Title: Getting Back To You
Chapter Rating: K
Summary: After the events of 10/11/11, how can Chryed come back from the ashes of their relationship?
Disclaimer: I don't own Christian and Syed, unfortunately. If I did, they would never have split up in the first place.
So EE have totally ruined my favourite couple! What are they even playing at? Very disappointed with canon right now so I'm going back to my non-canon as a coping mechanism. So this chapter may not be my best but I hope you enjoy anyway!
I'm ready to go to Pakistan to fight for my little girl. As I turn to Christian in front of the airport building, I feel a strange sense of deja vu. Except that this time, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christian will be waiting for me when I get back. I like that certainty.
"Safe flight, yeah?" Christian tucks a strand of hair behind my ear which promptly falls in front of my face again.
"I wish you could come with me," I admit, linking my fingers through his. "I always feel braver when you're by my side."
"You'll do great, I know you will. Now, you got all the paper work Ish gave you?"
"All in hand," I say, tapping my bag. I wasn't planning on staying long, so I'd only brought one change of clothing. I wanted to be back and starting my new life with my new family as fast as I could. Christian bends down to meet my lips as we hear the announcer call my flight number. "Well, that's me."
Christian pecks my lips one final time. "I love you."
"I love you too."
c~s
I arrive at the business office I'd been planning to run with Amira and find my Mum inside, writing some e-mails. I start to feel guilty about what I'm about to do to my Mum, but as long as I get my baby back, I almost don't care. God knows she's done her share of her lying in her time and, let's face it, why change the habit of a lifetime? I absentmindedly touch my ring finger, feeling it's loss since I stepped off the plane.
"It's so good to see you, Papou," she tells me, once the initial screaming and near-death hugging had stopped. "I've missed you,"
"I missed you too." At least this part of what I'm telling her is true. "Where's Yasmin? I can't wait to see her." I feel awful for decieving her like this, but I know that there's no other way.
"I've found myself a small apartment out here, it's not much, but it's nice."
"What about Yusef's house? Where's Amira staying? Mum, what's going on?" I fake pretence. I know Amira would never have told Mum about coming to see me. She woild have made up some excuse about seeing how things were going on the London business end. I've woken up to her manipulative ways since Christian left, and it's about time someone played her at her own game.
"I don't ever want to hear that man's name again, alright Syed? I sold the house, I wanted nothing more to do with him. I bought my apartment and gave half of the money to Afia and the other half to Amira for the business. His money is poison."
"Okay, I'm sorry. What about Yasmin?"
"She's living with me for a while, until Amira gets the business up and running. I'm telling you, Syed, that girl needs a break. She's almost run ragged!"
"Well, it's a good thing I'm back then, isn't it?" I flash her one of my smiles, and see her relax.
"Come on, I'm finished here, and I know a little girl who's desperate to see her daddy."
c~s
As soon as I have my daughter back in my arms, I feel more relaxed than I have done since I turned my back on Christian at the airport. She is one of the best things to have happened to me, and the only good thing to come out of my relationship with Amira. I know that I will love her unconditionally for the rest of my life. I make my excuses to be alone with her, and take her into her bedroom under the guise that I want to spend some quality alone tine with her. Of course, Mum doesn't object, why should she? I'm merely a father wanting to catch up on lost time with his daughter. I don't put her down for a second as I open drawers and cupboards until I find what I'm looking for; her passport. I smile triumphantly and kiss her head just as I hear voices in the next room. I grin again. This couldn't have gone any better if I'd planned it.
"Amira, hi," I say as I walk out into the room with Yasmin balanced on my hip and her passport tucked into my back pocket. Thankfully, she seems content to be held by me and seems to be in no hurry to go to her mother.
"Syed? What are you doing here?" She seems genuinely surprised, which is what I was aiming for. Good.
"I came to see Yasmin and Mum," I say simply, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. "And, I've been in touch with my solicitor since you came to visit me last week," I move towards my bag, keeping one eye on Amira as I do so."
