22nd October 2012 – Marignane, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Aaron was sat relaxing in the lounge on a cold Monday afternoon. He was watching a French channel, trying to follow the conversations, proud of himself for being able to understand the odd sentence. The French lessons he'd been taking from his mum were really helping, he could speak and understand it a lot better than read or write, but it was a start. He looked over at the closed door to his mother's room, knowing she was inside trying to get some sleep. He was worried about her. She was always tired, still unable to eat anything but cold toast, plain boiled rice and jellybeans – not a good diet for someone nearly four months pregnant. She was putting a brave face on it, but he could tell she was just as worried as he was.
Aaron had news from home to say that both Gennie and Debbie had had their babies. Gennie had a little girl, which she named Sophie, and Debbie a boy, Liam. Cain told him he'd chosen the name Liam after Liam Gallagher, but he could hear Sarah in the background insisting she'd chosen it for Liam from One Direction. The best news was that there was enough cord blood from Liam for Sarah to have her transplant – soon she could be healthy once more.
Cain had asked again if he'd heard from Chas, which he denied, but he could tell his uncle was desperate for news of his sister and he felt guilty lying to him. When he'd got off the phone and related the news to his mum, she'd burst into tears. Aaron couldn't tell if this was because she missed them and wanted to meet her new niece and great nephew, or if it was guilt. Or maybe, he reflected, it was because she was worried that her own pregnancy may not turn out so well. It was probably a mixture of all three, she'd been torturing herself for weeks about what she was doing.
Aaron's phone started ringing and he saw it was his uncle again. He was bored of telling him the same thing every time he called. He put the TV on mute and answered anyway.
"Cain…if you're calling to ask if…" but he didn't get to finish the sentence. He was bombarded with an outpouring of hate-filled expletives. His mother was called every name under the sun as Cain shouted down the phone what he'd just learnt, demanding to know if Aaron knew and if he was protecting 'that skanky tramp' over there.
Aaron could hardly speak, he was so taken aback by the filth coming out of his uncle's mouth. But Chas had prepared him for this moment; they'd even rehearsed what he'd say, just in case. He acted completely shocked and appalled by his mum's actions, calling her a slag, reminding Cain what she'd done to Paddy and saying no wonder she'd run off. He told Cain he was glad she'd gone, at least she'd left all of their lives forever now.
But Cain wasn't happy with this, he swore to Aaron that he was going to find 'that scheming cow' and kill her. Aaron had no answer to this, but Cain assumed he was in shock and after making him promise to contact him if he heard from her, said he'd better go and call around all the Dingle clan he could think of to see if anyone had seen or heard from her and to make it clear she was to be ex-communicated and sent back to Emmerdale to face her punishment. A chill ran down Aaron's spine as he hung up – this couldn't get much worse, but how was he going to tell his mum?
He heard a noise behind him and as he turned he realised he wouldn't need to, she'd heard everything. She was white, her eyes as wide as plates as she took in what she'd just heard. Her knees began to buckle as the gravity of the situation hit her and Aaron had to run forward and catch her, guiding her over to the sofa.
"How?" was all she managed to say, her voice strangled.
"Cameron left you an answerphone message, Cain walked in and overheard. Figured it out. Cameron's done a runner, Cain's assuming to be with you."
"Debbie?"
"Mum, you don't want to hear this…"
"Please Aaron, tell me"
"She's in bits, obviously. Everybody's angry, devastated. You've been…"
"Banished, yeah, I guessed that" she was strangely calm now, "I need to go"
"What? No, you need to stay here" Aaron protested, "even more so now they know"
Chas shook her head, "Cain's not stupid, he'll try everywhere, including here. If he doesn't come himself, he'll send someone he knows. I'm not having you dragged into this" she said firmly, looking straight at him.
"Where are you gonna go?" Aaron asked, hating the idea of her being on her own.
"I have an idea, it's been circling my brain for a few weeks now. Get your laptop" she said as she stood and walked to her room. Aaron dug his laptop out from under some clothes and turned it on. Chas returned from her room with her mobile phone. She turned it on and put it on speaker, then dialled her answerphone.
