I can only apologise for the huge delay. I'm awful! This chapter is dedicated to msgemgem who's kind words convinced me to get my arse in gear and carry on with this story. This is the start of a whole new and very dramatic arc so I promise to update more frequently and there will be DRAMA! Thank you for continuing to read this guys, it means so so much.

Enjoy. X

Pete Dunham had definitely felt better.

In his 20-odd years on this planet, he had nursed himself through week-long hangovers and even a coma, but this...this felt worse than all of them put together. Rubbing his face tiredly into his pillow, he inhaled the stale dust lurking in its fabric and frowned. This wasn't his pillow. This wasn't his house. This wasn't-

"Fuck!"

The slap had come unexpectedly hard and caused his bright blue eyes to snap open leaving them defenseless against the painful sun rays streaming in through the bamboo blinds on the window across from him. Clasping one hand to his stinging cheek and the other over his eyes, he spluttered out nonsensical words as he fought to sit up.

"Don't you give me that," a familiar voice scoffed. "I'm going to start charging you rent, brother. Either that or I want a share in your impending divorce proceedings,"

Pete moved his hand and set his hardened gaze on the Scotsman standing above him brandishing a steaming mug of coffee which seemed to be somewhere between a threat and a Godsend.

"What happened?" Pete grumbled, sitting up.

"You tell me, brother," Benjamin laughed, sitting down next to him and handing him the coffee before sipping his own. "I knew it was a mistake telling you where I keep my spare key."

Pete squinted into the living room and blinked a few times, trying to work out whether that was indeed Bovver, Swill and Dave passed out on floor, pillows and empty Corona bottles scattered everywhere, the TV streaming white noise in the background.

"Fuck," Pete muttered again, his head suddenly filling with pain. "I don't remember a thing,"

"Well I do," Benjamin nodded, pursing his lips. "That's why there's a mop and bucket outside the bathroom with your name on it, Petey Pie."

Groaning into his coffee, Pete sipped the scalding liquid for a long moment, not caring that it was burning his tongue. He was trying to piece together what the hell had happened; how had he gotten from his and Allie's house to here? And what the hell had gone on in the hours in between?

"So the talk didn't go as planned then, eh?"

Pete snorted and shook his head, not even bothering to answer the question.

"Christ, Pete when is this shit going to end?" Benjamin scratched the back of his head. "I'm all for you crashing here, brother. I'd do anything for you, you know that but...all this over some American tart? Is it really worth it? I mean honestly, so she goes to this show thing, what's the worst that could happen?"

"She could shag 'im."

Benjamin clapped eyes on the shorter, stockier man currently lying face down on his carpet, his fist still wrapped amiably around the neck of a half empty Corona bottle.

"There's a reason people like you better when you're unconscious," he told him, watching the effort it took Swill to roll onto his back without spilling a drop of beer.

"Easier to cop a feel that way, eh, Scotty?" Swill smirked.

"In your dreams, you tubby bastard," he laughed. "Now Dave on the other hand.." he pointed at the slowly stirring man. "I've done things to that that I don't think are legal even in Thailand."

Against his will, Pete laughed, ignoring the pain that shot through his ribs as he did so. Christ, last night must have been bad.

"What the fuck did we do last night?" he wondered aloud.

"No fucking idea, mate," Bovver mumbled from the armchair on the other side of the room. "All I know is, I feel like a fucking monkey slept in my throat and I'm down a hundred quid,"

"My guess is, and I'm going out on a limb here," Benjamin stood up and kicked Dave repeatedly, smirking when he mumbled something explicit. "You and Allie had yourselves another little domestic,"

"I love those," Swill chimed in with a grin.

"Who doesn't?" Benjamin looked at Pete innocently. "You two save me money on buying films, nothing quite lives up to the Pete and Allie show once you've seen it first hand,"

"Don't be such a cu-"

"Hey!" Benjamin interrupted Pete with a stern look and pointed to Bovver. "There are ladies present,"

Ignoring the mumbling of "Scottish prick", he walked over to the window and yanked hard on the blind, allowing the sunlight to stream in fully.

"Anyway, after you once again played chicken with divorce, you and the girls here went out without inviting me, got shit faced and then thought you'd let yourselves into my flat, eat an entire loaf of bread, vomit up a lung in my bathroom and then pass out on my floor." he blinked at Pete. "Think I missed anything?"

"I dared Dave to drink washing up liquid," Swill offered.

Benjamin winked at him and gave him a look of mock pride. "That's my girl."

"I had to get out of the house, mate," Pete muttered, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "It was a fucking nightmare, nothing was going the way I wanted it to and it just got worse,"

"Pretty standard for you, then," Dave coughed as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off, ignoring the glare Pete threw his way.

Benjamin rolled his eyes and walked into his kitchen, sighing at the mess the bastards had left. Butter smeared on the counter, no bread anywhere, milk left out...

"I tell you what," he called. "Not only did you lot eat everything in my fucking kitchen but shit me, were you loud."

"Fuck off!" Pete yelled back.

"Nah, brother, seriously," he laughed, scooping some crumbs into his hand and tossing them into the sink, not particularly caring that most of them went back onto the floor. "You were going apeshit when you came in, shouting about some bloke called Andy...don't know what the hell he did to you but he pissed you off royally."

Silence fell for a long moment before Pete appeared in the door way, his eyes far too alert for his state of mind.

"Andy Burrows?" he asked, his voice low.

"Oh so you remember his name, but you don't remember where the fuck you-..."

"Ben," he snapped. "Was it Andy Burrows?"

"Yes," Benjamin frowned, taken aback by his friends tone. "Why? What the fuck has that got to do with anything?"

