Work Text:
Mack doesn't realise where he's headed until Emmerdale Farm comes into view past the bend. He's been walking, hands in pockets, shoulders hunched, head down for some time now, judging by the sun now hanging low in the sky. His steps slow but he doesn't stop, his mind reeling with this latest betrayal.
Charity. Ross. Charity and Ross. It spins around and around in his head as he walks, still spinning when he knocks on the door.
It's Robert who answers, and if Mack is being honest with himself, after all the nonsense with the farms, Robert would be well within his rights to slam the door in his face. Instead, he just looks at him for a moment, then turns back into the kitchen, leaving the door open.
"Aaron," he calls out, opening the fridge and taking out three cans of beer. He leaves two on the kitchen table, pats Mack on the shoulder and goes into the living room. Aaron appears on the threshold just as Robert passes by, getting a light squeeze on his arm.
"What's- oh," he says, seeing Mack standing there. Mack would feel awkward, he thinks distantly, if his head wasn't taken up with bigger, louder emotions. Aaron takes him in for a moment, then grabs one of the cans from the table and his jacket from the hook on the wall. "Why don't we take these outside?"
By all accounts, and under any other circumstances, it's a perfect summer night. Sun still out, even with the late hour, with a light breeze of fresh air, warm enough that the first sip of the beer will refreshing rather than chilly, streaks of pink and orange painting the sky. Shepherd's delight, they call it. Mack wishes it would storm.
Aaron leads them to where the quad bike is sitting by a fence overlooking one of the fields, not far from the house. He cracks open his can and leans back against the fence, watching Mack with careful eyes. Mack feels a tingling sensation of discomfort run up his spine at being observed like this, and he sits on the back of the quad, opening his own can, and looking at anything but Aaron.
Aaron stays quiet, sipping slowly, waiting. Mack chances a glance up at him after a couple of minutes, and of course, he's still watching him. He's not asking any questions, though, not pushing, and that's when Mack realises and groans.
"You know."
Aaron hums, nodding.
"How long have you known?" Mack hopes to God it's not long. He really can't afford to lose any more friends today.
"Hour or two," Aaron says, easily. "Mum texted earlier, gave me the bullet points. Asked me to tell you to give Charity a break."
Mack lets out an incredulous, humourless laugh. "Ha! And? Are you going to?"
"Not likely," is the reply, Aaron's expression still careful, but it's enough for Mack to let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding in, and he looks down at the can in his hands, relieved.
Still though, "Suppose you'll have to stick by the family now? Thanks for stooping to one last drink with me."
"You know how it is," Aaron bites his lip as he shrugs, "Dingle Family Law… I'm kind of bloody sick of it, to be honest."
That gets Mack's attention again, his head whipping back up. Aaron Dingle is both the world's best and worst mate, depending on the day - he can go weeks without ever hearing from him, the little shite - but today, Mack has never been more grateful for him.
"Sometimes, the family does stuff that's just stupid," Aaron continues, "and you work it out for the sake of working it out. Keeping the peace. Other times, they do something that's pure cruel. You have to know where to draw the line." A dark look comes over Aaron's face and he looks over at the driveway to the house where a car is winding its way up carefully. "Peace only works if it's on both sides. Otherwise, it's just… control."
Mack had heard some rumblings about something happening between Robert and Cain, something to do with the farm he thinks, but everyone he'd spoken to about it had been very clear that Robert had been in the wrong. Mack hadn't questioned it, and he's now wishing he had.
Control.
The car stops, crunching on the gravel, and Mack recognizes it as Sarah's just before she climbs out. If she notices the two of them, loitering in the distance, she doesn't acknowledge them, just opens the back passenger side door and reaches in. She pulls out baby Leyla in her travel seat, and moves with her to the house, careful yet confident and Mack's heart aches for her. She may not be Leyla's mother, but she's sure as hell her mum.
The screaming match Mack had walked in on earlier, when all of this had unraveled and life as he'd known it had come to an end, had been awful and gut-wrenching and surely exhausting. He wonders how Sarah's still on her feet. His mind briefly wanders to Jacob, last seen bolting out of the Wishing Well, but he's not with Sarah now, so he imagines he's taking the news pretty hard.
