WARNING: contains swearing
A/N: sorry about the swearing but that's the effect Peter has.
Part 7
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In a flurry of text messages and hurried phone calls, after many apologies from him it had been agreed that John had rather jumped the gun with their relationship, and nothing like that would happen again until they could officially declare they were together. So there had been nothing more than a merest touch of hands; where fingertips smoothed along a yearned for path, at the end of the maths lessons in college. It had even been decided to forego their usual after college drink on Thursday night in case it led to something else that incriminated him. The Witchettes of Eastwick had already complained to the head of the maths department, Anna Forsythe. Fortunately she had told them that it only seemed like student-teacher fraternisation when she could assure them that everything was innocent; but she had warned John to keep away from Donna until he had returned to the safety of the university. The college had a reputation to maintain, after all, despite her lack of personal objections.
John could do nothing but comply. As he had said to Donna on that Friday night when they had given in to temptation, he couldn't wait to do more… The hint was all too obvious.
But that didn't mean that the idea had left his mind; far from it. Instead, it was all he could think about now. So near and yet so far. Friday, he told himself, if he could make it to Friday, then they'd be free to do whatever they liked. Nobody would bother to interfere after then.
Possible plans quickly formed in his head, but it wasn't only him that was involved in this beckoning relationship; there was his daughter to consider too. On the Thursday night, he breathed his first sigh of relief before consulting with Ellie. She was still fretting over Josh not asking her out, so she should be okay with it. Hopefully she would remain so if she ever found out that he had already kissed Donna.
"How do you feel about me… I mean us, inviting Josh and his mum over for a meal? We could call it a 'me surviving a sixth form college experience' celebration meal," he hesitantly proposed. "Hmm? That doesn't sound too pushy, does it? Since you are friends with Josh in school and… and… Donna is my ex-student now so it wouldn't be unprofessional of me to erm…"
Ellie's smile had slowly built as he babbled on, from delight that Josh might be coming to her home to realisation that her father thought more of Josh's mum than she had first considered. But she wondered how eager she should be about all this. Then again, she'd get to spend some time with Josh. Would she end up regretting encouraging her dad to date Josh's mum? "Why not, Dad! When are you going to ask them?"
"I'll go phone her now," he declared with glee. "I was thinking Saturday night. That doesn't seem too soon to have them over, does it? Yes, I'll go do that now."
All she could do was smile as he ran off.
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The following night, after college and work had finished, his mood wasn't quite so good as it should have been. In fact it had plummeted. Where was she? It was almost getting on for six o'clock and she still hadn't turned up. John fervently gazed towards the main door of the college staffroom again in the hope that Donna would walk in through it at any second, but alas all he saw was her friend Carol.
"Hello, sweetheart," Carol crooned, aiming straight for him. "Finally, I've caught you on your own. You look a little lost. Shall I help you find your way?" she offered.
"Pardon?" he asked distractedly as someone who turned out to be the caretaker walked in through the door instead.
"I said," Carol reiterated as she sidled up to him and placed herself firmly between him and the table he stood by, "that I could help you with something. I'm sure we could come to some mutual arrangement."
His brain caught up then with what she was insinuating. "Yes, well erm… that's lovely of you to offer, but I've got everything covered, thanks." He then flashed her what he hoped was a confident smile; right before he lifted his wrist and scowled at his watch. "Where is she?" he grumbled.
"Who?" Carol asked, now deeply interested. "Got a woman hidden away somewhere?" she teased, since Donna had assured her there was no one in John's life.
"My girlfriend should have been here by now," he supplied. "She must be running late."
"Girlfriend? I didn't know...," Carol started to say and then stopped herself. It didn't do to look like a potential stalker after all. "The traffic can treacherous this time of night on a Friday," she tacked on.
"That must be it," he agreed. "If you'll excuse me, I'll go and see where she's got to."
"Right oh," Carol reluctantly answered, and mentally made a note to berate Donna for the lack of information at the first opportunity. Gulping down her drink, she turned to try and find someone else to talk to.
Using the opportunity to gain some privacy or at least some information, John pulled out his phone and rang Donna's number. It didn't take long for her to answer. "Why haven't you shown up for my drinks thing? Where are you?.. Home?!... What are you doing still at home? You've missed my leaving speech and everything. I was quite impressed with myself; even got a veiled reference to you in there…. Have you been crying?... What's going on?... He's done what?! Give me five minutes and I'll be there as quick as I can. Don't worry, we'll find him, no matter what. I promise."
Carol was still in his way, eyeing him expectantly, and part of him was very glad to leave her standing there. "I've got to go," he informed her, "so can you say goodbye to everyone for me?"
"What's the matter; she lost her cat?" Carol sarkily wondered.
