Kate opens her locker and tugs her bag from it, relishing in the fact that the day is finally over. Not that the afternoon sure to follow will be much better, with Bridie still refusing to speak to her, or even stay in the same room as Kate for longer than it takes to throw her a dirty look. As it has every time, Kate's eyes dart over the small piece of paper, Maddie's curly handwriting followed by her number. But Kate can't call her. No. She'd closed that chapter of her life for good. Now she just had to fix what was going on now.

Resigning herself to another paranoid afternoon of flitting between watching daytime TV and triple-checking the locks on her door, followed by a drive home with a moody and sullen daughter, Kate shoulders her bag and makes her meandering way towards her car. She's just touched the handle and tugged however, when her phone starts to ring. Glancing at the caller ID, she spies an unfamiliar number.

It's him, she thinks, heart pounding in her chest, and she hates how just a simple phone call can send her into a panic. It's him, and now he has her number-

She stares, transfixed at the phone until it stops ringing, but no sooner has it indicated her missed call than it starts to ring again. How many times will he call her before giving up? And what could he possibly want to talk about? Their last meeting had been far from pleasant, after all. The second call rings out, and Kate breathes a sigh of relief when it doesn't immediately ring again.

Was this all he was going to do? Call her phone until she cracked?

A beep, and she sees a text from the same number come in. Don't open it, she thinks. You don't need to waste any more time on anything he might have to say.

But she's always been the type who needs to know, and she opens it with shaking fingers, expecting threats, or insults, or, worse, the pretence that nothing had happened. But the message is not at all what she's expecting, and Kate feels a new kind of panic rise up in her.

its rose i need help please call me Kate!

Kate makes it to the school in record time, very nearly twisting her ankle as she dashes up the front drive and into the office, coming face to face with the same snooty receptionist who had handled her registration of Bridie. She barely suppresses her eyeroll, remembering how decidedly unhelpful the woman had been then, and instead plasters a sugary-sweet smile on her face. "Hi." Kate greets. "Uh... I'm here about Rose Flynn?"

"We didn't call anyone about her." The woman looks down her nose at Kate, and she remembers the snide comments about how young she was to have a daughter Bridie's age.

"No. Well, she called me." Kate explains, peering down the hallway. She's almost on tip-toe, trying to crane her neck and see beyond the woman, hoping to catch some glimpse of Rose, but the woman steps in front of Kate, effectively blocking her view.

"Mobile phones are not to be used during school hours." The woman recites the rule as though it is practically law, shuffling some papers on her desk in a routine sort of way. "And I'm sorry to say that if Rose has given you some elaborate story explaining why she needs to go home, then she's fed you a fairy tale. The girl is simply having an emotional afternoon."

"Well, I'd like to see her and be sure of that myself." Kate presses. And, dammit, she's tried to play nice, but she's a bloody firefighter and she's sick of being pushed around. "In fact, I rather insist upon that."

"Well," The woman purses her lips. "I'm afraid I simply can't allow that. First, Rose is refusing to give us any sort of reason as to why she needs to be out of class in the first place, and secondly, without parental permission-"

"Well, perhaps Rose simply doesn't feel comfortable enough to divulge her reasons, but knowing her, I'm sure there is one, and I intend to find that out. And as for permission, I'll call her father right now." Kate taps at her phone for a moment, before pressing it to her ear when a new kind of worry hits her. Perhaps Mike will drop her call, as she's been doing to him for the last few days. But apparently her worries are baseless, as she hears Mike's jovial tone greet her.

"Kate? Thought better of our potential dinner-"

"Hey, Mike." She cuts him off, not wanting to alarm him and yet needing to see Rose. "I'm... I'm actually at the school. Um... Rose called me. She says she's not hurt, but she just really needs to talk to me."

"What?" Predictably, Mike's panicked voice cuts her off.

"Um, the school doesn't want me to see her though without permission. So I'm calling you-"

"Yeah, yeah. Put me onto them."

Five minutes later sees Kate walking through the door to sickbay. The moment Rose sees her, more tears start to trail down her cheeks, and Kate takes the next few steps at a run, wrapping the girl into a hug. She barely registers the vaguely sarcastic comment the secretary mutters before stalking off. "Oh, darling. What's wrong?" For several long moments, Kate simply holds Rose as she sobs, her tears steadily soaking through Kate's shirt. And despite her focus on her current predicament, Kate finds herself wondering whether Bridie had cried like this after she had fought with Kate. For several long minutes, Kate holds the still sobbing Rose, who says nothing except the odd apology every thirty seconds or so.

