Completely & Stupidly: Forever and Ever

Chapter 1. Charity

As the cool spring time sun shone through the cotton curtains of Jacob's Fold, daylight lit up Charity and Vanessa's bedroom revealing another beautiful day in Emmerdale. Already awake and struggling to think up a plausible excuse not to go to work, Charity sighed and rolled over to snuggle up to a stirring Vanessa. "Morning" She whispered gently into Vanessa's ear as her eyes began to flutter open. "Ow, my hair" Vanessa murmured as Charity's elbow dug heavily into the waves of blonde hair that jutted out across the pillowcase. "Sorry" Charity voiced, quickly shifting her weight so that Vanessa could wriggle free. "Good Morning" Vanessa then replied with a yawn as she nuzzled her head upon Charity's chest. Her voice was quiet and soft as she slowly came around and took advantage of her fiancé's embrace. "You're nice and warm" Vanessa cooed with a small smile growing upon her face. "Yeah, not for long though babe, I should have left ten minutes ago, Chas is going to kill me if I'm late again" Charity said, quickly, pressing her lips against Vanessa's forehead before forcing herself out of bed. Vanessa groaned as her head flopped back down onto her pillow, and gently rubbed her eyes with her balled up fists. "Do you have to go?" She asked with a pout, "If we want to keep a roof over our heads I do," Charity shrugged, suddenly feeling like the responsible one in their relationship, which didn't happen often, and almost always only happened for a few minutes early in the morning. "Are the kids up?" Vanessa asked, not hearing the sound of toddler babble coming from the room next to theirs, or the obnoxious booming of the radio from downstairs that would signal that Noah and Sarah were up and getting ready for school. "Not yet, it's only seven. I'm supposed to be opening up early ready for the drayman for Jimmy's surprise party", "You mean Jimmy's non surprise, surprise party?" Vanessa laughed. "Yeah well, it would take a brave man to let Nicola know that her weeks of secret planning have been ruined, and let's face it, Jimmy is not that man", "Aw" Vanessa mouthed disapprovingly of Charity's bad mouthing of Jimmy, but let it slide. Instead she sat up and pulled the duvet off her lap, reached for her dressing gown and watched as Charity began dressing in front of the mirror. Charity's short blonde bob swayed across her bare shoulders as she stepped into her jeans, wearing only her bra. "Do these look ok?" She asked hastily as she grimaced at her reflection. "Oh yes" Vanessa replied, biting her lip as she walked over and put her arms around Charity's waist. Charity gasped and rolled her eyes as she caught a glimpse of where Vanessa was looking. "My jeans, not my boobs" She snorted, "I love your boobs" Vanessa whispered, her words getting lost amongst her breathlessness as she pulled her in close. Charity cupped Vanessa's head in her hands and let her fingers roam through her tangled hair as they passionately kissed, both of them only half dressed and considering getting back into bed before they were interrupted by small chaotic footsteps ascending across the landing. "Mummy" a little voice called, muffled from behind the door. The doorknob wiggled but not enough to release the latch to expose them to the toddler on the other side. Vanessa threw her head back and groaned, "Coming Johnny-bobs" she called out before kissing Charity one last time. "To be continued" She added, teasing with a wink as she lifted the arms of her dressing gown back up onto her shoulders. Charity raised an eyebrow at Vanessa's keenness and reluctantly shrugged on a clean shirt from the wardrobe as Vanessa left to help Johnny and Moses dress ready for nursery.
