Back together again
Alistair didn't know how to break the news to his friend and patient.
"Alec, ya just need to slow down."
"It's not that easy," Alec replied, thinking maybe it was the thought that Rose had forgiven him for deserting her when she was pregnant, not that he'd any idea she had been at the time.
Then he swept his hair back and looked at his friend.
"Ya know I'm right Alec," Alistair insisted. "Whether ya want to be told the truth or not. I'll keep an eye on you but be honest with Rose. She'll understand the pressure you're under. Try to slow down."
"So should I tell her?" Alec debated.
"Were ya always honest with her, apart from keeping the truth about Tess from her?" Alistair asked him.
"I did not know how to break it to her Alistair," Alec admitted as he got off the bed. "I don't know what came over me to be honest. I knew what Tess was trying to do and I let her. How can Rose forgive me for that? Rose was pregnant ."
"Wow, you mean you just found out?" Alistair was surprised.
"Well yes," Alec replied, fastening his shirt. "She said she got caught out because I had gone to see her a week early. She never bothered warning me."
"Well these things happen my friend," Alistair laughed, picking up his prescription pad. "I'll give you heart medication, try it for a month and if you get worse, call me. Tell Rose, she can help you."
"If she stays," Alec agreed. "There is no guarantee she may still be waiting. She could have backed off and gone home."
"Alec, she came to look for you," Alistair reminded him. "She would not have come looking for you if she wasn't serious."
Alec thought maybe he was right. Rose must have forgiven him or not been angry with him to start with. It was like Tess used to have some kind of hold over him but he'd found out a while ago she had just been using him.
"How's the divorce going?" Alistair then asked as he handed Alec the note.
"Slowly but I am going to hurry things up now," Alec admitted.
"Then I'm glad to hear it," Alistair smiled. "Make sure you get those pills and take them."
Alec had to agree if Rose was really back. He'd been sad to hear her husband had been killed but why had she felt like it was her fault? Yes, she'd not told James the truth but they would have worked it out. She had been feeling guilty all that time, it was time she let go of it.
He called at the pharmacy a few doors down from the surgery then drove to the guest house, getting caught by the owner.
"Did my friend go up to my room?" he asked her before she could raise any objections. "I trust I won't have to book her another room?"
"We don't make a habit of letting couples share," the woman started to tell him. "If it's only for a few nights then I have to agree. Will she be coming back?"
"I am trying to find somewhere to rent," Alec reminded her. "She may have to if I've not found something suitable."
He walked upstairs, thinking they weren't helping his heart problems and he'd have to find a place on the ground floor or somewhere with a lift. He stopped just before his room and wondered if Rose wouldn't insist she got another room or he took her to the train station. No, she wouldn't have come all this way just to back out, would she?
Rose was getting nervous as it got nearer to the time she thought Alec would be on his way back. He seemed genuinely happy to see her earlier and she knew she had driven him away before by refusing to go back to Scotland. While she'd been happy with James, poor Alec had been stuck with Tess.
She thought maybe he saw it as some sort of punishment but she was going to make sure she made it clear she knew it had all been Tess, who could have picked on someone else. Her heart nearly stopped when there was a knock at the door.
"Rose," he called as the door opened slowly.
"Hi," she said quietly as she let him push the door open.
He closed it behind him and was taken aback when she flung her arms around him. It wasn't quite the reception he thought he was going to get, well that he deserved to get for leaving her when she had a baby on the way. He put his arms around her and Rose leaned into his shoulder, Alec kissing her hair.
"I never forgot about ya," she told him.
"I constantly thought about you, that you would never forgive me for just leaving you," he had to admit.
"Ya don't have to explain Alec," Rose insisted.
"I don't deserve to be forgiven Rose," he replied.
"I could never stay mad at ya Alec. I was mad at first but the more I thought about it, it was my own fault. I was the one who insisted ya studied up there."
"So are you willing to give me another chance?" he asked hopefully.
"What do ya think?" Rose smiled as she looked up at him.
Alec reached down and hoped she wouldn't slap him for trying to kiss her. She didn't as he made an attempt, seeing a smile on her face.
"Mmm, I never kissed ya when ya had a beard before," Rose laughed.
