She hadn't been altogether sure about doing the gig in the first place, especially at such short notice. It was Saturday for fuck sake, and Charles was home and anyway she was always dead busy with family stuff on Saturdays, the girls went to ballet and Marcus often did stuff with his little mate, but then when the turd in the hairy jumper had called to offer her the shift, she'd almost snatched his hand off. Even though she hated him with a passion she was trying everything she could think of to get in his good books, well, short of flashing her tits at him. She was desperate to get back in as a permanent member of the team, although not that desperate, she would never be that desperate, but Charles had been getting up her nose a bit recently, alright maybe not his fault, not entirely, but all that shit with fucking Sasha had somehow made it even more important that she had a proper job. She knew underneath that it wasn't his fault. Not really, not all of it anyway, but was absolutely bloody determined that she wasn't going to be just Mrs Boss any more, the wife at home with the kids. She needed something else in her life, because you never ever knew what was round the corner just waiting for you.

She'd never really seriously considered turning the gig down, but had to admit that in the back of head somewhere she had these private niggling little doubts about the number of last-minute jobs that were coming her way. It was beginning to look a bit like the little prick was just using her when everyone else had already told him to do one which was worrying her a bit, everyone had to do some last minute stuff, it went with the job, but it was making her think he'd got no bleeding intentions of ever putting her back on the permanent roster. It probably suited him to have things the way they were.

And now it seemed like it hadn't even been worth it. The job had only lasted a couple of hours start to bloody finish and had been just standing around in case although in case of what she wasn't sure, but being bored shitless and freezing cold with feet that had turned to blocks of ice wasn't much of a way to spend a Saturday. And it wasn't even going to pay her enough to make driving all the way to Weymouth worth the bloody effort, the time or the petrol. She had a bit of a headache and a bit of an upset stomach so that all the way home she'd been dreaming of a hot drink and maybe a bit of cake but definitely getting her shoes off and now that she was there, she'd walked into a disaster area.

"Daddy lost him .."

"Lost him? Lost who? Come on Mills what's up? ... Deep breath and blow your nose … there's a good girl .. I can't understand you when you're making all that racket"

Millie was sobbing loudly, but as soon as Molly picked her up from her prone position on the kitchen floor she produced another absolute storm of excruciatingly loud sobs and wiped her snotty nose on her mother's neck before she buried her hot, damp little head into it. She was the absolute picture of abject misery. But Molly couldn't understand more than one word in three of what was obviously a terrible tale of tragedy and woe, there were wracking sobs accompanied by huge shuddering sighs and a whole lot of loud snotty sniffing which made it impossible for her to work out precisely what had been going on. After a couple of minutes of stroking Millie's shuddering back she gave up trying and raised her eyebrows at him instead. Millie was being her usual complete bloody drama queen so Molly knew it could well have been something and nothing but when she saw the expression on his face and the way he bit at his lip and then rubbed his hand over his hair before he looked down at the floor she knew that something definitely wasn't good. She was filled with a mounting sense of horror as she stared at him.

"What?"

"We seem to have a bit of a problem ... it seems we've mislaid Mr Fuddley somewhere"

"What? How do you mean mislaid? He's in the bloody 'ouse somewhere, right?" Molly shook Millie gently "Come on mate, we'll find him, I'll help you look, where did you last 'ave him, he can't be far away" Suddenly she had this horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach of approaching doom as Charles shook his head and bit at the corner of his lip again "Shit, Charles ... you're bleeding kidding me … you're joking right ... where is the b… blessed thing?"

"I know, I know you told me not to let her take it but I didn't know I had to frisk her before we left the house" Charles ran his fingers through his hair again "I told her you said she couldn't, so I didn't even know she'd got the bloody thing with her let alone where it is now"

Molly peeled Millie off her neck to see if she could get her to calm down enough to give some sort of clue where the sodding thing might have ended up, but then shook her head as Millie peeled away and tore down the hall to fling herself into the sitting room. Wailing even louder. Molly knew she wasn't being very fair blaming him because she hadn't actually told him he had to check her back-pack and pockets before they went, but that didn't stop her glaring at him like it was all his fault and narrowing her eyes as she did it. Christ this was all she bloody needed after the sort of day she'd had and he really should have known, it wasn't like he didn't know what a devious little mare Millie could be when it suited her. It wasn't like he hadn't been told that he had to make sure, he knew the rules as well as she did. The bloody thing didn't leave the house no matter how much fuss Millie was making. Why did he always find it so hard to say no to her and stick to it?

