Based on the episode ' Home for Christmas', where Cal discovers his birth mum.

Christmas was always the same. For as long as he could remember, Christmas was just another day where he would find ways to annoy his brother, get drunk and have one night stands with random girls. But, that Christmas, 2015 was going to be different. One he wouldn't forget. Having recently discovered that he was adopted, Cal was on a mission to find his birth mum. The only problem was, he didn't know where to start. Luckily, he had help from Charlie.

The work shift had slowed down so Cal had found himself on his break in the staffroom. He was busy lost in his thoughts, wondering how he would go about tracking down his real mum when someone sat down in front of him. Cal looked up and saw it was Charlie.

"Hey Charlie," Cal said. "Sorry, I was miles away."

Charlie didn't answer. All he did was hand Cal a folded up piece of paper.

"What's this?" Cal gave Charlie a confused look as he took the paper from him.

"Open it."

Cal did as he was told. Unfolding the small strip of paper, he noticed on it was an address. He swallowed hard.

"It's your mum." Charlie answered.

Cal looked up in disbelief. How did Charlie find her?

"How did you find her?" Cal asked, still in shock.

"I'm your Secret Santa." Charlie smiled.

That was one year ago. The year when Cal had so many questions and not many answers. The year where he was not only going to see his real mum for the first time, but was going to find out if Ethan was actually his brother.

Now a year on, Christmas 2016, Cal sat at the kitchen diner going through old photographs. He was busy sorting them out when Ethan entered the flat. He pulled up a chair beside his brother and helped him.

"Looking at old memories?" Ethan asked as he rummaged through the box in front of him.

"Yeah," Cal said. "I never knew there were so many. So many memories of a childhood we never knew we had."

"This is a nice one." Ethan indicated, picking up a fairly recent one of Emilie and Cal together.

Cal looked over at the one Ethan had found. He smiled a small smile.

"It is." Cal took the picture from him. "That was the first time I met her."

"Oh yes. You never did tell me how that went."

"I know I should have told you but, it was better that I didn't at the time. I wanted to find out if we were actually brothers. Anyway, when I first met her it was like meeting a stranger. A stranger yet somehow you already knew who she was. She obviously had no idea who I was nor what I was doing there in her house. I have to admit that when I saw her in the wheelchair, I was speechless. Being a doctor I could tell something was wrong with her. I just didn't know how serious it was or of the consequences it would have. We started to talk. She told me about the two sons she had, still oblivious to who I was. She recounted how she had to give them up for adoption because she couldn't cope with having two young boys. When I asked about the reason why she had to give them up, that was when she told me about having Huntington's disease. I already felt upset and angry with her, but finding out that she had kept this secret from us made me even more angry. I had to get away from her. I stormed out of the living room and found myself in a small study. My breathing was beginning to quicken and come out in bursts. In that moment I wanted to go back out there and scream in her face. I wanted to run like I always do from a situation, but I didn't."

Ethan gave him a sideways look at that last bit.

"Okay, I technically did, but I only went to the car since Charlie was the one who drove us and I don't think Charlie would be too pleased if I stole his car."

That got Ethan to laugh slightly.

"Anyway," Cal continued, " while I was sitting in the car contemplating about what to do next, that was when I met Shelley."

"Who's Shelley?"

"Mum's care worker. She was a feisty old woman…"

"Old?"

"Okay , not as old as mum, but much older than you and I. So, as I was saying, she was a feisty one. She even scared me and told me she would call the police. I, of course, didn't want that…"

"Of course, you didn't."

"So, I got out of the car and told her that I was a doctor. I also told her that I was Emilie's son. She soon calmed down upon hearing who I was."

"What a relief!" Ethan grinned. "Caleb Knight,always has a way with the ladies."

Cal groaned.

"Come on, Eth. It wasn't like that. I told her the truth, didn't I?"

"Okay, fine. You did." Ethan replied, giving in.

"She then tells me that I 'was one of the boys'. I was surprised, but relieved that it was the two of us. She then called me 'Stephen' before telling me that my brother was called 'Michael'. I told her it was 'Cal' and 'Ethan' now in the adoptive world. She then went all sarcastic on me."

"Sarcastic?"

Cal nodded.

"Yeah, she was like 'ooh, what posh names'."

"Posh? Us?"

"I know, right?" Cal smiled. " We're definitely not posh. Anyhow, we carried on chatting. I asked her how she knew about us. She replied, quite angrily, 'woman loses her children, you think she forgets about them? You think she doesn't want to talk about them all the time? Imagining them doing well?' She then asked me, what you were up to. I informed her you were a doctor too."

"And how did she react?"

"She was surprised to say the least. Said Emilie never dreamed that her sons would grow up to have such highly respected jobs. After having that little chat with Shelley, reminded me why I came to visit Emilie in the first place. I needed to get some answers. So I headed back towards the house. From then Emilie and I had a nice conversation. I got the answers that I needed. Knowing that Emilie had Huntington's, I knew there was a 50/50 chance that either you or I could have inherited the gene." Cal finished the story.

Realisation suddenly dawned on Ethan.

"Is that what you wanted to tell me when you met me in the pub?"

Cal nodded.

Ethan sighed. How could he have been so oblivious?

"Cal, I'm so sorry. And here I thought you were upset about losing Matilda. I was so wrapped up in my own feelings about missing her that I just assumed you were upset about her too. I never thought you would have something else on your mind."

"It's alright, Ethan. Why would you?" Cal said as he placed the photograph back in the box. "Anyway, this Christmas is one to remember mum and Matilda by."