Waking up the following morning, Connor woke with an incessent pounding in his head he'd not had since he worried over his mother all those months ago. He remembered the conversation the night before.
'Christine waited until she had shut the door behind Connor as he idly asked if she wanted a coffee.
She gave him a nod. "We also need a chat."
Connor forced himself not to turn and look at her. So she did get what Dynasty had said after all. To pass off the obvious growing panic, he set about grabbing the kettle to fill with water. "What about?"
"Why you and Imogen were not in school today."
Relief washed over Connor for the briefest moment but he did not falter as he replaced the kettle, switching it on and then grabbed two mugs. "Imogen was just worried about Dynasty... we both are." He told her. It wasn't a lie, they were worried for their friend. But it was not the sole reason for their disappearance. "We went for a walk, started talking and we lost track." He added with a shrug.
"You know you could have come to me, son." Christine said gently, and resumed with a teaching head; "Tell Imogen I expect to see you both in my office tomorrow and you will both spend your breaks and lunch times in the cooler for the next week."
Connor nodded as he made the coffees and handed one to his mum. "Okay." he said and sent the message quickly to Imogen, telling her what he'd told her so she knew what to go with.
"I can't fault you, son, there's a kind heart in there and god knows where it came from. That's why you and Imogen are good together. But Dynasty's situation is not yours to take control over. Yes you want to be there for her, but she needs to come to terms with it and deal with it her way."
"I'm worried about you, too." Connor sighed softly.
"I know you are. But I'm fine. You're the only good thing to come from what happened. And Dynasty won't turn into me. I'll damn well make sure of it. She's got more support than I ever got because I couldn't speak out until it was too late. He's dead and buried he will never be brought to justice. But Dynasty can and will do this."
Connor listened and nodded, looking at her, searching her face, making sure she was okay.
Christine set the coffee mug on the table beside her and crossed the kitchen to him, hugging him tightly. "I promise you, Connor. I'm alright. So you stop worrying about me. You have a future and a lovely young woman to think of."
Connor could only nod his response, not daring to say anything else as he hugged his mother back.
"So have you thought about your wedding at all?"
Well that brought him up short. He'd forgotten she didn't know they were already married. "Uh... no." Was all he could say and shook his head. "Anyway, I better go to bed."
He pushed himself up and out of bed, dragging himself to his wardrobe, rubbing his face with his hands, then picked out his uniform. He slowly dressed and made his way down the stairs.
"Finally he rises from his pit!"
Connor grunted a reply to his mother as he took hold of the mug she was handing to him.
"Hurry up, get that drunk and wake up, I'll be leaving in ten minutes if you want a lift in." Christine said, rolling her eyes. Strange how whenever Imogen stayed over he was wide awake in the mornings, but when he was alone at night he barely said two words to her first thing in the morning.
Connor nodded wordlessly and checked his phone as another message came through on his phone. It was Kevin asking how much trouble he was in for missing school yesterday. Connor quickly typed out a message telling Kevin that he and Imogen would be in detention for a week. He drank his coffee as another message from Kevin came through. He could tell from his 'Hard luck mate' that it was very sarcastic and he wasn't feeling sorry for his best mate in the slightest.
"Connor! Ten seconds and I'm going!"
His mother's voice jolted him from his thoughts and he finished his drink, rushing into the hallway for his shoes, coat and bag, and walked out to the car where his mother was waiting.
A/N: Little mini update for LisaT, wrote it down while the idea came to me :) on to the next part of the story soon, there'll be a time jump of a couple of days
