"How dare you barge into my mother's house!"
Anne turned the water off and stepped out the shower, wrapping a towel around her body. She held a bottle of shampoo and headed down the stairs.
"It's my house actually." David turned from where he was sitting beside Bethany on the couch.
"I thought all of this was put to bed?" Sarah looked at Bethany.
"David told me that I shouldn't worry you." Bethany said.
"Hey, don't blame it all on me!" David told her.
"So you knew this was all still going on?" Sarah asked him.
"What's going on?" Anne spoke up, moving to stand at the bottom of the stairs.
"Nothing. Go back upstairs." Nick told her.
Anne remained on the stairs.
"He threw her bag into the road." The older woman said, nodding to Nick. Anne immediately knew that she qas was Lauren's mother and the girl beside her was Lauren herself.
"Who are these people?" Aubrey asked.
"It was an accident. She was picking on Bethany." Nick said.
"She has made my daughter's life a misery and you know it." Sarah said. "So what if her uncle sticks up for her!"
"My bottle of shampoo went everywhere and I had witnesses." Lauren said, arms crossed.
"How much is the shampoo?" Nick asked, taking his wallet out his back pocket.
Anne put her tongue to her cheek, leaning her arm on the railing in annoyance.
"It's expensive one but it's not the shampoo I'm bothered about." Lauren's mother said, holding the strap of her handbag over her shoulder.
"It was an assault." Lauren said.
"Nick, is this true?" Gail asked him.
"Right now here's ten." Nick said, holding out the ten quid.
"What? Hold on, what are you giving her money for when she's traumatised Bethany for weeks?" David asked.
"Okay, look, I might have gone a bit too far but Bethany was upset and she called the baby ugly." Nick said.
Sarah gasped, turning to the teenager. "She said what?"
"Well, I'm not surprised it's ugly judging by the state of you lot." Lauren's mother said, crossing her arms.
"Oi!" David exclaimed.
"Especially her." Anne smiled, licking her lips when Lauren turned to her. "You look like some prized stripper." Sarah, Gail and Audrey gasped.
"Hey, don't talk to her like that!" Nick said.
Anne started laughing.
"And she's a nutter an all." Her mother added.
"Yeah." Anne stepped infront of them. "And let me tell you that you were lucky I wasn't there because I would've ripped your hair out. And your teeth." Anne raised an eyebrow before spraying them with the shampoo and Sarah and David laughed. Nick closed his eyes, shaking his head. Gail and Audrey gasped in shock and probably disappointment but Anne wasn't finished.
She grabbed them by the hair and David leaped from the couch to the front door, opening it so she could throw them out.
"Oh you'll regret that." Lauren's mother said.
Anne shrugged. "Doubt it."
"You haven't heard the last from us!" Lauren followed her mother as they started walking away and Anne tossed the bottle of shampoo, hitting the mother on the head.
David snickered and followed her into the house, closing the door.
"You shouldn't have done that." Nick said. "You've only made it worse."
"She called me a prized stripper." Anne said flatly. She gestured to Bethany, "And made her miserable. I'm just sorry that I didn't do it sooner."
She went upstairs to get dressed. She had stayed at the Platt house to give Sarah a night off which the blonde was thankful for. She packed her bag and walked downstairs to the kitchen.
Nick got up from the couch and followed her, moving away so his family wasn't watching. "I'm sorry."
Anne sipped the tea she had made and turned to him. "Don't beat yourself up." She stepped forward and rubbed his arm. "Besides it's not everyday you bring a fight to the door. It's normally the other way round." She pinched his cheek. "I'm so proud of you." She sighed happily. "I am such a bad influence."
"You're not the problem." He frowned. "I am."
Anne sat her mug on the counter and placed her hands on his cheeks. "There is nothing wrong with you." She pecked his lips. "Nothing at all." She leaned in, kissing him lovingly. Nick wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her head.
He knew the crash had damaged him more than he understood. But through every outburst, every bad day, every sad day, Anne stood beside him. She didn't cower in terror, she understood. She didn't believe him when he said he was okay, she knew him better than anyone and knew he was lying. She didn't walk away from the damaged remains of the man she had fallen in love with. And she made it clear that she didn't plan too. She would walk through hell with him if he asked, as he would do for her.