"You alright pet"
Cheryl looks up from the small table she has been sitting at for the past few hours as her mum takes a seat opposite her, passing her another cup of coffee.
"Yeah" she smiles, genuine happiness, a happiness her mother hadn't seen in a year.
"Its good to see you smiling" she said "aren't you supposed to be sad being so hurt" she joked pointing to the cast on her arm.
"I'm happy, or I'm getting there, I'm happy we got rescued, I started to believe we were gonna die on that damn island" she laughed.
"I'm just happy, happy we are all safe, happy that Kimberley didn't die..." She trailed off at the questioning look on her mothers face.
"Kimberley Saved me life" she tells her and joan nodded but didn't look surprised.
"What happened?" Joan asked as Cheryl took a deep breath and told her everything from start to finish, from how she and kimberley left on bad terms and how things turned around. Joan couldn't hide the smile as she listened to her daughter, Joan loved Kimberley, always had done, even before they both got together and although she was angry at her she knew she hadn't meant it.
"Are you really happy?" Joan asked and Cheryl nodded.
"Yeah, and I want to be able to move on with my life, I don't want to be sad forever, when I saw that animal attack her, I as scared because I didn't think I'd ever see her again and I didn't like that feeling, it made me realize how much I still love her, do you think I'm stupid to forgive her?"
"I don't no" Joan said simply. "I think kimberleys learned her lesson and she's suffered a lot too, she's still the same girl that we all loved, she just lost her way"
"Why did you never blame her?" Cheryl asked, it was something she never understood, mums were supposed to be on your side not your enemys.
"I did, You know I did at first, but after I had got my anger out the way, I saw her one day and my heart went out for her, It really did, and I knew she needed help, not hate, I'll always love Kimberley"
Joan said thinking back to the day she walked into Kimberley and Cheryls old house.
.....
"Kimberley?" Joan said as she looked around at the never ending bottles of vodka lying around the hallway.
"Kimberley?" She called again, edging her way inside and finding Kimberley curled up on the sofa, tears streaming down her face, her hair was greasy, the house smelled.
"Oh kimberley" she sighed as she walked towards her and kneeled down in front of her.
"What are you doing? Look at you"
"I..I just want to be left on my own" she sobbed, covering her face with her hand.
Joan felt her heart melt there and then at the sight and all she wanted to do was help.
"Come on pet, let's get you upstairs and cleaned up yeah" She said moving some of the empty bottles off the sofa that were surrounding Kimberley.
"No..Leave me.. I don't deserve any help, I do..." She sobbed.
"Come on kimberley, let's go get cleaned up and then we can sit down and have a chat over a cup of tea alright?" She didn't let kimberley answer as she helped her to stand up and led her upstairs.
Running a bath, she left kimberley sitting on the toilet seat as she went into her room to get her some pyjamas.
As she entered the bathroom again, kimberley was still sitting staring into space and looked like she had no intention of moving.
