A/N: Sorry this has been such an awfully long coming, I've really struggled with this second part. I'm sure some of you are thinking this sounds like a ridiculous plot development but something almost identical happened to a good friend of mine, and it made me so cross that I wanted to try and verbalise it through our guys. Can I also just add (sorry for waffling), that this is not me in any way criticising social services at all. They do some really important work that can make such a difference.

Special thanks go to Karallaye for being my reverse Brit-Picker (is there a name for that?) and sort of unofficial beta; your help has been definitely appreciated!

Anyway, this is set about two weeks later.

Reviews are lovely and always appreciated.

"Why are we fighting about this again? I've told you a hundred time; it was an accident!"

"Yeah, well, you can't let accidents just happen, right?"

Shaun groans and turns away, rolling his shoulders to ease some of the tension. The past two weeks have been a nightmare; Cody hasn't left Annie's side and Zach's been so wound up he hasn't let Shaun within two feet of him.

"They don't want to take her away; they just want to see that we're doing okay."

"Don't be so fucking naïve, Shaun! When I was growing up there was a kid who lived three doors down. His dad died when he was like five and his mom worked two jobs to keep them going. One day his kid brother fell down the stairs and broke a couple of ribs. Next thing you know they've got child services all over them, making it seem like his mom couldn't cope and saying they were gonna take his brother away."

"What happened?"

"They left town pretty soon after."

Shaun stares at him for a long moment before dropping his eyes and shaking his head.

"This is not the same thing and you know it. Yeah, it was bad that that happened, but she was a single mother on her own working all the time; you can see why they thought what they did."

"And we're two men trying to bring up a family. People still think we shouldn't be allowed to do that."

"Stop with the chip on your shoulder thing, okay? That is not what this is about."

"How do you know?"

"Because this could happen to anybody, no matter where they live or what colour they are, or sexuality or whatever."

Zach turns away and picks up some toys left scattered over the floor. Shaun throws his hands up and leaves the room, walking toward the stairs.

"Cody!" he bellows, and after a moment a blonde head peers over the bannister.

"What?"

"You'd better make sure your room is organised."

"Why? They're not gonna be coming upstairs."

Shaun clenches his jaw tightly and completely fails to keep his temper in check.

"I've given you a chore to do and I. Want. It. Done. Do you understand?"

"Pop, I…"

"Do you understand?" he shouts, and Cody's eyes widen in shock before he disappears, the door to his room slamming behind him. Zach's voice, tight with annoyance and thin from exhaustion pokes him right in the centre of his overwrought nerves.

"Good going, Shaun."

"Cut me some slack, okay? I'm getting whiplash from your mood swings!"

The knock on the front door has them both pausing for a second, Zach nodding at Shaun as he runs a hand over his hair and straightens his shirt.

Cody hurls things into his closet with unnecessary force. He hates the way his stomach cramps whenever he hears raised voices; hates the way his heart beats a little faster whenever he can't hear Annie gurgling or see her playing safely.

He knows Dad and Pop are just getting angry because they're scared, but the things that are being said and the fact that the stupid social worker is coming round is making him more and more angry, until his chest feels like it could explode under the pressure.

When he hears the ringing on the doorbell he drops the pair of sneakers he was about to put away and sits heavily on the bed.

Even before all of this crap, these past few months have been hard on everybody. Cody gets a weird, uncomfortable feeling when he thinks about his grandpa's funeral a few weeks ago. His mom had been there; all dolled up with her hair lightened and expensive looking clothes and jewellery. When she'd looked at him she'd smiled distantly and kissed him on the cheek, but for all the attention she'd paid him, he might as well not have been there.

The whole day he'd had a horrible constricting feeling in his throat, and people who remembered him from when they lived in the crap neighbourhood (Dad always told him not to call it that) said that he must be really sad about his grandpa. Cody nodded and agreed, but he knew deep down inside that that wasn't it, not at all.

He'd gone straight to his room when they got back and lay on his bed, trying to remember his Mom's face as she used to be. When he couldn't picture it he decided that if she can't even call him more than twice a year she probably doesn't count as his Mom anymore. So she became Jeanne to everybody, even if Dad sometimes slips up when he mentions her, they all get where he's coming from.

