Chapter 8
It was a breezy day in April. The residents of the street went about there business like normal mostly. Mostly… Jim followed Liz to the crèche and he watched with jealousy as his daughter took her mums hand and they walked down the road together. He made sure he stayed out of Liz view but he knew as well as she did that she knew he was there. He was looking round for him,
"And we did finger painting today." said Katie.
"Did you?" ask Liz trying to hide her fear that they weren't by themselves. Why wouldn't he let them be? She wished he would just go, she couldn't go on hiding in every corner from him.
"Yeah." she said.
As they neared the Rovers, Jim came out from where he had been hiding he had to talk to them. He had to check Katie was ok.
"Elizabeth." he said as he ran up to them.
Liz was on the defense as soon as she heard his voice. Lifting her daughter up in her arms she walked on.
"Mummy, stop its daddy. Let me see daddy." she begged herm other desperately.
"No Katherine." said Elizabeth. Just because the bruising on her face had gone down didn't mean that the pain inside was gone and she wasn't ready to forgive.
Opening the door in panic she walked in to see Jack and Vera there.
"Can we go in the back?" she asked her employers desperately.
"Course go through," said Vera as she watched Jim come in.
"Just talk to me Elizabeth I am begging yer, let me see me little girl." he begged.
"Jim lad come on," said jack as he tried to calm him done,
"Yer don't know what its like Elizabeth! Let me see her!" he fought.
-
Elizabeth was so upset by all of this. Katherine was looking at her with shock that she was doing this to her.
Picking up the phone Liz knew what she had to so.
She had taken out the restriction on her husband so he wouldn't come near her. So he would be out of her life. Now he had broke the bonds that protected she and her daughter.
She picked up the phone.
-
The twins watched as there dad came in. He seemed less angry now but just plainly distressed that he was being kept from his little one.
Katie was his world and they knew it.
"Dad I am so sorry." said Andy who was beginning to think his father had at last been punished enough. It was time that their mother gave way now. She could see that there dad was sorry.
"So am I lad, so am I. Brought it on me self." he mourned.
"Some of it maybe. But mum is going over board now." Andy told him. "No matter what you did it is time she let you see Katherine. Dad she didn't do so well in the physio this week. It isn't right her being at the flat, she needs to come home, things tot be normal again."
"Yer don't have to tell me that son. I know it, its your mother that is going to take the convincing." he sighed. He had been the biggest fool.
Just then there was a knock on the door.
"I'll get it." said Andy to Jim
He watched as he walked to them door his fathers distress deepening. He probably shouldn't have told him that Katherine's progress was differing for the split of her mum and dad. It wasn't what he needed to hear.
"Hello." he said as he was shocked to see a copper At the door.
-
Liz took her daughters hand walked out Rovers. Hopefully he was gone by now, but she had to get her daughter home to get her dinnered, bathed and ready for bed.
Going in to the street though she wished she had waited just a bit longer. Jim was just going out with the police and he was distressed. More so then he had been before.
Every thing had got to much for him and he had begun crying well before he had seen his baby daughter. Knowing that she missed him as much as he was missing her had been too much for him and he had just broken down.
Then he saw her. Liz had not been holding on to Katie enough and the minute Katherine saw her father being taken she made a bid to run to him and was quite successful.
For the first time in what felt years, even though it had been only weeks, Jim held her in his arms. They were taking him to prison and he knew it. But he had to hold her first. He had to make sure she knew he was going to be ok
"I love you Katie." he said to her as she made a desperate attempt to brush away her daddy's tears which were following like a river, as were her own by this point.
"Give her back to me!" Liz demanded as she caught up with her daughter which only prompted him to hold on to her tighter.
"I love you too daddy." Katie said to him ignoring her mother.
"Dad! Dad, what's going on?" asked Steve as he got back to the house. His sister was balling her eyes out in their fathers arms and from were he stood in the door way his brother looked like he had just had his heart broke.
His mother, whom he had lost all respect for when she had taking out the restraining order on his dad , was also upset, but his main focus was his dad.
"Why are they taking you." he asked. He didn't want his dad to go.
"I did a bad thing." he sighed as he kissed his daughters brow, and gave her to her brother or tried to Katie. Katie clung to Jim as if he was her life line. Residents of the street had stop to look at her as Jim tried desperately to do the right thing and give her to her brother.
"Be a good girl for me wee lass. Daddy will be home soon." he said as he finally prized her off himself.
"DADDY!!" she cried over and over again in to Steve as he tried to hold her but she was so scared. His mum had had no right to do this. Steve had never seen her so upset. She was panicking. It was like she was having a panic attack.
Andy came out of the house and went to Katie rubbing here back soothingly.
"Boys come on," said Liz as she tried to regain possession of her youngest, "give her back."
But Katie wasn't listening.
"Don't take my daddy." she said quietly as she watched the car her father had just been put in to drive out of the street.
