An: thanks for reading as always and please review. I promise I will get round to updating Happy Families. I was also thinking of doing a song fic and an AU story for this show (au story where Kate and Jake meet as teenagers) don't know if anyone is interested? So yeah. Thanks. Hope to see more people posting fics soon. Doesn't seem to be many of us anymore. Xxx

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"Miss Barker." Kate spun on her heels and Jake stopped in his tracks when they heard the woman in reception call her.

"Yes, Hannah?" Kate said.

"There's a man here to see you."

Kate looked confused for a moment before both her and Jake followed Hannah. Kate's face lit up the moment she saw the man in question. Jake didn't recognise him. The man was older than her maybe in his late thirties. Kate ran over to him and he smiled pulling her into a hug.

"Ay up Katie." He spoke with a Manchester accent.

"Alec." She laughed. "How long have you been in London?" She took a step back.

"About 3 hours."

Jake watched puzzled.

"Why didn't you call?"

"Wanted to surprise you."

"Well you have done that." She moved to one side to look at Jake. "Jake, this is my brother, Alec."

Alec held out his hand shaking Jake's. "So you're the guy who got stuck with my baby sister? How long before she drove you mad?"

Jake laughed slightly. "About half an hour. You never mentioned you had a brother."

"I've been in the states for the past five years. I'm an architect, been working on a big project but I'm back now so it's nice to meet you."

"Where are you staying?" Kate asked.

"Nan and Grandpa's house here in London. They're coming over too this week you know."

"Really? Gosh this like a Family reunion only with the people I actually like."

"Oh you don't change sis." Alex ruffled Kate's hair and she slapped his hand away. "Feisty little chica."

"Yeah well I have a serious job that you're gate crashing."

He laughed. "Okay okay Katie. I'll be on my way but i shall speak to you later and you should call Nan and ask when they're coming."

She ducked as he tried to ruffle her hair again. "Bye."

Alec then left, laughing as he went.

"Well that was an experience." Kate looked at Jake and he smiled.

"How come you never mentioned having a brother?"

"I don't really talk about any of my family, like he said he's been in America for five years." She shrugged as they began walking back to their office. "There was three of us, me being the youngest. Then my sister Elizabeth, then Alec. He's like 11 years older than me."

"So where's your sister?"

Kate bit her lip and Jake sensed he'd struck a nerve.

"She erm...I've not seen her since I was about 15...she would've been what 20 maybe..." She said just as they walked through their office door. "She was a bit of wild child. We lived in a rough an area and she just got swept along with it and my parents threw her out because of that. She got in with the wrong crowd and couldn't get help, not till she got pregnant anyway. Then she got help, only till the baby was born..." She paused getting to her desk. "Still. It was a long time ago."

Jake watched her as she began picking up folders and started to talk about the case. He hadn't known anything about her sister or her brother. Neither of them had ever really spoken about their family. It was as though they didn't have any. Clearly though Kate did. She had a brother, her grandparents. A sister apparently who she hadn't spoken to for a long time. Her parents hadn't had a mention. He didn't know if she ever was in contact with them. He still had a lot to learn about Kate obviously.

Jake didn't have any family left, his mother was dead now and his father had died when he was a teenager. As an only child he'd never had a lot of family to deal with unlike Kate who although she may not get on with all her family she still has them there.

Kate hadn't wanted to go into detail with Jake about her family. Her sister had been a drug addict and was only clean for the time she was pregnant. After that she went back to it, well Kate guessed she did she hardly even saw Beth after social services took the baby and their parents banned Kate from having anything to do with her.

She'd been thirteen when that happened two years later when the social came back and said her parents were not providing a safe home for her she'd been sent to live with her grandparents and Alec on their ranch. This had happened after Kate had been beat up by one of the lads on their estate. Kate had fought back best she could but she was smaller than him. He'd gone at her for being clever. He knew she had a chance of getting somewhere and hated it. Kate hadn't seen her sister since she'd visited her half way house to say goodbye.

Living away from her parents after that helped her a lot. Helped her recover mentally from everything she'd seen growing up. Being away from everything helped though didn't get rid of her memories. She was stuck with those but she put it all behind her. Pushed on and made something of herself.

Henry walked into their office interrupting her mental trip down memory lane. "Any news on Bridges?"

"He's changed his plea to guilty." Jake explained. "So that saves us a trial."

"Why did he change it all of a sudden?"

"Dunno." Kate shrugged annoyed that they'd been through a lot of worrying for nothing. "His brief didn't say. Judge is sentencing him later today."

"Well keep me up to date on what's happening."

"We will." Kate nodded and Henry disappeared back into his office. She looked at Jake. "What time do we need to be there?"

"3." Jake lent his hand on her desk. "We've got some time to kill."

"I should call my nan." Kate ran her hand over face. "That should be fun for you, meeting my family, they are mental."

He laughed. "Dearest you are mental."

Kate picked up her phone. "I know." She then found her Nan's number and pressed call.