Charity looks up from her magazine when the door opens. Not that she's expecting to see anyone in particular, but it's been a slow morning and any face that's not Eric or Rodney would be a welcome change. She's surprised when she sees it's Rhona, and even more surprised when Rhona's eyes land on her and light up with relief.
"Charity, thank God."
That's not generally people's reaction when they see her, so this is getting odder by the second.
"What you after?" Charity asks, closing her magazine and backing away, wary of this version of Rhona that's glad to see her.
Rhona practically drapes herself across the bar and smiles hopefully. "I need a massive favour," she says. "Well, it's not me that needs it, really."
"What favour?" While they're not great friends, Charity's tried to make a bit more of an effort with Rhona since all that business with Pierce. She knows better than most what it's like to be at the mercy of a psychopath.
"You know Vanessa was getting her wisdom teeth out this morning, yeah?" Rhona asks.
"Yeah," Charity nods, realising too late that she should've denied all knowledge of that. "I mean, uh, I think she might've mentioned something about it in here the other night when-"
"Anyway, I was supposed to be picking her up afterwards, but we've been absolutely swamped at work this morning and I've just had an emergency callout that I need to get to and that means I won't be able to pick Vanessa up so-" Rhona actually flutters her eyelashes. "I was hoping you could do it."
"Me?" Charity frowns. "Why me?"
Rhona sighs. "We're still playing this game, are we?" She leans closer. "Look, you and Vanessa might be pretending this is all casual or whatever, yeah? But we both know it's more than that. And if you can stand there and tell me that you can picture Vanessa, in pain, sitting waiting for me at the dentists by herself for I don't know how long, and feel nothing? Then I'll find someone else to get her."
Imagining a sad, pathetic Vanessa, with her little swollen cheeks, sat all on her own actually feels like a stab to the heart. Rhona's good, she'll give her that. Sighing, Charity crosses her arms. "And, if I was to, you know, feel something about that-" She clears her throat. "Who'll look after this place? I'm just supposed to shut up shop and run off to get Vanessa at the drop of a hat, am I?"
Just at that, Victoria comes through from the back with a couple of bacon butties on a tray. "Victoria will mind the bar!" Rhona announces. "Won't you, Vic?"
"Eh?" Vic looks between them and then rolls her eyes. "Oh, I'm being consulted this time, am I? Usually I just get landed with doing everyone's jobs on top of my own."
"It's a Wednesday morning, Victoria," Charity says, already heading through to get her jacket and bag. "You're hardly going to be run off your freakishly tiny feet, are you?"
"It's my fault, actually," Rhona puts in. "I've asked Charity to do me a favour."
Vic frowns. "And she's agreed?" She turns to Charity. "Are you not well?"
"Shut it," Charity says, moving out from behind the bar.
"What's this favour, then?" Vic asks Rhona.
"Could you mind your own business as well as the bar, do you think?" Charity growls.
"I was supposed to pick Ness up from the dentist but I can't," Rhona explains. "So Charity's gonna do it instead."
Charity sighs as Vic leans on the bar, her chin propped up on her hands, wearing a smug grin. "Awwww, i'n't that lovely and considerate of you?"
"Well, you don't have to sound so surprised," Charity says. "I can be nice, you know. Sometimes. With certain people."
"Mmhmm," Vic says, exchanging a ridiculous look with Rhona. "And I'm sure those certain people, or, you know, certain person, appreciates it."
She's about to give Victoria another mouthful when Rhona grasps her arm and bodily escorts her out of the door, babbling all the time about how grateful she is and how brilliant Charity is for stepping up.
Charity's already regretting her decision.
When she gets to the surgery, she checks in at the desk and tells them she's here to pick up Vanessa Woodfield. She's instructed to take a seat in the waiting area. She does as she's told, but is unable to settle. Sighing, she picks up a magazine from the pile of tatty ones on the table and flicks through it. Frowning at the content of the articles, she turns back to the cover and finds that it was published in 2003.
She hears footsteps approaching down one of the corridors, accompanied by a familiar voice, slurred though it is. She chucks the magazine down and stands, wiping her strangely sweaty palms on her jeans. A moment later, Vanessa comes into view, arm in arm with a dental nurse who can't be older than fourteen by the looks of her. Vanessa's babbling away, but then she catches sight of Charity and lets out a squeal that startles everybody within earshot. She points vaguely in Charity's direction.
"It's my Charity! She came!"
The nurse looks at Charity, giving her one of those practised smiles that people who work in these places all have. "So, are you, like a charity worker or something? Like her carer?"
"No." Charity snaps. "I'm her-" She can feel it coming, and she knows she should stop it, but she can't. "-girlfriend."
Vanessa's eyes grow wide; she looks like that cat in Shrek. "Girlfriend?" she whispers.
"Well, you know, close enough." Charity says, gently taking Vanessa's arm and urging her away from the pre-pubescent medical professional. Vanessa's still looking up at her in wonder. "So, do I need to know anything? I assume she's not to eat? Anything else?"
She's handed a leaflet with pictures and ticks and crosses next to them. "That covers the dos and don'ts," the nurse tells her. "Nothing to eat for at least four hours and then just soft foods and no hot drinks." She whips a bit of paper out of the printer behind the reception desk. "Here's a prescription for painkillers. Dentist had a bit of a tough time getting one of them out, so she'll likely be in a fair bit of pain when the good stuff wears off."
Charity takes the prescription and scans it, sighing. "So I need to go and pick these up now, do I?"
The nurse shrugs. "Or you could let the stuff wear off and she could go and get them herself while she's in excruciating pain?"
