Robert was sitting in the Woolpack staring into his yet drunk pint of beer when Victoria came out of the pub kitchen, spotted her brother sat down opposite him.

"Why the long face? Thought you would be happy seeing as you and Aaron are back together?" She asked.

Robert startled at hearing Vic's voice jerked his head up and sighed….."That's just it; we're not back together…."

"But you told Chas that you spent the night together?" Vic said in a surprising tone.

"I did, but not in the way you think…" Robert noted the look of confusion on her face and quietly stated "It's complicated"

Victoria snorted "Complicated, surely not as complicated as sneaking around behind your wife's back….!"

Robert short her a look and Vic apologised but continued "so what's complicated!?"

"It's just he is going through so much right now and yes I was with him all night but nothing happened….."

"Oh" Victoria said in a disappointed tone "but you want to be with him in that way don't you!?" she queried.

"Yes I do and even though I told him I loved him, it's not enough…..he doesn't fully trust me…." Victoria smiled and Robert said "why are you smiling?"

"Because of the way you just casually threw the L word in there…! "

"yeah yeah, I know you told me so…..it's taken me a long time to accept it, maybe it's having a life or death situation that did it…" he trailed off…

"So why doesn't he trust you…..I know that, me included, all thought at one point that he was the one who shot you….but I sense there's more to it….."

Robert nodded and replied "on the day I was shot, we had a massive argument and I said some really vile, cruel things to him….." "Oh I'm sure you didn't mean it, I sure he forgives you…." Vic interrupted.

Robert shook his head "No, I meant them at the time, I was still in denial about how I felt about him, I was still angry that he told Chrissie about our affair and I was still trying to convince myself that I could get back together with her and I took it out on him, it was a personal attack against him….Oh Vic I was cruel to him….I mentioned his self harming and Jackson….." he fell silent winching at his words, he so wishes he could take all that back.

"Oh" Victoria said quietly knowing how touchy Aaron can be when Jackson is mentioned.

"Ok" She said after what seemed like a long time…."so you just need to prove and show him that you are serious about him and want to be with him….."

"….and how do I do that?" Robert looked at her pleadingly.

Victoria looked him in the eyes then her gaze lowered, Robert followed it and was confused when she was staring at his left hand. "You could take that off for starters" she said gesturing towards Robert's wedding ring and continued "while you are still wearing that, Aaron will always think you are still committed to your marriage, but your not are you?"

Robert shook his head once again and responded "No, I don't want Chrissie back….." Robert surprised himself with this statement He doesn't want Chrissie back….wow what a revelation.

Victoria stayed quiet as she could tell her brother was processing this all in his head and Robert continued "That was the one thing that Aaron always wanted, me to choose him over her…."

"I think if you showed Aaron that you are ready to move on, away from Chrissie, with him then maybe he will believe you really love him. Have you told Chrissie how you feel about him?" Victoria added as an afterthought.

Robert let out a breath and replied "No, she asked if I loved him when she found out about us, but I denied it and said I only loved her, I told her he meant nothing, which of course was not true….."

"I think the only way you are going to have closure is to tell her….just a thought" Victoria said quietly standing up as she could sense Marlon was going to tell her in a minute to get back to the kitchen.

Robert sat there staring into his now half emptied beer glass and pondered on what Victoria said.