Swallowing heavily again he forces himself up to carry on cleaning up.

Zach makes a pot of coffee as Shaun settles Mariam ("Please, call me by my first name,") on the couch and answers the basic questions.

When Zach puts the cups and pot down on the coffee table Mariam catches sight of his face and exhales a little, turning to face him;

"Zach, let me reassure you; I am not here as the enemy. You have to understand, we have Annie's best interests at heart."

"We're her parents; we know what her best interests are."

"Look," she soothes, eyes darting between them, "we're not saying that necessarily. You obviously love her a great deal and I'm not disputing that. The fault may well have been ours; perhaps we could have offered you a little more post-adoption mentoring and support, recommended some family groups."

On and on she goes, making soothing remarks interspersed with questions about exactly what happened that day. Shaun does well at keeping his cool, though he gets flustered when she asks exactly how long he was out of the room for when it happened.

Of course he can't remember to the exact second, Zach spits at her in his mind, he wasn't expecting anything to happen.

His mind shudders and churns as he winds himself further and further towards snapping point. He hasn't slept properly since it happened, and his appetite has been minimal. Dimly he's still aware of Mariam's nodding head, scribbling pen and mouth moving, saying all the right words. Throughout the passive-aggressive techno babble Zach stares at a little spot just over Mariam's shoulder. If he squints he can just see the ears of the rabbit Annie so loves. He stands abruptly.

Shaun looks at him as if he's just started spouting fluent French. Zach leans over the other sofa to snag Rabbit's ears and twitches it out from behind the cushions.

"I'm going to take this up to her." He says, and neither Mariam or Shaun respond as he leaves the room.

The journey up the stairs has never seemed so long, and that nagging, asshole voice in Zach's brain, the one that has been mostly quiet for years now, stirs, stretches and sees a great opportunity.

You're surprised this is happening? You bought yourself ten years of happiness, let yourself believe this awesome life was forever. Well, more fool you Zach, you're still just a poor white trash street artist underneath your nice clothes and big house.

Then the other sweet, kind part that believes actually, yeah, all of this is deserved, clears its throat and asks to be heard

Ignore it, Zach, it says with a voice like his mom. You deserve this as much as anybody else. You've worked hard and put all that bad stuff behind you. You and Shaun are a really strong team, and it's going to take more than one little accident to break you.

He stops just outside Annie's nursery, leaning his head against the cool wood of her door, feeling the feather from the dream catcher tickle at his fingertips. Pushing open the door he stands, watching the gentle rise and fall of Annie's chest, the remnants of crumbs from her sandwich clinging onto her baby-soft strands of hair. Sucking a deep breath in through his nose he walks over to the crib as quietly as he can, palms pressing against the smooth pine.

In here, away from the resentment and anxiety that seems to fill the rest of the house, Zach can almost believe everything is going to be alright. The colours of the wallpaper and the bright toys in the corner are muted by the weakened light straining through the curtains, and the gentle rustle of the wind chime outside the window is soothing.

Cody's on his way back from the bathroom when he sees Zach standing over Annie's cot, head bowed, breathing deeply. Cody almost reaches out for him, before he realises that actually, this is probably one of those times he wants to be left alone. The sheer level of unfair hits him like a punch in the stomach, and he feels the muscles in his neck and back tighten with tension.

This is bullshit, Cody decides, and makes debatably one of the most unwise decisions of his young life.

Walking down the stairs, hands balled into fists so tightly his knuckles turn white, Cody walks into the room where Shaun sits facing the social worker. All the stress, all the pain of the last week bubbles to the top and he practically growls at the woman sitting so demurely on the couch in his house.

"Why are you here?"

Shaun stops what he's saying and looks up in shock, brow creasing at the sight of Cody, flushed and angry.

"Cody, what?"

"I'm talking to her." He says, glaring at Mariam, who raises her eyebrows in surprise.

"Not now." Shaun says, just a hint of a threat in his voice.

