Hello all,

Just to explain a bit about why I've written my next story.

It came from a PM request from Priv, who asked for me to write a specific scene. Then the rest of the story was built around it. It jumps around a lot in terms of time, but not so much to get confusing.

I love the characters of Chas and Cain and this will mainly focus on them, as well as Aaron. It's a bit of a defence of the Chas character, because I think she's often quite unfairly assassinated on various internet sites, and I have a feeling this may get even worse once the affair is exposed.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Please review and tell me any thoughts you have, good or bad.

17:00 27th February 2013 Lough, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland

Cain Dingle approached the rundown cottage quietly, trying to see in through the windows, checking for any sign of his bounty. The only light in the house was shining from a small window on the top floor. He looked around to check nobody could see what he was about to do, but he needn't have worried - there was nothing for miles around, no other buildings, just farmland to the east and the sea to the west. He could hear the tide slapping against the pebble beach, but couldn't see it in the dark. He took the crowbar from his jacket pocket, slipped it into the gap of the door and gave it a short sharp tug. The old wood gave way straight away, not even making much of a noise.

He'd been waiting for this moment for months, chasing after her across land and sea to get revenge for his family, and make her face up to what she'd done. He heard someone scamper heavily above him and then the distinctive sound of a bolt lock sliding into place. She was definitely here, and she must have heard his arrival. It was show time.

He walked quickly up the stairs, not bothering to keep his actions stealthy; she was too clever to be tricked into thinking he'd gone away. When he got to the top of the stairs, he saw that all doors but one were slightly ajar. There was no light coming from any of the rooms anymore, she'd obviously switched off the one that had been on. He banged on the closed door hard with the crowbar, hoping to make her jump. He was rewarded with a tight whimper from behind the door.

"You're a hard one to find" he spoke loudly and clearly, with as much menace as he could possibly muster, which, with him being Cain Dingle, was a lot.

He waited for a response, not sure if she was going to bother answering him. After a couple of minutes, he heard a voice say "go away, please. Just leave me alone". For a minute, he thought it couldn't be her, that he'd got the wrong house. He'd never heard her sound so…small was the only word he could find to describe it.

"You're dreaming if you think I'm just going to turn around and walk away now. I'm taking you back to face the family, if I have to drag you there by your hair" he threatened.

He heard another whimper. He hadn't expected the hard man act to work quite so well on her, she'd seen it a million times before. Never on her though. She'd been the one person he'd thought he'd never have to threaten, and how wrong he was. He banged on the door again and raised his voice, "I mean it Chas, get out here now, or I'm crowbarring this door like I did the last one".

"Might not be as easy" Chas replied in that same tight, small voice, but Cain heard a bit of her trademark sarcasm seeping through, "there's three bolt locks on this one".

"Expecting a soap burglar?" he asked snidely.

"Something like that" she answered.

He sat down with his back to the door and rested his head against it, going for a different approach and trying to talk her into coming out.

"Never had you down as a coward" he said, "running away like that".

"I had my reasons" came the response.

"And what reasons did you have for destroying Our Debbie's life? Sleeping with her fella when she was pregnant and looking after a dying kid?"

"None" the small voice replied. He heard her take some deep breaths, hold back sobs. "I'm everything you've said I am Cain, I'm a cheap, dirty whore with no family loyalty and I hate myself for what I did".

"Then why?" Cain questioned, "why did you do it when you knew what would happen? You've never betrayed the family before, not once".

He waited for a response, heard her moving around inside the room, breathing heavily, whimpering slightly, and wondered if she'd gone slightly mad living on her own in such a remote place for the last few months. Finally, she replied, "you're not going to believe me, but I loved him. I honestly loved him Cain and I thought he loved me. He told me…" she trailed off again.

Cain scoffed, "and you believed him? You're nothing but a daft tart, and to think you're the one with the university education! He was telling you what you wanting to hear so you'd drop your knickers and give him what Debbie couldn't – a bit of uncomplicated fun. And you were happy to oblige weren't you?"

"It wasn't like that, I swear" Chas protested. He heard her stop moving suddenly and bite back a moan and he started to think something wasn't quite right about the situation.

"What are you doing in there?" he asked angrily, banging on the door. He was trying to weigh up the possibility of her attempting to escape through the window, but even with her well-known recklessness, nobody would attempt a drop that high.

