Here's a new chapter for y'all since I'm back from vacation! (and also a little birthday present to myself because I love this chapter) - Dee
Jean had escaped her nursing Lucien duties for their weekly tea; it was on the floor of Alice's still vacant new home, but Alice was thankful her friend decided to give her a break in painting. The tea was refreshing after tackling the front hallway - light yellow was a wonderful choice - and most of the living room of the same color.
"It'll be really nice once you're done, Alice."
"Thank you," she said around a bite of sandwich. "And it'll go much faster once Matthew gets here with Anna."
"Or slower," Jean laughed, and Alice joined in - knowing how much of a handful Anna could be when she was excited. "Speaking of Matthew, shouldn't he be here by now? It doesn't take that long to go from the station to Anna's school and then here."
"Maybe he got held up?"
At that moment, Alice's phone - newly set up - rang.
"Speak of the Devil."
Jean's laughter followed her into the hall and Alice couldn't help the way her own laughter nearly prevented her from getting out her greeting.
"Harvey Residence."
"Alice."
"Matthew! What's keeping you and Anna?"
His sigh instantly made her worry.
"What's wrong?"
"You'd better come to the school."
"What happened?" She asked again - feeling Jean come up behind her as she gripped the receiver with white knuckles. "If it was that boy again, I swear-"
"It'd be easier to explain in person, Alice, please just come to the headmaster's office as soon as you can."
"You promise to tell me what's going on?"
"Absolutely."
"Alright, I'll be there as fast as I can."
"Without breaking speed laws."
"Without breaking speed laws," Alice promised and bit her lip as Matthew hung up.
"C'mon, I'll take you."
"No, I can drive myself."
"Alice, please, let me do this," Jean squeezed her shoulder. "Lucien can manage for a bit longer, I'll drop you off at the school to make sure you get there in one piece."
"Fine," Alice finally sighed as she slipped her shoes back on and grabbed her purse; Jean stayed with her as she locked up the house - making sure the paint was sufficiently covered so it wouldn't dry out in the cans - and drove them both to Ballarat West.
She knew Matthew would explain once she was there, but she couldn't help but fret with the strap of her purse as her mind tumbled over what possibly could have happened.
This was not how he would have predicted his day going when he woke this morning.
He stood off to the side as Splas- Superintendent Lawson sat and talked quietly to a tearful Miss Anna Harvey outside of the headmaster's office. Watching the man he'd bullied for years (he could admit that now without pride at his actions, after what had happened with the last headmaster - getting accused of murder sometimes cleared the rose colored glasses one wore about the past) speak softly to a kid was in short amazing to him.
He knew Lawson gravitated towards the underdogs - the quieter kids whom often were shoved around - but there was a familiarity he had with Miss Harvey that he hadn't realized was that deep.
Donald McAvoy didn't have much to do with Anna Harvey; she was quiet, good in class, didn't cause much of a fuss - though she did have a mean right hook from what he'd heard - and he knew a bit of her past from the headmaster and regular staff gossip. All in all, she was one of the kids he didn't have to keep an eye on.
Bruce MacArthur, on the other hand, he was constantly watching; that kid had a mean streak that had rivaled his own. Usually, he was kept away from Miss Harvey after the bloody nose incident, but he'd failed a year and through shoddy paperwork he'd ended up in the same class as the girl. She kept to herself, and so far since the holidays, MacArthur had behaved. Today, he'd done worse than Don ever thought possible.
Anna Harvey had long blonde hair, and she often showed up to school with it in braids or pigtails; she took good care of it - even if it ended up messy by the end of the day through school activities or recess - and all the female staff thought it beautiful. Today, she showed up with it down - simply held back from her face by a ribbon headband.
It nearly reached her waist, and Bruce MacArthur took a pair of scissors to it during recess; Don had caught him by the wrist before he could do more damage, but it was already enough by the sound of Miss Harvey's wailing.
