A/N: Not entirely happy with this chapter but it's after 2am so it's going to have to do. Thank you as always to everyone who is reading and reviewing.

Sarah x

Serena stood on the arm of the sofa, digging around in the high cupboard for the candles she put there when she moved in over two years ago. "On reflection, Mum, this wasn't the best place to put them," she complained to her mother, stretching into the cupboard while trying to keep her balance. "Bloody stupid idea."

She heard Adrienne's soft chuckle through the darkness. "Forethought never was your strong point, my dear." Serena sighed, wondering if Ric was faring any better than she was. She felt the familiar texture of wax hit her fingers and she felt the relief of knowing that there were matches in the dresser drawer. She was careful not to fall as she stepped off the sofa and barefoot onto the wooden floor; it wasn't long before she had four candles lit, bringing a dim though much needed light upon them. "Shouldn't you go and make sure Ric's alright outside?" asked Adrienne.

Serena smiled to herself at the image of Ric scrabbling around in her shed. It wasn't something he was likely to enjoy. "Yes, I'd better," she agreed; at the back door she felt around for her rain coat but found nothing in the dark.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" came a frustrated shout from outside. She smirked to herself; she knew what state that shed was in. She knew it hadn't been tidied in many months but objects of little to no use had been thrown in there without a backwards glance. A crash confirmed her prediction that half its contents had destabilised at Ric's touch. She pulled on her wellies and half-ran out the door, accepting she wasn't going to find a coat. Guided by the light of her phone screen, she made her way to the shed.

"What's wrong?!" she asked loudly, raising her voice to be heard over the wind and rain.

"Do you even know how much rubbish has been thrown in here?!" he demanded. She smirked and barged him out of the way, knowing the torch was sitting on the back shelf. She only hoped it was actually charged up. "I mean, seriously, Serena, for a woman so organised, it's a mess."

"Yeah, yeah," she groaned, stretching across the lawn mower to get to the back shelf, the smell of petrol assaulting her nose. She stood on the top of the engine with one foot, balancing until she could grab the handle of the heavy duty torch. "This thing better be bloody working," she grumbled. At that moment, she lost her footing, letting out a shout of annoyance and alarm. She never hit the floor or the wall, though; instead she felt a hand on each side of her waist, guiding her back out of the shed.

Safe on solid ground, she flicked on the torch so she could actually see Ric's face; he was wearing a slightly know-it-all smile, leaving her torn between smiling and rolling her eyes. She was suddenly aware that the rain was lashing down on them, soaking them both to the skin. She smiled slightly, realising only now that he hadn't removed his hands from her waist.

She moved one hand down to his and said, "I'm no longer in danger of hitting the ground, Ric." Looking embarrassed, he moved his hand away and closed the shed, and they quickly walked inside. "I am absolutely soaked," she moaned in slight despair, shivering slightly in the cold and dark.

A frightened call of, "Who's there?!" came through the house, and Serena's heart sank. She had hoped her mother was going to be alright, but perhaps she wasn't.

Serena pulled off her wellies and proceeded forward with little fear, having grown accustomed to this sort of incident in recent weeks. She reached Adrienne, who was standing in the hallway, and said, "It's just me. It's OK. It's just me and Ric."

But Adrienne's expression told her that she wasn't convinced. "Get out of my house!" ordered Adrienne, reaching out to push Serena away; Serena caught her by the wrists. "Let me go!"

"Mum!" Serena firmly said. "Mum, it's me. Serena. Your daughter." Adrienne's face dawned an expression of calm, and Serena cautiously released her mother, looking sadly down at the woman who had raised her. "OK?"

"Rena, darling, you're drenched," was Adrienne's reply. "Upstairs and get changed before you get sniffles." Serena sighed and smiled slightly at her mother. "Take Ric with you. Perhaps some of Edward's old clothes were left behind." Serena winced at the mention of her ex-husband, and the reminder that he was too much of a mess to come over and pick up the few items of clothing he had left behind.

By torchlight she made her way up the stairs, hearing Ric at her back. She had known he would have been listening to them. She was silent, trying to keep her thoughts to herself because she knew it was more stressful to speak her mind. She found a clean pair of pyjamas to fit Ric, and she watched him go to the bathroom. She peeled her own shirt off, feeling it sticking to her skin, and she suddenly felt so helpless.

She felt the weight of her mother, of her daughter, of her ex-husband, of her career, of Guy bloody Self, of everything she knew, on her chest, crushing her heart. She was crushed to the ground, in pain and exhausted. Every step forward was unpleasant and heavy; she didn't know how much longer she could deal with this. Her mother was draining every ounce of energy from her. She hated feeling so selfish for being so tired of it all, but she really was. She couldn't keep going like this – she was going to crash and burn soon.

So when she stood up, it was on autopilot that she changed into pyjamas. It was autopilot that she threw the wet clothes into the laundry basket. She had stopped thinking about what she was doing a long time ago now, doing what needed to be done.

