"Kate it will be ok." Barry says to her. "I can total understand how you must be feeling. it's not easy when your past turns up in your present, even if it is from when you were only small and can't remember much." He says gently to her as they sit in Mike's office.
"It was so long ago when we left England."
"Still doesn't mean anything. Look would you like me to go and talk to this guy to find out what they want to know and what they're after. I can get more information to bring back to you?" He asks her and Kate sits there thinking about it. "I don't mind doing it. I do understand. I was once in your shoes not so long ago." Kate looks at him.
"Really?"
"Yep just before me and Zoey got married my biological mother contact me. It threw me for a six. I knew the people I called mum and dad weren't my real parents, but I hadn't heard from them since they gave me up. It took me several weeks before I spoke to her and then still it took time, more so to trust her and then I find out she is still with my real father. Now things aren't too bad but we're still not on the best of terms, but we do talk."
"Why is that?" She asks him.
"They don't like it how I call the people who brought me up mum and dad and how little Lucy calls them nana and granddad. It's taking them some time still to get use to the idea that even though they are my parents, they didn't bring me up. That is ok. Nothing is ever perfect in life."
"You know I use to write to my father. Every week I would give mum a letter to post it off to him and I never heard from him. I asked him so many times to come and get me, but he never came. After a couple of years, I gave up writing. I gave up hope of ever being able to go back to see him. It wasn't till I was fifteen that I found the letters. Mum had been hiding them and not posting them. It explained why he never turned up. So I wrote to him again to the address that I had three months later, the letter was returned, it had done some bouncing around before coming back to me." She says her voice weak sounding, tears rolling down her face. "Why now? Why do they turn up now? How can I be sure he really is my uncle? Could they possibly be telling me lies to get money or something else out of me?" She says.
"What do you remember about your family?" she sits there thinking.
"I remember dad traveling a lot for work. I remember living in a nice house, having nice things, friends over to play, people visiting. I remember someone named Helen I'm not sure who she was in relation to me but she was often around. I remember we always had nice things and never went without." There is a brief pause as Kate sits and thinks, trying to remember anything she can. "And that is about it to be honest. I can't think of anything else."
"Well why don't I go and meet with him. Find out what it is they want from you and anything else I can find out and then bring all that information back to you."
"You don't have to do that. This is my mess and I should be dealing with it."
"Yeah, but this way if they are after money or something then at least it's me they dealing with and I can tell them where to go for you."
The two talk some more.
An hour later, Maxine has left Mike's residences. Kate and Barry come out of his office and head towards the lounge. Barry, having already contacted the person claiming to be her uncle and has arranged a meeting for the following day. The four talk for a few more hours before Mike informs Kate that they have a week off. Around midnight Mike takes Kate home.
The following day
Barry is sitting outside Jimmy's café when Sam Benson arrives.
"Um excuse me are you Barry Williams?" Sam asks his voice sounding unsure.
"Yes that is me. You must be Sam Benson then?" Barry says as he puts his hand out and the two shake hands. "Thanks for meeting me here."
"Um yea no problem." Sam says back not sure what to expect. He may have been much older than Barry, but it had been over 25years since Kate left England. A lot of time has passed, finding her now just seems so unreal to him.
"I'm here on Kate's behalf. I hope you don't mind?"
"No not at all. I gather she has some questions she wants answers for?"
"Yes, plus I have some that I want answers to as well."
"Ok go ahead ask away."
Over the next two hours they talk in depth over everything. From why Sam was out on the water sailing around, to what had happened when Kate and her mother left her father and everything else in-between.
By the end of the two hours Barry was feeling more upbeat about the whole meeting, coming away knowing that they were not after any money from Kate, nor any other assets. They just wanted to have her back in their family and for her to be able to inherit her father's large wealth and properties that he owned in England when he passed away. At first Barry didn't think much of it till Sam informed him of how much the property was worth and her own father's wealth. Kate's father had been handed the family business that his family had owned. Properties belonged to them, which they rented out to farmers. They owned a lot over the years. Her father now owns over 50 different properties, which were all managered by a select team of managers. Each manger had ten properties each. They then reported back to her father, Neil. They chased any overdue rent and, dealt with repairs and maintenance on the properties.