"It's hardly a beard Rose," he corrected her, since he'd not shaved for a few days. "I may keep it as my new look though."
"Yeah, it suits ya, it makes ya look cute," she tried not to laugh again.
"So am I forgiven?" he asked cautiously.
"I never stopped loving ya Alec," she assured him. "Mum said I should have gone up there but I thought it would just cause trouble. I mean ya had to work with Tess, she could've caused ya a lot of grief. Sorry Alec, I thought it was just best to leave it but ask my mum how heart-broken I was."
"There is no need to do that," he further assured her. "I deserved what I got for letting Tess get to me."
"Alec, it wasn't your fault," she tried to reassure him again.
"You are too forgiving Rose, I don't really deserve it but I want to make up for it," he promised.
"Yeah, anyway, I wish I'd known where John was but I didn't know if everyone had fallen out with me over it," Rose admitted.
"They never did, John tried to get me not to marry Tess," Alec recalled the times John had tried in vain to get him to change his mind and go down and find Rose. "I never knew if you'd started going out with James or not. I should have known when a neighbour told me you'd gone off with me a few days before I tried to find you."
"They did?" Rose had to smile as they held onto each other.
"I will call him tomorrow, I never got chance today," Alec promised.
"Do it now?" Rose suggested. "Mum swore she'd seen him driving past her."
"He won't have seen her or I'm sure he would have stopped," Alec told her.
"Yeah, I imagine he would have done," Rose agreed, leaning on his shoulder again.
"I know love. Rose, my aunt passed away a while ago, she would have been overjoyed to know about Jamie, she missed you so much," Alec recalled. "She was really disappointed when I married Tess, they all were. I still don't know why I gave in to her."
"Alec, it doesn't matter," Rose tried to tell him. "I was engaged to James for a while before we got married. I think in the back of his mind, he always thought you'd come back and I'd leave him."
"That would not have been fair Rose, if he offered to look after you and Jamie and say Jamie was his own," Alec told her. "I would have respected that, although I would have been disappointed. I went to find you because I hoped you'd not got engaged or married."
"Yeah. I told him before I told my mum that I was pregnant. I don't know why," Rose replied.
"You trusted him," Alec guessed. "If you need to talk about what happened to him, it's fine but there is something you should know first."
On his way back from seeing his friend, he'd decided it was best to come clean with her, that there might be something wrong with him. If Alistair was right, it would affect their relationship and Rose had already had her heart broken enough times. He took her hand and placed it over his heart, Rose flinching when she felt it wasn't right.
"Alec, what's wrong?" she asked in panic.
"Shush love, I saw my doctor and he gave me something for it. It's this case Rose, it has been getting to me, well that and arguing with Tess. I have you now," he told her, resting his chin on her head.
"Too right ya have," Rose smiled. "I'll have to go home at the weekend, to talk to Jamie. We can look for somewhere to rent for now but Jamie's gonna be doing his exams, he won't want to move school."
"Let him get them over with, then we can get him into college here," Alec suggested.
"Well he'll be okay with my mum for a while, what am I gonna do about the house though? I can't sell it Alec, it was James's parents who bought it and left it to him. I suppose I can ask Donna if she wants to rent or buy it but I don't think my mum will want to move down here."
"Maybe not?" Alec mused. "We could go some place else? It's not a good idea to stay in the same town as Tess. She used me, to get back here."
"Alec, ya weren't to know," Rose still insisted, looking up at him. "Anyway, I'll talk to Donna when I get back, I'd rather the house stay in James's family."
"That's only right," Alec had to agree. "So what are you going to do then? I will go back with you at the weekend, I'll take you to see John and his family but what about telling your friend and her seeing I look like her cousin?"
"Alec, I think Donna always suspected, she did about Jamie being yours," Rose tried to assure him. "Maybe she didn't want to upset him by telling him? I have to tell her the truth about what happened that night."
"Rose, that may do more harm than good you know?" Alec disagreed. "Trust me love, surely they have all been through enough with losing him? I know you had to endure it on your own but now is the time to forget about it, you cannot be entirely to blame over it. It was his choice to take the car that night."
"Alec, how can I not feel guilty about it?" Rose wanted to know. "It still haunts me how he went out and I thought he'd gone to walk it off and that he'd be back. How do I know what he would have done if he had walked back in?"
