Disclaimer: I do not own Tracy Beaker Returns or any of its characters. Everything belongs to CBBC.

Jack's POV

The drive back to the station felt long. Much longer than usual. It was only ten minutes away but it felt much further. I was dreading getting there and bringing Liam home. And the thought of it was making me more exhausted. While I was at a stop light, I took out my phone and noticed a dozen missed calls from Frank and Rogers, not including the call he made to my house. I knew this must have happened hours ago and I had no idea. I hadn't been at the station. I was on a job until my supervisor told me to go home for the night. I guess I should have checked my phone earlier.. But it didn't matter. I was heading in now and Liam and I would be having a discussion soon enough.

Eventually I got to the station and went inside. I found Rogers waiting for me at the desk. "Hey, thanks for the call." It came just when I realized Liam wasn't home. "How long has he been here?"

"A few hours—another officer brought him in."

"And what exactly happened—explain it to me." I wanted to hear from the officer what happened before I could talk to Liam.

"According to the report, he tried stealing from the music store. Slipped a cassette tape into his back pocket and walked out. Another girl in the store pointed it out to the store employee after the alarms went off." Rogers explained and I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. Could he really be that stupid? I almost couldn't believe this.

"Is that all?" I hoped there wasn't more.

"He resisted arrest."

Of course there was more. "Is the store pressing charges?"

"Luckily no." Well that was a relief. "Anyways, he tried calling you and I tried to find you but Captain said you were on an assignment—"

"I know Rogers, thanks." He had tried and luckily he continued trying to contact me for hours. "Can I take him home?"

"Yeah. I took him out of the cell once you answered." Roger motioned down the hallway and then I noticed Liam sitting on the bench near the sergeant's desk. Rogers went back to his other work and I stood there for a moment, taking in a deep breath. I didn't want to go off on him and I knew I would if I didn't take a breather first. I can't go off. Not here. Once I had a moment, I approached him and he looked at me, guiltily.

"Jack—"

"Let's go, Liam."

"But Jack—"

"We'll talk about it at home. Not here." I was not going to have this conversation in the middle of the station. We needed to hash this out at home. And I needed the drive home to figure out what to say, because at the moment, there was nothing I could say to him.

Liam's POV

The drive back to the house was silent; too quiet. I kept my eyes either glued to the car's carpet or to the road as Jack drove towards the house. I could hear my heartbeat loud in my ears and it felt like my heart was in my throat. I pinched the back of hand, feeling my anxiety growing more and more as we got closer to the house. I was afraid of what Jack was going to say. There had to be a specific reason he wanted to wait until we got back to the house for us to talk. He's going to kick me out. If that's what he wanted to talk about, I wouldn't be surprised. It wouldn't be the first time either. That made sense as to why he wanted to talk in private at the house. He's had enough. Well, he lasted longer than all the other foster parents I went through over the years.

When we finally arrived at the house, it felt like butterflies were in my stomach. I hesitated getting out, only doing so once Jack had. I dragged my feet, following him inside the house. "Go get changed. Then come down so we can talk." Jack threw his keys on the counter and then went into the kitchen.

I slowly went up the stairs and into my bedroom. I sat on bed, exhaling a shaky breath and laid back on it for a moment. He is definitely kicking me out. I sat up and then grabbed my backpack from the corner of the room and began to shove my clothes into it. I knew I needed to be prepared and the sooner I was out of his hair, the better. I stuffed as much clothing as I could and then followed by the few things on my dresser. I then put a hoodie over my shirt and put the hood up. I turned the lights off as I headed to the door, but then stopped to look at the framed photo of Jack and me from before I left the dumping ground. I tried not to cry. I felt my eyes welling up but left the room before I could start. It was nice while it lasted. Should have figured it wouldn't.

I slowly stepped down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. I was hoping to slip out before Jack noticed. Then I could spare him the trouble of delivering the bad news. But as I got to the door, I was caught. "Where are you going?" I turned around slowly. "Liam, you're not going anywhere until we talk about this."

"What's the point?" I shrugged. "I already know what you're going to say."

"Do you?"

I nodded. "I thought I'd save you the trouble." I attempted to open the door and leave. Then I heard a slam of Jack throwing something on the coffee table.

"Sit down!" Jack raised his voice. "Now!" I flinched but then leaned against the wall near the door, crossing my arms and lowering my head.

"Well, just get it over with!" My voice cracked. "I get it, this isn't working out."

"What?" Jack seemed confused.

"Well, that must be what you want to talk about. That's why you didn't want to talk at the station." I made an assumption. It was easy to make one when you had been rejected over a dozen times. Of course, I hadn't cared then like I did now.

"You think I'm going to kick you out?" Jack seemed surprised. And I was too, at that reaction.

"Well…yeah." I said it as if it were obvious.

Jack walked over to me and I looked to the floor again. "Liam look at me." I hesitantly looked up and removed my hood. "You think because you screw up, that I'm just going to give up on you?"

I bit my lip and a tear escaped my eye. "Why not? Everyone else has."

Jack sighed and then brought me into a hug, surprising me again. "I'm not everyone else." I couldn't stop myself from crying then. "I will never give up on you, Liam. You hear me?" He looked at me seriously. "You're my brother. No matter how badly you screw up—and you have—I will not just abandon you." I wiped my tears away and sniffled.

"You mean that?"

Jack smiled slightly. "Yeah. But we do have to talk about why you did this."

"I didn't." I don't know why I bothered. Though he reassured me he won't kick me out, I doubt he will believe me. It's like that time with the woman's purse and Mike didn't believe me when I told him I didn't steal it. I wouldn't expect my brother to believe me now. I had to admit, it seemed hard to believe. "Frank and I were in the music shop, I didn't even get a chance to really look when we saw this girl."

"It's always a girl." Jack shook his head and I rolled my eyes.

"No, it's not like that." He may not believe me when I'm finished, but I was damn well going to explain. He had insisted we talk after all. "Her name's Lizanne. She stayed at the dumping ground for a weekend before I left. She's a scammer—a gold digger. Frank fell for the luscious blonde locks and she tried to get money out of him. I called her out on it and she framed me. Even had the audacity to claim I nicked her wallet." I finished explaining and let out a breath. "But no believed me."

"I do." I was surprised to hear Jack say that.

"You do?"

"Well, I thought it was a bit odd for you to put something you were trying to steal in your back pocket." Jack pointed out. "Let alone a cassette tape."

"You really believe me?"

Jack nodded, "Look I'm going to go down to the shops tomorrow. They've got to have a video cameras. And then we can get this all straightened out, yeah?" I gave Jack another hug. Not just because he believed me but also because I relieved I found my forever family with him.

A/N: Well, of course Jack wouldn't give up on Liam; he's his brother :) Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this. Thank you for reading and reviewing.

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