Sail Away With Me (Rory McCann)

Broken Man

Three Years Later

"How you doing?" Gwen asked as we arrived at the studio in Belfast.

"Like I want to be sick" Tori smiled.

It had been three years since she had seen Rory. After her rushed departure from Edinburgh she had spent the next three months trying to recover from the injuries of the incident. After that she had enrolled at the Vancouver Film School to complete a two year SFX makeup program. Sadly, after just a year she had run out of funds though and returned back to the UK where she met up with Emily and Toby. They told her how Rory was not in season 5 and that there was a job for me if she wanted to come back. Being broke, basically homeless and with no other plan she quickly accepted their offer.

The previous year shooting had flown by and Tori had finally started to feel like my old self again. During that time she had also grown really close to Gwen who had helped her talk through a lot of what happened the previous years. So with her new little family of close friends, she had moved up in the world to become one of the lead make up artist and even had her own little apartment in Belfast.

Despite all the ups, nothing could remove the memories of Rory from her mind, both the good and bad. Filming for season six was due to begin in just under a week though, and there was no longer any running away from the past ghosts.

"It'll be fine and you've got us" Gwen tried to reassure her as they stepped into the main building for the big pre-production meeting with all the cast and crew.

When they entered the large conference room, Rory was stood at the top end of the room with Iain and Liam. From the moment she stepped into the room and looked over at him, she saw he was already staring at her with his dark and expressionless eyes.

"Fuck" she whispered and lowered her head.

"You got this" Gwen smiled and rubbed her back as they went to find some seats.

Throughout the entire meeting, she could sense his eyes on her. Trying her best to not look up, she picked at her nails the entire time and only seemed to breath when they stepped back outside in the cooler Belfast air.

"That's the worst bit over and done with" Gwen reassures her as Lena came over to catch up with them.

"You can just work on our unit in Croatia and Spain, then you guys dont have to see each other" she suggested with a kind smile.

"That's the plan. It's just... I wish I could talk to him you know? Like I've always missed him, and I know I can't go back on my actions".

"You went through the worst thing any woman could face and you dealt with it the only way you knew how yo at the time. Don't you dare feel guilty or angry at yourself" Lena replied whilst holding onto her shoulders tightly to stare the point into her eyes.

"She's right" Gwen agreed.

The rest of the day was filled with various team meetings and catching up with old friends. After a long day, Tori had planned to meet a group of them at a restaurant and bar near the dock.

As soon as she stepped inside she felt her heart sink.

"I told you we should have kept clear of the docks" she groaned to Gwen as she looked across to the bar as saw Rory stood with a few others and a pint in hand.

"Well you were talking about wanting to speak with him. Maybe this is your chance?"

"Maybe".

The two soon found the rest of their group and went to sit with Toby, Emily, Lena, Kit, Emilia and Peter. After ordering their food everyone began their own conversation and Tori turned to Lena.

"Has he noticed us?"

"I'd say so" Emily cringed and nodded over to the bar.

With a deep breath, Tori turned in her seat to look over and saw him staring at them.

"I'd say now would be your chance" Gwen shrugged.

Nodding, Tori quickly quickly knocked back the last of her wine and with a deep breath, stood up from the table and headed across the room towards him. As we neared them, the other people he was stood with made a quick exit.

"Hey, I thought we should maybe talk? With work and all" she started as he looked down at her with a neutral expression.

"Talk all you want, not sure thetes much to say though".

"I just, I know what I did was really selfish and you must have a lot of bad feelings towards me, I just want to try and make this time filming as painless as possible. I don't know if theres anything you want to get off your chest or if you have any questions for me?"

"Fucking christ, talk? Questions? I was over three years ago, it's over, I'm over it. There ain't much else to say".

"Over it? Are you serious? We lost a child Rory. There's no way someone can just get over it. Even after years that still gonna hurt".

Something seemed to snap in him then as he slammed down his glass on the bar, causing the table to look back over at them.

"Of course it still fuckong hurts you stupid cow. I know we lost a child, but you left. You just fucking left with your little higher than thou note. You left me with fucking nothing and seemingly carried on with your life. Don't think I haven't heard about you, with your new place and promotions, life must have been so fuckijg great for you this past year. Well congratulations baby, seriously well done on fucking over another guy and carrying on".

This voice had grown louder and louder with each moment until Gwen came over. "Come, I get tempers are high and stuff but you can't talk to her like that. You can't talk to anyone like that".

"Oh fuck off, the pair of you, just piss off" he grunted and with kne last hate filled look at Tori he grabbed his wallet and phone and stormed out of the bar.

"He fucking hates me. I mean, I knew we weren't going to be best friends, but to have all that hate for so long. I fucking broke him Gwen, I basically killed the man he once was" Tori began to quickly sobbed.

"You didn't do anything but survive a traumatic event. You didn't deserve that T, and now we know what hes like you can just stay clear and carry on".

"I don't know if it's going to be that simple" she cried.

Offt that was a hard chapter to write. What do you guys thing about his temper, is it just? I'm writing it and I'm not even sure Haha. Anyway, another update you may or may not care about, but I just had my last physio today, but will probably end up having more 😣. On the ups side I found out this week I've been accepted into uni to do my masters and have taken another road trip. This time I'm in the peak district. Gonna stick around and get some writing done. Happy reading x

P.s - I have no idea if three years is enough time between the seasons but I took my best guess. Title of this chapter is also from the episode where are handsome Scot returns in the show ;)