Chapter Text
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Well, I grew up wishing I could close off the way my dad did,
'Cause that man never felt a damn thing he didn't wanna feel.
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A shiver runs down Nick’s spine and he wraps his purple cardigan tighter around his frame as he picks up his pace to get to the barn as fast as possible. The wind around him is particularly cold today and he really wants to avoid the worst of it in order to not get sick. Nick knows, considering the state of it, it won’t be much warmer inside, but at least it will hold off the worst and the cows will also give off some of their body heat to warm him up.
Just as he reaches for the door handle, something grazes his left foot and he looks down to catch his dog, Daisy, slipping between his legs and closer to the door, also more than eager to get inside. “Alright,” he huffs. “But if you disturb the cows again, you know it’s back into the cold with you. So, you better behave.” Nick says as he tries to give his three-year-old golden retriever a stern look, but fails as soon as his eyes land on her soft brown ones.
If his mum could see him right now, she’d definitely laugh at him for even trying to be strict with her when everyone in this damn town knows that he’s a sucker for his dog. But what can he say? The minute he laid eyes on her when she was only two months old, he knew there would be no going back. Maybe he should really think about consulting that dog trainer Tara told him about; it was about time Daisy learned some rules that did not include knowing exactly what to do just to get him to give her the tenth treat of the day.
“In you go love,” Nick mumbles as he finally manages to push the old wooden door open,making sure to close it as soon as he and Daisy are safely inside the barn. When he turns around to look at the open space, a huge smile starts spreading on his face as his eyes land on his ten beauties all lined up and more than eager to get their food rations for the day.
“Hello Dottie,” he greets the nearest cow as he lets his hand softly glide over the lower part of her back before he walks along the corridor in-between them, quickly surveying every single one of his ten Welsh Black cows in order to make sure nothing had happened to any of them during the night. Satisfied with what he sees, he grabs a bucket and starts shovelling some food into it, distributing it evenly into the feeding troughs closest to him. He repeats the same motion a few times until all of them are full and steps back proudly, heart swelling as soon as all his cows start moving to the troughs’ direction to get their first meal of the day.
Nick loves this time of the day. Everyone else always calls him crazy for enjoying getting up before the sun even rises to feed his babies, but it’s the most peaceful when it’s just him, Daisy and the cows. If someone had told him five years ago that this would be his life, he would have laughed at them, but now that he’s really living it, he couldn’t be more grateful for the peace and quiet it brings.
He rolls his head back and forth, attempting to relieve an ache in his neck, but his attention remains on the feeding animals, and Daisy, who is currently digging around in the corner of the barn. He knows he should probably go and check that she’s not eating something that could be possibly harmful to her, but just as the thought passes through his mind, she abandons whatever she was looking for and makes her way over to him, plopping down right over his left foot.
Without a second thought, Nick bends and scratches behind her ear. “You’re gonna get your breakfast as soon as these ladies are done, alright?” She shoots him a bored look and lays her head down on the ground. “Oi, no need to give me attitude this early in the morning, it’s not like I’m the one making sure you’re happy all day long,” he chuckles and straightens back up.
Just as Nick is about to get started on filling some buckets with water, his phone chimes in his pocket and he frowns, wondering who could possibly be texting him at this hour of the morning. Normally he doesn’t hear from his friends until 8am the earliest, since he is the only one with a job that requires him to get up before the sun even rises.
Back when he was living in London, he couldn’t even imagine getting up at 5am, let alone growing to love it, but back in London everything was different and Nick tries really really hard not to let this become one of those days where he does nothing but think about the past and what could have been. He’s gotten better at not dwelling about the past lately, but there’s still this hollow ache inside of his stomach that keeps screaming at him for being a coward and leaving it all behind. Even though deep down he knows it was for the best, the what if will probably be hanging over his head forever.
Before he can spiral any further, he puts all of his attention towards his phone.
Tara: Any chance Sarah is up for making her legendary breakfast? I could use it!
Upon seeing it’s Tara, he is even more confused than before, considering he knows she doesn’t open her clinic before 10am so she can get a good night’s rest. Between her job being so busy and Darcy running the pub into the late hours of the night, they usually try to have a good lie-in when they can.
Nick: What the hell are you doing up so early, u sick????
