Hollie was suddenly aware that her mobile was ringing. She jerked, almost dropping the device over the edge of the railings and into the sea, only just managing to keep hold of it before it slipped from her grip. Swinging her legs back over the edge of the pier, Hollie looked at the display, seeing that she had numerous missed calls; the most recent of which were from her aunt.

"Auntie Jo?" She croaked out as soon as her call was answered on the second ring.

"Hollie!" The detective exhaled sharply. "I've been so worried. So have your parents. Why haven't you been answering? Where are you?"

"I'm at the pier. I... It's all my fault. Kevin's..."

"It is not your fault." Jo informed her firmly. "Kevin had a stroke. That wasn't caused by your argument. It had nothing to do with you."

"But I–"

"Stop it. You need to go home or go to the hospital. You need to let people know where you are. This isn't fair, Hollie."

"I know, I just... I can't deal with everything going wrong."

Jo sighed. "Sweetheart, I know it's hard for you, but disappearing every time things start snowballing won't help. Sometimes bad things happen that aren't caused by you or someone else. They just happen and we have to deal with them."

"But sometimes people are to blame." The teenager pointed out bitterly.

"Sometimes, yes. But then we deal with it. This wasn't anyone's fault. You need to go home, Hollie. Your mum doesn't know what to do."

Hollie frowned. "Of course she doesn't."

"What d'you mean?"

"Nothing."

"Hol?"

"It's nothing." The teenager repeated, knowing that it was her mother's place to tell Jo about Vix and Mr Reid. "I'll go home now."

"Before you do…" Jo sighed. "I didn't want to have to tell you this over the phone, I was hoping it could wait until we saw you next…"

Hollie froze; she had a good idea about what Jo needed to tell her. "What is it?"

"Ashton's been released. I had the call the other day. They should have contacted your mum by now."

"He's out?"

"Yeah… so can you see why it's so important that you don't just run off on your own?" Her aunt said seriously. "I am not saying that he's going to come after you, Hols, but if you keep running away we're all going to think the worst."

"Yeah… OK." Hollie agreed, thinking hard. "I get it."

"So you'll go home?"

"I will. Thanks, Auntie Jo."

The teenager ended the call and headed home, deep in thought. When she walked through the front door, Hollie didn't know what to think or how to react. First she was greeted by Vix, who smiled warmly at her and announced that she and Nikki had talked and decided to try and put the recent events behind them. Then she had been confronted by a large diamond engagement ring that Nikki was proudly showing off. Thirdly, Nikki had informed her that Kevin had regained consciousness and the doctors were highly positive about his condition.

Head swimming, the teenager had announced that she was going to bed and made her escape. She phoned Tom and let him berate her for her disappearing act, abruptly switching into his concerned parent routine halfway through the conversation, before she told him what had happened since she'd been home.

"They're really alright?" He asked, clearly confused. "From what Simon told me it was definitely over with no chance of reconciliation."

"It's weird. Mum's currently wearing the biggest rock I've ever seen. Apparently Vix was going to give her the ring at dinner tonight, but they're not going out now so she gave it to her when they made up."

"She's definitely forgiven Nik then. Maybe this is the real deal for your mum if Vix is willing to just... forget about it."

"I guess..."

"Hols, if your mum is happy..."

"I know." She agreed with a shrug. "Its just a bit weird."

"Yeah." Tom agreed, understanding what the teenager was getting at. "Get an early night, love. I'll see you in the morning."

Hanging up, Hollie did as her stepfather had suggested, hoping that with some sleep and time to reflect on what was happening, things would begin to sort themselves out. Lying on her back, she stared up at the ceiling and willed herself not to think about anything.

A knock on her door a little while later made her sit up quickly and she frowned as Vix entered the room, closing the door behind her and wandering slowly around the space. She picked up a photo of Hollie, Nikki and Jo and looked at it for a moment, before replacing it on the desk. Her fingers trailed over the textbooks piled there and the teenager's laptop, before she moved to sit on the edge of Hollie's mattress.

"Your mum told me what happened at school."

"Right…" Hollie nodded slowly, not quite sure which part of her day the woman was talking about.

"It must be awful knowing that your argument might have caused Kevin's stroke."

"I…" The teenager blinked at her.

"I mean… something must have pushed things to a dangerous level. Apparently stress and raised blood pressure caused by arguments can have that effect…"

Swallowing thickly, Hollie shook her head. "They don't know what caused it. They think it was just bad luck it happened today."

"They're probably right." Vix agreed with a shrug, the expression on her face clearly telling the teenager she didn't think it had anything to do with luck at all. "I don't know how you're dealing with the guilt so well… I think it would drive me mad. We were talking about it and your mum said she didn't know how she'd ever forgive herself."

"She…?"

"I mean, she's guilty enough as it is about what she did to me, but that…"

Sending Hollie a warm smile, the woman said goodnight and left the room. With a choked sob, the teenager put her head in her hands and started to sob. Desperate to escape the thoughts swirling around in her mind, she grabbed her bag and opened the window. Sitting on the sill, she swung her legs over the edge, before dropping down onto the porch roof below her. From there she dropped down onto the front lawn and slipped down the path and into the street.

Before Hollie really knew what she was doing, she found herself in the same dive bar that she'd been in on her birthday. She ordered herself a double vodka, slamming some change on the bar and knocking back the liquid in one go.

"Well, well, well…"

"Do you spend all of your time in here or something?" Hollie demanded as Barry sidled up beside her.