Neil, from what Sam had told him, seemed to have a knack for finding bargain properties in great areas, doing them up and then either rent them out or sell them. Sam told Barry how Neil had helped him find the right house for them in a good part of London at a fraction of the cost all because he knew people who knew people, and also he was able to bargain the price due to work that needed to be done. Sam lived in a house that is worth three times as much as he paid for it and all thanks to his brother.
Barry also found out that Neil and Sam would often call each other brothers, even though they were only related by their younger siblings. It never stopped them form thinking they were brothers. They did everything together and when Sam needed work in-between finding jobs, Neil would also provide him with work.
Once Barry returned home he went and saw Kate and explained everything he had learnt from Sam that day. Barry even got Sam's email address so that if Kate didn't feel like she was ready to meet them again, she could email when things felt right for her. They weren't being pushy about it. Sam was happy for everything to take its time and do it all on Kate's terms. He had stated to Barry that they had lost her once, and they don't want to lose her again. He also had mentioned that he hadn't told her father that she had been found. He doesn't want to get his brothers hopes up after all this time, more so if Kate decides she doesn't want to have anything to do with the family as it would break him even more. Neil has never given up the hope of finding Kate one day, finding his oldest child. Yes, Kate has half siblings, ones that are a lot younger than her, but this has not made Neil want to find Kate any less
When he reported about his meeting to Kate, Barry had decided to leave this information out for now, feeling it just is far too much for her to take in. He does tell her about her father's business and that they are not after anything from her.
It is around 8pm before Barry finally gets home from visiting Kate. Kate had been left with the information to think about what Barry has told her. She feels so much better now after letting him go and talk to Sam, as she may not have gotten all the information or been able to take it all in. She knows now if she just asks Barry, he will provide her with the information again. She could tell he wasn't telling her everything though and for once she was happy with this, trusting Barry and his judgement plus him having been in her position several years ago helps provide her nerves with some positive vibes in the sense of he was giving her the important stuff and not over whelming her with far too much information.
Over the week Mike and Kate meet up several times. Kate, of course, has lunch with Zoey every day and everyday Zoey pries Kate for information on what the hell happened between her and Mike.
"Come on Kate, how am I meant to know what happened if neither of you two will talk about it?"
"Zoey I don't want to talk about it."
"God, you're just as bad as bloody Mike is. Doesn't want to talk about it, keeps say it was her choice for Christ sakes Kate if either of you two are going to be happy sort it out and stop pissing around."
"Zoey, it's not simple ok, it's not an easy fix."
"Is he right when he told me he asked you if Jim was the reason and you told him no, but then refused to tell him what the reason was saying you didn't want to talk about it?"
"Zoey, he asked me on the boat, in the galley; the one place where we can't talk about personal stuff."
"Don't give me that bull Kate! He told me how you broke up with him; on Hammersley. Then you avoided him at the start and refused to damn well do anything with him outside of work. Then you're going out with Jim and hello you're going for drinks with him socialising with him. Do you honestly think that is fair on him?" Zoey says firmly with some force in her voice.
"Zoey just drop it will you." Kate says sharply.
"Why? You're both hurting and I can see it. I saw the longing in his eyes when he holds Jay, the joy he gets out of playing with Lucy. But I can tell it's not enough for him anymore. The other night when Jay woke, he got up to him and settled him, and you know what shocked me the most about it all?" Zoey says stopping to see if she will get any reaction from Kate.
"No." Kate says not looking at Zoey.
"I found him with Jay in his arms in the lounge with tears running down his face. It was then that he finally opened up to me. He told me everything he hadn't told me already and more. Something's I knew, but I didn't know the full details. God Kate, I call you a friend, but after what he was telling me just be thankful it was 2am in the morning and I had time to cool off. What hurt me the most was when he said he was worried you would go back to England to your family and forget all about him and us?"
"Did this happen yesterday?" Kate says turning to look at Zoey.
"Yes."
"Look I know right now you've got a lot on your mind, Jim and Chris's deaths, your father's brother turning up out of the blue."
"Yea well he has Ryan and Maxine now they his family." Kate says as she gets up off the couch and starts to walk away.
"Kate you can be so thick sometimes. There is nothing going on between those two, I know it and he has even told her to butt out of what goes on between the two of you. Can you just stop being so pig headed about this and talk to him, tell him what made you damn well run. Because I was sure he was meant to be on a shore posting you two together and I was damn well hoping that there might be a little Flynn on the way by now, but no you ended it all on him."
