"You okay Con?" They were sat in the car on the driveway, and Grace had appeared at the front window having heard them pull up but not come inside. She sighed and took her bag from Jacob, opened the car door and began to walk to the house. He followed her, and once they were inside he waited by the stairs as Connie hung up her coat, thanked Natalia and paid her, before she too left and the three of them were left alone. Grace appeared at the entrance to the living room, a mug of hot chocolate in her hand.
"The kettle's just finished boiling." She then turned and went back into the room before settling on the sofa.
"Um, Jacob, just come through here for a minute," Connie led him into the kitchen, dropped her bag on a stool and then made her way over to the kettle to make them tea. She had been surprised to learn that he preferred tea to coffee, and without a second thought she pulled down the mug he had left at hers since the beginning of the year.
"Do you want me to do that? I think you should be in there with Grace now, I'll be there in a minute." He ran his hands up and down her arms as if to try and reassure her, before squeezing her hands once and gently pushing her away from the side counter and in the direction of the door back to the living room. Grace looked up when she came in, and moved over to allow her to sit down next to her. She brought her legs up to the side of her, before cuddling Grace to her and kissing her head. They stayed like that for a few minutes, the only noise being Jacob's movements around the kitchen. She stroked the side of Grace's head, and only shuffled slightly when she heard Jacob come into the room, and sit down on the sofa just across from them, placing two mugs down on the table in front of them.
"Hey, Grace." He spoke softly, and sat with his hands clasped down in front of his legs, slightly stooped. Connie took her mug from the table and sipped at it, wondering if she would actually be able to make the tea last in the time it took them to fill the silence with conversation. Grace shifted from Connie and now sat cross legged, looking intently at Jacob as if waiting for him to continue. He didn't, and Connie clasped her mug now with both hands.
"If you tell us how you're feeling Gracie, we can go from there. We're doing this for you." She spoke softly, and Grace turned to look at her.
"I know we're not normal, Mum. I get that work is important, so I don't mind being looked after by other people when you're not here. But when you do come home or get time off, I want you to spend it with me. Together, like a normal family would. It used to be okay before we moved and you started working more. I didn't mind spending time with Grandma, but she wasn't you."
Jacob looked at Connie, but she was only focussing on her daughter. She had known that this conversation was going to be difficult, and uncomfortable, but now she realised that this was about a lot more than wanting to be more like a normal family. Her whole body felt tense, and all she wanted was for Jacob to be next to her, telling her it would be okay.
"I get that Grace, I do. But why don't you want me and your Mum to be together? Because she has never abandoned you, and what happened last year.. Maybe she did make some mistakes, but we all do that. Your Mum was very unhappy Grace, and it's very hard to make someone you love happy whilst you can't do that for yourself."
Connie turned to look at him, her stomach had turned and she could feel goosebumps inching up her arms. He knew, she realised. He knew what had really happened. And then it hit her, Charlie. He had told Jacob everything, presumably before Sam had taken Grace to the airport and Jacob had known exactly what to do, and say. He knew about Jeff, the lawsuit and losing Grace, Alfred, Romania... She felt her breathing begin to quicken, and attempted to disguise this by shakily sipping at her tea. She closed her eyes and willed herself to calm down, before she felt a warm hand on her knee. She opened her eyes, and saw Grace looking at them.
"Con, give me a minute with Grace. I think there's something she needs to hear just from me."
She looked at him and he saw a flicker of nervousness pass across her face. He took her mug and placed it on the table, helping her up and brushing his hand to hers before she left. She took her tea and shut the kitchen door behind her, not wanting to hear what Jacob was going to say. She knew he would say the right thing because he always did. Knowing that, she had every faith in him being able to talk to her daughter and so picked up her phone and began to flick through her emails whilst she waited, although not sure for what.
In the living room, Jacob had sat down next to Grace, his hands again clasped in front of him, head tilted under and to the side to watch her as she sat with her hands under her legs but still with an unmistakable air of confidence and certainty.
"Do you think your Mum's happy, Grace?" She leant back and swung her legs slightly before answering.
"She's never really been happy."
"No?" He didn't want to push her, but he wanted Grace to open up to him. He knew she was perceptive and mature for her age, perhaps overly so, and that she would have more of an idea about what was going on than Connie thought.
"That's what Grandma said. She said that she 'does what she does' because she's unhappy and doesn't know how to fix it any other way."
Charlie had told him that Audrey was a force to be reckoned with. He also knew, from the senior nurse, that Connie had always had a reputation when she had been in cardiothoracics. He presumed that this was what Audrey had been implying, along with the fact that Connie used work as some sort of escape from her own insecurities. As far as Charlie knew, Grace wasn't aware of what had happened after she had moved in with Audrey or with Sam, or the fact that Connie had not let her go simply to prioritise the ED. However, he also knew that this wasn't the time, if Connie wanted to tell Grace about the lawsuit then she could, but Grace was back now and that was all that mattered to her.
"She was happy when she was with you." Jacob sat up straighter when Grace spoke again, slightly teary. "When I came home and you were still together, she was happy."
"Hey, ssh Grace it's okay." Jacob leant back into the sofa, wanting to console her but not wanting her to get more upset.
"No, it's not." She curled her legs up on the sofa and looked at Jacob. "I want her to be happy, and I want you to be happy too. But I would be in the way and I want to stay here, with Mum, it can't happen if we're both here together."