When the tears starts to slow, Kate gently pulls the girl away so that she can look into her face. Her eyes are still red and her cheeks blotchy, tears clinging to her eyelashes in tiny drops. "Rosie, hon. What's going on, Sweetie?" She brushes a clump of damp hair off of Rose's face. "What's made you so upset?"

"I - I just-" Rose chokes out, her breathing ragged. "I-" One hand fidgets with the necklace around her neck. "I - I didn't - know who - who else to - to call."

"That's okay. I'm here. I want to try and help, Rosie." Kate perches herself more comfortably on the sick bed, peering at the girl. "Did someone hurt you?" Rose shakes her head. "Okay. Um... are you hurt?" Rose hiccups and mumbles something inaudible. "I didn't catch that, sorry Rose. Hey, it's okay, honey. You can tell me anything."

"Don't - tell- Dad."

Kate winces. She doesn't want to scare Rose, but she knows that to lie straight off the bat is not the way to gain her trust. Besides, there are a million different ways a conversation beginning with don't tell Dad can go, and none of them seem comforting to Kate. "Look," She begins. "I did have to tell him I was here. They wouldn't let me see you otherwise. But all your Dad cares about is that you're okay, alright? He's not mad, or upset. He just wants you to be okay." Rose nods solemnly, and even though she looks more upset, the next words she speaks sound a little clearer.

"I... I'm sorry - for - for calling. It's just... Dad gave me your n-number. If I need help and-"

"Hey, you don't have to apologise. Okay?" Kate smiles at her. "I'm glad you called. But I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"I think -" Rose hiccups, and lowers her voice even more, ducking her eyes to her knees. "I..."

Rose's eyes dart to the door, as though expecting someone to come bursting through at any moment. Kate squeezes Rose's hand. "Do you need to go home? I can drive you home if you want. If you'd rather just talk to your Dad-"

"No! He'd... he'd..." Rose turns watery eyes to Kate. "He's trying so hard. And he's always there for me. I just... I... I need... help."

"Okay." Kate nods, her brain still running in overtime, trying desperately to work out what is happening.

"I..." Rose falters again, then says in a rush, "IthinkIgotmyperiod."

"Oh." Kate feels a weight fall off her shoulders. This, she can deal with. This is simple compared with all the other scenarios flooding around in her head. "Okay. Well, your Dad gave the school permission for me to take you home, if you want. So how about we sit here until you're ready to move, and then I can help get you all sorted out and explain everything you need to know, okay?"

"I... it's so embarrassing." Rose turns to Kate. "I didn't even know what was happening to me and I just... just hid in the bathroom at recess! I didn't know what to do. I started crying like an idiot and one of the year six girls brought me here. Bridie found me and I told her and she said it was a period but then she had to go back to class and I... I didn't want didn't want to tell her," She jabs a thumb in the direction of the receptionist. "So I just... I put toilet paper in my undies but I don't really know what's happening and... and I couldn't tell Dad. I'm sorry!"

"It's okay!" Kate smiles at Rose. "And I know it sucks, but what's happening to you is completely normal. Okay?" Rose nods shakily, and Kate stands up, peering around at all the shelves. "Hmm..." She glances behind her quickly, before checking in the drawers as quietly as she can.

Immediately, Rose's eyes widen. "What are you doing?" The young girl looks more alarmed than ever, as though Kate is going to start stuffing medical equipment in her handbag and clean the entire sickbay out.

"Ha!" Kate tugs a pad from one of the drawers and grins, handing it over to the girl. "Now, this will work a bit better than toilet paper. If you go to the bathroom, you can just unwrap it and the sticky bit goes on your undies. Are you okay with that?"

"I..." Rose nods, looking as though she's readying herself for battle. "I think..."

"I know... I know it's scary, Rose. And right now you probably feel completely terrified and confused. But I promise you, we'll do this, I'll go sign you out. And then, I'll take you out for the biggest hot chocolate you've ever seen, and we'll buy the things you need, and I promise you, you're going to feel a lot better."

By the time they pull up outside Mike's house several hours later, Mike has already spotted them and has run out the front to meet them. Rose, who had up until that point returned to her normal cheery self after an afternoon of shopping and conversation, during which Kate did her best to answer any of Rose's questions about what was going on with her body. Although she had been embarrassed, to the point of looking mortified as Kate explained the differences between pads, tampons and cups, by the time they had returned to the school to pick Bridie up, she had warmed up immensely.

Spotting her father however, she pales slightly, scooping up the shopping bag at her feet and making a beeline straight for the front door, with Bridie, still refusing to speak to Kate, following. Mike looks as though he is about to follow her but Kate stops him with a tiny shake of the head. The front door has barely closed behind them when Mike turns to Kate.