"Well he still has not left his damn boat." Kate spits back at her.
"Why the hell should he leave it Kate? Why? He has no reason to give up the boat. It's been the only thing that has kept him going when you did what you did to him."
"And why are you defending him Zoey? He's the one who originally walked away from me and prolonged everything."
"I damn well know that, but you pushed and pushed Kate and now look where it has you both, miserable and unhappy. Both not wanting to take that step to fix things, both saying it's complicated that I don't know the full story. Well I damn well know Mike's side of things now tell me your side of things so I can understand, so I can know why the hell you two won't sort it out. Even mum and dad are pissed off over all of this. So what are you going to do Kate, go running back to England to your new found wealth or are you going to stay here and sort things out with Mike? Cause I think Mike needs to know the damn truth, needs to know what you are planning on doing, don't you think so?"
Kate stands there stunned at what Zoey has fired out at her. She has no idea what to say in response to her. She's got so much running through her head right she's not sure what to do.
"Right now I have no idea what I'm doing."
"Well that's not good enough." Zoey says angrily to her as tears start to fall down her face. The two look at each other and the sound of Jay waking up breaks the silence between the two. Zoey goes to the room he is in and picks him up and starts to settle him.
"I'm sorry if I woke him Zoe." Kate quietly says to her as she stands in the door way, tears now running down both their faces. "To be honest Zoe, I haven't really thought about what I'm going to do. I haven't even contacted my uncle yet. God my life is a mess right now. Before I was worried I had no family no one that would miss me if something happened to me but now…"
"God Kate of course you would be missed if something happened to you. Your part of our family, part of the Flynn family. You may not be married to Mike or with him right now but your family why can't you accept that. Why can't you just allow yourself to be happy for once in your life instead of punishing yourself? Pushing anyone and everyone who damn well cares for you away all the time?" She says as she feeds Jay.
"I don't know." Kate deftly says to Zoey.
"You do Kate; you do know why you keep pushing away. You're afraid. You're afraid that if you allow us in to close to your heart that we may hurt you, leave you or do whatever your mother did to you and you don't wont to experience that again. I can understand that but ten years Kate ten long years and you two still haven't sorted out your stuff. You the only woman Mike has ever fallen for and I can tell he has fallen for you just by the way he speaks about you, the things he says, and the pride in his tone of voice and then the looks he gives you. Maxine can even see it and she's pissed off over it. She wont's him and he won't go to her and I know she tired but he never did it with her because he couldn't do that to you, even though you were with Jim he still couldn't slept with anyone else. Doesn't that tell you something?"
The two stay there in silence for a few minutes. Kate just standing there thinking, absorbing what Zoey has said to her. While Zoey sits on the bed feeding Jay.
Back at Mike's place Barry is at work and he had happily agreed to look after Lucy. Mike had fun playing with his niece the more time he spent with her and little Jay the more he wished he had his own children. Having his sister and brother in-law staying with their children was showing Mike what he was missing out on, what Kate had decided to end. He could see himself having a family but he only wanted it with Kate. But right now there was no hope in sorting it out, no hoping in being able to fix things. Kate didn't want this, them and what should he do leave, stay. But now Kate also had found her father and his family. They had a good amount of money would she leave and go back to England or is she going to stay. He had been too afraid to ask; too scared to have his heart broken even more by her if she said she was leaving to go back to England.
He couldn't forget how he felt the night before when dealing with little Jay he had gotten up to him when he heard him starting to fuss, well he wasn't asleep so of course he heard him before his sister and Barry heard him. He was gentle rocking him as he was sitting in his lazy-boy Jay had just nodded back off as the tears started to flow. Tears for not being able to experience this closeness with a child of his own, the long nights, busy days everything a child or children would send your way, he wasn't going to get anymore.
When Zoey arrived and saw him crying, he knew he had no hope in hell in being able to stop her from asking and replying her with the answers, he was just too emotionally drained from everything that had been going on, it didn't take him long to spill his guts to his sister. He told her things he hadn't and went into more depth on other things. In a way he was finally happy to get it all off his chest, to be able to relieve some of the burden he was getting from not really being able to talk about it for so many different reasons. But it was about Kate right now and what was she going to do re her family.