Chapter Seven
The next morning arrived and Rhys flung himself up out of bed looking a complete mess. He stumbled into the kitchen finding Lynsey already in there making her breakfast before work; she'd just got her job back at the hospital. Josh was still asleep on the couch; he'd slept there after refusing to share a room with Rhys after their difference in opinion.
"Morning," he greeted Lynsey, quietly so that they wouldn't wake Josh up. Being even more in his 'bad books' wasn't on his schedule.
"Oh, hey Rhys," she replied, turning around to face him as she heard his voice; her hands wrapped around a cup of tea.
"Listen, I'm sorry if you get dragged into all this, Lyns-" Rhys began to apologise; he'd not seen her much since the whole thing had begun.
"It's fine, Rhys," Lynsey reassured him with a warm smile before he could finish his sentence. "I told Ethan you were here that night."
"Thanks Lynsey. Dunno what I'd 'ave done if ya weren't 'ere. They seemed dead set on wanting to drag me down ya know."
"Yeah well, police these days," she said with a laugh, soon continuing. "How's Jacqui? Have you spoken to her?" Lynsey asked in her pretty, Irish accent. She knew how Jacqui had reacted throughout all of this Gilly stuff and wanted to make sure she was alright. She'd dated Gilly herself around the time of the rape and had refused to go near him ever since. She almost fully believed Jacqui. Upon hearing her words, Rhys immediately shrugged his shoulders.
"She's bein' weird again. Ya know, like before."
"You should speak to her; it worked last time didn't it. But anyway, I need to get to work. Do you need me to get anything whilst I'm out?" Rhys shook his head in reply to Lynsey's question whilst his head tried to decide whether he should contact Jacqui or not. Suzanne walked into the kitchen just as Lynsey left and immediately read Rhys' thoughts just from his facial expressions.
"Go and talk to her. If you lose her now, all of this would have been for nothing," Suzanne pushed, in a motherly tone. By 'all of this' she meant all of the months Rhys and Jacqui had been having all these problems, all the times Rhys had stood by his wife to try and help her and all the times they'd managed to work things out again-even in the most difficult times.
After over an hour of debating with himself, Rhys finally decided to pop over to the McQueen's to try and apologise to Jacqui; even though it was still hard to see what he'd done wrong.
He froze as he reached their front door and shook a little; an angry Jacqui was a pretty scary thing, especially for someone like Rhys who couldn't understand why she acted the way she did. After finally gaining the courage to knock the door, he waited there, looking around as if he was lost or something. Myra soon answered it, she looked relieved to see him.
"'Eya, is Jacqui about at all?" He asked her, nervously.
"Ah, yeah, she's just on d'sofa. Come in, we'll get tha kettle on for ya," Myra replied, before walking over to the kitchen mumbling to him as she walked. "Bloody freezin' outside, ent it." Rhys walked hesitantly in, his hands tightly stuffed in his pockets. He was shivering slightly; like Myra had said, it was beginning to get cold outside. Plus, he was nervous. He didn't have a clue what he was going to say and she was his wife, that should never be the case in a married couple's relationship…but other than loving each other, what similarities did they have to your normal married couple?
"Oi, what's 'e doing 'ere, ay?" Jacqui screeched, tilting her head in his direction, sighing noticeably as she heard Rhys' voice. She'd just been sat there on the sofa doing nothing, something else that wasn't at all like Jacqui.
"He's 'ere to see you, ain't he. And none of that mouth please, 'e's done nout wrong," Myra stated, getting fed up herself of Jacqui's way of dealing with this.
"We need to talk, Jaq," Rhys whimpered as he walked closer to her. "I'm sorry, yeah…I dint mean to get ya into trouble, you know that." Jacqui didn't say anything in reply, she just stared at him hopelessly, hoping he'd give up and leave. Rhys' way of dealing with things was difficult for her because whilst she wanted to bottle it all up and keep what she felt to herself, Rhys was the complete opposite. "Will you just talk to me, Jacqui!" He shouted, as usual not knowing how to get through to her.
