Chapter Nine

"How's he been?" Brax spoke, without taking his eyes off his son.

Kyle nodded, taking a seat. "Alright. He's had a cold and hasn't been sleeping great but you know."

Brax nodded, "But he's alright?"

Kyle nodded, it'd been two weeks since he'd last seen Brax because the week before Casey had been sick and driving for over two hours with a sick baby was just not a good idea.

"How's Heath and Bianca?" Brax asked, swapping the baby to his other arm.

"Good. Heath said he was going to call you, sometime tomorrow or the next day. Maybe come with us next time." Brax nodded, it would be nice to see his immediate younger brother.

"How's it been in here?" Kyle asked, cringing at his own question.

"That's the best you got?" Brax chuckled. "It is what it is. Gunno was transferred last week."

"Oh, good. Probably wouldn't be great for you to be chucked in solitary." Kyle said quietly. Unsure of what to say to his brother. Ever since Ricky had died, these visits had just gotten more and more awkward.

"He's gotten big." Brax commented as Casey gurgled loudly.

"Yeah, definitely your son." Kyle grinned.

"Hey, do you know if Ash is going to come visit sometime soon?" Brax frowned when Kyle snickered.

"No. We're not exactly mates." Kyle told his brother, not really wanting to get into it with him. But Brax wasn't just going to let it go.

"What? Why not?"

"It's a long story. His sister was causing trouble, and he was being a tool about it." Kyle waited for his brother to defend his best friend, but it never came.

Brax nodded. "Well if you reckon' it's for the best."

Suddenly the babies cries interrupted them. Brax's eyes widened, it was the first time that his son had ever cried while at the prison.

"Gotta good set of lungs on him." He tried to console the baby by repositioning him. The baby continued to screech, drawing glances from other visitors.

Kyle pursued his lips as he watched his brother awkwardly try to console the baby.

"Brax." Kyle said quietly. "Can I?"

Brax nodded quickly, "Yeah. Give it a go. Not sure, anything's going to calm him…" Brax trailed off as the baby's cries immediately died down once close to Kyle's chest.

Kyle awkwardly smiled. He knew he shouldn't feel bad for being the one who could settle Casey, but he did. His attempt to pass Casey back to his father was quickly stopped when the baby started to whimper after only being out of Kyle's arms for a few seconds.

"He's probably just tired. Big day, not much sleep last night…you know how it is." Kyle told his brother as he moved the baby back into his own arms where he quietened down again.

"Yeah. Probably." Brax tried to not let his offence show. It wasn't Kyle's fault that the baby would settle for him and not Brax.

"So Angelos is good. And Andy's really stepped up with the gym." Kyle tried to start up a conversation.

"That's good..ay." Brax nodded before silence again, filled the air between the two.

"And Josh is doing his HSC…studying a lot." Kyle tried again.

"Good. He's a good kid." Brax nodded.

Kyle swallowed as the conversation again came to a stand-still.

"Well, if you want miss the rush-hour traffic, it might be best if you head now?" Brax didn't really want them to leave but the awkward silence was getting too much for him.

Kyle looked to his watch. "Uh yeah. I guess so. See you next week then?"

Brax nodded. "I'll be here." Wasn't like he could exactly go anywhere was it?

Kyle stood up slowly. "Um did you want to…?" He motioned to the baby, asking if Brax wanted to say goodbye.

Brax shook his head. "Nah. He seems pretty content wouldn't want him to get restless again."

Kyle could hear the sadness in his brother's words. "Brax. He's just tired. It's nothing personal."

Brax nodded. "Yeah. Could be the fact that I've only seen him three time since he's been born."

"Four." Kyle said quietly. Not that his words were much help.

Brax shrugged. "Still a stranger to him though."

"He's only a month old Brax. Give it time?"

"Yeah. Guess so." Brax muttered.


Kyle grabbed the milk from the shelf, placing it in the trolley. Casey was asleep in his carrier, attached to the trolley.

"Kyle?"

Kyle turned around, hearing his name being called from the opposite direction. His eyes widened seeing the blonde.

"Amy? What are you doing here?" Kyle asked surprised to see her.

Amy bit her lip and glanced around the store, "Grocery shopping?"

Kyle felt his face flush red. "Right. Sorry. Of course."

Amy laughed. "How's little Casey been?" She smiled softly as she looked past Kyle, towards the sleeping baby.

"Good. We just went and saw Brax," Kyle added, "His dad," when he saw the confused look on his face.

Amy frowned, she knew that the child's mother had passed away in a car crash and had just assumed that his father had as well.

Kyle noticed the look on her face. "It's a long story." He really didn't feel like explaining it all to her. Amy nodded.

"Well I better let you get back to it." She paused. "it was nice seeing you."

Kyle nodded. "You too." Before they both went their separate ways.

Later when Kyle arrived home Josh was helping him bring in the shopping. "So how was it?"

"It was weird." Kyle paused, "We had nothing to talk about. And then Case wouldn't settle for him."

"Would've been awkward."

Kyle nodded. "Yeah it was."

"Andy and Hannah wanted us to meet them at the diner tonight, for dinner, if you wanted." Josh told him as they began to unpack the food. Kyle nodded his head, his mind still too focused on his visit to the prison to really listen to what Josh was saying.