Nothing could comfort her; not her teacher, certainly not Donald McAvoy, and she'd only calmed some when Lawson showed up with another officer in tow.
MacArthur and his mother waited in the headmaster's office - no doubt trying to spin the whole thing in the boy's favor - but the deputy head of the school had witnessed the event, there was no getting out of it this time.
"Here she is," he heard Lawson say as two women rushed up towards them; one was Miss Harvey's mother - a severe looking woman in paint splattered clothing who very evidently adored the girl - and the other looked familiar to Don, but he couldn't place her.
"Mumma!" Miss Harvey ran from Lawson's arms and into those of her mother's; her mother instantly dropped to her knees and held her tight - gently rocking her as the girl sobbed.
"What happened, Matthew?" The other woman asked as she approached.
Lawson gestured to the back of Miss Harvey's head - where Bruce MacArthur had roughly shorn off a good chunk of the long blonde hair to about her shoulders. The other woman looked horrified.
"Goodness… who did it?"
"Who do you think?"
"You're not serious."
Lawson just nodded and approached the Harveys, "The headmaster would like to speak with you, Alice. None of us can go until he does."
"Oh, I've a thing or two to say to him," Miss Harvey's mother frowned. "Was it MacArthur?"
"Yes."
"Wonderful, I'd like to lay charges."
"Already working on it, but we need to speak with him first - get all the facts."
"Fine," she looked down at her daughter and then up at Jean. "Does Anna have to come?"
"Only for a little bit and then she can stay out here with Jean."
"Can you do that, my girl?"
"Yes, Mumma."
Miss Harvey's mother leaned down and kissed the girl's forehead before she followed Lawson into the headmaster's office - Don slipped into the room behind them. Mrs. MacArthur's shrill voice already grating as they heard her yelling at the headmaster.
"I see no reason I'm called here today! This is a waste of my time!"
"Ah, here we are," the headmaster gave a strained smile at Lawson and the Harveys as he gestured for them to step closer. "Miss Harvey's here with her mother so now we can sort this all out."
"There's nothing to sort!"
"Oh no?" Miss Harvey's mother spat out. "Tell that to my daughter, whom your son assaulted."
"He did no such thing!"
Miss Harvey's mother turned the girl towards her so the MacArthurs got a full view of the missing chunk of hair, "So this is just child's play, is it?"
"He's a boy! That's what he does!"
"Oh really? How about I take these scissors right here and do the same to you? He assaulted my daughter and I want him held accountable for it. I want him to have no contact with her, and no way of him ever touching her again."
"Now, Miss Harv-"
"It's Doctor Harvey," the woman cooly replied - interrupting the headmaster, and Don couldn't help but be impressed. She'd held her cool throughout all of this, and it was fun to see his boss squirm. This headmaster that had replaced the last one had just as much spine as his predecessor - which wasn't a lot - as he tried to wrangle in two very different kinds of women.
For every excuse Mrs. MacArthur gave, Dr. Harvey eviscerated them - her shrewd mind not letting up, even as the other woman grew almost hysterical.
"Superintendent, please," the headmaster nearly begged Lawson - who'd been sitting by Dr. Harvey's side without saying a word. "A little help?"
"Not sure you'd want what I'm about to suggest, Headmaster Watson."
"Please."
"Alright," Lawson turned to Mrs. MacArthur. "Your son is being charged with assault."
"You have no rig-"
"I told you, Mrs. MacArthur, that if I heard of any more incidents like the fight he'd picked with Miss Harvey that he'd be enjoying a night in our cells," Lawson interrupted her. "And low and behold here I am sitting in this office after another incident. Dr. Harvey is insisting on pressing charges - something I'm not holding her back from at all."
"Of course you wouldn't," Mrs. MacArthur snapped. "She's the one pushing for all of this against my son and you're too busy warming her bed to care about anything else."