Downstairs, Charity popped slices of bread into the toaster for Johnny and Moses, and quickly boiled the kettle and made tea for herself and Vanessa. "Granny, have you seen my headphones?" Sarah asked, her tone dramatic and loud. "Uh, no sorry babe. Noah up?" She asked, squeezing the tea bag against the rim of her mug. "Yeah, stinking out the bathroom, it's disgusting" She replied, flipping over all the cushions upon the sofa hoping that her headphones would appear underneath one of them. "Shut up" Noah shrugged, overhearing Sarah's words as he marched down the stairs, swinging his rucksack. "Where's my P.E kit?" He asked, dropping to his knees to look inside the washing machine. "You've not dried it" He remarked, holding up his wet shorts and jersey top. "Well you'll just have to do it in your pants then Noah, won't you" Charity exclaimed, gesturing with her hands as she tried to squeeze past him to get to the bin. "Ergh, no one wants to see him in his pants" Sarah moaned, her voice now full of sarcasm, "Shut up" Noah told her for a second time. Sarah pulled a face and then carried on searching through the living room for her headphones, sighing as she came up empty handed after each attempt. Noah threw his P.E kit back inside the washing machine and grabbed a slice of toast from the plate intended for Moses. Charity sighed heavily and pulled the lid off the bread bin to get another slice out, licking a slathering of butter off her thumb as she did. "Right remember, it's Jimmy's birthday thing at the Woolly tonight so it's straight over to the pub after school, so you can pick away at the buffet for your tea" Charity called out over the loud scraping of the knife across Moses' toast. "Well I'll have to come home to change first" Sarah remarked, "Um nope sorry, I'm not risking having you bringing anyone round to an empty house" Charity replied, just as Vanessa and the boys came down the stairs. "Vanessa, tell her" Sarah moaned, "Tell her what?", "That I need to change out of my uniform before going to the pub tonight, only she won't let me" Sarah explained, as Charity pulled faces from across the room. "No, it's alright she can come home and change-" Vanessa began, causing Sarah to smile as if she'd won some sort of competition. "I'll come round and wait for you and then we can walk over to the pub together" Vanessa added with a smile. "Great" Charity beamed, when she really wanted to shout 'one nil' at her granddaughter. "Here we are boys, Mummy Charity made you breakfast, what do we say?" Vanessa asked, handing the plastic plates over to their sons as they sat at the table. "Thank you" they chimed quietly together, before slamming the overly buttered, almost cold toast into their mouths. "What am I going to do about my P.E kit?" Noah asked, knowing there was no way he was going to actually take part in his underwear. "Oh, give it a rest Noah, borrow something from the lost property box" Charity suggested, throwing her hands in the air. "Ergh, no, they stink" Noah grimaced. "Just like you then" Sarah added, still rummaging between the cushions. "Shut up" Noah repeated himself for the third time, tired of Sarah's sarcasm. "Give us your planner, I'll write you a note" Vanessa rolled her eyes, and grabbed a pen from the pencil pot on the table. "What are you looking for anyway?" She asked as Sarah launched a cushion across the room. "My headphones", "Are they pink and bedazzled to an inch of their life?" Vanessa asked, very matter of factly. "Yeah" Sarah nodded, eagerly. "Bathroom floor, next to the sink" Vanessa told, scribbling her signature at the bottom of Noah's planner before handing it back to him. "Life saver" Sarah called out as she ran up the stairs. Noah stuffed the planner back into his bag and flopped down onto the sofa. Sarah returned almost immediately with her headphones hanging around her neck, plugged into her phone. "Alright, now get out from under my feet" Charity demanded, "Chop, chop. School, now" She added, clapping her hands at the two teenagers and forcing them out of the door. "Behave yourselves and listen to your teachers, you might actually learn something", "I might, he won't though cause he's dull" Sarah joked. Charity pulled the door shut behind them, just catching Noah telling Sarah to shut up for the fourth and final time of the morning. "Those two drive me insane" Charity told, sitting down to put on her shoes. "Yeah, but you love it," Vanessa added. "Do I?" Charity pretended to ask herself, as she slipped on her boots. Vanessa half laughed as she took the first sip of her tea. "Okay, I have really got to go" Charity announced, taking one long sip at her own cup before pouring the rest of it down the drain. "Alright, see you later" Vanessa cooed, quickly pecking Charity on the lips. "Love you", "Love you" they declared to one another. Then Charity ruffled her hands through Johnny and Moses' hair and left for work.
