Three o'clock came and Imogen was just bringing her case down the stairs when Sally came into the hallway with the home phone. "What is it?" Imogen asked, breathless as she placed the heavy object to the floor.
"Dynasty's just said she can't make it, something about her mum and Kacey?" Sally handed the phone to her.
"Dyn?" She spoke.
"Our Kace ain't taken it well, the whole repossession thing..." Dynasty said. "Sorry babes I'm gonna have to leave it."
"It's okay." Imogen said, keeping her voice even. There was no way her mum would let her go now. She looked up to see her grandparents mouthing something to her mum. "Hang on a minute." She said to Dynasty and looked to the three of them. "What?"
"Well why don't we take you? Seems a shame to have you missing out." Her grandmother spoke.
Imogen smiled and nodded. "Only if you don't mind." she said and moved the phone back to her ear. "It's all sorted. I better let him know of the change though."
"Thank god for grandparents." Dynasty laughed.
Imogen laughed. "Well I'll see you when I'm back."
"Laters babes." Dynasty said and hung up.
Imogen handed the phone back to her mum once she hung up and took her own phone out as her grandfather moved to take her case out to the car. She looked through her contacts for Connor's number and pressed call.
"He might not be able to answer." Sally said to her.
"I know but it's worth a try." She shrugged and sighed when it went to voicemail. She ended the call.
"You can do that in the car, come on you'll be late." Came her grandmother's voice. "Sally are you coming?"
"No, I have to stay here for work." Sally smiled and hugged Imogen. "Now go or you'll miss your train."
"Okay, see you mum." Imogen sniled and ran out to the car.
"If he texts her back, expect her to be glued to the damned thing all the way there." Sally smiled and shut the door when her mother left.
The three of them got into the car as Imogen started her message. 'Change of plan, Dynasty can't come but my grandparents are coming with me. It will give you chance to see there are some normal people in our family ;-) xx' she sent her message and quickly put the phone in her pocket.
The journey to the train station was quick and quiet, when they got there Imogen jumped out, going round to the back of the car and opened the boot, trying to pull her case out.
"Come here, lass you'll do yourself an injury like that! I'm sure he'll wait for you." Her grandfather spoke.
"He will but the train won't." Imogen smiled. "We have 5 minutes."
"Will you calm down?" He laughed. He'd never seen a girl so hyper for a long while. He looked as his granddaughter had the grace to blush as he pulled the case out for her and set it down. "Here."
"Thank you." She smiled and walked into the station, followed by her grandparents.
"She hasn't even seen him yet!" He laughed.
"Young love. Remind you of someone dear?" The older woman spoke with a fond smile.
"Aye it does. Nearly sixty years ago." He smiled.
Once they had got their tickets the three of them quickly made it to the platform and onto the train just as the doors were shutting.
Imogen put her bag on a shelf and quickly found seats for the three of them.
"I'll be calm now the whole way there. Promise." She grinned as her grandparents found her. She quickly checked her phone and she saw she had a missed call from Connor. She called him back and waited for him to answer.
"Hey...yeah I'm on the train we're just leaving." She spoke softly, unable to remove the smile from her face. "Don't worry I'll ask them to be gentle with you." She giggled when she heard him laugh. "No they just... turned up on the doorstep after six years... and before you ask yes I've told them everything. And that includes from the beginning." She added.
The couple watched as she spoke, and could tell she hated bringing up the fire that scarred her, and how much he regretted it by her tone, even though they couldn't hear what he was saying.
"No they don't hate you, they're not like that." Imogen spoke. She looked as her grandfather held his hand out for the phone. "Hang on, my grandad wants to tell you something..." she said and handed the phone over.
"Connor is it? Right you listen to me lad, we've heard everything from Imogen, and if you hadn't proved yourself as many times as she said you had, then we wouldn't be very kind to you. But seeing how you make her happy and we've not even met you yet, and how many times you two have come through whatever's been thrown at you, then we can forgive one accident. I know Sally can go a bit over the top but that's just her. She's made her own mistakes and not had her old dad around to help her. And now she has and you two have me around too. And the wife of course. Alright?"
"Yes, sir." Connor spoke, more relaxed now he'd heard all that.
"Good, I'll pass you back now. And Connor? It's Aidan." The man smiled and passed the phone back to Imogen, nodding as she mouthed her 'thank you' and she resumed her conversation.
The train arrived at Euston five hours later, Imogen had fallen asleep some way through the journey. Aidan gently shook Imogen awake while his wife went to get her bag for her. "Come on, lass, we're here now."
Imogen moamed a little as she was disturbed and slowly opened her eyes. She stretched out a little and slowly stood with the help of her grandfather. She shook her head a little as the cold air hit her and she looked around, grinning at the sight of Connor and she ran toward him, straight into his waiting arms and the two held each other tightly.
"I missed you do much." Connor whispered into her hair.
"Missed you too." Came Imogen's quiet reply.
A few minutes later the pair stepped apart, but still kept hold of each other as Imogen's grandparents advanced.
"We thought it best to leave you two for a moment before coming over." Aidan smiled.
Imogen smiled widely and looked between the two of them. "Connor these are my grandparents." She spoke, though she didn't need to say.
"Nice to know who I was talking to." Aidan smiled and shook his hand. "And this is the long suffering wife, Marie."
"Oh you..." Marie smiled and gently tapped his arm before touching Connor's. "Now you look after our girl. You hear?"
Connor smiled, he could hear the laugh in her tone and he nodded. "She kind of looks after me." He held her close and felt the tension just drain from her. He knew she was glad that they could get along. "Oh... the taxi's waiting to take us back to the flat I'm staying in." He spoke and the four of them walked out of the train station and got into the waiting taxi.