"Why is she still crying?" Kyle moans, trying to rock Lillie to sleep.

"Just give it some time. She just needs to get used to a change of things." Brax says.

"We've been doing this for ages and nothings happening!"

"Just try a little longer." Brax says, glancing at his watch to see it was nearly midnight, and they had been trying to get her to sleep since Kyle had finished feeding her hours ago.

"I don't know what else to do!" Kyle sighs.

"She'll wear herself out soon then you can both get some sleep." Brax says, letting Kyle try a bit longer.

They hadn't expected things to be so challenging this soon after getting her back. Ricky was in the flat with Emilia, both of them sleeping after Brax told her to not wait up. Heath and Bianca had gone home hours before, not knowing the struggle Kyle was going through. Casey and Denny had also decided to get a motel room for the night to make the most of their evening together, not fully aware of the situation with Lillie. All they knew was that she was home with her family and back with Kyle.

"See she's starting to settle now." Brax lightly smiles.

"It never took this long before." Kyle sighs, gently placing Lillie in the cot, making sure he didn't disturb her.

"It's going to take time to get back into your old routine. Things have changed a lot and it's going to be some getting used to for both of you." Brax says. "Why don't I leave you to it now and let you get some rest?"

"Okay." Kyle lightly nods. "Thanks for helping me tonight."

"No worries." Brax smiles, shutting the door on his way out.

Kyle just stood next to the cot once Brax left, making sure Lillie was asleep before walking over to the window to lock it. He had to check a few times to make sure no one would be able to get in, scared that someone could get in and take her. He wasn't going to let that happen again, not ever on his watch.


The next morning, Heath had checked in with them before he needed to get to work. Kyle hadn't been out yet, and Brax didn't want to disturb either of them, unaware his brother got no sleep at all through the night making sure Lillie was okay. Not long after Heath had left, Kyle walked out with Lillie in his arms and Brax couldn't help but feel worried again.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Brax asks him.

"No, I couldn't sleep." Kyle mutters, sitting down at the table opposite Brax.

"Did you try?" Brax asks, seeing him hesitate before nodding. "Okay, I trust you're telling me the truth."

"Why don't I make up some formula for Lillie." Ricky smiles, handing Emilia over to Brax before walking over to the counter.

"Thanks." Kyle lightly smiles, noticing she got Bruno's dog bowl from the side as well, seeing his dog get excited when she got the bag of dog food from the side.

"Did Lillie sleep well last night?" Ricky asks, briefly glancing back before carrying on with what she was doing.

"Yeah, she barely made a peep." Kyle smiles. "But she was always a great sleeper." He says as she starts to cry again.

"Have you changed her?" Brax asks, getting a nod.

"Before I came out here." Kyle sighs, rocking her to try and soothe her. "She's probably just hungry, that worked last night."

"Here, that's perfect temperature." Ricky says as she hands him the bottle of formula. "Now it's Bruno's turn." She smiles down at him.

"Don't tell me that dog's got to you as well?" Brax scoffs.

"You can talk!" Kyle laughs, trying to get Lillie to take the bottle, still struggling like the night before.

"He's not mine to entertain." Brax mutters, wondering if Kyle had caught him that day he took him to counselling.

"But he's great to have around, just admit it." Kyle says, smiling as Lillie starts to feed on the bottle.

"No." Brax shakes his head.

"Well Emilia loves him." Ricky says, placing the bowl of dog food down before joining them back at the table.

"And how would you know that?" Brax asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Well I'm not sure. I think Bruno babysat for me once or twice." Ricky jokes, sharing a smile with Kyle. "I bet Lillie is going to love him as well."

"I think she will." Kyle says, hearing voices coming up the pathway, Casey and Denny coming into view moments later.

"Hey!" Denny grins, them both instantly walking over to the table.

"This must be Lillie." Casey smiles.

"She's so cute!" Denny sighs, resting her head on Casey's shoulder.

"Yeah." Kyle mutters, seeing Lillie had finished her bottle. "You want to meet her properly?" He asks.

"Go on then." Casey smiles as Kyle hands her over.

"I'll just be outside." Kyle quietly says, walking out into the garden.

"Is he okay?" Denny asks.

"I don't know. You okay with these two for a second?" Brax asks, handing Emilia over to Denny before walking out into the garden, seeing Kyle leaning against the fence. "You good?"

"I didn't think it would be this hard and Lillie's only been back for a small amount of time." Kyle sighs, turning to face his brother.

"What're you finding hard?"

"Everything." Kyle says, shaking his head at the realisation. "I thought things would be the same as before but it's not. She's so much bigger now and there's just something about her that's different and I don't know what. Feeding her is so much more difficult and I don't even know when I need to start weaning her onto solids or if it's already happened. That would have been easy before."

"That's a simple thing to fix. You can look it up online or go to the hospital and ask the midwife that helped you after she first came here. There's plenty of options and you know you're not alone. And she isn't going to be exactly the same now, babies change all the time and it's going to be something you've got to get used to again. You don't notice it as much when they're with you everyday, but it does happen." Brax says, Kyle lightly nodding.

"I don't want things to go wrong now. But what if I can't do this?"

"You can do this. Why don't we go inside and see if Ricky as some baby books for you to look at. I'm sure Casey is going to make sure he gets months worth of cuddles in before he gives her back to you." Brax jokes as they walk back inside, hearing a baby start to cry.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Kyle laughs, seeing Denny taking some pictures whilst holding Emilia.

"How are you able to do that?" Casey frowns as he rocks Lillie to try and settle her.

"Easy." Denny chuckles, noticing Brax walk into the flat.

"So, first impressions?" Kyle jokingly asks.

"She's great, and not as loud as I thought she'd be." Casey says.

"She keeps crying and I don't know why." Kyle sighs.

"She may just need to get used to you again." Denny says.

"She knows who I am." Kyle says, a hint of defensiveness in his tone.

"Yes but she's had strangers bringing her up for a few months. Things aren't going to go back to normal straight away, you need to get that bond back." Ricky says.

"How would I do that?" Kyle frowns as Lillie starts to go quiet again.

"Just spend time with her again. It's probably just going to be getting her to remember who you are. It might take time, but I'm sure it will happen soon enough." Ricky says as Brax walks back out with a book in his hand.

"Here, read through this. Ricky bought it a while back, it's on the first year of life." Brax says, handing it over to Kyle.

"Thanks." Kyle says, seeing Casey was happy holding Lillie, so went over to the couch to read through the pages he needed.