After instructing Bob to close up and not to come through the back under any circumstances, Charity takes a calming breath that does no good whatsoever, and heads back into the living room. Noah's sat where she left him, pale and fidgeting. He looks up when she enters and then quickly looks away. She crosses her arms and shakes her head.

"I don't even know where to start, Noah."

"I didn't do it!" He looks close to tears.

"And I should just believe that, should I?" she asks, shrugging. "Just like I believed you when you said you'd spent the day by yourself, sulking?"

"No, but...that was-"

"A pack of lies, is what it was." She can barely look at him. When did he turn into this? When did her sweet little boy turn into an obnoxious teenager who steals and lies and emotionally manipulates her with sob stories about his AWOL brother? When did he turn into her?

He shakes his head. "Of course you think I did it. You thought I'd shoved Kim Tate an'all. Why wouldn't you think I'd left someone for dead on the side of the road?"

"Because your phone was in the car, Noah!" she screams.

He huffs and she tries to control her breathing, tries to control her rage. He sighs.

"Fine. I was in the car, alright? Me and Leanna and Amelia. We got the keys and took it for a drive and Leanna ended up crashing it in a field." The words are tumbling out of him almost too quickly for her to keep up with, each one landing like lead in her stomach. "But we didn't hit anyone, I swear! We just left the car there and walked home! Took us ages. Someone must've taken the car after we'd gone."

Pressing her fingers to her temples, she closes her eyes, shaking her head. "So, let me get this straight. You took that car. You crashed it and abandoned it. And you expect me to believe that someone miraculously came along later and nicked it again and then hit someone with it?" She hears how shrill her voice is, sees him cringe under her anger, and stops herself.

He goes to get up. "I'm going to my ro-"

She grabs his shoulder and pushes him back down. "No, no, mister. You're going to stay right there." She pulls her phone out of her pocket, her thumb moving in a practised dance across the screen. She lifts it to her ear and glares at him as he frowns at her in question.

"Who you calling?" His eyes go wide. "You're...you're not calling the police?"

She rolls her eyes. "It'd serve you right if I was."

Her call in answered. "Hi gorgeous."

"Hi, babe." She catches the relief on his face when he realises who it is, but it's chased by annoyance. "Listen, you know that wonderful massage we spent our hard earned cash on? You remember how relaxed I felt afterwards?"

"Well, I remember you going on about that man's 'magic hands' the whole way ho-"

"Anyway," she interrupts. "Turns out it was a complete waste of money, because my stress levels have shot right back up."

"Why? What's happened?" She feels guilty at the panic in Vanessa's voice. And no wonder, she spent months coping with Charity's moods which were swinging more often than Tarzan.

"Oh, nothing much. Just our Noah deciding to steal a car and crash it in a field." She's being flippant, but her heart is racing. She never wanted this life for her kids. She never wanted them to wind up like her. And now Debbie's in court for scarring someone for life and Noah's nicking cars. It's like bloody deja vu all over again.

"Oh my God, is he okay?"

Charity laughs. Of course that would be Vanessa's first question. "Yeah, he's fine. For now. But the person who got hit by the car might not be."

"Right, I'll be right over. Don't do anything stupid."

"No promises, babe."

They hang up and Charity moves to the kitchen, flicking the kettle on and noting that her hands are shaking.

"So you can't even yell at me by yourself these days? You need Vanessa here to hold your hand, do you?"

Her eyes snap to his, his sulky, sullen tone ratcheting her anger right back up. "You should want her here, pal. Because, right now, I want to kill you. And she might be the only one who could keep me from doing that."

He shakes his head. "Pffft. Help you hide the body, more like."

"D'you know what, Noah? Weirdly Vanessa does actually like you." She grabs three mugs and slams them down. "Even though you've given her every reason not to."

"Whatever."

"Oh, and hey," she continues to rant as she fixes the tea. "I don't even need to justify why I want her here, by the way. She's my partner and that's something that you're just going to have to get used to."

"Just like I had to get used to all the others, you mean?" he mutters. "Whether I liked it or not?"

"She's not like all the others, though, is she?" Charity shouts, coming over to stand by him, trying to get him to meet her eyes. "Surely you must be able to see that by now?"

"What does it matter, though?" he asks. "Yeah, she's stuck it out longer than I thought she would. But you've still got plenty of time to do something stupid and muck it all up."

"I'm not going to-"

"Oi!" They both turn to the new voice in the room. Vanessa's closing the door behind her, shrugging out of her anorak and discarding it on the couch, like she owns the place. She marches over to the pair of them. "Now, the two of you yelling at each other isn't going to achieve anything, is it?" She puts a hand on Charity's back. "Sit down."

"I'm making tea," Charity protests, but she's moving under Vanessa's gently guiding hand.

"I'll make the tea," Vanessa says, shoving her into a chair. "Sit there and keep your voice to a dull roar."

Vanessa finishes up with the tea while Charity sits and stews in her anger, which she knows deep down is rooted in fear. Fear of losing Noah. Fear of his life being ruined at fourteen. Like hers had been. He glances at her every few seconds, but mostly concentrates on his hands. Vanessa brings the mugs over, setting them on the table. She takes the chair between the other two and looks between them.

"Right, when I said to stop the shouting, I did actually mean for you to keep saying things to each other, only quieter."

Charity sighs. "He says he had nothing to do with the hit and run. Said they abandoned the car and walked back home."

Vanessa turns to face Noah. "So, is this 'I had nothing to do with it' like you had nothing to do with letting the animals out the other day, or is this actually the truth?"

Charity frowns, looking at her son, who's looking even more uncomfortable than he was before.

"Noah-" she begins.

He throws his hands up. "Okay, yeah, fine, I let the animals out."

