Deborah was unsure how long she sat on the steps, listening to Sam shuffling around before there was complete silence. It was shattered suddenly with the ridiculously loud ringing of the landline; it only rang twice before Sam answered it in the bedroom. It brought Deb back to reality, realising she didn't want to overhear she made her way back downstairs to the utility room underneath the stairs, putting a wash on for something to do.

A quick glance at the clock on the oven told her that she had sat on the stairs for almost forty-five minutes. Sighing she decided to keep herself busy and began to prepare dinner, starting her homemade baked bolognese to ensure that there was enough food to go round now that there was going to be an extra two mouths to feed after so long.

Her phone buzzed in her back pocket a couple of times while she was preparing the sauce. While it simmered away she checked her messages; there were two from Oliver, one from Gail, and surprisingly one from Callaghan. She was surprisingly good friends the the later considering that nine years ago she broke up with him to reunite with Sam, but thinking about him during the current situation was bringing up some bad memories that she just did not want to be thinking about.

Oliver was simply informing her that he'd be at their home straight after work, and would rather someone went with him to collect things from what was now Zoe's house later in the week, just in case anything went down back up was always the best option. He was also letting her know that he took Gail back to the scene but had had no luck with Sam's lead so far. Gail's message was shockingly very heartfelt, coming from the ice queen herself;

"I hope u're ok... Shaw explained, don't b mad... always here wth wine! :)"

She smiled at that, texting back a quick "thanx u" she moved onto see what Luke was saying.

"Hey Deborah, the new rookie says u're friends, can I have her no.?"

Deb raised her eyebrows in surprised. Yeah, Callaghan was the type of pretty boy that Gail would go for but it would always end in heartbreak. She would be better with someone more grounded and settled, who could make her happy and help her not be as negative about life. She blamed that army guy she was seeing a few years ago, who stood her up at the alter, making her more cynical than Debbie herself. She needed someone to bounce off of, like Oliver. But it wasn't her decision to make, so she fired a text to Gail asking her if she would be comfortable with her sharing her number with Callaghan.

She finally put her phone down, finished of the dinner prep do it simply had to be cooked in the oven she moved over to the living room to watch TV for a while.

The livingroom was closer to the stairs than the kitchen had been, meaning she could hear Sam on the phone. She couldn't make out what he was saying, but she could hear the anger in his voice, most likely him and Boyd were making each other worse.

Her musings were interrupted with the sound of the backdoor opening and heavy boots heading her way. Looking over the back of the couch she was lounging on, she caught sight of Zeke as he removed his coat. He looked over when he felt eyes on him, with a crooked grin he asked,

"Hey ma, whatcha doin' home so early?"

She looked down guilty,

"Oh y'know, some personal time."

He nodded and made his way over to sit beside her but paused when he neared the archway into the hall. The grin left his face and his brow drew together in confusion;

"Wait... Is that dad?"

Deb was still looking down as she nodded. Zeke and Leah took Sam running off undercover a lot harded than their younger brothers, mostly due to the fact they were old enough to see history repeating itself once again. Zeke shook his head, he loved both his parents, especially because they did love and treat him as their own, and not like the nephew that he biologically was.

Both of them sacrificed a lot becoming parents to him at sixteen when they didn't have to, and although neither blamed his, or Leah who they had two years after him, Leah and himself at times did feel responsible for the arguing that clearly stemmed from setting down too early in life.

But Zeke didn't want his ma and pop to know this is how they felt. Although he was sure that Leah would let it be known later with the shitty mood she has been in lately, so he decided to remove his boots and grab a seat with his mother for the time being. Letting her rest her head on the side of his arm while watching tv, enjoying the calm before the storm hit.

A few moments passed before Deb spoke,

"Your Uncle Ollie is coming to stay with us for a while, Zoe kicked him out so I'm putting him up in the garage 'til he decides what he's doing."

"Huh, not a good day for couples, is it? - OW!," He exclaimed as his ma's had collided with the arm she had been leaning on, "God, I'm sorry, I know too soon."

Another smack and "OW" followed, along with a warning not to take Hashem's name in vain. Zeke only rolled his eyes but didn't say anything more deeming it unfair to upset her further. But he couldn't help but wonder how it was going to work with his Uncle Oliver staying with them, they were at full capacity so his parents would need to share a room unless his ma decided to kick his pop out. He hoped not... they had their problems but when the going was good, they were great together, but then again he worried if his dad stayed, ir would end in a bloodbath.

A couple of hours passed as they sat and watched crappy TV while enjoying each others company, a rare thing these days with them both working. They were brought out of their peace with with the sound of a car pulling into the drive. Zeke and Deborah looked at each other knowing fine well it was Leah arriving home with Zach. Zeke could see the terror in his ma's eyes as she realised the consequences of Leah realising their dad was finally home. Thinking on his feet as his shellshocked mother continued to stare at him he decided a plan of action.

"Look, you and dad have to talk," He began to pull his boots back on, "I'm gonna grab those two before they come in, we'll go pick up Ashe from club and I'll take them out somewhere to buy you some time. You need a united front to handle Lee, or it'll be pure hell and no one wants that."

All she could do was nod, Zeke gave her a sad smile before heading to the backdoor that had just swung open. Brother and sister could be heard arguing before a loud,

"Hey, hey that's enough!" and the slamming of the door signifying that Zeke had successfully diverted her middle children from entering the house.

Sighing she patted her thighs before standing and heading back to the stairs, she could no longer hear Sam, and it was completely silent. She wondered if he had fallen asleep, or had managed to make a great escape to avoid her.

She managed to make it all the way to their bedroom door before pausing. She couldn't hear anything and she was really beginning to think that he had managed to sneak out.