"I could ask you the same thing."

She snorted. "It takes the very worst days to bring me here."

"I heard about Kevin." Barry acknowledged. "How's he doing?"

"Not great." She shook her head. "I don't wanna talk about it. I wanna forget."

"That can be arranged." Barry promised, motioning for the barman to bring them more drinks.

"Hollie?" Nikki frowned as the front door opened and her daughter all but fell inside. Looking past her, she spotted a figure at the end of the path, leaning against the pillar as though he didn't have a care in the world. "Barry?"

"Just checking she got home safe, Miss." He told her with a broad grin. "There's some terrible people about."

Not bothering to dignify his words with a response, Nikki shut the front door and turned to look at her daughter. "What the hell were you doing with him? I thought you'd gone to bed?"

"Wanted to forget…"

"You're drunk." Her mother rolled her eyes, trying to support her. When Hollie shoved her away, she shook her head. "What is wrong with you? You're such a selfish brat sometimes!"

"I knew you'd be like this! What about you and what you did? You don't even care about how I feel!"

"This isn't about what I did. It's about what you've done. Today of all days, Hollie... Kevin's in hospital and you go out drinking with Barry Barry?"

"I know you blame me." The eighteen-year-old slurred, tears springing to her eyes again. "It's all my fault."

"Hollie, I–"

Not waiting to hear the end of the older woman's sentence, convinced that she could see blame in Nikki's eyes as she looked at her, Hollie pushed away from her and tripped her way up the stairs. She fumbled with her door handle for a moment, before finally managing to get it open and shutting herself inside.

As soon as Hollie closed her bedroom door, she took a deep breath, forcing herself to sober up almost instantly. Listening for the sound of her mother following her up the stairs and not hearing anything, she rushed over to her wardrobe and pulled out a holdall. She began indiscriminately pushing clothes and shoes inside. Zipping it up, she filled her school bag with her makeup and other things she felt were important, before opening the bedroom window.

Pushing her bags onto the porch roof, Hollie followed the same route she'd taken earlier that evening. She paused, making sure that she hadn't been heard, before kicking her bags to the ground and jumping down beside them. Without a backward glance, Hollie strode away from the house and down the road, heading for the train station.

Most of Hollie's birthday money went on buying a single ticket to Brighton and she ran, being told that the sleeper train, the last train of the night, had just arrived at the platform. If she missed it, she'd have to wait seven hours on the freezing platform for the first train the next morning. Relieved, Hollie sank into a forward facing seat on the train and stared out of the window into the pitch black. As the train began to move, she exhaled deeply.

"Hollie Joanne Boston, I swear to god I will drag you out by your foot if I have to–" Nikki bellowed, stamping up the stairs when she realised there was no sign of her daughter in the kitchen or the living room the next morning. "You're not getting out of going to school just because you're hungover!"

Barging through the door, the woman realised at once that Hollie wasn't there. The duvet was rumpled, but it definitely hadn't been slept in and the window was open. Throwing open the wardrobe doors, Nikki saw that lots of the teenager's clothes were missing, but that her uniform was hanging neatly inside.

"Shit!" Nikki breathed, feeling physically sick at the realisation of what must have happened. "Shit, shit, shit!"

"What's all the shouting?" Vix asked, leaning against the doorframe and rubbing her eyes blearily. "You better have disturbed my beauty sleep for a good reason."

"Hollie's gone!"

At once the other woman was alert and narrowed her eyes. "What d'you mean she's gone?"

"She must have climbed out of the window… she's taken clothes and shoes and… I don't think her bed's been slept in."

"Call the police." Vix suggested at once. "Get her back."

Nikki didn't notice the strange expression on her face or the odd choice of words her fiancée had used. Instead she simply nodded, but didn't make any attempt to make the call. With a sigh, the other woman went downstairs and picked up the landline, doing it herself. She gave the police the details, outlining what Nikki presumed had happened, before ending the call and heading back upstairs.

"Come on, babe, you've got work." She encouraged, seeing that the darker woman hadn't moved.

"Work? Hollie's run away." Nikki reminded her in a strangled tone. "How can I go to work… how can I pretend nothing's wrong when my daughter is missing? How can I face Tom and admit that the girl that he thinks of as his daughter can't stand to live with me."

"Maybe she's gone to Tom's?" Vix suggested thoughtfully. "Maybe you should call him?"

"He would have let me know."

"Unless he's punishing you."

Nikki blinked at her. "P-punishing me?"

"Maybe Hollie's been telling him things? Maybe she's been putting the blame on you? She mentioned yesterday that she thought you blamed her for Kevin's stroke?"

Before she could respond, Nikki felt her mobile vibrating in her blazer pocket and scrambled to answer it, hoping it would be her daughter. Seeing Tom's name on the display, she wondered whether Vix's assessment of the situation was correct.

"Tom?"

"Are you coming in this morning, Nik?" He asked, not bothering with greetings. "Simon's called some meeting and he specifically asked whether you'd be here."

"Is Hollie with you?"

"What? No?" He frowned. "I haven't seen her since yesterday. I spoke to her last night after you told me she'd come home, but that's it?"

"Shit, shit, shit." Nikki swore again, putting her head in her hands.

There was a pause. "Nikki, what's going on?" The whole story came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop it. Tom listened until she finished, with a sob, before he said anything. "I'm coming over. We'll find her, Nik, we always do."