The Big Goodbye. Part Four.

"Dad? Are you in here?"

Mia's hand fell from the brass plate as she stepped fully into the room. She didn't hear it close. The two Strickland men were statues in the room. Her eyes flicked between them, as if through the power of sight she could decree what had caused the death of action between them.

"Hi, Mia," Rob recovered first. More through a built-in parental auto-pilot than through his own ability to function.

"What's going on?" Mia asked cautiously as her father finally turned to look at her. She saw the glazed look in his eye that told her his response was simply an utterance.

"Rufus was just erm…"

"I'm going to America, with Mum and Darius."

"Yeah, I know, Dad told me," Mia frowned. It was hardly fresh news to her dad, so why did he look as though his Pompeii had flooded with ash? She was savvy enough to know that there was something behind the exchange that she had walked in on. But she was game enough to play along. For now. "When are you going?"

"Tonight, well we fly tomorrow, but tonight."

"Oh," it was equally plausible that things were Ronseal. Damn it she'd spent too much time talking with that Nick, everything he said referred to some television advert. Suddenly her dad's lost puppy expression made sense. This was not his forte. Dealing with things, strangely for a man who spent his entire working life sorting stuff out, was not his forte. He couldn't be angry with Ruf, because if he was, he'd lose him. Which meant finding a level of truth that he could handle. And she could buy him the time to do that.

"Look, I'll leave you two to talk," Rob said nervously. As important as it had to be that he said the right thing to his son, Mia would need to do the same. And it was just possible that she could do that a hell of a lot better than him. He needed to get out of the room. He needed time. More time than five minutes to say goodbye to his son. Because that's what he had. And with one hand on the door, he hated himself for running away from it.

"Right. Oh, Dad, Sandra was looking for you. Something to do with Gerry," Mia said as she studied her brother's nonchalant stance. There were times, like now, when he really had no idea.

"Right. I'll…erm… Catch me again, before you go, son."

Finding his way thankfully freely to the bar, he nodded to the bartender and ordered a pint and chase. Even as he stood waiting for his drinks, he could see the two ways that it would pan out: either he could walk away after this one round, back into the room where he'd just (like a coward) left his children to sort through the mess that he'd created; or he could get outrageously drunk (like a coward), ruin his last moments with his son and his wedding day. Shit. He was meant to be finding Sandra. Something to do with Gerry? Well that could be anything. He shook his head with a wry smile. Avoidance, distraction, drink. He handed over the money and shook his head for the change. At least he would tip once before he got too drunk to remember his manners.

"Alrigh' pal?"

Steve's hand clapped his shoulder as the Scot took the stool at the bar. He was incapable of speech yet. The only funny thing about that, was that his thoughts wouldn't shut up. Round and round and round. Hearing every rotten accusation his wife had thrown at him with his bags. She'd thrown him out of his own house. Accused him of being the worst father in the world. Mia and Rufs had been standing at the top of the stairs. He hadn't been. He wasn't. Well, he might have just proved the bitch right. He pointed at the glass in front of him. As if he couldn't … bugger the English language, maybe he could say it in French?

"Aye, thanks very much," Steve was pissed. Even he wouldn't be shy to admit it. It wasn't that he missed Charlie so much as felt his life was a mud pit without her in it. He wasn't a man made to be alone. Hell, he was a man who firmly believed that no man was a man without someone to share all that being a man meant with. Shit he was drunk now.

"Tonight?" Mia repeated once she was sure her dad was gone. She was only partly aware of her own feelings, which brewed as the seconds ticked by. Bemused comprehension of the facts gave way to confusion, anger, bewilderment, hatred of her mother and a horrible dread of growing up as reality was once again battering her with a kipper, willingly aided by her brother who for some reason had joined forces with the bastard called Life. Seventeen was shaping up to be just as annoyingly stressful as sixteen. "Why are you going?" because their mum was going and at the end of the day, he'd always been a mummy's boy. "Why don't you stay?" stay. "With us, with Dad? America's her dream not yours. What are you going to do?"

"Finish school."

"Then what?" she felt like the careers advisor at college. Because her little brother was behaving just like a little brother.

"Does it matter? Just because your life is planned out for you now. Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Ruf cussed himself. He knew that whatever Mia did now, she'd have their dad like she'd always wanted. Whatever she wanted, she'd get it. But she'd always be here now. Always with him. And he knew that she hadn't heard that; knew that he'd come out sounding like the old crones at school who told him that his sister, because of Bella, had limited her options.

"Yes you did. You might be the big brave boy at school going off to America; but you're still my little brother. Who puts his foot in his mouth more often than in his shoes," Mia smiled sadly. She had heard the sound of her mother's voice in his words even if he hadn't.

"Minny…" he could have told her that her dress was ugly or that her hands were on backwards, she always made it ok, made it ordinary, stopped him from coming across as such a twit.

"Don't," she turned away at the sound of the pet name her brother had always had for her. "Don't you dare make me cry. Will I see you again?"

"Of course you will," Rufus stated definitely. "What?"

Mia was looking at him with the eyes of a grown-up now. She could hear the naïve words of youth even though he couldn't. She wanted to tell him how much she was going to miss him; how much their dad's heart was breaking to lose him; how many years it would be before they would see each other again. But she didn't know the answer to the last one. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what? Throw us a bone here, Mia. What don't I know?"

"I'm going to miss you," she said simply. She shrugged. "Just…that. I'm going to miss you."

"Hey," he laughed gently. The same sound that his dad made whenever he let his guard down and genuinely enjoyed being alive. He recognised the sound as he heard it and smiled at his big sister. "I'm going to America, not the moon. Mind you, I could become an astronaut!"

"Make sure to give us more than two hours notice before you launch there," Mia joked before taking her little brother into a big hug. It was over now. And it was ok.

"Hi, oh, sorry," Sandra entered the room looking anxiously about her. She was distracted enough for a delay to occur in noticing that she'd interrupted something very private. "Sorry, have you seen your dad?"

"I sent him to look for you," Mia told her pulling away from her brother and wiping away a tear.

"Oh, right, would you…?" Sandra handed a squirming Bella to Mia and sighed. "I can't find Gerry, I can't find your dad, where the hell can they be?"

"Will you stay bloody still?" a Northern accent grumbled behind her. "They're all looking for you!"

"Me?" Sandra turned. "Brian, it's like Picadilly Circus round this pub, what's going on?"

Mia grinned as she glanced at Rufus. The tension in the room evaporating through the chaotic reappearance of the orders of the day.

"First dance," Brian informed her succinctly, taking her arm, winking to Mia. "Will you please just come with me?"