'Mitch wait,' Carol told him as she pulled up the drive. Daryl was sitting on the front door step with his head in his hands. She knew he probably had one hell of a head ache, she gave Nathan the keys and told him to give his Dad a ice pack along with some pain meds if he hadn't had any. Nathan looked at her when she told him that. 'Daniel, phone please,' Carol held her hand out for his cell phone.

'Don't look,' he handed his phone over, Mitch stayed sitting in the front seat looking at his brother.

'Why am I going to see something I don't want too?'

'No,'

'Daniel there are no photos on here that could get me fired if I get caught with your phone on me are there?' Carol warned him, he held out his hand for his phone and turned his back and deleted a few photos. He handed it back. 'We are going to talk about sexting shortly, and if you are not going to listen to me, you will listen to your Dad, or I will bring Rick Grimes in to talk to you, then I will go to your school and hold an assembly on sexting and you will never live the shame down,'

'You wouldn't,'

'Daniel, try me, you don't want to test me because I'm not in the mood,'

Daniel walked away from the car walking into the house. Carol looked across at Mitch. He looked nervous like he was going to bolt, she put her hand on his arm.

'How are you?'

'Fine,'

'I'm sorry I didn't come to counselling this afternoon,' She couldn't swap, Daryl did go and she hadn't had a chance to talk to either about it. They both were worried about Mitch, they were worried about Nathan too. He was just flying under the radar not getting into trouble but at the same time Nathan was raising some concerns. She'd had a couple of odd conversations with him lately that she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

'Dad came its ok,'

'I will be there next time,'

'Doesn't matter, I... you had to work,' Mitch looked at his nails, he started biting them a little, she could tell he was nervous and a little jumpy. He was like Daryl in that way, 'I'm still gonna be no good, doesn't matter,'

'What? Mitch, you do matter, what's going on,'

'I gotta F... math's,' he told her, 'so what's going to happen now?'

'I don't know... what does that mean? We get you a tutor or something?'

'I ain't gonna get locked up?'

'In jail?' Carol asked him, she was confused, 'You are not going to jail for a F, we will look at the maths, are the other boys good at maths?'

'Nath is, he's good at everything, he never got locked up,'

'Mitch where ... where did you get lock up?' Carol swallowed knowing she was probably going to cry. Her heart was beating fast, with everything else that he'd been coming out with that her Dad did to them this was something that could really cause ongoing problems. He'd never brought it up before now, but then he never did bad at school until now. She hadn't really looked at their grades, giving them some glide time due to the fact they just come to her. Carol wished the boys had told her the few times she had been able to visit them but she didn't know.

She wanted to cry. She fiddled with her car keys then looked at him. He had tears rolling down his face, behind his tough guy exterrior was the most fragile of her children. If someone asked her a month ago she would of said it was Daniel. But the one most in need of love and understanding was Mitch. He acted out because he felt like he had the most to lose, he got them before they got him attitude, just like his father.

'In the cupboard, with the books,' Mitch told her. Carol reached out and held him. Wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight.

'We are not locking you up for a F, I'm sorry this happened,... I'm sorry everything happened,' Carol hugged him again, She felt heart broken because of what happened to her boys, she wished things had been different so did Daryl, they were trying to fix it. It didn't help Daryl freaking out every two minutes. 'Come on, we can't fix this tonight, but we will work on it, lets go in and see what other dumb arse things your father has done since I arrested him this afternoon,'

Mitch wiped his eyes, 'You arrested Dad?'

'You bet your life I did,' Carol climbed out of the car, she walked around giving Mitch another hug, 'I don't know what I'm going to do with all you Dixon's but I love you, you can tell me anything, I might not be able to fix it but I can listen...'

'Daniel had sex with Charlotte!' Mitch blurted out, 'They been doing it all over, I think they did it in your bed when you were at work. He stole condoms from Dad's garage because they had no money to buy em and didn't want Dad to know,'

Carol's eyes went wide,. 'And Nathan stole a joint from Dad's workshop! He was high today at Andrea's, I had to stop him eating everything and away from her so she didn't know,... he stole a tinnie and papers,'

Carol took a deep breath to clear her head, 'Ok, honey anything else? Did you smoke the joint too?' She was going to kill Daryl, strangle him or do something to him, why wasn't he keeping an eye on them. What was he doing with pot in his garage where the boys could stumble across it. He told her he quit it, she didn't know what to think, she was going to have to have her game face on this weekend. Right now she was going to toss their bedroom quicker than the boys would know what to do. She couldn't get caught with drugs at her house.

'I want to go to dance class,' he told her. Carol stared at him blinking, 'What? I'd be the only guy,' Carol knew there had to be something of a catch. He was his fathers son looking for girls and in a dance class was a great place to start.

She rolled her eyes, 'Ok, you can go to dance class but you have to tell your Dad,'

'He already said yes,'

'Your a good boy, you know that, I love you, Dad loves you ok, you don't need to be worried about anything,' Carol told him, they walked up to the house and in the door, Nathan was looking in the fridge for food. Daniel was lying on the couch complaining to her about his phone. Carol looked around for Daryl.

'He's in the shower,' Daniel said from the couch, 'He's got stitches, above his eye,' Daniel told her, she nodded going through to the bathroom and slipping in. She pulled open the shower curtain a little seeing him standing there covered in bruises.

'Shit,' she said, he turned around looking at her.

'Not that many, I'm ok,' he swayed a little, 'They gave me some pills, and something to take to sleep,'

'Ok, look, Daniels having sex with Charlotte, stealing condoms from the garage, and Nathan took pot from your office,' Carol whispered to him, he shut his eyes at the first comment and groaned. The second one made him open his eyes, 'he what?'

'Stole pot,'

'Fuck,'

'I'm going to have to toss their room and flush it, do you have anything on you?'

'I told you I stopped,' he told her, she was staring at his whole body, 'don't look,' he almost teased her, 'Pervert!'

'Yeah, I like my men awake, not swaying on their feet, finish up, I'll help you to bed,' She dried him. Got him into the bedroom to go to bed and sleep. She gave him the sleeping pills and he was out. She went into the boys bedroom and started snooping. She found it in Nathan's gear. He hadn't hidden it well. She was thankful. She took it and tipped it down the toilet then called them all to the couch where she sat on the coffee table to talk to them and try sort everything out.