On Tuesday morning, Katy was sporting a mammoth hangover, but doing her best to pretend she wasn't. She had woken up in the office with another guy she couldn't remember the name of and incredibly patchy memories of the night before.

After sending him packing, she had made herself the biggest coffee she could manage and hidden herself away in her office with stock lists, staff rotas and the accounts.

"It was good to see you letting your hair down last night." Tina announced, bursting into the room and dropping onto the sofa.

"How are you that energetic?" Katy complained, burying her head in her hands. "I feel like shit."

"It wasn't me dancing on tables last night."

"I wasn't?"

"You were." Tina confirmed with a grin. "Until you disappeared off to the office with that guy from the stag party. At least it answered the question about whether he was gay or not."

"Oh god." Putting her head in her hands again, Katy let out a long groan.

"I bumped into Ronnie on the way over. She said she was gonna grab a couple of coffees from the caf and head over to see you."

"Shit."

Laughing, Tina shook her head. "You're twenty-seven; she's not gonna tell you off for staying out all night."

"She probably will." Katy argued weakly.

"Who probably will what?"

Groaning quietly as her mother entered the office, Katy put her head in her hands and pointedly avoided meeting her eyes. As Tina laughingly told Ronnie what Katy had done the night before, the younger blonde sat up quickly and glared at her friend. She opened her mouth to argue with Tina's assessment of the situation, before realising that she hadn't actually said anything that wasn't true and closing it again with a soft noise of irritation.

"Haven't you got somewhere else to be?" She muttered at last, pouting at her assistant manager from behind her hair.

Once Tina had left the office, shooting Katy a grin and a wink as she went, Ronnie let out a soft sigh. She moved closer to the desk for a moment, cupping her daughter's face and looking at her carefully. When Katy sat back in her chair and frowned, she sighed again. Settling herself on the sofa, Ronnie fixed Katy with a searching look.

"What were you thinking, eh?"

"What d'you mean, what was I thinking? I was having fun."

Ronnie tilted her head slightly, looking at her daughter thoughtfully. "I thought you and Alex…"

"We're mates, that's all."

"Really, because when I walked in on you two in the kitchen it looked very cosy."

Katy rolled her eyes. "We were having a conversation. Not all of us feel the need to ram our tongues down people's throats if we're left in a room alone."

"Katherine."

"Oh, Katherine, is it?"

"When you're being like this, yes."

"You and Dad worked out what's going on between you, then?"

"What?"

"Well… if you're on your high horse with me you clearly haven't got anything to sort out yourself, have you?"

"Whatever happens between me and Jack is none of your–"

"It is totally my business!" Katy argued. "Like I told him; it's not just your lives you're messing with by having an affair."

"It's not an affair."

"Right… so what do you call getting into a relationship with someone who's already got a partner?" The younger blonde argued. "In my book, that's an affair."

"Katy…"

"What?"

"You know it's more complicated than that." Ronnie told her with a deep sigh. "Me and Jack… we've got so much history, right back to when we were teenagers. We've got you and James… anything between us could never be as simple as an affair."

"I understand that, but I'm not so sure Denise will."

"You can't tell her, Katy."

"Of course I…" Moving to sit beside her mother on the sofa, the younger woman ran a hand over her face tiredly. "Of course I won't tell her anything. The last thing I would ever want to do is make things hard for you… I just… I'm worried you're going to get hurt either way. I don't… I don't know if Dad…"

"Your dad loves me, Katy."

"I know that." She agreed with a nod. "But he loves Denise as well and I'm not sure whether he's…" Huffing, not really knowing how to voice her concerns, she shrugged. "You know Dad… he's not the best at knowing what he wants or doing the right thing."

Ronnie frowned at her, but was prevented – to her relief – from continuing the conversation by a knock on the door. Both women turned to see who was about to enter, frowning in unison as Leon appeared in the doorway with a massive bouquet of brightly coloured flowers. Standing, Katy moved to lean against her desk, folding her arms and fixing the flowers with a suspicious glare.

"Delivery for you, boss."

"What are they?"

"They're flowers, Katy." Ronnie told her, rolling her eyes. She stood up and took the flowers from the man's arms, examining them carefully for any sign of a card. "Who d'you think sent them?"

