From downstairs Jackson could hear everybody beginning to countdown to midnight.

"Five. . . Four. . . Three." Everybody downstairs began to chant through the house. Somebody must have switched the TV on in the lounge and located a New Year's countdown feature on one of the many channels. It sounded through the house, big Ben's chimes ringing up the stairs.

"Aaron don't fall asleep." Jackson said softly to the teen who kept drifting off to sleep.

". . . Two."

Aaron shrugged Jackson Off, struggling against Jackson's grip on his shoulder to shuffle further down the bed to lie down. He wasn't aware of what was going on or what the time was or soon would be. His head felt like it was full of cotton. He just wanted to sleep, sleep off the alcohol and sleep away the throbbing ache in his skull. Hopefully, e could sleep through his hangover the next day if he was lucky. Why couldn't he be left to do just that?

"One!" A few people exclaimed downstairs while other's must have been caught up in a news years kiss. Unfortuantly Jackson wasn't one of those. He had hoped to be sharing that moment with Aaron in an exactly different way to what they were now, not perched on the end of their bed trying to keep the younger man awake as he feared he had concussion. He thought they would be downstairs, with everybody else, sharing a new year's kiss with Aaron. A brilliant way to see the new years in, start as you mea to go on, sadly, they hadn't.

"Aaron!" Jackson snapped at the teen who's eyes had fallen closed once more. "Keep awake!" He shook the young mechanic to wake him when he didn't respond, only to receive yet another aggressive grumble in return. Aaron's colour wasn't picking up and it made Jackson concerned about the teen. Even though Aaron was usually pale, he looked even more pale than usual. It surely, couldn't have been from the blood loss. Aaron hadn't lost that much blood from his head injury which were usually typical to bleed a lot.

When Aaron tried to scramble out of bed, pushing away Jackson's hands, the builder was even more worried. "You okay?" He asked panicked.

He was going to be sick. He could feel it rising from his stomach all of a sudden, threatening to make an appearance. He tried to nod his head in response to Jackson, so he'd leave him alone, scared to open his mouth just incase. Only it made things worse when he nodded his head, a new spell of dizziness came over him, nearly sending him crashing to the floor instead of clambering out of bed, if it wasn't for Jackson to hold him up.

"Aaron?" Jackson started, even more worried by his behavior now.

"I. . . Sick- I'm gonna be." Aaron tried to tell him.

Quick thinking, Jackson jumped from the bed and grabbed the bin from the corner of the room, shoving it in front of Aaron. As his boyfriend retched into the plastic bin, Jackson rubbed his back soothingly. It wasn't until he was finished did Jackson pluck a couple of tissues from a packet in a draw before handing them to the teen and taking away the bin. He took the bin into the bathroom and stood in the bath for the time being, making sure to deal with it later. When he returned to the bedroom Adam was just sitting down next to Aaron, placing a sandwich on a plate on to Aaron's lap and reaching over the teen to place the coffee on the nightstand beside him.

"Sorry I was ages." Adam apologized to Jackson. "Got a little distracted."

"Some poor girl had you to kiss then?" Jackson teased crossing the room to pick up the coffee and hand to Aaron to drink, who seemed to want to go back to sleep again.

"Ouch!" Adam exclaimed before asking "How is he?"

"Well, he's just been sick." Jackson told him. "How hard did he hit his head?"

"I don't know, he just fell and caught it." Adam said before he began to panic. "Why? Do you think it's serious? Should we call 999?"

Jackson quickly shook his head. "He should be fine. We just need to keep on checking on him, that's all."

Relief washed over Adam's face. "Thank god. His mum is going to go mad!"

"Let's not tell her for now." Jackson told Adam before he took the coffee from Aaron who had only drank a quarter at the most.

"Not hungry." Aaron protested when Jackson placed the sandwich in front of him.

"Try to eat a little." Jackson said determined that some of the sandwich would be eaten by his boyfriend. He needed to be sobered up before they let him sleep.

He couldn't believe what they were trying to do. He'd just been sick, why would he want anything to eat? He just wanted to sleep but each time he closed his eyes somebody would be waking him up. The either wanted to chat to him, make him eat or even get him changed out of his nice clothes he'd been wearing. What happened to his shirt Jackson had gotten him to wear earlier? He managed two mouthfuls before he couldn't stomach much more. He was going to sleep. Who cares if they wanted him to keep awake, he wasn't going to follow their orders any more. He didn't want to play that game now. He wanted to sleep and that was it, no more. He shuffled further down the bed and rested his head on the pillow. He could have even slept sitting up because he was so tired. But his head was killing him and he thought that maybe if he laid down it would help. It wasn't long before he was in an alcohol induced sleep.

