– AARON & JACKSON –

– THE LONG ROAD –

"Long Awaited Eruption"

WRITTEN BY DAYNE DINNING

~This fanfic follows on a few hours since Good Day Gone Bad

I do not own the characters, or Emmerdale – ITV do.

Aaron had fallen asleep on the couch, not long after Hazel had left and Billy was sleeping on the top of the back of the sofa. The living room was pitch black and Aaron jumped up when the door clicked open and Billy jumped up to, jumping down to the floor as he meowed. Aaron squinted as the light was turned on. It was Jackson. "Where the hell have you been?" he asked as he looked at the clock. "It's almost ten!"

"I know...I'm sorry...I should have text or something"

"Yeah well...where have you been Jackson?" he asked quickly, suspicion clear in his voice.

Jackson frowned. "You make it sound like I've been doing something wrong..."

"Well have ya?" Aaron yelled.

Then Jackson raised his bandaged right hand up to Aaron's view. "Oh"

"Yeah Oh..." he smirked. "I cut myself on an electric saw didn't I? There was blood everywhere..."

Aaron jumped from the couch and moved to his fiancé as fast as he could. "Are you alright?" he panicked.

"Simon had to run me to Hotten general, and my battery died on my phone...I was waiting ages in A&E..."

"Yeah but babe, they have phones you know, I've been going out my mind...till I fell asleep...and I normally wouldn't but I was exhausted"

Jackson put his arms around him and held him close. "You thought I was with someone..." he smirked.

Aaron was uncomfortable and the look on his face was like he was trying to get out of it. Then he frowned. "Yeah..." he scrunched his face. "Sorry"

Jackson chuckled. "It's fine..."

"No it's not Jackson, you deserve better than that..."

"After everything Aaron it's understandable that you'll feel insecure"

"No, stop being nice to me alright..." he pulled away. "I don't deserve it! I've treated you like crap!"

Jackson shook his head. "That's all in the past now"

"And then tonight, I got it into my head you've been having sex with someone else...oh...oh and not too long ago I put you, my mum and my best mate through hell! I asked you all to help me kill myself for god sake! If my hand didn't move then I wouldn't be here! And I would have gone through with it! So selfish of me!" Aaron was raging with anger and Jackson knew where it was coming from, Aaron hadn't dealt with any of the almost suicide, none of them had really spoke about it since, and his slow recovery had frustrated him and now all of it was here blurted out in anger, sadness and frustration. Jackson's eyes widened when he saw Paddy standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He swallowed hard.

Aaron turned when he heard the footsteps, step into the living room. He put his hands to his mouth when he saw the mortified, quizzical look on Paddy's face. "Oh god..."

"Is it true?" Paddy demanded.

Aaron shut his eyes and cried as he nodded then he turned away and leaned against the sofa.

"And you chose to keep me out of it because what? It's just Paddy, he doesn't need to know!" he shouted.

"Nooo" Aaron cried. "It wasn't like that Paddy, you mean a lot to me, I didn't tell you because it would have hurt you..."

"But it was okay for Jackson, your mum and Adam to know?"

"It's not like that Paddy..."

Paddy rushed over to him and turned him round and shook him. "Well tell me what it's like then Aaron, I consider you a son and we trust each other but you couldn't let me in on one of the darkest times of your life!"

"But he's still here Paddy!" Jackson told him.

Paddy sighed and looked at Jackson. "But like he said himself he wouldn't have been if his hand didn't move..." tears strolled down Paddy's face. Paddy then turned back to Aaron and pushed him back against the sofa, then started to walk away. "How could you? After everything we've been through together, you wanted to do that, you didn't even try!"

"You haven't got a clue what it was like, how I felt! You weren't around long enough, as soon as it got hard that was it!" As soon as the words rolled off his tongue Aaron regretted them immediately.

"Aaron!" Jackson shouted to stop him but it was too late.

"I didn't mean that Paddy..."

Paddy continued to walk and went into the kitchen. "Paddy! I'm sorry..." Aaron sighed and quickly as he could he bolted for the door, and walked as fast as he could into the dark of the night.

Jackson sighed and lowered his head.