"You can only hope he would forgive you love," he tried to assure her. "I mean if he waited for you all that time when you were still with me? He never gave up then, did he?"
"No, Donna used to torment him all the time," Rose recalled. "She used to tell him he'd be in for a long wait. He did wait though and he knew something was wrong and he came to see me the night you should have been down visiting."
"Well there you are then? If he cared that much, he maybe would never have left you? One thing though, why did you never try and contact me before now? Trust me Rose, my marriage to Tess never meant that much. Tess used me and I accepted the punishment for leaving you."
"Alec, how was I to know?" Rose asked him. "I thought ya'd given up on me because I wasn't that enthusiastic about going to live in Scotland?"
"Rose, I would have lived anywhere you wanted with you," Alec admitted. "Let's just forget about it for now and you tell me about my son eh?"
"Well, where do I start?" Rose began to smile.
"I want to know everything, don't leave anything out. Why not start with do you have photos of your scans?" he asked enthusiastically.
"Yeah, at home. Alec, if I'd never moved that box of stuff I had from you, he would never have found it."
Then she suddenly moved and clasped her hands over her mouth, making Alec look at her cautiously.
"Rose?" he questioned her, thinking she was backing out already when they'd only just met again.
"Alec. Do ya think it was some kind of fate or something?" she asked him.
"How do you mean? What kind of fate Rose?" he wanted to know. "If you mean what I think you mean, then no."
"Alec, I mean for us to get back together, I never meant anything to happen to James so we could meet again," Rose replied nervously.
Alec took hold of her hands.
"Rose, I am not even implying that," he insisted. "Don't ever think that love. Maybe he did know that you still loved me but would he have left you over it and let you find me again or would he have stuck with you, no matter what? Think about it. Why don't you get ready for bed, you must be tired eh?"
Rose managed a nod at him.
"Sorry Alec, I don't know what to think any more. Yeah, I've been really wound up the last few days, well since I saw ya on TV, then I couldn't get hold of you when I rang," Rose managed to smile.
"That's understandable love," Alec agreed. "When I found out someone tried to call me, I had a feeling it would be you, who else would it have been?"
"I had so much I wanted to say to you," Rose told him as she leaned closer to him.
"I know love, tell me some more of it when you go get changed, unless you want me to go in the bathroom to change instead?" he suggested.
"No, it's fine Alec, really. I guess I'm still a bit nervous?" she wondered.
"I expect that's it?" Alec agreed, kissing her hair again, something Rose recalled he always used to do if she was upset. "I still remember how upset you were when your mother was leaving Paisley and you did not want to go."
"Yeah, I still remember as well, it was the worst day of my life. I was so happy there with you. Why did my mum ever get caught up with the likes of him?"
"Rose, you would never have gone to live there if not," Alec reminded her. "We can go up there for a visit, if you want? We can take Jamie to meet my dad and my uncle."
"Yeah, I know. I should have at least told ya," Rose told him again. "Alec, I'm really sorry about your aunt."
"I know love, she thought the world of you, you know? Maybe in the morning I can talk to Jamie before he goes to school?" Alec asked hopefully.
"Yeah, I should have called him earlier," Rose agreed.
Rose grabbed her things and went into the bathroom just as Alec's mobile rang. He hoped it wasn't Tess complaining about something again, he got enough at work. He was surprised it was John then he remembered Rose mentioning her mother thought she had see him driving past.
"Alec!" John was all excited as he tried to stop Sarah-Jane grabbing his phone and her saying for him to tell Alec. "Sarah, stop it, I'm going to tell him if you give me the chance," John laughed.
Alec was amused his half brother still put on his London accent when he got enthusiastic about something. Thinking he'd best let John tell him in case it wasn't about Jackie, Alec let him continue.
"I swear I saw Jackie when I was driving through Chiswick! What would she be doing there?" John asked him as Sarah-Jane wanted to say hello to Alec.
"You did," Alec tried not to burst out that Rose was with him or he'd never get chance to explain.
"Really?" John replied, a bit surprised he hadn't been imagining it. "See Sarah? I was right and I wasn't seeing things. How do you know it was her?"