As she arrived at the pub, keys in hand she noticed that the doors were already open, and so she knew she was about to get it in the neck from Chas. She took a deep breath and tried to slip inside quietly as not to draw any attention to herself, but as soon as she krept around the side of the bar she found Chas sitting at one of the booths feeding Eve, whilst Paddy tied balloons on a string onto one of the lighting fixtures above the table. Without looking away from the baby bottle, Chas spoke up "You're late" she said flatly. Charity opened her mouth to excuse herself when Chas spoke again. "No don't speak, I don't care why, just get on with something so I can take my daughter back upstairs." Charity nodded and pursed her lips. Luckily, or unluckily, the drayman hadn't arrived yet due to having been stuck behind a broken-down tractor a mile down the road, so there was just enough time to unlock the cellar doors and make sure he would have a clear pathway to wheel in the new barrels. As she flicked on the lights to the cellar, memories of secret snogging sessions with Vanessa flooded to mind, and so she lingered in the doorway for a moment thinking back to one of those times. "Charity" A woman's voice sounded from behind, startling her and dragging her back to the present. "Victoria! Don't sneak up on me like that" She blurted out, her heart pounding at the shock. "Sorry" Victoria stropped, not sounding sorry at all. "What do you want?" Charity asked, shaking her head as she stepped away from the cellar door. "Right, uh, okay don't go mad, but I kind of need to finish early today so you're going to have to help Marlon with the rest of the catering later", "What? No!" Charity gasped, "What does Chas think about this?", "Well, I haven't told her. To be fair none of us ever know if or when you're going to actually show up, and Chas is in a weird mood, so I haven't asked her" Victoria trailed on. "Yeah, keep insulting my time keeping, see if that helps your plea" Charity quipped. Victoria cupped her hands together and tilted her face. "Please, I've had this afternoon out with Matty planned for ages, and I bailed on him last time and if I don't go this time, he'll think I'm being funny with him. I've already done most of the finger foods. And you know Marlon, he probably won't actually let you touch anything anyway so you'd just have to stand there and watch" Victoria went on. Charity rolled her eyes, "Where is Marlon anyway?", "He's taking April to school, he won't be long", "Oh, so it's alright for Marlon to be late but me-" Charity stopped, not needing to give an example of herself. "To be fair he is a single dad again now", "Well that's his own fault for marrying that cow Jessie. It should have been obvious she wasn't right in the head when he found out she was a headmistress. And when has anyone ever found a headmistress to be sexy anyway?" Charity winced. Victoria stood with a blank expression on her face. "So, can I go early then?" Victoria asked timidly. "Fine, but you owe me, yeah?" Charity gave in. "Aw thank you" Victoria beamed, and then she skipped off before Charity had a chance to change her mind. Charity rubbed her eyes with her hands and let out a small groan just as there was a hard rapping at the door and the bearded face of the regular drayman appeared in the small window above the letterbox. "Hiya, come in" Charity greeted him with a false cheery voice, as she stepped aside to let him through the door. "Good Morning, Miss Dingle" he chirped in a strangely happy voice that only he could ever use this early in the morning. The drayman handed over his wooden clipboard for Charity to sign, and before she could ask for a pen, he produced one from his shirt pocket and grinned as he clicked the button to produce its nib. Charity scanned the list of beers and ale's making sure the order was right, before scribbling her signature across the dotted line. "I'm just going to leave you to it then," She announced as the drayman bent over and revealed the top of his bum protruding over his ill-fitting jeans. "Not a problem" He chortled as he lifted the first barrel over the threshold of the cellar. "Great" Charity whispered and then snuck off back into the bar.
Paddy had finished hanging up the balloons and had moved on to blue tacking various blown up photographs of Jimmy King to the walls. "Ergh, imagine waking up to that face every morning" Charity proposed, holding up one of the photos, hoping to get a laugh from Chas. "Well you almost did" Chas announced, her expression deadpan. Charity looked taken aback as memories of her brief relationship with Jimmy all those years ago came to mind. "Lucky escape hey", "Yeah, lucky Jimmy" Chas replied. Paddy let a small laugh escape from his mouth for a moment before panicking and quieting himself as he caught Charity's eye. Charity raised an eyebrow and threw the photograph back down onto the table, "I think you'll find I wake up to a hot, sexy blonde every morning" Charity boasted. "Poor Vanessa" Chas and Paddy both chimed at the same time, then fell into hysterics with one another. "Oh Ha-ha" Charity gasped, "What is it pick on Charity day?", "We're just pulling your leg. Anyway, serves you right for being late, again", "I have four kids at home" Charity spoke, matter of factly, as if that was a good enough excuse to use. "And I have a new-born who likes to scream all night and glue herself to my breasts all day, but you don't see me waltzing in late", "You live upstairs" Charity pointed out. Before another word could be said, the drayman popped his head around the bar. "All done ladies, I'll be seeing you" He smiled. "Alright thanks mate" Chas called out, with a toothy grin, that she let drop the moment he disappeared back around the back. "Right come on, you can take over from Paddy before he gets a nosebleed" Chas nodded to Charity, handing over a ball of pre used blue tack. "Oh, thank you" Paddy gasped, immediately stepping down from the cushioned bench, glad to have his feet back on the floor. "Fine," Charity murmured, taking the blue tack and a photo from the table. "Happy birthday, Jimmy" she huffed, poking the photo of him in the eye to stick it to the wall.