Jackson walked into the kitchen after five minutes or so and saw Paddy sitting at the table wiping his eyes, then placing his glasses back on his face. "I 'am so sorry Paddy, I share the responsibility of all of this...but it was Aaron's wish, he wanted it to end...we tried so hard you have to believe me...but then he moved and we were spared losing him..."

"I said some horrible things..." Paddy said quietly.

"Don't worry about that now mate" Jackson sat down beside him. "He did too and he knows he was in the wrong..."

Paddy nodded. "I do love him Jackson, I can't believe he wouldn't have said goodbye..."

"He did Paddy...Chas told me she saw you and Aaron in the pub together one day..."

"Oh..." he remembered and he lowered his head and cried again. "We had a great chat, probably the longest one we've ever had" he chuckled through the tears.

Jackson smiled. "I' am sorry Paddy I really am..."

Paddy shook his head. "No...No...It's done now..." he sniffled and stood up. "He's here, alive...and on the mend, I can't let this come between us..."

"You could easily though..."

Paddy knew that. "Life's too short...and we have to find him...its freezing out there, he's not in the best state, mentally or physically so...come on lets go..."

As they left the house, they spoke about Aaron. "I think that outburst you heard has been fizzling up for a long time..." Jackson told him.

"Then in typical Aaron fashion he lets rip...yeah I've been on the brunt of that one several times..." Paddy told him as they walked through the village, looking everywhere as they did. The further they walked they found themselves almost at the garage, and Aaron was sitting on the steps of the building next to it, where he and Jackson used to share countless tea breaks together.

"There..." Jackson said in the darkness and ran up to him. "Hey handsome you're shivering come on..." Jackson took off his jacket quickly and put it round him. "You're in a right state..."

"Paddy..."

Paddy stepped closer. "Yes mate..."

"Can you forgive me?" he sobbed.

Paddy nodded. "It was a shock at first, very...very upsetting to hear, you did try, of course you did...I'm sorry for saying that, I never meant it...but you were right, I dealt with it all by working and business trips that I forgot that it was you...my son...stuck and helpless, I can see why you were going to do what you did...I don't agree but I 'am so sorry Aaron for the way I've behaved tonight..."

Aaron shook his head as he cried. "Me too..."

"Come here you big lummox"

Aaron hugged Paddy as tightly as possible and when Paddy pulled away they all waited for him. "You know...I went to work, right over there...today and" he began to laugh. "I couldn't even take out an old spark plug...and I went home and looked at getting something to eat...I don't even have the strength to turn a tin opener..." he sighed. "Everything just got on top of me and I'm sorry Jackson..."

"Hey it's alright..." Jackson leaned into him. "We'll work on it together...and as for the tin opener...did you not realise Paddy bought an electric one months ago?" he smirked as did Paddy.

Aaron's mouth fell open. "Ahhh" he grunted. "Are you having a laugh? Do you not know how starving I 'am right now..." he sighed, pretending to be disappointed in them both for keeping it a 'secret'.

Paddy laughed.

"Right then, food bath bed, in that order" Jackson told him. "Come on...need a hand...?" he asked as they stood.

"Yeah in mine" Aaron replied as he held out his for Jackson to hold and he took it and they all walked back up to Smithy.

A while later after hungry Aaron and the rest of them had eaten and the boys shared a bath together, Jackson came up with a plan while he was getting into his boxers for bed. He walked back into the bedroom with his hands behind his back. "Sit on the floor sexy" he said as he stared at Aaron's body. God he loved it so much!

Aaron frowned. "Why?"

"Just do it" he smirked.

He frowned again as he moved and sat on the floor with his legs out before him. Jackson sat behind him with Aaron in between his legs. "Put your hands out"

Aaron smirked and did as he was told. Jackson then placed two tins of beans in either hand, Aaron began to laugh. "Close your hands" Jackson told him as he put his arms under his. "What are we doing?" Aaron wondered.

"Exercises...so come on do it...I'll help..."

"You're amazing do you know that?" Aaron told him as he began lifting his arms up, as he held the tins of beans in his hands.

"Shh you" Jackson smirked. "Concentrate..." he said before kissing his neck. "You're doing great..."

TBC...