Tara: Darcy called 2 hours ago, some pipes burst at the pub. Worst time of my life, it was a right freaking mess. I will tell you about it later. So… Sarah? 🥺
Nick: Please tell me everything, and yes, I guess I’ll be able to convince her, especially if I tell her it’s for her favourite girl.
Tara: Damn right I’m her favourite. Tell her it’s for her second favourite one too!
Nick: Me?
Tara: Of course not, Darcy is coming too after the hell of a morning she’s had.
Nick: Rude xx
His phone chimes again, but he ignores it, pretty sure that Tara has just sent him a stupid string of emojis and now that he knows they’re getting company, he wants to get done with his morning work sooner rather than later. He puts the phone back in his pocket in favour of getting on with it, so he can inform his mother about Tara and Darcy coming for breakfast.
As much as he tries to concentrate on work, he can’t stop his brain from trying to figure out how he can maybe help with what happened at the pub to make it easier on Darcy. Nick knows Tara said that they called a professional to help them, and he hopes it’s not going to be too expensive to fix it, otherwise they will have to come up with some kind of plan. There is no way he’s going to let his friends hang like that, even though it technically doesn’t have anything to do with him.
Half an hour later, he finally opens the door to the main house, whistling for Daisy to make sure she realises what he’s doing and doesn’t get stuck outside in the cold weather. He takes off his cardigan and boots in the hall and makes his way to the kitchen, where his mum is already sitting at the table with her first cuppa of the day and her trusty iPad.
As soon as she sees him enter the room, a warm smile spreads across her face. “Good morning my darling,” she says as she lifts her cup up to take a sip. “Everything went alright, I guess?”
“Yeah, the cows are all fed for now. I noticed the barn is getting worse with everyday that passes, though,” he winces as he sees his mum’s smile fade. “I promise I will think of something. I always do, don’t I?” Nick tries to give her a reassuring smile, but he knows it’s probably not even half as convincing as he wants it to be.
Before even giving her the chance to reply, he continues. “Tara and Darcy are coming over for breakfast. Apparently, there was some issue at the pub, and they’ve been up for ages. Are you alright to make some breakfast? You know how much they love it, and I have a feeling they could use some good old motherly cheering up right now.”
“Of course.” Her eyes soften at the mention of the pair. “I hope everything’s alright. I’ll get started in a minute, just let me finish my cuppa.”
“They said they will tell us later, but I assume the fact that they’re coming over means they've done all they can,” Nick adds before making his way up the stairs and into his part of the house, to get a fresh set of clothes and take a quick shower.
When he gets to his room, his eyes land on the photo on his nightstand and a sigh escapes his lips. He realises it has been almost two years since his stepdad died, but at the same time it feels like it was just yesterday. The pain and grief are still as fresh as they were right after it happened and he knows his mother feels the same, if not worse. Sarah tries not to show him her pain, but he can see it in the way she carries herself through the day. He also knows that their bedroom still holds some of the clothes he wore the most and even though their bedrooms are pretty far apart from each other, he knows that she still doesn’t sleep through every night.
Being aware of the fact that all of this is part of a completely natural grieving process doesn’t make it easier for him to see his mum like that. Robin has left such a big hole in their lives that no one will ever be able to fill, but on the other hand he knows his mother will forever be grateful to have found someone so wonderful after getting divorced from his dad, Stéphane.
Shaking his head, he realises he has to get a move on if he wants to get changed and shower before Tara and Darcy show up, so he grabs a fresh set of clothes and makes his way into his bathroom to get the shower started. Living in a farmhouse may have its perks, but the water taking ages to get to a bearable temperature is definitely not one of them.
Half an hour later, he re-enters the kitchen just as there’s a loud knock on the door, followed by a cackle that is undoubtedly Darcy’s. Nick shakes his head and joins his mother at the stove, eager to help and knowing that Tara and Darcy are definitely aware that the door is always open and they’re welcome to come and go as they please.
When the door finally does open a few seconds later, it’s immediately followed by a dramatic huff from Darcy as she plops down at the kitchen table, Tara right by her side. “I don’t know about you, Tara, but when someone knocks on my door, I would be inclined to politely invite them in, wouldn’t you?” Darcy asks.
Even before Tara has the chance to try to answer, Sarah chimes in. “Darcy, you know I love you, but if you were even half as dramatic as you actually are, it would do everyone some good.”
