A.N.: So I know this ship has sunk (nooooo) and I don't actually expect anybody to read this fic, but I promised myself I would start posting on this site and I wouldn't feel right if I didn't upload the first fanfic I ever wrote. This was written before Brendan left (about 4 years ago now?) and has had very little editing since, but bear in mind the characters mentioned aren't all in Hollyoaks anymore and it made sense at the time.

Ste heard a knock at the door. A persistent knock at the door, followed by a high pitched voice and cooing sounds. It could only be one person. He ran to the door, throwing it open to stop the noise before it woke anybody up.

"Cheryl!" He whispered. She barged in without noticing his desperation for her to be quiet and started nattering on. Loudly.

"Ste, what have you done with my brother?! I haven't seen him since yesterday at the club! I love how you two are so loved up and want to spend so much time together, making up for lost time I assume. I mean it's my best friend and my brother, of course I'm happy for you! But you're keeping him all to yourself! I never see him! He doesn't answer my calls! And he's kind of needed, you know, at the club and stuff! Plus I need him too…" She broke off mid-sentence when she turned around and saw Ste standing in front of the door, arms crossed, with a blank expression on his face. He was annoyed at something, she could tell. "What's wrong?" she said, voice low.

He sighed and unfolded his arms; glad she was being relatively quiet. He opened his mouth to explain the situation when…

"Is it Brendan?! Is he hurt?!Oh my God, he's hurt, isn't he? Is he in hospital? If he isn't does he need to be? Where is he? Do you know where he is? Is he missing? Are you mad at him? Have you had a fight? Am I going to have to choose between my best friend and my brother? I can't do that! Or is it the kids? Are they ok? Is it Amy? Is it you?" Her eyes were wide and panicked.

Ste stared at her, willing her with his mind to be quiet. He loved Cheryl, he did, she was like his sister. But she had such a big mouth! At this rate, she wouldn't just wake the rest of the house up, the whole of Chester would now think something bad had happened. He'd only be half surprised if he received a call from Amy in Africa worrying that he or the kids were hurt.

He wandered over to the kitchen and put the kettle on, making two cups of tea, and waited until Cheryl had run out of steam. She was still panicking but at least it was at a low decibel level. She looked at him for an explanation, so he gestured for her to sit on the sofa, brought the teas over and sat down next to her.

"Nothing's wrong," he started to say quietly, and then when he realised she was about to start the onslaught of noise again he quickly went on, "BUT you really need to be quiet." This time she noticed his desperation, and he could see her breathing deeply and concentrating to keep her voice down.

"What's happened?" She asked.

Ste sighed. He had to be careful with what he said. "It's nothing really. Nothing drastic."

"You seem upset. Has Brendan said something? Do I need to talk to him?"

"No." Cheryl glared at him. No way was she letting this go.

"I'll kill him," She hissed, her eyes darkening. Uh oh. Her noise level was rising again. "What has he done to you this time? I swear if he's hurt you again…"

"No, no, nothing like that!" Ste said quickly, before it got out of hand. Cheryl blinked with a look of confusion and annoyance.

"Then what?" Ste sighed again. He had to tell her. Brendan was her brother. She had a right to know, even if he didn't want her too.

"He's sick." He whispered. Cheryl blinked at him again. This time the annoyance was gone, but the confusion remained.

"Is that it?" She started to smile. "He's sick?"

It was Ste that was now blinking in confusion. Why was she smiling? He nodded and the smile became a great big grin.

"You made it sound like he was dying! What happened? He was fine yesterday."

Ste stared at her. She was teasing him. Why? Somehow she didn't seem that phased by her brother's illness. Oh well. At least she was keeping the noise down.

"Um, I got a call from Leah's school day before yesterday," he croaked. He hadn't spoken all day in fear of waking a sleeping Brendan. He took a sip of his tea and cleared his throat. "She threw up in maths class."

He heard Cheryl mumble "Who could blame her?" under her breath but ignored it and continued.

