"Everything alright out here?" Ronnie appeared, slinging her arm around her daughter's shoulders a little while later.

"Fine. Everything alright in there?" Katy asked, arching an eyebrow.

Ronnie shot her a strange look. "Course?"

"Right… you OK if I go and hang out with Whit for a bit?"

"Of course." The older woman smiled fondly at her. "Go and enjoy yourself."

Shaking her head to herself as she rounded the bar, Katy made her way towards the dance floor where Whitney, Lee and Dotty were dancing. She allowed herself to be swept into a tipsy hug by her best friend, laughing and batting at her arms to get the brunette to release her.

They laughed and danced for a while, before Lee went to the bar to get more drinks. While he was gone, Katy spotted Tina in the crowd, heading in their direction and called out to her delightedly.

"T!" Katy pulled her into a tight hug as soon as the brunette was close enough. "I thought you were going to Karen's party with Shirl?"

"I did, but I missed my favourite blondie, so I had to come and see how the party was going over here."

"Your favourite blondie?"

Tina laughed and winked. "Don't tell Shirl."

Lee soon returned with the drinks, rolling his eyes as his great-aunt sent him back to the bar to get one for her. Katy laughed, taking a long drink of her vodka, spinning around and dancing with her friends. Ash and Iqra joined them after a couple of minutes and Katy felt a pang of jealousy as Tina immediately turned and started chatting with them. Noticing the petulant expression on her face, Whitney laughed and pulled the blonde towards her, twirling her round on the spot.

As the DJ cut the music and the New Year countdown began, Katy pushed her way through the crowd to the bar in search of her mother. At the precise moment everyone starting shouting and cheering for the start of the new decade, Katy felt someone tapping her on the shoulder and turned to find herself being hugged tightly by her mother.

"Happy New Year, angel." Ronnie murmured into her hair. "This year's going to be better, I promise."

Before Katy could answer, she was pulled away as Roxy almost leapt on her sister excitedly shouting about the New Year. Laughing, Katy pressed a kiss to the side of Roxy's head before heading back to the dance floor to join her friends.

The next afternoon, after a lazy morning of films and chocolate, Glenda and Roxy had taken the children over to Jack's to see Amy and Ricky. Katy had taken the opportunity for a shower in peace, deciding that she might actually have time to dry and straighten her hair properly for once. Ronnie said she had a bit of work to do, but would put the kettle on when she was ready.

Finding that, now she had the chance do things at a more leisurely pace, everything seemed to take far less time than usual, Katy headed into the living room to take her mother up on the offer of a cup of tea. She paused on the threshold, hearing Ronnie talking softly into her mobile, laughing happily, before saying, what was apparently a very reluctant, goodbye.

"So… who was that?" Katy asked.

Ronnie jumped, not having realised that her daughter was in the room. "Uhh? What?"

"On the phone. Who was it?"

"No one important. Just a business call."

"Not Dad, then?"

Furrowing her eyebrows, Ronnie shook her head. "Why would it be Jack?"

"Oh, come on, Mum." Katy rolled her eyes at her attempts to sound innocent. "I saw you last night… in the office."

"Saw what?"

"Don't treat me like an idiot." The younger blonde demanded, frowning at her mother. "You know exactly what I mean."

Ronnie exhaled sharply. "Katy…"

"I'm not judging you or… threatening you or anything like that. You know I wouldn't do that." Katy told her softly. "I just want to know if it was a New Year's thing or a thing thing."

"I… don't know." The older woman admitted. She sighed deeply and leant forwards, putting her head in her hands. "It's… the ball is in Jack's court now. He knows how I… but he loves Denise and it's all… it's all a mess, Katy. It's a mess because of me and I can't expect Jack to just go back to how things were three years ago."

"But that's what you want?"

Ronnie nodded sadly. "Of course it is… for all of us. We were so happy before all of this."

"You do know that it's not a sure fix, Mum? Even if you and Dad do get back together it won't erase what happened. We both know that he won't hesitate to throw it back in your face whenever you argue."

"Neither will you." Her mother pointed out. "But no, I know that. Of course I know that. But I love him and I love our family."

Katy nodded slowly, trying to get her head around what Ronnie had said. She didn't really know what she wanted to happen. In an ideal world, she wanted the same as Ronnie; for them all to go back to how they had been before Ronnie and Roxy's disappearance. She knew, however, that it was unrealistic. Too much had happened and everyone had changed too much for things to be smooth sailing.