"Mum, you don't have to do this…" Aaron told her, not wanting her to put herself through listening to the kind of bile he'd just heard from Cain.
"It's the least I deserve" she told him bravely. The first couple of messages were from days ago, one from Gennie telling her about Sophie, and one from Cain asking her for the five hundredth time to get in contact. When Cameron's voice came on, she couldn't help a tear escaping as she listened.
"Chas…it's me…I've tried and tried to get on with things and not think about you, but it's killing me not knowing where you are. Debbie's had the baby, Sarah's going to be okay and I should be happy. But all I can think about is you and if you're okay, wherever you are. I still love you Chas, so much and if you tell me where you are, maybe…" the call was cut short, presumably where Cameron realised Cain was stood there.
"Idiot" Aaron said. He couldn't believe everything had kicked off because Cameron was unable to make a phone call in secret.
The next message made both Chas and Aaron flinch.
"You little bitch. You're dead when I find you Chas, and don't think I won't. I always knew you were a tart, but doing that to Debbie, when she's pregnant….you're dead"
The next two were very similar messages from both Charity and Debbie. And another from Cain. Then another from Cameron telling her he'd left Emmerdale, that they can be together now. Then another one from Debbie, this time she was in tears, sobbing, calling her a back-stabbing bitch and asking what she'd done to deserve it. Chas sat and took every hit, listened to each message, face blank apart from the odd flinch. Cain and Charity both left a few more messages on a similar note: promising her they would find her and kill her. When the last message had finished, Chas turned her phone off, took out the sim card and snapped it in half.
She took the laptop from Aaron and went to a flight website, booking a one-way ticket to Kerry for the following evening.
"Why there?" Aaron asked as he watched.
"There's a place nearby that my dad used to go to whenever he was banished, and that was quite often" she told him, "he'd go there because there were no Dingles living anywhere near and because no one knew where he'd gone"
"How come he told you then?" Aaron asked.
"He was banished once and something happened while he was away. When he got back, he felt guilty and told me where he went so that if I ever needed him, I'd know where to look. He made me swear never to tell another living person where it was. And now I'm going to ask you to do the same"
Aaron nodded and she brought up a map online and pointed to a small point almost at the very edge of Ireland. He looked closely and read the place name. "Dingle?" he laughed.
Chas smiled, "he was quite witty in his own way. He said he thought the irony of there being no Dingles in Dingle was too perfect to ignore. He used to go to a little village called Lough, where there wasn't much except a pub, a shop, the sea and the mountains. I've never been, but it sounds beautiful. As good a place as any".
"This is crazy Mum, what will you do when you're there?"
"Who knows? Maybe the pub needs staff, could be a barmaid again. I was always good at that. Diane's still putting money into my account for now. Don't know how long that will last once it's got out what I've done." Chas looked at her son, saw he was worried, "hey, listen, I have been in worse situations than this before and got through them. I might be ex-communicated but I'm still a Dingle and we're made of tough stuff" she tried to sound strong, but she wasn't fooling either of them.
"Well you're not going before you've seen a doctor again, you're still not right and you can ask them to refer you to a doctor nearby. I'll book you in for tomorrow morning" he told her as he pulled his own mobile out and went onto the balcony to make the call.
Chas sat back on the sofa and let everything sink in. She absentmindedly stroked her bump, it was starting to get big enough to be noticeable, and she had started to feel movements earlier that day. It was a comfort to know she was never on her own, her daughter always with her, but it also terrified her to think she was yet again going to be going through a pregnancy completely alone.
Aaron finished on the phone and looked through the sliding doors into the lounge at his mum, stroking her bump, staring off into space, unable to hide the worry from her face. He was tempted to offer to go with her, to pack in his job and his life and be there for her. But he knew she'd never let him, and in his heart he wanted to see where his new relationship with Carl would lead him. He went back into the apartment and made them both tea and toast and they sat watching rubbish French TV together one last time. Chas fell asleep on his shoulder after half an hour and he took in the moment, trying to memorise the smell of her hair, the feel of her head resting against him, the sight of her face, relaxed in sleep. He didn't know when he'd next see her in the flesh and he'd enjoyed having her stay with him. He'd never admit it to her, but he was going to miss her so much.