A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I'm going to include some of what happens in the show into this story but adapted slightly (so if you are yet to catch up on S10E1 and don't want to know what happens, then don't read this yet). Hope you like this part, it's the longest update I've wrote in ages so I hope it doesn't drag too much!
~Mini Peacelet~
Born To Fly - Part 6
Nikki had walked into the centre of chaos. The foyer was teeming with students, all clustered together in a dense bunch. They were noisy. Their chatter reverberated the school entrance. Many of the adolescents were grabbing what appeared to be strips of paper from the linoleum floor. She didn't fully realise exactly what they were rushing to collect until Darren Hughes shouted. "Oi you lot! Get off! Give that back! That money's mine!"
"Everyone settle down! I want everyone to hand that money to me!" The English teacher raised her voice, tone poised and assertive, "I want you all, except you - Darren Hughes - to go back to your classes. The show is over, for today at least." She instructed, an expression refining her features that indicated to any student that knew her, that now really wasn't a good time to test their luck.
She glared at Darren, "Get to my classroom, now." She pirouetted on her feet, hands occupied by the creased money and followed him closely, prepared incase he tried to run off. The brunette kicked her classroom door shut, and perceived the teen solemnly. "Darren, there is nearly four-hundred pounds worth of money here. Where does a school boy get that amount of cash?"
The lanky boy shrugged, head dipped down. His posture verified that he didn't really care. "Saved up to buy me Mum a present."
Nikki rolled her radiant orbs and stifled a laugh, "Like I believe that. You skipped school this morning and rock up here with a pocket full of money, where did you get it?"
"I told you, I saved it up." His anger was building, aggression that was bottle released in his voice.
"And I'm telling you, I don't believe you." She maintained a stern, calm and composed manner, harsh watch cast over him. She placed the money in her pocket and folded her arms. With nothing to say, Darren slumped down onto one of the chairs whilst the deputy head leant against her desk. "We are not leaving this room until you tell me the truth."
Darren thought for a while until he generated another excuse, "Me mum gave me some money for some new trainers." He poked his foot out from under the table, "Look!"
Again, the brunette rolled her cornflower-blue eyes. Did he really think she was that stupid? "Your mum doesn't have four pounds in her purse let alone four hundred. And that's the second lie you've told me today, are you gonna tell me anymore?"
"This is crap." The male grumbled and folded his arms.
"Yeah, it is." Nikki agreed shortly and perched on the edge of her desk, "We can sit here all day if you like, I don't really care."
Admitting defeat, he realised that Miss Boston wasn't going to give up until she learnt the truth. He was in trouble, big trouble regardless, "Alright, fine. I robbed it. From my mum's boyfriend." He mumbled.
"Darren!" She exlaimed.
"What?! I was angry, and just lifted it from his jacket." He shrugged, still not caring about the seriousness of his actions.
"Just because you are angry doesn't give you the right to go stealing money - or anything else for that matter - from people. You've just landed yourself in serious trouble."
"So? She deserves everything she gets for bringing that sleaze-ball back to our flat." The teenager wasn't feeling particularly obliging. He didn't give a damn.
"Right, get up. We're going to go see what Mrs Mulgrew has to say." Nikki ordered bluntly and walked across to the door and opened it, "Now please, Darren."
"Christine, I found Darren in the foyer with a large amount of cash; four hundred quid to be precise." Nikki informed her boss, dropping the vast, crumpled notes onto her desk, "I managed to get him to talk eventually and he confessed that he stole it from his mother's boyfriend."
The headmistress nodded, processing the information swiftly, "Right, well I'll try and phone his mother although she has never answered in the past. Thanks Nikki, I'll deal with this now." She rose to her feet subsequently to collecting the capital and walked out of her office to speak to Darren and instructed Sonya to contact his mother promptly.
"Still no answer." Sonya sighed as she placed the phone back on the holder, casting a brief glimpse at her boss. That was the fifth time she had tried.
"Well you're not gonna get an answer are you, landline got cut off months ago." The teenaged lad muttered, hands stuffed in his pockets and shoulders hunched as he deliberated how he was going to escape the trouble he had instigated.
Mrs Mulgrew - Mrs Boston; she had decided to keep her previous surname for work - exhaled an exasperated sigh, "Thanks for that useful piece of information, shame you couldn't have told me it half an hour ago. Come on, let's go. We are going home to see your mum."
"I don't wanna go home Miss." He scuffed his shoe along the carpet, tone feeble and low.
"Well it's either that or I call the police." Christine folded her arms sharply, manner authoritative. Darren was in enough trouble without being uncooperative as well.
"Fine." He mumbled reluctantly.
Nothing could have prepared either of them for the devastation established at the shoddy council flat. The adolescent had attempted to obstruct the headmistress's desire to speak to Mrs Hughes by telling her that her boyfriend had gone. Christine was in no mood to accept that though, determined to be sure that his mother wasn't at the flat before she left. Upon receiving no reply when she tapped repeatedly on the bedroom door which was closed, she had entered. Her breath caught in the back of her throat, heart stopping beating for a few split seconds as she saw the corpse laid on the bed. She followed procedure and phoned an ambulance and the police before her concentration turned to Darren.