"Why'd you have to come in here and talk all this shit about how you think they hit Annie? My parents love us and they would never do something like that, so why don't you just take your goddamn report and go shove it up your fucking ass?"

The silence that follows is punctuated only by the sound of Cody's heavy breathing and Shaun's huff of shock. After a moment Shaun recovers, raising a slightly shaking hand to point at the door.

"Get upstairs. We will talk about this later."

Pulse fluttering in panic and realising the enormity of his mistake Cody turns on his heel and leaves as quickly as he can, tripping up halfway up the stairs and landing heavily on his hands and knees.

Shit.

"I'm so sorry." Shaun says after a moment, and feels his cheeks colour in shame. "That…uh, that's really not like him."

"Quite a temper he's got there." She observes, voice giving away no clues.

"He's just under a lot of stress. We all are." Shaun says, pointedly.

Mariam nods and writes something down on her pad. Slipping it into her bag she stands, lips curved upward in a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes.

"Thank you for your time; we'll be in touch."

As soon as her car is out of sight the forced smile falls from Shaun's face and he turns, back pressed up against the door as he looks up at the top level of the house. He enjoys the relative peace of the hallway before he hears Zach's voice coming from the top of the stairs.

"Everything okay?"

In this, like in everything else, Shaun wants to protect not only Zach, but Cody too. Because even after all this time, Zach still suffers enough from paranoia that sometimes his anxieties rub off on people around him. As angry and quite frankly shocked as Shaun is at Cody, he knows what he said came from a stressed out, defensive place, and God help him but he feels the same.

At the same time, perhaps he feels irritated at Zach for running away from the meeting. Solidarity was what they had agreed on, and Shaun can't help but feel abandoned and more than a little hurt. He bites his tongue and tells himself that a full-on argument isn't going to solve anything.

"She's gone," he says, forcing his face into neutrality.

"Did it go okay?"

Not really.

"Uh, it was going alright, but Cody sorta…contributed."

Zach's face creases.

"What happened?"

"He's just on edge Zach, we all are."

"Tell me." Zach's voice holds no teasing, no fun.

"He said some stuff to Maryam. Just about how we hadn't done anything and she should just, you know," he pauses, wondering how to rephrase shove it up your ass. "leave and take her stuff with her, because she wasn't welcome."

"Fuck." Zach breathes, jaw setting tightly.

"Just, let him cool off, alright?"

"Why'd he have to open his mouth?"

"I don't know. Like I said, this isn't easy on any of us, but if we just…"

Zach says nothing, turns on his heel and walks down the hallway, toward Cody's room.

Cody looks up when Zach enters, regret still churning in his stomach.

"Dad, I…"

"Save it, Cody."

Cody forces himself not to look away, no matter how much he wants to.

You made your bed, now you gotta lie in it.

"Do you have any idea of what you've done? We didn't ask you to get involved. All you had to do was stay out of it."

"Why? She's my sister and you guys are my parents. Why didn't you tell me what was going on? I'm not a kid anymore! Just say it; you think I'm so stupid that I'd mess it up."

"You know what? I didn't before, but maybe I do now."

Cody flinches as though he has been slapped, and through the anger Zach feel the first icy fingers of guilt trailing down his rigid spine. Of all the things he hates most about himself it's the way he seems to have inherited some of the same temper Jeanne had. She was always so easy to shout, to grip a little arm too tightly, to smack too easily. He'd always prided himself on being Cody's shelter from that, and now here he was, putting him down with a few cruel words.

"I…I didn't mean..." he starts, fumbling around, but Cody has already turned away, putting his headphones on and lying down on the bed. The conversation is clearly over.

More weary than he can ever remember being, Zach walks down the stairs, acutely aware of everything that's been said, and unsaid, today. Shaun looks up at him, waiting for him to make the first move. Zach shakes his head and walks past him to the kitchen. Shaun follows (of course he does, he always will), and stands leaning against the table.

"Did Cody say anything?" Shaun asks quietly.

"Not so much."

Shaun recognises this all too well if the lurch of his stomach is anything to go by.

