Alyssa's PoV

Another Olivia? I wasn't trying to become her or mirror her or whatever he was thinking. I was just being me, genuine me, the one that clearly couldn't do very well for herself.

"Luke, I'm not trying to be Olivia. She's one of a kind, I'm just being me." I voiced my thoughts, glancing over to Ashton who simply seemed to shrug. He had no idea what I could say to help, and I didn't quite know what to say to an accusation like that.

"She was friends with all my friends, she'd give a limb for them. She helped us all out of so many predicaments and you're doing the same thing. You're weaselling your way in." He grabbed the fake vodka bottle and poured another glass, drinking it down quickly like a shot. "I knew I shouldn't have let my walls down but Kira seemed so happy."

"She is happy Luke, genuinely happy. You know as well as I do that you can't fake a child's emotions. They'll tell you to your face if something is disgusting or if they're bored. They won't pretend." I ignored the part about me being like Olivia and continued to move the subject along, hoping we'd finally get to a point where he'd be willing to agree to go to bed. So far, we'd just had an up and down conversation.

"Kira needs more than me and I know it. She needs her mum and I can't bring her back. I'm a failure. I thought I'd got rid of Ivy but she's found her way here too. I couldn't even get Kira's first day at school right. I can't argue with her and get her dressed, I can't do her hair how she wants it. Tomorrow I have to sit and feel such pain while Kira wants to play and be a normal kid. The whole thing fucking sucks." Luke's head was in his hands within a second. He let out a shaky sigh as i moved closer to him and pulled him into my chest for a hug. At first he straightened, hesitating as he lowered his hands from his face a little, but after a second he gratefully accepted it and flung his arms around me, burying his head in the crook of my neck.

"It's okay, Luke. Things get hard and you wish the other parent was there to help with the things you can't do but in truth you're doing most of it already. You're two parents in one. Now Kira may miss having a female figure around but it doesn't need to be her mum, it can be aunties, family friends, your mum. She just needs to have that connection with other women." I said softly as I stroked his hair almost as if I was comforting Cody. Luke sniffled a little but nodded, his head remaining on me.

"Luke, you really need to rest now. It's getting late and-" Ashton began but he was quickly interrupted.

"Daddy?" Kira was at the door. She gasped in surprise as she laid eyes on me and Ashton. "Uncle Ash! Lys!" She ran over and threw her arms around Luke and I first, then ran to a Ashton for her cuddle.

"Kira hunny what are you doing down here?" Ashton bent down to her level and she pulled Luke's phone out of her pocket. It was beeping with an alarm. Ashton quickly checked the phone, seemingly knowing the password, and noticed something on there that made him panic. I could see it wash over his face before he tried to settle it back down to neutral. "What do we all say to a late night snack trip, huh?" He looked over to me and nodded towards the door.

"All of us?" I double checked and he nodded urgently. Without a second of hesitation, I pulled Luke to his feet as I mumbled an apology, draping his arm over my shoulder to try and make it look as best I could with Kira beside us. "Come on, sleepyhead." I said to cover it as I noticed Kira's eyes on us. Quickly she took Ashton's hand and he rushed us out of the house, locking it up with a coded alarm and a key before we all entered the car and he sped out of a back entrance. He glanced back in his rear view mirror, just as Luke kept doing when he thought we were followed, and I quickly came to the assumption the phone alarm had notified him of Ivy. I didn't mention anything whilst we were in the car, I just put my faith in Ashton. He kept his promise and pulled into a drive thru donut place, ordered a dozen mixed flavours and then began the drive back in the direction of my place. Before long, it was pitch black outside and both Luke and Kira had fallen asleep. Kira had the box of donuts in her lap in the front seat, her head resting against the window and steaming it up. Luke's head was resting on my shoulder.

"Are you taking them all back to mine?" I quizzed quietly, trying my best not to wake them after a troublesome afternoon.

"Yeah, I'll explain when we get there." He said shortly, almost like he did when we were heading to Luke's in the first place - That worried, stressed out look was back.

"Is it Ivy?" I probed, hoping he wouldn't shout at me. He simply sighed heavily which answered my question before any words had come out.

"The alarm was signalling someone at the gate. It's got cctv that scans and recognises rough body shapes and sizes, we programmed it to recognise certain people - us guys and Kira - and recognise one unidentified person as long as they were with someone it knew. Does that make sense?" I nodded even though he couldn't see me.

"So it recognises your friendship group and it wouldn't set the alarm off if, for example, I was at the gate with you or Luke or whoever." I double checked. It was his turn to nod.

"Right, exactly. It's also key-carded, as you know, but if you lose it you can type in a passcode. That had been entered wrong and it's picked up a body it didn't recognise so it sent an alarm to Luke's phone. It looked like Ivy." I slumped back into the chair like the wind had been knocked out of me.

"Impossible." I breathed. "How on earth did she find the place?" Ashton shrugged.

"That's my next thing to find out, but right now we need security. Your place is inconspicuous and there would be enough of us there to sort out any issue should it arise." I stared at the back of his head, dumbfounded.

"Ashton, I live in a two bedroom maisonette. It's not meant to house four adults and two children." From the person who never had anyone found, suddenly Cody and I were going to be entertaining a group of people for literally the first time.

"There's not really another option." Ashton said, frustration lacing his tone. Clearly the pressure was getting to him. I had to just give in this one time.

"Oh no, it's fine I wasn't disagreeing. It's just I feel bad as people will be sleeping on the floor or in a chair." I tried to cover it up smoothly as Ashton turned into my road. He looked at me for the first time in the rear view mirror.

"Good, thank you. Mike's on his way too."