"I'm looking for Abigail Branning? Is she here?"
"No," Louise snared, beginning to shut the front door of the Mitchell's home.
The woman put her hand out to stop her. "The address I have for her is here."
"Yeah, well she doesn't live here anymore."
"Then do you have an address for her?"
"She's not our problem anymore."
"Louise?" a male voice came down the stairs. "Who is it?"
"I don't know," she shrugged. "Some middle aged woman looking for your psycho ex-girlfriend."
"Do you know where she is?" the speaker asked, taking a step past Louise.
"Excuse me, you can't just come in here-"
"Shut up, Louise," Ben interrupted. "Who's looking for her?"
"I'm her social worker."
"Social worker?" Ben repeated. "Why does she need a social worker for?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, its confidential. But if you could give me an address for her I'd be grateful."
"Of course," Ben replied, scribbling Dot's address down on the back of a used envelope. "Here you go."
"Thank you." The social worker turned to leave.
"She's okay, isn't she? Abi, I mean. She's not in any trouble."
She shook her head. "Of course she isn't. Everything is fine, I just need to have a quick word with her. Thanks for your help."
Ben nodded and closed the door behind her.
"Why are you helping her for?" Louise questioned.
"What?"
"Abi, why are you helping her?"
"I'm not helping her."
"But you gave-"
"It was an address, Louise. What difference does it make?"
"After what she done to you, I wouldn't have anything to do with her."
"Well you don't have to, do you? And stop trying to make out she's a bad person."
"She is! She-"
"I know what she done, Louise, but you don't know her."
"I don't have to."
"Abi is a good person, and she doesn't need aggro of you so just leave it alone, yeah?"

Abi's social worker had been waiting at the door for almost 5 minutes now and she was about to give up when an elder lady with red hair answered.
"Sorry, dear, I was just up in the bathroom. I didn't even hear the door go."
"That's alright," she smiled. "I was wondering if you could help me."
"Of course. What can I do for you?"
"I'm looking for Abigail Branning. I was told she lived here."
"She does but she's at work right now."
"Do you have any idea what time she'll be home?"
"Not until later. Six or seven o'clock she said."
Abi's social worker looked at her watch. It was only now coming up to ten. It would be ages until Abi got home and she had to travel back up to Manchester for work tomorrow.
"Here," she said, taking something out of her bag. "This is my card. Could you pass it on to her? My name is on there, she'll know who I am."
Dot nodded and smiled. "Of course I will. I'll get her to ring as soon as she gets in."
"Great, thank you!"

"Alright bruv?" Ben asked walking into Billy's house.
Jay nodded but he looked far from alright. He'd been having a shitty time since the news about Linzi had come out and everywhere he went he had people shutting at him, calling him a pervert and paedophile. Anyone who knew Jay knew he was nothing of the sort but others didn't take too kindly to things like that.
"I bought you a bacon butty," Ben said, handing it over. "Any luck on the job front?"
Jay shook his head. "Nobody wants to employ somebody who's on the sex offenders list."
"I'm sorry about dad. I've tried to talk to him but-"
"Don't bother. I don't want to work for somebody who thinks I'm capable of that. You know I'd never go near Louise. I was in a relationship anyway. I'd never even think about trying it on with another girl."
"And I also know what Louise is like. She's a massive flirt. It doesn't surprise me that she'd try to kiss you. Anyway, you don't have to worry about that. She's got her eye on some new boy. Kush's brother apparently."
Jay nodded but Ben could tell her wasn't really listening.
"Something will come up. Why don't I try talking to Pam? I'm her favourite person right now."
"Well I'm glad you are."
"I thought she was more than happy to have you work for her."
"So did I."
"Then what happened?"
Jay shrugged. "Budget cuts or something."
"Well there must be somebody else round here you could ask."
"Like who? Everybody's about to lose their jobs anyway now that Ian's decided to sell up."
"What about Jack?"
"What about him?"
"I'm sure they've got some work need doing on the construction site."
"I'm not qualified, am I?"
"But I'm sure he'll make an acceptation. Now he's with Ronnie you're basically family."
Jay pulled a face. "Family? The Mitchell's don't care about me."
"Well, you could ask Abi. She could have a word with him."
"I haven't even spoken to her for weeks. It won't look great if I suddenly start to ask her a favour."
"It's Abi. She won't mind."
Jay shrugged. "Maybe."
"Speaking of Abi, some woman was round earlier looking for her."
"Yeah? Who?"
"She said she was a social worker. Do you know anything about that?2
"Social worker? Why would Abi need a social worker?"
"That's what I thought."
"You don't think she's in some sort of trouble with you."
Ben shrugged. "Who knows? You can never tell with Abi."

Abi sighed as she slunk down on the sofa at Dot's. She'd just done a ten hour shift and tired was certainly an understatement. She was happy she'd been able to get a job at the bets but she didn't want to be a receptionist. Sitting around at a desk answering telephone calls all day was certainly not what she wanted to spend the rest of her life doing.
"Abi?" Dot called. "Is that you?"
"Yeah. I'm in here."
She waited until Dot came into the living room before she spoke again.
"Sorry I'm back so late. We were short staffed today and it was a nightmare. Who knew so many hamsters could get pregnant?"
Dot chuckled and sat down next to her.
"Somebody came round for you today."
Abi frowned. "Who?"
"I didn't catch her name. She said you'd know who she was."
She handed Abi the card which had her name and number on it. Stella Smith, it read.
Abi recognised the name straight away and her blood ran cold. It had been a long time since she had spoken to Stella and the thought of it made her feel sick. Something bad must have happened for Stella to get into contact with her.
"Did she say what she wanted?" Abi asked. Her voice shook slightly as she spoke but Dot didn't seem to notice.
"No, she didn't. She just asked if you could ring her. Is something the matter?"
"No," Abi forced a smile. "No, everything is fine."
Dot smiled.
"I better give her a call," Abi said pulling her mobile out of her back pocket and standing up. "I'll be back in a minute."
She took the stairs two at a time, dialing the number as she went and pressed call as she reached her room. Abi paced the room as the phone rang and then decided to sit on the edge of the bed to stop herself being jittery.
"Hello?"
"Stella, hi. It's Abi Branning. What's going on?"

Hi everybody! Welcome back to a new fanfic. I'm really excited about this story as it's a little bit different from my other average Abi and Jay love story and I hope you'll like it too. Let me know what you think by review, following and favouriting :)