"Katy… I need to talk to you about summit."

Frowning, she glanced at the display of her mobile, sure that she had misrecognised the voice on the other end of the call. Confirming that it was, indeed, her cousin's name, she frowned even more.

"Ben?"

"Look, my dad thinks your dad is having an affair with Sharon. He's on the warpath. He wants to kill him, Katy."

"You what?"

"Ever since Lisa told him that Sharon's baby ain't his he's been winding himself up and now he's come to the conclusion that it must be Jack's."

"Well that's absolute bullshit." She muttered, shaking her head. "Ben… you can't seriously believe that–?"

"I found one of Sharon's necklaces at his place."

"You what?" Katy pulled herself up to sit straighter on the sofa. "Ben, seriously… there's no way that Dad's having an affair with Sharon. Don't you think he's got enough on his plate at the moment?"

"He's got form, ain't he?"

"Yeah, alright, but think about it logically, Ben. He's got a new job, all the kids to deal with, my cancer, Mum and Rox coming back and his relationship with Denise… when, exactly, do you and Phil think he's found time to be having an affair with Sharon?"

"When you put it like that…"

"So, if Sharon is having an affair – and it wouldn't surprise me at all – then it ain't with my dad, alright?"

Ben cleared his throat and mumbled something that sounded like an agreement, before speaking again. "How's Whitney after yesterday?"

"Yeah… she wasn't good when I saw her this morning, but Tiff and the others were gonna take her out this afternoon, so hopefully they've managed to cheer her up a bit."

"And that Leo guy?"

"Gone, as far as we know." She said bitterly. "I swear to god, Ben, if I see him round here again…"

"I can easily imagine what you'd do to him."

"Yeah, well, I might be calling on you again."

Ben chuckled softly. "We've been there before, ain't we?"

"Yeah, we have." She smirked. "Good thing we're on slightly better terms these days, init?"

"Yeah."

"As long as you keep your dad away from mine."

"Well unless we find out summit to clear Jack's name then Dad ain't gonna be too easy to convince he's innocent." Ben told her seriously. "He's properly got it in for him this time."

"D'you even know that Sharon is having an affair? You've just got that weirdo Lisa's word for it that the baby ain't Phil's."

"Yeah, well, Dad believes it."

"That's Phil's problem, init." Katy muttered, rolling her eyes. "Act first and think later."

"You can talk."

Snorting, she shrugged. "Nah, I always think first. I mean, I still do questionable things, but I definitely think about it first."

"Do me a favour, would ya?"

"You what? You want me to do you a favour now? You literally just told me your dad wants to kill mine and you're expecting me to do you a favour?"

"It's for Lex more than me." Ben told her. "Will you take her to Walford Winterland with Matthew and the girls this afternoon?"

Katy paused for a moment. "Why?"

"I told Lola I'd take her, but I've gotta try and calm my dad down before he actually takes yours out."

"Look, Ben, I'd love to," she admitted softly, "but I can't even take my own kids this year. I asked Gran, but she won't take money from me and she's a bit skint."

"I'll bung her some cash; she'll take it from me, won't she?"

"Yeah, she probably will." Rolling her eyes, Katy had to admit he was almost definitely right. "Ben… I know you don't exactly like my dad, but he is my dad. Please just… don't let Phil do anything to him until we figure this out, alright?"

"Katy, that's my dad you're talking about." Ben reminded her. "If Jack's sleeping with his wife–"

"But he ain't. I know he ain't."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know him." She replied firmly. "He ain't having an affair with Sharon."

Her cousin let out a long breath. "I hope for your sake you're right and you can prove it."

"I do know, though, that if Phil lays a finger on him he'll go down for a long time. Dad's back in the job… even Phil can't mess with the law and come out the other side."

"You try telling him that."

Ending the call, Katy leant back against the sofa cushions and let her eyes slip shut. She knew that, if Phil really was as sure that Jack was having an affair with Sharon as Ben was making out, he wouldn't stop until he got his revenge. She knew that it would end incredibly badly for her father and also knew that they needed to find out the truth and come up with a contingency plan to avert the inevitable.

Pulling out her mobile, she dialled her father's number and waited impatiently for him to answer. As soon as the call connected, she opened her mouth to speak, but he was faster.

"Katy, now's not a great time."

"Dad, it's important. I really need to ask you–"

"I can't hear you…" He told her, the background noise supporting his claim. "I'm at Winterland with Amy and Ricky."

"Dad… I need to talk to you about–"

"I'll give you a ring later, alright?" Jack said, clearly not listening to her.

"Dad, seriously, it's really–"

The line went dead and Katy only just restrained herself from throwing the phone across the room. Instead, she phoned Ronnie and asked her to come back to the flat. She didn't explain why it was so important that she saw her straight away, but the tone of her voice was enough to panic her mother into dropping everything and rushing home.

"Mum… Phil thinks Dad is sleeping with Sharon." She blurted out the second Ronnie entered the room. "He's gonna kill him."

