Naomi: I'm glad you like it, and thanks for the compliment. Believe me, I'd love a little Charlie running around.

Warrior of the shadow: Sorry it's taken me a while to update but I have a crazy life at the moment.

Darkdestiney2000: I hope they get sorted soon, but my cousins have proven rather useful in my writing, and I let them watch the Italian Job last night and they took a fab liking to it and hate Steve's guts. I'm actually worried that I'm going to have trouble writing these stories for their childhoods, because I'll have to rely totally on my imagination, seeing as I have had such a brilliant childhood myself.

OK IMPORTANT PLOT CHOICE: First off, following a review from Naomi I am giving my reviews a choice to choose - Is Stella just sick or is she pregnant? Please give your choice in the review for this chapter as it is up to my reviewers! I have a lot of plans if you think yes she's pregnant, but shall stick to my original plan if you say no she isn't. Also, if you think she should be pregnant, please state whether you think it should be male or female.

Sam

xx

The next morning, Charlie woke up with his arms around Stella, who was resting her head on his chest. He could tell she was still asleep from the regular breaths that drifted across his chest. He looked over her head at the glowing numbers on the alarm clock. 6.30. He didn't have to get up to wake the kids up for another 15 minutes, maybe, if he pushed it, half an hour, but he doubted he was lucky enough to have both children set their alarms the previous night. They never did, so it was always Charlie or Stella who went to wake them up. About to go back to sleep, he remembered that he also had to make their lunches that morning. Starting to regret the decision, he slowly pulled away from Stella, not wanting to wake her up. She stirred a little.

"Charlie, it's too early." She complained in a mumble, tightening her arms around him and trying to pull him back into bed. "Stay in bed."

Charlie grinned, looking down at her. "I'd love to, but I have lunches to make." He reminded her.

She lifted her head and gave him a funny look. "At half past six?" She asked him grumpily.

He laughed softly. "You're really not a morning person, are you?" He asked. He had lost count of the amount of times he had said that to her. She was never a morning person unless she could have a lie in, which, with two teenage children and a number of visiting neighbours with teenagers of their own, was very rare. She was even worse in the mornings when she was ill.

"Mornings are fine." She told him. "I love mornings. This is the middle of the night."

Charlie laughed and leaned down to kiss her. "You can stay in bed." He reminded her. "I'll go and sort the kids out, take them to school, and then I'll come back to bed."

Stella sighed, letting go of him and curling into a ball beneath the covers and wrapping them around her so that even if Charlie changed his mind right that second and wanted to come back to bed, he wouldn't be able to. "Ok." She told him.

Charlie got out of bed, and showered quickly. While he was getting dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans, he noticed that Stella had already gone back to sleep again, and he went down the hall to the kids rooms. First off, was Alex, because he knew that Alex would have to be most likely dragged out of bed. He was much like Stella in the mornings. Preparing himself for the morning challenge, he poked his head around Alex's open bedroom door. "Alex, morning." Charlie said rather loudly. "Time to get up."

Rather than being met with his usual grumbled reply, he was met with silence. Charlie noticed that the bed was empty and looked around the room, spotting the seventeen year old boy at the computer beneath the window. "Morning, Dad." He said cheerfully, rising a mug of coffee in his hand. "Come on in."

"Please don't tell me you've been up all night drinking coffee." Charlie said. Last time Alex had spent a whole night drinking coffee, he had to go and collect him from school the next day after being rung by the headteacher. Twelve-year-old Alex had single-handedly made a wreck of half the school and then fallen asleep in the middle of it, whilst being told off by a teacher. Whilst Charlie and Stella had found it extremely funny once they had got to the school and seen the damage that he had done, he had been very lucky not to be thrown out of the school. It was a wonder they had allowed him to stay considering all he had done. After that incident, they made sure that the coffee was well hidden from him.

"No. I woke up at half four and couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd grab some coffee and have a surf on the net." Alex explained. "Don't worry." He added. "It's only my first cup."

"Anything interesting?" Charlie asked, thankful that there was no way he would be stuck with coffee-boy again. He was worse with coffee then he had been with sugar as a kid - and that was saying something. The doctors had called it severe hyperactivity, but Charlie knew all along it was just personality.

"That school." Alex told him, "The acting school."