"No, it's much more serious than losing an animal," he tightly replied as he picked up all his possessions. "Her son has gone missing."
"Missing?" Carol queried in his wake as he practically ran away. "No, it can't be," she remarked to herself as the identity of the mystery girlfriend occurred to her; and she was torn between sympathy and anger that the rumours were apparently true.
.
As soon as Wilf let John into the house he headed straight for Donna in the lounge and demanded some answers. "What exactly happened and what have you done so far"
She turned her tear-stained face to him. "He's still not come home yet. When I walked in he wasn't here; that's not like him. And he always has his phone with him but he hasn't answered my calls or my text messages. I didn't know what to do for the best, so I went out looking for Josh. I went to all his usual haunts and tried to contact Baz but got no answer. What do I do now?"
"Let me phone Ellie and see if she's heard anything." He immediately rang his daughter. "Hello Ellie. Have you by any chance seen Josh tonight? You saw him do what?! I'll come and get you. Hang on." He then informed Donna, "She said she saw him talking to Baz when a large car pulled up alongside him, and he climbed in."
"What?!" Donna shrieked as all sorts of scenarios filed through her mind.
"Do you have Baz's number?" John asked, trying to get her to think logically.
She shook her head. "Yes but he isn't answering either. But I do know where he lives."
"Come on," he stated decisively. "I'll take you round there and then we'll pick Ellie up from Shirley's."
"Hello. Is something the matter?" a very stunned Baz wondered when he opened his front door to see Josh's mum standing anxiously on the doorstep next to some bloke he hadn't seen before.
"Yes, there is," Donna tried to calmly explain. "Baz this is really important. Ellie said she saw Josh climb into a car when he was with you earlier. Can you tell me whose car it was?"
"He did," Baz supplied. "It was his dad's girlfriend's car; or at least she was being driven around in it. She stopped to invite him to go with her to their hotel. I thought he'd told you. His phone must have died after all because both our phones were low on battery."
"No, he hadn't told me. Thank you, Baz," Donna replied, feeling some relief flood through her.
In next to no time they were all back in John's car and they were heading toward the hotel were Peter and Ginger were staying. Mindful of any possible interference from the hotel staff, Donna phoned the hotel up to ask if they had seen a tall, spikey-haired teenage boy and to leave a message to say they were on their way to collect her son.
.
It had seemed like such a good idea to go with Ginger when she had found him walking home from school. But it had soon gone very downhill after that. First, his phone had died when he tried to warn his mum where he was; then he'd had no idea what his mum's phone number was so that he could ring her on the hotel phone, giving himself a mild panic; and then his dad had turned up looking like thunder.
Ginger had got Josh to sit on one of the sofas outside their hotel suite, next to two journalists from local newspapers, hoping to pleasantly surprise Peter. "Wait here and I will bring Peter out," she had promised in her best broken English.
But all Peter had done was mistake Josh for completely someone else.
"What the fuck is this?" he had demanded of his girlfriend when he'd finally opened the door and spotted Josh sitting there in his school uniform outside. "Since when did I give fucking interviews to fart arse school newspapers?!"
"Peter, it isn't…," Ginger tried to inform him, shaking her long beautiful black-hair, but he wasn't listening.
"Look, I don't give a shit who he is. Get him out of my sight; I have to get to Broadcasting House within the next fifteen minutes and don't have time to fuck about," he had loudly grumbled, and then slammed the suite door behind him as he disappeared towards the lift in order to enter the early evening traffic.
"Sorry," Ginger mouthed at Josh, "we won't be long."
And then she had tottered her petite form in Peter's wake; leaving Josh all alone in a strange building, not knowing what to do next and with no money to make his way home.
.
An hour and a half later, Josh was still sitting there, hoping that Ginger would hurry up and return; but the journalists had given up waiting. Ignoring Josh as an unqualified nobody, they had decided between them that their appointments with Peter Vincent were long overdue, and it was time to go home and start their weekend.
Suddenly the lift doors opened and out stepped the very people Josh had been patiently waiting for. His hopes grew until he saw that the foul mood his father had been in had deepened. Ginger tried to halt Peter rampaging through the hallway to his suite of rooms; but all he noticed was the fact that someone was still sitting there from a good hour or so earlier.
"What the fuck! Whatever you do, get that damned kid out of here!" Peter yelled. "Can't you do anything right?"
Josh paled as the violent tone of his father's words hit him, and he tried to slink down into his seat even more, wrapping the collar of his coat tightly around his head.
"But Peter, you need to speak to him…," Ginger tried to reason with him again, but he cut her explanation off.
"It's no good, I don't care who he is or how long he has waited to see me," he ranted.
The lift bell tinged to signify someone had stepped out.