"Turns out there's a bug going around. Half her class have got it and I had to bring her home." He took another sip of his tea. Cheryl smiled at him in encouragement and he let his shoulders slump a little. "I'm exhausted! Yesterday I was running around trying to look after Leah- she couldn't go into school because she'd been throwing up all night and hadn't slept a wink-and had to arrange for someone to take Lucas to nursery because I needed to stay with Leah. Once Barney, yes Barney, turned up to take him, he wouldn't move because he didn't want a 'strange man' to take him to school and clung to the doorpost in protest. It took me and Barney ten minutes to get him to move, and that's because we bribed him with jam! He's picked up the jam thing from Brendan, you know. The whole day was spent with Leah throwing up, sniffling, crying, coughing, and I couldn't keep up! Then, when Lucas got home, he refused to go near Leah because someone at nursery had told him that a bug was a monster that ate your brains so I then had to run around the house to keep them both happy. Just when I thought Lucas was happy, I'd find Leah throwing up, and when Leah settled down, Lucas threw a tantrum because she'd stolen his Postman Pat car and hidden it, waking her up. Then both wanted different things at different times and …" he let his head slump against the back of the sofa, and closed his eyes, unable to continue. It was making him stress out.

"Where does Brendan come into this?" A slow smile started to spread across Ste's lips. He opened his eyes and looked at Cheryl.

"He was my knight in shining armour." Cheryl smiled back, though she didn't know why. She had no idea what Brendan had done. She just liked that it made Ste so happy.

"Why?" she asked, curious.

"He came around yesterday. He'd left Joel to look after the club because he wanted to spend time with me. You got that bit right at least." His smile grew bigger. "He took one look at me, told me I looked terrible, and then ushered me off to bed. NOT like that," he giggled when he saw Cheryl's eyebrows rise suggestively. "To sleep! I protested, saying that the kids needed me and that, but he literally picked me up and threw me on the…" he paused, waiting for Cheryl's eyebrows to stop dancing. "He said he'd deal with it." He finished.

Cheryl recovered from her giggles. "That explains why you look like death," Ste frowned at her disapprovingly. Now both of the Bradys had insulted him, "and why Brendan hasn't been answering my calls, but not where he is now."

"He's in the bedroom. Sleeping." Ste's face softened. "He found Lucas' Postman Pat car, gave him dinner, convinced him that the bug wouldn't eat his brains, and managed to get him to sleep. He made Leah soup – apparently he can cook some things if they come in a can- gave her a hot water bottle, and her favourite teddy, and read to her until she fell asleep. It was 3 am before he got into bed."

Cheryl smiled softly. "He must be shattered, bless him." She frowned. "But you told me he was sick." she said accusingly.

Ste gave her a slightly wicked grin. "Turns out the infamous, unbeatable Brendan Brady has a weak immune system."

Cheryl burst out laughing. "I told him he needed to eat and drink more healthy stuff! And he just glared at me! Ha, well the jokes on him now!" When she quietened down, Ste was thankful. Although he loved her laughter, he didn't want to wake Leah or Brendan up. Not after all of Brendan's hard work.

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

Ste stared at Cheryl, confused. "Tell you what?"

"That Brendan was sick!"

"He didn't want me to tell you!" Ste said, defensively, and slightly too high. "He said," Ste tried an Irish accent, "'don't tell Cheryl! You have no idea what she's like. She'll rush around, trying to help, making all this food that's supposed to be good for you, but she'll make so much racket you can't sleep. And the "healthy" food she cooks is…'" Ste switched back to his normal accent. "Well, at that point he ran to the bathroom and threw up." he looked apologetically at a sulking Cheryl.

"He told me he liked my cooking!"

"And he does!" Ste reassured her, "Just not the healthy stuff. And who could blame him." He smirked at her mischievously to lighten the mood and she promptly threw a cushion at his head, which he dodged.

After a few moments of silence, she sighed. "I am so, so sorry, Ste." She whispered.

