So I've had a shit show of a day - lucky for you because that's meant I've come home and taken out some of my frustration on this, and here you have it a few days early. I hope you enjoy, please leave a comment if you like, don't be shy :)

Now where's the icecream...


"Of course" Scott said, "we'll tell you anything you want to know, only..." he trailed off and glanced at Virgil who nodded who rolled over a nearby chair to sit on. Sheesh, how often did they have those sorts of conversations-without-words?

"Only there's a lot to tell." Scott finished. "Some of it complicated, and it's impossible to tell your whole life story."

"So break it down for me and we'll build from there. Honestly I don't know how much I can take in at the moment but I need something." Don't panic don't panic don't panic.

"We can work with that." Scott said and without being asked Virgil passed him some sort of data pad.

"Let's start with the most important thing, this:" he handed over the pad that after a few quick taps showed a photograph of a group of people. "Is your family, taken just a few weeks ago. Me and Virgil you've already met are your older brothers. Gordon and Alan" Scott was pointing "are your younger brothers. This is Kayo our adopted sister, Grandma, and Brains. He started out as a family friend but is more family these days."

They didn't name the only other face in the image. Perhaps they hadn't considered that he wouldn't recognise himself. If he was honest that wasn't the face he would have picked out of a crowd but it did seem right somehow. That was him and this was his family.

He noted that there were no parents in the photo – dead then. Or estranged. Somehow not part of the family. John suddenly missed them, though how could he miss someone he didn't know? He could ask his brothers – weird that, brothers – but maybe later, he'd already hurt Virgil enough for one day. Instead he concentrated on the faces that were in the picture, all of them smiling and happy. They were on a beach, a holiday maybe with the sea in the background and a picnic in front of them. It looked like they'd had a great day: maybe they had gone swimming, or played frisbe. Maybe one of his younger brothers had buried someone in the sand when they fell asleep to be scolded by their grandmother. He could imagine sitting watching the sun seat over the ocean, wrapped in a blanket against the chill of an evening breeze, hair tussled and salt encrusted until the stars began to make their appearance. He could imagine it but not remember it.

"Where am I? This isn't looks like hospital but it doesn't feel like one." John asked, still not moving his eyes from the silent smiling images, wanting to make sure that he had fixed their faces in his memory.

"You're at home. We have really good facilities here because we are very remote – we believe in being prepared and we can't just nip to the local doctor. That and we like our privacy."

They were private and prepared – like some sort of boy scout? Or an end of the world prepper, ready for any disaster. Or hiding some terrible secret? Maybe they were a cult.

Get a grip John thought to himself.

"Who is 'we'?"

"All of us." Virgil tapped the photo.

Right... that was odd, he guessed. He felt old enough to be living on his own – these two certainly were – so why did they all still live under one roof? He'd have thought it would be good to have a bit of distance from one another, even if they did live in the same house.

"Does that go smoothly? All of us squished together?" he asked.

Scott smiled. "Most of the time. We have quite a lot of room and not everybody is home all the time. Like now, it's only us three and Gordon, the others are ….. umm... out of contact at the moment on a trip."

John raised a quizzical eyebrow at that and Scott screwed his face up slightly as he explained. "This is one of the complicated things that we are going to have to come back to."

"Ok. Well. That's fine. Right."

It had been his idea to slowly build up the picture after all, but it felt strange to be out of the loop on something.

"So, what happened to me. How did I get hurt and end up here?" he gestured around the room.

Scott and Virgil shared a small smile.

"You fell in the shower." Virgil said.

"What?" John was aghast.

"Yeah, we noticed you'd be gone for a long time – even for you - and found you out cold on the bathroom floor. We were a bit worried that you'd had some sort of seizure but there's no evidence of that, so we think you just slipped."

John was stunned. How embarrassing. He had apparently fallen hard enough to give himself a serious head injury by stepping on the soap or something. That sounded very boring and ordinary and...

"You look a little disappointed."

"Um yeah. I suppose I am." John replied "I thought it would be … I dunno, different. More dramatic. More interesting."

"Like dangling over a ravine or dodging meteors?" Scott suggested, his amusement clear as he leant on Virgil's chair back.

"No, nothing that reckless. But still, I've given myself some serious brain damage. I feel like the least I should get out of that is an interesting story." John frowned as he complained.

"Yeah, we never expected to have to rescue you from your own shower either." Virgil said with a shrug.

"Do I often do stupid things like knock myself out in the shower?" John muttered, not really expecting an answer.

"No, usually you're very careful when ... when here."

What would have gone in that pause if Scott hadn't corrected himself? It didn't matter right now. John was at his limit, couldn't take in any more information. His mind was already whirling with the fact that he had four brother and a sister: his eyes kept flicking back to the photograph his still held in his hand. That seemed like an awful lot – imagine the noise at the dinner table, the fights over the tv. As much as they looked a happy, loving family, he hoped he didn't have to meet them all at the same time. So many new people – even if they weren't actually new – would be over whelming.

John took a breath. "This is a lot to take in."

"Should we take a break?"

"Yeah, I think... I think I need some time to process this. And maybe some sleep."

Whatever those painkillers had been they were working wonders. Oh, his head still hurt, the dull ache of a fracture crept round his skull but the stabbing, needling pain had lifted somewhat. It had been replaced with a deep tiredness - perhaps helped along by that panic attack – that was now causing his eyes to feel heavy and his thoughts to slow.

"You ok? You look a little unfocused." Virgil asked with concern, glancing at the heart monitor that was still steadily beeping away.

"Yeah. Just... what were those pills? I'm starting to feel a bit spacey."

"Ha! Maybe you should get some sleep then. Drink this first" Virgil handed him another glass of water, which he downed.

"Good. That means that I can take this out." With great care Virgil took off the cables that connected him to the equipment, pulled out the I.v line, and put a plaster - that had space rockets on it, cute - over where it had entered his vein.

"Thanks" John said softly, looking at – his two brothers. He didn't mean for the plaster, and he thought they knew that. This must be hard for them too and he really appreciated their focus.

"You don't have to say thank you John, you look out for us often enough." Scott said, placing one had firmly on John's shoulder and giving a reassuring squeeze before turning back towards the door, dragging Virgil with him.

Virgil knocked the lights down to about half at the doorway, leaving John in a dim light that would be much more restful. "Shout if you need anything, we won't be far away."

And then they were gone.