Thanks for all the reviews everyone, I really appreciate them. I will try to update as much as I can and feel free to give me any advice or any ideas about the way you may want the story to go

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Heroes and Villains

Stacey juggled the task of tending to her baby with listening to her brother explain away his absence. For the most part of his speech, she had been staring at his new family in horror, surprised that Sean had settled down – let alone with such a complex brood. Sat in front of her was a boy called Jamie, seventeen years old and tall with dark blond hair. Beside him was Stephanie, an eleven year old girl with blonde curly hair tied up into a quite bedraggled ponytail. In the corner of the room was the pretty girl with long blonde hair she had met before, and finally a woman called Lindsay who was the spitting image of her eldest daughter; just twenty years older.

From what Stacey had picked up was that Lindsay's ex-husband held custody of their children and he had agreed to move to Walford so the kids could stay close to their mother. She hadn't bothered to ask why Lindsay did not have the rights to her children but instead was suspicious of her brother's reasons for being with her.

'And Steven, their dad, works for the police force. He's transferred here but I did warn him not to. They don't really have a great record round here,' Sean finished off, smiling knowingly and looking up at his sister for a reaction.

'Well. What do you want from me Sean? A gold star for being such a hero and marching back here like you own the place. I never asked you to come back. What makes you think I need you here?' the feisty young brunette retorted, fed up of seeing Sean so pleased with himself.

'I lost everything too, Stace. I needed to get out of here, out of this dump for a while. Chances are I would've been the victim in a murder enquiry if I'd stayed – I had that much enemies. Still, at least old Jack Branning got what was coming to him,' he said, laughing so his family would take his words light-heartedly. While he could fool everyone else into thinking this was merely a joke, Stacey could see the menace dancing in his eyes. Sean was a Jekyll and Hyde type character, he could show a soft side, but when someone riled him his dark side would rage through.

A high pitched ringtone blared out, breaking the silence. Jamie pulled out his phone and answered it, but the call was short and he just as quickly hung up.

'Dad needs us home to help bring in all our moving stuff. We'll come see your flat later Mum,' gesturing to his siblings to leave as he ordered them to do so.

'Bye kids,' Lindsay whispered wistfully, wishing she would never have to reveal to Sean the horrific tragedy which caused her to lose custody of her kids in the first place. Lindsay realised that Stacey had got the situation all wrong. It wasn't Sean that was the bad guy. No, he was the hero. And she? She was the villain.

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Ben left the Beale household with Peter by his side, in a bit of a daze. He had decided to arrange the first meeting with his Dad there, because his brother Ian had wanted to be there, and he had been warned about the state of his father's house. The conversation him and his father had shared was long and at times awkward, but the only part that Ben remembered was the part that meant most to him:

'I think I'm past that phase where I think my dad's the best in the world. You're not going to make it out of this as a hero. I don't even know if you're going to make it out of this one. And not making it is worse than simply being the villain,' Ben admitted, surprised at how strong he was feeling during this conversation.

'Just give me a chance. Y-you're my boy, you can wait. I'll stop using,' Phil replied.

'You can't stop. You're an addict; you don't just wake up one day and stop wanting or taking drugs. Then there's the alcohol problem too.' Ben stopped talking and began to consider an idea he had been thinking about. 'How about rehab?' he mumbled, afraid of his dad's reaction

Phil began to laugh in his typically cruel and mocking way. 'I ain't going to no poxy place where they think they can cure me. I'm Phil Mitchell, I don't need anyone's help.'

'For god's sake!' Ben shouted leaping to his feet. 'Do you care about anyone else but yourself. You've already lost one kid, don't drive your only other one away from you. Yes you may be Phil Mitchell. But before that, you're a dad.'

Phil didn't reply so Ben began to head for the door.

'Ben! Ben, wait,' Ian pleaded.

'Alright,' Phil said his head held in his hands. 'I'll do it.'

Those were the last few words Ben took in properly. His brother began to talk about different rehabilitation centres and had called Peggy round to help but Ben had shut himself off. His dad had picked up on his discomfort and told him to go out, which was something Ben agreed with straight away. Peter had followed him and they were sitting on a bench in the square now, talking about Sean's unexpected return in The Vic earlier. As they talked, Ben noticed the blonde girl called Hollie standing outside her new house, looking blankly into the distance. Ben smiled and began to wave at her.

'What are you doing?' Peter asked, shocked.

'I don't know. I just felt like waving at her so I did it,' Ben replied, shrugging his shoulders.

As Hollie noticed the two boys, she cocked her head to one side and found herself cracking a smile. She lifted her hand up hesitantly but dropped it down again straight away before turning into her house and shutting the door behind her.

'What was that about? Do you even know her?' Peter queried, not understanding the situation.

Ben sighed and averted his gaze away from the spot where the girl had stood.

'Never mind, nephew. We all know you can be a bit slow,' Ben joked, receiving a playful punch for doing so.

It was a small, insignificant moment between the two virtual strangers, but somehow Ben Mitchell found himself unable to get the girl out of his mind. Luckily for him, he was about to see a lot more of the pretty blonde called Hollie Sinclair.

'Whit,' Bianca called out as she finally returned home after much gossiping about Sean Slater in the pub. 'I'm home. You'll never guess what happened in The Vic today. No one can stop going on about it. I mean, Mum nearly had a field day. Her and Dot could've stayed nattering away in the corner of The Vic all night!' Bianca joked lightly, giving her mother a playful nudge in the ribs.

'Oh you take things way out of proportion,' Carol Jackson sneered, embarrassed.

'Whit!' Bianca called up the stairs again after she received no reply. Once again, there was no reply so she took it upon herself to go and check on her step-daughter.

'Whit,' she called more quietly this time, knocking on her bedroom door.

Whitney Dean jumped off of her bed and yanked open the door, her face still stained with tears.

'Whit! Have you been crying?' Bianca asked. She looked into the girl's room and saw pictures of Billie scattered over the floor.

'Not about Billie again. I thought you'd got rid of all your photos.'

'I had to keep some of them!' Whitney protested. 'He's the love of my life,' she sighed, and started to cry all over again. Bianca pulled her in for a hug and was surprised at how tightly Whitney was hugging her back.

'Bianca,' Whitney sobbed, pulling back from her step-mother's embrace.

'No, Whit you can't keep talking about the past or you'll never get over him. You're a pretty girl, and there's plenty of fish in the sea. You'll find another boy and this time he might be -'

'I can't!' Whitney mumbled.

'Of course you can. I know you still love Billie but you'll see that -'

'I'm pregnant!' Whitney cried, and upon seeing the stunned look on Bianca's face, she slammed her bedroom door shut, and picked up a photo of her and Billie. She looked at his smiling face in disgust and found she had ripped the photo in half. She squeezed her hand shut, hoping if she crumpled up his picture enough, he would simply disappear. Whitney flung herself upon her bed and realised there was something she had missed all this time. Billie wasn't the hero. In fact, he was rapidly turning into the villain.