Ste looked at her in shock.

"What the hell for?"

She looked up at him through her eyelashes and grinned "He's a right terror when he's sick."

Ste's eyes widened "Tell me about it! He was in a right mood this morning. I went in to give him a hug and a kiss to say thank you for being amazing before I took Lucas to nursery, and he rolled away from me and told me to get my fat head and horrible jumpers away from him!"

"He must really love you to be that nice! Last year, I went in to give him a sandwich, and he told me to shut up, and that if I spent half the amount of time I did making rabbit food for him on my clothes, makeup and hair then maybe I wouldn't look like a washed up, homeless prostitute with a dead rat on my head."

For a few moments, there was deathly silence, before they both erupted into uncontainable laughter. Ste was gasping for air and Cheryl sounded like a choking hyena, but they could not stop. That is until a sleepy little voice came from the hallway.

"Daddy?"

Ste coughed violently trying to recover his composure in front of Leah. He'd forgotten she was sleeping as well as Brendan. He'd forgotten to keep quiet.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart, did we wake you up?" Cheryl said kindly to Leah. Leah ignored her and stared at her Dad.

"Daddy?" Ste sighed. Now he was going to have to somehow work miracles and get her back to sleep. He stood up.

"Come on Leah, let's get you back to bed. Do you want me to read to you?" Leah shook her head decisively and backed away from him, grasping on to her teddy bear. Ste stopped. What?

"Daddy? Where's the hairy man?"

Ste stared at his daughter. "Brendan?" He said in shock. Leah nodded enthusiastically. "He's sleeping in Daddy's room, baby. You wore him out last night and I think he's caught your bug." Leah bent her head, confused. So was Ste.

"In your room?"

"Yes."

Leah looked up at him for a few seconds like she was thinking something through. Whatever it was she seemed to come to a decision.

"Ok." And with that she waddled back off to her bedroom, closing the door behind her. Ste sat slowly back down on the sofa.

"What was all that about?" Cheryl asked.

"I have no idea."

Cheryl's lips quirked up. "The hairy man?"

Ste grinned. "It's just her nickname for him. She couldn't remember his name originally so 'the hairy man' it was. I think it's cute. Means she accepts him."

Cheryl smiled and was about to say something when they heard a bang. Ste's head snapped around to the hallway. Leah's door was open. So was his bedroom door.

"Oh no!" Ste jumped up and ran towards his bedroom. "Leah, don't wake Brendan up, he'll be really grumpy if you…"

He stopped in the doorway. Leah had woken Brendan up. She had jumped up on the bed next to him, shaken him awake, but he wasn't mad at her. He didn't push her away. Ste froze in the doorway, not knowing what to do or whether to interrupt.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Brendan looked at Leah groggily.

Leah looked at him sadly "Sorry." She whispered.

"Sorry? For what?" Brendan frowned and so did Ste.

"Making you sick."

They hadn't seen Ste watching them.

Brendan's face softened and he smiled at Leah.

"You didn't make me sick, sweetheart. These things happen. It's not your fault. Are you feeling better?" he said sleepily. Leah nodded and smiled back at him.

"Then that's all that matters." Leah reached down next to her and gave something to Brendan. Ste couldn't see properly in the darkness, so he moved slightly further into the room. His heart nearly broke when he realised what it was.

"Your favourite teddy bear?" Brendan questioned "You're giving it to me?"

Leah nodded again "You can borrow it. It will make you feel better. It made me feel better." She smiled again. Brendan opened his arms and pulled back the covers, still grasping the teddy bear.

"Come here."

And with that Leah crawled into his arms and laid her head on the pillow next to Brendan's. He turned slightly so he was hugging her. As he did, he caught Ste's eye and smiled at him lovingly, and Ste couldn't help returning the smile with just as much love behind it. He backed out of the room quietly and closed the door silently. As he crept away from the door back to the living room, he realised that some sounds were worth hearing, and sometimes the silence was better.