"Where exactly have you been? You should have been home last night."

Nico looked up as soon as she walked through the door, seeing Patrick, not looking too impressed with his granddaughter.

"Well?"

"I ended up staying in the hospital. I fell asleep." Nico answered, moving toward the bathroom. "Now I need a shower, cause I smell like a hospital." She added.

"Nico!" Patrick stood, watching her head into the bathroom and he glared, although he knew he could never exert the same power over her that he once had. She was no longer scared of the weak old man he had become.

"What is with the shouting? You know I've just got Minnie down." Maxine walked from the bedroom, looking at him.

"Nico finally decided to show up."

"Well she must have been worried about Peri if she stayed out all night?" Maxine questioned.

"She wasn't with Peri, she'd stayed with Dylan. I told her he was bad news. He was in the back of a police van that crashed. That boy is nothing but trouble, and not good for her."

"It's not your relationship to control, Patrick. She has to make her own decisions, even if you think they're the wrong ones. Personally, I've always found him to be a sweet kid. And he's good to her." Maxine looked at him, leaving out the argument she'd witnessed the week previously. "Patrick I know you want to protect her, but she has to make her own judgements. She's not Sienna. She might look like her, but she's not her."

Patrick looked at her and sighed. "I just don't want her to make the same mistakes."

"She won't. She'll make her own. It's called growing up." Maxine smiled. "She's a smart kid. And for whatever reason, she's in love with the boy and there's nothing you can do to change that. If you try and get involved, try and come between them, she'll just go ahead and do it anyway." She walked over to him. "I know you want to prove you've changed, and that you won't hurt her. The best way you can prove that is to be there for her, she's a teenager, a teenage girl with a boyfriend and hormones all over the place. That's enough to scare me let alone a grown man." She joked.

Patrick smiled softly and nodded.

"You know I'm right. Just give her some space. Let her do what she wants. Cause she'll do it anyway."

Patrick nodded. "I have to go into the school, start setting things up for the school year."

"Why don't you get some of the year 11's in to help? It would be good to get the kids involved, especially with you at the head of this special needs unit." Maxine suggested.

He nodded once more. "Wouldn't hurt to give them a bit of responsibility." He reasoned. "I'll have a think about it." He walked out of the flat just as Nico left the bathroom and quickly walked to her room and shut the door to get changed.

Dylan had slowly got himself changed out of the hospital gown and, with the help of Lindsey, made his way to the maternity ward where Peri was being kept.

Peri looked as she heard movement by the door and she smiled, seeing Dylan stood there. "You're ok."

Dylan nodded. "Can't get rid of me that easily." He smirked.

She laughed quietly. "You look... Different without all the make up and..." She trailed off.

He nodded. "Well it's been a while since I was able to be myself."

She nodded. "Well at least you don't have to hide that anymore." She looked at him. "It's weird when you two don't talk. I'd have done something sooner, but I was a bit of a bitch to everyone."

He shrugged. "My mess up, I'll deal with it." He smiled and walked further into the room, looking at the baby in the cot beside her. "She's cute."

Peri nodded, though she couldn't bring herself to look at her. "Yeah I guess she is."

Dylan looked, noticing that something wasn't right. "Do you want this?" He sat at the end of the bed, looking at her, but kept the doorway in his peripheral vision.

She sighed and shrugged. "I don't know." She answered honestly. "I know before, I was gonna just get rid and nobody would know... Then I couldn't..." She looked down, finding her fingers in her lap more interesting.

He nodded, listening.

"I know by giving her to Angela, she's gonna have the best start. She's gonna have a family who love her, give her everything I couldn't."

Dylan noticed Tom by the door in the corner of his eye, but said nothing.

"Tom thinks I'm doing this cause I don't care... But the truth is, I do. Seeing her, holding her for the first time, I love her more than anything in this world... And that's why I have to do this... Because I know I won't cope... I know I'll end up hating her and I don't want that." Her voice cracked as she started to cry.

Dylan shot Tom a look unseen by Peri and he got up, hugging her.

Tom sighed quietly. He hadn't realised he was putting so much pressure on her to keep their baby. He'd been thinking of himself the entire time, something Jack warned him about, warned that if he carried on, he would lose her altogether.

"Tom loves you. He loves both of you. And yeah he goes about it the wrong way, but he wants you to give it a try." Dylan looked.

"That's just it. I don't want to. I don't want that risk. You hear about it all the time, mothers that can't cope, end up doing something stupid..."

"Is that what you're worried about? Peri I know you wouldn't hurt her, or yourself."

"I'm scared I will."

Dylan sighed heavily. "Tom if you don't get in here I'm dragging you in."

Peri looked up, wide eyed. "He heard that and you didn't tell me?"

"He needed to hear you being honest and get his head out his arse and actually listen to you." Dylan shrugged as Tom walked in. "You think it's weird me and Nico not talking? She was talking about locking you pair in a room to finally have it out. Now he knows he can stop being a selfish git."

Tom nodded. "I'm sorry, Peri."

She nodded, but said nothing as Dylan stepped back and Tom stood in his place.

She only half returned the hug Tom gave her. "I'm tired." She said.

Dylan nodded, taking the hint she wanted to be on her own. "I'll come see you later if you want? Nico would probably be back here by then."

She nodded again. "Yeah that would be ok."

He smiled and pulled Tom out with him.

"What if she doesn't forgive me?" Tom looked as they made their way back to the room Dylan was supposed to be in.

"Just give her time. I'm surprised she's let you get this far with what you've been doing." Dylan shrugged. "You just need to show her you care, that you want to listen to her and you want to be there."

"Like you, you mean?" Tom hadn't meant for the words to come out as childishly as they did, but he couldn't help feeling jealous that he'd got Peri to speak to him without so much as an argument.

Dylan sighed. "Look. She's your girlfriend, not mine. I'd rather have the nutcase than a hormonal mess." He smirked, then looked around to make sure Nico wasn't around to hear the comment.

Tom nodded. "You're right...sorry, mate."

Dylan shrugged. "Nothing to do with me. I ask, she talks, I listen. And I say what I think after. If you go talking over her, it's only gonna make her more annoyed."

Tom nodded again and they walked to the room in silence.