Alec wished John had called earlier, now was not the time to explain the reason so he tried to keep it short.
"Because Rose is here," he replied, thinking how happy it had made him after all the years of misery with Tess.
"No way!" John laughed as Sarah-Jane tried to listen. "Really? Oh, did she see you on TV? Where is she, let me talk to her. Are you still in that hotel? You're not letting on to Tess are you?"
Alec wished his half brother wouldn't ask so many questions all at once but he himself had got like that recently.
"Yes, she did and she got the train down earlier and came to find me. She's living in Chiswick, Jackie does as well. John, you are not going to believe this but Rose was pregnant when I stopped going to see her, well when Tess stopped me from going," he admitted.
"What?" John asked as Sarah-Jane clasped her hands over her mouth.
John had told her everything about Rose and Alec and she had been disappointed they'd never met.
"Yes, I have a fifteen year old son called Jamie. When she found out, she started going out with her friend's cousin James and he persuaded her to say the baby was his. Think how it was all that time ago and single mothers? Look what Jackie went through?' he reminded John.
"Well, that was extremely thoughtful of him I suppose?" John pondered. "So, we've got a nephew?"
Alec could hear his almost sister-in-law asking when they could meet Jamie and see Rose.
"This is all such a bit of a surprise," Alec admitted as Rose came out of the bathroom. "You can say a quick hello to Rose if you want?"
Alec knew the answer already.
"Rose, it's John, he wants to say hello. John, please make it quick, Rose is tired after her journey and all the catching up."
"I'm fine Alec," Rose assured him, having thought it was safer to buy some new pyjamas and a dressing gown if she was staying at least tonight with Alec. "John? Hi."
"Rose! Long time no see? It's good to hear you," John replied, still excited. "How are you? I saw your mum when I was on my way to a teachers meeting, I thought I was seeing things!" he laughed. "I've got a nephew?"
Rose thought he'd not changed much, had he? He already had a niece.
"Yeah, Jamie and he's excited about meeting everyone. Alec said you have a boy?" Rose tried to remember in all the chaos.
"Yes, Luke. We adopted him when he was a toddler, poor lad but he's ours now, we don't look at it that he's adopted, do we Sarah?" John replied, her finally grabbing his mobile.
"Rose? It's Sarah-Jane, I've heard so much about you from John and Alec," she told poor Rose, who was yawning since she'd not slept much the night before.
Rose wondered why the difference in her name but knowing John, he would be the only one who used the first part of her name.
"John's told me all about when he was your teacher at the grammar school," Sarah-Jane continued. "It was so upsetting when you and your mother had to leave, for everyone."
"Yeah, it was. Geez, I hope John's not told ya everything?" Rose suddenly realised.
"Well almost. Wait until we tell Luke he's got a new cousin and you're not far from us. Honestly, why didn't any of us know we lived close to each other?"
Rose thought it was maybe just as well, James would have got to know right away he looked a lot like Alec and John, he would have deserted her faster than mice leaving a sinking ship.
"I moved in with James when I found out I was pregnant," Rose admitted. "He was really good to me. Don't get me wrong, I was devastated when Alec never arrived that weekend but I already knew that Tess had got her claws into him."
She looked at Alec and tried to give him his phone back but he shook his head.
"It's okay Rose, tell him," Alec insisted. "He knows most of it and was forever telling me how disappointed everyone was when I lost you," Alec also admitted.
"We were," John then told him. "So, what happens now? Rose, come and see us when you get back," John insisted as Sarah-Jane was telling him.
"I'm going to take her back home at the weekend," Alec then told John. "I'll bring them over to see you on Sunday."
"John, invite them for Sunday lunch," Sarah-Jane insisted.
"I heard," Alec replied. "Rose is nodding her agreement."
Rose was now sat on the end of the bed, tears in her eyes as it was now getting a bit much for her.
"I will call you tomorrow to make the arrangements," Alec also agreed. "Rose is getting a bit teary-eyed," he smiled at her.
"That's understandable," John agreed. "If you talk to Jackie tell her I'm sorry I never stopped to talk to her."
"You may not have got to your meeting," Alec had to laugh and getting a smile back from Rose at the thought of John and her mother talking by the roadside.