"The rest of it went okay, I think. She seems okay, but then, her job isn't exactly all hearts and flowers is it, so I guess sometimes…"

"I don't want to talk about it." Shaun sighs.

"Zach, come on, we need to discuss this. It isn't going to go away by ignoring it."

"I gotta start dinner."

Shaun stands staring at Zach as he busies himself getting out a chopping board and the sharp knife, deftly peeling and chopping an onion before tossing it into a pan. The silence between them is thick with accusations and fear, and it feels as though the fuse that's been smouldering for far too long is going to blow them all sky-high.

After a full five minutes of Shaun waiting for some kind of reaction he cracks.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" he snaps.

The bone deep tiredness residing in Zach's body renders him unable to respond, and he mechanically carries on chopping, scraping and placing various ingredients into the pan.

"Fuck, Zach, are you going to even say anything?"

Zach looks at him, sees the anger and fear written across his husband's face, and can't think of a damn thing to reassure him. Words, never his strong point anyway, fade completely when they stand, facing off against each other in the kitchen of this beautiful house they're both so proud of. For the expression Shaun's wearing and the way he's so obviously reaching out to Zach, they may as well have been back in the car outside of Gabe's party that night.

"I don't know about you, but I am scared as shit." Shaun whispers, and something in Zach resonates at that. Even the voice in his head is unsure what to say to that, and squirms uncomfortably in Zach's brain before giving up for the night. For long seconds they stare at each other, and Shaun continues to stare into his eyes, searching for some kind of signal that Zach is even aware of the situation. Finally, when Zach gives him nothing, he scoffs in disgust and pushes away from the table, the scrape of the leg against the tiles jarring against the quiet.

"I've known you for too long, Zach. I know that you're doing that thing I hate where you just pull back and go into your freaking bubble or whatever, but I got news for you: you can't do that anymore, you hear me? Your family needs you to be here, not acting like some goddamn impartial observer while we have child protective services decide if I smashed that bowl on our daughter's head. Start acting like you care, or…"

Shaun shakes his head and turns, yanking the door open while he stuffs his feet into shoes.

"I'm going for a walk."

Alright now, Zach, you need to just snap out of this. Even if you have no idea what you're gonna do next, you have to quit punishing everybody else.

"Shaun?" Zach's voice comes out shaky, unsure, but Shaun hears it. He always hears it. He stops, knuckles clenched tight around the door handle, as if he can't decide whether to turn round or not.

"Shaun," Zach repeats again, "I…I'm sorry."

He can almost see Shaun's shoulders sag in relief, as if those three simple words were all he was waiting for. Zach walks toward him, heart thrumming a bizarre, slightly giddying beat. When he is standing so close he can see the flush of red at the base of Shaun's skull, Zach reaches up both hands and curls his fingers around the collar of the jacket. Clenching tightly, he allows himself a moment to rest his cheek against Shaun's shoulder, breathing in the smell that has come to mean love and reassurance.

"I'm sorry. God, I am so ready for this to be over." He murmurs, and Shaun sighs, nods.

"I know. I just," he starts, then turns gently to face Zach, grabbing both hands in his as they fall, "I get that this is your way of coping, but you getting crazy over what can't be changed, or going that weird kind of silent is just…hard to deal with. I know," he says, pulling Zach closer so they now almost share breath, "that you have your reasons why, I understand. I just want to try and help you to find a way to manage it, to make it easier on all of us."

Ever the master of eloquence, Zach can do nothing but stand there and nod dumbly, letting out a little breath of relief when Shaun brushes his lips against his cheek gently.

"Why don't I carry on with dinner and you go and get Annie up? And hey," he says, taking the spatula from Zach "Just try and imagine how Cody's feeling right now."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he hates me."

"He does not hate you. You both just need a little time."

And like that, Zach feels just a little more invigorated, a little calmer, and a little more ready to face whatever is coming. Because as his mom used to say;

When somebody loves you, no matter how low you get, they'll always be there to scoop you up off the floor and set you on your way.

A/N: So, I hope you enjoyed. Please R & R if you did.