"Katy? Can I have a word?" Kush called along the street, jogging to catch up with her as she strode in the direction of the bar.
"Uhhh… is it important?" She glanced at her phone. "I need to–"
"I just wanted to ask you a quick question about… well, about Ruby and Ricky."
"OK?" She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "They done something?"
"No, no… nothing like that." He held his hands up quickly at the frown on her face. "At least I don't think so." Kush shifted, slightly awkwardly. "They like Tommy, right? Get on well with him?"
Katy looked at him carefully. "Have they done something?"
Kush took her gently by the elbow and pulled her into the café. As he went to get them a coffee each, Katy glanced at the time and sighed. Deciding that he evidently needed someone to talk to with Kat away, slightly confused about why he had chosen her, the blonde settled herself in her seat and waited for him to join her.
"Tommy's having a tough time at school." Kush informed her finally, wrapping his hands around his mug and looking uneasy. "He didn't want me to say anything, but I thought maybe you might have heard something from Ruby or Ricky?"
It was Katy's turn to look a little guilty at that. "I've been a bit… I'll speak to them after school and see if I can find anything out. What exactly has been going on?"
"He's really struggling with the work and the other children have picked up on it. They're calling him names and really making things miserable for him."
Katy smiled weakly, nodding slowly at him. "I'll have a word with them later. If they're anything to do with it I'll make sure they stop."
"Thanks." He smiled and shook his head. "It's so tough with Kat away… he make me promise I would tell her, Jean or Mo…"
"Poor kid. I know it sounds weird but after everything that happened when he was a baby… he kinda feels like family, you know? If there's anything I can do to help, just tell me." She shrugged and wrapped her hands around her mug. "Can't they put anything in place for him? Maybe if you had a quiet word with Isaac, now he's working there–"
"Could you talk to him? I mean, you and him are…"
"No, Kush, I don't think that would help Tommy's case much." Katy told him, arching an eyebrow. "You're much better off speaking to him yourself."
He nodded thoughtfully for a moment. "So… how are you? Jean mentioned you were having problems with Tyler?"
"How does Jean know?"
"I think Shirley said something…"
"Course she did."
"Anything I can do?"
She smiled warmly. "Thanks Kush, but unless you know a way of getting me out of going to mediation without risking affecting my chances in a custody battle, then probably not."
"He wants to do mediation?"
Katy shook her head. "I ain't heard nothing for a while, but I ain't stupid enough to think he's just dropped it. Tyler won't just let this go… I just don't like that it's gone quiet."
"You're worried he's planning something?"
"I'm worried he's doing some digging." She admitted. Then she shrugged and smiled. "Although he knows me well enough already, I suppose."
Kush looked worried. "Are you sure this ain't just something you can work out between you?"
"Sadly I don't think so." Katy reached out and squeezed his arm. "Don't worry about me. You've got enough to think about between Tommy and Whit. Let me know if there's anything I can do… apart from talking to Isaac."
"Yeah, I will do. Thanks, Katy."
Wrinkling her nose as he left, Katy wondered how to go about speaking to the children about what was happening with Tommy. She decided to tackle Ruby first, guessing that her daughter would be more receptive to the conversation than her brother.
The day passed relatively normally. Tina had immediately apologised, claiming that Ronnie had dragged the information about her whereabouts the evening before. Katy had simply sighed and waved her apologies away, knowing that if her mother had made up her mind to find out the truth, nothing Tina could say would put her off.
Ronnie herself, however, was conspicuous by her absence. That, in itself, worried her daughter, but she didn't have time to spend worrying about what her mother was getting up to. She spent the day prepping for the following week, hoping that she would be able to take a little time off to spend with the children during the Easter holidays.
Waiting until she knew Glenda would have got home with the children, Katy informed Kathy that she was going out for a bit. Glancing at her phone, frowning as she realised she had a couple of messages from Graham, the blonde pushed the handset into her back pocket and let herself into the house.
"Gran… I need to borrow Ruby for a bit." She told her, pressing a kiss to the top of the older woman's head.
"Borrow? She's your daughter, Katherine. Not that you'd know considering the amount of time you actually spend with them."
Rolling her eyes, wondering what had put her grandmother into such a bad mood this time, Katy sighed. "I know, I know… I'm working on taking time off over the holidays, OK? Then you can go and get your nails done or whatever in peace."
"Unlikely considering you'll be getting Kathy to cover for you."
"I can't win, can I?"
"Not today, no."
"Excellent. I'll see you later."
As Glenda huffed irritably, Katy grinned before going in search of her eldest daughter. Finding her sitting at the kitchen table with her iPad, the blonde crouched beside her and gently nudged the eight-year-old. Ruby turned to look at her, the expression of slight suspicion on her face entirely familiar to her mother.
"Hi?"
"Hey, sweetpea. Fancy a milkshake over the caf?"
"What've I done?"
Katy laughed. "Nothing, sweetheart. I just need to talk to you about something, that's all."
"OK… what've you done?"
"Oi!" Her mother nudged her again. "Milkshake or not?"
"Might as well."
"I mean, if you've got big plans…?"
"You're not funny, Mum."
Laughing, Katy kissed the side of her head before straightening up. "Come on."
They wandered around the gardens together, Katy asking questions about how things were going at school. A wave of guilt washed over her as she listened to her daughter's replies, realising that she really knew nothing about her children's lives at the moment.
"So… what did you want to talk about?"
Katy jumped as her daughter's question cut through her thoughts. "Go and sit down, I'll get the drinks."
In a few minutes she was settling herself opposite Ruby, watching as the little girl immediately started on her milkshake. "Rubes… I need to talk to you about Tommy."
"Why? What's stupid Tommy said?"
"Ruby!" Katy was shocked at her daughter's words.
