Chapter 12

"This it?" Rita asked, pulling up outside Iain's sister's house. They decided that it'd be better to drop their stuff off at the house before going to the hospital.

Iain nodded, he continued to stare out of the window like he had done for the entire journey. Rita reached over and gently brushed the back of his hand.

"Shall we, uh, take our stuff in then?" She unclipped her seatbelt and opened the car door. She gathered the rest of the stuff whilst Iain made his way towards the house.

His sister came bounding out of the house, "Oh Iain," she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Rita watched on politely as the two reconciled. His sister pulled away and glanced at Rita with a faint smile.

"You must be Rita," she offered her hand out. "It's lovely to finally meet you. Iain doesn't shut up about you whenever we talk on the phone."

Rita blushed slightly, "It's great to meet you too Jane and likewise," she shook her hand gently.

"Well, let's take your stuff in shall we? Get you both settled before we make our way up to the hospital. Oh and the kids will be here soon Paul has just taken them to the park, hopefully they'll sleep on the journey up there and won't kick up that much of a fuss," Jane turned and gestured towards the front door.

"Iain told me you had kids, how old are they?" Rita asked, slightly intrigued. She loved children but never really had an opportunity to think about having them. Mark never wanted children, he always told her that she would make a terrible mother and well, Iain, it was way too early on in their relationship to even think about moving in together properly let alone thinking about having children.

"Ella's six and as you can imagine she bosses about her little brother Daniel, who is the spitting image of Iain," Jane smiled sweetly, feeling quite proud.

Rita chuckled, "I can imagine."

She then continued to follow Jane through to the spare bedroom where she dumped their stuff at the bottom of the bed. Iain just dragged his feet through the room until he slumped down onto the bed. Rita waited until Jane had disappeared before shutting the door and turning to Iain.

"Talk to me Iain," Rita spoke, with a slight demanding tone in her voice. "We have just spent the last five hours in silence. Please, just speak to me. Tell me what's going on up there," she gestured to her head.

Iain didn't reply; he just carried on staring down at the floor. Rita sighed and knelt down in front of him, placing her hands on his knees.

"Please Iain, you can trust me and you know that," she paused. "I can't have you going back to that place again, all you have to do is tell me how you are feeling and I might be able to help you. I'm no Ben Harding but I can try," she took hold of his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze of reassurance.

Iain blinked slowly, "I…do…I…uh…I don't know…what to say to her. I haven't. I haven't seen her in ten years and I'm scared what she's going to think of me and what she's going to say to me. She probably hates me Rita and it's all my fault and I..." tears began to form in his eyes. "I'm being pathetic aren't I?"

"No," Rita breathed. "It's perfectly normal to feel like that but you aren't to blame, sweetheart. Families fall out all the time, people say they hate each other but no one really means it, it isn't your fault Iain. And to be honest, I think she's going to be happy that she's finally seeing you again…"

"You don't know my mum," Iain shook his head, interrupting her. "She pushed my father away; I didn't even know who he was, not even now. And then she would come home every week with a different bloke and they would just stare at you like you're nothing or they'd be surprised to see us waiting for her at the doorstep. It was clear that they were after her for one thing. That's why I went into the army. I had enough, it was just me in the house after my sister left and my mum blamed me for it. I couldn't deal with it anymore. I thought that if I'd joined the army then if I died, well it wouldn't really matter then would it?"

Rita bit her lip, processing what Iain was telling her, "I don't really know what to say except that you need to put the past behind you. Your mum is dying in hospital whether you like it or not. I want you to go into that hospital with your held high, I want you to hold her hand and say that you love her because at the end of the day you are her son and at this moment she needs you Iain. And if it's getting too much, I'll be here for you, just give me a little nod and I'll be at your side straight away, okay?"

Iain let out a faint smile and nodded, "Thank you," he said quietly. He honestly didn't know what he'd do without Rita sometimes. She always knew what to say; even though she can put it harshly sometimes it's just what Iain needed to keep him on the right track.

"Come here," Rita whispered, standing up and holding her arms out. Iain lifted himself and allowed Rita to take him in her arms and hug him tightly. With a deep breath he took in her smell and felt himself relax in her embrace. Rita pulled away placing a chaste kiss on his cheek before looking into his eyes; returning to her normal height.

Iain moved a lock of her blonde hair and neatly tucked it behind her ear. His hand rested on his cheek as he leaned forward and placed his lips on hers. Rita's own hand cupped his cheek and pulled him closer to her; deepening the kiss. Iain's fingertips began travelling down her body, carefully slipping off her light brown leather jacket and dropping it to the floor. Rita broke from the kiss for a split second so she could swiftly pull Iain's navy t-shirt off, showing his perfectly toned body underneath. She gently dragged her nails along his skin causing him to shiver. Iain started tracing kisses along her jawline and down her neck resulting in Rita's eyelids to flutter in excitement. He lifted her top revealing her purple lace bra, with the bows that Iain just adored. Taking her waist in his hands he turned and pushed her down onto the bed. Their lips met again as Iain hovered over her. But then he continued to place kisses further down her body. Rita could feel her skin tingling as he did so, his short stubble tickling her slightly.

Just as he made his way to the top of her jeans the bedroom door swung open.

"Iain, Paul just brought the kids home so…" Jane's face was stunned as she took in the situation in front of her. Blinking, she started backing away and closing the door behind her. "I'll just go."

Rita's whole body had turned a light pink as she bit her lip from trying not to laugh. She looked at Iain who was running his hands through his hair; he too was a similar colour to Rita.

"Probably not the great first impression," she giggled, getting up from the bed and putting her top back on.

Iain allowed himself a small burst of laughter as he gathered his stuff with her.

She poked him, "At least it got a smile out of you," she smiled pecking him on the lips.

Once they had made themselves at least slightly more presentable, they shamefully left the bedroom to join Jane, Paul and the children in the front room. The atmosphere was already awkward as they walked in.

"Shall we go then?" Jane spoke quickly, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

Paul escorted the children towards the car and Jane was following behind but Iain had grabbed her arm to talk to her.

"Look, Jay, about just now," he began.

Jane held her hand up to stop him, "It's forgotten about, and I don't want to talk about it. It's none of my business. Erm, you can follow us on the way, to the hospital." She then scurried off leaving just Rita and Iain who shared a look of embarrassment.