Episode 3, Scene 1

Author's Note: Set the day after Rose's welcome home party and continues with the revelation that Helen has been blackmailing Mandy.

As soon as Rose got hold of the paper the next day she shot round to Mandy's house as fast as her healing knees would let her. She was the only one who had stuck around since the win and she had always been a good source of support. Deep down inside of herself Rose had known that being let off a prison sentence for benefit fraud had been too good to be true. Now she was finding out just what the flip side of that good fortune meant. She was also unapologetically nosy and wanted to find out more about the nasty texts Mandy had been getting from Helen. They hadn't had time to talk about it properly at the party and it was obvious Mandy had been deeply troubled by it.

Ever aware of Steve's semi-conscious state in the basement, Mandy hoped to goodness he'd keep quiet for the duration of Rose's visit. The walls were closing in on her from all sides and she'd barely slept for more than half and hour as she worried herself into a state. She didn't have much time left before she had to made a decision about exactly what to do with Steve or about Helen and her threats for that matter.

Mandy handed Rose a cup of tea and sat opposite her on the armchair. She really could have done without having to entertain a visitor but Rose was generally harmless, if not a bit of a sticky beak. She'd seen the breakfast news on the television earlier and had a fair idea of what had got Rose running, or at least hobbling, scared. The national paper had been shoved in her face as she'd opened the door to the very distraught auxiliary nurse and Mandy had spent a good half hour placating her as best she could. It didn't matter whether Mandy herself felt that Rose was right or wrong in what she had done, it wasn't her place to judge, just be a sympathetic ear on this occasion. Besides, it would certainly be more than a little hypocritical if she did give her colleague her tuppence worth.

"So, tell me about 'elen. I don't understand what she would be blackmailing you with. You're such a lovely person and I don't believe there's a bad bone in your body." Mandy gulped nervously and tried to smile graciously. It was going to come out one way or the other and she supposed at least this way she chose how. Besides, Rose had already seen the text and knew that there was something going on, she doubted she would leave it alone until she found out exactly what it was.

"We're 'aving a relationship, or at least were, I don't know now." Mandy was more than a little heartbroken at what looked increasingly like the end of it. It had taken her a long time to come to terms with her feelings for her best friend and do something about it. It hadn't made everything in her life better but it had certainly made it more bearable and it had given her something to hope for.

"Who? You and Helen? As in…?" Rose was understandably shocked and shook her head in disbelief. "How?"

"It just…sort of happened…it doesn't matter now. I can't 'ave anyone find out and now with the lottery win if the papers got hold of it…" Fortunately Steve was not in a position to do anything at all at that moment in time. Since she and Helen had started sleeping with each other Mandy had suffered endless nightmares about just what his reaction would be. She'd been more worried about Steve going round to Helen's place and beating her black and blue than anything he could possibly have done to her.

"So Steve doesn't know, or even suspect?" Mandy internally scoffed, she wouldn't be sitting there calmly talking to Rose about it if he had any suspicion in the slightest.

"He doesn't have a clue, then again he would only be worried if his dinner weren't on the table at the right time." Mandy had frequently looked back on the last thirty years and wondered when it had all changed. She couldn't pinpoint a particular event or year when she had noticed that Steve had changed from the man she had known and had grown up with to the bully he now was.

"Surely you don't mean that?" Jeff had been the perfect sort of bloke anyone would have wanted in a husband, quite modern in comparison to his peers but without having lost any of his machismo. He and Rose had been besotted with each other, right up until the very end and she'd lost her soul mate the day he died. Rose couldn't understand any other way for a married couple to be, although she had more than a small soft spot for Alan and felt he had been mistreated by his wives over the years. She did understand that his drinking and rogue ways had more than a small part in it but he was inordinately sweet underneath it all.

"It's true, 'as been fer years. Why do yer think I went off with someone else in the first place?" Mandy would never have looked at anyone else even for a second had Steve not begun to mistreat her. She certainly hadn't been looking to start something with her decidedly female best friend.

"True, but Helen?! What were yer thinking?" Rose hadn't quite taken to Helen in the way that Mandy had, even just as a good mate. She'd always been that bit aloof and slightly stuck up. With her promotion to matron she'd become even more of a pain in the bum and Rose had tried to keep any work related gripe to a minimum. They made an okay threesome at their weekly bingo sessions, but that had only been a relatively recent occurrence. Thinking about it Rose wondered if that had been around the time Mandy and Helen had started up with each other. She'd have to remember to ask another time.

"You can't help who yer fall in love with." Mandy had almost shocked herself when she had first realised it but over time she had grown used to the idea and couldn't see that it was all that different to being in love with a man. As far as she could see it tended to be other people's attitudes that caused all the fuss.

"And are you? In love with her I mean." Rose had just assumed it was some sort of escape from a defunct marriage, she hadn't even considered that it could be anything deeper than that.

"I was…I am…I just can't believe that she would treat me this way." Mandy had been nothing but nice to both Steve and Helen over the years and she couldn't think of anything she had ever done or said to make either of them treat her so badly. She'd always been a walkover and her mother had always said so but she didn't know of any other way to be. She'd been taught to always put other people before herself ever since she was a child.

"It sounds like you're better off out of it love, both of 'em. Use the money to stand on yer own two feet. Buy that little house you were talking about and do something fer yerself for a change." Mandy took a deep breath and knew that Rose was right, that's if she managed to find her way out of both her current predicaments without getting caught in the process. She didn't deserve to be punished for wanting a quiet life after everything she had been through recently. Surely people would be on her side and understand? She couldn't take that risk though and had to find some way of getting Steve and Helen out of the picture as quickly and as quietly as possible.