"You idiot," Ginger sighed, but Peter wasn't finished.
He pointed a threatening finger in Josh's direction and shouted, "If he hasn't gone by the time I walk back out into this corridor in five minutes, I shall personally take him by the scruff of the neck and throw him out on his scrawny arse!"
"Oh you will, will you?" a female voice instantly accosted him from afar.
Peter's head immediately whipped round in recognition. "Donna?" It had been a long time, but he'd have known her anywhere. To say he was shocked to see his ex-girlfriend standing there, with a young girl by her side, would be an understatement. "What are you doing here? And why the fuck should you care about a…?" It was then that he properly looked at the teen desperately trying to hide within the hood of his coat. "Is that…?" Peter began to verbally wonder as he took one step closer to the boy and noted the tiny wince of fear it gained. "This can't be Josh, can it?"
"I tried to tell you," Ginger triumphantly pointed out. "But you no listen!"
"Shut up, you silly cow!" Peter snapped back at her, and then returned his attention to Donna and the pretty teenage girl who held tightly onto her hand as though she would be gobbled up at any second. "I didn't know you had another one. When did you get her?"
"She isn't mine, you dunce!" Donna mocked him. "When would I have got the chance to go out and find another man? Pft! Do be serious. I'm just borrowing her. She's Josh's girlfriend."
Peter looked impressed but Ellie desperately prodded Donna in the arm. "I'm not…," she started to deny.
"Alright. You're as good as; once you two get your act together," Donna amended. "It's all the same in the end."
"Nicely done, son," Peter proudly aimed towards Josh. "Give her one for me."
That did it! Donna momentarily released her hold on Ellie, stormed up to Peter and hit him hard; narrowly missing his face because he flinched out of the way, but getting him across the upper part of his left arm. "You git!" she raged. "Call yourself a father? You shouldn't be in charge of a goldfish, let alone a decent young man like our Josh."
"He doesn't mean it like that, Donna," Ginger defended Peter.
"Oh no?!" Donna continued to storm. "If it wasn't for you, Peter wouldn't even be seeing his son right now, because he doesn't give a rat's arse about him and never could."
"That's a little harsh," Peter griped as Ginger tried not to nod in agreement.
Glaring at him, Donna retorted, "Are you in pain? What a shame the truth hurts. Aww. Shall I call the manbulance for you? That ego of yours must be suffering a bruising by now."
"You bitch!" Peter spat back, no longer worrying about appearing nice and polite. "Take your bastard and fuck off out of my sight!"
Donna drew herself haughtily up to her full height and told him, "Consider it done, because you sticking around in our lives always was too much of a chore for you." She would have said more, but Ellie was trembling with fright by her side, and Josh wasn't faring much better as he stood up from his seat, taking in the scene before him. "Come on kids. We'll go and see if we can find a real man around here, one that can pull his head from out of his arse," she declared as she led them away.
"Up yours!" Peter yelled out after some seconds as the trio strode away.
She simply made a rude gesture at him and then took hold of Josh with her spare hand. There was no way she would let that man reduce her to tears; not in front of him.
They entered the lift and stood in silence for a moment once it began to move downwards. The dull lighting made them look like zombies in the wall mirrors.
"Did you er… text your dad, Ellie, and let him know exactly where we are?" Donna tried to ask as calmly as she could.
Ellie mutely nodded.
"John dropped us off at the hotel entrance before going to find a parking space," Donna informed Josh. "It was a bit like a scene in a film; all dramatic like."
"We screeched up to the doors," Ellie informed him, now able to enjoy it in hindsight, when they'd been almost beside themselves with worry at the time. "I'll text Dad again in a minute."
"He'll be frantic with worry about you," Josh stated in deep concern. "Sorry."
"What have you got to be sorry about?" Donna asked him. "Well, apart from being curious, obviously."
"And getting into a strange car," Ellie added, "making us all worried."
"You were worried about me?" Josh wondered, partly thrilled that she was.
"Since we care about you, it seemed perfectly natural," Donna stated.
His face fell, and his suppressed emotions hit him. He sobbed, "I'm so sorry, Mum. I meant to let you know but my phone died this afternoon."
In answer, she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight. Thank god he was safe and hadn't been abducted. Everything else was bearable in light of that. The floor indicator then tinged as the doors opened.
"Hang on you two," she ordered them, stepping forward. "Ellie, I want you to stay right here and give Josh a hug for me; I've got something to sort out first before we can go home."
She manoeuvred the two teenagers out of the lift and onto a large comfortable sofa. Leaving the pair of them holding an awkward arm around each other in the hotel lobby, Donna stepped back into the lift and pressed the button that would take her back to the top floor and her ex.