Sorry I haven't updated in ages (again). I've been in Germany for three weeks staying in my grandparent's holiday cottage, which is basically up a mountain at the edge of a remote German village... well, you can imagine, but anyway I basically had no wifi or internet connection for two weeks. Anyway, here's a massive chapter to make up for it.

The last day had been hell for Johnny. Ever since getting the news from Bailey, coming back to find it was all true, no-one knew what was going on… no-one knew what would happen to Tee… It was like his worst ever nightmare had suddenly come true. He didn't know what to think, how to act; his automatic reaction had been anger; at everyone at the dumping ground, for letting such a thing happen, for believing everything that the school had accused Tee of doing; at himself, for not being there for his sister when she'd clearly needed him.

He should have come home immediately, right away when he'd got that phone call. He'd been worried, of course, incredibly worried. Tee would never, ever have said all the things she had unless she was really upset. He'd never seen her like that, ever. Why hadn't he just come home?

In truth, though, Johnny knew exactly why. He'd been scared; scared of Tee's reaction, the way she'd said she hated him, that she wished he was dead. He'd known that coming home would mean having to talk about the secrets from the past, face up to everything. And Johnny didn't want to go there. The past was past; it was over, gone. And it should stay there.

Now, though, all he wished was that he'd just come home, helped Tee. She'd needed him, whether she thought so or not. His sister had been in trouble, and he hadn't been there. And now it was too late. Everything was his fault.

"Johnny." Mike pushed his bedroom door open, breaking his thoughts. Johnny looked round, reluctantly. Mike was standing by the doorway, sympathy all over his face.

"What do you want?" he demanded, resisting the urge just to tell Mike to go away.

"I just wanted to know what you want to do today," Mike said gently. "You could stay in, if you're not up to doing anything? May-Li and I would be downstairs, if you needed us. Or maybe some distraction would be good? You could go out, into town maybe?"

"Like distraction's going to help," Johnny shook his head. "That's the last thing I need."

Mike nodded. "I thought you might say that. Well, third option is, we go to the hospital, so you can see for yourself how Tee is? I'm not sure if she's allowed visitors at this stage; it was family only yesterday. But since you're her brother – "

"Yeah, I want to do that," Johnny interrupted. Since he'd arrived back late the previous day, he'd only had a quick talk with Mike in the office, followed by a phone call which had confirmed that Tee had been having an operation which, while not being anything serious as it was only to sort out a badly broken leg, did mean that no visitors would be allowed at that time.

Neither Mike or Johnny spoke as they drove in Mike's car to the hospital. Johnny was silent, and Mike thought it would be best to leave him to his thoughts; Johnny was never one to hold back and Mike thought that when he wanted to talk, he would.

Johnny thought again over everything that had happened. Nobody seemed to know exactly what had been going on, but he suspected that Thomas Fletcher had something to do with it. After all, he was the one who Tee seemed to have been fighting with all week. His first instinct would have been just to run to school and beat Thomas up, saving questions for later. But that would only lead to Johnny getting into trouble, and he knew there was more going on; Mike had told him about the mysterious posts on Tee's tablet, and everything else she'd been accused of.

He could tell that Carmen and Bailey knew something he didn't, too; that part was obvious. Bailey hadn't told him much on the way back to the Dumping Ground, though Johnny had tried to ask him more; but Johnny had been too worried about Tee to be bothered. And that was sort of how he felt now; while what he'd normally have done was demand that Carmen and Bailey told him everything, his top priority now was Tee. He had to make sure she was okay; everything else could wait.

Johnny barely registered anything as the car pulled in and Mike parked the car and they walked into the large building in silence; past the reception desk and into the lift. He was vaguely glad the lift was an old one, which you couldn't see through; he was starting to feel sick. His stomach churned as he followed Mike along the corridor, and as he pushed open the door of the room where Tee was, it gave another lurch, and he thought for a moment that he might actually be sick.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw that they weren't alone.

