A/N: I've decided that this should be updated bi-weekly rather than weekly, otherwise you'll probably be reading about Christmas/New Year in April or something ;)

I hope that's OK with you guys? :P

x


"Roxy? What time does Mum get out later?" Katy asked, clamping her mobile between her ear and her shoulder as she navigated across the road to the nursery, weaving expertly between the crowds of people heading to work with Ruby's pushchair.

"I… this afternoon. Four o'clock." The blonde replied hesitantly.

"Are we going together, then?"

There was a long pause. "Katy… I…"

The younger of the two stopped, her hand hovering over the bell to the nursery as she realised the cause of her aunt's discomfort. "He's kicked off about it, hasn't he?"

"Alfie doesn't want Ronnie around Tommy." Roxy admitted. "Katy… I can't…"

"Right, fine, whatever." The young woman smiled as the door to her daughter's nursery was opened by one of the assistants and she manoeuvred the pushchair inside clumsily. "I've got to go, anyway. Laters."

Hanging up, she did her best not to let her upset and frustration show with the young woman, about her age, who was helping Ruby out of her coat. Handing over the back pack that contained her snacks and a spare change of clothes, Katy said goodbye and left, heading back to Albert Square to open up the R&R.

She grinned at Joey who was leaning against the wall, waiting for her to unlock the doors and let him in to begin his shift. They had gone out for a couple of months, but their relationship had quickly fizzled out as neither could give up any control of their lives to the other. They were much better off as friends, they had both decided, which suited them fine. Katy wasn't good with complicated things.

"I hope you ain't gonna dock my wages seeing as you're twenty minutes late?" Joey joked as she unlocked the door and moved inside to type the code into the alarm.

Shooting him a look, Katy didn't respond. She went into the office and dropped her bag on the desk, dropping into the executive chair and resting her head back with a sigh. She could see Joey hovering in the doorway out of the corner of her eye, but made no indication that she had noticed his presence. After a couple of moments, he moved further into the room and leant against the desk.

"Your mum gets out today, don't she?"

"Yeah. About four o'clock."

"You gonna be there?"

"I don't know." Katy admitted quietly. "I want to be, but… I don't know."

"Why? Not 'cos of this place?" His boss shot him a look that clearly indicated that was a stupid question. "So what's the problem?"

"You've heard what she did, right?" She asked. "She swapped her dead baby with Tommy Moon. She let us believe that Tommy was James, my brother, for months. She let Kat and Alfie believe that their son was dead."

Joey looked a little confused. "So you're angry with her?"

Katy shook her head slowly. "No, I'm not. Her baby died. She wasn't herself when she did what she did. And… she's my mum. Whatever she did, she's still my mum."

"So…?"

"I'm not the only person living on the Square, am I?" The young woman asked meaningfully with a deep sigh that made her whole body shudder. "Jack and Kat and Alfie and even Roxy won't make things easy for her. Maybe it's best if she doesn't come back here at all."

"But she's your mum. You want her around, right?"

There was a pause. "Not if she'd be better off out of it."

"So what are you gonna do? You've got… just over five and a half hours to decide what you're gonna do." Joey said, perching on the desk and looking at her carefully. "If you want someone to go with you…"

"I think it would be better if I didn't take my ex along to pick my mum up from prison." She inhaled sharply and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Right, well, you've got work to do and so have I."

Taking the hint, he nodded. "OK. If you need me, I'll be sorting the boxes in the stock room."

Burying herself in the club's accounts, Katy didn't notice the time flying past. She went out for lunch, nodding at Joey and the other bar staff as she left and then returned and carried on with her work in the peace and quiet of the office. Her mobile remained silent and, with nothing to distract her, she managed to complete everything she had been planning. The problem was that when she saved the spreadsheet she'd been working on and closed it down, she realised that it was already half an hour past her mother's release time.

Grabbing her mobile and scrolling through her recent contacts until she reached Roxy's name, she unlocked the office door and made her way into the main part of the bar, looking for Joey.

"Why didn't you say something about the time?" She hissed at the barman as she waited for her call to connect. "Why didn't you realise I hadn't left?"

Joey held up his heads. "Hey, I knocked on the door but it was locked and there was no reply. What was I supposed to do? I thought you'd left without saying anything."

"Right, well, obviously I–" Katy stopped as Roxy's voice entered her ear. "Rox. Did you get mum?"

"No… I thought you would?"

"I was… I… So no one went to collect her? She's on her own?"

"Shit…"

Katy squeezed her eyes closed and chewed her lip, feeling as though her insides were made of lead. "I'm gonna get down the prison and see if they know where she went or… or whether I can find her." She paused, lowering her voice slightly. "Will you come with me?"

"I… Alfie's taking me out for dinner."

"That's more important than your sister?"

"Please, Katy, don't do this."

The young woman scowled at the wall in front of her. "Right, whatever. I'm gonna pick Ruby up on my way. I'll talk to you later. Maybe."

Hanging up without waiting for a response, Katy grabbed her bag and said a quick goodbye to the staff, leaving Joey in charge until Sharon turned up for the start of her shift at six. Making it to the nursery in record time, the young woman collected her daughter and jumped into a cab, ignoring the man's moaning as he struggled to collapse the pushchair and fit it in his boot. He complained even more when Katy told him where she wanted to go.

She sighed loudly, signalling that she wasn't interested in his opinion on her destination. Staring out of the window she watched as they travelled through the streets towards the prison where her mum had lived for the last few years. Now that they were getting closer, Katy's stomach began to churn and she started to feel ashamed. She should never have even considered not going to collect Ronnie. She should never have worried about how it would affect her.

Paying the driver, who grudgingly unloaded the pram, Katy reassembled it and strapped her daughter in carefully. She pushed it confidently towards the small door in the larger one in the wall of the prison and knocked firmly. She had been there countless times to visit Ronnie, less often than she'd like towards the end, but this time was so different that it was unnerving.

"Veronica Mitchell was being released today. Do you know if someone came to collect her or…"

"No idea, sweetheart." The burly prison guard replied with a shrug. "But she ain't here either way."

"I don't suppose you have any clue about where she is?" Katy asked with a sigh, anticipating the answer.

"Nope."

Turning on her heels and starting to walk away from the prison, Katy exhaled deeply again. She paused briefly when a deep voice called after her, telling her that there was a café she could try just round the corner. Without looking back, the young woman aimed the pushchair in the direction the guard had indicated and stalked off in search of her mother.

The café was busy, but there was no sign of the blonde she was looking for. Manoeuvring the pushchair between the tables, the young woman leant on the counter and asked whether the woman working behind it had seen anyone who matched Ronnie's description. The woman nodded and told her that, yes there had been a blonde woman in her thirties in the café.

"She was here with a brunette woman who looked about her age, maybe a bit older. They left about ten, fifteen minutes ago."

"Did you catch a name?" Katy asked, almost desperately.

"I dunno… I think the blonde called the other woman Nat or Kat or something." The waitress said with a shrug.

"Kat? Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure, yeah." The woman replied. "Can I get you anything?"

"No… no." Katy shook her head and began to make her way out of the café. "Thanks."