Work Text:
July 2022
After the end of a normal day of vetting, Vanessa popped into the newly reopened Pub, her eyes and Charity’s lighting up at the sight of each other.
Nicola, sat at the Pub next to her husband, turned to Jimmy with a frown, “It’s a bit disgusting, isn’t it? How loved up those two are?”
Charity leaned across the bar for a kiss from Vanessa. “Ignore them.”
Vanessa smiled blissfully as she leaned in for the kiss, “Who?”
Charity kissed her again before she popped back down and started to pull a pint for her partner at the same time a gorgeous woman, dressed to impress, entered the Pub and half the men practically fell over themselves to offer her a hand and a drink..
Charity looked up to catch Vanessa’s eyes to suitably mock the spectacle, but Vanessa’s gaze had also been drawn to the newcomer.
Charity sighed, exasperated, “Babe, come on, she isn’t…”
“Vanessa,” the woman said, and Charity’s eyes snapped towards her in shock before slitting as she assessed the nature of the threat.
“Cass,” Vanessa acknowledged, smiling politely even as her mind raced, “What are you doing in Emmerdale?”
The woman smiled brightly as she headed towards Vanessa, seemingly oblivious to the attention she had attracted. She opened her arms for a hug even as Vanessa casually, but clearly, blocked the hug with a warm handshake. Charity clocked the momentary frown from Cass before it flitted away.
“I was in Hotten for a conference, and since your Mum mentioned that you’d moved back here, I thought I’d try my luck and see if I could buy you dinner. So what do you say?” Cass asked, smiling brightly.
“I’d say, that you should have called first,” Vanessa replied apologetically before turning towards Charity, “Charity and I already have plans.”
Cass’ eyes widened, “The Charity?”
Vanessa smiled faintly as she caught Charity’s expression and her eyes begged Charity not to be, well, too Charity.
“Plans?” Charity scoffed. “You sitting at the bar, drinking free booze and watching me work is hardly that. Don’t let me stop you.”
Cass seemed thrilled and Vanessa sighed, knowing that she was going to be paying for this for the foreseeable, but determined not to let what was most likely an innocent gesture be turned into something salacious by the gossipmongers.
“If you don’t mind eating here?” Vanessa asked.
“Of course,” Cass replied easily.
She was a lovely woman, Vanessa knew. Much nicer than one might expect with her looks and all.
“So, Cass is it?” Mack asked, sauntering up to the bar, “how do you know ‘our’ little Vanessa?”
Vanessa refused the bait, even as Cass innocently dug her grave for all to hear.
“Vanessa and I were in school together. And it turns out, she had a massive crush all those years ago. Which she told me about when we ran into each other at our reunion last summer.” She turned to give Vanessa the once over, “That turned out to be quite a memorable weekend.”
Charity choked and the beer she was setting down for Vanessa somehow managed to slip, spilling across the bar and just missing Vanessa’s lap as she jumped out of the way, giving her partner the stink eye.
Charity shrugged and tossed Vanessa a cloth as Cass leaned towards Vanessa, “Should I not have said?”
Vanessa shook her head. It wasn’t like she’d lied to Charity. She just may not have mentioned everything, or more importantly everyone, she’d gotten up to while they’d been apart.
Knowing this couldn’t wait until later, Vanessa grabbed a menu that was sat in front of Nicola and dropped it down in front of Cass, “Why don’t you take a look at this and I will be right back,” Vanessa said, marching around the bar and into the back of pub fully confident that Charity would follow.
——-
Charity did follow, walking through the back door and straight into Vanessa, who was kissing her before she had a moment to think or process. After a few seconds Charity managed to pull herself away…barely.
“That’s cheating.”
“I love you. And only you. You know that right?”
Charity swallowed. There was something about Vanessa’s steady gaze that destroyed most of her brain cells, but she desperately tried to regroup.
“I have a right to be upset.”
“But there’s nothing to be upset about, really,” Vanessa cajoled.
“You didn’t spend a weekend in bed with her?” Charity asked.
“Not recently,” Vanessa replied with a cheeky smile.
Charity opened her mouth, outraged, but Vanessa stopped her with a finger over her mouth.
“Charity, I told you before we got back together. I went a bit wild for a bit. Cass was…more for the teenage version of me than me really. I haven’t spoken to her since. It was nothing.”
“Nothing? Then why is she here? And your mother..."
