WARNING: MENTIONS OF SELF HARM
It had been a few days since Phoebe had turned up in the Bay wanting to be a family with Kyle, despite having still been with Ash. Brax had seen Ash the next day, being told he's left Phoebe for good and is going to look for Billie again after she left Fiji without telling him. Although none of them had seen Phoebe since, hoping she had left the town for good after getting nowhere.
"I'm meeting Brax at the diner soon, will you be okay here?" Ricky says.
"Yeah, you go. I'm just going to spend some time here with Lillie." Kyle says. "I think Case said he's got a short shift today, so will probably be back at some point. If Phoebe was going to come back, she would have by now. You don't need to worry about me."
"I still will, you're my family." She smiles. "I'll see you later."
"See ya." Kyle says as she leaves.
He sat down on the play mat next to Lillie as Bruno lay the other side of her. He still felt lucky to have her back and never took any of the moments he had for granted, even the ones that were part of their routine. He knew things were different now, his family proved that by stepping up a lot more, feeling it was their duty to. He didn't even mind it, it had brought them all a lot closer as a family.
"Posties been!"
And what he still found funny was Heath being there everyday without fail, even though he had his own place to live. They all still reckoned it was to raid their food like he did when he still lived with them. He got defensive over it when someone mentioned it, so in the end they dropped it, still teasing him every now and then.
"You know Brax checks that when he gets home." Kyle says as his older brother walks in.
"Thanks for getting the post in Heath. Gee, your welcome Kyle." Heath rolls his eyes, chucking it down on the side before sitting down with them.
"Well thanks for handing it over it." Kyle shakes his head, standing up and walking over to pick it up, seeing one of the letters was for him.
"What are you going to do for her first?" Heath asks, glancing over at Kyle when he doesn't get a reply. "Oi."
"No." Kyle shakes his head. "No."
"No what?" Heath frowns, standing up.
"She can't do this!" Kyle moans, looking over at his brother. "Stay with Lillie and do not let her out of your sight for a second." He firmly says.
"Why?" Heath asks, Kyle running out before he could find out.
Kyle had gone all around the Bay looking for Phoebe, guessing she had ended up staying for longer. He couldn't find her anywhere along the beach, or in the Surf Club, so went towards the diner, seeing her walking out. He wasn't sure what was going to happen after the letter he had, but knew it had to be sorted.
"What the hell are you playing at?" He asks her.
"I see you had the letter from my lawyer." Phoebe says, gesturing to it in his hand. "I didn't want it to come to this, you gave me no choice."
"You can't take her away from me!" Kyle shouts.
"All I wanted was for us to be family, you wouldn't let that happen."
"You were still with Ash, pretending you two had broken up. My family is the only one Lillie needs. You won't change that and the lawyers won't either." Kyle says.
"No custody lawyer will let someone like you look after that baby." Phoebe says.
"And what about you? You never came looking for her because you've never wanted her! You didn't even know her name!" Kyle glares, trying to hide that he was shaking. "You can use all that stuff against me, I don't care. But you will not take Lillie away from me." He says, Irene and Leah coming out to see what the arguing was about.
"You're just saying that because you don't want the courts to know you shouldn't have a kid to look after. You're a family of criminals who shouldn't even be allowed kids. And they'll take one look at yours arms and see you're in no fit state to being a single parent." Phoebe says, scoffing at his face, Brax walking down to them as he was late meeting Ricky. "You think I didn't notice your arms? That you cut them like paper instead of being out there looking for your daughter."
"It wasn't like that." Kyle mutters, suddenly feeling very self conscious, noticing Brax was carrying his jacket, so Kyle grabbed it, putting it on as he rushed away.
"See you in court." Phoebe smirks as she walks off down the beach.
"What was that about?" Brax asks Irene and Leah, who glance at each other.
"Kyle?" Brax shouts as he runs into the house, hearing Bruno barking in the hallway, so rushes in it, seeing him walking in circles outside the bathroom door. Barging the door down, Brax frantically searches the bathroom, seeing Kyle sat against the wall with his head in his hand.
"Go away." Kyle mutters.
"Irene and Leah told me what happened between you and Phoebe." Brax says, sitting down next to him as Bruno starts nudging his hand. "Don't listen to her, she wouldn't get custody of Lillie."
"You hear about it all the time. The mums always get custody, it's what always happens. I'm losing her again." Kyle mutters, some tears falling.
"You're not, we'll fight this." Brax says. "We'll get the best lawyer we can find and make sure that doesn't happen. They'll see she's better off here with you."
"She's using the self harm and Lillie going missing against me. She's making out like I put the self harm before looking for Lillie and that's not true, I never would have done that!"
"I know that, and everyone else does as well. She's trying to make it sound a lot worse than it is to help her case, but it won't work."
"I should have known something like this would happen." Kyle mutters, wiping his eyes dry. "Some of the looks I got after Lillie went missing weren't looks of pity like everyone else's. It's like they were expecting something like this to happen with our past. Why can't people see that we've changed?"
"I don't know." Brax sighs. "This will get sorted and you will keep your daughter." He says, noticing a pair of scissors on the sink.
"I didn't do anything." Kyle says, catching his gaze. "They are already there when I came in. I wouldn't have used them."
"Okay, I trust you." Brax nods, making a mental note to move them. "I want my jacket back when you've finished with it." He smirks.
"Yeah, sorry." Kyle lightly smiles as he strokes Bruno, feeling calmer than he did before. "I needed to cover up and didn't take one when I left. I read the letter and left to find out what it was about. She said it's because I wouldn't be a family with her, then she started using everything against me. But why now after 11 months of not bothering?"
"I don't know, it doesn't make sense." Brax says. "I'll go and talk to her, get her to drop it."
"She won't listen." Kyle shakes his head.
"Maybe not, but it's worth a shot." Brax says. "Where is Lillie?"
"I left her with Heath. He was in the living room with her when I left."
"Okay, he must have gone back to his. Let's head over there and check."
"But Bruno was here?" Kyle frowns.
"Let's go and see. Maybe he went over just before you got home and was going back for him." Brax says, helping Kyle up before they walk over to Heath's house.
"There you are." Heath sighs with relief as they walk inside. "Where did you go? And why've you got Brax's jacket on?"
"Long story." Kyle mutters, smiling as he watches Harley and Darcy playing with Lillie. "How's she been?" He asks.
"She's been great. Loves playing with her cousins." Heath smiles. "You sure everything's okay?"
"It will be." Brax nods, trying to think of how he could take this mess away for his brother.
