This one's a bit of a filler chapter I think. A lot of content though so I'm a bit antsy about it. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks as always for the lovely reviews :)

Chapter Six

Cheryl sat in Nancy's flat in silence, waiting for her friend to start asking questions. She knew she was going to have to answer honestly, or the truth would only come out of it's own accord – in which case Nancy might decide she didn't want her around.

Of course, she could still make that decision regardless; but Cheryl wanted the chance to explain it herself instead of having to watch the news do an inaccurate job of their own.

"Here," she looked up to find Nancy offering her a cup of steaming coffee. Cheryl took the cup gratefully and took a long sip. It tasted like home. A different kind of home; the comfortable one that had existed before Nate had come into her life.

Before her father had turned up here and destroyed everything.

"So," her old friend began gently. "What's happened? I have to say, of all the people I expected to need picking up from the police station, I never once thought you might be one of them."

Cheryl realised her hands were shaking, so she placed her coffee cup on the nearby table. Then she forced herself to look Nancy in the eye.

"Ye know when people say 'it's a long story'? Even that would be an understatement."

"I dropped the kids off at the pub with Darren after you called me. I've got plenty of time to listen."

And there it was, the invitation to spill her guts out. Simple as that – only it really wasn't. There was no easy way to start this, but maybe telling her the reason she'd come back to Chester was the most logical.

"Nate's gone."

She watched Nancy's eyes widen in disbelief. "Gone? As in he's...left you?"

Cheryl looked at the floor. She was going to have to spell it out. "He's dead, Nancy."

The other woman's hand covered her mouth, and she dropped into the chair opposite. "Oh God...Oh Cheryl, I'm so sorry."

She raised a hand herself, signalling that it was okay. Well, it wasn't. Nothing was, but there was no sense in making Nancy feel uncomfortable. Especially not when there was far worse to come that would more than fit the bill in that sense.

"How did it happen?"

"There was a fire a few weeks ago," Cheryl's voice cracked with the words. Before she knew it, her eyes were stinging with tears, and Nancy had moved to sit next to her. She let herself be hugged until she could bring herself to speak again.

"I came straight to the police when I got back to the village because...well, because I've been hiding something. And without Nate I just couldn't keep it in anymore."

Nancy sat back and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Something you've been...hang on, this is to do with Brendan, isn't it? Are you saying you've had information about him all this time, and that Nate knew about it too? But when I got to the station I was told you were being bailed. I just assumed it was unrelated."

"I was. I have been bailed. The information was about me. And yes, Nate knew everything."

"I don't understand."

"Do ye remember how much of a hurry I left in, that day when we took off to Ireland? The day after Brendan got arrested? I couldn't even afford the time to say goodbye to everyone. I just had to leave. He took all the blame and I just had to live with it, but I had to get away from this place to do it."

"Who, Cheryl? Who took all the blame?" Nancy's voice remained gentle, but her eyes were growing more and more anxious.

Cheryl let out a strangled cry of pain. "Brendan did."

And then she let it all out. How she had watched that footage on a USB stick and heard a childhood secret that her brother had never recovered from; how moments before she had found Walker's gun under the sofa in their house. And then finally how, while in a daze and still holding the gun, she had stumbled over to the club to find Brendan and found their father about to commit that act of horror all over again.

"I didn't think about what would happen afterwards," she finished. "I saw him hurting my brother and...I just pulled the trigger and then he was dead. But Brendan wouldn't let me confess...he made me promise to let him handle it."

Nancy's face wasn't an expression of horror, disgust or even anger that she was now involved. Instead, there were tears running down her own cheeks. It took several minutes before either of them were in a fit state to say anything.

"So you just gave up on yourself, after Nate...don't you think you deserve to have a life, even though he's gone? Don't you think he'd want you to?"

Cheryl could barely believe her ears. "Ye actually think I deserve one?"

"Yes, I do. I know I've always been an opinionated busybody with plenty to say on the law, but you're not some dangerous, cold killer. You did what you had to do that day. And I'll tell you something, Cheryl. If I could have done something to save Becca like you saved your brother, I'd have done it in a heartbeat."

The tear stains were still fresh on the faces of both women as they shared another hug. "Thank ye. I just...I wish I could've been there for ye in the same way, when ye needed it."

Nancy dismissed her comment with a shake of her head. "Don't even worry about it."

"But I do," Cheryl said immediately, wiping her eyes. "I know you've heard all this before, but by the time I got your message about coming to stay last summer it was too late, and I felt terrible. Still do. I rang the pub and spoke to Darren..."

"And he told you I was in the psychiatric ward. I know. It's all fine now. Well, not fine because we're divorced but...let's not go into it. What are you going to do now?"

Taking a deep breath, Cheryl retrieved her phone from her bag and switched it on. "I need to see Ste."

Standing outside the flat of Nancy Osborne, Ste knocked on the door, hardly able to believe who he was about to meet on the other side. He had no idea what he was going to say to her. It was she who had asked him to come here, and although he was by no means ready to talk; he was even less willing to go home and face his family.

Nancy let him in without a word, but by the look on her face she had just been clued in on the details. Ste was led into the living room, where Cheryl was sitting waiting for him.

She was dressed in the sort of clothes he remembered her wearing on his visits to see her in Ireland; but today the outfit didn't match up to the person she was. She looked small and fragile, and just the sight of her was enough to have him rushing towards the sofa and throwing his arms around her.

It was more than obvious that she had already been crying, but now she sobbed her heart out on his shoulder, choking out a "sorry" every few seconds when she could catch her breath enough to speak. Nancy stood in the doorway, disappearing into the kitchen when it looked as though Cheryl and Ste were about ready to have a heart to heart.

"I'm sorry, Ste," the blonde repeated, her body hunched in on itself in the space next to him. "This must be just awful for ye."

He brought his hands to his face, trying and failing to rub all of the emotion away. "Why now?" was all he managed to reply with. It was the same thing he had been asking himself since the news broke.

She couldn't seem to look at him as she answered. "Nate's dead." And as with Nancy, she explained just how her husband had been taken away from her. After his initial reaction – shock and a feeling of genuine upset on her behalf – Ste suddenly stands up from his seat, turning around to face her.

"So that's why you came back and confessed? Was that all Brendan's sacrifice was worth to you – a life with Nate or nothing?"

"No!" Cheryl burst out. "I know it looks selfish, love, like I've given up. I suppose I have really. But there's also a big part of me that wanted to do this so ye two could finally be together without anything getting in the way. Ye and Brendan, ye were so close to getting the future ye deserve before I...before I killed that man. I got a chance to have my happy ever after. It's Bren's turn now. And yours."

Ste let out a sigh and sat down beside her for a second time. His hands found hers and he gave them a gentle squeeze. "Cheryl, we didn't miss out on a future because you did what you did. That was down to Brendan. I accepted that a while ago. He chose a life in prison over me. And just because you've told the truth now, that doesn't guarantee that he'll get released anytime soon."

She took a few minutes to think, and her voice was small when she replied. "I thought he was never charged for the other murders?"

"He wasn't. But the woman investigating thinks Brendan's mentally unstable."

Cheryl's breath hitched in her throat. "How do ye know that?"

Looking at his hands, which were now sitting in his lap, Ste decided to just come out with it.

"Because DI Lacey is my stepmum."