Chapter Text
Charlie felt the weight of his day on his shoulders as he fumbled with his keys, trying to fit them into the groove of the lock on the small cottage he and his husband Nick shared on the edge of the village where they both worked.
He was in a particularly sour mood that afternoon. An annoying co-worker of his had spoken over him in a department meeting more than once that day, and he’d spilled tea down the front of his jumper when that same co-worker had accidentally knocked the back of his chair as they strode by. The air was low in his front left tire and he’d had to stop at a petrol station on his way home to fill it, he’d stepped out of the car into a suspicious-looking puddle that he was hoping was a large spilled bottle of lemon soda and not a bodily fluid.
All he wanted to do was get home, kiss his husband, and throw himself down on the sofa for the remainder of the night to do absolutely nothing.
He finally got the front door open and stepped into his house. To his surprise, Daisy, the couple's dog, had not bolted in from the living room to greet him as she did each afternoon. Charlie narrowed his eyes, wondering if Nick had taken Daze out for a walk before dinner. However, when he glanced at the wall where they hung their keys and other high-use items, he saw that Daisys lead was still hooked up next to Nicks's keys.
Charlie shrugged it off, moving in the direction of the kitchen where he figured Nick must be. Maybe his husband was cooking meatloaf, Dasiy had been known to hang out at Nicks's feet any time he made the dish, hoping a bit of beef would come her way.
Charlie glanced into the living room on his way to find his husband, more out of habit than anything. He came to an abrupt stop, confused at the scene taking place in his living room. An unfamiliar young girl was curled up on his sofa. The same sofa that he and Nick had driven two and a half hours to pick out from some fancy furniture store that his mother had recommended.
The mystery of their dog's location was also solved, as he spotted Daisy laying across the girl's legs. Daisy raised her head to look at Charlie, wagging her tail in a way of greeting, and then went back to focusing on the girl, as though she had been tasked with watching over her.
Charlie found the use of his feet again and hurried towards the kitchen. As he suspected, Nick was standing at their kitchen island cutting up carrots for their supper.
“Nick, there's a teenage girl sleeping on our sofa”
Nick didn't glance up from his chopping board.
“I know”
“Let me rephrase. Why is there a teenage girl sleeping on our sofa?”
Nick put down his knife, looking up at his husband with hurt in his eyes.
“Char…she didn't have anywhere else to go.”
…………
Nick had been working as a teacher at Crofton House school for girls for a little over 3 years. When he’d gone into education, he had not pictured himself ending up in a prep school for the daughters of the obnoxiously wealthy. He’d thought he’d end up teaching at a primary school, focusing on the educational enrichment of the nation's youth. Instead, he was helping privileged young ladies pad their resumes so they could get into Oxford or Cambridge like their parents before them.
He hoped to one day end up in the primary school sector, teaching a variety of children and he hoped to make a real difference in their lives.
There was one thing holding him back from making that change. The money.
The salary he made working at Crofton was almost 45 percent more than he would make at the average primary school in the county. He’d never thought he’d be the type to put money over passion or happiness, but that was before.
Before he and Charlie started talking about starting a family. Obviously, as a same-sex couple, having a child would be complicated. They had talked about adoption, which was not cheap by any means and could take years. They’d looked at the possibility of egg donation and surrogacy, but the costs could be astronomical. Not to mention that both Charlie and himself had school loans they were still paying down, as well as the mortgage on their home, payments on two cars, and not to mention the occasional thousand-pound vet bill when Daisy ate something she really shouldn't have and had to have his stomach scoped.
So he taught at Crofton, both he and Charlie pinching pennies where they could, putting their savings into what they nicknamed the family fund.
Still, every day while Nick edited the millionth personal essay on the responsibility of owning a horse, he dreamed of making a real difference in a student's life. Of helping a child in a way that would really impact them, something they could carry with them for the rest of their lives.