Darcy fake gasps and puts her hand on her heart. “You wound me, Sarah! And here I thought you would be happy to see me and Tara after we just had the worst experience ever!” Darcy tries not to let her laughter show, but she’s doing a very poor job of it.
Instead of replying, Sarah just gets out the plates and starts arranging the breakfast on it, while Nick makes his way over to the kettle to get some hot water for their tea.
“I know you’re dying to finally tell us what happened, so go on love,” Sarah says as she places their plates in front of Tara and Darcy and takes a seat at the head of the table. “Also, you know I am always the happiest when you two come over so don’t even start,” she laughs.
“Long story short, a pipe burst in the pub last night and I only noticed because the supplier came over at four this morning to deliver some stuff. Which, by the way, 4am? I don’t know who told him that time of the day was a good idea,” Darcy says while stabbing her eggs with her fork. “Anyway, I’m happy about it cause as soon as I entered the kitchen, I noticed the massive puddle on the floor and immediately called Tara to come over and help me. Took me twenty minutes to get a hold of her!”
Tara huffs and rolls her eyes. “Why you called me, a vet, to help you with your burst pipes is still a mystery to me anyway.”
“Because you’re the love of my life, you dumbass,” Darcy argues and now it is Nick’s turn to fake gasp. “Hey! I thought I was the love of your life!”
“You know I love you darling, but you’ve got a dick and I don’t particularly like those. Sorry Sarah,” Darcy shoots his mum a sheepish look who just shakes her head fondly. “And I didn’t call you because I knew you’d have to get up to feed the cows anyway,” Nick starts pouting at Darcy, but she is too engrossed watching her wife trying to eat her breakfast.
“So, you got it sorted, then?” Nick asks while putting the tea bags in the cups and pouring the hot water over them.
“Well, no. Turned off the water and called the plumber. There’s not really anything else we could have done, to be honest,” Darcy shrugs and accepts her cuppa from Nick.
“Tara made it sound like you two nearly died or something. With her saying she had the worst morning of her life,” Nick laughs.
Finally, Tara realises she’s being talked about. “It was a traumatic experience, okay?” She mumbles. “I’m just glad it gave us an excuse to come over for breakfast.”
“As if you’d ever need one,” Sarah says and pats the top of Tara’s hand lovingly.
🐄
Nick is finishing up collecting the eggs from his chickens when he hears the car pull up the driveway.
At first he doesn’t bother checking who it is, because the person will either know how to find him, or is coming to visit his mum anyway. When he is done, he picks up his basket, makes sure the chickens still have enough food and water to last them until tomorrow and gently exits the coop in order to not disturb them any further.
As soon as he steps back into the fresh air, his eyes land on the red Porsche parked way too close to the house and he frowns, wondering what a person with a car like that could want from them. His eyes glide over to the front door and his stomach swoops uncomfortably when he spies a man in a black suit talking animatedly to his mother, who doesn’t look too happy about the unexpected guest.
Not feeling quite brave enough to face whatever this is alone, he whistles for Daisy to follow him and starts making his way over to his mum and the stranger to see what the whole thing is about. As he’s getting closer, he hears the man’s voice, and it definitely does not sound friendly.
“I’ve already told you ma’am, I am not going to leave until I speak to your son,” the curly haired man states sternly, which causes Sarah to roll her eyes at him.
“Well, maybe he doesn’t want to speak to you, how about that?” she challenges him.
Nick has no idea what they are talking about, but if the way the man is speaking to his mum is anything to go by, he’s not going to like him that much.
Just as he is about to make his presence known, the stranger moves one inch to the right and Nick is able to see his face, stopping dead in his tracks. He feels like he has been hit in the head with something, unable to stop staring at what must be the hottest man he’s ever seen in his life. His black curls are styled artfully, framing his face perfectly and Nick can’t stop staring at the way his jawline moves while he talks. There’s a tiny silver hoop earring peeking out from under the man’s hair and it makes him swallow; until now he wasn’t aware that he’s into something like that.
Nick starts to let his gaze wander over the rest of the stranger’s body, but suddenly he is brought back to reality by his mother letting out an appalled noise and he decides it’s time for him to push his attraction aside and figure out what is even happening.
“Listen-,” the man starts, but Nick takes this as his cue to make his presence known and promptly cuts him off.
“You’re looking for me?”