"Mum!" he shouted, suddenly angry. She looked round from where she was standing in surprise. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Seeing my daughter," she said defensively. "I just got here a few minutes ago; I've been speaking to one of the doctors; apparently it's good news." Her face broke into a slight smile. "They've ruled out the possibility of brain damage. Tee's got a lot of broken bones, which they're still worried about, and concussion obviously; quite badly. Other than that, though, they say it's likely she'll recover fairly well."

"Fairly well?" Mike asked. "How do you mean exactly?"

"Well," Lucy said, "You'd have to speak to one of the doctors again for more details, but what they said was it's very likely she'll wake up, hopefully within a few days. Like I said, it's unlikely she'll have brain damage, so she should be okay there. The problem is the broken bones..."

"She had an operation on her spine yesterday, though, right?" Mike asked. "And they ruled out paralysis?"

"Well, yeah," said Lucy. "But she's shattered a few ribs, which could lead to breathing problems for a while. And she has a fractured arm and shoulder, too, where that wall fell on her... a shoulder can be quite hard to fix, can't it? I mean, I don't know the exact details, but I think Tee might have to stay in hospital for a while, even after she wakes up."

"Right." Mike nodded. "I think I'll go to speak to the doctor, get some more information." He hurried off, leaving Johnny with his mum.

"I'm sure Tee will be fine," Lucy said. "We can go and see her in a second, I think."

Johnny nodded vaguely, still trying to process everything he'd just heard. Tee would wake up, she wouldn't have brain damage... that was good, better than he could have hoped for. And she wouldn't be in a wheelchair or anything. But everything else... the broken bones, that she'd have to stay in hospital for a while, the fact that she was still unconscious... Johnny tried to think through everything, figure out what it all meant. There was one thing that bothered him, though, one thing that kept coming back into his head, distracting him from his thoughts about Tee.

Why had it been his mum that the doctors had told everything? Why did she even deserve to know?

He turned back to look at her, slowly. She saw him looking, and smiled sympathetically, still clearly relieved about what the doctors had said. Johnny didn't smile back.

"What are you doing here?" he asked again, only just managing to keep his voice calm.

"What do you mean?" Lucy's voice faltered as she heard the dangerous edge in his voice. "I wanted to see how Tee was; like you."

"The doctors made a mistake, though." Johnny said coolly. "Didn't they? I mean, the rule was family only. And they let you in."

"Johnny, I am family! I'm her mum, yours too. How could you say that?"

"Family? That's why you abandoned us, didn't even bother keeping in touch?" He raised his voice. "Neither me or Tee heard from you for years; no birthday cards or anything. Why do you think Tee would want anything from you now?"

Lucy looked like she'd been slapped. "I had no choice!" she protested. "You know that. Tee's forgiven me, I thought you had too. With Keith walking all over me, there was nothing I could do..."

"Yeah, right! You managed to in the end, didn't you? And you can't have hated him that much; you had Hope just recently. Only you chose him. You chose him, that monster who used to beat us up, who scared the hell out of all of us, over your own family." Johnny paused. "Oh, wait, though. How could I forget? Tee is his family, was all along. You were just too much of a coward to tell us."

"Come on! I wanted to, you know I did! I just couldn't..."

"Cos you were scared. Exactly. I still can't believe Tee trusted you. She thought you'd changed - "

"I have! Can't you see that?"

"Oh yeah? That's why you went and got yourself a new boyfriend, just so you could make the same mistakes again, and watch us suffer!"

"No! It's not like that. He's different to Keith, really nice! You can meet him if you like - "

"Really?" Johnny almost laughed. "Mum, exactly what planet are you on if you think there's ever any chance we'd want to meet him? You must be even more of an idiot than I thought, and believe me, that is saying something!"

"Johnny, please, you have to believe me! I have changed. I really have..."

"Do you know why Tee went through everything she did? Why she went through hell this week, got bullied, blamed for a load of stuff she didn't do? Do you want to know why she found out your little secret in front of the whole school, why she told me over the phone in front of everyone that she wished she was DEAD?" Johnny was shouting now; he was surprised Mike hadn't run over yet, with a load of doctors in tow, he was that loud. He couldn't even control himself, he was so angry.

"Do you want to know?" he repeated. His mum just looked back at him, silent tears streaming down her face. Coward. Johnny felt another sudden wave of fury, and looked her in the eye.