"Wait, you saw Syed last week?" Mum rounds on her now. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"And my solicitor was very interested in what I had to say. Or what you had to say, more specifically," I hand her the solicitor's letter from my bag and settle on the sofa as she reads it. I start pacing around the room with Yasmin, kissing her cheeks from time to time. "I don't take very kindly to someone threatening to take my daughter away from me, Amira. I told you I'd fight you all the way, and I forgot to mention my friend Ish, who is one of the best family law solicitors in the country. He's seemed very concerned with Yasmin's welfare when I told him that you were planning on lying to her her whole life."
"Papou, what's going on?"
"Don't pretend like you don't know, Mum. You knew that Amira was planning on marrying again, and that she was willing to lie to her husband about exactly who Yasmin was to get her own way. The two of you have been plotting against me ever since I left to go back to Walford to sort out the mess I'd left behind."
"Syed, you can't take her away from me. Please!" Amira's almost in tears now, which softens me a little, but not enough to give in to her.
"That letter states that you had no right to take her out of the country long term without agreeing it with me first. It also states that I'm to bring her back to London until we can come to an amiable agreement over who has priority access to her. Your solicitor will be hearing from my solicitor in due course."
"Syed, you know I can't tell Ahmed about Yasmin! He'd throw me out on the streets, make sure I'm marked a tainted woman in the whole of Karachi. My life would be over!"
"Then come to an agreement with me. Here and now. I've already had the papers drawn up. All you need to do is sign them." I fish them out of my bag and had them to her. "In short, they state that I will become Yasmin's primary source of care. I will bring her to Pakistan when I can to see you, and I will allow you access to her whenever you're in London. She will be allowed to stay with you, but only for two nights at a time until she is eighteen and legally free to make her own choices." I see her open and close her mouth several times as she scans the document. "It's either these terms, or I will take it to court, and everything will have to be out in the open."
"That's blackmail," she all but hisses at me.
"I prefer to think of it as a taste of your own medicine. You manipulated me as soon as you came back to Walford with Yasmin. You used her to get to me, and you almost broke my relationship apart." I fish in my back pocket for my engagement ring and place it back onto my finger. "So, what's it to be?"
"You really expect me to let you take my daughter and bring her up with him? You're crazy!"
"I'll see you in court, then." I make to take the papers back from her, but she pulls them back towards her.
"You will give me access whenever I want it. And keep him away from me when I do see my little girl?"
"Christian doesn't want to cause any more trouble, Amira. He just wants me, and, since I want Yasmin, be wants her, too. He'll stay away when she's with you. As will I. If you get an apartment in London, I'll bring her to you, and pick her up from you, but I'll leave you alone with her. If yo. Show me in the first year that you can be trusted to stick to the terms of the agreement. No longer than two nights and no taking her out of the country without my express permission first. Agreed?"
I hold my hand out to her and she eyes it warily. "And none of this will come out? Ahmed will be left in the dark?"
"Ahmed won't hear a word of it from me, I give you my word."
I look on in relief as Amira picks up a pen and signs the document. At last, everything is going right! She holds her arms out for Yasmin. "Let me say goodbye?"
"Of course." I carefully hand her over, packing the solicitors document safely away in my bag. "Mum, can you pack me some of Yasmin's things?"
"Yes, o-of course, Papou."
Amira hands Yasmin back to me, her face a little tear-stained, but I knew that this was best all round. Amira got the big house and the expensive cars and the holidays I'd never have been able to give her, and I'd get everything I'd ever wanted; my life with Christian and my baby. I sling my bag over my shoulder as Mum brings me one of Yasmin's bags.
"There's spare plane tickets with yours and Kamil's names on them if you want them, Mum. Tam misses you and Kamil, and I know Yasmin will miss her grandmother and her uncle Kamil."
"Really?" She seems happier than I have seen her in months, since before everything with Yusef. I know she misses her family, she just didn't want to leave her granddaughter. "Oh, thank you, Syed!"
I search in my bag and hand her the tickets. "They're for next week, in case you needed to get things sorted here. Amira, can you send the rest of Yasmin's things over? I know she'd like to be surrounded by her familiar things that remind her of her Mum." She nods her agreement, and, making sure I have Moose inside Yasmin's bag, I leave the flat with my daughter, finally feeling free.