Startling Revelations

This story has been prompted by LawyerlyBrunette and the prompt was Now that all the stuff with Darren has been revealed in the show, you could write one where him and Sandy sit down together, and she gets a chance to explain everything, and he can listen and say what he wants to say?

This story is taken from the very day that it was revealed that Darren was Sandy's son. There's a few small things that we as the audience have learnt about what happened included, but there's nothing that I can think of that was taken from the script.

Enjoy guys!

"He's my son!" Sandy's words spun through Darren's head until that moment, that terrible moment in the pub was the only thing he could even think about. He was Sandy Roscoe's son? But that couldn't be possible, could it?

He had a mum, a caring woman who had always been there for every part of his life. That was what a mother was, not some stranger, who dropped the revelation like a bomb, it devastating and destroying everything in sight.

It didn't even make sense. He couldn't breath, couldn't think straight as the words just played round and round until nothing made sense, not even up and down. What was he even supposed to do with this information if anything.

Did Sandy and his dad expect him to make a go at building bridges with all the Roscoes? He barely knew the tight knit family, but from what he had seen of his lodgers, well he hadn't exactly liked everything he had seen.

They all liked to cause trouble, from nicking the pub's electricity to getting into frequent fights and Darren wasn't exactly keen to have his name associated with that. To be fair though, they probably felt the same way about the situation, after he had landed the youngest (Jason he reminded himself, they were brothers after all and he should at least know who's who), in a prison cell after a wrong assumption.

The whole family were incredibly close and Darren had been on the receiving end of their anger after treating Jason 'wrongly'. The landlord was at least safe in the knowledge that even though he wasn't happy about this revelation, his other 'brothers' would be equally horrified and maybe just maybe, this would mean they'd leave him well enough alone.

Joe had looked furious when he'd found out and like he wanted nothing to do with his new found half brother, and Darren could hope the others would only feel the same way. His life was already chaotic enough with everything that Nancy had done, he really couldn't deal with finding out he had a secret family right on his doorstep.

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Even two days after finding out about his true parentage Darren was still having trouble wrapping his head around everything. The whole pub was smothered with a tense atmosphere and the father of one knew it was partly his fault.

He had been snapping at absolutely everyone, Jack especially. It made his blood boil just thinking about what his dad had done with that woman, when he was still with his mum, no – Celia. But he had a right to be angry, his whole life was a complete lie and now nothing made sense.

He knew that he wasn't the only one taking the whole thing badly though, his 'brothers' hadn't even stepped foot into the dog since and the difference was startling. Their presence had filled the place, and now it simply felt empty without their jovial laughter and occasional crude joke.

"Going out," Darren called as he barrelled through the living room and into the main pub, desperate for some space to just be alone, even though that had all he had been for the last few days after locking himself away in his room, much to Sienna's annoyance/

But despite keeping to himself and avoiding any and every chance to partake in a conversation, Darren still felt suffocated.

The quietness of the village gave him some space to breath though and by the time he had arrived at Price Slice to pick up some nappies for Oscar, Darren was already a lot calmer and no longer felt the strong urge to punch the nearest wall. Or Roscoe, he wasn't fussy.

Smiling at the girl on the counter (and thanking all the Gods that it wasn't Cindy, he loved the brunette he really did, but she would have no doubt heard about the latest development in his already troubled life and want to talk about it in great detail), Darren walked over to the shelf full of baby supplies and began sifting through the products till he found what he needed.

The thought that maybe today would actually be somewhat good and uneventful dying and shrivelling up as Ziggy Roscoe, aka one of his new found brothers, walked into the shop.

The young mechanic froze when he spotted Darren, though he seemed to shrug off his shock after a moment and made his way to the small cosmetics section, which was unfortunately placed just by the nappies, where Darren was still stood.

"Alright," he muttered as he rifled through the hair gels, picking out a small pot before Darren even had time to answer.

"Well considering the circumstances," he finally said, wincing at how cold and stiff his tone was. Ziggy sighed at Darren's words and turned to face the older man.

"Look don't blame mum for what happened, she didn't want to tell you and certainly not like that."

"She didn't have to tell me at all, I was completely happy not knowing that my whole life was a lie."