The man swiftly turns around and fixes him with a glare. “Yes,” he clears his throat. “As I have told your mother, I need to take a look at your farm. And especially at your finances. You haven’t paid back any of your loan in almost a year now, we need to take a look at what we can take from you, or even the whole… thing, if necessary.” The man lets his gaze wander over the barns and its surrounding fences, unable to hide the distaste on his face.
“Wait, loan?” Nick’s mind immediately starts spiralling, he didn’t even know there was a loan to pay off, neither Robin nor his mum had ever talked about it. He pleadingly looks at her, hoping that she will be able to clear up the misunderstanding and wave the stranger off, but all he’s met with is an apologetic look on her face. Suddenly reality starts to settle in. “Shit,” he mumbles while trying not to burst into tears. The last thing he needs right now is to lose his cool in front of the person who wants to take their whole livelihood away. He needs to get himself together and show the man that their farm is worth way more than them trying to sell it off to some stranger that’s probably going to turn it into some amusement park or some weird shit like that.
“Yeah, okay…yeah,” Nick tries to get out before clearing his throat. “Okay yeah, no… no problem,” he hesitates. “Where do you want to start?” Nick starts turning around before thinking the better of it and moves to offer the man his hand. “Nick, my name’s Nick by the way. And you are?”
The man in front of him still hasn’t shown an ounce of emotion since the whole thing started. “I know very well who you are. My name is Charlie Spring,” he states and reaches over to give Nick a firm handshake. “We best start assessing the situation by showing me what we’re working with. The buildings and the animals and such. And of course, your finances. I have to know how badly you’ve fucked this whole thing up.”
“If you’re already going to ruin our lives, you don’t have to be this mean about it, you know?” Nick regrets the sentence as soon as it’s out of his mouth, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. At least this Charlie Spring person is going to be aware of the fact that he and his mum are not going to go down without a fight. He will do whatever it takes to keep their home.
“Mister Nelson, I’m gonna be completely honest with you and tell you that I don’t give a flying fuck about your feelings,” he fixes Nick with a glare. “It is certainly not my fault that you were not able to run this business properly, or otherwise you wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Let’s start before I lose my patience or I’m gonna tell the bank the foreclosure is going to go ahead without me even looking at the situation we have here.”
Sarah makes a sound that sounds suspiciously like a sob, but Nick doesn’t dare to look in her direction, afraid that if he does, he really will lose his shit and just start crying with her. “Let’s go then.”
Ten minutes later, after Charlie has already declined looking at the chicken coop or the shed, Nick starts to get frustrated with the man in front of him. “What’s the point of me showing you around if you don’t wanna see anything and have made up your mind already anyway?”
For the first time since he showed up, a hint of a smile appears on Charlie’s face but instead of giving Nick a glimmer of hope, all it does is make him worry even more. “I didn’t think you would be this observant, Mister Nelson,” he smirks. “But yes, of course I have already made up my mind. I have done my research after all, don’t underestimate me. I just think it’s funny to watch you try to convince me that this farm is worth more than a few hundred pounds at most.”
Nick’s stomach drops and he honestly doesn’t understand how someone can be that cruel. How does this Charlie person not feel one ounce of sympathy for their situation? Before he can even think about it properly, his mouth is working faster than his brain. “Why don’t you fuck off then?”
There’s a beat of silence between them and then suddenly Charlie starts to smirk. “Do you really want me to?”
Before Nick can give his confirmation, he halts. If he tells this guy to leave right now there’s not even a glimmer of hope to save their farm, but if he manages to show him at least one little thing that makes it worth his while, he might be able to bargain with him. “Come on then,” is all he says while walking into the barn’s direction without bothering to look if Charlie is coming to follow him.
As soon as they enter the barn, he can hear Charlie stopping dead in his tracks and Nick turns around to see the other man staring at him completely horrified. “Yeah, I don’t think I need to see this,” Charlie states and starts turning around, but before he has the chance to do so, Nick grabs his arm to keep him in place.
“What is your fucking problem?” Nick asks.
“What’s my problem? Mate, you can’t tell me that you don’t feel like throwing up every time you come in here.” Charlie starts pulling his dress shirt over his nose to block some of the smell, which makes Nick roll his eyes.