"It's been relocated." Charlie said, remembering what Lyle had said.

"To London. I looked up their website and there's list of the talent scouts on the webpage. Shaun Martin, the guy who was at the audition, isn't on the list." Alex told him, showing him the list.

"No chance that he's just been missed off?" Charlie asked, with false hope.

"Nope. Even the ones that were working in New York have been listed, and he's not there either." Alex said, double checking the list as he went. "This Shaun guy is definately working for Steve."

Charlie sighed. "Right, well, stick with the plan." Alex nodded. "And get dressed, school, remember." He added. Charlie left the room and went to the next door, Holly's. Her door was open as well, and he went in slowly, seeing that she was still in her bed and curled on her side, facing away from him. With her long blonde hair spread over the pillows behind her, he could have easily mistaken her for Stella. "Holly." He said softly, and she fidgetted. "Come on, Princess, time for school." He coaxed, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Mom went on a date with him, didn't she?"

Charlie froze in place. "What?"

"Mom. She went on a date with Steve." Her voice was flat, empty of any emotion.

"How do you know that?" Charlie asked. None of the children knew about that. They had left that detail out of it, all they were told about was the heist itself. How could she possibly have known? Charlie put a hand on her shoulder and she rolled over and faced him, laying on her other side. There were dried tears glistening on her face and she looked as pale as Stella did yesterday.

"Another dream...and uncle Rob told me." She said softly.

"Come here." Charlie said, and she sat up, letting him hug her. She hugged him hard back, and felt him kiss the top of her head. "Yeah." He answered. "Yeah, she did."

"Why?" She asked.

"She didn't want to, none of us wanted her to. When we snuck her in to repair his cable, he asked her out to dinner, but we were going to let her stand him up while we boosted the gold. Steve's neighbour threw a party so we couldn't get in there, and so she had to go." Charlie explained quietly.

"Grandad didn't beg for his life, did he?" She asked quietly.

"No." He assured her. "No, he didn't."

"Good." She whispered.

They stayed hugging each other for a few minutes before Charlie remembered that she had to go to school. "You've got to get ready for school, princess." He told her.

"Dad, please don't make me go." She begged.

He looked at her sadly. All he wanted was to keep his children at home, where he could see them, and protect them himself. He hated sending them to where he knew that Steve was watching them, waiting for them. Why did he have to get his revenge through them? It would make Charlie sleep easier if he knew that Steve was at least coming after him and him only. That way, he could send Stella and the kids away somewhere, where they'd be safe, somewhere where Steve would never find them. A lightbulb struck in his mind. Take them somewhere else. He thought to himself. There had to be somewhere they could go.

"Holly, I'm sorry, but you have to." He said regretfully.

"What if he talks to me?" She asked panicky.

"Just stay with the boys." He told her. "They'll look after you. I'm going to take you to school, and I'm going to pick you up as well, so there's nothing he can do to you. He can't do anything while you're in school."

She nodded, convinced. "Ok." She whispered.

"That's my girl." Charlie said, and went downstairs, leaving her to get changed.

When he got to the kitchen, he found Alex sitting at the breakfast counter eating cereals. "Hey." He said, when Charlie entered.

"Alex, please keep an eye on her." Charlie said desperately. "Please."

"Woah calm down, Dad!" He said quietly. "We won't let anything happen to her."

"She's scared to death." Charlie said, sitting opposite him. "I've just had her begging not to go to school."

Both of them knew that Holly loved school and would never take a day off willingly. Like Stella, she had to be forced to rest when she was ill, and would prefer to go out to distract herself. At least Charlie had experience in handling that though.

"She'll be fine once she gets her nose in a book." Alex assured him. "Besides, I know for a fact that she'll be all right."

"Why's that?" Charlie asked, wondering about Alex's sudden confidence in this matter.

"She's part Croker, part Bridger, and from what I hear, being part of either is pretty deadly for anyone who tried to screw around with you guys when you've got your head set on it." Alex said. "I just hope she never drives like Mom does." He said teasingly.

Charlie laughed. After a while, Holly, now looking less frightened, joined them, and had her breakfast. Luckily, he managed to get them off into school without too much of a fuss, except a final plead from Holly, which reluctantly he turned down, and watched them until the front doors had closed before turning back down the driveway and going home. On the way home, he thought once again about the thought that had struck him earlier. If anything remotely bad happened, they could call the school and say that they were taking a holiday, and then take Stella and the kids somewhere safe. The only problem was finding someone who could keep them safe from Steve rather than posing an equal threat.