“Oh come on, you can’t seriously think…”
Marlon threw open the door, “If you aren’t back out there in the next five minutes that spectacularly, attractive woman is going to get the cops called on us.”
“She’s not THAT attractive.” Charity replied, more than a bit aggrieved.
Marlon and Vanessa both gave her a bit of a look, and Charity sharpened her eyes on Vanessa.
“You - don’t think you’re off the hook this easily,” she said as she stormed back out.
Marlon looked at Vanessa a bit admiringly. “You really don’t do easy, do you?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Vanessa replied weakly.
—
Vanessa made her way into the pub, saw the crowd of men surrounding Cass and got a bit angry on her behalf. Which is what had actually led to their hookup in the first place. All of the men from their class acting like idiots.
Vanessa was constitutionally incapable of letting it go and waded into the fray, “Hey Bob, I saw Brenda earlier and think she was planning to stop into the Pub on her way home,” she declared innocently, and Bob immediately scurried back to his spot on the other side of the bar.
Vanessa gave the rest of the men stink eyes and they also slinked back a bit. Except for…
“Someone sounds jealous,” Mack teased.
Vanessa gritted her teeth. “I know this is going to blow your brains a bit, but some women get a bit uncomfortable when a group of strange men surround them when they’re simply trying to have a bite to eat and chat up an old mate.”
Mack lost a bit of his cocky stare, which dropped further as it was clear that Cass was deeply uncomfortable with all the attention.
“I’ll just be over there,” he said to Cass and slunk off to his table with Ryan and Fiona.
Vanessa sat back down on her stool and accepted Cass’ grateful hand squeeze before clearly setting it aside as she could practically feel Charity seething across the bar.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call. Your mum didn’t…”
“I’m sure she didn’t,” Vanessa said with a sigh.
Cass wasn’t the brightest bulb, but even she recognized the tension she had accidentally created and turned to try to explain to Charity.
“Vanessa came to my rescue at our reunion after my boyfriend at the time made one of his many scenes and gave me the chance to vent.”
“And then one thing led to another,” Marlon added less than helpfully and Vanessa flushed and Charity gritted her teeth.
Vanessa knew they were seconds from more “accidental’ spillage and she sighed. “Cass, would you mind telling Charity why you called her “The Charity?”
Cass gave Vanessa a surprised look, “You sure?”
Vanessa nodded. It wasn’t how she used to operate with Charity. But Charity needed words, not just actions, and she’d sure offered up more than enough that weekend.
“Well, after Vanessa convinced me to end it once and for all with my loser boyfriend, we enjoyed the rest of the reunion together.”
“I bet you did,” Charity gritted under her breath.
“I tried to convince her to keep in touch, but she said she wasn’t looking for anything serious. That, as much as she tried to get over her, she was still in love with someone else.”
“Our amazing Charity!” Marlon added.
“And then she couldn’t stop talking about you. Why she loved you even though she knew she couldn’t be with you anymore. But I take it things have changed?”
“They have.” Vanessa declared clearly.
“My loss then.” Cass sighed.
“Who knew you were such a player,” Mack said admiringly to Vanessa. “Better watch out,” he warned Charity and Vanessa rolled her eyes before turning to her partner.
“Nothing to watch out for,” Vanessa said easily, "because the only person I want to be with is right here,” Vanessa smiled at Charity who melted a bit more, but she needed more. She reached across the bar top and dragged Vanessa up a bit to give her a kiss. Not their usual greeting type, but one designed to leave no questions for anyone that Vanessa was hers.
“Hey, come on, your children are here,” Ryan complained.
Vanessa pulled back just a bit dazed, “Well then, hopefully you’ve learned something,” she said before leaning up for another quick kiss just because Charity was there and she couldn’t resist.
She was oblivious to the disappointment from Cass, but Charity wasn’t.
—
Mack sat at his table with Fiona and Ryan, nursing his beer, yet again frustrated by the blond sat at the bar who was comfortably enjoying her meal with one of the most stunning women he’d ever seen, while Charity seemed attuned to her every want and need before she even asked.
“I don’t get it,” Mack said to Ryan and Fiona.
“Get what?” Ryan asked.
“Her,” Mack gestured towards Vanessa, clad in her normal vet clothes, hair back in a ponytail, “and them,” Mack gestured to encompass Cass and Charity, “and you,” he added for Fiona, “What’s her Superpower?”