“I don’t know why I even expected such a posh wanker like you to know how to behave properly,” he fixes Charlie with a glare, but the man says nothing in return. “Well, anyway, these are my babies. Dottie, the oldest one is already eight years old and very fragile, but I love her more than anything else.” Nick gestures to the black and white cow standing in the far-left corner at the end of the row. “The other ones are around two to six years old, give or take.”
Charlie rolls his eyes at him. “Yeah, I think we can leave now.”
“What why?” Nick asks. “You haven’t even touched one yet. How can you know how precious they are if you don’t even wanna engage with them?” He knows he’s just being annoying right now, but that’s exactly what he plans on doing. If Charlie can be mean to him, two can play this game of trying to piss each other off as much as possible until one of them cracks.
Charlie snorts and starts shaking his head. “Yeah, right. No fucking way, lad.”
“I’m not surprised,” Nick only nods before starting to make his way out the barn, but this time it’s Charlie who grabs his arm to stop him from going anywhere.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What it means is that all you probably care about is your car and the amount of money you have in your bank account. When was the last time you’ve spoken to your mum, huh?” He pauses to give Charlie a chance to answer, but the other man just stares at him blankly. “Thought so. I really am not surprised at all that you refuse to even give me a chance, let alone touch some stupidly adorable animals. You’re really not as hard to read as you’d like to be.”
Nick knows it was probably a low blow to attack him like that, especially because he hasn’t even known him for more than fifteen minutes, but he really can’t bring himself to care at the moment. This is the man who wants to take his entire life away, who wants to ruin him within a second and then go on with his own life like nothing happened. For him this is just another little stupid job he has to do, probably almost like a game. But for Nick this is what he lives for, what gives him a reason to get up each day.
“I’m sorry, it-” Nick starts, but it’s like his words cause Charlie to finally snap out of his own thoughts.
“Save it, I don’t care about what you think of me,” Charlie snaps and makes his way out the door, not even bothering to check what Nick is doing.
There’s an unbearable silence between them when Nick joins Charlie outside the barn, but he doesn’t know what he could say to make it better, so he opts to stay silent. Slowly, he starts making his way into the house to lead the other man into the office, in order to finally show him the worst part of this whole operation: their finances. He knows it’s bad, there’s no sugar coating it, but up until this morning he thought they had enough time to get things back on track. But with a loan looming over their heads and no way to pay it back, things are looking more than dire.
If Charlie would be just a bit more accommodating, they probably would be able to work something out, but he knows every glimmer of hope went out the window as soon as Nick started insulting him.
He opens the door to the office and motions for Charlie to go through before moving to sit behind his desk. He bends down, opening one of the drawers closest to him and brings out a huge binder which includes most of their outcomes, bills and the very few incomes they have. He looks at Charlie questioningly, not knowing where to start. “So?”
“Just give me the whole thing. If the state of this room is anything to go by, the binder won’t be much better, I guess,” Charlie says and sits down at the opposite end of the table.
Reluctantly, Nick hands the binder over and watches as the other man starts flipping through it, stopping here and there to look at certain pages more thoroughly before he gets on with it. He’s not taking any notes and his face is as unreadable as ever, so Nick can’t decide how bad the situation really is, but he figures it can’t be good if there’s not even a hint of a smile on the other man’s face. Not that Charlie had shown him even a hint of a smile in the past thirty minutes he has known him, but the more time passes the more Nick feels like he might throw up all over his desk.
The whole time they are sitting there, Nick doesn’t know what to do. He contemplates if it would be impolite to get out his phone and text Tara about what’s happening, eager to get to talk to someone about this whole shit show, but decides against it in order to not be distracted when Charlie decides to speak to him again.
After ten more minutes spent in silence, Charlie finally clears his throat and looks at Nick expectantly, “I don’t have to tell you how bad it is, do I?” He asks and Nick can only shake his head no. “Do you have any other forms of income maybe? A part time job or little shop where you sell products from the farm?” Nick shakes his head no again and looks down, unable to look at the judgement in Charlie’s eyes any longer.
“Well, I thought so. I’m afraid that there’s nothing I can do but to let the bank know that they can initiate the sale of the property and everything that’s on it. That includes the farmhouse, all the barns and the animals also.”
“The animals? What?!” Nick feels like someone slapped him right across the face. Just when he thought it couldn’t get worse than losing his own home, he will now lose his pride and joy too. “What about Daisy? You can’t do that, it’s not fair!”
