*Few days later in the early AM Ste and Brendan are cuddled up in bed together, there's been no word from the police except from the odd "no not yet" when asked if they caught Jason yet.*
Brendan gets up and goes to the toilet. He sleepily scratches his head as he heads back into the bedroom. Something catches his nose and he freezes. Smoke? Brendan consults the clock on the DVD player and sees that it's 4:03am. Brendan shakes his head and continues to the bedroom. Something bright catches the corner of his eye. Brendan freezes again and the sudden realisation hits him. Fire! Instinct rushes through his veins and his runs into the bedroom practically knocking the door off its hinges in the process. It bounces off the wall and slams shut. He seizes Stes shoulders and shakes him violently.
"Get up! Fire!"
"No Brendan I don't wanna play fireman sex tonight" He mumbles in his sleep. Brendan rolls his eyes. Now is NOT the time to be thinking of sex!
"No Steven there's a fire! In the kitchen! Get up" He says grabbing him and pulling him. Stes wide awake now and panics.
"Fire? How? We had take out"
"Went to the loo found kitchen on fire now out!" Brendan gabbles grabbing for the door. "ARGH!" He yells the fire had spread fast and was now outside the door. Ignoring his burn he grabs the blanket and blocks the gap under the door which is starting to let smoke pour into the bedroom. He goes for the window but can't find the keys and someone's locked it. It seems sealed shut.
"Move!" Ste yells picking up a chair and whacking it into the window. He hits the centre and the glass shatters. Brendan grabs Ste and helps him carefully out the window and onto the balcony. As soon as Ste is safe he climbs out and stands beside him. It's a cold winters morning and both boys are just wearing their boxers. The phone is in the living room and probably melted into a pool by now but luckily Ste has his mobile on the side of the bed.
"Stay here" Brendan says forcibly. Ste just nods in agreement, his teeth chattering in the cold.
Brendan jumps back in through the window and calls the fire service. The smoke is still seeping through and the room is a dark fog. He makes a grab for something of a familiar cloth.
*Outside*
Ste starts panicking, he can't see Brendan anywhere, in the distance he hears sirens and when a fire engine pulls up he immediately yells to them.
"Hurry my fiancé is in there you have to help him. He's in the bedroom."
They rush in and minutes later Brendan crawls to the window with the last ounce of strength. More sirens. There's a loud banging at the door as the firemen try to get into the room. Ste looks into Brendan's eyes and sees he's fading. All this is happening in split seconds but it feels like time has practically come to a stand still. He jumps back into the room, moves the blanket that is wedging the door shut, grabs Brendan and pulls him out on the balcony. He rests his head on his lap and looks down at him. His gorgeous skin is black with smoke and his lips tinged blue from lack of oxygen. His eyes look so deep and his breathing becomes laboured. His eyes flutter then shut. Ste starts crying, cold, salty tears hitting Brendan's face. The laboured breathing stops and the fireman and paramedics can't get to them. Ste thinks back to two nights ago when him and Brendan were happily cuddled up watching casualty on TV. He remembers a specific scene and copies everything the doctor was doing. He places links his hands, one over the other and locks his elbows and presses down on Brendan's bare chest. He starts doing chest compressions and then pinches Brendan's nose, tilting his head back slightly and giving him the kiss of life. Brendan eyes snap open and he starts coughing. He bolts upright and throws up a horrible dark colour, he lays back down exhausted and Ste decides it's best to keep him on his side (Another trick that casualty has taught him) he lays next to him cuddling him, crying and rubbing his back. The fire crew finally make it safe enough for everyone to get in that needs to though there is a high risk the building may collapse. They grab Brendan and lay him on a spinal board and carry him out, followed by Ste holding Brendan's hand the whole time. They get into the ambulance and whiz off to the hospital. Brendan has an oxygen mask on and he keeps fading in and out of consciousness. His oxygen levels are low but slowly rise with the oxygen mask. His skin is pin and burnt in places but luckily it doesn't seem to bad. Ste looks at Brendan properly in the light of the ambulance. His chest is bright red. It sort of looks like… a hand print. 'How is that possible?' he thinks to himself. He doesn't realise it but he's cut his hand pretty deep when he was pulling Brendan out of the building. The only thing that stemmed the bleeding was that his fingers were closed over his palm. He moves his fingers for a closer look and blood spurts out almost impressively from his hand. The paramedic keeping an eye on Brendan turns to see Ste's hand spurting blood and he quickly grabs a sick bowl (for the blood) and some bandages and he stems the bleeding.