"What happened? Is she alright? You've been hours! Is she hurt?"

"I told you, she was okay." Kate holds a hand up to quieten him. She turns around to make sure that Rose is definitely out of earshot, before lowering her voice and moving closer to Mike. "She got her period today."

"Oh." Mike drops his head in his hands, and it's clear that this is the last thing he'd expected to hear. "I... I didn't think that happened til she was like thirteen or something?"

"Well, she was a little freaked out. But I've explained things to her, and we've bought everything she needs for at least a few months. But I've got a whole bucket of information to dump on you too."

"Okay." Mike nods, his jaw set. "Then you should come in. Coffee?"

Ten minutes later, Mike looks distinctly overloaded by information, but nods all the same. "Well, that's a whole lot of stuff I didn't know." He shakes his head. "I probably should have done more research beforehand. I just... she's still my little girl." He stares vacantly at a spot over Kate's shoulder.

"Yeah, well growing up with two women, Bridie kind of learned too much too quick." Unable to reign in her curiosity, Kate glances over her shoulder and sees that what Mike is staring at is a picture of a smiling brunette. As she turns back to face Mike, he nods absently in the picture's direction.

"See, Sarah would have known exactly when to tell her all this stuff. Rosie... she wouldn't have had to go through all that at school." It's the first time Kate has heard him explicitly talk about Rose's mother, and she has no idea what to say to it. "When she got sick, she made me promise to help her with all that stuff. She wrote letters for Rose, even when she was in so much pain she could barely function."

"She sounds amazing." Kate concedes.

"She always wanted to be a Mum. We were going to have more but then she got diagnosed and-" He cuts himself off. "Here you are, crushing single-parenthood, and then there's me-"

"No." Kate shakes her head. Mike couldn't be further from the truth. "Bridie hasn't spoken to me in three days. I'm always working, or... or rushing around trying to get things done. I'm barely scraping a 'D' at single-parenting."

"Ha." Mike gives a dry humourless laugh, bumping her lightly with an elbow. "No one tells you how hard it's going to be. There's so many... decisions all the time. So many things to protect them from." He sips at his coffee, turning to Kate. "What's got Bridie upset?"

Kate swallows, feeling her pulse quicken, and she can hear his voice inside her head. You're okay. Just relax, Kate. See, we're having fun. It's okay. You're fine. Let's just relax. But she doesn't even know where to start. She's not even sure she really wants to. After all, she can't stand for Mike to look at her and know.

"Um, I should tell you..." Mike continues, and Kate glances up. "When Bridie was hear the other day, the girls were on the computer. She was looking up a name. Patrick O'Flanaghan."

"Shit." Kate mutters, dragging a hand through her hair. She's tired. She feels beyond drained, ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a hundred years. "So I guess you know more than you're letting on."

"Look, the girls shut the page when they saw me, but later I went through the history. There was just some local news article about him coaching the local football team. But I guess the name means something to you? And to her."

"I don't know how she found his last name." Kate drops her head into her hands, kneading at her pounding headache for a moment. "Just spit it out, Mike? You want to ask."

"It's none of my business. But Kate..." Kate looks up in time to see Mike tip his head. "Look, you shouldn't... shouldn't beat yourself up. You just... if you were hiding it from Bridie... I mean, it's nothing to be ashamed of. So... so you had an affair. So what? She could still... maybe get to know him? I mean, if he's her father... well, it doesn't mean he's a bad guy-"

"What?" Kate pushes herself to her feet, feeling panic and fury welling in her again. "Is that what you think? That I'm ashamed because I had an affair?"

"Well..." Mike backtracks. "I thought..."

"You... you've got no idea." She has no energy for an argument. She feels as though she's been fighting this battle for years and years, and now there's nothing but a weary sort of resignation.

"Okay." Mike holds his hands up. "We don't have to talk about it. Listen... ah, how much do I owe you for today? You probably spent a lot and-"

Kate looks away, trying desperately to keep her tears in. "Just... keep your money." She mutters darkly. "I'm going to grab Bridie and... and we're going to go."

"You don't have to leave." He reaches out, catching her arm. "Listen, Kate, we don't have to talk about her Dad, okay-"

"He's not her Dad!" Kate wrenches her arm from his grip. It was infuriating to her that she could still feel like the bad guy. "He's never seen her! He never will! You earn being a Dad, okay?" Kate snaps.

"Okay." Mike shakes his head. "I'm sorry." He rises to his own feet, taking a few tentative steps towards her. "Is her finding out who he is really that bad?"

