I love the Heartstopper universe and the world that Alice Oseman has created so superbly. All rights to these characters belong to her of course. It's my privilege to use them. The premise for this story is that Jane Spring was always a cold mother to Charlie and Tori and didn't have the redemption that comes towards the end of Volume 4 of Heartstopper or in This Winter. It's set many years after Nick and Charlie's teenage romance. The Spring children are all adults, Tori and Nick are in their early fifties, Charlie and Oliver in their forties. I haven't made anything futuristic here; although I love science-fiction this is the near-future and I don't imagine that anything will change that fundamentally. Trigger warnings: mention of death, pet bereavement, grief, bad family dynamics, one instance of swearing. The rating I've chosen is arbitary - anyone can read it. There's no smut.