"It's my fault she's dead! He killed her! He must have! I should never have stolen that money from him! I bet he blamed her and now she's dead." Darren's emotions were in a turmoil; angry and upset dominantly. He couldn't settle, pacing the pastoral care office and waving his arms about in his vent.
"It's not your fault, Darren. The police confirmed that they are almost certain that it was a heroin overdose, although there will be a postmortem to clarify that. The school will do everything we can to help you through this, I am always here if you need anyone to talk to." She had let Darren down before, she wasn't going to do that again, especially now. The blonde had made the executive decision for him to stay at the school house for the time being. It was either that or she would have to contact social services who were frankly no use what so ever previously.
Christine had recapped the days events for her deputy, perched at her desk with her head in her hands. She sympathised deeply for Darren, he faced a long and bumpy road ahead of him. "I thought his mother was getting better! She was on a program to help her stop the drugs. Why didn't we notice that there was still an issue. Perhaps we could have prevented her from administrating the heroin overdose that ended her life."
Nikki roughly ran her tongue over her smudged lips apprehensively for a moment, contemplating what would be the most sensible, logical and effective protocol considering the awful situation that had evolved, "Don't be so hard on yourself we weren't to know and there was nothing we could have done. Look, you should stay with Darren, he's just lost his mother. I'll go to my appointment at the clinic alone, it's more important that you make sure he's okay."
"No, no, no." The headmistress shook her head sternly although confidentially torn between what was the correct decision. The adolescent's welfare was imperative but showing her support and attending the scheduled slot with her wife was also essential - after all, it was originally her idea. "Darren is with Maggie at the school house along with his mates. I'm sure he will be fine, he probably wouldn't appreciate being crowded anyway. I'll check in with Maggie later to make sure everything is okay. I need to come with you."
The brunette nodded, tension burning bitterly and cutting. She was conscious that this appointment would expose details that Christine was yet to be knowledgable of. The deputy head was mindful that it was self-inflicted and indeed her fault, but her interior emotions - emotions that she kept well concealed - were to potent to dispense with. It would generate stress and perhaps fractures in their relationship, that she was certain of. "If you're sure?" Her voice faltered faintly, tainted with anxieties.
Christine nodded, "I'm positive." She regained her equilibrium and inhaled a couple of lengthy breaths to sooth her erratic breathing. Today had sure been fuelled with adrenaline, but not for the right reasons. Clasping her fingers around her handbag, she glanced hastily at the clock that ticked innocently, "Come on, we better get going if we don't want to be late."
Christine could visibly observe that her wife was perturbed as they waited in the seat area for their name to be called. She was fretful and jittery, orbs diverting around the confined room frantically as she fiddled with her fingers. "Are you okay? You seem rather...unsettled?" She prompted for answers, only able to relate and understand Nikki's nerves for their very first appointment.
Nikki nodded rapidly, "Yeah, I'm fine." She glanced at the older female and forced a - fake yet reassuring - smile, then obliging herself to regain some composure. Her thoughts were spiralling as she pondered how she was going to confess the truth to her wife when the details were revealed by the doctor.
"Nicola Boston?"
The brunette rose to her feet and interlaced hands with her wife as they walked into the designated room where Christine sat on the chair and Nikki sat on the edge of the bed, orbs flickering with fear and worry.
Following a couple of questions, the part that the former army captain was hesitant and angst-riddled of came. She knew that in moments the relatively placid ambience would disappear. She could already feel the pressure building.
The doctor checked her hormone levels, expecting to see a vast rise in the levels, or at least a significant increase. But the reading was the exact same to the reading before the brunette started the hormonal injections. This just raised suspicions, Nikki innocently twiddling her fingers against the bed.
"There hasn't been a rise in your hormone levels at all, which is extremely rare if you have had all your injections. You have had them all, haven't you, Mrs Boston?"
"What? Of course she has! Haven't you, Nik?" Christine's response was instantly, marginally infuriated at what the doctor was silently implying.
Nikki pursed her lips together apprehensively, drifting her gaze to evade either of the two females's scrutiny. Her breathing was briskly gaining speed, a nauseous feeling developing her in her stomach. Fear saturated her veins. The acidic taste rising to her mouth. She couldn't tell the truth, she physically couldn't. They were agonising memories that she wasn't convinced her wife would understand or compensate.
"Nikki?" A frown suppressed the blonde's features; perplexed. She recalled that the deputy head's mood swings hadn't been so severe and erratic lately, in fact they had been non existent. She had presumed that her wife was just adapting to them. But now she really thought about it, it all slotted together. "Did you stop the injections?"
She couldn't engage eye contact with Christine knowing that she wanted a baby. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, barely audible, and vaulted off the bed and dashed out the door. Teardrops were prickling the corners of her sparkly orbs, her entire body trembling. She sprinted into the ladies, leaning against the wall for support. She could feel her legs buckling beneath her, and she plummeted to the floor, curling up into the foetal position. Tears rolled down her cheeks hastily, strangled sobs floating from her lips. She had ruined everything.