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Nelly was woken up at four in the morning by a knock that seemed unsure if it was trying to be quiet or frantic. Although she didn't need to rise for her duties for another hour, she dragged herself out of bed and swept up her butler’s bag in case of an emergency. When she opened the door however, she was greeted not by a fellow butler but by the master's young ward, Heathcliff. He was wearing his pajamas still, yet somehow looked even more unkempt than usual. The buttons of his shirt were done up wrong, his hair mussed, and his lower lip swollen and bleeding slightly from a split.
“Heathcliff! What happened? Are you alright?” she exclaimed in worry.
“Please be quiet, Nelly,” Heathcliff replied “Can I come into your room to explain? Please?”
Nelly stepped back from the doorway, allowing Heathcliff in and shutting the door behind him. From her extradimensional bag she pulled a chemical icepack and a bottle of disinfectant, not standard parts of a butler's kit, but ones she'd taken to carrying ever since Heathcliff entered her care. The boy rarely made it a week without needing tending to with her now well stocked first aid kit. Nelly dabbed clean the small cut on his lip, then handed him the cold pack to snap and put on it. Heathcliff obliged as he sat down in her little desk chair.
“Now,” Nelly said, putting her hands on her hips “Tell me what sort of trouble you were getting into in the dead of night that left you at my door in such a state,”
“I can’t tell you Nelly. I'm sorry. I just need to ask a favor and you can't tell Cathy about it. Or Mr. Earnshaw. I can't- they can't know, Nelly.” Heathcliff refused to meet her eyes as he spoke, staring fixedly at the wall behind her shoulder.
“Why on earth not? Heathcliff, you know they love you. Even if you were trying something terribly stupid like stealing from the family, Mr. Earnshaw would forgive you. And no matter how fond of you I am, I won't lie to my employer on your behalf.” Nelly didn't seriously think that Heathcliff would rob the family, as he seemed to prioritize nothing above Cathy’s good opinion of him, but he was a mischievous boy who likely had gotten himself into trouble he feared would disappoint the Earnshaws “Oh Heathcliff… did you pick a fight with young master Hindley again?”
Heathcliff flinched at the name, but denied the accusation “No! No. I didn't fight him. I didn't fight anyone. And I wouldn't ask you to lie to them, just refrain from saying anything on the matter. Please, Nelly, I'll pay you back. I'll take on whatever of your tasks you entrust to me, or give you my allowance, or, or whatever you ask. Please. I just need this favor and I need you not to tell anyone about it.”
Nelly sighed deeply. “If I find your request reasonable, then yes. I'll do it for you, and I'll keep it secret. I won't make you pay me for it either, if it's reasonable. Otherwise I will send you right off to bed and tell Mr. Earnshaw everything!”
Heathcliff kept the cold pack held over his mouth as he muttered “I need… I need you to pick me up morning after pills” so quietly Nelly thought she'd misheard him.
“Morning after pills? Heathcliff, if you and Miss Catherine have been… fooling around, there's no chance either of you are pregnant” Nelly felt a little like laughing. They had gotten to that age, she supposed, but she would have thought they'd remember their sex education lessons better, from how embarrassed they'd both been after. Yet instead of laughing it off with her, Heathcliff flinched again.
“I know. I know how it all works, Nelly. It. Wasn't Cathy. And he didn't pull out. So now I need morning after pills. I can convince Mr. Earnshaw to let me go on birth control by saying I just don't want to have periods but I can't just tell him I need morning after pills and I can't risk getting pregnant so please. Please Nelly.”
Nelly blinked away the shock of Heathcliff falling into bed with anyone other than Miss Catherine, and went to enquire “Why can't your paramour fix this then, if he was so irresponsible?” but Heathcliff cut her off after “Paramour”, snarling “He's not my paramour. He's not my anything, and he doesn't give a damn what happens to me as the result of his actions. I bet he wants me to get kicked out for being- being loose or some rich people shite like that.”
Nelly’s blood ran cold. “Heathcliff… If you- If you didn’t- want him- That’s nothing Mr. Earnshaw nor Miss Catherine nor I would ever hold against you, Heathcliff. And you needn't tell me who it was, but if you tell Mr. Earnshaw, I am certain he will dismiss whoever it was from the staff immediately. Most likely he shall have him tried and hanged as well. You have no need to be ashamed, or keep it a secret.”
Heathcliff slammed the cold pack onto her desk. “He won’t, Nelly. If I went to Mr. Earnshaw and told him, I’d be back out on the street and most likely having to do the same sort of thing to survive there with far more men for far less reward. It’s fine. I can handle it. I just need this one favor from you and you’ll never have to think about it again.”
The very idea was absurd to Nelly. The only people Mr. Earnshaw would ever choose over Heathcliff were the children of his own blood, and it obviously wasn’t Miss Catherine, which only left the possibility rhat it was- oh. Oh, Heathcliff. Nelly took a deep breath to center herself. “Alright. You return to your room, shower and dress yourself as usual. You will have to wake Miss Catherine for breakfast, and make sure you are both in the sitting room in time for your lessons with the Governess. I should be back with your medicine by luncheon, but you will have to be responsible for yourself and Miss Catherine until I return.”
Heathcliff lunged forwards to embrace her, hiding his face in her apron like he was a child again. She could feel it growing damp as he silently shook, doing quite an awful job hiding his tears. She petted his hair back gently, making soothing noises. She couldn’t tell him it would be alright, wouldn’t lie like this to her poor ward like that. Nothing here was alright, but at the very least she could fulfil his request to her.