"Sorry! I was miles away," Robert said. He'd walked into his sister, almost knocking her over. He put his hands on Victoria's shoulders, steadying her from falling.

"Come and talk," she suggested. "You look like you need it." He didn't argue. In fact to get this off of his chest might be a relief.

Five minutes later, Victoria wrapped her hands around her mug of tea, stretching out on the sofa. "Just tell me," she said. "Better than dragging it out for weeks."

Robert sighed and took a deep shaky breath. "A… woman got into contact with me again. Someone from my past."

"Okay," Victoria said, waiting for things to make sense. "And?"

"She's… I should say I…" He took another shaky breath. "Apparently I've got a five year old daughter."

Victoria sighed and shook her head, looking at the floor. "Why the hell is everything so damn easy for you? Even when you fall down you manage to land on your feet!"

"Easy? Have you been paying attention to my life lately?" Robert asked in surprise.

"Sorry," she said instantly. Robert got up to leave and she followed him. "Hey, I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "I'm… taking out my frustrations on you. Sorry."

"I don't know what to do," Robert admitted. "I… God."

"Have you told Aaron?"

"No!" he said. "And you can't either."

"He should know," Victoria said.

"Please," he said.

"I'm not going to tell him," she said quickly. "This will be so much worse if it doesn't come from you. And you know it."

"I can't… the words just don't come. I don't know how… he'll react"

"You should tell him," she said. "If nothing else, he needs to know.

"I can't."

Victoria sighed and spelt it out for him. "Not too long ago, Aaron trusted you with the worst thing he'd ever been through. He trusted you'd be there for him, to listen, and that you wouldn't run away from him. Maybe it was the worst thing anyone can ever go through. Perhaps you should return the favour, and tell him the truth. See how that goes."

"What if…" Robert shook his head, not quite able to voice the fear he had that maybe Aaron couldn't cope with it.

"Come on, Robert," Victoria said, a slight smile on his face. "He's made of stronger stuff than that. He would never have got through the last six months otherwise. "

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding. Victoria got up to walk away.

"Oh. Congratulations, by the way."

He almost snorted. "I don't feel like celebrating. I missed five years. I wont get them back."

"No," she said. "But you can change it now."

Once Robert had left, she took out the letter from the hospital that had arrived that morning, the one she'd be rereading all day. Detailing everything under the heading "fertility problems." She sighed and put it away. Rereading it wouldn't change the fact that getting pregnant was going to be incredibly difficult for her. She wiped the lone tear away and got on with the washing. Best to keep busy.

Robert knocked on Kelly's door. She answered it, not looking happy. "What do you want?"

"Let me in?" She did reluctantly. "I know she's mine. I got the confirmation yesterday."

"I did tell you that," she said sternly.

"I know you did," Robert said. "I want to see her."

Kelly shook her head sitting down. "To be honest… I didn't think you'd want access to her. Normally you'd throw money at the problem and hope it'd go away. Or at least you used to." She sighed. "What's changed you?"

Robert cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable talking about himself and his feelings, but also feeling that he had to at least partly explain his change of personality. "I fell in love," he said. "And somewhere along the way I realised I had a lot more to lose than money. I hurt so many people by my lying and scheming." He shook his head, faces flashing in front of his eyes. Katie, Paddy, Andy, even Aaron. "Then something happened and I realised how much he needed someone to just be there. To listen. That… changed me. I'm lucky to still have Aaron in the first place."

"That the boyfriend, is it?" she asked. Robert wondered if she was being snide, but nodded after a moment. "He know about any of this?"

"No," Robert said. "I'm… I didn't want to tell him."

"Well you're going to have to," Kelly said bluntly. "If you want to see her."

"I know," Robert said. "It's… finding the words."

"I suppose some of that's my fault. I'm sorry," she said. "I should have told you sooner. But the man you are now… is not who I was frightened of letting him know I was pregnant."

Robert took in a deep breath. "I'll tell him later. He needs to know."

"By the way, when did you decide you were gay?" she asked.

"I'll see myself out," he said, avoiding the question.

Aaron saw Paddy getting into his car and he jogged over to him. "Have you got a minute?" he asked through the open car window.

"Er, no," Paddy said, clearly reluctantly. "Not really. I've got a horse I've got to get to. It's an emergency. Sorry."

"Oh," Aaron said. "Have you got time later?"

"Yeah," Paddy said. "You want to talk?"

"I'll be up at the scrap yard," he said. "When you've got the time." Paddy nodded, and drove off, determined that he'd be as quick as possible. Aaron didn't often ask for a chat, so when he did, it was usually because something bad had happened and he needed help.

Around lunch time Adam made himself scarce as Paddy arrived at the scrap yard. He opened the cabin door and saw Aaron pretending to work.

"What is it?" Paddy asked, sitting opposite him. Aaron sighed heavily.

"Okay, first… If I wanted "I told you so" I would be talking to mum right now," he said, almost glaring at him.

"You haven't told me anything yet," Paddy said. "What's going on?"

Aaron knew that he had to talk to someone or go mad.

"It's Robert," Aaron said heavily. He bit his lip, trying and failing to avoid Paddy's eyes. "I think he's cheating on me."

"Okay," he said, keeping calm. Aaron usually needed calmness as he did have a tendency to be hot headed when stressed. "Why? Why do you think he's cheating."

"He's getting weird phone calls that he doesn't explain. He vanishes for no reason at odd times and I've no idea where he is. Sometimes he ignores my phone calls. The last time he was doing that, it was to meet me behind his wife's back. I… He's hiding something. Then I wonder if I'm being paranoid, but I don't think I am."

"What're you going to do?" he asked.

"I don't know," Aaron said. He shook his head. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. He cheated with me on his wife. Why should it be any different, with him cheating on me now? Maybe this is what I get for going after him in the first place. For not letting go, even when I knew what he was like." Aaron bit his lip. "I knew he would do this again. God, I can't help myself, can I?"

"It's not your fault," Paddy said, keeping calm. "You haven't done anything wrong."

"Haven't I?" Aaron asked. "Maybe I brought this all on myself."

"Look, I know I don't exactly have the moral high ground after… recent history, but you need to talk to him. Rather than just assuming the worst. It could be nothing."

Aaron scoffed.

"Okay, it could be something totally different to what you're thinking." Paddy sighed. "You might want to talk to him before condemning your relationship entirely. Just a thought."

"Yeah, I know you're right but…"

"But what?"

"I'm frightened he'll leave me," Aaron admitted. "I need him. And I hate how much I need him. I'd rather have little pieces of him than nothing at all."

"If he is cheating then… He's not worth it. No one's worth it."

"You've cheated on your wife," Aaron reminded him.

"Yeah," Paddy said. "Well, I'm an idiot. And I'm paying for it, trust me. Robert might not be my favourite person, but he's not stupid." Aaron dropped his head and looked at the table. "Talk to him. It might not be what you think."

"Yeah." But he wasn't convinced at all. "Thanks Paddy." It might not have been a very productive conversation, but talking about it to anyone had made him feel a little better. Lighter somehow.

Thank you to those who're encouraging this rather different storyline for these two!