As Roxy pulled her jeep onto the pavement outside R&R she glanced over to Danielle, who was still peacefully sleeping. Roxy took a moment to listen to her niece breathing, her shoulders shuffling around as she still tried to get comfortable. Part of Roxy wanted to leave Danielle as she was, she knew that the hard work would begin when Danielle awoke and faced Walford once again.
As a harsh wind blew around the streets Roxy realised she had to stop delaying the inevitable, they couldn't just sit in the car forever. She began to slowly shake Danielle, pushing her palm against Danielle's arm. "Dan, wake up" Roxy said softly but Danielle didn't respond, merely grunting and restlessly shuffling her shoulders again. "Danielle" Roxy said louder, not realising the volume of her voice until Danielle's head shot up. "What?" Danielle blurted out, clearly disorientated after been woken from her peaceful sleep so abruptly.
"Sorry, its' just were back in Walford" Roxy said apologetically. "Oh ok" Danielle said, slightly taken aback that the journey had seemed to have gone so quickly. "Was I sleeping that whole time?" Danielle asked as she rubbed her eyes. "Yep and you were muttering something too!" Roxy joked, playfully nudging Danielle's arm.
"Oh I wasn't was I?" Danielle replied, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment. "No, but the look on your face just then was priceless!" Roxy said through fits of giggles as Danielle pushed her aunt back playfully. Danielle couldn't help laughing a long with Roxy as they drew up outside the Vic. Roxy jumped out the car and opened the back door to retrieve a sleeping Amy from her car seat.
Danielle stayed glued to her seat, looking up at the windows of The Vic. She had been thinking about walking back through the doors for the past four hour car journey and even after she thought she had convinced herself that it was going to be ok, the nerves and fear were starting to return. "C'mon Dan. We will go through the back door" Roxy said, gesturing for Danielle to follow her into the Vic. Danielle took a deep breath and despite the anxiety that was one again re-surfacing, she stepped forward and began to follow Roxy.
As they moved through the doors Danielle could hear the chatter and noise of the people in the bar. She froze on the spot. What was she thinking? Danielle began to panic. All of those people thought she was mad, they had all watched her being thrown out of the Vic by Ronnie, they had all seen it and just watched on. Enjoying the entertainment, the gossip.
Roxy was almost at the stairs when she looked around to see Danielle still as a statue, wide eyed by the door. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Roxy looked on worriedly. The door to the main bar was just off to the side, she wanted to get Danielle upstairs, save her from dealing with any more than was necessary. But the girl looked terrified, Roxy realised that this must be so painful, this was the very building Ronnie had rejected her in.
Danielle stared blankly ahead of her. Those stairs, Archie had forced her down them, her face streaming with tears, Ronnie following behind angrily. She had run out into the pub, and searched, Roxy had been there, Roxy had ignored her, looked at her as if she was sick, just some stupid freak ruining everyone's day.
"I can't do this." Danielle whispered, her whole body began to tremble. She felt like she was going to be sick.
Roxy saw the colour drain from her niece's face. She tried to catch her eye but Danielle was staring flatly at the empty middle distance. Roxy glanced towards the door. She considered grabbing Peggy or Tracey or anyone to just take Amy for a minute while she could comfort Danielle but she couldn't risk taking her eyes off her niece, she was a serious flight risk.
"You can. Nobody else will be around. Just me, you and the missus here, oh and probably Ben." Roxy said. She could feel Amy beginning to stir on her shoulder. The need to do this quickly impressed itself into her more. If Amy started crying then Peggy or Phil might come through and she didn't think Danielle could face anybody else. The longer Danielle stood there the more it looked like she would leave.
Roxy moved towards Danielle and put her arm around the girl's shoulders, Roxy could feel Danielle's entire body shaking and she started to genuinely worry now.
"Dan, we'll do this yeah?" She leant down and kissed the top of Danielle's head. Still Danielle made no acknowledgement. Roxy swept her hand down to grasp Danielle's, stroking her arm comfortingly as she did. She breathed deeply and pulled on Danielle's arm deciding that she had to be firm and take charge before anything happened to distress Danielle more.
She practically pulled Danielle to the stairs and with the hand on the small of her back guided her in front so that she couldn't stop. Roxy struggled to keep pushing Danielle up the stairs with one hand and hold a now waking Amy firmly in the other arm. But she kept her hand resolutely on Danielle's back leading her into Amy's room. She pushed down on Danielle's shoulder wordlessly, forcing her to sit on the chair. Roxy closed the door behind them and handed Amy to Danielle knowing that if she had Danielle try and get her to sleep it would allow her to think of something other than her own fear and it would also allow Roxy to go and grab Danielle a drink and check that nobody else was around upstairs.
"See if you can get her back off yeah? I'm going to get you some water." Roxy spoke bluntly. She realised that she wasn't exactly talking in a comforting tone but her own stress about the situation and worry about Danielle made her slightly frustrated at the girl. The situation was so hard and Roxy wanted to take it out on someone.
Danielle nodded blindly and began to rock Amy in her arms. Roxy rolled her eyes and walked quietly out of the room. Once the door closed behind her she leant herself against it sighing. She didn't want to get angry at Danielle but she was Ronnie's Amy. Roxy just wanted to sort things out. She wasn't used to having to work at things, usually it was so much easier to get her way. This time she didn't even have a clue what she was doing and yet she knew this could take a long time and a lot of hard work. Ronnie had always been the one who had taken responsibility, sorted things out in the long run.
Roxy slowly began to realise that despite her sister's controlling and overprotective nature, she owed her more than she had realised. Ronnie was the one who solved problems, stayed behind and fixed things when they got messy, always clearing up after the wake of destruction that Roxy made in her life. Now Roxy was the one who had to do the same for Ronnie. This was down to Roxy and she was terrified she was going to mess it up.
She slowly unpeeled herself from the door and made her way into the lounge. It was empty. She made her way downstairs quickly to tell Peggy and Phil to stay out of the way for a bit, to let her have some time to try and sort Danielle.