Mike flinches as he catches sight of the unshed tears in her eyes. "It's worse." She murmurs.

Mike nods, his jaw set. Then he holds out his hand. "Come sit?"

"My... my mother was abusive. She drank too much and she... she liked to pick fights. Usually with me." She can't look at Mike, can't stand to see the pity on his face. She's heard enough whimsical stories from him about his own childhood to know that he had lived a relatively happy life, so far from Kate's life. "When Cal was born, it was like... like I was her mother. She didn't change. I was the one up late feeding the baby, running home from school to check on her. I was the one that rocked her and sang to her and changed her. It was just... my job." She shrugs. "I raised her and went to school and... and I tried hard. I was smart. I got into ADFA and... and I remember feeling so free, knowing that I was going to get out from the prison of my house and... and make a home for Callie. And then... my Mum died. It was a car accident. She got drunk and drove her car into a tree and... and all of a sudden I was in a custody fight trying to keep my sister with me."

"You didn't have anyone else? Your dad?"

"I don't even think Mum knew who our Dads were. I was just seventeen, and all the money from the house went into paying Mum's debts. We had nothing. I was underage and pretty soon we both went into the system. Until we went to live with Patrick and Maddie. They were both foster parents, and they agreed to take both of us, even though they already had two daughters. Patrick... I got on with him the best. He was my friend. He was my best friend. He and Maddie looked out for us when no one else did. He cared for me. He... he had my back. He let me work, even though I was underage. I wouldn't... I wouldn't have been able to keep her otherwise. They were like parents to us. He was... he was my hero. Even after I'd turned eighteen they looked after Cal for me when I was at the academy." Kate sighs. "It was... it was Christmas. I'd come home and... and we'd just had a nice Christmas. Like a family. I mean, it was just the best day ever. We had the morning at home and then... Patrick and Maddie used to open the pub and give free meals to anyone that needed it. I was there helping. We spent all day there. And afterwards, Maddie took Cal and the girls back home to sleep and I stayed to help clean up. And then..." Kate closes her eyes. "He said we should open a bottle of wine, to celebrate. That I hadn't gotten a proper eighteenth present yet, and that it was Christmas. And I had some, and we were just talking." Kate gives a dry laugh. "I remember, we were talking about the Navy. I was excited about getting some practical experience when I went back for my second year. And he... he kept filling my drink. And I was really tired but the wine tasted nice and pretty soon he opened another bottle. And... well, I guess you can tell how the story ends. He... he tried to kiss me. And I remember pulling away and just being so... so genuinely confused. But he was bigger and stronger and..."

"Oh, Kate." He swallows, looking as though he's fighting back the urge to be sick.

"He was supposed to be my friend." Kate says through her tears. "And... and the worst part is, I didn't say no. I didn't fight him, or scream or kick. I just went numb. I... I stared at a scuff-mark on the wall while he pushed me against the bar. And then after, he just... just told me we should probably head back home, and I remember sitting in the car next to him just... just thinking that I must have imagined it, that it had been a nightmare or something. He... he sang fucking Christmas carols on the way back. And... and he asked me why I wasn't singing too."

"Kate, I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"How could you? No one knows. I... I left in the new year to go back to Canberra and... it wasn't until... until it became too hard to do up my ADFA uniform that I realised I couldn't keep telling myself nothing had happened. I... I dropped out of ADFA, I... I grabbed Cal, and put all my stuff in the back of the car, and we just... left. And I spent most of my time before Bridie was born working as much as I could so that I could save up. And then... and then I have to hear her asking about her father! And I told her some story about how he was a good guy because I couldn't tell her anything else! And now she heard me and Cal talking about him, and she's furious with me!"

"Kate-"

"And he gets a life. I had to say goodbye to Maddie, who was... she was like a mother to me. And... and she wants to know why I left town. And I can't tell her I was pregnant with her husband's baby! And Bridie! She... she can't know how stupid I was! She can't hear about him-"

"You weren't stupid."

"I trusted him. I let him into my life and he..." Her voice catches in her throat. "And then I see him and his family and... and he's still got those daughters, and the wife, and he's... he's free from it all."

"Hey," Mike shakes his head. "He'll get his, Kate."

"I was so stupid."

"You were just a kid." Mike assures her. "Okay? None of it was your fault."

"I drank with him. I... I must have said something-"

"Agreeing to drink wine with someone doesn't mean you consented, Kate. He did the wrong thing."

"I..." Kate swipes bitterly at her eyes. "I can never tell her. I can't tell Bridie the truth." She turns to the other side of the house, where she knows Bridie and Rose are, and feels her resolve strengthen. "She'll never know."