"I've gotta get to the bar." She announced after a couple of minutes. At the slightly panicked look on her mother's face, she smiled softly. "I really do have to go to work. I won't say anything to anyone. What you and Dad get up to is none of my business; you're both grown adults. Just… be careful. I don't want to see either of you getting hurt."

"Thank you."

Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, Katy left the flat and stepped out onto the Square. She paused on the top step and took a deep breath, looking out at the comfortingly familiar sight. The past three years seemed like some kind of sick joke, now. Katy could barely believe that her mother and aunt had been missing from her life.

Smiling at various stallholders as she passed, Katy hurried to the bar. It was colder than she'd been anticipating and she wished she'd put a thicker coat on, especially in case she ran into Glenda who would definitely have something to say about her state of dress. Relieved that Kathy was already at work and so the heating was on, Katy made her way slowly up to the office.

"Good night last night?" The older woman asked as soon as she realised who had walked in.

"Excellent." Katy agreed, hanging up her jacket and dropping onto the sofa. "Ruby's was rammed. It was definitely worth closing this place for the night."

"I meant did you have a good night." Kathy clarified, chuckling a little at the girl's business-focused reply. "Glenda loved the video you sent her."

"Ah, yeah…" Wincing a little at the memory, the young woman shrugged. "Didn't want her to think I wasn't thinking about her."

"Well it was very sweet." Kathy told her, earning herself a slightly embarrassed huff in reply.

"Did you two have fun?"

"We did, thank you. Karen's party was a riot."

"Good." Katy beamed, pleased that they'd enjoyed themselves. She did feel a little guilty for the amount of times she'd asked Kathy to cover her or Glenda to babysit. "Right… I've been thinking."

"Always dangerous."

She laughed. "What percentage of our clientele would you say are straight?"

"Uhh…" Kathy looked confused, as though she thought it might be a trick question. "About… twenty percent?"

"I think more like ten… fifteen at most," Katy replied quickly, "and I don't think that would change if we stopped the lower bar, upper bar thing and branded the whole place as a gay bar. Quite frankly we should have done it to start with."

"You'll hear no objections from me. I think Tina will be delighted, too."

"Good."

Katy had gone backwards and forwards all afternoon over whether to make the call she was thinking about or not. She knew that it wasn't her business, wasn't her place to comment, but she couldn't help herself. It might have been between her parents, but she knew that the fallout would affect every single one of them.

Biting the bullet, she picked up her mobile and found Jack's number in her contacts. Then she put the handset down again, taking several steps away from her desk and running her hands through her hair. Turning to stare at her phone, she chewed her thumbnail, wondering whether she was doing the absolute worst thing she could possibly do.

"Shit." Katy snatched up the mobile and hit the call button before she could change her mind again. "Dad?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, I just… I need to talk to you."

"Go on…"

"In person. Can you come to R&R?" She sighed. "You'll get less angry with me in person."

There was a pause. "What've you done?"

"It's not what I've done."

"Give me ten minutes and I'll be there, OK?"

Ending the call, Katy dropped her phone onto the desk again, almost as though it had burnt her. There was no going back now, whether she wanted to or not. Although she hadn't said anything specific, Katy knew that Jack would see through any lie immediately.

She paced the office while she waited for her father to arrive, trying to work out exactly what she wanted to say before he walked through the office door. Everything she rehearsed sounded whiney and selfish, like she was making it about her. It wasn't her intention, but she knew that Jack would instinctively think that was all she was worried about.

"What did you want to talk about?"

Katy leapt out of the chair that she had only just settled in at the sound of his voice. "I saw you and Mum at New Year's… in the office at Ruby's."

Jack rubbed the back of his neck agitatedly. "Don't go shouting the odds about–"

"I'm not shouting about anything." His daughter hissed at him, completely unsurprised that his first instinct had been to get defensive. "I just wanna check you know what you're doing because Mum actually wants that kiss to mean something. So, you know, I'm giving you a head's up in case you weren't actually aware that you've got yourself into a situation that you probably didn't intend to." When he simply stared at her, Katy sighed. "Someone is gonna get hurt, Dad, whatever you decide to do. There's no way you can work this any other way."

"Oh god…"

She watched as he dropped heavily onto the sofa and put his head in his hands. Katy sighed, before moving to sit tentatively beside him. For a couple of moments, neither of them spoke or moved. Biting her lip, the blonde hesitantly laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not gonna say anything to anyone, Dad. I don't want you or Mum hurt if this gets out before you've worked out what you're gonna do. But you do have to work something out." She inhaled sharply. "We've just got everything back… I don't want everything wrecked again. Please."