"What? He is stupid. He can't even read properly."
Exhaling deeply, Katy thought about how to best tackle her daughter's insensitivity. She knew that it was something she'd inherited from the females in their family, herself included, but was inclined to blame the amount of time that the eight-year-old spent with Glenda, rather than facing up to her own failings.
"Ruby, Tommy's really upset that you and everyone else is being horrible to him. He can't help that he finds reading hard. How would you feel?"
"I dunno… but I'm really clever, so it doesn't matter."
"Too clever for your own good." Her mother muttered. "That's not the point, Ruby. You're being really unkind. I want you to make an effort to be nice to Tommy from now on. Maybe he can come to the cinema or something with us in the holidays?"
Ruby made a disgruntled sound. "Why? We never get to spend any time with you. Why do we have to take him with us?"
Guilt surged through Katy. "I know and I'm really, really sorry about that, baby. I'm going to do my best to change things from now on, OK? But I really do want you to be nice to Tommy."
"But why?"
Pausing for a moment, her mother considered her words carefully. "OK… I'm only going to tell you this as long as you promise not to tell anyone else, OK? And only because I know you're grown up enough to understand how important it is that you do as you're told."
"What?"
"Before you were born, Grandma and Grandad had a baby, who died–"
"Uncle James, I know."
Katy nodded slowly. "Yeah. Well… Grandad Jack was away and Grandma was so upset and scared that she didn't know what she was doing."
"She had a breakdown?"
"Sort of..." Katy agreed, not dwelling on the fact that the eight-year-old knew what a breakdown was. "Well, she did something really, really stupid and she's regretted it ever since. She went to prison for doing it and, even though she got better and would never do anything like that again, she still feels guilty."
"What did she do?"
"She pretended that Tommy was her baby and that James was Kat's." Her mother told her gently. "They were born on the same day and no one would have known. But Grandma knew that it was wrong and she kept trying to tell people, but because she was so ill it was too hard."
Ruby furrowed her eyebrows, thinking hard. "So… you thought Tommy was your brother?"
"I did, yeah."
"But… how did you find out."
"Grandma told the truth. She gave Tommy back to Kat and she said she was sorry. She told the police everything and she went to prison because it was so, so wrong."
"So, if she hadn't told the truth… you'd still think Tommy was your brother."
Katy nodded slowly. "Yeah, I would."
"Is that why you want me to be nice to him?"
"Sort of." Her mother agreed. "But also because it's not his fault he finds school hard. He's really upset about everything, Rubes, and he needs some friends to stick up for him. You used to be friends, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I guess…"
"So? Can you do this for me? Can you watch out for Tommy?"
"Fine. But I want popcorn and a Tango Blast at the cinema. Big ones."
"God, you're a Mitchell, ain't ya?"
"And what?"
Laughing, Katy shook her head. Then she sent her daughter a serious look. "Ruby… please keep what I told you about Grandma a secret. I don't want it being dragged back up and upsetting her. No one else needs to remember what happened."
"OK." The little girl nodded seriously. "I promise."
"Right, guys, seriously…" Katy sighed exasperatedly as she herded all the children into the café on Monday morning. "Can you just not… I've got a busy day and the last thing I need is you lot kicking off over holiday club, alright? We're already running really late."
"I can help out." Amy suggested, peering hopefully up at her sister. "I mean, I already work at the R&R."
"I don't think so, kiddo."
"Mum, you promised that you would take the holidays off to spend time with us." Ruby reminded her accusingly.
"I know, baby, I know!" She admitted, holding up her hands in surrender. "I just need to go into work today and then I'm off for the rest of the holidays, OK?"
"This is so unfair!"
As Ruby flounced off to join the others who were climbing all over one of the booths, her mother rolled for eyes and glanced down at the one child not causing any sort of commotion. Sophie smiled up at her as Katy smoothed a hand through her hair.
"Why can't they all be like you, hmm, angel?"
"You've got some nerve, I'll grant you that." Jean's voice caught her attention and she looked up interestedly.
"Jean…" Kush said in a warning tone.
"Excuse me?"
Katy's lips quirked into a grin as she realised who the older woman was speaking to. Ushering Sophie over to join the others out of harm's way, she folded her arms and leant back against the counter. Suki looked between them, her expression thoroughly unimpressed.
"Have you got no shame?" Jean continued, ignoring Kush's sigh. "You brazenly walk round here as if you own the place."
"I think you need to calm down, Jean."
"She's alright, mate." Kush informed Kheerat quietly, nudging Katy in the ribs as she snorted. "Just…"
"How can you, in all honesty, defend your mother?" Jean demanded. "Everyone round here knows what you did. They might be nice to your face, but underneath it all they don't mean it. You'll realise that soon enough."
"I think we need to get on."
"Why? Got a chemo session to get to?" Katy asked with sarcastic concern.
As they left, Kush shot her a look. "Did you really have to say that?"
"What?" She shrugged, glancing towards the older woman. "Jean's right… she's a bloody disgrace."
"Yeah, well…"
"Anyway," Katy rolled her eyes and changed the subject. "I've spoken to Ruby and it's sorted. She'll be looking out for Tommy from now on."
Kush looked a little concerned, but was prevented from answering as Jean mumbled something about hot cross buns and Whitney and propelled him from the café.
"Katy? Six packed lunches."
"Thanks, Marie, you're a gem." She smiled at her and accepted the bag of food the woman had rustled up for her, before turning to the corner where the kids had gathered. "Come on you lot, I've got stuff to do."
"Why didn't you make us lunch?" Ricky groused, peering into the bag and frowning.
"Because I didn't have time." Katy told him bluntly. "Also, Gran seems to have done a disappearing act, Mum and Dad are busy and fu– who knows where Roxy is."