Everyone's feedback has been really encouraging and positive, which is really great and also very daunting at the same time. Hopefully I can live up to all your expectations (I'm doubtful, but all I can do is try..right?)

Enjoy!

Chapter 6

School was the last thing on her mind as she got on a bus and headed straight home.

Lux still felt upset, but her emotions had settled since she had raced away from the bar, and her father. In fact, a small part of her felt bad at how harsh she had been towards him.

It was just that his response... well, it wasn't exactly what she'd been hoping for, and her emotions had been so fraught.

She allowed her head to rest against the bus window and tried to lose herself to the outside world, the one passing by so quickly.

Before she knew it, her stop was next and she was getting up to hop off.

Reaching home, Lux felt a wave of relief as she dumped her bag by the front door and went straight up to her room. She flopped back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She knew Cate and Ryan would be home soon, as their segment finished in about about 20 minutes. She contemplated leaving and going somewhere else, just so she didn't have to deal with them, but honestly, she felt too drained to even think about getting back up.

So instead she allowed her eyes to close and tried to clear herself all the confusing emotions swirling around in her head.

Twenty minutes later when Ryan and Cate arrived back home, Lux didn't even notice, because she was already asleep.

"Well, that was one of our more eventful segments." Ryan remarked from behind Cate as she opened up the front door.

Cate let out a sigh, brushing back a stray piece of hair. "Tell me about it."

Ryan let his hands fall on her shoulders as he gently led her into the house. "It'll be alright Cate."

"It's just, I don't get it....how did he find out?" Cate asked perplexed, stepping into the house.

"Someone must have told him." Ryan said, following her in.

"Yeah, but who?" Cate rifled through her memory bank, working her way through all the people who knew her secret.

"Well there's your mum and my parents, but I doubt they would have?" They moved into the kitchen as Ryan put the kettle on, seeking a much needed coffee.

Cate sat down on one of the kitchen stools, her elbows leaning on the bench. Her brow was furrowed as she tried to come up with an answer.

"Maybe it was someone from your high school?" Ryan suggested.

"No…no one in school even knew I was pregnant."

Steam rose from the kettle and Ryan quickly turned it off. "Coffee?" He asked, picking up the kettle and bringing it over to the bench that Cate was leaning on.

He grabbed the coffee beans, and looked up at Cate. "...Babe?"

She didn't respond, and just as Ryan was about to repeat himself, she looked up at him.

When he saw the look on her face, he stopped.

"…Abby." A look of realisation spread across Cate's face. But Ryan shook his head.

"Ryan, come on - she is a serious possibility."

"But why would she do it now, after all this time?"

"I don't know..." Cate trailed off. "But I just have a feeling. I just know." She added, a scowl appearing across her now thinned lips.

"Look, how about you just give her a call first, before you go jumping to conclusions."

"Ryan, I'm not jumping to conclusions. Like you said, the only people that knew were my mum and your parents, and Abby. You know she didn't speak to me for nearly a whole year after she found out Baze was the father? She'd had this obsessive crush on him for like three years…" Cate recalled. "You know, this was probably just her sick little way of getting back at me."

"Call her." Ryan said, handing the phone to Cate.

"Fine." She huffed. "But this isn't going to be pretty."

"I know it was you Abby!" Cate spoke accusingly down the phone.

Ryan could only hear a muffled response from the receiver, with what he assumed were protests of innocence. He was fairly sure Abby hadn't told Baze, but then again, that woman was a little on the loopy side. But he would reserve judgment until Cate got off the phone.

"I'm hanging up now. I'm hanging up!" And with that, Cate slammed down the phone so hard Ryan nearly spilt his coffee.

He quickly moved around the bench and put an arm around his fiance. "What'd she say?"

"That she didn't do it of course. I don't know, a part of me believes her, but if that's the case, then who? I just can't thin-" Cate stopped speaking. Ryan looked down at Cate, curious at her sudden silence. Again.

Her face was frozen in shock. He suddenly felt uneasy.

"Oh my god."

"What? What is it?" Ryan asked turning her body towards him.

"…It was Lux." Cate said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course it was Lux…she must have found him."

Then without a second thought she grabbed the phone off the counter and punched in her daughter's mobile number.

What both adults did not expect was to hear Lux's phone ring clearly throughout the house.

She woke to the sound of her phone going off.

Still in the fog between asleep and awake, Lux reached around blindly for her phone. She finally sat up realising that the sound was too distant to be on her bed, or even in her room. Taking a quick look at the clock, she realised she'd only been asleep for half an hour.

Groggily, Lux got up and padded down the steps into the main part of the house. She followed the sound to the front door and was about to reach down to her bag when it stopped ringing. "Damn't." She cursed under breath. She looked at the missed call and saw it was Home. "Wha-"

"Lux…"

Lux spun around quickly. "Mum?"

Cate and Ryan were standing at the end of the passage from the kitchen to the front door. Cate started to walk towards her. Lux gave her a smile, until she saw the look on Cate's face. Then the smile quickly faded.

"Lux, tell me the truth... did you go and see Baze?"

There was no point in lying. "Yeah, I did." Although Lux was now looking down at her feet.

Cate let out a deep sigh. "Okay. At least that's one part solved."

Ryan had moved to stand behind Cate. "Baze called up the station this morning."

"Oh god." Lux looked up, her eyes racing from her mum to Ryan. "I'm so sorry."

"You shouldn't have gone behind our back Lux." Cate said, disappointment and worry laced in her soft tone.

"I know. I'm sorry, it's just…" And then the tears that had been so angrily pushed away earlier came rushing back. Immediately Cate stepped forward and took her daughter in her arms. "Hey, hey it's okay. We're not angry, just a little confused - that's all." Cate whispered into her daughter's hair.

Lux clung onto her mum, the tears now falling freely down her face.

"So, he didn't say anything to you?"

"Not really. He just kind of... stood there." Lux felt her cheeks turn pink at the embarrassment of her own father's rejection. She looked down to her lap.

"Typical. That is so typical of him." Cate said, oblivious to her daughter's sudden change in mood.

Silence fell over them. Ryan had been called back into work, something about covering an afternoon show, so it was just them.

Lux finally spoke up again. "I'm sorry I went behind your back."

"Babe, it's fine. I'm just angry at Baze now. Seriously, he had the audacity to ring me up at the station, bombarding me in that smug tone, and all this after the encounter he had with you."

"Just forget it mum. Forget him. I don't want anything to do with him anymore."

"Okay." Cate said, giving her daughter a small, reassuring smile. "If that's what you want."

Lux got up. "I think I'm gonna go lie down for a bit. If that's okay?"

"Yeah sure honey. Let me know if you need anything."

Cate watched her daughter get up and walk out of the lounge room.

As soon as she heard Lux's door click shut, Cate quickly got up and grabbed her coat. Lux may be willing to let Baze off the hook, but she sure as hell wasn't.