When Adam and Jackson were satisfied that Aaron was going to be okay and was soundly asleep, the two headed back downstairs to wind down the party and gradually say goodnight to everybody as they headed back home. Holly, Roz, Victoria, Amy and Alex stayed behind to help clear up the mess that was left behind. Holly and Roz took care of the kitchen, lining up the unopened alcohol along the floor by the door and ditching the empty bottles and other rubbish in black bags. Alex and Adam tackled outside, it seemed a few people didn't care about ditching bottles outside, they even found one of Paddy's shirts dangling off of a tree and a few pairs of Hazel's shoes ditched further down the lawn. While Victoria and Amy cleaned and tidied the other downstairs rooms, Jackson kept upstairs and tackled the rooms that everybody had managed to get into, once in a while he'd peak his head through Aaron's door and make sure he was okay. By five that morning when everybody had finished helping to clear up the house and gone home after they'd eaten some breakfast made by Jackson as a thank you gesture for their help, the builder slipped into bed next to Aaron who was in a very deep sleep.

The next morning, Aaron woke up with barely any recollection of the night before. His skull felt like it was going to split in half as he tried to look around and gather his bearings without lifting his head. He couldn't remember getting into bed, let alone how he'd changed into just a white vest and black boxers. The space beside him on the bed was empty as he reached out an arm expecting to pull the sleeping builder closer to him, only to find cold bed sheets in his space. Aaron rolled onto his side, cupping a hand over his eyes as the light screamed through a gap his curtains and let his other hand blindly search the night stand for his phone. When he found his phone, he swept a finger over the screen to light up the screen and peeked through his fingers of his other to look at the time. It was well into the afternoon. No wonder he couldn't find Jackson beside him.

Aaron rolled out of bed slowly, pushing himself up from the floor with his hands and headed towards the door to the hall. He was going to grab a huge glass of something cold and hydrating and the box of pain killers in the bathroom before heading back to bed to sleep away the rest of the day. There was no way he was going to stay up and about in the state he was in, he wasn't going to suffer. How much exactly had he drunk the night before? He crossed the hall and went into the bathroom first, walking over to the mirrored cabinet above the sink for the painkillers. He was shocked at his appearance when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked rough it wasn't a surprise, he felt rough but what was a surprise was the large purple bruise forming over part of the left side of his forehead from his hairline and the sore read gash in the middle. Dried blood was still encrusted in his hair and when he reached up to touch it tenderly, pain shot through the wound. He tried to think how it had happened but he couldn't remember which got him thinking again, how much had he drank? He never usually drank so much, so why? Then it came back to him.

A memory of Jackson standing in the kitchen surrounded by his friend's as they slagged off Aaron, while he listened from the doorway. The builder made no move to correct his friends or defend Aaron. That's what had hurt Aaron. How could the older man stand back as sol and the others ripped into him? He could remember being so hurt as Jackson just listened to them and stupidly thought that drinking and having a good time with Adam was a good idea. He could remember him and Adam in the lounge doing shots with a few people, downing bottles of beer and even a couple small glasses of whiskey. No wonder his head was banging. But he still couldn't recollect the moment that had caused the injury to his head. Had he been that far wasted?

"Aaron? Is that you?" Jackson called up the stairs making Aaron jump slightly and wince for his head. ". . . You've woken up then?"

Aaron closed the bathroom cabinet having found what he was after and slammed the bathroom door shut behind him as he entered the hall. He looked down to see Jackson standing at the bottom of the stairs eyeing him questionably.

"How're you feeling?" Jackson asked him, breaking the tension.

"Fine." Aaron grunted in response before chucking the painkillers into their room. He still remembered Jackson incredible urge to defend his boyfriend from last night.

"You sure?" Jackson questioned as he stepped back to allow Aaron to walk past him after descending the stairs.

"Positive." Aaron snapped smartly, grabbing a glass from the drying rack by the sink and sticking it under the tap. He let the water fill to the brim before twisting the tap off, he squeezed past Jackson again and headed back upstairs.

Well that was odd. Aaron's behavior towards him was cold and reserved. They hadn't gotten into an argument and Aaron barely ever took his bad moods out on Jackson like that. So what had happened? Ditching his plans to vacuum round the house before Paddy and Rhona returned from their weekend away, Jackson headed upstairs after the young mechanic.

A/N – A short little update. But I thought this was a good place to end it for now. Look out for the next up date soon! Thank you for all the great reviews and feedback!