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Lucy woke up from her slumber hearing low level murmurs from downstairs. Surely the Vic wasn't open already?

But then she could hear slightly raised voices and some grunts of pain as well so she couldn't help but tiptoe downstairs to investigate.

If it wasn't for the fact her dad was laying on one of the tables with a bloody wound, she would have laughed at the odd sight. Her mother was gripping Mick's hand and on the other side of him seemed to be a wise woman with a notable fur hat. She hadn't yet noticed Shirley behind the bar and the other man in the room.

"Mum, what's happening?" Lucy said worriedly, all the adults turned to her, none of them had heard her arrival. Linda wanted to reach out to her and make sure she wasn't scared but there was no way she could leave Mick's side. Instead, she tried to offer a reassuring smile but it came across more like a grimace.

Thinking that wasn't enough,
"Luce it's alright," Linda then said, hoping that would help soothe her daughter as she didn't move away from her spot.

As Mick moved to see his daughter, the woman scolded him gently,
"Try not to move, you try and lie still, I'll be as quick as I can."

"I don't know who you are, but thank you," Mick panted as he tried to ignore the pain from his gunshot.

"Who are you?" Lucy asked the woman in front of her, wanting to know where she appeared from and how she knew what to do to help her dad.

"My name is Mariam, I used to be a nurse, so don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Mariam said, as if she knew all of the questions that were floating around Lucy's head.

Lucy simply nodded in response, naturally relaxing when Shirley wrapped an arm around her in comfort after bringing over a brandy for Mick.

"Is that little Lucy?" a voice said confusing the girl, how had she not noticed him?

She turned to see a man with a tampon in his nose and that increased the bewilderment in the air even more.

"Last time I saw you, you were this high," he fondly said with a grin, hand gesturing to his waist height.

And then it clicked.

"Oh you were Lee's mate weren't you?" Lucy remembered the guy. The last time she had seen him she was 5, when he must have been around 15 years old at the time.

"Used to babysit you when Lee was stuck inside looking after ya," he said, a pleasant smile still on his face as he didn't realise how it sounded.

"Well I try not to burden people but yes," Lucy said, turning back round to focus on her dad.

"Now's not the time for reunions, halfwit," Shirley spat, stressed about her son's health.

"I need to clean the wound," Mariam said.

"What do you need?" Shirley asks, genuinely trying to be helpful.

"Medicinal alcohol."

"This is a pub love, not a chemist!"

"Shirley!" Linda reprimands her mother in law.

"Whiskey," Mariam insists, not even getting annoyed at the other lady's attitude.

"Is that door locked?" Shirley suddenly says.

Lucy's eyes go wide. She hadn't even thought about it, the police sirens outside had become background noise.

She rushed to the further set of doors as her mum got to the first and almost in sync they had turned the lock on the doors. Letting out a sigh of relief, they returned to the table Mick was sat at.

"Dad you're gonna be ok," Lucy said trying to offer some comfort. Mick tried to smile in response as he writhed in pain from his position laid on the table.

Eventually the alcohol seemed to have kicked in, and Mick was sat up now with a partially bandaged arm. This allowed him to see the state of Halfway.

"Serves you right," Mick smirks to himself.

"Well you had a balaclava on," Halfway jokes around as if that was such a casual thing.

Lucy raised her eyebrows in shock. What had her dad been involved in where he was wearing a balaclava?

"Since when did you do guns?" Mick asked Halfway.

"Wait, you shot him?" Lucy turned to her brother's childhood friend shocked.

Halfway sighed,
"It wasn't on purpose. Anyways I could say the same."

So her dad must have been holding onto a weapon as well, that made her feel really safe. For her dad to hold onto a gun it must have been some sort of incredibly serious situation.

"I heard you was in the army. Meant to be calm under pressure," Mick pointed out.

"Yeah, catering, not special forces," the man grinned.

"Well, you look special now," Mick laughed, which caused Lucy to chuckle out loud because Callum Highway did indeed, look special in his own way.

Her laugh was cut off by the sound of Mick's yells as Mariam came up behind him and poured some Whiskey over the wound.

Her concerned eyes couldn't look away as she watched her mum grip onto him to try and calm him.

Thinking back on the sirens she heard earlier, Lucy tried to quieten her dad,
"Dad, dad, shhhh, quick!"

Linda caught on,
"Mick, Mick, you have to be quiet" she said as she muffled his yells of searing pain with her hand over his mouth.

The six of them, with baited breath, stared at the blue shimmers from the police car shining across the front door. If they managed to get in, if the locks hadn't been done, it could have been a disaster. Fortunately, the shines of the torches that had appeared soon went away.

"I think they're going," Shirley who had stepped closer to the door, said.

"I have to pack the wound in the correct way so it doesn't heal over and create a cavity," Mariam said after instructing someone to give her the bandages.

"You sound like a proper nurse," Halfway commented, and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"She already said that, keep up," she joked with him, trying to create a more bright atmosphere. It was, shock horror, quite difficult to do when there was someone victim to a gun injury being treated right in front of you.

"Here, drink some more," Linda held the bottle up to Mick.

"Needle please," Mariam said to Shirley.

Lucy winced, just looking at the needle made her imagine the sharp stabs to her skin.

"First three days there will be inflammation, loss of movement. You have to take him to the hospital at some point. Keep him hydrated, no alcohol."

"Oh, it stopped," Halfway smiled gleefully, holding the tampon by the string and let it dangle in front of his face. Lucy looked at him as if to say 'great timing!'.

And he gave her a sheepish grin in response.

"I'm sorry, Mick, I'll make it up to you, promise," Halfway said apologetically.

Lucy hoped it would be in the kitchen and not near any guns again.

"Right, this might hurt," Mariam warned, and continued to treat the wound.

Lucy was thankful Mariam was there and dreaded to think what could have happened without her presence. Now what she wanted to know was how her dad got into this situation in the first place.