He and Aaron watch as Sarah knocks on the door, and waits for a few seconds before Robert opens it. Mack can't really make out his face from here, but he can see him step back to allow Sarah to enter, sees them exchange a few words.
"Looks like my side of things has been chosen for me anyway," Aaron shrugs, watching Robert go out to the car and bring in an overnight bag. Robert closes the door behind him when he re-enters, but Mack thinks he sees him spare a glance in their direction.
"You an honourary Sugden then?" Mack asks, raising his can to his lips, expecting a derisive snort or a chuckle or something. Dingles don't tend to stop being Dingles, in Mack's experience anyway.
Aaron keeps his eyes on the house, on the spot where Robert was just moments ago. “I’m going to ask Robert if I can take his name when we get married.”
Mack splutters, nearly choking on the sip he's just taken. “What? Really?”
“Yeah. I was gonna change it back when, you know, before… and then with, em, with John," Aaron winces when he says the name, but barrels on, clearly trying to get his point across without lingering on their previous tormentor, "he brought it up one time and I shut it down immediately. Told him the Dingles wouldn’t stand for it. Truth was, I couldn’t stomach becoming a Sugden because of him and not because of Robert, I just didn’t want to face it at the time.”
“And the Dingles definitely wouldn’t stand for it.”
“Aye.”
“And they’re not likely to stand for it now either. Probably less likely now.”
“Yeah, well. They were ready to disown me not that long ago, and lately it's been feeling like the other shoe is just waiting to drop, so…”
“Do you really think that?”
Aaron turns around and moves his gaze out over the fields, takes another sip from his beer. He still doesn’t look back at Mack as he thinks it over, lightly chewing on his lip. “No. I suppose not, not entirely anyway. But it’s something Robert said, offhand a while back, he didn’t mean anything by it, but… he said, the Dingles’ll welcome you, with open arms, and have you drink from the welly, and they'll cheer and laugh and smile, and the second you step a toe out of line, it’s like all that never happened. You’re on the outside again. And he’s right. And I don’t want him living his life on the outside of my family." Aaron looks back at him now, sad smile on his face. "He is my family.”
Mack looks away as he listens to Aaron talk, and wonders briefly if he would be better off drowning his sorrows with Robert. He’d also drank from that disgusting boot, and now had nothing to show for it. Just the Dingles telling him to take it easy.
“The Sugdens aren’t much better, to be honest, they have their moments," Aaron continues. "But I kind of like the idea of having that with Robert, you know? Being a family. Doing everything I can so no one can ever take him away from me again.” There’s a grit to Aaron’s voice and a sparkle in his eye, that makes Mack believe him. Aaron would burn the world to the ground if it meant keeping Robert with him. He wonders why the Dingles and the rest of the village can’t see it, because it’s clear as day to him. “Also, dear old Jack Sugden will be turning in his grave at the idea of a gay Dingle carrying on his legacy, and I quite like the sound of that.” Aaron chuckles as he drains the last of his beer, and Mack can’t help but huff out a laugh as well.
“I’m sure Robert wouldn’t want you to give up your family, though.”
The small smile grows larger on Aaron’s face, now full of love as well as sadness, and Mack is almost certain he can see tears brimming in Aaron’s eyes.
“No, he’s never ask me to choose. Even through all this, he’s never once asked me to choose him over them.” Aaron sniffs, and roughly wipes at his face. “I think that’s why I do, you know, choose him. Because I know he’d stay with me even if I went against him. And he deserves to be chosen. He’s the right choice for me.”
Mack fiddles with the pull tab on his nearly empty can, "I thought… I really thought Charity was the right choice for me."
"Look, Mackenzie, I don't know what the right thing to do here is," Aaron says, standing up straight and facing him. "If you don't want to give up on Charity, you don't have to. Or, if you don't want to fight for her, you don't have to. All I know is, you definitely don't have to figure it out right now. Got it?"
Mack nods, tears finally breaching, and he can't find the energy to be embarrassed when he lets out a sob. "I'm so angry at her," he gasps out, "I feel like it's gonna eat me alive. I'm gonna lose everything, my wife, my house, Moses, I-" and he can't say anymore, but that's okay, because Aaron has dragged him to his feet and brought him in for a tight hug.