Arriving at the diner, Kyle pushed the empty pram as Evie walked ahead holding a wide awake Casey in her arms. His eyes widened when he saw how many people were sitting at the table. He thought it was just going to be Andy and Hannah but Oscar was there with Denny and his girlfriend Maddy and Phoebe was sitting up the other end with Kat and Nate.

"Woah." He muttered. The group had taken up the back half of the diner, having pushed at least three tables together.

Hannah smiled knowingly, "Hey. Sit down. We were waiting for you guys before we ordered."

Kyle followed her instruction and sat down next to her, watching as across from him Evie and Maddy cooed over Casey.

Andy leaned forward to talk to him. "How was Brax?"

Kyle nodded, not really wanting to go into too much detail with everyone else sitting there. "He's alright. Bit quiet."

"Amy said she saw you?" Hannah spoke about her friend.

Kyle frowned for a second before realising that the two were colleagues. "Oh yeah."

"I invited her actually. She's new to the bay, and she doesn't really know anyone."

"Denny? Guess who's coming?" Andy called across the table. "Amy. You excited?"

Denny looked confused causing Andy and Kyle to chuckle. "Oh you don't remember? You met her on your big night."

Denny cringed at the memory of the other night. She'd woken up with a massive hangover and no recollection of the next before.

Denny looked at Phoebe, "Oh my god. Do we like her? Should I be embarrassed?"

Phoebe laughed. "You weren't that bad." She paused…"Until you started dancing."

"Amy!" Hannah announced excitedly, seeing her friend arrive. "You're here! Sit down." She motioned to the free seat next to Kyle.

"So you know Kyle. And Andy. Josh is his brother. My niece and nephew Oscar and Evie. Maddy's Oscar's girlfriend and obviously you know Nate, and have you met Kat?"

Kat shook her head from where she sat, "Hi. I'm Kat."

Amy smiled kindly and waved.

"And I heard you've already met Denny and Phoebs?" She grinned watching Denny cringe.

"I am so sorry." Denny started off saying. "I'm not normally like that, I swear."

Amy shook her head. "Oh, it's totally fine. We've all had nights like that right?"

Phoebe pulled a face. "Not all of us. Some one of us are actually responsible adults."

The entire table turned to look at Phoebe, who had a sour look on her face. Oscar didn't know her that well but he knew enough to know that she liked to have a good time. He frowned before Andy chuckled.

"What are you on Phoebs?" Andy said confused. Out of all them, Phoebe was probably the one who liked to have the most fun.

Phoebe just glared at him. Kyle looked at Josh who looked just as confused as he felt. What was Phoebe's problem?

"Um…Could I please grab a menu?" Amy asked her voice, soft as she spoke to Maddy across the table.

"Yeah. Sure. I recommend the burgers." Maddy said passing the other blonde a menu.

Kyle looked at Phoebe who was now talking quietly to Denny and Kat.

"Sorry about her. She's not normally like this." Kyle said to Amy.

Amy shook it off. "It's totally fine."

"How are you liking the bay?" Maddy asked her.

"It's nice. Quiet. Definitely a change from the city but one I really needed." She smiled.

"Oh you're from the city? So am I."

Amy nodded. "I'm originally from Melbourne but I've been in Sydney since high school and I met Hannah at med school actually."

Andy seemed to suddenly become interested in their conversation. "Guess who else is from Melbourne? Kylie!"

"Don't call me Kylie, Andrea." Kyle said quickly.

"Oh yeah? Where abouts?" Amy questioned

"Uh. All over the place." As Kyle and Amy began a conversation, Hannah looked questioningly at her boyfriend.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Andy said and before she could question them anymore Leah came over to take their order. It took Leah almost 15 minutes but eventually everyone had placed their order.

Suddenly Evie's eyes filled with terror as Casey began to whimper and within seconds was crying loudly.

Kyle stood up quickly, reaching across to relieve the teenager of the baby. "I'm gonna take him outside for sec." He said to Hannah before pushing the pram out of the diner with his free hand.

Denny sat watching as Phoebe's eyes stared after Kyle. "Phoebs." She said quietly.

Phoebe turned to face her friend. "Mmm?"

"What's going on?"

Phoebe feigned ignorance. "Nothing?"

"Phoebe…"

"Actually I might go help Kyle."

"I might go see if he needs a hand."

Phoebe froze, hearing Amy's voice in sync with hers.

The table fell silent as the two women looked at each other.

"Awkward." Andy winced as Hannah kicked him under the table.

Phoebe pursued her lips and sat down. "Go ahead."

Amy bit her lip. "I'm sorry. It's not my place, you should go."

Before Phoebe could respond her phone rang loudly. She reached for it, frowning. She looked towards Denny. "It's my mum. I better take it."

Denny nodded and watched as she answered the phone.

"Hello? Mum?"

Amy spoke quietly to Hannah as she sat back down. "She doesn't like me, does she?"

Hannah glanced at the door that Phoebe had just walked through. She wanted to deny what Amy had said, but to be honest she wasn't sure. Phoebe wasn't being herself today.