…
He’d been recruited a few months ago to help train the upper-year girl's field hockey team. He hadn’t been thrilled about the idea at first, seeing as he had no background in the sport, but he’d soon found himself enjoying the task. A sport was a sport it turned out and Nick still got the same rush from working on drills for the field hockey girls as he used to when running drills with this old rugby team.
It was a particularly bitter February that year, and Nick had spent the last 45 minutes huffing on the pitch alongside the year 11 girls, often running drills beside them just to stay warm. The practice had finally wrapped up and all Nick had left to do before he could head home was put the stacked cones back in the storage room of the school field house and throw the practice pinnies into the laundry hamper that would be picked up by the school janitorial staff in the morning.
He’d finished up and had been about to head out for the day when he heard a muffled thump from the back of the storage area.
“Hello?” He called out cautiously. He’d heard rumors around the staffrooms that students sometimes snuck into secret corners of the school to drink or smoke, loving the thrill of doing something off limits at school. Nick was suddenly concerned that he was going to lock a couple of year 10’s in the sports storage room and wake up facing a lawsuit from the girl's parents. He wouldn't put it past the types at this place.
“Hello?” He called again, walking deeper into the lock-up and scanning around the racks of field hockey sticks and bins filled with footballs or spare jerseys.
He heard another thump followed by what to him sounded like someone muttering the word ‘shit’.
“Anyone in here?” He called trying to put a little authority into his voice. He wasn’t sure how much use it did. Most of his students like him enough, but he couldn't say there was that much respect involved. So many had lived in such grand manors or vast estates their whole lives that Nick came off to them much more like another member of their staff than an actuarial figure of authority.
Many teachers at Crofton rule with an iron fist, deeming that fear and a heavy hand were the only way to keep students in line. That had never been Nicks's style.
He reached the back of the storage room and found himself standing in front of a tall pile of practice mats that the school used for high jump practice or tumbling.
At first, it appears to Nick that the mats are pushed up against the cinder block wall behind them, but as his gaze follows the pile to the top, he notices that the top few mats are pushed back a few feet farther, indicating that there must be a space behind the stack itself.
Nick smiles slightly to himself at the ingenuity of his students, one of them, or perhaps a group must have created a small alcove back there, a place to hang out and get away from the faculty and other students. It was exactly the kind of place that Charlie and himself used to seek out in their school days so that they could snatch a few minutes alone together between their lessons.
“Alright, who’s back there?” Nick asked, trying and failing to keep the amusement out of his voice.
“Classes are over and buses only run for another half hour so unless you want to spend the night here, I’d suggest coming out now.”
Silence.
Nick doubted himself for a minute, wondering if he’d simply imagined the noises he’d heard earlier in an unconscious attempt to make his day a little more interesting. His curiosity won out over everything.
He stepped to the side and peered around the stack of mats.
He’d been right. There was someone hiding back there. When he had looked around the corner he found a student tucked into the corner of the alcove, knees to her chest as if she was trying to make herself as small and unnoticeable as possible. She’d tucked her head into her knees as well, folding her arms over them as if hoping that she stayed perfectly still she might be mistaken for a piece of gym equipment.
Sensing that someone was standing there, she peeked up from her hiding spot behind her own knees.
“Hi Mr.Nelson”
Nick recognized the girl as a year ten whom he’d had in one of his history lectures the previous term.
“Farah? What are you doing back here” The girl opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't seem to find her voice as she grasp for an acceptable answer. Something caught Nicks's eye the moment after he asked the question.
There was a duffel bag stuffed in the corner where Farah sat, a few shopping bags that seemed to be stuffed with random items, and there was a single pillow and blanket on top of one of the gym mats that had been dragged back there.
“Farah…” Nick began carefully, unsure how to approach this situation.
“Farah, have you been living back here?” The girl who had been staring at her knees, head snapped up her eyes wide.