Mack cries, and Aaron holds him, and the sun sets and time moves on like it always does, like it doesn't give a damn that Mack's life is ripping apart at the seams. Aaron doesn't say anything, just stays there, his steady presence helping Mack get his head back in order.
He sniffs loudly as he stands back, rubbing at his face.
"Em," he coughs lightly, clearing his throat. "I don't wanna impose or anything, but… I think I might be technically homeless, right now? Any chance I could-"
"Course you can, mate," Aaron says, immediately, gently pulling at his arm to lead him back towards the house. "What're friends for?"
Mack shakes out the last of his can and Aaron bins them when they walk back inside. Mack stops in his tracks at the living room door.
Robert's setting up the couch, a pillow and a comfy looking blanket in place, and there's a glass of water and some paracetamol on the coffee table, next to a brand new toothbrush, still in the package. He looks up as they enter and doesn't say anything about the splotchiness of Mack's face. Mack internally takes back every bad thing he's ever said about Robert Sugden.
"I'd offer you a bed, but, Sarah and Leyla are gonna stay for a while," he directs that part at Aaron, who nods easily, "and with Matty and Kammy, there's no more room at the inn. Hope this is okay for tonight?"
"Thanks, Robert," Mack says, exhausted and suddenly feeling a little overwhelmed. "I appreciate it."
Robert pats him on the shoulder as he passes by him, heading for the primary bedroom right next door. "No worries, mate."
Mack gets ready for bed in a haze, traipsing upstairs to the bathroom and back down again without really noticing himself doing it. He strips down to his boxers and his t-shirt, and lies down on the couch, pulling the blanket over himself.
His feet hang over the end, and it feels like another injustice in an already unfair day. He's the injured party here - surely Charity should be the one mooching off her friends and trying to sleep on a lumpy couch. He looks at his phone sitting where he'd placed it on the coffee table, and thinks about turning it on. He's about to reach for it, when Robert walks through the living room.
"Sorry," he says, quietly, "just need to grab some water."
"Yeah, yeah, your house, mate," Mack says, then grimaces. Robert pauses but obviously decides it's not worth bringing up the foot in Mack's mouth so continues on his way.
He walks back through a minute later with two glasses of water, and he lets out a laugh when he sees Mack trying to arrange himself. "We'll see if we can't figure out a better solution for all this in the morning, yeah?"
"Better solution than my bad back getting worse? Sounds great to me," Mack quips, then frowns at himself for getting irritable. He feels like an overtired child.
"Good night, Mack," Robert says, ignoring his snapping, and heading into his own bedroom.
With the two glasses in his hands, Robert doesn't fully close the door, and when Mack adjusts his pillow into a more seated position to see if that's any better, he can see him place down the glasses on a dresser and start tidying up his clothes from the day.
Aaron's voice floats out of the room. "How's Sarah?"
Robert sighs. "Furious. And heartbroken. She's terrified Charity or Ross is going to come battering down the door to take Leyla from her any minute now."
"I'm sure they're not going to do that," Aaron says, and Mack can see him then, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around Robert's waist from behind, hooking his chin over his shoulder. "Well, Charity won't anyway, God knows about Ross."
"You alright with her staying?" Robert asks, laying his hands over Aaron's arms.
"Of course, she's family, right?" Aaron murmurs into Robert's neck, Mack can barely hear it. Robert smiles and turns around in Aaron's hold, placing a light kiss on his mouth, which is when Mack looks away. He's clearly not supposed to see that, and, also, he's feeling a spike of jealousy at their ease with one another. "Sugdens gotta stick together," he hears Aaron say, with a cheeky lilt to his voice.
The last thing Mack hears before the door closes properly is, "Sugdens do, do we?" from Robert, sounding almost giddy - it's not a tone Mack is used to hearing from him, but he thinks it suits him.
Mack punches the pillow into shape and lies back down, listening to the ambient noises of the house settling. It's all still shit, his mind is still reeling, but… maybe it'll be okay. Eventually.
There's a faint laugh from the room next door, loving and fond.
Mack makes a note to see if the Sugdens are taking applications in the morning.