"Brew's on table," Myra called out as she headed for the staircase. Jacqui's gaze followed her and they briefly caught eye-contact with one another.
"Talk to 'im, else one of these days you're gonna push that boy away for good," Myra whispered, sharply to her daughter as she walked past, before disappearing up the stairs. Rhys walked over and sat down in the armchair, leaning over himself with his head in his hands.
"I can't do this on my own, Jacqui. Please, I'm beggin' ya, just talk to me. What can I do?" His words were calmer this time, but desperate.
"Go home," Jacqui insisted, coldly, turning her face away from him. Rhys shook his head in frustration.
"No, Jacq! I ent goin' anywhere. I'm staying right 'ere 'till you talk ."
With Myra's words going round and round in her head and Rhys becoming too stubborn to move, Jacqui pulled her legs off of the couch and sat facing him, still without making a sound. Her face was pale and make-up-less, her eyes red and puffy and her hair all over the place, yet she still looked beautiful in Rhys' eyes. He'd have given anything to've been able to re-do the last year over. Perhaps it was all his fault, in a way. Everything had spiralled out of control ever since he'd slept with Cheryl-well, every since Jacqui had found out about it. How could things just keep on happening all because of that? It was like playing a game of dominoes, except this was no game, it was only too real. He didn't know whether to tell at Jacqui, tell her how he really felt about the way she'd always acted throughout all of the situations and how it was impossible to deal with. He wasn't always great at staying calm, but he had to for both their sakes, he couldn't lose the one person he loved, he just couldn't let that happen. If he did, he'd have nothing left.
"I love ya…'N' we can get through this, I know we can Jacq, 'cos we always do, we always get through it and come out the other side, stronger than we've ever been. I've neva' felt like this about no one, yeah and I ain't gonna give up on ya like this. You know what I was like before I fell in love with ya. What was it ya called me? A-a-urm-a 'student dick 'ead' weren't it?" Jacqui laughed a little at Rhys' words, but in less than a second the frightened, depressed-looking facial expression was soon to return to her face. "Well look how you've changed me, Jacq," Rhys continued, doing everything to convince her. "We're so much better together than apart." He stared deep into his wife's eyes as she spoke before looking downwards again as he came to the end of his sentence. Jacqui pressed her lips firmly together, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Hold me…,Rhys," she breathed out. Her voice was shaking ever so slightly. Rhys' head suddenly popped up when he heard her words, he was a little taken back by them, it was an unexpected reaction. Despite this, it didn't take him a single second to jump over to his wife. Sitting next to her, he put his arms tightly around her body and kissed her head. "I'm s-sorry. I panicked dint I and I dint know what to do, Rhys," she sobbed, pushing her head comfortably onto Rhys' shoulder, looking downwards so that he couldn't see the stains her tears were making on her face. Noticing her refusing to look at him, he put his finger under her chin and pulled her face up before moving his arms and resting them on her shoulders, making sure he had total eye-contact with her. The tips of their noses touched each others' and the slightest smile curved upwards onto Rhys' lips.
"I'm sorry too." He said those words more because he regretted even thinking for a second that Jacqui would possibly have done something like this, rather than because of his mistake at the police station. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for ya Jacqui McQueen, ya know that, don't you?" said Rhys, telling her again-just in case she really didn't realise. Jacqui soon nodded, her nose brushing against Rhys' as she did so. She tried to force a smile onto her face, but failed. In a slow motion, Rhys moved his left had upwards to hold Jacqui's head and reached his lips closer to Jacqui's, pressing them against gently together, just quickly; he was half expecting Jacqui to pull away before he did, but much to his relief she didn't. With his other hand he took her, intertwining their fingers together romantically. They stayed there for ages, just in each other's company. Had they finally overcome a hurdle?