It's been a long time since I've written anything but I caught up on the latest series of Last Tango and wanted to explore what things could have been like for Kate and Caroline. All comments and reviews are welcome :)
"Caroline, Caroline, wake up." Kate lightly shook a sleeping Caroline's shoulder in an attempt to wake her without startling her.
Caroline stirred letting a small dissatisfactory moan escape, she couldn't quite bring herself to open her eyes yet.
"Caroline, come on you're going to be late. I've made you some coffee." Kate leaned over her wife to place the coffee on the bedside table.
Slowly prizing one eye open, then the other, Caroline saw Kate's body leaning over her. She smiled and placed her hands on either side of Kate's face to stop her from moving away.
"Well, this is a good morning." The blonde woman purred, pulling Kate's face closer to hers so that she could kiss her.
"Caroline" Kate mumbled as her wife continued to kiss her. "As much as I'd love to, we just don't have time."
"Spoilsport." Caroline retorted, reluctantly allowing Kate to stand up.
"Seriously, we'll have to leave without you if you don't hurry up. I've got an 8 o'clock meeting with the other heads of department that I cannot be late for."
"Alright, I'm up, I'm coming. Just let me ingest some caffeine to help me function." Caroline sat up against her pillows cupping the mug of coffee Kate had brought her and showing no intention of getting up. "Seriously, how much did I drink last night? I feel like I've been hit by a bus."
"Oh let's just say there's more than one empty bottle of wine in the recycling bin," Kate smirked as Caroline massaged her forehead with one hand. "Perhaps you're getting too old to be drinking on school nights Mrs. McKenzie-Dawson."
"How dare you!" Caroline exclaimed in mock outrage. "It's Dr. McKenzie-Dawson." She retorted with pursed lips and a peer that would have been over the rim of her glasses, had she been wearing them.
Kate couldn't help but laugh at the fact her wife was more outraged about her title than the comment on her age or her drinking habits.
"Ok, that's it, I'm taking my car and heading in now. There's no way you're going to be ready in time." Kate grabbed her handbag from top of the dresser drawers and moved towards the bedroom door. "Flora!" She called out into the landing. "Flora, are you ready?"
"I'm sorry, I know I said we'd head in early together." Caroline apologized.
"No, honestly, it's fine, don't worry about it." Kate walked back towards the bed where Caroline remained unmoved and leaned over to kiss her goodbye.
"Ugh, get a room!" Flora exclaimed as she walked into her parents' bedroom. The 13-year-old was dressed in her school uniform with her long dark hair tied back in a ponytail.
"I think you'll find this is our room" Caroline responded in her usual stern yet sarcastic manner.
Kate stood up and smoothed down the skirt she'd just leaned on. "Right, sweetheart, are you ready to go?"
"Why do I have to go in so early?" Flora moaned.
"We agreed last night we'd all head in early; I have a meeting at 8 and –"
"Well mum's clearly not ready, is she?" Flora interrupted with a raise of her eyebrows as she gestured towards her mother who was still sipping her mug of coffee in bed. Despite not being genetically related, Flora had certainly inherited Caroline's sass.
"No, well, no she isn't."
Flora walked over to the bed and crawled on top of the covers in her school uniform. "Can I go with you later mum?" She asked Caroline sweetly as she snuggled herself next to her.
"Honestly, you two are like two peas in a pod." Kate couldn't help but smile as she looked at the two people she loved most in the world nuzzled together with almost identical expressions of satisfaction on their faces. "I'll see you both later." She blew a kiss in their direction as she headed out to work.
Caroline sat at her desk working through a pile of paperwork. Her PA Beverly tapped politely on the office door before popping her head in to ask her boss, "Is now a good time to discuss the upcoming governors meeting?"
"Yes, absolutely, please, Beverly, take a seat." Caroline smiled and gestured to the seat in front of her desk with one hand, using the other to take off her reading glasses. "I'm not sure what's worse, this paperwork or preparing for this godforsaken meeting but let's get it over with." She quipped.
Beverly smiled warmly as she took a seat. She'd worked for Caroline long enough to know that despite her flippant tone, Caroline always took her work incredibly seriously.
"Here's the proposed agenda," Beverly said, handing Caroline a sheet of paper across the desk between them. "We need to finalize the GCSE exam statistics so that they can be included in the presentation. Did you manage to review the email Jenny sent over?"
"Ah yes, I think I have a draft I never got around to sending; I'll get that done today." Caroline made a quick note on a post-it to remind her to respond to Jenny. "The agenda looks –"
A heavy knocking on her office door cut Caroline off mid-sentence. "Come in!" She called, as the knocking continued, almost frantically.
"Dr. McKenzie-Dawson, I'm so sorry, oh, Beverly, I apologize for interrupting." Emily Linford, a young, newly qualified maths teacher looked startled and was slightly breathless as she apologized profusely.
"Emily, is everything alright?" Caroline asked, concerned.
"Please can you come quickly, two of the girls are fighting and I couldn't –"
"Where are they?" Caroline jumped up from her desk and moved towards her office door.
"Just down the hallway by the maths department." Emily stuttered as she followed Caroline out of the room. "You see, Dr. McKenzie-Dawson, the thing is –"
Caroline didn't have time to listen to Emily nervously try to explain – she would deal with her later. Right now her intention was to quickly and effectively break up whatever fight had broken out in her school. This was not the type of delinquent behaviour she tolerated and those involved would have a lot to answer for. Walking swiftly towards the aforementioned corridor, Caroline could hear the commotion before she could see it. As she turned a corner she saw a group of year 8 and 9 students huddled together chanting and cheering in encouragement of the fight they were witnessing.
"That's enough!" Caroline bellowed as she strode towards the group. Many, noticing their incensed headteacher, stopped what they were doing and dispersed from the crowd.
"I said that's ENOUGH!" She repeated, moving her way through what remained of the crowd so that she could reach the source of their entertainment. What she found was two year 9 girls brawling on the floor, one's hair and the other's tie entangled in each other's hands as they fought.
"Flora!" Caroline gasped as she realized it was her own daughter struggling on the floor. "Stop! Stop that right now!" She demanded, grabbing her daughter and forcibly pulling her away from the other student who she recognized as Tess, one of Flora's friends who'd been round the house for dinner not two weeks ago.
Despite their efforts to continue fighting, Caroline managed to pull the two girls apart, force her way in-between them and use the span of her arms to keep them away from one another.
After taking a deep breath to compose herself, Caroline looked towards the now deathly silent group of students who remained gawking at the scene before them. "If this corridor isn't cleared in the next 10 seconds and you don't get yourselves back to the classrooms you are supposed to be in, immediately, you will all find yourselves in detention, indefinitely."
The students knew better than to test Caroline's patience and speedily picked up their belongings before heading to their classes. A few other teachers had stepped outside of their classrooms along the same corridor to see what was happening. Caroline addressed them and Emily who was stood to one side looking horrified. "Thanks all, I'll handle this now. Beverly, could you please take Miss Linford to the staff room for a cup of tea and get some cover for her next lesson. I'll catch up with you both later."
With that, Caroline marched a disheveled Flora and Tess to her office.