The Scottish Thistle and The English Rose by HaylsValo

Chapter 20: Trouble And Strife

Boo was woken after a few hours of fretful, troublesome sleep to the delicious smells of bacon, sausages and eggs. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, willed herself to wake up some. She felt like she hadn't gotten any sleep at all, and to top matters of her body was stiff and aching after a night on the small couch. Yawning widely she stood and stretched out, massaging at the crook in the back of her neck before wandering into the kitchen, Tillie bouncing along happily at her feet. Boo felt a dull, sick feeling of dread at the pit of her stomach, a strange sort of nervousness that only came after she and Chibs argued. She was almost afraid to go into the kitchen, unsure of how Chibs would be feeling after their argument the night before. Was he still angry with her? Or had a good night's sleep calmed him down a little? Knowing the only way she was going to find out was to just go in and speak to Chibs, Boo took a deep breath and wandered into the kitchen, anticipating the worst. The Scotsman was at the stove, making the fry up for two that she normally made him on a Saturday morning, the sort of fry up that normally followed a blow job in bed... Surely Chibs would be feeling less than happy about missing out on his Saturday morning blow job? Thankfully however, when he turned at the sound of her and Tillie entering the kitchen, he had a nervous smile on his face. Boo returned it, hers equally as nervous.

"Morning..." Chibs nodded before crossing the kitchen and planting a tender kiss to Boo's forehead. Boo could feel him shaking just a little bit, obviously he was worried that she was going to kick off again. She placed a hand on his arm and at once all the tension she felt there melted away.

"Hey..." she whispered, giving him a chaste kiss before sitting down at the table, patting her lap as soon as she was sat down for Tillie, who didn't hesitate in leaping up and curling up on her lap. Chibs returned to the stove and dished up breakfast before returning to the table and placing a plate of bacon, eggs and the like in front of Boo. The brunette couldn't help but beam at that, she was starving. "You made breakfast?" she grinned as she picked up her fork and dug in. Chibs nodded as he started on his own breakfast.

"Well, I felt bad about last night." He said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. He'd lain awake for a long time after Boo stormed off, questioning whether he should go after Boo or whether he should just stay in bed and wait until the morning when she'd calmed down. He wanted to go and talk to her, hated the idea that she was sleeping all alone on the uncomfortable couch but problem was he didn't know what he could say that would put things right, for he could say he hadn't been with someone as much as he wanted, with Boo in the mood she was in she'd never believe him. And he wasn't going to lie about how he felt about Wendy's death. His Ol' Lady had been idiotic and reckless, killing her so publicly and in Charming. It had chilled Chibs to his bones, terrified him, that she could have so easily been caught. Because then he would have lost her and the idea of losing Boo... it just didn't bear thinking about. She was his beautiful wee Hen, the one whole and pure thing in his otherwise fucked up life. Only now she wasn't as pure as she seemed... So he'd stayed in bed and forced himself to drift off, knowing that in the morning they both would have calmed down enough to talk to one another. At least he hoped. "I wasn't with anyone Boo, I sw-" he insisted, reaching across the table and taking Boo's hand in his, willing her to look up so that she would look into his eyes and see the honesty there. She did and Chibs was shocked to see tears in her eyes, her lower lip trembling... she was on the brink of bursting into tears and Chibs feared that it was because she believed that he'd been with another woman.

"I know, I know!" Boo nodded, furiously wiping away the tears in her eyes. Tears that had formed because she was angry with herself, angry for doubting her man, for believing that he had been with another when she knew full well that he hadn't. The blow jobs on runs she could deal with, for if she was honest with herself she expected him to simply fuck every whore that came his way as he had done before, but she couldn't handle the idea that he'd slept with another woman. And Chibs knew it. Whenever he did cheat on her, his face always gave it away. He'd have dull guilty glint in his trembling eyes, his lips would go dry and he'd constantly wet them with the tip of his tongue and he wouldn't be able to smile at her, not at all...When Chibs had returned home the night before he'd given no sign that he'd cheated on her other than the smell of another woman on his clothes. "You just stank of dead bodies and perfume is all, and then crawled into bed with me!" she went on, for after all, what did he expect her to think, crawling into bed with her with such a stink on him? "But that's not why I slept on the couch." She added, pulling her hand free from Chibs grasp and ducking her head, hiding her face in her hair. She knew he'd bring up the Wendy thing again despite the fact that she'd rather he just dropped it, despite the fact that it was causing such tension and stress in their relationship. Couldn't he just leave it? It had happened, it was done and there was no taking it back. Not that she wanted too.