“Please don’t tell anyone, Mr. Nelson. Please”
Nick was at a loss. What was this sixteen-year-old girl doing camped out in the back of a smelly fieldhouse? The vulnerability is written across her face almost broke his heart in two.
“What’s going on?” Nick asked, his eyes still flitting around the small den that the girl had carved out for herself.
She opened her mouth as if to answer but quickly snapped it shut again.
“You wouldn’t get it” her voice was small as her eyes reverted back to her knees.
Nick grabbed one of the practice mats off the top of the pile and tossed it down on the floor outside the opening of Farah's little cave.
“Try me” He prompted, sitting down on the mat and folding his hands in his lap. Farah still didn’t speak.
“Do you want to start with why you’re not staying at home?” Nick asked carefully.
“I can’t” she stated simply, still not meeting his eyes.
“Is it not safe for you there?” Nicks's mind had snapped back into the seminars that he’d taken during teacher training. Was Farah being mistreated at home? Did he need to involve social services?
“It’s not that” Farah shook her head, wringing her hands as if trying to dispel some of her anxiety.
“My parents kicked me out” her voice was so small that Nick had had to strain to hear her. Then to his surprise, she let out a bitter laugh.
“I mean technically they gave me a choice” Nick sat in silence, waiting for her to continue.
“ It was either go to treatment or get the hell out of their house. Which in the end wasn’t much of a choice at all”
“Treatment?” Was Farah struggling with her mental health? Did her parents want her to go to an in program the way that Charlie had had to during school? Farah's breath was shaky as she inhaled deeply.
“There's a center in Scotland they want me to go to. Somewhere that’ll heal me of my sins and wipe my mind of the twisted provisions that are plaguing my mortal soul. Or at least that's what the brochure promised.”
Nicks's heart sank deeper into his chest as he took in the implications of what Farah had just said.
“ Conversion therapy?” he asked delicately. She gave him a sad smirk.
“They prefer to call it a religious retreat, but yes”
Farah began to pick at the skin around her fingernails. When he glanced at them, Nick could see that they were red and raw, bleeding in some places.
“My mom found out that I’d been talking to this girl online. It started out as nothing, just talking, but she made me realize that I wasn't…..normal”
Nick hated to hear this children think of their sexuality as something that was abnormal or not correct about themselves.
“ She confronted me about it, just hounding me with questions, who is this girl? Why was I talking to her? Why did I tell her that I didn’t think I liked guys? Why did I tell her I thought she was beautiful? She just kept demanding I tell her over and over again what I was. I’d never even said it to myself in the mirror before, but here's my mom the person who is supposed to love me through everything demanding I say it out loud and then looking at me like I’d shot her as soon as I got the words out”
Nick could see the tears that had formed in her eyes that she was trying extremely hard not to let them fall.
“ and then when I refused to go to the center that her pastor suggested, she told me to get out and not come back. That was three weeks ago”
Nick's heart ached in his chest. Figuring out his sexuality had been painful enough even with the unconditional support of his mother. He couldn't imagine the kind of pain Farah was feeling now.
“And you’ve been staying here this whole time?”
She nodded.
“I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. I don't have the type of friends that I could ask to stay with. I don’t have any other family. I mean at least here I can use the showers in the gym and eat at the canteen for breakfast and lunch.”
Now that Farah had started talking, she couldn't seem to stop. Nick realized that she’d had no one to talk to about all this. Maybe just saying the words out loud was a form of relief for her.
“ I figured I’d work something out once school was done. I’ve got some money from my grandparents will. It’s supposed to be for university but I thought maybe I could use it to rent a room somewhere? Get a job. Not that I’ll be qualified to do much past work at a chip shop”
“What about school?”
“It’s not like I can afford to keep going to this place now. My tuition is paid till the end of the year but after that…… I guess I’ll have to drop out. I’m going to have to work as much as I can to stay afloat. I won’t have the time.”