He could hear Lawson's teeth grinding from here, and the room grew colder if possible as both Lawson and Dr. Harvey glared at the other woman. Finally, Lawson stood slowly - leaning heavily on his cane as he gestured for the Harveys to rise as well.
"Miss Anna, could you run and get Sergeant Hobart for me?"
The girl nodded and scampered out of the office; Don caught a glimpse of her speaking to the other uniformed officer outside before the girl ran over to the patiently waiting Jean.
"Boss?" The sergeant asked as he entered.
"Take the boy down to your patrol car, he's being charged with assault."
"You can't do that! You can't take him!" Mrs. MacArthur screeched as the officer walked over to Bruce.
"Your son is being charged with assault, Mrs. MacArthur, you may go with him as he is a minor, but he will be questioned and sent before a judge if I see fit."
The woman stood and immediately slapped Lawson in the face; the crack of skin on skin echoed in the office, and Don notice Dr. Harvey wince in the same second the slap landed.
Silence reigned as Lawson recovered - adjusting his jaw to see if anything else hurt; as a red welt appeared on his cheek… so did one on Dr. Harvey's face. Mrs. MacArthur's eyes grew wide as Don tried to hide his own surprise.
Matthew Lawson and this Dr. Harvey were soulmates.
Her hand came up to squeeze his upper arm - a silent question or reassurance for the superintendent of police, Don wasn't sure - and he noticed the sparkling ring on her finger.
'Now this is a surprise,' Don thought, 'Lawson found his soulmate and they're getting married… it'll be the talk of the town once the rest of Ballarat finds out.'
"Hobart, go ahead and arrest Mrs. MacArthur as well."
"On what charge!"
"Assault of police, and for the hell of it the fact that I honestly don't like you since you've insulted both my fiance and the girl I see as my daughter, but it's the assault of police that gets you charged and locked up."
Hobart dragged both of the MacArthurs out of the (still) dumbfounded headmaster's office; the mother's voice echoed through the hallways until they were out of the building - protesting the entire time.
"I'll need the witnesses to come down to the station for both the assault on Miss Anna Harvey and this altercation just now," Lawson told the headmaster.
"Uh, yes, of course," Don's boss nodded vigorously. "Don here saw the whole thing with Miss Harvey and Mr. MacArthur."
Lawson's eyes nearly pierced through him as he turned to Don; still, he limped over.
"That true, McAvoy?"
"Yeah, it is," he nodded.
"Would you mind coming down to the station for a statement?"
"Not at all, Superintendent."
He couldn't tell if Lawson looked surprised at the way he was speaking to him, or if he was just seeing things, but the taller man silently nodded and held out his hand to Dr. Harvey as she walked over.
"Doctor," Don nodded politely to her; Dr. Harvey nodded back, but her eyes were near ice.
He cast a look back at the headmaster as Lawson and his fiance left the office - nearly smirking at the still dumbfounded look on the man's face - before he too left. Don had been to the police station in Ballarat before, and arrived there soon after the MacArthurs had - he could hear her voice down the hallway, getting louder when Lawson stepped out of the interrogation room with a poorly-concealed wince.
"McAvoy, this way," Lawson gestured to the room at the other end; he followed the superintendent into a large room - different from the interrogation room he'd been in - filled with desks and a few other officers. Dr. Harvey sat in one of the chairs in front of a desk with Lawson's title and name on a plaque - staring holes into its surface as she thought.
"We'll do your interview here, McAvoy, if you'll sit."
"Of course."
He watched as Lawson limped around the desk, briefly squeezing Dr. Harvey's shoulder as her intense gaze moved from the desk to settle on Don cooly; it remained on him throughout the interview - nearly unblinking as Don answered all of Lawson's questions, only moving again when her daughter quietly walked up to her - her hair pulled over one shoulder to try and hide the damage.
"Mumma?"
"Yes, Anna?"
The girl looked between all of the adults before she leaned up to whisper into Dr. Harvey's ear; her mother cracked a smile before she nodded.