"Look, there's a pub up the road…" Chas started to say.

"Oh I'm well aware of your pub up the road, it's a right nice bar is Murphy's. They're all right friendly there too. Said I was looking for my friend, showed them your picture, and your name and address came tumbling straight off their tongues. Well, not your real name, eh Chas? I have to hand it to you, you've got a sense of humour, calling yourself Sandy Thomas" he laughed.

Inside the small bathroom, Chas was struggling to control the waves of pain that were flooding her nervous system. She needed her brother to leave, he couldn't be there right now. She breathed through the pain as quietly as she could, biting her lip so hard it bled. Once the pain eased off a bit, she attempted to speak, to try again to talk Cain into leaving her alone.

"I'll meet you in Murphy's in half an hour, I swear to you…please Cain…"

Cain was on his feet again, livid at her request, "do you think I'm an idiot? I take one step out of this place and you'll do another runner! How stupid am I Chas? You've been playing me for a fool for too long, laughing at me, at Debs behind our backs…"

"No!" Chas found enough strength to shout back, "I never laughed at you, I hated myself for doing it, I…"

"Not as much as I hate you! And Debbie hates you! And Charity, Zak and Lisa…they all hate you Chas. Maybe they wouldn't have hated you so much if you hadn't been such a coward. Now come out here and get this over with, because I'm going nowhere!"

Cain heard Chas gasp loudly, then something dropped heavily to the floor. He couldn't figure out what she was doing in there, there was no escape from that room unless she climbed out of the window or topped herself. Which Chas would never do. Would she? Cain thought he knew his sister, but he'd realised this past year that she was a stranger to him. He worried now that she was keeping him talking outside while she took the coward's way out inside.

"What are you doing in there?" he banged on the door again, "Chas? You'd better not be doing anything stupid?!"

"Depends what you mean by stupid" Chas ground out through gritted teeth, her legs had given way, and she was now on her knees with her head in her hands trying her hardest to stop the pain from taking over. She couldn't control her breathing anymore.

"Open the door Chas, I mean it! If I don't hear it unlocking in the next ten seconds I'm breaking it down" Cain screamed at the door, a horrible sense of foreboding taking over. He'd known as soon as he'd stepped foot in the house that something wasn't right and now all he could see in his head was Chas lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood.

There was no response, no movement, no bolt sliding free.

He went to work with the crowbar, pulling as hard as he could, trying to push the wood surrounding the locks away, but it was no use. He tried the other side, where the door was attached to the frame by its hinges, and found it started to give way. After four pulls on the crowbar, he threw it to the ground and started kicking frantically, shouting "Chas, move away from the door, it's coming in" before he gave one final kick and the whole thing flew forwards into the bathroom, splinters of wood flying everywhere.

He heard the door make contact with her and realised she hadn't listened to him and moved away. The door was still attached to the wall by the bolt locks, and he could hear the wood creaking in the eerie silence. He pulled the door back and quickly unbolted it, throwing it into the hallway so he could get to the body kneeling on the floor, face down buried in her arms, unmoving. He pulled a cord and bright light flooded the room as he knelt down next to his sister and shook her shoulder.

"Chas! Chas! Wake up" he pleaded with her. She groaned as she came around and then her groan turned into a moan as the pain broke through the haze and shocked her back into focus.

"Can you stand up?" Cain asked, still panicking. He could see that she had a cut on the back of her head where the door must have hit her full on – it was already bleeding heavily. She kept her head down, her hand reaching to her wound, touching it tentatively.

Finally, she spoke groggily, "there's ice in the freezer downstairs and a first aid kit in the first kitchen cupboard".

Cain didn't need telling twice, he ran downstairs, turning all the lights on as he made his way through the cottage, into the kitchen and grabbed what he needed. He then flew back upstairs only to find the bathroom empty.

"You stupid bitch" he growled to himself, following the trail of blood easily into a different, bigger room. "You don't give up do you?" he snarled as he flicked the light on and turned around.

But what he saw made him drop everything he was carrying. Struggling to stand up on weak legs, leaning against her bed and attempting to breathe through her obvious pain, was his sister – heavily pregnant and seemingly in the last stages of labour.