Charity's mouth falls open. "You lying little sh-" Vanessa puts a hand on her arm, shaking her head slightly.

"I did and I'm sorry. And I'm sorry I lied about doing it. And I flooded the school an'all." Charity's shaking her head as he babbles on. "And, yeah, we stole the car, but we never hit anyone, I swear!"

"Right, good." Vanessa nods. "Now we're getting somewhere."

Charity lets out an incredulous laugh, looking between the pair of them. "No, I'm sorry babe, but are you deaf? Or just daft? Did you hear what he's after saying?"

"Yes." Vanessa squeezes her arm. "But at least we know the truth, now."

"Do we? He's lied through his teeth for God knows how long." Charity throws out an arm towards the bar. "He stood out there earlier and told me a pack of barefaced lies about how he spent the whole day moping about Joe."

"It wasn't lies!" He shrinks back when she looks at him. "Well...the some of it was lies. But I was feeling sad. I just-"

"You just nicked a car and had a little joyride to make yourself feel better?"

"You're still not listening to me." He rubs at his nose and swipes his arm across his eyes. "I tried to talk to you the other day! I've tried to talk to you about how I'm feeling about everything but you never listen! Too busy trying to prove what a great mum you are to her." He flicks his head at Vanessa. "Too busy with Ryan or Johnny, your shiny new boys." He stands up and holds his arms out wide, displaying himself to Vanessa. "Well, take a good look. 'Cause this is what happens to her kids."

Charity's chest is tight and she feels like she might faint. Everything she thinks about herself, everything she fears Vanessa will see, has just been laid bare. Noah shakes his head and goes to walk away, but Vanessa catches his arm, pulling him round to look at her. She nods at his seat.

"Sit down." He hesitates and for a second Charity thinks he'll storm out anyway, but Vanessa speaks again, her voice still low and calm. "Please sit down."

To Charity's surprise, and probably Noah's as well, he does as he's told. Vanessa scoots her chair closer to him, her elbow on the table as she leans forward.

"If Johnny turns out like you, I'd be thrilled."

"Like me?" He scowls. "Are you trying to be funny?"

"Not at all." She smiles. "You're a sensitive, clever, caring, resilient lad." She smiles. "Yeah, you're a bit moody and impulsive sometimes-" She inclines her head towards Charity. "-but that's hardly a dealbreaker for me, is it?"

Charity watches a smile bloom briefly on Noah's lips before he lowers his brows back into a frown. "But...but I just told you what I've done and-"

"And that doesn't make you a bad person, Noah. It's bad behaviour, yes. And it's not something we can encourage or reward." She leans a bit closer. "But I think we sometimes forget you've had a flamin' hard year too, yeah? Near death experience at Wishing Well, two new big brothers out of nowhere, Sarah being poorly, Joe leaving." Vanessa pauses, and when she speaks again, Charity can hear the tremble in her voice. "And I know how hard it is to hear all the stuff your mum went through."

His chin wobbles and he looks down, pulling at the sleeve of his jumper. Charity reaches out to touch his hand but he pulls it out of her reach, shoving it under the table. She retracts her own, dropping it to rest on Vanessa's back.

"Noah," Vanessa's voice is gentle, the way it is when she's trying to stop Charity from closing herself off, trying not to frighten her off. He looks up at her, his jaw working. Charity can see in his eyes that he's forcing himself to resist, not to give in. "So, you've played a few pranks. You nicked a car. It's not great, but it's not the end of the world. What's important is that you've told the truth. And that you keep telling us the truth, okay? That's the only way we can help you make things right."

Charity's eyes are hot with tears because she knows how accurate those words are. She knows that it's only because she told Vanessa all the stuff she did, that they managed to make it right. Yeah, she could have gone on keeping everything to herself, but she'd still have been torn up and empty inside. Nothing would have been better. And that's what she wants for Noah, she wants to make things better, to keep him safe, the way Vanessa does for her.

Noah snorts. "You gonna lie to the police for me an'all, then?" he asks. "Tell 'em you were in the loo with me?"

Vanessa wrinkles her nose. "I think that would open up a whole other can of worms, Noah." She holds his eyes. "But we will do what we need to do." She turns to look at Charity, giving her a little smile. "Won't we?"

Charity nods, unable to make her voice work because she's drowning in love for this woman. This ridiculous woman who she'd initially written off as a boring goody-two-shoes. This wonderful woman who knows the right words to make her son feel protected and safe. This amazing woman who's seen into her soul and wasn't frightened.

"Yeah." Charity nods, returning Vanessa's smile. She looks at Noah. "Babe...when I was yelling at you earlier...I didn't-"

"I know." He shrugs. "That's just you." He blows out a shaky breath and meets her eyes. "What now?"

She sighs, rubbing Vanessa's back. "We drink our tea, and you tell us everything. Everything, mind. And I promise I'll listen." She smiles at him and gets a small one in return. "And then we decide what to do. Okay?"

He nods, quickly. "Okay."

Vanessa's hand drops to her knee and squeezes. "I'll leave the two of you-"

"No, stay." They both look at Noah in surprise. He rolls his eyes. "You're Mum's partner."

Charity smiles at Vanessa clearly trying not to show too much excitement at this turn of events, but the grip she has on Charity's knee is getting tighter.

"Okay then." Vanessa finally says. "Oh, but I should say, I expect you to come and work for me at the vets, for free, to make up for that mass release, right?"

"Seriously?" Noah asks, eyes wide and bright. "That's my punishment?"

He's practically rubbing his hands together, thinking about getting to play with puppies and hamsters and whatnot.

"Uh, that's part of your punishment," Charity puts in. "We'll decide on the rest once we've heard all that's gone on." She pushes his tea towards him. "So get talking."