** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1
Truth will out 4/?
"Mum are you baking those tortilla chips yourself?" Chris laughed walking into the kitchen and approaching Jean where she stood over the bowl of chips, pot of dip and bottles of beer sitting on a tray. "Mum? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine sweetheart sorry I was miles away I'm coming now, bring the tray will you I'll get another bottle of wine from the fridge and be with you in a second." Jean smiled trying not to show that she had been so lost in her own thoughts when he came in. The evening was proving just as emotionally exhausting as she had thought it might be but now that they had started she decided it would be better to get everything out in the open stopping then might make things worse rather than better and that was the last thing she wanted.
"This isn't the usual dip you buy it's nice but it's spicier." Chris said as she made it back into the sitting room and sat beside him.
"No I had some people from work over a couple of nights ago, Robbie and James and Laura Hobson you know the pathologist? Well James loves that one so I'd got it in but he brought some himself so it didn't get used." Jean replied narrowing her eyes a little as he gave her a knowing smile. "What?"
"Nothing just you look happy when you talk about your social life these days it's a long time since you did I'm happy for you."
"I am happy with my life social or otherwise."
"Not before time you know I don't know why you…" Chris began pausing and considering if it was worth bringing up the end of his parent's marriage when she was clearly finally moving on with her life.
"Why I what?" Jean asked already knowing what was coming. It was inevitable that they would get on to the topic of Richard at some stage it couldn't be avoided but she'd hoped it would have been a little longer to allow her to get over the discussion about his birth first.
"You brought me up to believe that I should respect women, that it just wasn't acceptable to treat them any other way. You always told me that in a relationship I should be considerate and treat y partners well."
"Well you should. The world is full of men who are complete bastard's Chris it doesn't need another one I would like to think that you do treat your girlfriends well even if you can't settle with the same one for more than five minutes." Jean replied giving him a teasing smile as he rolled his eyes.
"Of course I do, most of my girlfriends I met through work if it got through the force grapevine and back to you that I hadn't my life wouldn't be worth living. I've never known a group of people so capable of getting gossip from one side of the country to the other in record time, to get it from one station to another within the same district would take a matter of seconds."
"That doesn't happen you know." Jean smiled the desire to reassure him that she didn't have a network of spies operating between his base station and hers checking up on his every move. "I mean I don't check up on you and I very rarely hear anything about how you're getting on from anyone other than you. I don't want you to think just because I'm your mother anyone thinks they should or even could come running to me with gossip about you whether it's personal or professional."
"I don't think you spend your days hunting down information about me mum I'm pretty sure if you wanted to know anything you'd just ask me but gossip does filter down, or even up through the ranks." Chris sighed setting aside the point he was trying to make in the first place for a second and dealing with what they had in front of them right then. "I hear things at times too, little bits of gossip, I ignore then just like I know you would ignore it if you heard something about me but it doesn't mean it never happens I don't expect you to pretend it doesn't. I just think if you do hear things you'd come to me and if it involved me treating a girlfriend like crap you wouldn't be happy when you got your hands on me."
"Hold on a minute, go back a bit. I meant it when I said I never hear any gossip about you but what did you mean you'd heard things? What sort of things?" Jean asked suddenly bristling a little at the implication that she had been the subject of gossip. She loathed gossiping of any kind and work place rumours where the worst especially when you held a position of authority and people were prone to look for a reason to ignore that fact.
"Nothing serious Mum relax you can't expect people not to talk. You're a woman who is very good at her job and there are still people who'd like to belittle that fact by trying to turn your personal life into the stuff of water cooler gossip then when Dad did what he did….the last time and it all came out so publicly of course there was going to be talk and it would make it's way back to me because some people assumed that I'd be only too happy to badmouth you or him or both of you."
"I can't believe I'm hearing this, what right does anyone have to talk about my marriage, or divorce and what right do they think they have trying to drag you into their petty games of office politics I….."
"Stop it Mum! It was a storm in a tea cup, actually it was a storm in a thimble they are people with nothing better to do with their time. They certainly learned pretty quickly that they were getting no additional information from me. But it brings us back to the point I was trying to make in the first place."
"Yeah I know it does." Jean sighed "You want to know considering the fact that I drummed into you about respect and equality in relationships I didn't kick you Dad out on his ear after his first affair or before it even?"
"Yeah I mean he stopped making you happy long before you finally kicked him out, I love him and everything but he was a bastard to you for a long time Mum why the hell did you put up with it?"
"Do you really want to know this sort of thing Chris? I mean surely the details of mine and your dad's marriage is the last thing you want to know."
"I want to understand and if that means talking about it then I'll take that I can live with it if you can."
"I suppose I'll have to. Jean sighed draining her glass and refilling it before sinking back on the sofa and trying to decide where to start.