"You can ask."
"Daddy?"
"Yeah, sweetheart?" Lawson smiled - whether it was explicitly for Miss Harvey's benefit or the fact that Don's mouth had dropped open in shock, he wasn't sure.
"Auntie Jean is making tea, do you want some?"
"I'd love some, thank you."
"Okay," the girl smiled and surprisingly turned to Don. "Mr. McAvoy, would you like some too? Auntie Jean makes the best tea."
"Ah…" looking between Lawson and Dr. Harvey and then Miss Harvey, Don slowly nodded. "I'd like some, thank you, Miss Harvey."
"You're welcome!" She darted away to where Jean waited.
"So, you were saying, Mc-" Lawson prompted before he stopped and smiled again. "Yes, Anna?"
"Auntie Jean said I forgot to ask Mr. McAvoy how he takes his tea."
"McAvoy? How do you usually take your tea?"
"Er, white with one."
"Got that, sweetheart?"
"Yeah," Miss Harvey nodded and moved to bound back over to her Auntie Jean, when her mother pulled her back.
"Wait a second, Anna, let's fix this for the time being," Dr. Harvey undid the girl's ribbon headband and quickly pulled the long blonde hair into a ponytail.
"Will I have to cut it, Mumma?"
"At least to get it all the same length, yes."
"Will you do it?"
"Goodness no," Dr. Harvey smiled as she tied the ribbon as tightly as she could. "We'll see if the hairdresser is free once we're done here."
"Can I get my hair done like yours?"
"I thought you didn't want short hair."
Miss Harvey shrugged, "I wanna be like you, Mumma."
"Oh you," Dr. Harvey softly sighed and kissed Miss Harvey on the forehead. "Go and help Auntie Jean with the tea."
"Okay, love you, Mumma."
"I love you too, you silly girl," Dr. Harvey kissed her forehead once more before Miss Harvey skipped over to where her auntie waited.
Don continued to answer all of Lawson's questions - most about the hair cutting incident today, but also questions about Bruce MacArthur in general: how he was with other students, how he was with the teachers and staff, how he was on the playground, in the classroom, elsewhere?
"If I can be frank, Superintendent, he's a right prick."
"I see, and you've been stopping this behavior?"
"Whenever I can see it happening, sure."
"Seems you've had a change of heart," Dr. Harvey remarked - her voice back to the cool, almost sharp, tone she had towards Mrs. MacArthur.
"I've been… trying to learn how to get better."
"A little come to Jesus?"
"Getting accused of murder would do that to anyone, I'd think."
Lawson let out a snort of laughter as he scribbled down more notes Don couldn't see; Dr. Harvey continued to watch him - ready to pounce at a moment's notice. If it weren't so bloody unnerving, Don might have found it more amusing - the tall, quiet Superintendent Lawson with his feisty Dr. Harvey.
"Thank you, McAvoy, for coming down here to do your statement, and for looking out for Alice's, well, our daughter."
"She's a good kid, you've… you've taught her well."
"Thank you."
Don nodded and answered a few more questions about the altercation between Mrs. MacArthur and Lawson - drinking his tea when Jean (whom he learned was Lucy Blake's wife) and Miss Harvey brought it over for all of them - before he made his exit.
As he reached the door, Don looked back to see Dr. Harvey had rounded the desk - leaning against it as she inspected the darkening welt on Lawson's cheek before the man pulled her hands from his face and kissed the backs of her fingers and then palms of her hands; Dr. Harvey's shoulders slumped a little as Lawson spoke softly to her - their fingers tangled together - before he pulled her in for a short kiss.
It was unexpected, but they worked, he thought as he left the station. Hopefully, this could get Bruce MacArthur out of his hair for a bit, and maybe spending some time in a jail cell will put the boy straight.
