Hello folks. Here we are! May not post tomorrow as I have a wedding to go to and therefore some wine to drink so may be Saturday before I pick things up again. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this chapter and keep enjoying and reading! Some big chapters to come.

Jesus waited to hear any sign of Mariana leaving her room. She had managed to successful disappear after dinner when he was distracted him and had been with Callie ever since.

As soon as he heard one of them emerge he ran out and was relieved to see it was Mariana.

"We need to talk." he scampered after her as she tried to jog down the stairs.

"Here? You kidding?" she asked, trying to get away.

She caught a glimpse of Stef and Lena still in the kitchen.

"In here then." he dragged her into the dining room.

"Mariana...you have to stop talking to her."

"I can't. I can't get her to leave me alone." she whimpered. "Say I told you so or whatever but -"

"Mariana, I don't want to gloat. I just want her out of our lives. I think you need to tell Moms." he whispered.

"No!" she snapped back immediately, her own whisper with a much harsher core.

"Look I'll get her to back off. When she knows there's no more money. For sure - I guess I just have to stop avoiding her and make it clear." he saw the fear in her eyes and it was that same look that had already got him involved in this in the first place.

"I'll go with you." he said.

"I don't want to suck you in too, Jesus."

"Mariana." he gripped her arms gently. "I'm already involved. Just please, let me help you this time."

She eventually nodded gently, she was desperate and couldn't deny that some moral support was deeply missed.

"I was gonna go tomorrow...I have the address..." she replied quietly.

"Then I'll come with you -"

"What are you two whispering about?" both teens snapped their heads up at the sound of Stef's voice.

As they struggled to think of an answer they were saved by another arrival. Jude and Kasey returning. They both sighed with relief as Stef was instantly distracted.

"Five minutes to spare. Well done Jude, you saved her more trouble."

"I thought you said you weren't in that much trouble?" He turned to his foster sister.

She threw him a look as Stef raised her eyebrows. She blew out a nervous laugh and put her hands on Jude's shoulders.

"I've gotta finish my homework." Mariana commented in the silence, quickly making her move. Jesus watched her for some conclusion to their conversation. She gave him a clear nod and he finally zoned back to whatever dialogue was taking place around him. .

"So you guys sort things out?" Stef asked as Kasey looked down for Jude's approval.

"I guess." he replied, sweetly, though still with an ounce of unease. "I still need to finish my homework though. Thank you for dinner..." he turned nervously to Kasey.

"There's an apple tart for you..." Stef offered as he scurried towards the stairs.

"I'm pretty full, but thank you." he replied before fully disappearing.

"What is wrong with you kids?"Stef mumbled to herself. "Do you want one?" she asked Kasey.

"I thought I was banned from the sacred taste of all apple based pastries?" she challenged.

"You are but I made way too many." she sighed.

"I'm good. I don't even like them Mom."

"Pfft! Then I should make you eat one!" Stef squinted menacingly with a tired glaze as Kasey shook her head. "Jesus?"

"Mom, I had three..."

He groaned before running up the stairs as Stef watched him go, a comment on her lips, before she flashed back to Kasey.

"Anyway. I'm home. Thank you for letting me fix things." She smiled gratefully. She headed towards the door but Stef called her back.

"Wait, wait - did you fix things then?"

"I guess." Kasey shrugged. "I talked. Jude talked. We both listened and he kind of forgave me."

"Well I'm glad. Hopefully that will have made you realise a little more what you did wrong."

"We went through all that. I told you I did."

"Kasey, saying the right things to get a favour out of us doesn't mean you got the message." Kasey looked round at her Mom confused.

"I wasn't just saying the right things -" she protested, flustered

"Really?" Stef replied, laced with cynicism and a look to clearly show she wasn't fooling anyone.

Kasey's shoulders dropped down.

"If you knew all along why d'you let me go?" she finally asked knowing the jig was up.

"Because as much as I dislike your method I can't fault your intentions. Plus, I knew Jude would knock some sense into you, more than we could anyway."

Kasey's face lit up. "So that's the end of my punishment then?" she asked earnestly as Stef laughed.

"In your dreams. You're still in a world of trouble." she informed her as Kasey's face dropped back down. She gave her a delicate smile, taking advantage of the reduced tension and thinking back to the conversation she and Lena had had. She wasn't expecting anything tonight but wanted to make sure the groundwork was there.

"But listen, you know you can come and talk to me right...if there's anything on your mind?"