"Absolutely no idea and I really don't care, either." She glanced towards her barman and smiled quickly. "Thanks, Leon." As he closed the door behind him, Katy frowned at the older woman. "Seriously, I'm not remotely interested in who sent them."

"Well I am…" Her mother opened the envelope and read the card quickly. "Date? Speak to you later. But it's not signed? Who d'you think sent it? They're a few days early for Valentine's Day."

"Dunno, but it's clearly been wrongly delivered."

"D'you think Alex–?"

"I severely doubt it." Katy muttered, shaking her head. "Like I said, we're mates. It would be so weird if he sent them, considering that's all we are."

"Are you sure?"

"Completely."

"OK? So… who else could have sent them?"

Katy huffed. "I don't know and, like I said, I don't–"

"Care. Yes, I got that the first time." Ronnie replied, arching an eyebrow at her. She was relieved that the focus had shifted from her to her daughter. "But I agree with Lola, you need to get back out there and find someone. You've proved that you can bring up the girls and run a business brilliantly on your own, but you can't tell me that you're happy, Katy. That's all I want for you… I want you to be happy."

"I don't need a man to be happy, thank you very much."

"That's not…" Ronnie sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I know you don't, but I've seen you when you're in the pub with Jay and Lola. I know you want to find that again… what you had with Tyler."

"Mum." Her daughter snapped in a warning tone.

"Yes, yes, I know… he who must not be named."

"Leave it."

"Don't you have a hospital appointment today?"

"It's at two." Katy agreed with a shrug. "I'll go straight from there to pick up the kids."

Ronnie frowned. "Will you be able to get there in time?"

"Course… they'll just take some blood, do the usual checks, have a go at me for doing too much… it's fine. I'm fine."

"D'you want me to come with you?"

"Do I ever want you to come with me?"

"No, but–"

Katy smiled at her. "Honestly, Mum, I don't want a fuss. You know my results have been positive, I'm doing well and they're happy with how things are going. I just wanna get the tests done, deal with the inevitable lecture about how I shouldn't been working so hard and how my immune system is wrecked so I should avoid situations that might lead to me getting ill and forget about it until my next appointment."

"Fine…" Ronnie sighed, smiling wryly. "They do know what they're talking about, though. You should probably listen to them about the immune system and rest thing."

"Yeah… not gonna happen. I've got too much to do to take a load of duvet days."

"I could do with a few."

"That's getting old, for you." Katy replied with a cheeky wink. Then she sighed. "Right… I'm heading home for a shower and a nap before my appointment. I'll catch you later."

Despite how sure she'd been that she'd have plenty of time to go to her appointment and collect the children from school at half past three, Katy was running late. She swore as she almost dropped her phone as someone barged into her just outside the Vic. Glancing up, ready to give whoever it was a piece of her mind, she frowned as her eyes fell on a rather wild looking Linda.

"Everything alright, Mick?" Katy asked, frowning as his wife stamped towards the pub.

"Not really, babe, no." He admitted, looking warily after the older blonde.

Linda wheeled round, her eyes flashing angrily as she advanced on the younger blonde. "That's the understatement of the century. The school called social services on us. US. They had no reason… no reason!"

"L, leave it." Mick cautioned quietly, reaching out for her.

"Linda… I'm so sorry. That's shit. If it were my kids–"

"They'd have far more reason to investigate you! You're a Mitchell for god's sake! That's reason enough in itself!"

"L!" Mick grabbed her arm, pulling her away from Katy and scowling at her. "That's enough." He pushed her through the pub doors, before turning back to the younger woman. "I'm so, so sorry, Katy."

"It's OK. I've had worse." She shrugged. "I mean, if it was anyone else saying it, I'd probably give them a smack, but Shirl's like family, so…"

"No, that ain't OK." He shook his head. "We're both gutted about this… but that's no reason to take it out on you."

"Mick, honestly, I ain't gonna take it personally. If I was in your position I'd be kicking off left, right and centre. I'd do a lot worse than telling someone they're more likely to be a danger to their kids 'cos of their surname." She smiled at him, reaching out to squeeze his bicep. "They ain't gonna find nothing on you… either of you. It'll be OK, Mick."

He smiled tightly, before nodding and patting her hand on his arm. Then he turned away and pushed through the doors into the Vic. Katy stared after him for a moment, before exhaling deeply and making her way quickly through the market.