Thank you so much to everyone who read my last story. Your reviews were so lovely, and the continued support means the world to me. So...here's a new one. Whether or not it develops into a full, multi-chapter story depends on what you all think, so please let me know your thoughts!

Evasion

"You sure about this?" Tony asks me. I don't even look at him. I can't, or I might change my mind.

"I have to go."

He sighs, deeply and full of regret. "Then here, take this," he says, putting a thick brown envelope in my hands. I don't have to look inside to know that it's laden with cash.

"What you doing? I can't take this!"

"Yes you can, Ste. The restaurant's takings are still on the up. It's your money too. And anyway, you wouldn't have to leave if it wasn't for me."

"Working for Trevor was my choice, Tony. It was a stupid thing to do first time round; but second? I've only got myself to blame."

He shakes his head at me. "No. You said it yourself, you only got involved with him again so he'd leave me and Diane alone. Might not have been the most sensible option-"

"Oh, you think?" I roll my eyes. I know he's defending me but I have to disagree.

"...but I know why you did it and I can't hate you for that."

I have to wonder whether this man is just deluded. I am scum, I'm not worthy of all the chances he's given me.

Yes, I did go to Trevor to protect him and the family, but the fact is I started doing dodgy deals again when I could have gone straight to Sam in the first place and got the man sent down.

That's exactly what's happened in the end, but I'm angry at myself for not doing it sooner. Only when Trevor had threatened to get to my kids - that day when I'd tried to pull out of the latest drug deal - did I finally go to my stepmother.

I told her everything. I'm still on a suspended sentence and I knew there would be no escaping a prison sentence once I'd spilled my guts out, but I let her in on the lot anyway.

Sam didn't spin some predictable line about having to arrest me on the spot for my involvement. In fact she didn't do at all what I expected. She told me I had to 'change my mind' about Trevor's deal. There'd be plenty of back up officers, she said (much more security than Tony was given when he'd turned informant himself, I later found out), but the point was that I was going to help her finally put Trevor behind bars.

I think if I had been anyone other than a member of her own family, then she wouldn't have hesitated in charging me the minute the plan was over.

When it happened, and Trevor was handcuffed and taken from the scene, he bellowed that I'd better "watch my back".

The things he'd said about coming for my kids were still ringing in my ears, so I couldn't do what I might have done otherwise - compare it to several similar gangster movie moments and laugh at his attempt to get control during his last moments of freedom.

I knew he had people working for him 'on the outside'. If he really wanted to, I knew that he could order one of these thugs to find and snatch Leah and Lucas.

Sam was all ready to set the ball rolling with the Witness Protection Programme - despite the fact that I was so heavily involved I was practically an accomplice. But I said no. I would leave and start a new life on my own, I said.

She was baffled, as were Danny and the rest of my new family - once they'd picked their jaws up off the floor over what had just gone on, of course.

I couldn't tell them that there's no way I could ever consider changing my name, just in case.

Just in case, by some tiny miracle, he walks back into my life.

It's never going to happen, and I know that. But panic sets in every time I think about it: the possibility that Brendan might be free one day. Free to come and find me, only there's no Steven Hay to find because I've been renamed something really plain and boring, like John or Bob.

There's also the small matter that I'm not the one everyone should be worrying about. When Trevor made that threat on me the last time I saw him...well, I'm not saying he doesn't want me dead, but he knows there are other ways to get revenge for the way I double-crossed him. It's like Walker versus Brendan all over again, only this time he's not around to save me.

Or the kids.

I leave in less than an hour, and over the last few days Tony has been helping me to erase every trace of Amy and the kids' existence in this village. Previous addresses, dates of birth, their forwarding address; everything. When I leave, any chance of finding them leaves with me.

At least, that's what I'm pinning all my hopes on.

"Will you tell Diane I'm sorry?" Again, I add silently. That woman can really bear a grudge. But who can blame her? I used her family business to take in drug deliveries. If it was up to her I'd be doing time by now. She's only stopped having a pop at me because of Tony (who had already started letting Trevor walk all over him until I stepped in) and I suspect she'd probably have done something about Sam letting me off the hook if she wasn't about to marry my oldest friend in the village.

"'Course. She'll come round eventually," Tony assures me. She won't, of course, and I'm relieved to know I won't be around to watch it not happen.

"Right," I announce, looking at my feet. "So, this is it."

"At least let me run you to the airport."

"No," my reply is a bit too abrupt considering this is the man who's been more of a dad to me than my real one. "I mean, thanks Tony, but I'll be fine on the bus. It'll just make it harder to say goodbye if you're there."

He hesitates, then finally nods. I've already said goodbye to Sam, my dad and my sisters, having also had to persuade them not to come and see me off.

"Take care of yourself, Ste. Ring me, okay? When you've landed and you're somewhere safe."

I promise him that I will, then hug him and walk away. I'm only trying to avoid an upset, but when it comes to it I can't just leave it like that. I turn around, call out to him. "Thanks for everything. You've been...you've been like family to me."

And then I leave him standing alone in the the folly. I don't allow myself to look back.

The truth is I hadn't decided where I was going when I set off to the airport. Even now, having just walked through the doors of the building, I still have no idea. My plan only went as far as getting here and then buying a ticket to the first destination available.

It sounds just like something you might see on a TV series. Which, thinking on it again now, suddenly makes me wonder whether it's even possible.

I should have organised my escape better. How can I keep myself safe if I haven't got a real plan? Maybe I should have let Sam sort me out with witness protection after all.

But then my thoughts always go back to Brendan. I know I shouldn't be putting him before my own wellbeing, but I just can't bring myself to let go.

I'm looking at the list of flights and, as I tell myself strictly that I have to put him out of my mind, the word Dublin catches my eye. And just for a minute I close my eyes and remember how it felt to be there; how it felt when he had found me on that bridge, told me all the things I'd been wanting to hear for so long. I remember how I felt invincible, like nothing could touch us; nothing could stop us from being together now he had finally let me in.

But being there had fooled me. It had let me believe that things could actually be perfect. Well, life would never be perfect, and going back to Dublin wouldn't do me any good.

Instead, I spot another flight that's leaving within the hour and walk with purpose to the ticket desk.

"Do you have any seats left for the Alicante flight?"

A tall, muscled man wanders around Liverpool airport, cursing himself under his breath. His flight was diverted and just his luck, he and all the other passengers have had to stop in his old home town before boarding yet another plane. He hasn't been here since that day, and the worry of someone spotting him, even when he's abroad, never goes away.

His look has changed considerably, though. Sometimes he forgets that his trademark moustache is no longer there, and therefore no longer his trademark. Sometimes he forgets that he now walks around with a shaved head, too.

Sometimes he worries that Steven might one day find him, looking like an unrecognisable shadow of his former self. Worse, though; sometimes he worries that Steven might walk straight past him without any idea that it's him.

Sometimes Brendan Brady regrets never letting Steven in on the secret that he hasn't served even one day of his prison sentence. But the fact is that nobody else knows either.