Kasey bit down on her lip. All of the conflicting thoughts about her Dad swimming through. Right now she couldn't figure any of it out but the one thing she was sure of was that she didn't want to lose what she did have - and right now, that was her control over her secrets. "I do." She finally replied. "But there isn't."

Stef sighed deeply, knowing there was still some distance to go.

"OK." She replied, cupping her cheek. "Now you go off radar for bit...as in my trouble radar. Not my actual knowing where you are radar...obviously." She confirmed, jumbling her words to try and clarify. Kasey gave a small eye-roll and nodded, making her way to her room.

With the events of the day before, Jude couldn't be more relieved to see Connor appear the next morning. Everything seemed easier when Connor was around.

"You're back!" he beamed. "You feeling better?"

"Yeah, just needed a day to shake it off. My Mom's really good with home recipes. Did I miss much?"

Jude looked down, wondering whether he wanted to tell him or not.

"Not really." he went for the not as Connor switched topic in his quickfire way. Jude was more concerned with the sight of Blake and his parents emerging from the school doors. There was no sign of Kasey but he imagined she had gone out the other way to her own section of the school.

Connor eventually saw what it was that had caught Jude's attention.

"You nervous about Blake?" He asked.

Jude looked down at the table. He may not have been sure if he wanted to tell Connor but he was also a terrible liar.

"Has he been picking on you again?" Connor asked.

Jude finally looked up to his friend and took a deep breath.

"He tried to shove me in a locker -"

Connor's eyebrows drooped in fear.

"Did you tell someone?"

Jude paused, looking him up and down. He knew he would find out eventually so it may as well come from him.

"I didn't need to - Kasey came and shoved him in instead and then got in tons of trouble"

Connor's eyes exploded with awe.

"Kasey shoved Blake into a locker?! For real? That's amazing!" he smiled.

"Not really, Blake was really scared -"

Although Connor couldn't quite suppress his jubilation, he did know Jude well enough now to know why this would bother him.

"Jude though, I mean clearly he's OK. What happened to him isn't nearly as bad as what he does to people every day."

Although Jude knew that deep down, Connor had actually been the first person to say it to him so clearly. Kasey had been too busy apologising and no-one could really take the stance to defend her. He had refused Callie's attempts to talk about it so this was the first time he had considered it from the schoolkid point of view other than from that of his own guilt or the adult interpretation.

"I still don't like seeing people get hurt though." he responded, even if his responsibility was easing. "But I guess youre right."

"Did he cry?" Connor asked eagerly.

Jude shrugged. "Sorta. He was pretty scared and kinda begged her to stop."

Ever since he met Jude, Connor had always endeavoured to be as non-judgemental, but the idea of Blake getting served his own medicine was too appealing. He couldn't take his eyes off him now, seeing him in a new light. Another couple of kids had also overheard the conversation and were now looking over and whispering.

Blake caught the stares once his parents had gone and flashed his head down embarrassed. His instincts were engaging and he immediately was clenching his fists. His reputation had taken a hit and he had to repair it.

He stormed over to Connor who remained unmoved.

"What are you staring at?" he barked, Connor giving an unassuming shrug.

"You, I guess." Connor replied, nonchalant. There was no ulterior motive, but his usual desire to try and lie for protection seemed to be absent.

"What did you say?" Blake worked his voice up, trying his command. Infuriated further by Connor's additional shrug.

"Jude was just telling me about what happened yesterday so we were looking at you."

Blake looked next to Jude who also seemed completely unthreatened. Jesus had been completely right and his view was now completely warped. He had originally not been scared by Blake but the persistence Blake had in trying to break him had slowly worn at him down, mainly because of seeing the fear Connor displayed whenever he was around. Somehow the threat had been removed and he was able to find his own strength again.

"Blake, we're not really scared of you, so you're kinda wasting your time if you're trying to threaten us." he replied. He knew he should be scared. No-one was there to help him, as much as he would hate for that to happen again anyway, but he still had the image that Jesus had promised him in his mind. As much as he hated to see it, it was impossible not to now see the his armour as a complete front.

Blake was about to grab Jude before he caught a snippet of conversation.

"She made him cry apparently." Came from an adjacent table. And as he turned be saw some girls sniggering in a huddle.

He turned the other way and saw some boys. "I reckon he wet himself..."

He looked back to Connor and Jude, both staring blankly at him. "Did you tell people?"

"No. They may have heard us talking though." Connor shrugged again, once again the passiveness pushing Blake further over the edge.

