Moira had been pacing the kitchen all morning. Why hadnt Cain come home last night? Deciding to give him one last ring, Moira sighed as his phone rang through to voicemail once again.
"Cain, where are you? And why didn't you come home last night? You haven't returned any of my calls and I'm starting to get worried now. Please ring me back." She said, before hanging up as Matty walked into the kitchen.
"Mum? Did Cain not come home last night?" He asked.
"No, I can't get through to him either." Moira replied, worriedly, knowing how fragile her Husband currently was over the whole Joe Tate incident.
"Well I'm sure he'll be okay Mum. He is Cain DIngle after all. No one messes with him." Matty tried to reassure his Mother, but secretly he was just as worried himself, he would feel so guilty if anything bad had happened to Cain.
"Well that's what scares me. Everyone seems to think that Matty but he's not indestructible you know?" Moira said, starting to panic a little bit now.
A few hours later and Cain still hadn't arrived home. Moira was sat at the dining table in the kitchen.
"Cain where are you? Please just get in touch. I need to know that you're okay. Please Cain." Moira pleaded over voicemail, wondering what an earth had happened to her Husband.
"Mum, leaving him a message every 5 Minutes isn't gonna change anything." Matty said calmly.
"I just need to know he's okay. What if something bad has happened Matty?" Moira said a little bit tearfully.
"Owh Mum I'm sure he'll be okay." Matty replied, walking over to give his Mum a reassuring cuddle.
A few seconds later, Cain burst through the door, bruised and bloodied and barely able to stand on his own two feet.
"CAIN!" Moira shrieked upon seeing the state of her Husband as she rushed over to him.
"Ah...Ow. Don't touch me it 'urts." Cain said, placing his hands down onto the table to steady himself.
"What the heck has happened?" Moira said, freaking out.
"Wait...Was this Isaac? Please tell me this wasn't Isaac?" Matty asked, beginning to feel extremely guilty now for ever confiding in Cain in the first place.
Cain just nodded, out of breath from just how much pain he was in.
Moira placed her hand onto Cain's cheek and gently rubbed her thumb over the cut by his eye. "Owh Darlin' we need to get you to the hospital." She said, trying to fuss over him but he wasn't having any of it.
"No!" Cain said firmly, barely able to raise his voice without it clearly causing him a great deal of pain.
"Owh gosh what have they done to you?" Moira cried as she examined his injuries. "Come and sit down." She said, giving him a hand walking into the living room and helping him sit down onto the sofa.
Just as they got Cain sat down. Faith came down from upstairs having just put little Isaac down for his nap.
"Owh my goodness what the heck has happened to you?" Faith asked, completely shocked.
"Faith would you mind giving us a bit of space please?" Moira asked, softly.
"Yes of course." Faith replied wandering around to the front of the sofa to get a proper look at Cain. "Are you sure you're going to be okay Son?" She asked, concerned.
"Yeah just...Go...Please." Cain replied, clearly in an awful lot of pain.
"Sure, come on Matty let's go to the shop. Can we get you anything whilst we're out?" Faith asked, trying to be helpful if she possibly could be.
"Yeah just some pain killers please. For him." Moira replied, referring to Cain.
Faith then ushered Matty out of the house and once the door had shut behind them, Moira sat herself down next to Cain on the sofa.
"Talk to me." She said.
"How dya mean?" Cain replied.
"You're Cain Dingle. You don't lose fights. The last person who did this much damage to you was your Dad and that was 7 Years ago now." Moira said.
Cain paused as he thought for a moment.
"I was out numbered, there were 6 of them, there's only 1 of me. I didn't stand a chance once all of Isaac's mates had arrived. They were on me like a pack of wolves." Cain said, not quite revealing the whole truth.
"Okay...I get that...But Cain, it doesn't even look like you tried to fight back?" Moira replied, confused.
"I couldn't." Cain said.
"Well why couldn't you?" Moira asked as Cain tried to sit himself up a bit on the sofa with Moira's support, wincing and groaning heavily in pain as he did so.
"Because I froze. To begin with it was just me and Isaac, we had cross words but he was being cocky so I shoved him up against a nearby garage, except when I went to punch him, I had like this flashback moment to Joe. And I just couldn't seem to shake from my mind that the last time I punched someone I ended up killing them. So I walked away, except in the time it took me to walk to my car he had got his mates out from the pub and they had surrounded me. They tried to goad me into a fight but I couldn't. I can't explain it Moira but I just couldn't fight back. It was like I was paralysed. So I just had to let them get on with it really." Cain confided in his Wife sadly, his pride and confidence clearly knocked as well. "And they kept going until I was unconscious."
"They knocked you out? Oh my goodness Cain we need to get you checked out." Moira fussed over him worriedly.
"No Moira I don't want to kick up a fuss. Just let me lie here for a bit and I'll be fine once I've had some pain killers." Cain replied.
"Owh sweetheart." Moira sighed, softly running her hand through his short hair. "Wait, if you were unconscious then how did you get back home?" She asked her battered Husband.
"I drove." Cain replied simply.
"You what? Cain! Look at the state you're in you're in no fit state to drive!" She said, completely shocked at this fact.
"I didn't have any other choice. I wasn't gonna wait around there any longer than I had to. They could have come back" Cain said.
"Owh Cain." Moira sighed heavily, carefully resting her head against her Husband's.
An hour or so later and Cain had had some pain killers and was now in bed getting some rest.
Moira walked through to the kitchen having got Cain settled, Matty and Faith were both sat at the dining table.
"How is he doing?" Faith asked, clearly concerned for her Son.
"He's not great but I think he'll be okay." Moira replied.
"Shouldn't we be phoning the police?" Matty asked.
"No...No Cain won't want the police lurking about." Moira replied.
"But Mum, this isn't just about Cain. Isaac and his mates are vicious, they need to be stopped." Matty said.
"I said no Matty." Moira replied, putting her foot down.
"Fine. Anyway I've got work. Cya later." Matty said, as he headed out of the house.
"Are you sure it's a good idea keeping this from the police love?" Faith asked.
"Faith you know what Cains like...Its not gonna help him by going to the police it will just wind him up. And that's no good thing." Moira said, covering for her Husband, no one could know the real reason for not going to the police. No one.
A short while later, it was just Cain and Moira left in the house and Moira wandered into the bedroom to wake Cain up. "Darlin'...It's time you got up. You probably shouldn't sleep for to long seeing as you've been unconscious." Moira said, climbing onto the bed and giving her Husband a gentle shake.
"Okay." Cain replied quietly as he carefully rolled onto his back, wincing in pain as he did so.
"How are you feeling?" Moira asked.
"Like I've had seven bells kicked out of me." Cain said, a soft chuckle escaping him as he spoke.
"I still think we should get you checked out." Moira replied.
"No you know why we can't do that." Cain said.
"I know, I'm just worried about you that's all." Moira told her Husband.
"I know...Thanks." Cain said, shooting his Wife a small smile.
"That's what I'm here for." Moira replied sweetly, kissing Cain softly on the lips.