Alice brought her daughter to the hairdresser she went to for a trim after Jean dropped them off with a smile and a wave - needing to get back to Lucien before he tried to climb the walls of 7 Mycroft Ave.
"Ready, my girl?" She squeezed Anna's hand as the girl looked at the building with wide eyes.
"Will… will it hurt, Mumma?"
"No," Alice kissed her forehead. "It'll feel a little weird, but it's like when I help you wash your hair."
"Okay."
"Ready, then?"
"Yeah," Anna nodded, and they entered the hairdresser's store.
A bell tinkled above their heads and Alice smiled when she saw her usual hairdresser there; Megan Marks was particularly mindful of Alice's aversion to a lot of touching, she'd be perfect for Anna's first major haircut and style.
"Dr. Harvey! I wasn't expecting to see you for another week," Miss Marks smiled.
"We're here for a bit of an emergency, Miss Marks, I'm hoping you're free."
"What can I do for you?"
"My daughter, Anna, had an… incident at school and needs her hair cut."
"Oh? I'm sorry to hear that, it's such a gorgeous blonde. May I see?"
Waiting until Anna nodded up at her, Alice untied the ribbon holding up Anna's hair and turned her to show Miss Marks.
"Oh, you poor thing! Come with me, we'll fix you right up."
Miss Marks got her daughter settled in a chair - using a small wooden box to boost her up higher - and tied the cape around her neck.
"Now," she turned the chair to have Anna face her as Alice sat in the next chair, "what were you thinking for your hair? I can cut it all the same length and keep it as long as possible if you want that, or I can do something shorter."
"Can I have hair like Mumma's?"
"You want a cute little chin length bob?" At Anna's slow nod, Miss Marks smiled. "That I can do! I won't give you bangs in the front since you seem like a girl who wants her hair out of her face."
Anna giggled and nodded; she stayed still throughout the whole haircut - watching and listening to Miss Marks with wide eyes throughout it all as the hairdresser gushed about how they could curl Anna's hair and find her all sorts of adorable headbands to accessorize with.
"You are going to look so cute, Miss Anna! I can't wait for you to see it."
"Is it good, Mumma?"
Alice smiled and nodded, "You're looking very proper, my girl."
"Can we get the headbands like Miss Marks says?"
Chuckling as Miss Marks grinned, Alice nodded, "We'll have to ask her where to find them, and we can also use your ribbons too since you have so many of them."
In no time, Miss Marks finished the cut and style - using Anna's ribbon as a headband to pull the freshly cut blonde curls away from her daughter's face - and turned her daughter to face the mirror; Anna instantly giggled and shook her head.
"It's so light!"
"It is! Now you can run around even faster!" Miss Marks squeezed Anna's shoulders before she untied the cape and helped the girl off the chair.
"How much do I owe you, Miss Marks?"
"On the house."
"But-"
"Really, Dr. Harvey, it's alright," Miss Marks smiled and waved off Alice pulling out her wallet. "You can pay me back by bringing her in more often, she's a treat. Besides, you're seeing me next week, I'll get your business then."
"Thank you," Alice surprised herself by reaching out to squeeze Miss Marks' hand. "I… thank you, you've made her feel much happier about this... rotten day."
"I'm glad. Now, don't either of you be a stranger!"
With a smile and a wave, the Harveys left the hairdresser and made their way down the street - heading towards their new home.
"When's it gonna be done, Mumma?" Anna asked her as she swung their hands in between them.
"As soon as we can get the painting done in all of the rooms, then we can start moving furniture in. After that is everything else!"
"And then we're home!" Anna bounced beside her - making her mother laugh.
"That's right!" She hoisted her up in her arms and spun her around.
Anna's laughter filled Alice with a warmth that had been missing most of the day; what had happened to her daughter was absolutely horrid, and Alice would do everything she could to make it right, but her girl was a resilient one - something Alice wished Anna didn't have to be, but as her daughter laughed in her arms, she knew the girl would be alright.