The Scottish Thistle and The English Rose by HaylsValo

Chapter 32 : Lift Me Up To Knock Me Down

Boo had to wonder if she'd heard Chibs right. Divorce? He was going to ask Fiona for a divorce? If she said yes then that meant Boo was free to marry the man she'd been in love with since the age of 16, the man she never believed she'd marry. Chibs had to have some certainty that Fiona would agree to the divorce, or he wouldn't bother asking her at all. He'd not want to get his and Boo's hopes up over nothing… Boo was suddenly flooded with images of herself in a beautiful wedding dress, walking down an aisle on Tig's arm, a bouquet of white roses in hand, towards the one and only man she had ever, and would ever love. Towards Filip who was looking at her in awe, tears of happiness in his eyes, a smile on his lips so wide it threatened to crack his face into two... It was a full minute, maybe more, before Boo realised she'd not given Chibs anything in way of reply.

"Filip I..." she muttered, hand finding his, her lips stretched into a wide smile. She gave a soft laugh and shook her head, too shocked to find the words she wanted to say, too lost to her happiness to be able to tell her man just how happy his announcement had made her. They were going to be able to get married! "I don't even know what to say right now..." she said eventually, staring up into Chibs warm brown orbs, the smile on her lips very much fixed in place. Chibs, who had been looking down at her nervously until that moment, waiting patiently and anxiously for a reply, smiled softly, his eyes lighting up as he realised that Boo's inability to give him a response was because she was so overcome with happiness at what he'd said. Chibs cupped Boo's cheek with his free hand and tenderly stroked the soft skin of her cheek with his thumb. Boo leaned into his touch without hesitation.

"Everythin' that's happened in the last few days, hell the last few weeks... it's made me realise it's time teh sort my shit out, teh put things in my life right." Chibs explained softly. Coming so close to death, being reunited with his estranged wife, finding out that his beloved Kerrianne still thought of him, fresh threats from Jimmy O – against both Boo and Kerrianne – as well as all the shit with the ATF had made Chibs realise just how fucked up his life was in many ways. He hadn't seen his daughter since she was a young girl, he didn't talk to her, didn't write or keep up to date in her life in any way. He was married to a woman he no longer loved, a woman who'd once played a hand in trying to kill him and all the while he was with a woman he dearly wanted to marry, but couldn't. Add in the fact that the man who'd stolen his wife and daughter from him years ago, a man who had tried to kill him and had threatened his Ol' Lady as well as his daughter was free and still able to screw with his life and Chibs life could well and truly be deemed a mess. The Scotsman needed to get his life in order, and in his eyes that meant getting his daughter back in his life, killing Jimmy O and divorcing Fiona so that he could marry Boo. "I'm going to divorce Fiona and I'm going to marry you." Chibs informed Boo, which made her smile so wide she couldn't help but laugh softly, couldn't help but let the tears of joy that had formed in her eyes spill over and tumble down her cheeks, Chibs wiped them away, although he was close to such tears himself. He was determined to marry Boo now; to start a family with her, to grow old with her and to spend the rest of his life at her side. "That's how things should be." He whispered with certainty. He was meant to be married to Boo, Chibs knew this without doubt. They were going to have children together, buy a house with a huge yard so they're kids could play in it and spend the rest of their lives together, raising them. He just had to hope that Fiona would agree to a divorce so that he could make that happen. He had no real idea if she'd agree to a divorce, after all she was a catholic and didn't believe in divorce and she still claimed to love Chibs but on the other even she couldn't deny that there hadn't been love between them for years, that their marriage was now little more than a slip of paper binding them together. He'd do whatever he had to do to make Fiona give him a divorce; he didn't care what that entailed (so long a it didn't involve giving up the rights to his daughter) he'd do it because he was fed of living a lie, or being married to a woman who had long since ceased to be his wife. He wanted to officially make the woman he saw as his wife Mrs. Filip Telford.