Take Me Anywhere

Summary: It's been two years since Cook left Manchester, still on the run from the law and as desperate as ever to disappear. Everything was simple until he met her; Tess was the definition of the word mayhem. Can he survive in her world or can he pull her into his?

XVI: James


They sat in the GP's surgery in silence. He hadn't really spoken since the other night and she desperately wanted him to tell her what was going on inside his head. When she looked up at the side of his face, he didn't even look at her from the corner of his eye, he just stared ahead at the plain white walls. The way he was behaving worried her, Tess had never saw Cook like this; he tended to be quiet but never this quiet.

"Tess Donovan?"

When Tess lifted her head, she was put at ease by the smiley young doctor. When she stepped into his office, Cook closely behind her, she could tell that she was going to be in good hands. Dr Cairns had this aura about him, he seemed like he cared, and he proactively listened as she spoke.

"How long have you known about the pregnancy?" he asked as he typed a few details into his computer.

"About a week and a half ago, I got one of those clearblue tests that give the prediction and it said I was between six and eight weeks." She rested her arm on the desk, her nails tapping against the wood.

"Those tests are fairly accurate but there's always the chance that it could be wrong. I'll get you to leave in a sample before you leave," Dr Cairns reached into his desk and handed her a sample bottle, "I'll just get some details from your partner while you're away and we'll start talking about antenatal care."


She took the bottle and glanced at Cook as she left the office. She didn't understand why he was being so cold, either he was holding something back from her or he was starting to have second thoughts. Whatever the reason, the way he was treating her was upsetting. She slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind her, her head rested up against the door. Tess wiped away her stray tears on the back of her hand and moved towards the sink, her hands wrapped around the porcelain as she tried to give herself a pep talk in the mirror.

"Hold yourself together, he's just scared. There's nothing else going on." She let out a deep breath and cleaned off some of her smudged make up. "Stop making this into a big deal, Tess."

She stepped back into the office after dropping the sample into the basket outside the door and sat down beside Cook. The doctor was typing something up and seemed engrossed in whatever he was writing. It made her wonder what Cook had said to him in her absence.

"Right, Tess, James was telling me that the two of you are going to be moving in the next few days so unfortunately I won't be able to get you an appointment with a midwife."

"Okay?" she looked over her shoulder at Cook, her brows furrowed, and it was then that he finally looked at her, but his expression didn't change. "So, what does that mean?"

"You'll have to make an appointment with the GP in the area that you're moving to. I'd advise that you tell them that you've already left a sample in with myself and I'll update your notes when I get the results. Hopefully they'll refer you on to a nearby hospital."

She forced a small smile onto her face and got onto her feet. "Thank you for your help." Tess left the surgery in a hurry, storming across the car park to get to Cook's car.


Once they were in the car, she turned her body towards him and raised her brows. He started the engine and kept his eyes forward. "Before you start shouting at me, just wait until we get back to the flat so I can explain."

"Is this why you've barely said a word to me? Because you're planning for us to go on the run again?"

"We're not going on the run; I'm trying to make sure we never have to go on the run again." He ran a hand along his face before he rested his hand on the car windowsill.

She dropped her head into her hands, her fingernails digging into her scalp in frustration. "And what if I refuse?"

He sighed and glanced towards her. "Tess, please don't make this anymore difficult than it has to be."

"I've finally found my mum after months of looking and you're going to take me away?" she removed her hands from her head and stared at him. "We're supposed to be a couple and that means we talk about this sort of thing."

"Tess, all I'm trying to do is keep you safe. I've done this before and I've learned to trust my gut instincts; I wouldn't trust Evelyn as far as I could throw her, and your dad agrees."

Her eyes squinted with anger; she couldn't believe that he went behind her back. "You called my dad?"

"Yeah, he's told me to take you to Hull. He's already got us a house set up and one of his old army mates is going to get us passports so that when we can, we can go see him."

"Did you tell him I was pregnant?"

"No, I thought that you should be the one to tell him."

When he parked outside their flat, she took off her seatbelt quickly. "You had no reason to call him." Tess got out of the car and made her way up to the flat.


Once she was upstairs, she threw herself onto the bed and held onto one of the pillows, burying her face into it. She didn't want to trust Cook's gut instincts; she needed her mother to be a good person for her own wellbeing. Tess had placed all her hope into her mum now that her father was in Spain and now it seemed that that what she wanted wasn't going to come to fruition. The front door slammed shut and it made her jump. A moment later she felt the bed shift as Cook sat down beside her. The second his hand landed on her leg, she moved away from him and wrapped her arm in front of her body.