"Shit," Pete slammed his palm against the doorframe and stormed back into the living room. "Burrows?" he half shouted. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Calm down, Pete," Bovver winced at the loudness of his voice. "So we went to the Abbey for the first time in a few years, doesn't mean..."

"Andy fucking Burrows?" Pete snorted. "You know as well as I do, that little prick is a pain in our arse,"

"Well, I don't have any marks on me, you don't, the boys don't and we made it back in one piece, so as far as I can see, there's nothing to get shitty about so if you don't mind, pipe the fuck down because I feel like my brain is about to bleed out through my arsehole!"

Pete shook his head, opening his mouth to snap back at him when Dave interupted.

"Uh, slightly problem with that theory, Bov," he raised his hand, staring down at his phone.

"What?" Pete frowned, edging closer to him. "What is it?"

"Matt," Dave answered. "He was with us last night and he ain't here now, is he?"

"So, he probably went home," Bovver rolled his eyes. "Its like being on fucking Loose Women with you lot sometimes,"

"Bov, I've got about 15 missed calls from him." Dave shook his head. "Mate, what if he got fucked over after we left the pub?"

"Bollocks," Pete laughed. "Come on, you know as well as I do that Matt isn't the type to get into something on his own..."

He flipped his phone open, his heart sinking for just a second when he realised that Allie hadn't tried to contact him before his eyes settled on something even more disturbing.

A single text message from Matt.

A message made up of one word.

"Help."

Allie stared at her phone impatiently, waiting for it to ring, for a message to come through, anything so long as it was from Pete. Instead it lay dormant on the table as she knew it would, mocking her from its place next to her untouched bowl of cereal.

"Mummy?"

She blinked out of her stupor and smiled down at her daughter, the red dress she was wearing bringing out the blue of her eyes, reminding her of Pete all the more.

"How's my gorgeous girl doing today?" she asked, crouching down and pushing the hair out of her eyes. "All ready for school?"

"Yes," Poppy grinned toothlessly. "I made my own lunch box!"

Allie followed her gaze to the open box on the floor, fighting the urge to laugh when she saw nothing more than a jar of jam, a hand full of Frosted Flakes and one of Alex's jars of baby food staring back at her.

"Wow," she nodded enthusiastically. "Good job! Look at me raising a little chef!"

Poppy beamed with pride and moved to pick it up, but Allie caught her hand, stopping her.

"But, guess what...I made you cheese and tomato sandwiches and you've got a banana and a jelly pot."

"Jelly?" Poppy squealed, thankfully abandoning the yard sale that was her own personal lunch.

"Yep," Allie nodded. "So lets get you going, huh?"

Walking with her daughter across the vast hall to the front door, she stopped by the living room and peered in to see Harry playing with her son, bouncing him in one hand and playing X-Box on the other, while Natalie sat cross legged on the floor, the job section of the newspaper spread out in front of her.

"Have you-.."

"No," Nat replied without looking up.

"No, what?" Allie frowned.

"No, I haven't found anything yet, No, I don't want to work at Vogue and No, Pete hasn't called."

"What would I do without you?" Allie smiled a little too sweetly, causing Harry to chuckle.

"I don't know...be piss bored?"

Rolling her eyes but unable to prevent a smile from stretching across her face, Allie took hold of Poppy's hand once again and led her out to the car. They drove to the usual sound of the radio and Poppy attempting to sing along, the every day journey something of a non event these days. Laughing under her breath as her daughter tried with all her might to reach the same high notes of Christina Aguilera, Allie's attention was eventually pulled elsewhere when she noticed Pete walking towards the house with Bovver, Benjamin, Dave and Swill in tow. The same clothes he had been wearing last night adorning his tall, toned frame.

So he'd been out.

While she'd been lying in bed worrying, crying...feeling helpless, he'd been out getting pissed. And now he was just going to stroll back in and what?

Turning the wheel perhaps a tad harder than she normally would have, she pullled into Poppy's school and climbed out, picking her daughter out of her car seat, kissing her and singing the ABC song with her as she buckled up her shoes, trying to ignore the stinging in her eyes as she did so.

Did she really mean that little to him these days? That he could say something so cruel to her, that he was worried about their future and then just go and get drunk with his friends.

"Bye mummy!" Poppy shouted, kissing her on the cheek and running into the playgroud, blonde curls flying wildly behind her.

"Bye, darling," Allie shouted back, wincing when her voice cracked on the last syllable.

Climbing back into her car, she sighed, her hands gripping the wheel tightly as she fought to control her tears.

"Its ok...its ok...its ok..." she whispered.

The first of what she suspected would be many tears escaped her eyes just as her phone rang, snapping her out of her haze.

Knowing it would be Pete, she picked it up without looking, trying to sound perky and normal as she did so.

"Hello?"

"Allie,"

"Nathan," she squeaked, wincing at how high pitched her voice was.

"Wow, bad time?" he laughed.

"No," she shook her head, trying her best not to sound disappointed. "No, no, not at all...just...uh...how're you?"

"I'm ok, I just wondered if you were free, I thought you could come round my place, I could cook you some breakfast and we could go over the plans for the weekend and the article?"

Allie stared at herself in the rear view mirror, blinking hard and shaking her head as though pushing the tears back in.

Pete was out. He didn't care what she did anymore; and if she went home right now, they'd fight as they always did at the moment. Nathan...Nathan might understand. She could talk to him, relax a little, just be Allie for a few hours.

"You know what?" She bit her lip, placing her hands back on the wheel and forcing herself to smile. "That sounds great, I'll be there in 10."

Please leave a review for me. But I'm aware that its been a while and I feel rusty to this writing mularky, so be kind! X