“You want lessons?” Ryan teased.
Fiona snorted, “She listens. Like, really listens,” she said. “She makes you feel good,..in more ways than one,” she added with a smirk.
Ryan groaned. “I did not need to hear that."
“You’re telling me that she’s better than,” Mack gestured to Nate, who was looking very, very good stood at the bar as he was.
Fiona snorted. “There’s a reason your former girlfriend almost killed herself after losing her.”
“What about you?” Mack asked. “You seem to be handling the loss well enough.”
Fiona sighed, “That’s because I never really had her.”
—-
Later that evening Vanessa sent Cass back to Hotten in a cab without so much as a polite lie about staying in touch, and then she made her way back home, poured herself a glass and waited for Charity to close up and join her.
—-
Charity wiped down the bar for the fifth time, not sure why she was avoiding going home. She wasn’t mad. Or even jealous really. Vanessa loved her. She really…
“Marlon, are you still…” Rhona caught sight of Charity’s expression.
“Charity, is everything okay?” Rhona asked.
“What?” Charity asked, lost as she was in her own headspace. “Yeah. it’s…” Charity gave up, “Why me?” She asked.
“Excuse me?” Rhona asked, confused.
“She could have her pick. Well, not you, but…”
Ahh, Vanessa. Of course. “Did something happen?” Rhona asked. “Because the last time I saw you two together, which was all of about 12 hours ago, you were disgustingly happy.”
Charity nodded even as she was barely holding it together.
“Hey Charity,” Marlon shouted from the kitchen as he headed into the main pub, “if you’re raiding our shelves for that fancy stuff Vanessa likes you better pay for it. And while you’re at it, flowers might not be a bad idea. Because that Cass woman…”
“Excuse me?“ Rhona asked, startling Marlon as he came out from the kitchen.
“Rhona. I didn’t hear you…”
“Who’s Cass?” Rhona asked.
“Vanessa’s college crush,” Charity shared softly.
“And we’re talking about her because?”
“Let’s set the scene shall we?” Marlon began, oblivious to Charity’s distress. “The most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen…”
“Uh.…” Rhona asked, with a raised brow.
“I’m talking Catherine Zeta Jones in Zorro.”
“That woman was unreal,” Rhona acknowledged.
Marlon nodded. “She walks into the Pub, and I thought there was going to be a riot."
“Not you I trust?”
“Definitely not me. Bob though…”
“So Catherine Zeta Jones walks into a Pub and?”
“Only has eyes for Vanessa.” Charity shared softly.
Rhona looked at both of them, “You’re joking.”
“Scout’s honor.” Marlon declared. “Apparently, there was a reunion weekend last year where they were…” Mack held up his fingers for air quotes, "reunited.”
Rhona turned towards Charity, “You aren’t mad at her are you? Because you two weren’t exactly together then.”
Charity shook her head, but her panic button had gone off and, “I’m going to lose her. It’s just a matter of time.”
“What are you talking about?” Rhona asked, flabbergasted.
“Are you insane?” Marlon added.
“This woman,” Marlon began, “This gorgeous, stunning…”
“Can we please move on from…” Rhona asked.
“Vanessa is having this wild weekend with her teenage crush, and apparently, she spends half the time waxing on about yours truly over here.”
“That’s more like it,” Rhona said, “So how exactly did that get us here?"
“It’s clearly only a matter of time,” Charity said. “Maybe not Cass. Or Fiona. But there’s a lot of better options out there than…she’s gonna figure that out.”
Rhona sighed, “Charity. Go home. Talk to Ness. Please. Because you’re being just a little bit crazy right now. And that’s not a good place for you is it?”
The words hit and Charity reacted as if punched, “I wouldn’t. I won’t. Never. I only want her.”
“Well then, HER is waiting for you at home, so what are doing here?”
—-
Charity opened the door to Jacob’s Fold quietly, bottle of wine in hand, heart clenching a bit at the sight of Vanessa, curled up on the sofa with a book. She loved this woman so damn much it hurt sometimes.
“Heya,” Vanessa greeted with an easy smile.
“Hey,” Charity replied, more than a bit subdued.
“Want a glass?” Vanessa asked, holding up her own glass of red wine, “I dug into the good stuff.”
Charity held up her bottle, “Lucky I brought a replacement then, isn’t it?”
Vanessa smiled, clearly delighted, and Charity offered a weak smile back as she headed to the kitchen and poured herself a glass, doing her best to calm her spiral.