Taking another deep breath, she bit the bullet and turned the doorknob allowing the door to swing half open silently.

She was met by the sight of Sam lying on his side of the bed, furthest from the door, with his back to her. But from what she could see was her pillow was missing and he appeared to be cuddling it. She could tell with the steady lift of his body that he was in fact sleeping. And as much as he had pissed her off she couldn't help but crawl onto her side behind him.

Pressing pause on the situation for the moment wouldn't be a bad thing if it meant she could finally get some shuteye; she snuggled up to his back, putting her arm half over his waist as to not disturb him.

The heat from his body and with the sheer exhaustion she had been feeling for months now from worrying, meant that Debbie's eyes were drooping in a matter of seconds. But before she could completely drop off, Sam took a deep inhale. He slowly rolled over to face his wife, blinking sleepily at her, he threw her pillow on the floor behind her and proceeded to wrap his arms around her and pull her closer.

Both sighed in content, falling into a light slumber. Both knew nothing was fixed but both could appreciate that Sam was home alive, and that the seperation this time was too much, and although painful, it gave them both hope.

Deborah woke up to complete darkness her face was squished into the crook of Sam's neck. Sam appeared to still be asleep and she was confused on what woke her in the first place. It was then she could hear the echo of the kids and the slamming of the kitchen cupboards that gave them away.

It appeared that the rattle of the cup cupboards being closed was enough to stir Sam slightly. To make sure it didn't get too awkward she began to untangle herself from her husband, sliding up to rest against the headboard thinking of the impending riot that would surely be caused by Leah, and how she had wasted time snoozing instead of talking to Sam. She knew they had to be on the same page, she gave Sam's shoulder a gently shake to try and wake him as well. He groaned Swotting at her hand but she kept shaking him to try and wake him as quick as possible, rolling back towards her he flung his arm over her thighs rubbing his face into her stomach,

"C'mon Sam, you gotta wake up."

He cracked one eye open looking up to see what was rocking him to see his wife staring down at him for a second he'd forgotten the last eight months and give her half crooked smile that she didn't return. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion then it all came crashing back to him he rolled back away from her, before sitting up himself whilst his legs were over the side of the bed his l elbows on his knees as he ran his hands through his not so clean hair.

Deborah stared at his back tried to find the words and seeing that he wasn't going to turn back around she knew that she was going to have to be the one to broach the subject.

"Look Sam we have to get our story straight like Zeke said earlier Leah is going to be the biggest issue, she was really hurt that you left and with everything going on she is extremely sensitive at the moment so it would be best if we came to an agreement will be put on a united front at least in front of the kids."

She heard him sigh as he ran his hands over his face again before turning to have to sit on the bed and look at his wife.

"What do you propose then?"

"Well first things first you can't go anywhere, and I don't mean that as in a I won't let you, its because I've already said to Oliver that he can stay in the apartment above the garage so if you're not gonna share a bed with me you would have to take the couch, which is not the best. Or move out, and in all honesty, I really don't want that as much as I was, sorry, I am pissed that you left us, that you ran away from us instead of sticking by, I realise that I really can't cope without you. But I do need a promise and I need to see effort that you are committed to making this work if that is what you want obviously. I don't wanna hold it against you but to me it looked like you were clearly running away from something?"

" of course that's what I want! And I wasn't running away, I was just doing what I thought would help... I mean we were at each others throats Deb and the kids could see it, how was me being here supposed to help in that situation. At the time you see the UC gig came about so quick and I figured it wouldn't be that long and it was to let you cool off and you know how the old saying goes absence makes the heart grow fonder. But as soon as I left I regretted it, but I couldn't get out! Hell that's why I wrote you that note but I guess it just didn't explain enough."

It was Deborah's turn to look confused, her eyebrows furrowing together,

"What note?"

"What do you mean what note? I wrote a whole letter explaining why I did what I did. I gave it to Boyd he was supposed to give it to you, are you telling me you have went eight months without even hearing anything about how I am or what's been happening?"

"Well look at me Sam, I've been a wreck it since you left, worried sick about you, about the kids, about money, about work, just about near enough everything but especially worried about if I was going to get a call any minute saying I had to start planning your funeral."

Sam looked horrified he couldn't believe Boyd had left his family completely in the dark for nearly a year, but no care given at all towards them. Sam knew that he had a long road ahead of him to try and right this wrong, but he knew that a step in the right direction would be to face Boyd and get to the bottom of all this.

He reached over and took her hand staring at the wedding band still on her left ring finger, not her genuine wedding band from their wedding but the one that graced her finger to fit into Western norms.

"Look sweetheart, I can't take back the last few months but I promise I'm going to get to the bottom of why Boyd did what he did and I'm not placing all the blame on him, I put you through hell which wasn't fair, and I intend to do everything in my power to show you how sorry I am. Y'know taking you on dates, go food shopping together, God, even working together, although I don't promise that won't cause us to kill each other at some point. I will spend every day proving to you I love you and making up for lost time, you don't need to believe me right now, but please just give me a chance."

The last part drew a giggle from her, as she sniffed and looked down at their hands, trying to avoid tears. She squeezed his hand, and she got one in return. She looked back uo at him, giving him a small smile with tears in her eyes, which he returned.

Their moment was shattered however with Ashe shouting up the stairs,

"Ma, What's for dinner?"

Deb sighed closing her eyes, opening them again and looking to the door, shouting back,

"Two minutes Asher, I'll be down the now."

Not getting a response, Deborah turned back to Sam, giving his hand a final squeeze then letting go.

"Time to face the music I think, Sammy boy."