"The reason everything happened, the reason Tee's here now... it's all because she didn't want to be you!"

"What do you mean?" Lucy whispered.

"Tee was so ashamed of you, so determined to be different, not to make your mistakes, that she did something reckless, went against a bully who turned out to be dangerous. She didn't want to let anyone walk over her like you did. She wanted to stand up for her friends. That's why everything happened, got so out of control. That's why she wished she was dead, and why we were so relieved that she's only going to spend months in hospital, and there could be permanent damage. Tee's really badly injured, and still in a coma, but we're all just so relieved that she's not going to be in a wheelchair for her whole life, or brain dead, or just plain dead. And it's all because your so-called daughter hated you so much that she was willing to do anything not to be you!" Johnny finished triumphantly, his voice hoarse from shouting. Then he looked at his mum.

She was still crying softly, and he saw her sway, then sit down against the peach wall of the room, head in her hands. It was the look on her face, though, that was most haunting. She had actually turned white; Johnny hadn't even known it was possible for a person to lose the colour in their face like that, to be so shocked. She was breathing fast, like she was bordering on having a panic attack. And her eyes blazed with pure hate. Not at Johnny, but at herself; like she was so appalled at what she'd done that she wasn't even worthy of being.

Johnny wondered if he'd gone too far; she must be worried about Tee, too, despite everything. And of course she hadn't meant for anything to happen. All those things he'd said, mostly true, but still... she shouldn't have heard them.

"I'm sorry," he said, hesitantly, after a moment. "I was out of order..."

She turned to look at him again, still shaking, but her expression had changed. Suddenly, there was a glint of determination that hadn't been there before, a glint of the fire Tee and Johnny had.

"You're right," she said, with conviction. "I've messed up, really messed up. It's time for me to change."

"You always say that," said Johnny.

"I know. I mean it, though, this time." She looked him in the eye. "I know you both hate me, that you want nothing more to do with me and I've had all the chances I deserve. You probably don't believe me, but I want to change, and I will. I have to; for Tee, and Hope. And you of course. I have to prove that I can be a good role model, a good mum. Please, just let me try."

She definitely meant what she was saying at that moment, Johnny could tell. But how long would it last?

"What about your boyfriend?" he asked.

"Well..." she paused. "He's not like Keith, really, he's not. He's a good man, I know it this time. His name's Richard and he's a teacher. I met him on an internet dating sight, a few months back. He's not like us, Johnny. He's got a stable life, family, a good home... a daughter, too; she's at university. He knows everything about what I've been through, but he's okay with it. He was prepared to give me a chance..."

"How do I know he's really okay?" Johnny wasn't sure what to think; a teacher did sound okay, especially with a kid at university. But his mum did have a terrible taste in boyfriends.

"Well, the thing is," Lucy paused, looking sheepish. "I think you know his sister."

"What? How?"

"She's a teacher too, you know," she said. "At... your school."

"What? You're kidding." That, Johnny had not been expecting, and he didn't know whether it was good or bad. "Who is she?"

"Well, I think Tee has her for maths. Richard said his sister had mentioned that a girl called Cally always disrupts her lessons. I think I've heard Tee mentioning Cally as one of her friends?"

"They used to be friends, yeah."

"Well, I wonder if you know her, then? Her name's Violet Harrison. I wonder if you know - "

"Is this a joke?" Johnny didn't realise he was saying exactly the same thing that Tee had said when she'd first found out that their mum had a boyfriend. But he honestly could not believe it. "You can't be serious. Rubbish maths teacher Mrs Harrison? Your boyfriend is... Mrs Harrison's brother?"

"Well, yes." Lucy nodded. "Is there any way you'll give me one more chance? I don't deserve it, but... could you just meet him? See for yourself?"

"Maybe," Johnny said reluctantly. He wanted to believe that his mum could change, even after everything she'd done. "Not till Tee's better, though."

He paused again, looking at his mum. He didn't know whether he could trust her, whether she really meant what she'd said. But maybe all this had been a wake-up call for her. Maybe she'd surprise him.

"Let's go to see Tee now," he said.