Not able to stand it any longer, he swung around and cast himself off to another victim. They watched him go over to the table through the giggles and grab his target. Even he, after being grabbed his scruff of the neck, was eventually thrown down in frustration as he was unable to stop laughing leaving storming off all Blake was able to do.

"That was awesome!" Connor laughed at Jude who couldn't help but smile. "You think he'll try and get us for it?"

Jude shrugged, Jesus' words in his head. "Bullies generally work on fear. If noone is scared of him there's probably no point. He'd have to go pretty far to overcome this - and if he goes too far he'll probably get kicked out."

The bell rang and the two of them grabbed their things to get to class, both feeling more at ease and already onto the next topic of conversation.

As Connor rattled off his stories, Jude watched Blake again kicking a stone against the wall as his usual partner in crime, Jeremy, too blanked him. He suddenly felt a twinge of guilt but quickly tried to shake it away.

Mariana stormed ahead after leaving Ana's house. They hadn't had high hopes for the encounter in the first place, but now both were not only concerned about whether it would actually be the last they had to see of her, both had different ideas about whether they wanted that to be the case or not.

"Do you think she got the message?" Mariana asked nervously as Jesus caught her up. For some reason, he couldn't stop looking back at the house. He didn't know what he was looking for, but until they had finally made their way off Cornado Street he couldn't stop himself from checking it every few moments. "Jesus?" Mariana tried to grab his attention after her first attempt was ignored.

"You think she'll be in touch?" He asked her, still not processing that she had just asked him the same question.

"Are you listening to me at all?" She folded her arms. She was mildly irritated, but very quickly remembered that he had only just been introduced to the emotions she had had the time to process.

"I know it's hard seeing her like that." She added gently, making him look back to her.

"She's nothing like I remember." He replied, finally. "I mean, I can't say my memories are good - it's just, it's even more different."

Mariana sighed, studying the pain and confusion in his eyes. She thought about the waves she had gone through herself. The endless debate. This was all happening for him in a few minutes and she hadn't even seen the full extent of how bad it was until today. Jesus was coping with all of that at once.

"Thanks for coming with me." She smiled softly as he shrugged.

"I couldn't let you go alone." He avoided eye contact, his eyes firmly fixed on the floor beneath him. He wasn't mad at Mariana, it had been his choice, but he still couldn't help but resent that she had made him confront these feelings. Seeing the space he needed, they continued the walk home practically in silence.

Kasey sat perched on the sofa with her homework. She could hear her Dad's car pull up outside and nervously twitched at the curtain to see if he was going to attempt to come in. She knew that this had to end sooner or later but she hoped that it wouldn't be her who had to make the first move. Doing so would be like admitting she was accountable but she had every right to be angry at him for all of the things he had done.

She was so obsessed to watch him until he pulled away she barely noticed that Brandon had come into the house.

"You spying on us?" he asked curiously as she swung round, dropping the fabric back.

"No. Just wondering who it was." she shrugged looking back to her homework.

"Dad was asking about you, you know." he replied as Kasey paused.

"Well good, I am his daughter." she forced a smile. "But no doubt he was actually checking I was being punished." she added bitterly.

"You guys really have been at it recently, huh?"

"Wow, an amateur Mozart and observant." Kasey snipped back with a taunting smile. Brandon let it wash over him as something else played on his mind. His Dad had been off again today and his growing lethargy reminded him more and more of the day he had failed to pick him up for the audition. Kasey's recent actions had made him wonder whether it wasn't just in his head.

"I was thinking it seemed a little more than that. Like, it may be about something else."

Kasey gulped, trying to seem unmoved. "He's just been bugging me, that's all. We're butting heads. We'll get past it."

"OK, fair enough. I just wondered if you'd noticed a couple of things I had about him recently. Maybe if you know, if it reminded you of anything?"

"Like what?" she paused, a hint of frustration in her voice. Part of her longed to be able to consolidate with Brandon. They only really had each other where their dad was concerned after all, but at the same time it was just more confirmation.

"Well it's just, a couple of times it's felt a little like it was around the divorce, you know. Then you had all that stuff with him before about worrying he had a hole to fill and - " he stopped as Kasey became obviously uncomfortable. He decided to cut to the chase.

"Look, we both know he was drunk at the Quinceanera and he was really hungover when he got me for my audition. He was pretty late."