"I'm trying my best for you, Tess. I'm sorry that I've been an asshole for the past few days, but you need to understand that I've got a lot going on in my head. But you must believe me when I say that Evelyn is not to be trusted, I've had my fill of shitty parents that like to put up this front, make people think that they're the shit when they're just full of shit."

"Don't you think that I should be the one to make the decision whether my mum's a good person or not?"

"You like to see the best in people, that's why you stuck around with Luke for so long even when I pleaded with you to leave him. By the time you make that choice, we could be caught. And I know that you think you've got Luke off your trail, but Louie is a different breed. He's the one that worries me."

She got off the bed and stepped towards the bathroom slowly, she took everything Cook said and accepted that he knew what was best, it didn't make it any less painful. "I at least want to say goodbye to her, I won't tell her where we're going but the least, I can do is tell her that I'm gone." She looked over her shoulder at him, shaking her head at him. "You should've told me we were leaving so I didn't look like a fool in that doctor's office. I just don't get why you haven't spoke to me in a day and a half." She closed and locked the door behind her and sat on the seat of the toilet, her head in her hands. She felt so emotionally drained. There was only so much more of this she could take. Tess didn't want to have this baby while on the run; if her dad and Cook thought that Hull was safe, then that was the last place she wanted to go to. Her and Cook needed a normal life if they were going to work out.


He sat on the edge of the bed, his arms dangling between his legs and his head hung low; Tess had been in the bathroom for over a half hour and he could hear her crying through the walls. Hearing her like that, knowing that he was the reason for it, broke him. He had kept a lot of his past from her and it was time that he told her, even if he wasn't entirely ready to open himself up to her. He couldn't get hurt again, he didn't want this relationship to fail and that's why he had to tell her why he was so fucked up. He walked over to the locked door and pressed his forehead to the wood, his eyes closed tightly.

"Tess, please come out." When she didn't answer, he turned his back to the door and slid down it until he was on the floor. "There's a lot about me that you don't know, that I hadn't planned on telling you because I don't want you feeling sorry for me or, I don't know, thinking that I'm not going to be a good dad... I idolised my dad for most of my life, but he didn't give a shit about me and left me with my mum who was shit in different ways. The last time I saw my dad was when I was seventeen and I was naïve enough to think he loved me but now I realise he never did because our kid isn't any bigger than a grape and I love it more than anything." He could feel his eyes well up. He rubbed his face a couple of times to stop his tears from falling but it didn't help. "My mum was a drunk who only cared about her money, I don't even think she cares that much about my little brother. He'd be starting high school and I haven't saw him in years. I don't know what her deal was because I dipped in and out, but she blew my best friend at my birthday party."

He could see Freddie's face in his mind and lost whatever control he had of his emotions. He heard the lock on the bathroom door click and felt the door open against his back. He cleaned up his face with his sleeve as Tess wrapped her arms around his neck, her head rested on his back.

"Freddie was murdered by this doctor, and when I found his bloodstained clothes in that man's house; I lost it. I killed him, but you already knew that." He buried his face into his hands and felt her kiss the back of his head comfortingly. "It's why I had to run for years, why I can't leave this country. And then there's Louie…"

"You don't have to say any more." She walked around him and sat down in front of him, her legs crossed and her hands on his knees. "Is this why you stormed out the other night? Because you think you're going to be like your parents? Because you think you're dangerous?"

"Do you really think I'm going to be a top-notch dad with all this baggage I've got?"

"I know that you're going to an amazing dad because you've done nothing but put me first even if I haven't appreciated it. For the past year and a half, you've tried to protect me and didn't give up even when I pushed you away. It doesn't matter about your baggage, we've all got something in our past, but it doesn't define you, Cook." She climbed onto his lap, wrapping her legs around him and lifted his head into her hands. "I'm sure that it was hard for you to tell me about your history, but it doesn't change anything in my mind." She ran her fingers through his scruffy hair carefully and looked over his red, puffy face. It was difficult seeing him so broken. "Your past doesn't change my feelings about you."

"I just have a lot of shit I need to get over, I need to deal with my feelings. "

She nodded and rested her head against his. "We'll do it together."