Stella's mother was still somewhere in Philadelphia, but he knew that there was no way that Stella would let her kids near her mother again. When Alex had been born, she had attempted to start a new leaf with her, whilst staying with her when Alex was two years old. Justine, Stella's mother, had run a bath and fallen asleep in her chair downstairs, forgetting to turn off the hot tap. Charlie and Stella had been out for the evening, and Justine had been woken up by a screaming Alex, who had fallen into the bathtub. He was rushed to hospital, where Charlie and Stella had met her, and Justine had even gone as far as to tell the hospital that Stella had poured boiling water over him. Stella was heartbroken when social services had come into the hospital ward asking if she had deliberatly harmed her son, and it was only when a neighbour of Justine's told them that she had seen Charlie and Stella out for the evening when it had happened that Stella was finally allowed to see Alex without supervision, let alone hold him. Had the neighbour not stood up for them, they probably would have had Alex taken away from them because of Justine. Because of that, Justine had never seen Holly before, and probably didn't know she existed, and Alex still had a scar remaining on his thigh where the burns hadn't completely healed over. There was no way that Alex and Holly would be safe with Justine. Stella wouldn't be safe, either, knowing her history with her mother, so the last thing Charlie wanted to do was to take them from one danger and put them with another.

Charlie's father was pretty much on the same standing. The last time Charlie had seen him had been when John Bridger was alive and before he had hooked up with Stella. He had been twenty five at the time, four years before the big heist, and he had confronted his father about everything he had done to his sisters. By that time, he had raised his baby sister to the age of nine, and his older sister had helped him a lot, though he had to protect her as well. John Bridger had given them a place to live, and Charlie had taken them away as soon as he had left school. Jack Croker had last seen his children in the middle of the street whilst trying to drag a nine-year-old Hannah home with him. Charlie had noticed that she wasn't at his side anymore, and had turned to see Hannah with Jack and had hit the roof. If John hadn't have been there, he probably would have killed his father that night. Instead, Charlie had just hit him back for one, and Jack had disappeared now that he knew that he couldn't control Charlie through fear anymore. Charlie had stood up to him enough to drive him away from them forever. Jack Croker had a hard enough time seeing his daughters once Charlie was looking out for them, and he sure as hell wasn't seeing his grandchildren.

Then the thought came to him. Laura and Hannah.

His sisters were about an hours drive from where he lived. Of course, both had their own children now, and Laura was married as well, but they both had large enough houses to allow the four of them to stay as well. Charlie and Stella had given them enough money to buy them a house so that they wouldn't have to struggle with money. Pulling into the driveway, he practically ran into the house, and up into the bedroom. Stella was laying in bed reading when he found her, and he stood at the end of the bed, catching his breath for a moment. "Laura and Hannah." He told her.

"No, Charlie, I'm Stella." She told him confused.

"No." Charlie said. "My sisters. If anything happens, we'll go stay with them, Steve won't know where to find us. We'll be safe." He explained.

Stella looked at him for a while. "Charlie, that is probably the best idea you've had yet." She told him with a smile.

Charlie collapsed onto the bed, laying on his back at Stella's feet, which were curled beneath her. "You'll be safe there." He told her. "Anyway, how are you feeling?" He asked.

"I threw up again this morning, but apart from that and a lot of hunger, I feel much better." She assured him.

He sat up and surveyed her. She didn't look pale anymore like she had done yesterday, and even had some colour back in her cheeks giving her a healthy glow. Raising his hand, he placed it on her forehead. "Well, your fevers gone." He said and she grinned.

"See, one day." She told him.

"I could still make it two." Charlie warned her.

"I'd like to see you try." She challenged.

To no one's suprise, neither of them emerged from the bedroom until at least lunchtime. But Stella still won, and by early afternoon was wandering around the house, under Charlie's orders to take it easy, but she still ended up cleaning the kitchen from Charlie's attempts at lunches for the kids.

Well? Pregnant or not pregnant? YOU decided. Wow, this sounds like the eviction nights on Big Brother. Anyway, please let me know in your reviews!