"Did you ask her where she left it?"

"Of course I bloody did, what do you take me for? She says she doesn't know .. and that it's all my fault for some reason ..."

"Yeah well, she's bleeding fond of that when she's done something she knows she shouldn't of"

Charles shook his head slowly from side to side "And we'd already had a fairly spectacular display when I didn't take the right tights ... sorry, I forgot what you said about the pink ones on the rack, but there were these perfectly good ones and I didn't know her legs won't work if she has to wear black ... god, she's hard work ..."

"You don't say ..."

Molly was torn between being livid with him for being surprised and wondering if he ever bloody listened when she told him just how difficult Millie could be sometimes and wanting to say 'see, told you so'. Her warnings seemed to have sailed straight over his head, she was beginning to think that what she said went in one ear and out the other. But at the same time she couldn't help this little nugget of guilt, that it might just have been a tiny little bit her fault because she'd decided to let him bloody get on with it when he'd got all arsey and insisted he could manage. She hadn't been exactly helpful, but it was his own fault because he'd treated her to his best Captain Stern and had got all bloody offended, had accused her of thinking he wasn't capable of looking after the girls and dropping Marcus off for his sleep-over without fucking it up. He'd snarled at her that they were his kids too, and had then practically frog marched her out the door when she'd said she was in two minds about whether or not to even go. She'd then got just a tiny bit arsey herself and had stormed off and left him to it.

And now he was saying he'd managed to lose the bloody god-awful knitted thing that Millie had to have or she wouldn't go to bed. The 2 section lads had given it her when she was very, very tiny, someone they knew had knitted this thing which Fingers had said was supposed to be some sort of animal, although Molly defied anyone to say what sort it was supposed to be. But Millie didn't care. She'd adored it right from the start and had never been to bed without it, and it didn't matter to her that it had been sucked, peed on, puked on and was bloody unhygienic, that it had been washed so many times it was just about falling to bits and that Molly had had to do major surgery on it to stitch its head and leg back on more than once. None of that mattered in the slightest to Millie. Charles had christened it Mr Fuddley after Chloe had heard him call it a fucking ugly thing when he'd been laughing and holding it up by its tail, which he'd said was its dick, and had been asking loudly what the fuck it was supposed to be. He'd had to do a bit of very quick thinking to change it to Mr Fuddley which had stuck and Millie had been nagging and badgering to be allowed to take it to ballet with her for weeks. She'd kept insisting that it needed to see her do her dance. Molly had been equally insistent that there was no way. She wasn't going to let her take the bloody thing anywhere out of the house in case it got lost, which to her dismay was exactly what seemed to have happened the minute her back had been turned.

"I was just waiting for you to get back ... I'll go back and look for the bloody thing" Charles ran a hand over his head and then ran it down to stroke the stubble on his chin "It has to be there somewhere because we didn't go anywhere else and I've already checked the car... I tried ringing them but the only number I could find was for booking the bloody place … I'm sorry Moll, I really didn't see it, I think she must have put it under her coat, but I should have paid a bit more attention shouldn't I?"

"Yeah you bloody should of ... 'n yeah, think you might gonna 'ave to go back ... but, you know, she bloody knew she weren't allowed ... I told her over and over ... and then she did it anyway and that's why she hid it ... she's really naugh'y sometimes Charles ... we're gonna 'ave to do something about her"

"I know, just not today eh?" They both stopped and listened as Millie re-doubled her efforts to let the world know that her life would be over and she couldn't possibly live without Mr Fuddley and heard the soft mumble as Chloe said something to her. Neither of them caught what she said, but whatever it was it didn't seem to go down very well as Millie's bawling got louder and more determined.

