Cheryl x Liam: Inevitable

Part 24 - Epilogue

                   

Few Months Later

A few months had passed, and finally everything seemed to be returning to normal. Cheryl and Liam's relationship had gone from strength to strength; all of their friends and family being incredibly happy for them both, and they were even out in public more so than normal since they didn't really have to hide things between them anymore as Liam wasn't her client or anything. The two of them spent a lot of time together and now, Liam was pretty much now a father figure to Sophia as unfortunately, despite all of the events, JB hadn't stepped up and was distancing himself from Sophia without any explanation. Cheryl had been disappointed at his lack of support for their daughter after he had helped them get her back, but she was glad that Liam was there as Sophia deserved to have two parents, not just one.

It was now December; the temperature had gone from tolerably warm to that slightly annoying yet amazing crisp coldness. There was an overcast of grey somedays and bright blue sunshine on other days, but the light dusting of frost caused the ground to sparkle every morning while puddles left over from fallen rain would freeze overnight as it was cold. Sophia's mental scars of the kidnapping ordeal had healed for the most part. She was still going to see her therapist, though the appointments had now dropped from three times a week to just once a week. Having Cheryl and Liam both there for her was great as they just helped her get back to her normal self and helped her move on as much as possible. It was great especially since Liam had moved in a month earlier, so he was always there for both Sophia and Cheryl – which was great.

The case involving Joe, Sophia, Adam, and Carter hadn't gone to trial yet and wasn't due to go to trial until February, which meant that Cheryl was of course busy preparing everything from gathering all the witnesses to making sure that Sophia was strong enough deal with all of this – especially since she knew that Joe was representing himself throughout all of this and was bound to try and throw a load of things her way to try and get inside her head. While Cheryl was busy preparing that, she wasn't forgetting to look after herself and so would leave work at five every night instead of staying late, and go home to spend time with Liam and Sophia.

However, while Cheryl was trying to relax for the most part, she wasn't at all prepared for the blow she'd been delivered whilst being in a meeting on the Monday morning before she was set to leave for a holiday that would last into just after New Year's, it being the shocking words from her best friend, Kimberley, that instantly made her heart drop into her stomach,

"I'm representing Sophia Smith for the trial."

"When in God's name did you even decide to do that?!" Nicola burst out, while Garry and Cheryl sat staring at her in shock.

"I decided back in September; I helped bail her out and everything," Kimberley sighed, "I wanted to tell you but I didn't know how, and now that it's getting closer and we've been talking about it, so I figured I best tell you."

"So let me get this straight – you're representing one of the people involved in kidnapping my child? My child who you've claimed as your niece? Is that right?" Cheryl asked with a raised eyebrow. Garry could tell by her tone that she was trying to keep calm, yet she wanted to explode and start hurling curse words at her co-worker and best friend.

"Cheryl, she's helped so much with the rescue of Sophia so you can't possibly think that she doesn't need one of us on her side right now? Even you said yourself that you hoped she wouldn't get in much trouble." Kimberley pointed out. Cheryl rolled her eyes.

"That didn't mean to try and help her because at the end of the day, she was still involved even if she did help us in the end," she snapped before breathing out, "You know what, whatever; maybe she can help us – it's just not you that I was expecting to help her."