The bitch looks so smug that Charity's almost convinced that Rhona's phoned ahead and told her what to say. She narrows her eyes. "Fine." She inserts her arm under Vanessa's, supporting her weight. "Right, come on then, Dopey. Let's get you home, yeah?"
Vanessa nods and smiles a bit wonkily before turning to the staff. "I'm going home now!" she announces. "With my girlfriend!"
Charity closes her eyes. It's going to be a long afternoon.
It takes longer than it should to make the short walk to the car, and get Vanessa into the passenger seat with her seatbelt fastened, but they're finally on their way and Charity hopes that whatever's outside the window will keep Vanessa's attention occupied for the journey.
"Charity?"
No such luck, then. "What, babe?" She glances over and sees Vanessa plucking at her lips. She pulls the lower one out, crossing her eyes as if she's trying to see it.
"I fink my mouf has fell off."
She hides a smile and catches Vanessa's hand as she looks back at the road, pulling it away from her face before she does herself some damage. "You're talking through it now, Ness."
There's a pause. Then. "Oh yeah. Still there."
She lets Vanessa keep hold of her hand until she needs it back to change gear.
They're stopped at traffic lights, when Charity hears a sniffle. She turns to find Vanessa with tears running down her cheeks. Quickly pulling on the handbrake, Charity reaches over and then hesitates, unsure what to do. She lets her hand rest on Vanessa's thigh, squeezing gently.
"Babe?" Charity asks. "What is it? Are you in pain?" She didn't think the pain-relief would wear off this fast.
"No." Vanessa sniffs, shaking her head.
Charity waits, but no further explanation comes. She squeezes Vanessa's leg again. "No? You sure? Nothing's hurting?"
"No." Vanessa sighs and wipes at her face. "I was jus' thinkin' 'bout bunnies."
Charity shakes her head. "Bunnies?"
"Mmmhmm." She looks at Charity and smiles. It would be sad enough because of the tears, but the swollen cheeks just make it worse. "They've got cute little ears and cute little noses." Her bottom lip starts to tremble. "And sometimes they die, Charity." She leans closer, lowering her voice to what she must think is a whisper. "Sometimes...sometimes I kill them." She looks utterly devastated by this. "Bunnies! I kill bunnies!"
Charity has to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud. When she's sure she's got herself under control, she tries to school her face into a sympathetic expression. "Ness, you're a vet, not a rabbit murderer. I mean, you help the bunnies as well, don't you?"
Nodding rapidly, Vanessa sniffles. "I do. I try to."
"Well then, there you go." Unable to help herself, Charity catches a fresh tear with her thumb, wiping it away, careful not to press on Vanessa's cheeks. "You'd never hurt anything, or anyone, if you could help it, babe."
Vanessa smiles, but someone beeps their horn from behind them; the lights have changed to green. Charity gives a final reassuring squeeze to Vanessa's leg and shifts back into her own seat.
This whole endeavour may have been a bigger mistake than she thought.
She's coming out of the chemist's when the passenger door of her car opens and she breaks into a jog, reaching it just as Vanessa's about to strangle herself with the seatbelt, trying to get out.
"Hey! Hey!" Charity lifts her legs back into the car, twisting her back into an upright position. "Where were you going? Thinking of hitchhiking to Morecambe, were you?"
"I di'n't know where you were." Vanessa frowns. "I was comin' to find you." She looks up at Charity, and Charity's never seen her more distressed. "I couldn't find you."
With a sigh, Charity brushes some hair back from Vanessa's forehead. "I was picking up your painkillers, you pillock." She drops the paper bag in Vanessa's lap, trying not to think about what might've happened if she'd come out five minutes later and Vanessa had legged it. Rhona would've killed her. She leans in and presses a kiss to her head. "I'm back now."
Vanessa's hand comes up and tangles in her blouse. "Don' go 'way again. 'Kay?"
Charity smiles against her hair. "Okay, babe."
They make it back to Emmerdale with no more tears and no further escape attempts. Getting up the path is fairly easy. Getting in the door and out of their coats in the tiny entrance hall is a bit of a bugger, but they manage it. Charity hangs them up and follows Vanessa into the living room. Vanessa turns to her, looking like she's about to say something, but then stops, her eyes going wide.
"Oh my God!"
"What is it now?" Charity asks, panicked, looking for signs of pain or discomfort.
Vanessa shakes her head, eyes locked on her own. "You are beautiful."
It's so unexpected that Charity's face burns with the blood that rushes to her cheeks. She clears her throat and rolls her eyes. "And you're off your tits." When the hell is this stuff going to wear off?"
Vanessa frowns, tilting her head as if she's trying to remember something. "Have I never told you that before?"
"Ness." Charity whines, keen to change the subject, but Vanessa takes her hand in both of her own and squeezes it.
"I should tell you all the time. I think it all the time."
Charity smiles. "Wow," she says, through a tight throat. "And here was me thinking you said everything that came into your head." She sighs and tugs Vanessa closer. "Come here, you daft cow." She wraps her up in her arms, kissing her head and swaying her gently. "You're beautiful, an'all," she whispers, relatively confident that Vanessa will never remember any of this.
Nestling against her, Vanessa nods. "Yeah. I am."
Charity laughs.
It's an hour or so later when Rhona comes in and finds them on the couch. Charity's slouched down, her head is tipped back against the sofa, and Vanessa's head is resting on her belly. Charity's hand is curled around Vanessa's hip.
Rhona grabs a blanket from the back of the chair, draping it gently over Vanessa. She takes a moment just to look at them. She smiles and quietly lets herself out.