"She's gonna make herself puke in a minute"

Molly sighed and shook her head as he patted his pockets for his keys and picked up his phone, then dropped a kiss on the top of her head "Yup, fraid so ... I won't be long ... sorry, sorry, sorry"

-OG-

"It's alright for you to laugh, I had to crawl under this stack of chairs to get to the back and there was this bloody bunch of women in there doing some sort of exercise class, Jazzercise or something ... honestly Moll, they were at least Nan's age if not older ... definitely old enough to know better but one of them bloody whistled at me and then they all cheered ... and you can stop laughing any time you like"

"Well it is a bit funny ... a load of grannies checking out your bum ... perving on your arse and making you blush ... still, least you got the sodding thing"

"Yup ... and I was not blushing"

"If you say so" Molly giggled at the vivid picture she had of him crawling around the floor under the stacked chairs at the back of the community centre, all embarrassed as a group of middle-aged or elderly women ogled his bum.

"It sounds as though it's gone very quiet there ... have you drugged her or something?"

"Nah ... just tied her up 'n gagged her, before I chucked her in the garage" Molly giggled "She's watching tele with Chloe and I haven't been in cos when she sees me she'll get her second wind 'n start again ... I'll go and tell her you got him ..."

"Lovely ... won't be long"

Molly strapped a surprisingly happy and good-tempered Livvie into her highchair and gave her slices of bread and butter to eat before she could change her mind and start grizzling from hunger and pure bloody-mindedness. She avoided watching as the baby mangled the bread into a pulp and then sucked it through the backs of her fingers, her favoured way to eat and a fairly unlovely thing to watch at the best of times, but it was one which definitely made her feel a bit nauseous again after what had been a long and very difficult day. She was hungry and bloody bone tired and was almost at the point of wanting nothing more than to sit on the floor and cry.

"Where's Millie?"

Chloe didn't bother to answer her mother, just gave a graphic shrug of her shoulders and kept her eyes glued to whatever it was she was watching with her mouth wide open. She didn't even bother to look up as Molly's eyes filled with tears at the way no-one ever seemed to take any notice of her these days. She was wracked with guilt at the thought of Millie crying herself to sleep somewhere when she'd just been relieved and happy that she'd shut up bawling for a bit. What sort of mother was she for fuck sake?

"Chloe ... I'm talking to you …. I asked you something ..."

"I dunno do I? ... Why does everyone always think I know where everyone is ... you're always asking me and I. Don't. Know … Okay?"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that ... "

Molly picked up the remote control and ignored Chloe's protests and then switched the television off. She knew she had absolutely no conviction in her voice, that it had sounded as though she'd said it out of some sort of habit and because she was tired and fed up, which she was, but she was definitely in no mood for any of Chloe's bollocks. Sometimes it was frightening how much Chloe reminded her of herself when she'd been a bolshie bloody teenager, but Chloe was rising ten so god alone knew what she was going to be like when she actually was in her teens "And you can go upstairs for me 'n tell her to come down, tell her Daddy has found Mr Fuddley"

"Why me… why do I always have to do stuff?" Chloe huffed "'n I was watching that…"

"Tough …. Because I asked you ..." Molly could hear Belinda's voice coming out of her mouth "Just do it and stop bleeding arguing with me will you? ... Just go, there's a good girl and while you're up there put your head round Sam's door 'n all, tell him it's nearly teatime"

Molly turned to go back in the kitchen to see to Livvie, and tell herself that there was just tea, bath and bed to get through and then she could curl up on the sofa in front of the fire. She was so bloody tired she'd have to be careful she didn't fall asleep and end up snoring with her mouth open and probably dribbling, she wanted to savour that feeling when she could put her head on her pillow and stretch out in bed and could then snuggle down because today would finally be finished.

"She's not there"

"What do you mean, she's not there? Well, where is she then?"

"Don't ask me, I dunno do I?"

"Chloe?"

To Molly's ears Chloe sounded even more truculent and arsey than she had before she'd gone stamping up the stairs to do as she was told with very bad grace, something else Molly knew all about. She also knew from looking at her that Chloe was hiding something as she stood in front of her with defiance written all over her and refusing to meet her mother's eyes.

"She's not there ... I said didn't I?"

"Oi ... just hold it right there madam ... come on Chloe, where did you look? Did you look all over? She's gotta be there somewhere"

Molly wasn't worried, she was just generally cross with all of them because Chloe was being as awkward as she knew how and Millie would have heard Chloe stamping up the stairs and would have hidden under a bed or something.

"Look, just watch Livvie for a sec while I go and look for her"

"I'm sorry Mummy..."