"Well I can tell you're a bloody Roscoe, you're just as dramatic as all of us," Ziggy drawled, trying for a joke to lighten the atmosphere, having never been fond of fights. Unfortunately Darren wasn't feeling in a similar mood and he took a step forward, annoyance flaring in his eyes.

"I am not like any of you and I don't think I'm exactly being dramatic," Darren hissed, trying to keep a lid on his anger, though finishing it increasingly difficult. "I've just found out I have a whole family that I never even knew about, that's not exactly something I can just accept with a click of my fingers."

"Well it's not all sunshine and rainbows at ours either. We've all found out we have an older brother we didn't know existed and that Mum cheated on Dad. Joe and Freddie still aren't talking to her." Ziggy replied, determined to ignore Darren's dig at his family and still hoping that both men would be able to leave the shop peacefully, though he was severely beginning to doubt that.

"Well sorry for not feeling too much sympathy for her, but she was the one to cause this mess and she deserves all she gets in my mind."

"How can you say that?" Ziggy hissed, finally beginning to lose his cool. "She's in absolute bits about this and she's your mum too."

"No, she's your mum, she's nothing to me." Darren hissed, a stab of worry hitting him when he saw the anger finally seeping into Ziggy's eyes.

"Fine be like that, I really don't care but our mum is the best out there, so don't come crying to me when you realise that and it's too late." At that, Ziggy pushed roughly past Darren and into the village, hair gel long forgotten.

Darren sighed, running his hand through his hair as he tried to keep in control of his emotions, frowning in confusion when he noticed a phone lying on the floor. He picked it up and went to give it to the girl on the counter but froze when he saw the screensaver.

It was a picture of Ziggy and Ruby, both pouting dramatically into the screen and Darren bit his lip in annoyance. He knew he could just give the phone to Ruby, even though Ziggy hadn't been down to the pub for a few days, the couple had still been spending a lot of time together, with the younger girl often going to the garage.

But there was something in Darren, telling him to man the hell up and return it in person. He wasn't a coward and he could at least apologise for his earlier was angry at Sandy for lying to him, but Ziggy and the others hadn't done anything wrong, they didn't deserve his scorn.

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As Darren rang the doorbell to the Roscoe household, his heart began thundering furiously in his chest. He had tried the garage and a few other places around the village in his search to find Ziggy with no only other place was the house, though Darren knew there was a high chance of running into the others there, something he wasn't looking forward to.

But the landlord was nothing if not determined and with his mind long since made up that he would give Ziggy his phone back and no-one else, he had bitten the bullet and made his way to the large house, though at the same time, cursing his decision to evict the Kane's and letting the Roscoe's move in, in the first place, maybe if he hadn't, this whole mess wouldn't have ever happened.

But he knew he couldn't dwell on it and Darren tried to get into the right mindset as he waited for someone to answer the door. He knew the chance of actually having to talk to Sandy would be high, but it was going to have to happen at some point in the future, better it be sooner rather than later and on his own terms instead of anyone else's.

Though if Sandy was for some reason out, meaning Darren wouldn't have to talk to her, well he really wouldn't be complaining. The door was pulled open far too soon for Darren's liking and he tried to keep calm as he came face to face with one of the youngest Roscoe's.

"What do you want?" Robbie Roscoe sneered, glaring heavily at Darren and he tried not to be too intimidated, after all Robbie was what, 13 years his junior? He wasn't going to be scared of someone like that, no matter how hard the school boy thought he was.

"Ziggy dropped this in the shop, thought I better return it," Darren said smoothly, holding up the phone for Robbie to see.

"Right, well hand it over," Robbie said gruffly, though he was interrupted by Sandy, who had wandered down the stairs to see the last person she would have ever expected, at her doorstep.

"Darren? What are you doing?"

"Zig lost his phone Mum, Darren here was just giving it back," Robbie supplied before his oldest brother could say anything. "Though don't worry, he was just leaving."

"And he was giving the phone to you was he?" Sandy asked, pursing her lips. "I think it'd be best if I gave it to Ziggy myself, we all knows what happens when you have his phone." Robbie grumbled slightly, though passed the phone over with little complaint.