“I’m sorry Mister Nelson, there’s nothing I can do.” Charlie gets up and offers to shake Nick’s hand, but he is still in too much of a shock to do anything at all, let alone get his hands to move.
Charlie clears his throat and starts walking out the door. “Okay, well. I’m going to get going then. It was nice to meet you.”
For a second Nick doesn’t even register Charlie’s words, but when they sink in, he finally breaks out of his trance and jumps out of his seat to hurry along behind him. “Nice to meet me? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Do you love running around ruining other people’s lives? Huh? Do you get off on that, Mister Spring?”
By now, Charlie has already reached his car and opened the door to get inside, but he stops dead in his tracks at Nick’s words. “You’re a fool. There is nothing I can do. If there’s someone you can be mad at, it's yourself. Or maybe your stepdad? Isn’t he the one who got you into this whole mess in the first place?” The smirk on his face proves that Charlie knows exactly what kind of impact his words are going to have on Nick, and even worse he seems to be enjoying it too.
“Don’t you fucking dare talk about my stepdad! It’s none of your damn business!” Nick shouts while trying to get closer to the car, but Charlie has already gotten inside and started the engine in the meantime.
Without saying anything else, Charlie drives off and all Nick can do is stare at him leaving.
His thoughts start to spiral. How is he supposed to tell his mum? His friends? Where are they supposed to live if their own home is going to be taken away from them? Who is going to get the animals, and what if they treat them badly?
There are a few seconds in-between, where Nick feels like he’s going to have a panic attack right there and then, but before anything can happen, he suddenly spots one of his chickens happily trying to cross the road, unaware of the Porsche driving in its direction. A laugh suddenly forces its way out of his throat, and he feels almost delirious watching one of his chickens trying to stand in the way of the one thing that is able to take away everything he and his mum have worked for. It feels eerily like when Nick tried to stand in Charlie’s way, feeling so small and incapable even though he probably could have physically overpowered the other man easily.
Nick feels like a maniac, looking at the person who has his whole life in his hands driving away while laughing his ass off.
But suddenly the laugh gets stuck in his throat as he watches Charlie steadily drive towards the chicken, seemingly unaware of its presence just a few feet away. Nick doesn’t know what to do, should he start running behind the car to make Charlie aware of what’s going on? But wouldn’t that distract him and minimise the chance of him noticing the chicken even further?
Before he can make a choice, he sees that, with only a few seconds to spare, Charlie finally realises what’s happening and he tries to dodge the chicken, swerving the car to the right and therefore only nearly missing it. Nick breathes a sigh of relief, but suddenly he hears Charlie’s car losing control and slamming right into a tractor that has been parked nearby along the road.
“Fuck!” Nick curses and for a moment he’s stuck again, not knowing what to do. Shaking himself out of his stupor, he starts running towards the car in order to make sure Charlie is alright. As soon as he arrives Nick notices that the hood of the car has definitely seen better days and Charlie’s head has slammed against the steering wheel. He curses again as he opens the door and notices that Charlie is definitely unconscious and there’s some blood running down the side of his head.
“Fuck, shit, fuck fuck!” He checks Charlie’s pulse, relieved to feel that his heart is still beating steadily, and he moves to get his phone out and call an ambulance. But before he can begin typing, his mum is next to him and snatches his phone out of his hand.
“Are you crazy?” Sarah asks and Nick just stares at her blankly, his heart racing like he’s just run a marathon. “Do you know what will happen if he wakes up in the hospital? He will sue us for everything we have. And then we will have even less than we have now, it’s going to kill us Nick, do you understand?” There are tears in Sarah’s eyes and Nick wants nothing more than to hug her, but his head is a mess and he thinks he has never felt this torn and confused before.
He knows that what she’s saying makes sense, but he can’t wrap his head around just leaving him there. Surely, leaving the other man to die would be even worse than losing their home. “What are we supposed to do, then?” The longer he stares at Charlie’s lifeless form, the more he feels like throwing up. “We can’t just leave him here! People are gonna see, he could die, mum!”
“He’s not going to die, look at him, he’s breathing steadily so everything is fine right now. Now help me get him into the house, he’s gonna have a hell of a headache when he wakes up,” Sarah says, but Nick still feels unable to move.