He didn't have to clarify it any further. Kasey and Brandon had their own secrets they shared, even if they hadn't been touched upon for a while. "That doesn't mean he's drinking again." she quickly replied, more a look of desperation than anger at the suggestion.

"Maybe not, but maybe if you'd noticed something too. Maybe it could help us figure out what it is. If so we should maybe tell Mom." He took up a seat next to her.

"We agreed never to tell Mom." She replied immediately as of he had broken a sacred oath. The instinct that came out in hearing it from Brandon made her realise part of her underlying discomfort. Had that dormant memory been the deeper reason she had kept stopping herself from telling Stef?

"When we were little, Kasey. This is a little different."

She paused to mull it over. It was different but that didn't mean the stakes weren't the same.

"He forgot to pick me up too. I think he was sleeping off a hangover as well." she finally admitted, the silence getting too much for the endless tug of war in her brain. "But look, so what if he is? He's an adult. He doesn't want us interfering so why should it be our problem."

"You? Not interfere with something?"

"Well maybe I don't want to this time." She bit back defensively. "Besides we're probably just being paranoid. Remember, it's not our responsibility. We weren't supposed to do anything. We didn't last time and he fixed it himself."

She could see that her brother wasn't quite convinced by her argument, and she wasn't even sure that she was either. She'd have to do better than that.

"If we've noticed something, Mom has too. It doesn't need to come from us. I don't want to...you know. I just don't want her to know we know." She said softly. "Besides, I don't want it to be a big deal." Her voice trailed off.

"I'm not gonna lie, Kasey." Brandon whispered softly back, shrugging his shoulders. "If there's something more to this Mom needs to know." he asserted as Kasey looked him pleadingly in the eye. They were interrupted by an appearing Lena who emerged folding her arms.

"Hey you two." She commented, the two teens quickly snapping out of their conference and ruffling whatever they could to hide the importance of their discussion.

"Hey Mom, I was just..." Brandon looked to Kasey and back at Lena. "Gotta practice." He smiled getting up and passing her, clearing his throat.

Kasey watched him leave before catching Lena's concerned eye.

"Homework." She croaked with her own smile before pacing quickly to the basement. Lena watched them both as they disappeared before her eyes. Even had she not heard the tail end of their conversation she would have been curious. Right now though she knew exactly what she had to do and the recipient was changing in their bedroom.

"Hey love! Good day?" Stef asked pulling her top on and giving her partner a broad smile.

Lena nodded, walking over for a kiss.

"Not bad. Better than yesterday anyway."

"Yeah!" Stef scoffed through a laugh. "Well at least we had no impromptu meetings."

Lena cleared her throat perching on the edge of the bed as Stef ran a brush through her hair.

"So..." Lena began, causing Stef to stop and turn. She knew that introduction.

"Oh God. That doesn't sound good." Stef sneered continuing her grooming.

"I was just downstairs and I happened to catch the end of a conversation between Brandon and Kasey."

Stef turned to her with raised eyebrows.

"Those two? Talking? That really can't be good. Let me guess...Mike?"

"I don't actually know but I would probably stake the house on it. I think you may be right about Kasey's concerns about him...and this seems like Brandon may agree. Sounds like they don't want you to know they're worried though."

"He really made some stupid mistakes at work today and I don't buy that it's just sleep deprivation. I guess this is just more confirmation." Stef put the brush down and pulled a face. "I still don't get why they wouldn't want me to know, though?"

"Let me re-phrase. I don't think Kasey wants you to know. I'm assuming she doesn't want anyone to know. You know what she's like about asking for help."

Stef sighed fluffing her hair through her fingers one last time.

"Well in that case, Brandon it is." She leaned forward and gave Lena a peck on the lips.

"Just - be discrete, OK?"

Stef smiled and rubbed a hand down Lena's arm with a reassuring squeeze. As she left, a darker look seized her face. She wasn't sure what she was about to uncover which made her fear the reality even more.

Next Chapter Preview: Brandon hits Stef with some home truths and Jesus gives Jude the confidence he needs to tackle his issues with Blake.

She licked her tongue over her lips trying to hold it all in. She was cast back to ten years younger, vulnerable and scared and felt as if she was in a premonition of the worst case scenario. She shook the thought out of her head trying to focus on the immediate issue before her.

"Brandon..." she croaked, trying to find the strength to articulate.

Somehow, knowing the worst of it was over and Brandon a new found strength to try and find his own confidence.

"Look Mom, it was a long time ago. There was a lot going oh and we didn't want to make things worse." She gulped down again and closed her eyes.