But Vanessa, being the insanely brilliant woman she was, recognized it, and patted the cushion next to her.
“Come, sit with me for a bit, I want a cuddle.”
Charity obediently did. Sitting down and then resting her head against Vanessa’s shoulder as Vanessa’s arm wrapped around her.
“So,” “Vanessa asked easily, “why don’t you tell me what disasters you’re currently imagining for us."
Charity snorted. “How do you know me so well?”
“I didn’t, though, right? Thought I did. But I missed…”
“You called me crazy more than once.”
“I stand by it too. Crazy to think I’d ever WANT to leave you. So…”
Charity’s lip quivered a bit, “There’s someone better, than me.”
“Loads of people more like,” Vanessa teased. “But not for me. Charity, why is this so hard for you to believe? I tried to move on. I tried to find someone else. I even tried to convince myself I only really fell for you because you were my first woman. And that is so not the case now….”
Charity frowned at that final comment and sat back up, “How many are we talking?”
Vanessa was caught off guard mid sip of wine, “Pardon?”
“You said, “that’s soooooooo not the case now” Charity exaggerated, “I’m just asking, how many more women are going to be walking through the doors of MY Pub coming after MY woman?”
Vanessa smiled softy, “Your woman, huh?”
“You got a problem with that?”
“Why would I have? What’s good for the goose,” Vanessa said, leaning towards her partner and kissing her lightly, “is good for the other goose.”
Charity wasn’t so easily distract. “Babe, you know all my secrets. So…” Charity got up from the sofa, finished her glass of wine and immediately poured herself another glass as she eyed her partner intently.
Vanessa offered up a faintly guilty smile, “Who really counts other than teenagers, am I right?”
“Ballpark it for me,” Charity demanded.
So Vanessa did. “Twenty...twenty-five. Give or take.”
Charity choked on her wine and Vanessa smiled innocently which made Charity suspicious. “You’re having me on now.”
Vanessa shrugged, “You said you wanted to know.”
“Come on. You started dating Fiona in like July, wasn’t it?”
“I met her right after Jessica, or was it Jennifer?” Vanessa asked herself. Whoever she was she’d been boring. And when Fiona had asked her to rescue her from the attention of some guy, she’d seen the game and decided to play for a bit. Fiona was many things, but boring wasn’t one. She just wasn’t Charity Dingle, the woman no one else seemed able to compete. Maybe they were attractive, even unfairly hot, but then they didn’t get the joke, or they were funny, but bad in bed, or good in bed, but dumb, or brilliant but boring.
Charity watched Vanessa’s thoughts play out across her face, and the soft smile that played out in the end and realized, “You’re serious.”
Vanessa waited expectantly and Charity didn’t disappoint. She laughed, loudly. And the dark clouds that had hovered over her when she’d walked through the door were waved off and she was practically grinning.
“So, thirty different women in what, a year? That’s gotta be some lesbian record. What happened to the U-Haul?”
“I apparently ordered that my first go, didn’t I?“ Vanessa asked.
And Charity’s generally more than healthy ego puffed back up as she eyed Vanessa consideringly and teased, “How’d you remember their names?” Then, seeing Vanessa’s expression she realized, “Or did you?”
“Well, Babe, it’s been great,” Vanessa shared, and Charity snorted.
“Oh, you dirty dog you. Did you scamper away in the dead of night like you attempted after our first time?”
Guilty. Vanessa shrugged and smiled sheepishly.
“Is there a picture of you on the bathroom wall at all the lesbian clubs? Beware, Heartbreaker?”
Vanessa knew exactly why Charity was finding this so entertaining and mock frowned at her, “Stop being so proud of yourself. It’s unattractive.”
Charity smirked. “You sure about that?” she asked as she sat down her wine and rejoined Vanessa on the couch, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and starting to nibble on Vanessa’s ear before whispering, “maybe Red can be 32…?”
Vanessa gasped in delight as Charity bit her earlobe and allowed herself to be eased onto her back, looking up at her extremely sexy girlfriend. Who looked just a touch too pleased with herself. Vanessa smiled mischievously before linking her leg over Charity’s and flipping them, tumbling her onto her back, arms above her head, and kissing the shocked expression right off her mouth.
“You were my first and now you’re going to be my last. Right?”
Charity nodded seriously, “You better believe it."