Summary: Three cups of tea prepared for Nicola Murray and one she prepared for someone else
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Her first week at DoSAC was completely shit. There were those fucking "I AM BENT" photos and Ella was still not talking to her after she told her she couldn't go to school with her friends because of mum's new job. She somehow had pissed off the civil servants and wasn't sure if she could trust Hugh's guys. She sighed and laid her heads in her arms on the desk.
She heard a mug being set down next to her head. She jerked her head up and saw Glenn standing there with a sheepish smile. "Thank you, Glenn. I really needed that." He opened his mouth to reply, but she waved her hand. "We'll just leave it at that, ok?"
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While the others had still been celebrating Malcolm's sacking when she left, Nicola could find no joy from it. She KNEW that her running away from him was going to come back to haunt her some day. But she also couldn't make herself lie for him.
She walked into the house and was surprised to find Katie reading on the sofa. Katie looked up. "You're home already? WOW."
The fact that her children were feeling neglected made her feel even worse. Katie noticed. "Wow, mum. You look like you had a bad day. Let me put a kettle on."
She couldn't quite believe it but she gratefully sank into the sofa. Katie brought two mugs and surprised Nicola even more by snuggling against her. Nicola took a sip of the tea as the two sat in silence, Nicola running her free hand through her daughter's hair.
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Her first Question Time was a catastrophe. She was shaking and near a full-blown panic attack. She could hear Malcolm swearing two stories up and Ollie just repeating over and over again, "I don't know! It was fucking horrible!"
She just stopped and sat down on the steps. She grabbed onto the railings and tried to work on her breathing. She felt even worse as she heard the clip of someone coming down the stairs. Just what she needed, someone to find her in this state after that appearance.
She had never been so happy to see Helen in her life. Helen sat next to her on the step, smiled her little tight-ass smile and handed her a cup of tea. "It wasn't that bad. We'll work on it," she said.
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Her subconscious must have been expecting him because she knew of no other reason for her to be up so late. After his walking out out of the inquiry, some small part of her mind figured he'd find his way to her.
She opened the door when she saw him coming. He started to say something but she held up her hand. "Shhh, Malcolm, the kids are asleep. C'mon in and I'll make some tea."
He glared at her - part anger and part despair - then nodded his head.
