Carter walked into the living room to find Norman's sister hiding behind the sofa, peering out the window, and crying. He blinked, unsure what was going on, and cleared his throat. She jumped when she heard him, and stopped crying.

"Oh... I thought you were Mum or Dad." she said, making no attempt to get up from behind the sofa. She burst into tears again, and Blake stood there, feeling awkward.

Great... A crying pregnant moody woman downstairs, and an angry moody guy upstairs. He sighed. He hated being the good Samaritan...

"Come on then. What's up. And what's with hiding behind the sofa?"

"I... I... oh shit he's coming in! I... please just... look I'm sorry for what I said to Norman, but please... can Norm and you take the kids out for a bit?"

Carter looked confused, and started to shake his head, but she must have sensed what he was going to say, and upped the crying a bit. "I don't want them to get hurt! He'll be really angry with me... Please! You don't know what it's like for them to have an abusive father..."

"Wait..." Carter growled (he hadn't seen the bruises on Anna's arm yet) "He hits them?"

"For the love of God, take the kids! He'll be calmer that way!" Blake growled and twitched slightly, but curtly nodded.

"Fine."

"Take Norman. No offence, but I've never met you." He made a noise, a mixture of a growl and a gruff strangled snort.

"Whatever lady. Fine, I'll take your kids. Just hold him off for a bit so I can get Norman and the kids out the back way. And don't blame me if one of them gets squashed."

Meanwhile, Norman was having problems of his own upstairs. Grabbing tightly onto the sink, he splashed water onto his face in an effort to combat the withdrawal symptoms, which wasn't helping as much as he'd like it to.

At least his nose wasn't bleeding. ...Yet, anyway.

Jayden turned off the taps, and wobbled out of the bathroom trying to appear nonchalant, the effect of which was kind of ruined when he bumped into the bannister and nearly fell down the stairs. He walked down the steps as slowly as he could, and got about halfway before Carter charged up the stairs and bumped into him.

"Ow! Carter, are you trying to kill me?" Norman yelped, his words ringing in his ears slightly and stumbling as the withdrawals took their toll. Carter steadied him, and garbled something about kids that Norman didn't quite catch with the ringing in his ears. "Wha' did you say?" Jayden slurred.

Carter sighed, and half-pulled, half-dragged him down the stairs, ran through the kitchen, catching a glimpse of Anna keeping the door shut and pretending she hadn't heard David knocking, and finally start to open it as they left out of sight. Fortunately, Eric and Linda were somewhat slow on their feet, else it would have made a rather odd sight. Gathering up children left, right, and centre (it seemed Anna hadn't taught them 'stranger danger'), Jayden and Blake quietly left via the back garden until all the fuss died down.