She sighs. “I’m going to call Clara and make sure she takes a look at him as soon as we’ve gotten him inside, okay?” After what feels like a lifetime, Nick finally nods and goes to grab Charlie under his armpits so they can carry him inside.
🐄
It’s been three hours since Nick and his mum brought Charlie inside the house and to Nick’s bedroom. After having cleaned his wounds, his mum called her friend who was a retired nurse to come and have a look at Charlie and make sure that he’s doing good, considering the circumstances. She did a few checks that Nick had absolutely no clue about, but she reassured him that he was breathing properly, his pulse was stable and that the wound on his head didn’t need any stitches.
Nick isn’t sure what his mum had said to her, or if she even explained the whole thing, but just before Clara left to go back home, she had promised Nick not to say anything and that she was going to pretend like she had never seen Charlie before.
It had been over two hours since then and the whole time Nick had been sitting beside the bed to make sure that Charlie was still breathing properly, but as the time went on and he still hadn’t woken up, hadn’t even moved an inch, Nick had called Tara to come over.
“What exactly am I supposed to look at?” Tara asks while staring at Charlie, who is lying on Nick’s bed. If you didn't know what happened, you’d probably think he’s just sleeping peacefully, but to Nick it felt like looking at his worst nightmare.
“I don’t know! You are the doctor, not me!” Nick makes a pleading noise which causes Tara to roll her eyes at him.
“You know I’m a vet! What’s in front of me is definitely not an animal, Nick.”
“Oh my god, I know… what are we supposed to do Tara, what if we call an ambulance after all?” Nick says, clearly desperate to do something because he can’t stand seeing Charlie like that. No matter how mean the other man was to him, he just feels awful for what had happened.
He thinks about what would happen if they actually did call an ambulance, would the police believe him if he told them it was all an accident? He wouldn’t be lying, the chicken crossing the road definitely wasn’t Nick’s fault, but wouldn’t it be suspicious if the man who was about to take his livelihood away suddenly had an accident while still in Nick’s driveway? He was only twenty eight years old, he was definitely way too young to go to jail.
“You know Clara said he will be alright, you just need to-” Tara starts, but suddenly they are both interrupted by Charlie making a painful sound from the bed.
“Oh my god, is he going to wake up?” Nick instantly moves to his side, not daring to touch him but still wanting to be near in case something happens.
Silence envelops them as they keep staring at Charlie, willing him to do or say something.
Seconds, that feel more like hours, pass until Charlie starts moving again and this time they can see his eyelids flutter. Nick holds his breath as the other man opens his eyes and he doesn’t know what to do. Will Charlie scream at them? Will he be in pain? How are they supposed to explain this whole mess to him?
“Who are you?” Is probably the last sentence Nick had expected to come out of Charlie’s mouth, so he just keeps staring at him. He doesn’t know what to say, maybe Charlie is just taking the piss because he’s still angry at Nick.
“Do you want anything to drink?” Is what Nick says instead. But Charlie just keeps staring at him blankly, not moving a muscle, only his eyes are surveying the room as he’s trying to understand where he is.
“I’m Nick, Nick Nelson. Uh, are you okay? How do you feel?”
“My head fucking hurts. Where am I? What day is it?” Charlie asks and tries to move, which just causes him to wince in pain and lay his head back down.
“You’re at our...farm,” Nick winces. “It’s Tuesday, September 13th.”
Charlie looks at him pleadingly. “What year?”
“Excuse me? Uhm … 2023?” Now Nick feels like Charlie is definitely just taking the piss and making fun of him.
“What the fuck?” Charlie tries to sit up, but Tara is quick to stop him. “Don’t, you probably have a concussion, it’s best that you keep lying down until we know for sure. You have been out for three hours, that’s not something to treat lightly.”
“And who are you? Wait, never mind… who am I?!” At Charlie’s words, Nick’s world starts turning upside down. There is no way he just heard him right. If Charlie doesn’t know who he is, he probably also doesn’t remember that he was about to take their farm away, but if he doesn’t know who he is, he also probably doesn’t remember anything else about his life so what are they supposed to do with him? They can’t just explain what happened, because that will just put them back to square one and he will sue the shit out of them after all.
“Your name is Charlie S-” Nick starts, but Tara suddenly steps on his foot in order to shut him up. “Your name is Charlie. You’re Nick’s fiancé over here.” Tara says.