"no." said Steve to his mum as she took his sister in to number eleven. If his dad had to do time for what he had done, surely for what she had put his sister through Liz deserved too as well. So he took her in.
Andy seemingly understanding what he was doing followed them in and slammed the door in his mums face. The twins had custody of there sister now.
When they had found out what the boys had done, Anne (Andy's girlfriend) and Vicky where both shocked though not necessarily in agreement.
Both knew deep down all Jim cared about was the well being and happiness of his kids. When he had not been allowed near Katie he had been so upset. The love he felt as a father was undeniable. But now it was deniable as a husband.
But the one upset now was Katie her self. As much as she was enjoying being back home with her big brothers as her main guardians she missed her father so much. It didn't feel right him not being at home with her. He had always been here.
The boys finally grasped all the stuff there mum and there dad had had to do for them when they were young for now they had to do it all for Katie. No wonder they had been stressed with the twins when they were young.
Also it helped them get a grip of what there sister's illness was.
They had always known she had had problems but now there was not one bit of it hidden from them. Ignorance had been bliss.
They were concerned for her that was for sure. they had always known her to be quiet., but neither realized how thoughtful she was before they had had her to themselves.
Just because she needed a lot of help didn't mean she was stupid. She was very intelligent. She worked things through in her mind and she reached her own conclusions (which ere generally more intelligent than thosethe adults in her life).
"We got a visiting order with dad today." said Andy to Anne.
"You going to take the little un?" she asked.
"Well yeah I mean she us missing him like crazy. She needs to see her dad." he told her.
"But darling, to make her see him in there, don't you think it might be too much not just for her, but for him too."
"No the order said Steve, Andy and Katie McDonald and we have told her she is going now, me and Steve can't let her down." he said to her.
"I am only trying to think of your sister. I mean come on she is a four year old girl."
"Anne don't tell me how to look as after my sister,. I am doing the best I can right now so stop telling me where I am going wrong all the time," Andy said exhaustedly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap-"
"Its ok. I understand. But I am only trying to help."
-
Liz was going mad. How could her sons put there mum through this? They knew how much she thought of that little girl and yet they had taken her away.
Maybe this was some sort of revenge for what she had done when she had kept there dad away from Katie but when she had done it he had deserved it. She didn't. What had she done to make her boys do this to her?
"Deirdre can they do this?" she asked.
"I don't know." she said. "I wouldn't have thought so, not legally."
"No, but I cant seen my own lads to jail. I just couldn't."
-
Jim went in to the visitors room. He missed his family so much when he had been in the cells. He needed them.
"Kids." he said as he went down to the table where they all embraced.
His sons gave him swift hugs, whilst his daughter clung to him, and when he sat down he settle her in his laps. God he had missed this. He had missed her.
"Yer right lass?" he asked as she snuggled in to him. He had missed holding her.
"Yeah but I missed you daddy." he said to him , "I'm sorry about what I said to you when you came and saw me with mummy. I'm not scared of you daddy," she promised him. She had been trying to think of why he might have gone away from her, and why her mummy had done what she ha, and she had begun wondering if it had been some thing she had done.
"I know your not wee lass." he said to her.
Turning to his sons he and the boys started talking. Katie paid no attention but just stayed close to her dad. Being this close to him again felt right, she had been lonely when they had been apart.
He had been feeling down too. In the time when she had been kept from Jim , he had got so low. Every time when she been little and she had been sick it had been him, not his estranged wife who had sat up with her. Who had been the one who had taken there daughter to the hospital a stood over he day and night till she was better.
It had been him. And him alone. And she was his daughter. And she was not going to feel alone ever again when he got home. They were not going to be kept apart ever again. He was going to make sure of it.
"How long are you going to be in for dad," asked Katie.
"Just three weeks princess. Then I'm going to be home." he said to her.
"And me too. So we can live together again?" she asked.
"of course we can darling. Just me you and the boys." he said to her. There was going to be no more mummy at number eleven.
-
Vicky looked at her husband she helped with the tea.
"So she is going to be here when he comes home." she shook her head. "I do think its weird babe. I mean Liz was so pepsinate that she was not going to see Jim and yet the minute you and Andy take control she gives up." she sighed.
"Maybe she has seen the bad in what she had been doing to her family. I mean we had to take charge of everything,, it isn't a good sign is it?"
"Well I guess it was just got so out of hand. Some times things do go rotten and we have to handle it." she pointed out.
"And this family has." he said as he pushed a kiss to her lips. "In a few days my dad will be home with us where he belongs and then we can get back to normal."
"And liz? When are things going back to normal for her?" she asked.
"When she says sorry to me dad for what she did."
"Babe what she did was wrong yes but you have to look at the bigger picture. What Jim did was hardly right, was it?" she asked.
"I guess not."
Ok he knew it. His fathers actions towards his mum had been barbarian. There was no question a out that. But she had hurt Katie, not his dad, and that was the hardest thing for the protective big brother to forgive.