Darren couldn't help but be a little surprised by how easily Robbie admitted defeat to Sandy, especially after seeing the young trouble maker at work himself. He had always summed up not only Robbie's bad boy behaviour but Freddie's and sometimes Joe's to bad parenting, though what he saw in front of him, showed that this belief was anything but right.

Sandy actually seemed to have some sort of control over her son (unlike anyone and everyone else out there), and wasn't taking any sort of shit from him. Maybe she wasn't as bad as mother as Darren originally thought.

"Robbie go back upstairs, there's no way you've finished that coursework and you know the deal." Again Robbie protested, though there was no heat behind his words and he did actually go back upstairs.

"Thanks love, Ziggy would go mental without this, practically lives on it he does," Sandy said, smiling fondly. "Do you want to come in for a brew?"

"Uh, I'm not sure if that's-"

"Oh don't be silly. Look you probably have a lot to ask and get your head wrapped around. Jack says you've barely said a word to him and if you're anything like your brothers then you're going to keep it bottled up until it gets too much. Talking really does help and it may make you feel a bit better."

Darren severely doubted that, but didn't have it in him to say no to the kindly woman stood in front of him. Sandy was right after all, he hadn't even begun to wrap his head around what was going on and Darren saw no harm in just talking. It may even make him feel slightly better.

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"And I guess that's it." Sandy sighed, taking a sip from her almost empty coffee cup. She had told Darren everything, from her and Jack's affair to her own husband making her give him up when he was still a baby, even though she wanted nothing more than to see him grow up.

"I wanted to see you Darren I really did, I actually even found your address soon after Alan died. He was a good man, but, for obvious reasons he didn't take well to what happened. But when he died, there was nothing to stop me seeing you, I could be a part of your life again.

"I drove up to try and see you but I only got half way. I knew I couldn't do it, it would completely ruin your life as well as Jack and Celia's, you guys were happy, I wasn't going to be the one to ruin that. But don't think I didn't want to see you, not for one second.

"I thought about you everyday, about how your day was at school, if you went to university, if I was already a Gran. When I realised you were here, well I didn't know what to do, but it was so difficult seeing you everyday and not being able to do anything."

Darren's mind was still reeling, he still had questions, but he did have a slightly clearer mindset on why the whole thing was kept from not only him, but from the rest of the family.

"Please say something Darren," Sandy pleaded, clutching tightly on her cup until her knuckles were practically bright white.

"You were going to call me Mark? Really?" At this, Sandy gave a watery chuckle, the relief sagging through her whole form.

"You're not mad?"

"I don't know what I am, I really don't, but I don't think I'm angry anymore, or at least, not as much as I was. My whole life has been turned on its head and I'm still reeling, but.." "But?" "But I don't want to spend my life fighting with you or the others.

"With everything that's happened with Nancy and the kids this year, well I've spent more than enough time feeling like utter shit. I'd like to at least be able to talk to you all without it being awkward."

"That's all I want," Sandy smiled, a lone tear making tracks down her face, finally hoping that maybe, just maybe the future wouldn't be as bleak as she first thought it would. "You don't know how long I've waited to hear those words. Thank you, thank you so much."

"I'm not saying I'll be over here every Sunday for a roast lunch or anything, so don't get over excited, but I would at least like to try," Darren said, not wanting to promise something he may find himself unable to deliver later on.

He had thought that he would never be able to talk to Sandy or even his own Dad ever again, the anger running through his veins only growing the more he thought about what had happened between the pair 30 years ago. And maybe that would have happened, but far too much had taken place this year already and Darren in was no mood to alienate even more people.

He missed Nancy, yearned for her with each passing day and his relationship with Sienna was only crumbling, meaning he didn't even have anything to distract himself with. These past few months had been riddled with mistakes and Darren didn't want to make any more.

Maybe getting to know his new-found family would be the making of him but he would never know until he had a go at it. Taking a sip of coffee, Darren couldn't stop the small (but the first genuine), smile growing on his face, excited for the future and what it was going to contain.

So I hope you all liked it!

Next Story - One where Robbie WAS molested by uncle Ken and he has a flashback to it – prompted by AriellaXavier