roxy's blonde hair, her free hand clamping around Roxy's chin, forcing her back against the wall of the living room. She could hear an uproar of voices sweeping around her, could feel a pair of strong arms trying to pull her away from her sister, but she held steadfastly, refusing to let go.

"Get off me!" Roxy yelled, kicking out against her sister's grip until Jack finally managed to wrestle Ronnie away from her. "You really are a psycho, aren't you?"

"Roxy – would you just shut up?!" Jack demanded, his arm secured around Ronnie's waist in an attempt to stop her from lunging at Roxy once more.

"NO!" Roxy hollered. "Because we're all finally seeing you for who you are, aren't we Ronnie? You're just a lying, twisted, sick freak. What, just because your daughter died, you have to keep his away?!" She screamed, flinging her arm out in Phil's direction.

"Roxy, okay, that's enough!" Jack exclaimed, his grip still tight around Ronnie. He had felt her body become rigid as Roxy's words seeped through the room like toxic waste.

"No, no – I don't think it is," Peggy told him. Ronnie's eyes swivelled to meet her aunts, the betrayal evident in her face. "That's my granddaughter," was the only answer Ronnie received.

"Of course," Ronnie muttered. "Of course. Yeah, right, because no matter how many times I bail any of you out, it doesn't matter because my name's not Grant or Phil or Sam. No." She scoffed. "Shoulda known, really." Her arms pushed down upon Jack's until he finally relented and released his grip on her. "So much for family, eh?"

"Well, what do you expect, Veronica?" Roxy spat. "We all know you're a liar now, so how many other lies have you told, eh?"

"Roxy-"

"You lied to Joel, to Jack, to Phil – so how many other people have you lied to, how many other lies have you told."

"I'm leaving," Ronnie announced, heading towards the door. But Roxy blocked her exit. Her hands were on her hips, her eyes boring through her sister's skin, trying to reveal every part of Ronnie that nobody had been before.

"So go on, Ronnie – why don't you tell everyone what you told me, eh? Why won't you tell everyone what sick, little lies you've been spouting? Go on, show everyone who you really are! GO ON!"

"Screw you, Roxanne," Ronnie stated, her eyes looking directly into Roxy's and not flinching. She wasn't intimidated of Roxy, she wasn't scared of her. She was terrified of what Roxy knew. Why had she told her? Why, after all these years, had she let go of the one secret that she had promised to never speak aloud? Because she had stupidly thought her sister would believe her.

An electric tension filled the air between the two sisters and all Phil, Peggy and Jack could do was watch the argument unfold. It was obvious they were no longer talking about Louise, no this was something else. Something so deep rooted that the sisters couldn't even voice.

"Tell them!" Roxy demanded, her arms jutting out and her fingers closing around Ronnie's. "Tell them the lies you told me about dad!"

Jack frowned, his brows creasing into furrows. What had Archie got to do with this?

"I'm not having this conversation," Ronnie hissed from between her clenched teeth.

"See if they believe your twisted lies about him. You make me sick, d'you know that? Your lies turn my stomach and all I want to do is claw you out of my life. It's like you've infected me with your disease, infected me with your anger and lies and all I can do is stay as far away as possible from you. Why don't you just leave, Ronnie? Just go, nobody's gonna miss you here-"

"Roxy, that's enough!" Jack interjected, but she was no longer listening, no longer aware of the other three people in the room, her entire focus upon her sister.

"Our dad, my dad was a good dad-"

Ronnie scoffed, the derision dripping from her exhaled breath. "Oh yeah, of course he was. Because all good dads force adoptions, lie about their granddaughter being dead, hurt their children, kick out his entire family, including his infant granddaughter, out onto the streets on Christmas Eve. Oh yeah, that just screams 'good dad'-"

"How dare you?! He is dead!"

"Good."

Roxy's hand shot out and slammed down on Ronnie's left cheek. Ronnie winced from the pain that filtered through her face, but she didn't move her eyes away from Roxy's. Jack instantly moved to Ronnie's side, wanting to move her away from Roxy, but she put up a hand, signalling for him to stop. She wasn't done.

"He deserved to die. He deserved to die a long time ago . . . and you know it."

Ronnie turned away, about to walk out of the living room, but Roxy's voice dragged her back into the confrontation.

"Why?" Roxy called out after her sister. "Because he raped you?"

"What?!" Both Phil and Peggy broke their silence at the same moment. Peggy's question coming out in a gasp, as though the wind had been knocked out of her.

Jack said nothing, instead his eyes locked on Ronnie. He could see her hands tremble slightly, seeking out the doorframe, something to hold onto. He wanted to walk towards her, to give her his hand to grab hold of, but he didn't. He couldn't move. He could just watch her.

The vomit swirled in the pit of Jack's stomach, rising up and pushing against the back of his throat. He wanted to throw up, to run to the bathroom and empty the contents of his stomach into the porcelain bowl. But what good would that do? How would that help Ronnie?

Because he knew she was telling the truth.

He knew what Archie had done to her.

He believed her.

Archie's obsession with her, his lies, his actions. They all revolved around Ronnie. Everything made sense now.

Except how do you make sense of something like that?

"Oh, what you didn't know?" Roxy asked, sarcastically. "Apparently our dad raped her when she was fourteen. Actually, was it fourteen, Ron? I'm a little sketchy on the details, seeing as it didn't happen!" She hollered at her sister's back.

But Ronnie didn't answer. She didn't even turn around. She couldn't. She couldn't look into their faces and see their thoughts reflected in their eyes. She couldn't turn around, just in case they didn't believe her either.

Jack's eyes stared into the back of Ronnie's form, willing her to realise that he believed her, that she could trust him to believe her.

"See? See what I mean? You're just a sick, twisted little girl, Veronica. You couldn't stand knowing that he gave everything to me, that he loved me. You couldn't stand it, could you? You couldn't stand it and you were jealous so you tried to turn me against him." The fury built up in Roxy with every word that passed her lips, it was as though an inferno had swept up inside her and was ready to pour forth. "Look at me!" She screamed, rushing forwards and forcing Ronnie to look at her. "You were so jealous, you had to make up a sick, sick lie. But it didn't work, did it Ron, eh? It didn't work because I know you're lying, I know it didn't happen."

"Yes, it did."