Life was cruel; there was no two ways about it. The people who didn't deserve the heart ache were submersed in it, whilst those who did seemed to wander the Earth happy, getting off scot-free it would seem. It was unfair in many ways, how some people never felt the pain that they seemed to be prone too. What had they done to deserve this? They'd been good hadn't they? They had an education, family, followed the law... that's what people did right? So why did life punish them so much?

Bitter. The perfect word to describe the frosty, freezing weather that was nipping at any exposed skin – not that there was much, the attire for a Scottish winter was very much warm, heavy jumpers, coats, hats, scarves and all the rest of the typical winter woollies. It didn't just describe the mood of the weather, it very much reflected the mood of Danny and indeed Alice.

It wasn't the fact they'd had to return to the United Kingdom due to Alice's brother being involved in a terrible car accident, nor the fact that either of the two outcomes meant a lot of pain and heartbreak. Alice would care for her brother as long as he needed her too and if the worse did happen, she'd deal with that also. It was the fact that everything terrible in the world seemed to land upon them. Her brother had been no saint but he didn't deserve this. It seemed it was always their family who bore the brunt of the evil world they lived in. It always appeared to be Danny and Alice who were split apart and both knew that time apart from inevitable if Rowan survived his trauma.

Danny squeezed Alice's hand as they walked along Cathedral Street towards Castle Street where the Glasgow Royal Infirmary was situated. They'd gotten off the train not long ago and the first place they were headed was to the hospital. Danny glanced down at his wife, she was quiet... too quiet.

"Alice?" Danny spoke softly, stopping for a moment.

"What?" Alice asked, also stopping, turning to face him.

"Are you... I would say ok but..." Danny let his voice trail off, "I just... you're quiet. You're ok walking?"

"We're nearly there." Alice told him running a hand over her bump, "And... I'm just... you know... why do bad things happen to us?"

"Life's a bitch." Danny sighed as the pair continued to walk forward through the busy streets of Glasgow. Alice nodded, usually she'd probably make some gesture of shock at her husband swearing. He wasn't foul mouthed in any way, shape or form. For him to swear was a shock but Alice understood. She felt the exact same way.

As they turned onto Castle Street, Alice took a deep breath. She hated this place, no detested it actually! It was a dark place... a place of loss, a place of death. This was the very place that had stolen her mother away from her, her Auntie, her Uncles. Danny feeling her tension wrapped his arm around her shoulders, holding her close to him. She immediately fell into his embrace, leaning on him, drawing strength from him.

It was only a short, brisk walk to the hospital. Standing outside of it, Alice shook her head. It hadn't changed one bit.

"You ready?" Danny asked her.

"Yeh... Just... I hope he's ok." Alice whispered as he led her in. People seemed to smile at the pair as they walked through to where the reception desk was. It was of course the Scottish way, everyone was so friendly but Alice couldn't return their smiles... these were not happy circumstances.

"Rowan Collins." Danny spoke up, "He had a car accident? Intensive care?"

"Who would you two be?" The young nurse asked, his short hair gelled to perfection.

"I'm his sister and he's my husband..." Alice continued, "I'm his next of kin."

"Ok..." The nurse smiled and turned, talking in a hushed tone to his colleague behind him, "This is Ella, she'll take you down to wear your brother is. Umm... and then Doctor Carter will talk to you about your brother's condition."

"Thanks." Alice smiled as the young nurse walked round to her and Danny.

"Hey." She smiled in a soft Glaswegian accent, "If you'd like to follow me, I'll take you down eh?"

"Thanks." Danny replied as he took Alice's hand. She took a shaky breath before tightening her grip on his hand, allowing him to lead her forward. Danny did so, gently encouraging her to follow him. She doubted she'd have got there without him... what state would her brother be in?

It didn't take them long to reach the intensive care unit. Both Danny and Alice shuddered at the intolerable sound of the machine's bleeping monotonously out of sync. The stench that assaulted their noses made them feel ill as memories plagued both their minds, darkly clouding them both in depression. Danny swore he could even taste that sterile, sickly atmosphere and all around him he felt nothing but death and devastation.