"Serena, are you OK?" asked Ric. She startled slightly; she hadn't heard him come through the door. "You look...well, you don't look great."

"Oh, thanks," she sarcastically replied. "Torchlight never was very flattering though."

"No, it's more than that," he insisted. She wished he wouldn't highlight how she was feeling. She needed to focus on keeping Adrienne calm; she was bound to become agitated tonight. "When was the last time you had a decent night's sleep?" She shrugged her shoulders and searched the floor for her slippers, having long lost track of her sleeping and eating patterns. She ate and slept when she got the time – when all was quiet. Things were not easy. Harder than she had imagined, in fact, but she felt duty bound to care for her mother, to return the favour of being raised so lovingly as a child. "Are you coping?"

It wasn't a subjective question. It wasn't one she could wriggle out of with semantics. It wasn't "How are you coping?" It was the blunt question of whether or not she was coping, not how well she was doing so.

"Yeah, we're fine," she replied. "Absolutely fine," she reaffirmed, pushing her feet into her slippers with more force than was strictly necessary. But even in the dim light available to them, she saw Ric remained unconvinced and alarmed by what he was witnessing. The walls she had built grew weaker every day and were in danger of crumbling completely. "She's just...it's like she's just not my mum anymore."

Ric reached out and placed his hand on her arm. Serena looked at where he touched her; she had missed his gentleness while her life had taken her into a whirlwind with no warning at all. "It must be difficult," he sighed. "But I'm here for you. You should have called me."

"You had your own problems."

"I would have made time for you. I will make time for you."

She looked up from his hand to see his face, and she was hit suddenly by the sincerity of what he was saying to her. She closed her eyes and told him, "You've seen how she's getting, Ric. She's hit me, she's kicked me, she's pushed me, she's hurled verbal abuse at me...and she doesn't remember it, seconds later."

When she opened her eyes, she saw an expression of horror on his face.

A call from downstairs made her jump. "Serena!" shouted Adrienne. Serena sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in exhausted frustration. "Serena, quickly!"

Serena grabbed the torch and they hurtled down the stairs as fast as they could, hearing the panic in Adrienne's shout.

When they got to the living room, Serena was shocked to find a smaller but growing blaze burning hot and bright at the window – the curtain had caught fire. Immediately Ric picked up a blanket from the sofa and started trying to batter it down, and Serena ran to the kitchen and filled the first vessel she found, the mop bucket with water. It seemed to take an age to fill, and she began to inwardly panic as she heard Ric loudly order her mother back away from the flames.

She took the bucket without even turning the tap off, throwing it about the flames and the heat. It extinguished immediately, and an extreme relief fell over her. "How could you be so stupid?! Why on Earth did you have flames anywhere near the curtains?!" Serena demanded. Her voice came out in a panicked shout, and she saw instantly that she was frightening her mother. "You could have got hurt, Mum!"

"I'm sorry!" she shrieked back at Serena.

Serena closed her eyes once more and counted silently to ten, breathing deeply. "It's OK," she said when she opened her eyes. "It's OK, Mum. Accidents happen," she smiled. "I'm going to get a towel and mop up some of that water. Just...just keep the candles away from the soft furnishings, alright?"

She picked up the empty bucket and dumped it on the floor in the corner of the kitchen, and leaned down to take a towel from the clean washing basket. She could hear Ric quietly comforting Adrienne, easing her mind about that particular trauma. It dawned on Serena that her mother could have burned the house down. By leaving her alone for a short length of time, Serena had just put all three of their lives at risk.

The scent of burnt cloth was making her feel slightly ill, and she was realising this wasn't right. She couldn't cope with this, could she? It was chaos, madness. She had the overwhelming urge to walk out that door and never come back. She was terrified of what was coming. Her storm was only just beginning, and if she let this go on, she might not survive it. It felt like everything was trying to kill her, that the Earth and moon were conspiring just to make her life hell.

Serena returned to the living room to find Adrienne perfectly calm on the sofa, chatting away to Ric like nothing had happened. And in Adrienne's mind, it was probably true. Serena removed a photo of her, her mother and her father, taken many years ago, from the window sill, along with two ornaments, and mopped up the pool of water gathering on the varnished wood. She shined the torch down and assessed the mess on the floor and the damage to the blackened wall and burned curtains. Fortunately, the fire had only reached about a foot up the curtain from the extinguished candle on the little table beneath the window. Adrienne must have been at the window by candlelight and set the candle on the table.

She sighed and got down on her knees to soak the water from the wooden floor into the towel. It was a large pool of water, so she asked, "Would you get me another couple of towels from the kitchen, please, Ric?"

"Sure," he answered, and she heard him leave the room.

Serena continued to soak water into the towel she had in her hands, and Adrienne spoke behind her. "Oh, my goodness! What happened to the curtains?!"

Hope this is OK!
Please feel free to leave me a review and tell me what you think!
Sarah x