"Sorry 'bout what?"

"She wouldn't shut up and ... I was trying to listen and I couldn't hear … so I told her stuff …"

"What?"

"I told her to go if that was what she wanted ... but she hasn't, has she?"

"Hasn't what? Gone where? Come on Chlo, what?"

"She said no-one cared so she was going to go and look for Mr Fuddley herself and then she said that no-one cared about her and that she was going to run away ... she was going to take Patchey and go ... and ... I said ... I told her to go on then, that I didn't care" Chloe was struggling with tears and with the guilty knowledge that she'd said a whole lot more in the heat of the moment, things she now wished she hadn't but that she certainly wasn't about to tell Molly "Said I'm sorry"

"Shit ... watch Livvie while I go and look for her"

Millie's wellington boots were missing and her school coat wasn't on the hook and there was no sign of her backpack although Patches' lead was still hanging there as Molly began to shout at the top of her voice up the stairs. She knew Millie was hiding somewhere in the house to teach them a lesson, it would be just like her although there was no sign of the dog coming running when she started to yell. But she was more annoyed than worried. It was pitch dark outside as well as cold and wet and there was no way Millie would be out there in the dark on her own, not even with Patches to keep her company. She was scared of the dark so even if she had gone off in a strop she would have come back in by now, she had to be in the house somewhere.

-OG-

By the time the headlights from his car swept over the front of the house it was obvious to him that there was something fairly chaotic going on. Despite the driving rain and the bitterly cold wind the front door was wide open and every light in the house was burning as Molly stood outside in the porch without a coat, shivering and shouting herself hoarse. Sam who'd searched everywhere he could think of in the house, was also shouting as he began searching outside, while Chloe was still in the kitchen watching Livvie and crying her eyes out. She knew she was in trouble, so was feeling very sorry for herself as well as dead guilty that she'd told her stupid little sister that no-one cared if she ran away. She'd told her that no-one cared because of all the bawling she did, that she was always crying and carrying on about something and that it was a stupid noise and that they were all sick of it and sick of her and that no-one cared about that grotty, smelly, horrible ugly thing that she loved so much. And no-one cared that it was lost. She'd been a bit fed up because everything in the house always seemed to be about Millie. Not that she'd told Molly any of that, she just wished more than anything that she hadn't said any of it now because everyone was making so much fuss, and she was a bit worried that maybe something had happened to her. But Millie had been getting on her nerves. And now Livvie had joined in and was crying and flinging herself backwards and forwards in her highchair and Chloe wanted to call her mum and tell her that the baby was crying but could hear that Molly was still outside. She was yelling at the top of her voice for Millie to come out from wherever she was hiding straight away and to get her arse back in the house right that minute, but Chloe was scared. She could hear from the way her mum sounded that she was losing it. Chloe was getting scared that Millie really had done what she'd said and gone.

"What the hell is going on?"

Charles looked around and then at Molly who was trying very hard not to give into the wave of panic that was making her stomach churn with fear. It was making her feel as if she was actually going to throw up any second.

"Moll? What's wrong …what's going on?"

"It's Millie … we can't find 'er anywhere"

"What do you mean, you can't find her? She's hiding somewhere … come on" He put an arm round her and started rubbing his hands up and down her arms "You're bloody freezing … where's your coat?"

"Never mind about that … she told Chloe she was gonna run away 'n she has 'n she's taken the bloody dog with her … can't find either of them anywhere"

"Hey, hey … she won't have run away, where would she go? She'll be in the house somewhere you'll see … and anyway it's dark .. she wouldn't have gone far …"

"Sam's already looked …. she's not in the 'ouse, he's looked everywhere … and I've been yelling for ages … I don't know where she is"

"Hey, don't cry …"

"I'm not …"

Molly wiped her hand over her face and then burst into a flood of furious tears, a mixture of worry and fear and panic and pure bloody anger at Millie's stubborn determination to always have the last word.

-OG-

A/N: It's a very long time since I was last at the Barn, but as promised am back there … had intended to post under the Unforeseen heading but then decided to start it as a fresh story even though it does follow on …I do hope you enjoy being there with me … please let me know and my endless thanks go to flossy for her unending patience and support, especially when I am having a bit of a nervous collapse, in other words when I'm being a compete nutjob ..x