Authors Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and favourited the first chapter. Hope you enjoy this one!

As soon as Stephanie heard her name being spoken, she turned around. Her eyes fell upon her step-daughter Carter, who was staring at her through the bars of a police holding cell. Her fingers were curled around the bars and Stephanie noticed her skimpy outfit was doing nothing to protect her from the freezing cold. Stephanie's stomach plummeted and she felt her heart rate picking up. It had been a long time since she had laid eyes on Carter and so she had been visibly shaken earlier in the evening after receiving the call from NYPD telling her that Carter was in custody and that her home number was down as next of kin. However, she'd put aside her shock and instantly gotten herself dressed, bundled her sleeping children into the car and driven into the city to find out what was going on.

"Are you okay?" Was the first thing Stephanie could think of to ask Carter.

Carter nodded from behind the bars. "I just want out of here, Stephanie. I haven't done anything wrong."

Stephanie allowed the corners of her lips to turn up slightly before she returned her gaze to the officer behind the desk. Deep down inside Stephanie knew that Carter was no wallflower and that she must have done something to end up behind bars.

"Is she being charged with something?"

"No, Ma'am. We just thought it best to alert a member of her family. This isn't the first time we've picked her up," his expression became disapproving.

Stephanie bit down sharply on the inside of her cheek. "What about her mother? Why didn't you contact her."

The officer felt his cheeks redden and he glanced back to the computer, clicking several times before tutting under his breath.

"The only number we have on file is for a Paul Levesque. I mean, she's not under 21, we can't hold her for more than the night. But under the circumstances, we felt that reaching out to her next of kin was more beneficial."

Stephanie nodded. "So do I need to bail her out?" She asked, reaching into her bag for her purse.

"No, Ma'am. We're not charging her so there's no bail charge. Just make sure we don't have to arrest her again because we'll pursue charges if this happens again."

"It won't!" Stephanie was firm in her reply, pushing herself away from the desk as the officer waddled out from behind it. A large ring of keys jangled against his hip as he made his way to one set of bars and opened the door before closing it behind him. He shuffled up to the cell Carter was in and stuck the key in, turning it and unlocking it.

"No funny stuff," he warned Carter as he allowed her out of the cell. She saluted him sarcastically before scooping up her shoes and stepping out onto the tiled floor, allowing him to close the door behind him. He closed the door with a loud clang and locked it once more before leading Carter through the outer door, closing and locking that behind them too.

Stephanie watched on as Carter hopped from one foot to the other as she slid her shoes back on, standing back up straight with her height boosted at least 5 inches. Carter walked towards her confidently, appearing as if the heels didn't bother her at all. She had her arms wrapped around herself to try and preserve what little body heat she had left

"So, she's free to go," the officer commented. "And like I said, don't let it happen again."

"No problem, Officer," Carter grinned, walking on past the desk and heading straight for the door.

The officer rolled his eyes and bit back a retort, turning to Stephanie. "Can you sign this please, Ma'am?"

Stephanie quickly glanced of the piece of paper before jotting her signature on the dotted line. She handed it back before flashing the officer a tight smile and following Carter out of the door.

Carter descended the steps of the precinct ahead of Stephanie. She reached the bottom and turned around to smile up at her.

"Thank you so much for bailing me out, Stephanie," Carter told her. "It really means a lot."

Carter's thoughts immediately turned to Caspar and how many places she was going to have to hunt around to find him. She knew he had several different dealers and he was likely to be bunking down with one of them, sleeping off a high. She needed to find him; the sooner, the better. But the thought of hunting him down in the freezing cold filled her with a sense of dread too.

"You're welcome," Stephanie spoke slowly. "Now, get in the car!"

"I'm sorry?" Carter turned her eyes back to Stephanie, shock evident in her expression. She had been glancing around the outside of the precinct, musing about the best way to get to Freddie's Manhattan townhouse.

"I wasn't aware that I was speaking in a foreign language, Carter," Stephanie said with a saccharine smile. "You perhaps think that it's okay that I was woken up in the middle of the night, had to drag my children out of their beds and drive all the way down to New York City because you got arrested. But I've yet to see the funny side of this, Carter. Now, unless you want me to drag you kicking and screaming back into the precinct and tell them that you'd rather traipse around New York in the middle of the night than come home with me, you'll get in the car without another word."

Carter swallowed the lump in her throat. Her stomach jumped at the mention of her dad's other children with Stephanie. Sure, she had known they existed; the wonders of the Internet, but to know that they were in the car, less than 20 feet from her was a completely different story.

"But, I-"

"But nothing! In the car, now!" Stephanie told her firmly, unlocking the car from the distance they were at. The lights flashed on a black Cadillac Escalade parked against the sidewalk. The car was impeccable, not a mark on the shiny black paintwork. It had silver trims and the silver wheel rims looked as if they had been spit-shined. The windows had a deep black tint on them, allowing the passengers to see out but leaving passers-by unable to see in.

Carter wanted to run. She wanted to pick up her feet and just run, run for as long as she could until her lungs burned and her eyes watered and her body ached. She wanted to tell Stephanie about Caspar. She wanted to yell at Stephanie about the way she'd spoken to her because on a normal occasion, Carter didn't accept being spoken down to. But this wasn't a normal situation. Carter knew Stephanie would make good on her promise about dragging her back into the precinct. And it was for that reason only that Carter made her way to the Escalade and got into the passenger side, huffing as she sunk into the luxurious cream leather interior.