"Mr and Mrs Trevanion."

Both people turned to see Doctor Carter walking towards them. He was a short man, dressed smarty in a pink shirt and black trousers hidden by a waistcoat. He wore a stethoscope quite symbolically around his neck, very much in the way Alice liked to wear hers. A pair of glasses were perched upon his nose and there was no doubting his status as head of the unit with an impressive looking name badge.

"If you'd like to follow me." He smiled, the only thing out of place was his accent. The broad, northern brunt he spoke in seemed such a parallel to his outside appearance which practically screamed Oxbridge.

He led them all to a small, white box room. A bench sat at one of the room, a box of tissues situated quite neatly next to it. Across from that sat a chair and a very small table, a small first aid box was perched on top of it. Obviously for people who didn't deal with things too well Alice mused as Danny lowered her onto the seat. He sat beside her, holding her hand tightly, as his free arm wrapped around her. Both people focussed on the Doctor who had retrieved a clip board, his eyes scanning the paper before he rose his eyes once again.

"Rowan is in an unstable condition. The car accident was a head on collision and your brother wasn't wearing a seatbelt. He's suffered trauma to his head and we don't know yet whether this will lead to brain damage. He's also got a collapsed lung so he's needing quite a lot of help breathing, he's on life support for the time being but we're hopeful if we can get him a bit stronger that we might be able to take him off that. That'll be biggest thing. He's also got breaks to his right leg and arm and a lot of nasty cuts and bruises all over him. His ribcage took a lot of the impact and that too has a varied number of breaks and cracks. His body has currently shut down and he's in a coma."

"Do you think he'll be ok?" Danny asked softly, rubbing Alice's back as she wiped a couple of tears away from her eyes.

"It's impossible to say at this stage Mr Trevanion. We're doing everything we can though and myself, my staff and the hospital are here to support your family every step of the way." The doctor smiled, his northern accent becoming even more evident as he spoke with such genuine care.

"Can we go see him?" Alice croaked, biting her upper lip as she tried to blink the tears away.

"Aye... I'll take you through." The doctor smiled before standing up. Danny gave Alice a sympathetic look as they stood up, before gently leading her through the door. They followed the doctor through the sickly ward. Everyone seemed on death's door. One woman's machine began to bleep wildly before it flatlined. A group of doctors rushed forward but she was pronounced dead. Alice began to breath shakily as realisation hit home... that could be her brother. Danny quickly led her on, whispering in her ear anything he could to take her mind and eyes away from the woman.

"Here you go... now I must warn you... he looks a mess..." Dr Carter told them.

"We know... thank you Doctor." Danny smiled, shaking his hand as the doctor walked away. He looked down at Alice who seemed petrified of what lay around that corner. "Ready?"

Alice simply nodded, her breathing shallow, emotion was all built up. Danny slowly began to lead her forward. As soon as they rounded the corner, Rowan came into sight and almost immediately Alice whimpered, her hand flew to her mouth and tears began to fall.

"No..." She cried losing any control of herself, she didn't seem to notice she was falling to the floor. "No..." She cried once again as Danny wrapped his arms around her, steadying her and bringing her back up to her full height. She leant back into him, crying with pure shock and fear.

"Come on Alice... it's ok." Danny whispered, "Let's go say hello..."

Alice laboured breathing continued as Danny gently pushed her forward. She walked robotically to the side of his bed where she grabbed the rail. She looked down at her brother and gently ran her hand down his face before kissing his forehead gently.

"Oh Rowan... the things you do to see me eh?" Alice asked him softly, "You could... could have just called." She cried, in taking a deep, shaky breath. Danny felt tears in his own eyes, he couldn't believe how Rowan looked.

"Hey mate." Danny smiled softly, "You're going to pull through yeh?"

No reply came only the shrill sound of his life support machine bleeping away... telling everyone that it was keeping him alive. At that moment, neither Danny or Alice, believed anything else was.

A/N – SO SORRY FOR LACK OF UPDATES etc.

I'm just so uber duber busy! But here we go! New fic for you :) xx