"What?" The older blonde dropped down onto the cushions beside her daughter and stared, open-mouthed, in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"Ben told me." Katy said quickly. "He called to warn me that Phil was out for revenge."

"Have you asked Jack?" Ronnie asked, tilting her head slightly. The grim expression on her face gave away her irritation immediately. "What's he said about it?"

Katy frowned at her. "It's not true. Dad is not having an affair with Sharon."

"How can you be so sure?"

"For god's sake, Mum." She rolled her eyes. "If Dad was going to have an affair with anyone, it would be you. I know it, you know it… hell, even Denise knows it."

"That ship has sailed." Ronnie told her firmly, not convincing her daughter for a second. "But this isn't about me and your father, it's about whether he's sleeping with Sharon."

"He's not… I'm sure of it."

"You have proof?"

"Of course not." Katy frowned at her. "How and why would I have proof of that?"

"We're gonna need something if we're going to convince Phil he's got the wrong man. Where's Jack now?"

"He's taken Ricky and Amy to the Winterland. Gran's taking the rest of the kids… at least Phil can't do anything to him there in front of so many people."

"Let me talk to him… I'll make him see that Jack's not the one he's after." Ronnie suggested determinedly.

"You know as well as I do that Phil ain't just gonna take your word for it." Katy told her bluntly. Then she sighed deeply. "Look… I told Tina I'd go and help out at the bar for a bit later. Maybe I should tell her I can't…"

"No, we carry on as normal. I'll go and speak to Phil then try and get hold of Jack. If you suddenly announce that you're not going into work, after kicking up merry hell when we said you shouldn't, people are going to think there's something wrong."

"Mum… we have to stop Phil doing something to him. I've just got you and Roxy back and I cannot lose Dad now."

"Nothing is going to happen to him, sweetie, I promise you."

"You can't make that promise." Katy pointed out. "We both know Phil and if he seriously thinks Dad is having an affair with Sharon then he ain't gonna stop and he ain't gonna see sense until he gets his revenge."

Ronnie exhaled sharply, knowing that her daughter was right. Unable to say much to convince her that everything would turn out positively, she simply promised to let her know if she found anything out or there were any developments and left the flat.

While she got ready to head over to the bar, Katy kept trying Jack's mobile. He didn't answer any of her calls and, finally, she admitted defeat and gave up. On her way over to the R&R, the young woman kept her eyes peeled for any sign of any of the men she needed to know the whereabouts of. The walk was disappointingly quiet and Katy shut herself away in the office as soon as she was able to.

Every time there was a tap on the door she was half hopeful, half fearful that it would be news of the one-sided feud between her father and step-uncle. It never was, though, which fuelled her anxiety and discomfort about the whole situation.

At about half past ten there was a knock on the door and Katy looked up in time to see the door opening and her best friend pushing her way into the room. As the smile fell from the blonde's face, Whitney arched an eyebrow.

"Oh, expecting someone more interesting, were you?" She asked, almost irritably.

"No… nothing like that. It's just… family stuff, you know?"

"Yeah, I bumped into Ronnie and she said you were over here."

"Asked you to come and check up on me, did she?"

"No!" Whitney answered, just a little too quickly to be convincing.

"Whatever… there's something I've been meaning to ask you, anyway." Katy said, flicking absent-mindedly through the paperwork in front of her. "The kids would love it if you came to their Christmas show. It's on Thursday at two."

"Don't you need tickets for that?" Whitney asked, sounding a little unsure.

"Yeah, but you get two per family, so between us and our bonkers situation we've got eight." The older woman explained. "Mum's given her spare one to Gran and I've kinda promised Dad and Roxy's spares to Tina and Shirl so they can go and watch Ollie. That leaves my spare one for you. If you don't wanna come, I'll give the ticket to Grandma Dot."

"It's not that I don't wanna come," Whitney assured her quickly, "I just don't know if I can get someone to cover the stall."

"Well… let me know. I'm sure Grandma won't have too many plans."

"K, it's not that I don't want to come; I'd love to. I'm just not sure whether I'll be able to."

"Yeah, right…" Katy sighed, knowing that Whitney probably deserved more of her attention than she was able to give at the moment. "Look, Whit… now's not really a great time for a chat. I'm sorry, I just… I can't focus right now. Can we meet for a coffee or something tomorrow and then I promise I'll listen to you moaning or ranting or whatever you want."

Whitney frowned at her for a moment, clearly wondering what was distracting Katy so much that she wasn't even willing to gossip. "Alright… you OK, though?"

"Yeah… I'm fine."

Nodding, Whitney said goodnight and headed out of the office, pulling the door closed behind her. Katy immediately reached for her mobile, glancing at the display and flopping back in her chair when she realised that she had no messages or missed calls. Not even Ronnie had let her know what was going on.

Irritably, needing to be distracted for a while, Katy decided to break her promise and head out into the bar to find Tina in the hopes that her friend would take her mind off her worries for a while.

A/N: Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a drama-free day!

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