Since Phoebe had left the Bay, dropping the custody case for Lillie, Kyle had been doing a lot better. Even though he had been covering up for the first couple days, he had started doing better which pleased his brothers. They had noticed him getting back to his usual self without needing to step in at any point.

"So Kyle, you never said what you're doing for Lillie's first. Running out of time if you were planning something." Heath says to his brother, who was sat at the table with Casey and Lillie.

"Why'd you need to do anything special?" Casey asks. "It's not like she'll remember it." He adds, them all staring at him.

"It's her first birthday, it deserves to be celebrated. You'll understand when you have your own kids." Ricky says.

"I bet it's just an excuse so you can see that nurse again." Casey says to his brother.

"What nurse is this?" Heath asks.

"The one Kyle's been flirting with." Casey smirks.

"I have not been flirting with her!" Kyle frowns. "It's Tori Morgan who was here with her brother ages ago."

"What's she doing back in the Bay?" Brax asks, not having seen her around yet.

"She's been transferred to Northern Districts. I think she's just moved a couple streets over with her family." Kyle replies.

"Is Nate leaving then?" Heath frowns.

"I saw him yesterday and he never said he was. Maybe she's taking over from one of the other doctors." Ricky says as there's a knock on the door. "I'll get it." She says, walking over to the door and opening it up. "Hi, can I help you?"

"I was wondering if Brax was in?"

"Who's asking?" Ricky asks.

"Justin Morgan." He says as Brax comes to the door, having handed Emilia over to Heath.

"It's alright Rick, I don't need a bodyguard." Brax chuckles.

"Alright, you know where I am though." She smirks, heading back inside as Brax walks down the path with Justin.

"Who's the feisty chick?" Justin asks with a smile.

"Ricky, my wife. She's calmer now than when we were kids." Brax smirks. "Kyle mentioned he'd seen Tori back in town."

"Yeah, we've just moved to Healey Road. Tori got a job at the local hospital, so we all moved down to be with her." Justin says as they walk towards the beach. "Has there been an update on Jasmine?"

"Uh… Something like that." Brax says.

"What does that mean?" Justin frowns, stopping him, even more confused when Brax looks around.

"Something unexpected happened. If I tell you, you have to promise to not tell anyone, not even Tori. I mean it." Brax says, Justin reluctantly agreeing. "Heath bumped into her a couple days after she escaped the police. She was planning on taking Lillie again, she had a fake passport and plane tickets for herself and Lillie. Heath tried stopping her so she'd be arrested, let's just say she won't be coming back."

"She's dead?" Justin asks.

"Yeah. Heath didn't mean for it to go that far, but she must have hit her head on a rock or something." Brax says.

"Thank you." Justin says, confusing Brax. "Knowing this, I can finally know Tori and Grace are safe from her. Now all we need to do is get Ryan sent down."

"Kyle's agreed to talk in court, which they lawyer said will help get him a longer sentence. I have a good feeling about it." Brax says as they carry on down the path to the beach. "You said you just moved here, so have you found a job as well?"

"Not yet. I'm a trained mechanic, but the closest job I found was the other side of Yabbie Creek. I was thinking about opening my own garage up in an abandoned lot outside town. I just wasn't sure how good of an investment it would be." Justin says.

"I think that would be a good investment around here. It might be a small town but you'd have a lot of interest, especially for tourists. They always seem to breakdown when they're here. I recon it's that dodgy car rental place in Reefton Lakes." Brax says.

"That's good to know from a local. Tori said I should go for it, but I wasn't sure at the time. Maybe I should ask around some more, see how many other people would be interested." Justin says.

"Alf, down at the bait shop, he could help you with that. He's always getting parts for his boats, maybe that's another part of the business you could use it for." Brax says.

"The bait shop is the one by the diner?"

"Yeah, he also works at the Surf Club. How about I introduce you?" Brax suggests, Justin nodding as they head up to the club to see if he was there.


"So Alf recons you're doing pretty well for yourselves now." Justin says as he sits at a table with Brax.

"Yeah, we've cleaned our act up a lot. There's kids in our family now, we had to do it to them. It was hard at times but we got there."

"I know what you mean." Justin says. "How do people round here deal with serious crimes?"

"Depends on the crime. You're not a criminal family either are ya?" Brax lightly jokes, taking a sip of his beer.

"I guess it will come out again soon." Justin says. "My family are in witness protection. It came out in our last town, so we decided to move here after Tori got transferred to Northern Districts."

"How come it came out?"

"Our protection officer worked with the people after us. She was actually in charge of them. She thought it would turn people against us, make it easier for them to get to us and put the blame on other people. The police found out what was going on before it was too late and they were all sent down." Justin says. "We were given new protection officers who seem to know what they're doing."

"Sounds pretty full on." Brax says.

"Yeah, I think we've got lucky moving here. It's a nice quiet place." Justin says.

"Trust me, it's eventful for such a quiet town." Brax scoffs.

"Nah, I don't see it." Justin shakes his head.

"I've seen a fair bit in the time I've lived here, granted that we've been the ones causing it." Brax smirks. "You'll be fine. But just know nothing stays secret in a town like this, there's some gossipers around."

"Tori mentioned the diner girls like a chat, I think she'll fit right in with them." Justin chuckles. "She won't admit it, but she's the biggest gossiper I've met. It's probably why she's still single. The last bloke she was with found it too hard. I know how he feels."

"You mentioned earlier that you all moved to be with her?" Brax says.

"Yep, me and our two brothers. Mason is studying medicine at the local uni and Brody is the chef. He got a job at a cafe in Reefton Lakes." Justin says. "Trying to keep them all in check has been hard, but they're making a life for themselves."

"You're the oldest as well?"

"Of all three of them. After our parents were killed and we were put into protection, I had to raise them without a clue what I was doing." Justin says. "You know the feeling?"

"Abusive parents who didn't care about us. Danny, our dad, kept Kyle a secret from us for years, we didn't find out about him until a few years back. Trying to keep Danny away from Heath and Casey was hard, but I managed." Brax says.

"Sounds like a piece of work. Was he sent down for the abuse?"

"Nah, he manipulated Casey into doing a dodgy job for him and it ended with Casey killing him. Did us all a favour and things have been going great since."

"Guess that's something you don't tell him?"

"I can't have him thinking it's the right way to deal with stuff, even if it would have ended with him being killed. He knows it's wrong, that all that matters now." Brax says.

"But in the end we'd be lost without our family." Justin comments. "Can't live with them, can't live without them."

"Doesn't matter how far in life they are, wouldn't be the same without them." Brax says, reality hitting him that he wouldn't cope without his family around, no matter how much he hid it.