Farah had such a far-off look in her eyes that it seemed to Nick that she was theorizing more to herself than talking to him. Nick shivered. It occurred to him that the storage room of the field house wasn’t heated. While it offered protection from the high wind outside, the temperature wasn’t comfortable by any means. It was then that he noticed that Farah was bundled in multiple sweatshirts and what seemed to be at least a few pairs of socks. He glanced again at the make-shift bed. The blanket seemed tragically thin. He then noticed what appeared to be a slightly tattered stuffed pig. Its once light pink fuzzy fabric was dulled, giving away the toy's age. It reminded Nick of the stuffed cat that Charlie used to sleep with when he was younger. Charlie would never admit it, but he still pulled out the old thing to snuggle with at night when Nick was out of town and he had no one else to hold.
The small stuffed pig reminded Nick of just how young Farah was. She shouldn't be worrying about affording to live, or how’d she’d stay warm at night. Her only stress should be homework and the occasional crush.
“You can’t stay here” Nick stated, getting to his feet and brushing off the pieces of disintegrating plastic that came off the old mats, revealing the spongey yellow of the foam beneath it. Farah's face dropped into a look of complete terror.
“Please Mr.Nelson, I don’t have anywhere else, I don’t, I can’t-. It’s only for a few more months and I promise I’ll be more careful. No one else will know I’m here, just please”
“No no” Nick rushed to reassure her “ I just mean that it’s too cold for you to stay here overnight. You’ll freeze”
“I’ll be fine Mr.Nelson! I promise! I’ve got sweaters and I’ve been filling up my hot water bottle from the canteen during lunch period. I’ll be fine” she said again.
“I can’t let you stay here. Gather up your things, I’ve got a guest room you can stay in tonight, and we’ll figure out a plan in the morning.”
Farah's jaw dropped slightly.
“Mr.Nelson, you don’t have to, I told you I’ll be ok.” He shook his head again, indicating that the matter wasn’t up for discussion.
“Won’t your wife be upset if you bring in a stray?”
Nick just smiled, turning his wedding ring on his finger in fondness.
“My partner won’t mind. Now come on, this whole place smells like sweat socks”
Farah let out of first genuine laugh she had in a while, and with only a small moment of hesitation, grabbed her bag.
………………………..
“What do you mean?” Charlie asked, still not following the situation at hand.
“She’s one of my students. Her home life is complicated” Charlie's eyes went wide.
“Oh dear god Nick, did you take in a runaway? Oh, we are going to go to jail, you're the one who told me that the Crofton parents are quick with the lawsuit. We’re going to be charged with abducting a child”
“No, no. She’s not run away. Her parents kicked her out, I found her camped out in the back of the sports supply closest. She’d been there for weeks
Charlie felt an invisible hand squeeze his heart.
“ She was living in the sports closet?” Nick nodded.
“And there's no heat in there. If I left her there overnight she’d probably have hypothermia in the morning. It's supposed to get to be negative 17 tonight. Char, she’s only sixteen, and she’s got nowhere to go”
Charlie slumped onto one of the stools of their kitchen island.
“Why did her parents kick her out?” He asked slowly, slightly afraid of the answer. Nick had a big heart, it was something Charlie loved about his husband, but he didn’t want Nick taken advantage of if this girl was stringing him along with a story, or her parents had thrown her out for arson or something equally as terrifying.
Nick rubbed his eyes, the stress of the day getting to him.
“Her mother found out she was talking with a girl online…..romantically”
Charlie's stomach dropped.
“ gave her an ultimatum, either she went to a conversion center, or she got out”
Charlie's heart clenched once again. He got up off his stool and walked around to his husband, burying his head in the other man's chest. He wrapped his arms around Nick's middle and held him tight.
“I couldn’t leave her there Char-”
Charlie nodded into his chest.
“I know. I know”
“I don’t know what to do next” Nick whispered into Charlie's hair.
“We’ll figure it out” Charlie promised.