Next chapter guys - a couple of heart to hearts and a surprise visitor. Thanks for the continued support.

Joe Bloggs - I wouldn't say Cain is being particularly nice, he's still mostly his usual grumpy self. There are moments where he shows his better side because deep down he loves his sister and he had a big shock nearly losing her. I've chosen to ignore the Judgement Day storyline because it didn't exist when I started this story, so I couldn't plan it in. I hope this answers your question? Feel free to ask more.

Chapter Thirty Five

Carl woke to the sound and smell of sizzling bacon. He opened his eyes and saw that he was on the sofa. He reached out and grabbed the pint of water on the table, downed it in one and then forced himself to sit up depite his banging headache. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he felt someone's presence next to him and was greeted by a plate of bacon sandwiches and a coffee when he reopened his eyes. He looked up, expecting to see his brother towering over him and was surprised to see his sister-in-law instead.

"Thanks" he said, taking the plate and cup from her. She just smiled at him and went back into the kitchen to finish cooking the rest of the bacon.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice carrying easily over the sizzling.

"Bit rough" he replied honestly. He put the cup of coffee on the table and took a large bite out of the sandwich, which Nicola had even laced with brown sauce.

"I've taken the day off and Laurel is looking after Angel, so whatever you need, if you need it, just ask." Nicola was talking in a very matter of fact manner, as if she was discussing the accounts with Declan, but Carl knew this was just her trying to keep things as normal as possible. It would freak him out if she was too nice to him.

"Where's Jimmy?" Carl asked, looking around for his brother.

"Gone to pick something up" Nicola replied.

"We've no deliveries today have we?" Carl tried to think about work but found he couldn't remember what day it was, never mind what orders they had on.

"No, this is something for you" Nicola replied mysteriously. She plated up her own breakfast and sat in the lounge with Carl. It was obvious she wasn't going to tell Carl what Jimmy was doing, so Carl went back to his sandwiches and they both ate in silence.

At the hospital, Charity had gone back into Chas's room and found a nurse in there. She was in the middle of taking Chas's blood pressure.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll just..."

"Nearly finished" the nurse interrupted, "you can stay if you want?"

"I don't know..." Charity said. She wasn't sure if Chas wanted her there after what she'd said. She hovered by the door, trying to gauge what Chas was thinking. But she had her head turned away from both the nurse and herself and she wasn't saying a word. The nurse caught her eye and motioned with her head for her to come in. Charity walked into the room and sat on the chair by the bed as the nurse noted something down on the chart on the end of the bed and left.

Charity waited to see if Chas would turn around and talk to her, but she didn't move. If she didn't see her chest rising and falling, she'd think she was dead.

"Do you remember" Charity started "when Ben Parish and Michael Simpson beat Cain up and took his bike off him? You dragged him into the flat and onto the sofa all on your own. It was January and there was five foot of snow everywhere, but you ran all the way to my house and shimmied up the drainpipe when my mum refused to let you in. And when we'd got back and bandaged his head, and bathed all his cuts, he shouted at you for telling me he'd been picked on. So you kicked him really hard in the shin and told him next time you'd leave him in the stairwell to freeze to death. You were only seven."

Charity laughed as she remembered Chas's little face appearing at her window, all red and panting from the exertion of running so far. Charity had grown up in a semi-detatched house in a suburb of Hotten. Her parents weren't well off by any means, but they both worked and her mother, Judith, was a bit of a snob. Charity's dad, Jeremiah Dingle, a cousin of Zak and Shadrach, was banned from associating with his side of the family, and so, therefore, was Charity, despite the fact she went to the same school as Chas and Cain. Judith didn't understand that Charity, an only child, loved hanging around with her cousins, who understood her better than her parents ever did. She despaired of her every time she'd come back from another adventure with her 'wild cousins'. Charity despised how weak her father was for giving into her mother all the time, and she hated her mother for always trying to control everything. But she'd always felt loved by them, and lucky to be looked after, until they threw her out when they found out she was pregnant at thirteen. That was when she knew they'd never truly loved her at all.

"You amazed me at how much fight you had, even as the tiny, skinny thing you were then. You never cried when Faith left, you just got on with it. And you always had such a sense of justice, never let Cain nick off smaller kids, never let us lift from nice shopkeepers. You kept us in line. I still don't understand how you managed to do that. You were such a smart little kid, able to talk circles round both of us, trick us into doing stuff you wanted.

"And now look at you; got your own business, got your Aaron back, got so many people in the village who love and respect you. You have made so much of yourself despite everything and everyone who has dragged you back. And I do include myself in that category, because I should have been looking out for you when we were kids. I should have realised that you weren't okay. A seven year old living with an alcoholic father and a delinquent brother - what kind of life was that for you? But you've always been so good at pretending everything is okay. I'm so sorry Chas, for then and for now. I should never have shouted at you, I didn't mean what I said before."

Charity lost all her composure and broke down in tears. She hadn't meant to ramble so much about the past, neither of them liked raking it up. But once she'd started talking, she'd found it hard to stop, and all the feelings of anger and guilt and bitter loss had been brought to the surface. She buried her head in her hands and wept silent tears, crying like she hadn't cried for over twenty years.

"That bike wasn't even his" Chas said, so quietly Charity almost missed it, "he'd stolen it off Spotface Barry Wheelan the week before".

Charity's sobs turned into hysterical laughter as she lifted her head and met Chas's eyes, sparkling with mischief despite the tears rolling down her own face. Charity reached for Chas's hand and held it tightly as they laughed away their tension.

At Mill Cottage, Carl had pulled himself together enough to have a shower and get dressed into fresh clothes. It amazed him how simple things could instantly make one feel more human. As he opened the door to his bedroom, he heard a woman's voice downstairs. It was too high to be Nicola's, but it sounded very familiar. Intrigued, he walked quickly downstairs and followed the voice to the living room, where a familiar figure stood with her back to him. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Scarlett?" he asked, hardly daring to believe it was really her.

She turned round and greeted him with a sad smile, "Hi Carl. Surprise."

Carl couldn't cope with the shock of seeing his little sister so unexpectedly. He was so glad to see her, but felt so guilty about the way he'd behaved towards her last time she was there. He launched himself into her arms and hugged her so tightly, she thought he was going to crack a rib.

"Whoa there Carl, give the girl some air" Jimmy joked as he pulled his brother off Scarlett. Everyone was surprised to see that Carl was crying.

"I'm sorry" Carl said as he wiped his eyes and tried to pull himself together, "just a bit of a shock, you know"

"I'm sorry, I wanted to surprise you" Scarlett said, squeezing her brother's arm in comfort.

Everyone sat down on the sofa and chairs and Nicola brought in some cupcakes and more coffee. She was obviously trying to keep herself busy. Scarlett told Carl that she'd been travelling in Thailand when she'd got a call from Jimmy telling her what had happened to Chas. She'd booked the next available plane and been travelling for the last two days to try to get home and meet her niece. She'd only found out about Esther passing away when Jimmy had picked her up from the airport that morning.

"I'm so sorry Carl. I know you really wanted kids with Chas, despite the strange way you go about things."

"I'm sorry that you didn't get to meet her. And I'm sorry for the way I..."

"It's all forgotten" Scarlett stopped Carl, it wasn't the right time for this, "have you got any pictures of Esther?"

Carl nodded and went to find his digital camera and his phone. For the rest of the morning, the four of them looked at pictures and videos of Esther, caught up on Scarlett's news and enjoyed time together again.